Having just one of those days, good and bad mixed, and there's the hope that slowing down to write about it will let the good float back up to the surface where it belongs, since there's really a lot more good than bad going on.

To start: work is busy but in a good way. There's lots to do with the QA machines anbd I'm getting it done, and it's all the sort of work I like, which is to say configuration and install work. Not mentally stimulating, but who wants to be challenged on a Monday morning? Well, probably someone, but not me. Mondays are good days to install patches.

The weekend with Keely was good, although somewhat marred by her luggage being held hostage by Reno Air, who refused even to issue demands -- they just ignored their ringing phone, letting their voicemail fill up so that by Saturday night Keely couldn't even leave a message begging for her bag. Jim and I loaned her some clothes, though, and the three of us managed to have good sushi at Satsuma. Afterwards we went to Know Knew Books, which is a good used bookstore that's just enough out of the way that I never make it there. I found more Laurie King, and Keely recommended a bunch of books (largely Jack Vance), and glory of glories, I finally found the C.J. Cherryh book I'd been searching over two years for. It's Wave without a Shore, and Cherryh describes it as "a philosophical science fiction novel with a fantasy twist". I can't remember at this point what made me decide I wanted it, but it was very good to find it. Next time I'm in the mood for dense writing I'll pick it up.

Home, and it's much later.

Ended up spending most of tonight online which I didn't mean to do, but there was always one more thing to get done and then somehow it was late -- 10pm -- and I hadn't eaten and was fed up and angry with myself. This sent me on a sharp down-spiral, but I petted Michiru and sat with it for a bit, and then shook it off and made myself dinner even though it was late (ignoring the rule that if you don't have dinner 'on time' you don't get to eat) and ended up happily eating macaroni & cheese and drinking ginger pear tea and reading. Eventually we crawled into bed. I finished The Moor, one of the Laurie King books I picked up shopping with Keely. It was nicely atmospheric, but not as exciting as the first two Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes novels. I do want to read Sabine Baring-Gould, now -- he featured as a minor character in the book, and his writing style sounds wonderfully meandering.