This n' that

[wordinista]

I know I mentioned the "shoujo sparkles" caricature of Darwin I got done last week.  The scanner's broken, but we were able to take a pretty decent picture of the drawing:




Thanksgiving was wonderfully drama-free.  The only thing Tora's parents did that was even remotely annoying was monopolize his brother's time so he wasn't able to come and see us at all while he was in town.  Tora talked on the phone with him once and basically told him not to sweat it, and that if he got here, great, but if he didn't/couldn't make it, not to stress.  I, however, am rolling my eyes at their rampant immaturity. 

Today we're thinking about taking Darwin to the park.  Tora's a bit resistant to this plan, because he's such a nervous "dad" whenever we go to the dog park. He's so afraid Darwin will get hurt, or hurt another dog.  I love watching him play with the other puppies, and as long as the other owners are keeping a watchful eye out, I've found there's usually never a problem.  I'm going to keep trying to get Tora to come around (though my only problem with the dog park is that Darwin is usually filthy afterwards, and he just had a bath on Tuesday, argh).

Things at Sylvan are settling into more of a routine.  I went through training to tutor basic math, and the only thing I have next is training for writing, which will take me no time at all, I'm sure.  (I'm wondering why they had me do math next, instead of writing, but I'm figuring they might need math people more than they need writing people, or something.)

And all of you sniggering about me teaching math... well, keep sniggering.  I'm sticking to basic math, up to a 5th or 6th grade level. I've told them not to trust me with algebra or geometry or anything of the sort. 

The work is actually quite enjoyable, for the most part.  Sometimes there are challenging students, but nothing I can't handle.  There's an element of time management/multi-tasking that I need to get a handle on, but everyone's assured me that that's a skill that comes with practice.

Writing has been going... pretty well, actually.  I got quite a bit written for OGAM and Bump, and I've been working a bit on my original fiction (things have been so stressful lately, the fact that I can write ANYTHING is a major relief).  UT is stalled for the moment as I try and figure something out (the focus seems to have shifted away from the two main characters and onto two other characters, and I didn't want that to happen -- so it needs figuring out).  I've also figured out a plot for a different thing I'm working on (*cough*vampires*cough*), and that makes me happy, because until this week, there had been an utter LACK of plot.  Just a bunch of nifty characters hanging around my head all, "You should totally write about us!"  So that's good.  I'd really love to start on my Yuletide fic sometime soon.  I thought I had my plot settled, but I realized something problematic, so I have to reconsider a few things, dammit.  I'm not going to start panicking until Dec. 1.  That's usually when I start freaking out if I haven't started writing yet.

....And I just realized that I have an economics paper due in something like two weeks.  Crud.