(no subject)

Cordelia wants to drop soccer. Scott and I aren't sure what to do. We don't want to force her into something she's really miserable doing, but we also don't want to encourage her to give up on things the moment they get tough. The basic problem seems to be that practices are more running intensive than she likes (she hates running. Why she wants to play soccer, I have no idea). There are also two practices a week instead of one, and she only knows one other girl on the team. The fact that the teams mix sixth, seventh and eighth graders probably doesn't help. I also hesitate to let Cordelia drop because the other girl she knows on the team signed up specifically to do an activity with Cordelia. She didn't want to do soccer without Cordelia.

Cordelia's first day of school seems to have gone fairly well. The two things she complained about were, first, the fact that they don't have enough table space for everybody at lunch. She had to eat sitting on a folding chair with her tray in her lap. Second, at the end of the day, they made all the kids walking home go out the back of the school which meant that she had to walk around the school to get to the front door and continue on home. If that continues, we will complain. It's not so bad in good weather, but in the snow, it will be unacceptable. There isn't sidewalk all the way around the school, so going around the school will involve wading through snow. Cordelia also said that only some of the lockers available worked. Hers did, so she wasn't complaining about that, but a lot of people's lockers wouldn't open.

After Scott got home, we got a call from some friends who were in town from LA. Scott showered rapidly, and we met them at the Espresso Royale near the Kroger on Plymouth. It was good to see them and to talk, but it did make me realize how much our life revolves around Cordelia. When people ask what we've been up to, the first things that come to mind are things we've been doing for or with Cordelia.

I called two roofing companies to get estimates on our roof. We don't have any leaks yet, but the old roof is definitely not up to another winter. I need to call at least one more company so that we'll have three estimates. I used the Arbor Parents database. The two companies I called have multiple good reviews in the database. I have five more companies with one good review each. (And three companies with bad reviews, two of those with multiple bad reviews, that I absolutely will not call.) The Roof Company is sending someone by around noon today, and Neighborhood Roofing is coming tomorrow at ten.

I woke up with a headache this morning, so I lay down after Cordelia left for school. I was in bed about an hour and half before the phone rang. I was having unpleasant dreams, so I decided to stay up and take something for the headache instead. It remains to be seen whether the medication will help.

(no subject)

I'm considering what to nominate for Yuletide and trying to decide if I should nominate at all. I'm not absolutely sure that I'm doing Yuletide, after all. I meant to spend this year working on Rheotaxis and have managed just a handful of paragraphs. Yuletide might be something I can do quickly while still working on Rheotaxis, but it also might not. I don't have a great history for working on two projects at once.

If I do nominate, though, I will definitely nominated the Alcatraz Smedry books by Brandon Sanderson and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. I nominated them last year. I don't think anybody offered the Alcatraz books, but I seem to recall a couple of offers for Fetch! I don't know if I could interest Cordelia in reading a Fetch! fic. Last year, she said she would if I got one, but she hasn't been rewatching Fetch! recently. Fetch! does carry some risk of getting RPF (it was a PBS Kids reality gameshow with a cartoon host and supporting cast of cartoon characters). I suspect, though, that if I ask for no RPF, it's a reasonable request and won't leave an author floundering.

We're allowed three nominations, so I'd have to decide on my third. I've nominated Planet Ladder every year for forever (I've received a couple of very short treats in the fandom, so I can't complain too much). At this point, I'm not sure I should keep putting it forward. I haven't reread the series in about a decade, and I'm not sure I remember most of it. I could, of course, solve that by rereading the dratted thing. It's a seven volume manga series; it wouldn't take long.

Other possible thirds are Drujienna's Harp by Ellen Kindt McKenzie and H.M. Hoover's Morrow books. Drujienna's Harp, however, I haven't reread in many, many years, and I'm not sure I remember much of it. I'm also afraid of discovering that the Suck Fairy has visited. I read that book over and over when I was in elementary school, until I could tell my sister the story, scene by scene, without the book in hand. The Morrow books were also kind of formative. My elementary school library only had the second one, and, as it wasn't marked as a sequel in any way, I read that. Suspecting that there was another book that came before it, I went to the public library and got lucky. That introduced me to science fiction. Of course, I also haven't reread the Morrow books in many, many years.

I'm not sure there's anything I've read or watched recently that I would want to request. Maybe I need to look back through my book and DVD logs and go over my shelves.

Of course, for me, there's more fun in writing for Yuletide than in receiving a story myself. I like the stretch of trying a new fandom, particularly one without much fic. It's fun trying my hand at something I wouldn't have thought to make a go of without matching on the request. I can't seem to get myself to focus enough to do New Year's Resolution fics, though, which is a pity because it would be the same sort of challenge.