My Gracious Silence

Quiet weekend after a family overdose; remind me never again to go on holiday without a car (mine or rental, I'm not fussy, I just want wheels). Working my way through laundry, otherwise taking a bit of the weekend off before the onslaught of the week and rather a lot of deadlines coming up.

Reading: Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold (finished it, to be accurate - the advance reader copy that Baen has up for sale in eBook format). I love how Miles has grown up, and Roic too, and how the relationship between m'twisty lord and his armsman has developed. More than that would be spoilers, so I won't.

Otherwise vacation reading was more Ngaio Marsh and a couple of sale and purchase agreements with associated tax warranties and covenants. "Vacation" has a peculiar meaning when you're self-employed, and mobile broadband is a mixed blessing.

Once upon a time, in an entry long long ago (30 March, in fact), which is now deleted, I made some over-optimistic remarks about continuing this blog as a WordPress site. I was a little enchanted with WordPress, and still am, but the lack of entries at that site told it's own tale - that being, largely, that I am still working more hours than is legal (since my esteemed employers haven't asked me to waive the Working Time Regulations. Go figure, a professional services firm that doesn't ask?!).

So I've come back here. Can't promise to post any more regularly than once every six months but, as I do read the Friends page to check people are still around, I suspect that I'm more likely to update this than anything else. On that note:

Reading:
Borders of Infinity - Lois McMaster Bujold
Decca - the letters of Jessica Mitford (very 'dippable')

Bought:
None - haven't been out today (lost my voice, so worked from home)

Cooked:
Eggplant & spinach lasagne (sort of. Shortcuts galore)

Work is what it is, and will be what it is for some considerable time. I have scaled back a lot of non-work activity, which not the option I would prefer (clearly!) but, as the mortgage and school fees need to be paid, it is currently non-work that has to suffer. Note 'currently'. I'm making (slow) moves to sort it all out, as this is unacceptable. I'm not the workaholic I may appear to be; I used to like my work and get some satisfaction out of it but, believe me, that's really not the case now.

Away from work, so far as is possible, I have had a photograph published which pleases me immensely. I have managed to get some travel in - San Francisco a few months ago, principally. A short (too, too short) visit with friends who came over at the end of July. M is taking me off for a long weekend at the end of next week (birthday and general you-need-to-get-awayness).

The 'to read' pile continues to grow, particularly since I discovered http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/. Minimalist with a twist.

And the damned archairs I ordered four months ago still show no signs of arriving.