Everybody's home again today...

[tikatu]

except for Hubby, who took the bus to work. The van refused to start this morning; seems that it was the battery. The mechanics came to get it and I was soooo glad we didn't have to have it towed. The boys started to walk to school, but met up with the tree cutters and came back. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I called them back for the day. The Girl could never walk to school; between the weight of her backpack, the fact that we have never, ever, been able to catch the bus, the distance to walk to school, the cold temps, and the dangerous intersection, she was bound to stay home. I'm not letting them just sit around and play Game Boys all day though. They've already done a load of dishes and filled the dishwasher. Plus, I dragged them outside so that we'd get the trash out of the van before it went to the repair shop. That was a cold experience, but with all four of us working, it took only 20 minutes. I'll send them back out to do some more dishes in about 15 minutes.

The appliance mechanic is supposed to show up some time early this afternoon. Despite Hubby's best efforts, the dryer sounded worse than before when clothes were put in it. So yesterday, I washed 3 loads of clothes and took them, the load that I hadn't dried at 12:30 a.m., and the kids, to a local laundromat to use the dryers. Using four dryers at one time meant it only took about 45 minutes, during which the kids did their homework. I had brought along a little book to read, The Secret Lives of the Cat Who... by Lilian Jackson Braun. I haven't been too thrilled with her latest mysteries but this little book, mostly a series of essays about Koko and Yum-Yum as written by their owner, James Qwilleran, was funny and had me laughing in a couple of places. I haven't finished it yet but I'll try to sometime today.

I have finally finished chapter 9 of Serendipity, and have posted it on fanfics.org. Posted chapter 6 on fanfiction.net. I am driving people crazy there, and loving every minute of it. AmandaT says it's my best work ever; if anyone knows, she should, considering how much we've written together over the past 6 months or so. Chapter 10 is already started and will begin in earnest as soon as I crunch some time zones and figure out when the Tracys get back to base from the rescue I sent them on in New Brunswick.

Enough for now. Gotta get these kids back to work.