My parents are in town, and we’ve been having a great time — monuments and museums, favorite restaurants and movies . . . But that’s not the only thing occupying my time. I finally got everything moved out of my old apartment and finished cleaning it Monday night/Tuesday morning at 1:30 a.m. (I skipped work all day Monday for that very purpose, and spent much of last Saturday and Sunday doing the same), and spent all my free time (what free time?) the next day getting everything set up at my new place for my parents’ visit.

On top of that, I accidentally deleted the Common Sense email list last Sunday and ended up having to reconstruct it from a November backup — so I’ve been duplicating in a few days most of the list admin work I’ve done in the last few months, and I’m still not quite done. And I finished the May 2003 newsletter four days late. Not to mention that a coworker had a malfunctioning laptop that required immediate attention, of course, and I had a few time-sensitive pieces of freelance work that I normally have no trouble fitting into my schedule. Just too much stuff at once. Having my parents around has been pretty relaxing, in no small part because I’m technically on vacation — even though I’ve been trying to squeeze work into the small pockets of time that we’re not hanging out and doing stuff. So even though my parents’ visit is a nice break in one way, I still know that I’m falling behind with other stuff that I need to get done. At least I have a big TV.