Quick update

Yesterday was the submission deadline for my critique group, the Off-track Bookies. I've been a terrible procrastinator lately, mainly due to the start of the semester being insanely busy as usual and me being back to working seven days a week when I used to have Fridays off. Well, I need the work, and better to have too much than too little. I don't work all day every day, but I never have an entire day off.The story I submitted is one that I skeletoned-out a few months ago called "The Fair Emilia," and it's under 3000 words, so maybe I'm learning not to get into short story sprawl. On the other hand, it has a few things that are rough and I fully expect my critiquers are going to want a few more things fleshed out.I was a gypsy and a nun in Verdi's Il Trovatore over the weekend. No more operas for me until The Pirates of Penzance in March.The kittens continue to be adorable. They've done a little bit of exploring in the rest of the house, including getting inside the frame of an old couch. Athena is not terribly amused with them at this point. When I've let her visit them in their room, she hisses and growls, then turns her back. Both kittens come forward cautiously to sniff her tail, and she ignores them. They are adjusting well to life in our house, though, and Freya, the more skittish of the two, isn't quite so skittish any more. The first day if you wanted to pet her, you had to catch her first. Stephan and I have taken turns sleeping in the room with them the past couple nights to get them used to big human bodies. When I slept in there the night before last, they slept on my foot for a while, then curled up by my side. Watching them play together is much better than anything on TV.