random ramblings

We had a conference with the imp's kindergarten teacher, this past week.  The imp is doing incredibly well with the academic aspects of kindergarten (what was first grade when I was small); however, he's very weak in the maturity needed to actually succeed at school.  He's not very good about working independently--tends to drift off in daydreams when he's not got someone standing right over him--but I think that's as much because he doesn't see the point.  I think if he has a clear goal that he wants to work toward, things will clear up. 

We have a plan for that.  Now, we just have to put it into action.

The pixie has caught another cold.  She was sick from late September through the first part of Christmas break.  I'm betting she's going to be sick from now until Spring Break at the earliest.  She's having so much fun in preschool, though, that I honestly think it's worth it.  She's asked for every day classes next year with pre-K-4.  I've started tweaking the budget to allow for that.

The kids tried getting up at 6:30 this morning.  If they'd been quiet, I might have tolerated it, but since they were screeching at each other (and I was too tired to be able to tell if it was joyful or angry, and too tired to care), I made them go back to bed.  Yes, there were tears and tantrums.  No, that wasn't tolerated.  They woke me up again around 8:00.  And since I'd had a bad night anyway, I was really, really unhappy with them when I got up.

So, last night, I was relaxing in my recliner, with the footrest up, and I feel a warm weight settle in between my ankles.  I assumed it was Shadow, because it settled and dozed off, instead of spazzing around on my lap.  I was wrong--it was Cricket.  She's almost never snuggly, so I ended up staying up about an hour longer than I'd planned. 

I discovered, when I got up to go to bed, that Shadow had ensconced herself between Odysseus's knee and the back of the couch, and was curled up and snoring.

So, I made it in last week for my classes.  I've got an 8:00 and a 9:00, both Comp II.  Wednesday, we went over thesis statements, and Friday development.  I discovered I can't lecture long, and can't write up on the board for long; when I try to combine the two, I run out of breath really fast.  But I got the point across both days, and got to watch the lights coming on like nobody's business. 

Which is why I'm still doing this.

I've actually got two writing projects going on at once--Detritus, which is finally picking up on the writing pace (the plot pace is much slower than I usually write), and a collection of short stories I've tentatively titled Normalcy Bias.  Most of the stories are set in our world, but with a small twist that takes them just slightly out of the norm.  One of the stories is about a veteran who buys a new house and land, and discovers that his place is home to a group of gremlins; another story is that of an amoral dragon who decides to clean up a neighborhood.  When I get stuck on Detritus, I pick up with one of my many short story ideas, and write that.  Usually, after the random story is written, I'm good to go with the novel. 

We had our scanner--which was mainly used to scan in the cover art created by my friend--die on us last month.  We just got the replacement delivered, so all I'm waiting for now for Fire and Forge (and for "Bar Tabs") is the cover art.