I had a tough time sleeping last night -- partially because I was riled up by
my conversation with Eriko and partially because I had some caffeine just 3
hours before bed. After a few trips to the bathroom and one short rest on the
massage chair, I managed to fall asleep. I actually slept pretty solid, with
some vivid dreams (which I cannot recall). I woke up at 7 when the alarm went
off and got out of bed fairly quickly. I got dressed, drank some juice, and was
out of the house by about 7:30. Eriko never stirred. At work I was feeling
fairly awake and fairly energized. I got to work writing my status and working
on some bugs. I had a meeting (which prevented me from attending the regular
morning team meeting) and another. Before noon, however, I had made great
progress on a necessary enhancement. I went home for lunch. Eriko had a meal
ready and it was yummy, but we ate in silence. She did make about 40
sweet-potato cupcakes, which were also delicious. I left about 15 minutes to 1
(my usual time) and mosied down the hill. I made more good progress for the
next two hours before I had yet another meeting. This meeting was less than
productive and hopefully I won't have to call one of its kind again. After that
meeting I was dragged into another one, which was a little emotional (not so
much for me) -- but I got a free, cool, Isilon bag. I had about 30 minutes to
spare and Zack and I went for coffee and talked about our weekends. We departed
at an intersection; me heading back to work, him heading for Safeway (to buy
soup). I had another meeting to discuss the recent recruiting event and what
changes we could make. Afterwards I didn't get very engaged at work because I
was accosted by several of my teammates. At 6 I walked and talked with Scott as
we headed up the hill for home. He just returned from a vacation to Hawaii. I
enjoy talking to him. Eriko was making dinner when I arrived and so I retrieved
a package for her from the "delivery (exercise) room. I thought dinner was
quite yummy but she didn't enjoy it too much and complained about a strange
feeling in her esophagus. Soon, she was laying on her side and I was falling
asleep on the couch. I started doing the dishes and she sat in the massage
cushion. She told me that she suspected that she was depressed. We talked
briefly about the subject. She was a little worried (about her body) and wanted
to call her mom -- unfortunately, her mom was not online (Skype) and the phone
card we had was out of credit. So, I decided to try the SkypeOut service, which
allows you to dial a phone anywhere and talk over the computer. I bought some
credits and she called her mom at home. It worked great and she quickly hung up
after asking her mom to setup the computer. The re-connected (this time for
free) and talked for probably an hour. I went into the bedroom and worked on
some Japanese homework while drinking some wine (as well as attempting to
understand some of their conversation). Occasionally I came into the living
room and checked the Astros/Cardinals game (on mute). After the call, I watched
the last inning while doing the dishes. Eriko began going through the box of
goodies from her mom and I moved to the computer for a bit to go through
finances. Eriko took a shower and afterwards began reading on the couch. I
searched for low fares (finding none) and coordinated with Zack to purchase
one. This took much longer than it should have, as the interface is a bit
unwieldy and once you move to far in the process you have to start over and
re-enter the information. In addition, a flight I clicked on "purchase" became
suddenly unavailable (at that price) and I had to go through the tedious
process once again. Eventually, I purchased decent (but not great) tickets for
the 3 of us for the holidays. Finally, I could take a shower. Afterwards I
hopped back on the computer and Eriko continued to read her magazine, which she
seemed to enjoy.