random ramblings

Last week was fairly quiet.  My imp spent two nights with Grandma and Grandpa, and then they both went up to my mom's yesterday. 

Yesterday...yeah, I had big, fun plans for yesterday, since I'd gotten so much done last week (enough that I can't really do a whole lot more until either just before or just after the trash pickup on Tuesday).  I'd planned, since my shoulder had recovered from being strained doing laundry on Wednesday, to take advantage of the weather causing our local range to be deserted, and go play with my rifles, as a reward to myself.  That didn't happen; rather, I woke up really sick.  As in: I didn't know from moment to moment whether or not I was going to throw up.  It didn't ease until nearly 11:00 am. 

The kids have been really sad since we got the blu-ray player.  The thing hooks to the TV through a HDMI cable, with no options for any other type of hookup.  The ROKU box also hooks in through an HDMI cable, with an option for a single-plug A/V out (I not only don't have one, I haven't been able to find one).  The TV has only one HDMI port.  Therefore, the option for TV (only available through Amazon Prime on the Roku box) rather than DVDs has been worse than usual. 

I tried an adapter--HDMI on one end, A/V on the other--but it didn't work.  Finally, I stumbled over a solution: a HDMI hub that takes three devices hooked in through it, and switches around with the push of a button.  It automatically defaults to the Roku, since that's always on, but will switch automatically to the blu-ray player when that gets turned on. 

This morning, the kids are watching their beloved Wild Kratts while I'm drinking my coffee.  Why, yes, it drives me crazy--but I'm wearing headphones, so it's tolerable. 

The microwave has been less reliable than usual: night before last, I tried to make chicken nuggets for the kids for dinner.  It worked fine for the pixie's, but the number pad ceased working right about the time the imp needed to make his own.  Temporarily.  It was working again by the time I'd fixed his supper and mine. 

Yeah, we're going to replace that SOB today.  We went shopping around for one yesterday.  The one I want is at Home Depot.

The cats have been absolutely silly, this past week.  I'm not sure if it's because their world was rearranged yet again, or if it was the weather, or something else entirely unrelated, but both have been as easily spooked as hell--even Shadow, who's usually the one doing the spooking. 

Saw my dog, yesterday.  She is the funniest little creature--really.  I opened Mom's back door to let her in, and called for her.  She came bouncing--not running, bouncing, like Pepe Le Pew--around the corner, dashed through the door, and flung herself onto the floor on her back between my feet.  Wagging.  So, of course, she got a belly scratch.  Then, she spasmed, reappeared on her feet about three feet from me, licked the imp on the face, and ran into the living room to kiss the pixie. 

I think she was happy to see us.  Maybe I'll get to bring my dog home when we get outside of city limits after all. 

Over the course of the week, I got another 2K words done on The Shrodinger Paradox.  I'm still working, as we speak.  Between straining my shoulder and back badly enough Wednesday as to be mostly non-functional on Thursday, and only having gotten over my writer's block for what I wanted done on Tuesday night (with the draft book), I'm counting that as not too bad.  Word count is up to about where I got stuck/lost interest on Detritus.  Paradox is sitting at 19K words on part 1, with only about a third to half of it done.  I've got 2.5K on part 2 typed, with probably another 500 words in a different draft book.  I think there's maybe 5% done on that part.  Part 3 is mapped out, and I'm pretty sure there will be a part 4, now.  I'm projecting this one at somewhere around 95K-120K words.  I'm thinking I'll probably submit it to Baen's slush pile, then forget it for a year. 

My goal for tonight is to finish the chapter I'm working on, and get the next one written.  The end of the next one will mark the halfway point of part 1.  I think.

My goal for tomorrow?  To start mapping out the other half of part 1.