Did I mention I’ve not had much time to write all the things I said I was going to write? No? Well, there it is.

We’ve been stuffing ourselves into the basement for the last few evenings working away at the final bits of pre-carpet work. I am pretty much sick of ivory paint and 45 degree corners. And if I never see another tube of wood filler again, it will be too soon.

We had an exciting weekend. Well, relatively exciting. You may have noticed the weather has markedly improved. That means we got out to the park (see the gallery for pictures) and Sparkle is happy and content because there are once again numerous walks in her life.

We’ve been so busy I haven’t even had time to play Wii lately. The darn thing just sits there. We (foolishly?) designated Monday through Wednesday as “do something other than TV nights” — and these are turning out to be the only nights I actually have time to sit down and watch TV. So, not too much television or video games lately. And I was doing so good in Mario Kart, too.

Claire’s latest tricks involve not only a blossoming vocabulary (baby, sparkle, moo, baa, row row row, thank you, keys, please, cheese, shoes, up, mommy, daddy, all done, duck, upsy, no, uh oh, and boom) but she has learned to climb onto chairs, stools, benches, the toilet, and her dad, and also does a neat little trick where she asks for a tissue by pointing, scrunching her face, and wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

In case you haven’t been keeping up to date with the new links and such appearing on this blog and in Facebook, I’ve taken a somewhat narcissistic approach to self-promotion and have been both quietly expanding the presence of Starkware and widely promoting a new little writing project I’ve been working on. There are links nearby. I encourage your thoughtful input.

In a little less than two weeks I’m off to Ontario. I guess I’m doing some school out there. I’ll detail more when I get back.

I downloaded Anathem for my ebook reader. Blog regulars might recall that I listened to the audio book version over the holidays, but I’ve decided to go at it again (right away) in text form. It’s really set to be another Stephenson classic work, I think. So, in lieu of writing blog posts I’ve been curled up on the couch reading that.

Oh, and running. I did a painful eight kilometers yesterday with the group. You run for nearly an hour on ice and snow and see how you fare.

Does that about sum things up?

Hmmm…

I should add that this cycle of freezing and thawing that we’ve been experiencing has been causing me much grief as a homeowner. Anyone with a driveway in this city is likely suffering from calluses from using an ice chipper every day. But then the last thing I’d want is the guilt of someone’s broken neck on my conscious.

In summary then, I have good intentions. The blog writing is medium priority — somewhere above television and emptying the dishwasher, but a notch or so below the other stuff mentioned. Another four or five hours in the day would come in real handy. But like we all don’t wish that, eh?