I’ve been uglier places…
So I am currently on vacation — by myself. I hadn’t really intended on posting to my blog, since the intent of this vacation was really only to relax, sleep, and do some hardcore writing. I have three in-progress novels from the past three years, and I really wanted to crack down on one of them (though I briefly flirted with starting a new story, it was more evasion of finishing stories I felt were in tough places than anything else).
But I’ve found blogging to be an unholy distraction when I try to write (fiction, anyway – I’m more disciplined when it’s not hobby-writing), and so I’d planned to mostly avoid the Internet except to post my daily bad picture.
Unfortunately, there was a mixup with the guesthouse I’d arranged to stay at, and so I find myself interrupted and feeling a bit disjointed. I spent last night in a different guesthouse which still had room, arranged by the owner of the original place I had been planning to stay (where I will be tonight), which was ok, but defeated my purpose of just settling in some place comfortable the whole time and absorbing myself in writing like a fiend.
Not a big deal, truly – instead I got a much-needed nap after months of difficult sleep (always interrupted by Torsten climbing into bed with us and then getting up super-early) and was able to read what I had down already for all three novels. Which was a good thing anyway – I’ve been away from them for long enough that I had totally forgotten what happened in any of them outside of the general gist.
Not only am I caught up so that I can really get down to brass tacks this afternoon, but I discovered a couple of things: first, my almost pathological ability to forget stories (a bizarre thing given how much I read) means I could really read them fresh, and in the last two, I found much that *I* like — as a reader. Secondly, I was actually astounded by how much my writing has changed in the past three years (each of these were NaNoWriMo novels) — granted, the first one of the three I read was written in the ninth month of my pregnancy, but I found myself cringing at how awkward it was. That’s ok – it’s nice to see I’m improving, at least by my own metrics – but the upshot is that it was enough of a mess that I am going to leave it in the repository to languish indefinitely. I may rework it later, but I found myself too annoyed with the clumsy parts to want to sink back into it now.
Anyway, so now I’m just killing time until I can check into the other guesthouse and, thus, this post. I hope she holds to her plans to let me check in at noon instead of two, and that I’m not remembering the time incorrectly.
And now having made it to noon, this is the end of my post-related blather. Besides, a little boy in this restaurant is crying for his mama and it’s making me miss Torsten…
This past week has been a hectic mess, but ladies and gentlemen, I am officially *on vacation*.
Alone, even, since the boys have gone to see the grandparents.
Tomorrow I may even get to sleep in until the insanely late hour of *9:00 AM*.
The downside? No cute little dudes mumbling “Mama snuggle” in their sleep as they cuddle up overnight. But for a few nights, I think we’ll all survive…
Seeing my boys off this morning as they depart.
My other office has a view of the Alps.
No really… It does.
(Note that I cheated a little bit here – I actually took this picture yesterday, but today has been hellaciously busy, and it was either this or a shot of my computer screen…)
Geek heaven?
Parabolic slides at the TU-Munich Math and CS building (my office away from, er, my other office).
(Yes, you actually can slide down from the top floor…)
Low light does not great iPhone photos make, but here’s Little Dude eating at the Hofbräukeller, our new favorite family restaurant because of good beer, good food, good atmosphere, and most of all, the supervised childrens’ Kinderland, which allows Torsten to be his active self in between visits to the table to get bites.
I actually wanted to get a picture of T pushing his stroller to the bus stop on the way home today, but he’s so fast it became dangerous.
Instead, I present you with The Hat with Earflaps. The one my brother desperately wanted as a kid but my mother never let him get (and certainly not in the stylish hunting cap orange he wanted). The one C’s American grad student is amused by because it is just like C’s (not entirely true – C’s is burnt sienna, I’d say).
I always found these hats funny, especially on my beloved, but they do keep ears warm, and it’s much easier to keep on the head of a kid who hates hats.
Also? I totally saw a woman under 30 wearing one at the U-Bahn station the other day.
Doesn’t mean I’ll get *me* one, but T still looks cute 
What on Earth is going on here? Years of near radio silence, and in the last several days, tons of little posts? Did I suddenly get more time?
Hahahahaha… um, no.
After years of resistance and in spite of the DRM (hi Christian and Hex and Håvard!) and even knowing about the highly flawed security model, I got an iPhone. And that allows me to muse aloud (sometimes in full color) while I’m enjoying public transport.
(Note to Stallmanites and Googleites and the rest of you with totally valid arguments concerning free software and open architectures and …. – I know already, ok? I didn’t join the Cult of Steve. I just found something I like that met my needs. I don’t want to have the argument, k? )
Anyhow, the upshot of that is that I can use my dead time when I can’t possibly read one more paper for other stuff, and sometimes, that means blathering aloud here.
So sorry, Internets…
Everytime I see this firm’s logo, all I can see is Dune, but with more pocket protectors.
Tell me: what do YOU see here?
