What I’ve been up to, October 2009 edition

Just noticed that it's been over a month since I've posted a life update.

Not a whole lot going on, but here are some notes:

  • Met baby Sarah!
  • Spent a weekend in the Seattle area, visiting family and friends. Quite a few amazing family stories were told that weekend and, via email, in the subsequent week or two. I started an entry about all that at the time but never got it into postable shape, and I'm not sure how much of it is okay for me to post anyway. But wow, all sorts of fascinating stuff. Also had too-short visits with Ellie&Dana (who I hadn't seen in a couple years, I think) and Debby&John&kids.
  • Had lunch at work with the new president of Swarthmore (and various alums). Kind of interesting to meet her, but didn't interact much. Skipped the big reception for her a couple days later; was conserving social energy.
  • Celebrated my niece Avery's first birthday. Unlike the birthday kids at the last two 1st-birthday parties I attended, Avery was not at all fastidious; when I arrived, she was covered in cake, and was squeezing ice cream through her toes.
  • Observed the fifth anniversary of my starting at my current job. Depending on how you count, I'm coming up on the longest I've ever been at a job.
  • Went to Joey C's reading in San Francisco. Good reading, and was very pleased to get to meet Joey and Emily in person for the first time. Got them to sign the first Softer World collection.
  • Have listened to all of the Beatles albums, more or less in order, on and off over the past month.
  • Have played DDR a couple times, but haven't yet gotten back in the habit of playing it regularly. Also not getting much other exercise.
  • Bought a mattress for the guest room. It's very firm, per Kam's preference; I figure it's easier to temporarily soften a firm mattress than to temporarily firm up a soft mattress. (Already had a guest-room mattress, but it has a big dent down the middle from a few years of my sleeping on it at the old place; that one will now go in the second guest room.)
  • Finished watching season 1 of Leverage via Netflix instant-play download. The last two episodes were just about perfect. Now watching season 2.
  • Watched the first episode of FlashForward. Looks interesting so far; will watch at least a few more episodes.
  • Kam and I finally saw the Dr. Who Christmas special from last Xmas, which we loved. Delightful and entertaining. We also saw the latest special, Planet of the Dead, which was only so-so.
  • Had lunch with Arthur, who I hadn't seen in a couple months.
  • Been reading a whole lot of submissions. My to-do-list software automatically generates a task for me to read 3 stories each day, so when I fall behind on reading, my to-do list fills up. So I've been reading a lot of stories to catch up.
  • Spent way too much time this past weekend coping with yet another software failure that interfered with magazine work; this time, 37 rejections that Susan sent out on Saturday didn't get successfully CCd to us. (We believe that they did reach their intended recipients; it was only the CC to us that vanished without a trace.) Was especially irked because the problem was due to a flaw in some software that my company makes. Feh. This is at least the third time this year that my company's software has been involved in causing rejections to disappear at one part or another of the process. I'm filing bugs, but it's still really annoying.
  • Have also written a little code for various SH projects now and then. More on those anon, perhaps.
  • Having a really hard time getting much of anything else done. Making some progress on work projects, but very very slowly. (But was delighted the other day to see an engineer's progress on the doc-templating system we've been working on.) Outside of work, not managing to make various important phone calls. Not making progress on house stuff. I've been going to bed way too late, sleeping more than usual, not getting moving 'til much too late in the day, then falling asleep at the computer midafternoon. Was hoping to put the brakes on that cycle by going to bed earlier than usual last night, but it doesn't seem to have helped.
  • On two occasions in the past couple weeks, have hung out and played boardgames with new friends of Kam's. Fun! Cool people. I seem to be meeting a lot of nifty people this year.
  • Have had some nice phone calls in the past few days, catching up with Sumana, Annie, and Lola.
  • Looking forward to attending World Fantasy Convention in San José this coming weekend. Will be staying at my house, though, so may not be present at the con as much as I usually am at cons.
  • Planning to fly down to LA for a weekend in mid-November to meet Gabrielle's mother for the first time; hoping to ask her a bunch of questions about Peter, among other things.

I guess that seems like a lot of stuff going on, but it's over a month's worth. I'm not really sure where most of that month went.

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