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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2005-07-08 - 9:28 a.m. Unwinding Forgive me, my diary, it�s been almost two weeks since my last entry. So, I�m off tomorrow. I can sleep in and bake cute cookies� Ah, taking some of the comp time eh? says Roland. I blink. No, it�s my flex day. My team, my boss and my husband had all but forgotten that Theo actually has a flex day on her schedule. The work drama has, as all things cyclic do, abated. Life has been blissfully productive, with tempers flaring about technical problems. I love these kind of problems. And I�ve had those it-takes-two-days parts on order for two months! �. They didn�t solder down half the FPGA? How the hell did that pass - never mind just fix it. � Yes, dammit, you have to include the drag torque � what this controller needs is a little anticipation. � Yes, we have to correct for relativistic effects � I know they are small but small is important when our requirement is *two* arcseconds � Um, did you want to tell me we were changing the bracket design for my hardware? � No, you cannot split active loads in the harness; two things reading one source simultaneously and they both read it wrong. � Um, new guy, welcome to the team, but we don�t generally drill out metal around electronics boards. I think those were just yesterday�s conversations. I anticipate a small vignette of work drama next Tuesday-ish as they look at the red in my schedule and budget and forget we discussed and agreed how all those things were true when we last sang Kum-By-Ya. Next Wednesday, the review group will be presented with a pile of all my team�s crap they should�ve approved two months ago and I haven�t had time to get angry about it until this week. Next to the pile will be a box full of baked goods labeled �Open upon approval.� I have, color y�all shocked, managed to have small bits of life outside work, with the happiness of sewing and gardening and chasing Roland about the house until he catches me. I�ve even completed several SCAdian projects. I was also thinking about Melisent and Bryce over the past two weeks � The last Tuesday of the month is, as always, labyrinth day at the National Cathedral, a path I haven�t managed to trod in months. The choir gets most of the summer off, so evensong was limited to evening prayer service. I miss the music in the summer, but the gardens, ah, the gardens. The cathedral has a fabulous greenhouse, which they kindly let me in one minute after closing to buy herbs, cause every girl needs a rosemary bush to plant opposite the lavender. Gen and I spent about an hour in the Bishop�s Garden, modeled on the 14th century layouts, though I�d love to hear their explanation for the gazebo. They�ve cut the heck out of the roses, which I guess is a thing you do to roses occasionally. I wouldn�t know, being too much of a lazy coward to raise them, but the stems are now waist high. I knew Melisent or Manus could explain, but Gen and I had to be content with sniffing the two blossoms that escaped pruning. They have a 9th century garden room I�d never noticed before � a perfect circle around a baptismal font planted entirely, so the placards inform, based on a circa 800 A.D. poem describing the uses of plants. Who knew that iris roots were a big laundry item? The west lawn is the kind of plush grass that comes only from dedicated thatching and careful weed eradication, hemmed in by tall trees, and low walls, it catches the evening breeze. Gen indulged in happy bare feet on the softest of grasses. I should get her a patch of perfect grass for her birthday to go with the rock people won�t let me buy Alan. I�m reading two books just now, harvested from the �summer reads� firesale at Borders � Truman Capote�s In Cold Blood and Lauren Winner�s Girl meets GOD. Even I find it weird that I�m switching between one of the earliest novels of the true crime genre about the 1950 murders of the four Clutters, and a book about how an Orthodox Jew is determinedly courted by a Nazarene carpenter. Anyway, the I�d never thought about that before, as all my wedding friends have stayed paired like I left them after I happily, joyfully, participated in their wedding ceremonies. And I expect them to maintain that record, y�all hear? One of the reasons I enjoy weddings because I think it�s important to stand up and support your friends. Also, I love seeing the groom watch his bride come down the aisle. For the record, if you can move it highway speeds, I can get from my home to Richmond is just under 90 minutes. The fourth of the July weekend featured (happy dance) Bryce and Melisent wedding, which (insert language inappropriate for any cathedral) we missed. Oh, I intended to be there, but nothing prepared us for the horrible traffic between DC and Richmond. We should have, by later calculations, left 5 hours early, instead of the sensible 3. I don�t think Alan managed to reach the speed limit but three times, leaving us running into the cathedral�s nave just as the recessional was completing to the stunning sight of a glowing bride. Grrrrrr. Argh. Yes, they are just as married, and of course they understand, but we *really* wanted to be there. Gen and I were not fun people to be in the car with. But the reception was fabulous fun. Roast pig, cracklings, baked beans, music at the perfect volume, sparklers, the pinkness of Regan (I really wanted that hat and I hate pink), dancing tenderly with my husband and the opportunity to light Fritz on fire, what more could you ask for entertainment? But the bright company was just a backdrop for the happy couple, Happy couple � what a wedding card term � But here�s the thing about marriage. You are truly more together than you can be apart. Here�s the person who knows all your flaws and strengths, who�s seen you with morning hair, and they still think you�re the bee�s knees. Unreserved love of your spouse gives you this huge and quiet strength that just completes you. That was sappy enough to almost make me delete the last part. Various guessbook replies, too long neglected � Eldred & Kev � thanks for the sympathy on the work drama. Lucia � He actually did ask for a �Kum-by-fuckin�-ya� shirt which I refused to make. Supfiggy � the rocks haven�t seen a river in years, having been in gardening use since I was ten, so I suppose they were stolen way before the law. Bizarro � no, no, Aunt May and Jarvis should *not* get busy. Sheesh, they just met. � � � 
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