So much for a calm holiday work at the day job -- I figured my four-day week this past week would be smooth sailing, that I'd get caught up on my To-Do list and maybe even update some docs like I used to do -- but nooo. Let's just say that it was good the week was short.

We got to catch up on the 4th with some old friends (hey Josh, Cammie, Clarke, and Miss Stella!), and we even got to see some fireworks on the drive home. Drew loved that, 'til he zonked out. And wouldn't it just figure that I had to be at work the next day at 7:30 a.m., after arriving home at 11:30 or so?

Ah well. I survived. And now it's the weekend, woo hoo. Or should I say "wee wee"? That's the word of the day in the Jasper household, as Mr. Drew has been doing that on the potty pretty regularly in the past few days. The kid is potty-training himself! In the past few weeks, we've been reading all the books (Once Upon a Potty, Gotta Go, Ducky Doesn't Need a Diaper, Billy Takes a Dump, etc. -- okay, just kidding about that last title!). And on Wednesday it just clicked. I think it was the books and his new gold star system -- he gets 1 star for #1, and 2 for #2. Before I gross everyone out, let's just say that on Wednesday, the kid racked up the gold stars! Wee wee!

In any case, since this is/used to be my writing journal, I thought it'd be nice to note that I've had the ol' Creative Urge again. I've been thinking off and on in the past week about how to fix up both my Sixteen Miles novel and the baseball novel. I don't really want to dive into a new book until I get these 2 figured out.

What I'm really looking forward to doing is fixing the language and scope of those books, moving into a more "textured" kind of writing required for novels -- I'm still thinking too much like a short-story writer. A novel is a journey, not just in its setting, but into the life and soul of its main characters. In Sixteen Miles it's the lives and souls of a child, mother, and father; in the All Nations novel, it's the life and soul of one man, an aging head coach and former slave. And the road we travel for that journey is the language I use in the books.

So wish me luck and happy wordsmithing! I've got some traveling to do, and I can't take any more shortcuts.

Now that I've about killed that metaphor, I'd better run (I blame it on that fact that I've been reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road). Drew and I have some errands to run, then maybe we'll hit the neighborhood pool -- he's a huge fan of the slide. And during his nap, I can actually sit down and do some writing -- my own writing for a change. Later!