The long tunnel that was November

...actually has a light at the end of it. Diving tests, J's job and his tests, sickness, painful anniversaries, writing, I made it through it all--or I will have once I reach that 50K mark that signals the success of NaNo.

A breadown

Diving:
After 2 additional dives, J and I got our level two validated--or the practical part, anyhow. We took the written test for the theory, and we still haven't gotten our results back. Despite that, when we went diving yesterday, the monitor "turned us loose" with a level three and we went by ourselves. We were supposed to go from bouy 10 to 8, but the level three had a camera and we took our time. D, the dive monitor, told us not to stay longer than an hour underwater, so we surfaced exactly 60 minutes later and had only made it to bouy 9. :D

J's job:
J is now the holder of a "permit hauteurier," which means he can navigate anywhere around the world. He has three more weeks of training on the police boat coming up.

The Mayotte branch of the French police is the same, organization-wise, as the metropolitan police. J waited two days for his score after taking the test for his licence, and the chief still hadn't called him. So, J took the initiative to call, and the guy says, "Oh, yeah, I had the results the same day and called everyone else. Must've forgotten you." Then, the other day, the same chief calls and says, "You are supposed to work at 4, but you have to go shooting at 1:30." J: No one told me that.
Chief: Yeah, I just learned it myself. Well, in fact, I've known for two days. Just forgot to call you.

So, yeah, organized.

Health:
We are over the icky colds now, and the funky red patch on the back of my hand has faded. It should be gone in a few more days. I've been having headaches too regularly for comfort, but I suppose it is because of the heat. I need to drink more water.

Writing:
NaNo is almost over and I'm sitting pretty at almost 45K I never thought I could do 50k in a month. I know the quality is seriously lacking, but it is nice just being able to lay out the bones of a story. I'm going to have to do major revisions to get it into good enough shape to share with even the most understanding of critters, but bones! Forty-five thousand of them! Yay!

Animal Update:
Kittencat has now been christened N'djema (easier to pronounce than it looks), which is Shimaoré for "good." Kind of a multipurpose word, really. She is out and about and doing well. Our other two cats have more and less accepted her. Tiboy, more. Max, less. Tiboy is now playing with her. Games of chase abound. Max just hisses at her when he thinks she has invaded his personal space long enough. Today is the last day of the fungus medication--Or is it tomorrow? I have to check--and then she can go to the vet for her tattoo and vaccination. After that, Kittencat for Adoption posters will go up around the islands.

I know I don't blog about my pets much, but since Thanksgiving just passed, I'll say that I'm grateful Tiboy is still alive. Thursday he had a run-in with a scooter. He hit the wheel face first and lost a little skin off of his upper lip. An inch closer and I'm afraid we would have been burying him. He hid under the terrace for the better part of the day and I couldn't see what the damage was, but he has since recovered and has even resumed playing tag with N'djema.

What's This?

Two postings in one day? And within a, what? 10 minute? span of one another.

Anyhow, I have a question or two for those of you who write fantasy or CG. I'm curious as to how you treat magic in your worlds, assuming you have magic. How do you create it? What rules do you assign it? Does it *cost* something to use? Is it integral to the plot? Is it just something fun and cool?

As a reader, what are your expectations of magic? Do you want it to make sense or do you just like seeing what cool things the characters can do with it? Is there a particular "magic" that is overdone, that you cringe when you read?

As queenoftheskies says, inquiring minds want to know.