Progress

This week has been a good one. All the paperwork for R is submitted, and will hopefully be finished and ready in 6 weeks or so. Mine took 5 weeks, once the IND had all the documents. That puts us right on track for moving R and the dogs here soon after the new year, which is awesome! R has found a possible service that would take care of flying the dogs here for us, so we're hoping they aren't too expensive. That'd be way easier than moving them ourselves. The bank is crawling along with the short sale paperwork, but we can sign things from a distance if they don't hurry it up. I'm unconcerned with inconveniencing them.

On top of all that, my model's working again! Yay for that! A colleague directed me to where the overfull server was, so I was able to delete a bunch of stuff I don't need anymore. Tomorrow I can run some interesting tests, to look at the performance of a promising cloud scheme change. Then I just need to convince NCL to plot nicely for me, which may take some doing. It's well documented though, so I'm currently optimistic.

I'm very much looking forward to MM's visit tomorrow as well. So overall, even with getting rained on 4 times in 3 days, and biking through the scary Fog of No Visibility, this has been a very awesome week.

How not to end a vacation

25 hours in airports and airplanes. That's a lot of hours. It is, in fact, 4 inches of a sock that both my feet fit in, ripping the sock back, trying again for 2 inches with the right size but horrible colour pooling, 2 entire Dwarrowdelf repeats, 3 Eddings books, and a 45 minute nap. I flew back via 4 cities and two airlines, and 3 countries, and now I'm very tired.

The vacation was lovely though. MM and W got married, and the wedding was beautiful and sweet and lots of fun. All the pre-parties were fun too, although exhausting, since I plunged straight into them after 1 night's sleep. Jet lag plus busy days keeps things interesting. I also attended my first professional baseball game (the very creative rehearsal dinner) and it turns out I think baseball is boring in person too.

The day after the wedding, rather than relaxing, R and I flew back to KS for a week of hanging out with the dogs. I got bumped to first class, and actually felt like I had enough room. That was excellent. Mom 1.0 and B came to visit for a couple days, and we sent a vanload of stuff back to Parents 1.o's house to store until we can ship it here. The puppies were super happy to see me!

We attended opening night of Macbeth, got my wedding ring sized up so I can wear it again, brushed Quasar until all the matted fur was gone, and shared lots of chocolate. It was a good trip, although a little short.

A letter to the dogs

Dear Nova and Quasar,

You're adorable, you really really are. And lovey, and hilarious, and pretty much awesome. However. I just cleaned the house yesterday, and I have an open house on Sunday, so it would be really really really fantastic if you could quit trying to bring the ENTIRE backyard into the house with you. Muddy footprints on the floor may seem fun, but I have to mop, and it makes my back hurt. Bringing in mulch might seem like getting new toys, but it breaks apart, isn't picked up well by the vacuum, and will do a lot more good around the plants than as splinters in my feet. All those dead leaves you're bringing in are just making me vacuum more often, which means carrying the heavy thing up and down the stairs, which makes my back hurt. Really, you can let the leaves decompose outside. The soil needs some more organic matter anyway.
Please quit stepping on the tulips. They'll be pretty and happy if you give them a chance to grow. The same goes for the bluebells, once they start coming up.
I am allowed to eat without help. If I don't want all of my delicious cinnamon toast, I'll give you what's leftover, because I don't like throwing food away. Just because you can jump on the chaise, Nova, doesn't mean you always should. While I'm mentioning jumping up, if I have the beads out for my new knitting project, please don't step on them. They fall and roll and disappear, and I'm sure the vacuum won't like them.
Quasar, you can throw the soft toys all you want, but not the bones. They're hard and heavy and there's breakable stuff near the floor. Like R's string bass. And the fireplace doors. And my teevee.
Lastly, just because I walk past the puppy cabinet in the kitchen doesn't mean I'm there to get treats out. Sometimes I need to walk through the kitchen. Especially on laundry day. Nova, I know you're smart enough to figure this one out, so do that, and explain it to Quasar, would you?

Keep play fighting to your hearts' content though, because today's fight was hilarious. The cuddles, kisses, and fetch are good too.

Love,
Me