Hippo, birdie, two ewes...

... to kaththeamac!!!! Have a great one!!

Foggy morning

There's a lot to like about a foggy fall morning: it's cool, and comfortable, and somehow very calming. But the best thing is still being able to pull out of my East-facing driveway without having the sun in my eyes.

Done yesterday (20090923)

( raw notes )

Hmm. After taking out the summaries of a couple of long but private conversations, there isn't a whole lot left. I spent almost all of the evening out in the living room, mostly geeking about Linux and programming languages with various people. A lot of the regulars weren't there, but andyheninger showed up, which is rare. We go way back; he was a coworker at both AMI and Zilog.

The other conversations were mostly about the problems that Colleen was having over the weekend around feeling excluded, and more generally the way she falls apart when things aren't going her way. It's taken me a long time and a lot of help to both understand a little about what her problem is, and to understand that it's her problem, not mine. That was the hardest part -- my natural tendency is to blame myself for anything that goes wrong.

Many thanks to pocketnaomi for finding the perfect word for "the way she falls apart". Once Colleen heard it she understood much more clearly what was going on and what she needs to do about it. I've seen that same look of determination quite recently, when she's been stretching her physical limits. She said something to the effect of: "I have 35 years of bad behavior to unlearn... You'll have to kick me in the ass when I need it. And I'll kick you in the ass about your problems."

So it's a deal. And I have to credit Colleen not only for her understanding and willingness to change, but for giving me the perfect straight line I needed to drive the point home: "You never have that kind of conversation with me." "I'd love to, but I can't -- you keep falling apart."

During the afternoon Colleen and Marty made huge progress re-arranging the sewing corner based on my realization in the morning that it would work better if the sewing machine got moved from the North wall (the window facing the driveway) to the East along the large window that faces the porch and the street. The front window is enough wider that it actually fits, and the rolling storage units that were crowded into the space in front of the built-in shelves are now neatly arranged along the corner wall. Impressive.

Along the way Marty also completely re-arranged the front closet, making it an actual walk-in, with all the contents accessible. And Colleen went through four boxes and sorted the contents. Wow!!

A somewhat tiring day and a little rough in places, but any day when you get a breakthrough on a major problem is a good one. Add the sewing corner and the closet, and it was a very good day indeed.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for...

• Colleen, and her willingness to understand and take ownership of some difficult problems and going after them with determination and courage, and for finally getting back into the kitchen! Go Rocket-Snail!
• Naomi, my sister-of-choice. Sometimes it takes a poet to find the perfect metaphor that transforms a problem from impossibly inexplicable to well-understood and solvable.
• Marty, my sister-of-choice-in-law, and her Mad Tetris Skillz, putting paid to no less than two wishlist items.
• My Younger Daughter, for another week of getting up in time for school without my having to go upstairs to wake her.
• $BOSS, for being able to explain both to me and to his boss that the problem I was trying to solve for a demo simply wasn't solvable with the amount of bandwidth available.
• (Coworker) Mike Gormish, for writing and delivering the paper that finally lets me talk a little about what I've been working on for the last couple of years.