I'm back from an unexpected, last-minute week in Boston. It was my first chance to practice, in person, what I've been doing online for my colleagues: teaching. It turns out there's a need for technically-minded people who can write, communicate, and share their knowledge.

This is something I needed to see in person.

I've been enjoying my first avalanche-free week in a few years. It's quite lovely, but it took some pain to get here; I gutted and completely redid how I filtered my personal email in a last-ditch attempt to keep it under control.

I'd had a system in the past that worked reasonably well, but over time, as more companies switched to reaching me through email, my original plan no longer sufficed. I do sometimes miss the day that a single 'bacn' folder could hold all the Authorized Pork Product Email™ I received, but that day is long past.

I wish I could say that I've been keeping up with the health-care grouchfest that's been happening in the country over the past couple of years. You'd think that I'd be the world's expert, after Jeff's accident, but that's not the case. It's not that I don't care -- I do -- but I've hit my limit of what I can hear about the medical care crisis in this country before I start having what most sane people would call flashbacks.

I've gotten all of my lodging and transit prepared for the trip. With several weeks left to go, I'm relieved to see the details settling into the form of an itinerary. I don't cope well with the prospect of "well, I'm going to land in this country on day X and then, a few weeks later, fly home from country Y" -- with no idea where I'm sleeping in between. Not my style.

Trip planning was eating my brain last night. Last night it led to:

• Spoken politenesses in Danish
• Photos of train ticket vending machines in Amsterdam
• What? There are no dedicated post offices in Amsterdam?
• How much does it cost to mail an international postcard in the UK?

and then there's my favorite ... the damned SIM cards. 

Poor cat.net. She's been rotting due to me having massive, twitchy privacy issues. I'd like to talk here, but I'm just not sure it's a good idea for lots of reasons, so I just shut up and stay shut. For, uh, months at a time.

For those of you who pay attention on the sewing front, I've been a teense worn thanks to me putting in more hours than I should at work, but I'm hoping this is not a permanent thing. It means I've had little to show, but I do still sit down to the machine when my brain hasn't melted after a workday.