dr_tectonic: (rat stamp)
I also did some other stuff this weekend besides answering the phone every two hours to find out about my grandfather dying...

I didn't go in to work on Friday; did a couple-few hours of telecommuting, then ran errands. It was a good break. The day was gorgeous, and it was nice to get out in the sun.

We did some thrift-store shopping Saturday. I found a few shirts. Jerry found a copy of Riven, a pad of graph paper, and a Japanese electronic personal organizer. Greg found a dumpling-maker and a stuffed armadillo.

I also brought home a couple old issues of Analog. Sometimes I really like reading short stories, I think because there's a lower level of commitment: I know I won't have to put it down in the middle because I can't afford to get sucked in right now, and I won't lose much time if I end up not liking it. (I have a very hard time not finishing books.) I read some out of it, and then today I ended up reading an entire library book Greg had just finished: Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a Southern vampire romance mystery. I figured out one of the twists early, and had mostly ID'd the killer by the time he was revealed, and that's always satisfying.

Today I cleaned up the office some. I had a big box from Dad's garage that was filled with old stuff from high school. Mostly it's clothes that I need to wash and donate, but there was a reasonable pile of papers and stuff, which I had to look through so I could put them back in a different box to keep. (If you didn't already know, I have the packrat gene. I cannot throw away papers with interesting or sentimental information. It's better than my dad, who hoarded food, or my grandfather, who hoarded construction materials...)

Anyway, some of it was things I'd written a decade and a half ago, and I would just like to take this moment and apologize to my future self, because I really hope that I won't look back on these writings and feel the way then that I feel right now about stuff I wrote in high school. Oy vey. On the other hand, that was just essays and that kind of thing; I also found an old journal, and it wasn't nearly as cringeworthy.
dr_tectonic: (rat stamp)
I have a couple of random philosophical thoughts that I'd be inclined to share but for the fact that (hopefully) they'd engender discussion, and I am currently too tired and sickly to cope.

Yesterday I went to Borders and bought two books and a magazine: Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett*, Keith's new Eberron novel, and the latest issue of the Advocate, which I bought because it has the cover article on polygamy/polyamory and prominently features people on my friendslist, so yay!

The thing I found amusing about the Advocate article is that the cover and the headline are all "Wooo, dirty secret, can it work?!!?" but the article itself is like, "yeah, pretty much."

There was a lot in the article that was familiar to me. Relatives often look askance until they actually meet the third partner. Things can be tricky at first (but what relationship isn't?) and it requires emotional communication and awareness. The relationship comes into existence as a "we didn't plan it, it just kinda happened" thing. And, of course, you have to find a bigger bed.

All in all, it pleased me.

*I finished it this evening. Enjoyed it, of course. Not as amusingly insightful/satirical as some of his novels, but still good. I especially liked the love interest.