writing, climbing, coughing

November 1 was the start of National Novel Writing Month, which Carina and I are both participating in. We joined the Kick-Off Meet & Greet party to put faces to the screen names of some of our fellow Columbus authors. It was fun, and we’re both enjoying the process so far. The goal is to write an original 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I’m not so worried about the word count as I am about telling a good story, though. It’s hard to find the time and energy to write the required 1,700 words every day in order to make the goal!

Monday we went to a school function at Vertical Adventures, an indoor rock-climbing facility. Duffy had mentioned this place to us, and expressed his intense enthusiasm for it. I poo-poo’ed the notion, and boy do I regret it.
We had a ball! Tyler dove right in, not intimidated in the least. Tayler overcame her fears and managed to climb all the way to the top! Carina was slowly able to overcome her own fears, and managed to do a bang-up job. It looks deceptively simple, and the experts make it look ridiculously easy, but the reality is that it’s extremely challenging. Some of the wall surfaces were easier to climb than others, due to the position and style of the various foot and handholds. I was able to make it to the top on three of the walls I tried, and gave a solid showing on the two slanted walls I tried to conquer. We had only planned to stay for a little while, and ended up staying almost two hours! It was a great event, and everyone was positive and enthusiastic. What a great school-sponsored activity!
We were able to use the day as a terrific learning opportunity for both girls, which was even better. We were able to praise Tayler for sticking with something that was hard and achieving success. And we were able to praise Tyler’s determination and enthusiasm for trying something new. We all want to go back soon!

Yesterday I finally caught the cold that Tayler’s been doing her best to spread by coughing without covering her mouth. I felt miserable yesterday, and ended up flying into a blind rage over some very minor things. A quiet meal at O’Reilly’s with Carina helped calm me down. When I got home, an early bed-time and a dose of NyQuil helped me sleep most of the sickness away. I woke feeling much better today (although still sick), but poor Carina caught The Sick! She stayed home from work and slept almost the entire day. Hopefully we’ll all lick this and not pass it back and forth to one another!

I hooked up my scanner finally, and scanned in some art the girls have done.
Here is a picture of me that Tyler drew. This is how I look in almost all of her pictures: super long legs with a short chest. That’s all she ever sees from her four-foot-high perspective as she looks up me!
Here is a picture of a penguin that Tyler drew.
Here is a picture of Pikachu that Tayler drew.