Good News and Little Furry Things

So the week started out rather blah. I spent most of Monday flummoxed by a vexing coding problem. I asked various guys on my team if they had any thoughts, but everyone else was just as vexed. Finally, late in the day I sent mail to an internal help list, and just as I was leaving I got a general response on coding practice for the mechanisms I was using, and thought, "Hmmm." A quick search later I found the problem - in my class's superclass - and had it fixed. Thank ghod.

The dark side to object-oriented programming is that you get so used to encapsulation protecting your code, you forget that your parent classes may not always be well-behaved, and need to be fixed.

Oh, well. Enough of that geekery.

Contrasted with that start, the end was quite pleasant, as I had my annual performance review with my manager, and it was extremely positive - more so than I'd really imagined it was likely to be. My work seems to be appreciated throughout the department, and - maybe better yet - my boss and I seem to agree on what elements of my skills and career I should work on improving.

In these days of the uncertain economy, it's very comforting to know that I'm appreciated and valued. Especially since I do enjoy my job!

Debbi came down this weekend, as always (well, always when she's not off on vacation), and brought the kittens with her. We let them out of their room pretty promptly and they seemed to recognize both the house and my own cats immediately - and the cats recognized them too! I don't know whether a week away from each other helped, but Jefferson and Newton were much nicer to the kittens this weekend. In fact, I think we heard one hiss out of Jeff all weekend, and he was happy to sniff and watch the kittens the whole time. Moreover, they don't seem to disrupt his routine at all.

Newton is a little touchier, pawing at the kittens with grumpy meows from time to time, usually because they're too close or too rambunctious (or both). But he was usually willing to live and let live.

We let the kittens roam free most of the weekend, even leaving the four of them alone for stretches. When we got back we usually found the kittens sleep together in one spot, and the cats snoozing - together or separately - elsewhere. And the cats figured out pretty quickly that the kittens have their own food dish in their room, so we generally had to put that dish away when we let the kittens out, and were diligent about shutting the kittens back in from time to time so they could eat (Debbi lets them free-feed at her house). It seemed to work out.

We did let the kittens out early last night, since we actually had a thunderstorm here early in the morning, and Debbi was worried that they'd be freaked out. Actually I think they were just happy to be able to come out and socialize, even though the humans wanted to go back to sleep!

Blackjack and Roulette are growing up pretty quickly. Blackjack already can't really climb the screen door anymore, and both are getting to be very good jumpers. We're hoping that maybe when they're a tad bigger the cats will be more interested in playing with them. Or maybe it just takes time.

Yesterday we drove down to the town of Capitola, which is near Santa Cruz. I'd been once before, way back in 2001, for a work party, and had always thought it might make a nice day excursion. And, well, it does. It's small and scenic, with a small window-shopping district and a scenic beach (see right). It's not as large or diverse as Santa Cruz, but we had a good time walking around.

I got to wear my new jacket, which I'd bought the night before at Mervyn's. It's a light coat with fleece lining and water-resistant exterior, and a bunch of pockets. I'd been without a light coat for a year or two, since accidentally leaving my old, beaten-up green jacket at a restaurant, and the price was certainly right for this one.

I was a little disappointed we didn't get some rain in Capitola, though. I've been digging the rain. And, y'know, considering it was so cloudy that we couldn't see the lunar eclipse (of course, it was clear and bright Friday night and tonight!), it seems like we should have gotten some compensation for that.

The day ended a little shakily as I went to the Kepler's SF book discussion group tonight... to discover that it's next weekend! Shee!

Well, it's been a good week anyway. If next week is as good, then I'll really be on a roll!