Shower Weekend

This weekend was Dana's sister's baby shower, the baby who is due precariously close to our wedding date. I helped out with a lot of the preparations, and I think I impressed a few people with my chocolate fondue recipe. I say "recipe", but like all my culinary creations it was a shot from the hip. I never measure anything and rarely have more then a vague idea when I start making something in the kitchen. Lucky for me, the end result usually turns out nicely.

Bought some last-minute necessities for the apartment. We're moving in next weekend bright and early, so anything we don't have now we might be without for the first night. The kinds of things you almost wouldn't think of may prove to be obnoxious if we had missed them, like a shower curtain liner or a trashcan or a lampshade. We still need to get the first month's rent together. We have the money, we have plenty of money. What we don't have is the money in a format that is going to be accepted by the apartments: For the first month's rent they are only accepting a money order or cashier's check. My primary bank, USAA, doesnt have a physical branch anywhere that I know of, and therefore doesn't have cashiers. I wouldn't even know how to go about getting a cashier's check made up for me, or if it's even a service they provide anymore. Getting a money order, apparently, requires cash, and that's also a huge problem. I can't take out enough money to cover it from an ATM either, at least not in one trip. I wired the money to Dana's account (Citizen's Bank, which does have a physical location near her house) and she's going to get the cashier's check. I did get added onto her bank account, and we priced out getting renter's insurance for our new place.

That only leaves 5 days before we move in together, the step that I consider to be the largest in a relationship. A marriage is a nice ceremony, a piece of paper, and a legal status. We're already monogamous, have been for years. When you live together, everything changes. That's when you really get closer to a person, when you learn more about them, and when you've added them as a full-time fixture in your life. In 5 days we're going from seeing each other mostly on weekends, to seeing each other every day of the week, and that's a mind boggling change that marriage cannot possibly compare to.

This week is going to be a busy one at work. Most people from the office are heading out to the RSI trade show in Chicago to show off our wares and see some of the other related technological developments. I've opted to stay back at the office and work through a few additional issues that I've been worried about. We just moved to a new manufacturing partner, and the first unit we got off their production line doesn't work 100%. If this RSI show generates the kinds of sales numbers that people have been anticipating, we need to iron out our production issues ASAP.

Not to mention that I'm not a big fan of traveling. If I can be helpful and productive from home, this is where I would rather stay. It's not like I come home from work, pop open a beer, and turn on the TV. I come home and I work: writing books, developing software, organizing an international fleet of volunteers. I've got a lot going on in my life, and I need to be able to draw a clear line between where my work ends and where the rest begins. I've got things to do in the hours I'm not working, and I don't give that up if I don't have to.