(no subject)

I spent Thanksgiving day at the home of some family friends from back in the 404, and got to sit at the "kids table" -- a gaggle of thirty-somethings, with one 4-year-old, who decided to climb all over me like I was a jungle gym. I think she's great, so I may have encouraged her a little.

Friday imtboo and I rented a car and drove to Anacortes, and thence took the ferry to Orcas Island and spent the long weekend together in a lodge on Orcas Island. Was really relaxing and settling for me -- and for her -- to have time just for the two of us, with no distractions -- no internet, no homework, no wondering whose house we're sleeping at tonight. It's so quiet out there on the island; we just spent those two and a half days relaxing, getting a chance to feel each other; to take small risks with each other, and to reassert what good things we have together.

We communicate really well. I felt comfortable and safe there with her; some things that evoke fear and concern for her, she was able to bring up with me. In the way these things always are, they turned out much smaller in the warm sunlight of sharing them with each other, and were replaced by strength and more love.

Coming back Sunday night, we both wanted to go home. Sadly, our homes are still different. But we each wanted to go home, and we did -- but it's clear to us both that we want our home to be together. We've known that for a while, but this just reinforced that feeling -- now we're looking to move together at the end of January, and this trip together makes me even happier that we're doing it.

I'm very happy. It was a lovely weekend and I'm looking forward to having more time like that. And also to have more time like that here in the Pac-NW urban life as well. It feels so good to be happy in my life.

[work] cross

Not frustrated with the overall trajectory -- that's actually pretty interesting -- but the details of getting things done in a cross-continent, cross-platform collaboration are making me, well, cross. (Advisor in Germany, work I'm doing depends on Windows research software developed in Manhattan, target language is Chinese).

I wish it wasn't Windows. I wish it was supported. I wish it was documented. I wish that the interface wasn't a pop-up point-and-click (if I can't script it, it's irritating!). I wish I had the source (then it would probably not be Windows for long). I wish the system was robust to obvious user mistakes, instead of crashing with illegal memory accesses.

I wish it didn't crash when I ran it (or at least, that the crashes I get were reproducible in Manhattan). I wish the director of the New York group was actively working on fixing these problems. I wish I was doing research with my own software right now.

comics squee

Johanna Draper Carlson writes one of the best blogs about comics I've found. (The RSS feed [updated: RSS feed] is more current than the front page.)

Last Tuesday she critiqued the Publishers Weekly Best Comics of 2005. Thanksgiving Day she listed her picks, which sound good -- and (squee here!) I have only read Avigon, Hopeless Savages, and (of course) Finder. Some of these I'll have to pick up.

Perhaps I'll wait til after the holidays...