...yes, I am still alive! You would think each of our birthdays (Eric: February 25 and me: March 9) would be fodder for tonnes of blogging, but in reality I am very distracted during that time. It's hard work being spoiled out of one's mind! Work has been crazy too, diminishing my desire to be on the computer, even gaming. However, I have been churning through a lot of effective work (not just busywork - wow!) all around for my career (employment and consulting), which has been great. Even some progress with the doctorate, so I'm going to just continue holding my breath and not think about it too long in case it's jinxed.
My only current sadness is that I'm going nuts being stuck in one location. Very weird, you may think; however, my happiest years were having a home out west (Denver or Phoenix) as well as maintaining the Indianapolis condo. I loved changing my surroundings pretty much on a whim, and although I felt like it was being spoiled or something, I now know there's absolutely nothing wrong with being happy. As such, I am more than ready to go build a new nest for me to flit around as the mood strikes. Waiting until June for Asheville is becoming more difficult by the week, but I should be distracted with my dissertation residency in Arlington VA next week, as well as a nice Spring chin-up trip in Ireland next month.
Another extremely happy emotion for me is sharing Elle's learning experiences. Her technological acuity is growing by leaps and bounds, and is being rewarded with an iPad for her birthday in a couple weeks. She told me she was saving her allowance for an Apple computer, so I'm hoping that the iPad will help her understand that she can use her allowance for other things, albeit she never spends it despite our frequent trips to tempting toy shoppes. So far, Staples and the Education and Art stores are the places that she will let loose of a few bucks, but only if she can't convince us to get it for her.
Personally, I have a goal to help her be well-rounded because I sense major geekery ahead of us, and the crazy glasses aren't helping. I am currently having to pick through quality fantasy and anime DVDs that is all right for kids because I am not entirely comfortable with the vampiric anime she found on Netflix *sigh*. Our current deal is that she will stay in the "kids" section if I provide anime DVDs. Fine. I feel battered since everything is a constant negotiation.
Enough on that subject and back to the slave labour of work (with Trinity Blood running in the background) so I can go and enjoy fantastic sushi and martini's downtown tonight!
