It all comes spilling out
A roundup of unrelated items from the Edge:

Uncle John, who was hospitalized three weeks ago after a brain aneurysm ruptured (has it only been three weeks?) has "graduated" to rehab. Days of grueling physical, speech and occupational therapy are helping to bring him back around. The Cousin Who's On TV and Dr. Cousin have been rocks for their family, putting everything on hold at their homes in the Carolinas to be with their Mom and Dad back in Anytown. Thanks the miracle of technology, my cousins have been keeping us up-to-date ... via a blog, of course. (Because I'm absurdly protective about my family's identity in this forum, I won't link directly; however, send me an e-mail and I'd be more than happy to send you the link.) Bottom line is, it's starting to look like a happier holiday season in Anytown -- and that soothes my heart greatly.

Oh, by the way, we moved. Avid readers of this forum know that we change residences as often as some women change their hair color. This move was a simple cross-county move, however -- and it was embarked upon for many reasons. We were overpaying for a house we really didn't like all that much. The Wife took on the tasks, damn near singlehandedly, of 1/finding the house, 2/negotiating a mortgage that was actually favorable to us 3/selling our own house (for a tidy profit, after owning it for only 9 months) and the hardest part, 4/convincing me it was a good idea. Because of her work, we're in a house we do like, with a mortgage payment that's much more in line with our budget, in a more convenient location. My role in this was really very minimal, as is the amount of credit I should take. Further proof that The Wife is a goddess.

Helping to complete my technological circle, I became the proud owner of a slightly used Macintosh G4. Dual-processor 500 MHz, 256 MB of RAM (at the moment), OS X Panther. I started my tech life as a Mac user, and the reconversion is almost complete. Because I haven't found time to buy a router or a KVM switch, and beacuse I only have one monitor, I have to disconnect the Monster Dell and manually connect everything else to use the Mac. But the time I have spent with Mac OS X convinces me that it's radically superior to the previous Mac interface, and, as always, it's way better than Windows. I love being able to justify being an annoying Mac user again. And being surrounded by comptuers makes me feel like a geek, which I like.

I haven't had time to buy a KVM switch or a router because I find myself spending a lot of time at work these days. We're in the process of a "workflow conversion," a conversion which was envisioned late last year but has only recently been implemented. Change is abhorrent to most journalists, especially those of us on the production side. We're especially resistant to any change that we perceive to overemphasize the "production" part at the expense of creativity. We (me, too) sometimes forget that one can be extremely creative in the production parts, too. I also apparently missed the part of my management class (I did take a few of those while I breezed past college) that would have informed me that recruiting and hiring an experienced, talented employee could be bad for morale. I anticipate the waters will settle soon, but until they do, I'm going to spend a lot of time at the helm. It's thrown my schedule completely asunder: I'm now working mostly nights, including Sundays. Neither my body nor my family is adjusting well. But dammit, I enjoy a challenge, on some levels.

Speaking of The Wife (we were speaking of her earlier, you'll recall): She and Champion Dog I (the female) took fourth place at a large-ish dog show this weekend. You'd be forgiven for yawning at that development -- until you were informed that she and her dog did this all by themselves. Up to this point, she's spent a ton of money on "professional handlers" to show off her Champion Dog. Because she became mildly miffed at the most recent professional handler, she decided to take the leash in her own hands. Beware The Wife when she becomes mildly miffed. With no real previous experience to speak of, she stepped into the ring and earned a ribbon in a very large field -- and, I might add, blew the doors off the person at whom she was mildly miffed.

Whew. I think that about covers it, for now, anyway. It's good to be back.