Today: short & sweet.

Today was not the greatest. I spend most of the day asleep. Normally, that might be great. But this morning I woke up sick. I'll spare you the details; suffice it to say that my head and stomach were competing to see which could cause me the greatest misery.

The kids' mom, the Best Ex Ever, came over and got them ahead of schedule, and I fell asleep. From 11:30 am or so to almost 6 pm, my sleep was broken only by brief intervals of hydration and email checking. After six, I was much improved, stomach settled and head no longer throbbing but reduced to a background ache. The Best Ex Ever showed up with some aspirin she'd bought me (any W4W in NYC, I heartily recommend her, she's a gem). Now feeling just about regular, except, oddly enough, a bit tired.

So I get an IM from upstairs; the 5-year-old is on her way down for a change of clothes. We talk about the animation for our story, and this leads to mention of dinner; mom made pizza. I realize I've eaten only a scrambled egg that the 2-year-old rejected for breakfast this morning, and ask if there's any left; there is, and I run up to chow down, and it's the Best Pizza Ever. Fresh basil. Yummy.

The 5-year-old has drawn a picture of a princess -- she names her Cirolla (see-ROL-la, often called si-ROL-la for short), and procedes to narrate the story of Cirolla while I transcribe.

Now, she's usually pretty great with stories. interesting characters, events and wordplay, with some unintentional but very post-modernly amusing anachronisms (in this one, for instance, Cirolla's mother, the Queen, builds a bathtub with some stone she picks up in the royal SUV). This story, though, was more of a fantasy trip, consisting mainly of descriptions of Princess Cirolla's wardrobe, pretty hair and cool bedroom decorations (the last of which matched some of the author's).

That went on for awhile, and I eventually took the opportunity to explain a bit about stories, and plotting, and denouements (nothing serious, and not for long). Eventually we had to say good night, and we'll theoretically get back to it tomorrow. But then we still haven't quite finished the story of The Queen the Birds and the Magic Pennies, so we'll see.

Now I'll probably watch Run, Ronnie, Run, which got some great reviews. I'll let you know about it tomorrow.