The bed broke again last night.

Although it’s not so much “again,” as I had managed to affect repairs from the last time the bed broke and last night while we slept, those repairs kind of came undone. We can still sleep in it, mind you, if we don’t mind sleeping at an angle and with the center of the bed kind of caved in so we roll into each other every time we move around in our sleep. Either way, we did buy a new bed and put it into storage for just this occasion, I just shudder at the notion of putting a bed together on a worknight. I might try to affect more repairs by trying to goop the mid-bar back to the wooden frame like I did last time, but I’m not sure how well it’ll work. I might try to put something under the midbar to prop it up until the weekend, when we’ll be free enough to disassemble the old bed, throw it out, and assemble the new one. It’s an awful lot of work.

Sometimes I feel like I’m all but tapped out.

Werk has been a frenetic mess lately, our new administrative assistant that was supposed to help make my job easier by taking the menial stuff off of my plate is probably more of a timesink than she is a help, and projects that have arbitrarily moving due dates and expectations winding up in my inbox because other folks simply don’t feel like dealing with them; there have been ups and downs, accolades and disappointments, to be sure, but all in all next month it’ll be 5 months since I got here but it feels like an eternity. The honeymoon is definitely over, and while I’m not nearly as stressed and burnt out as I was in my last job, and as eager and motivated as I am to keep on top of things, I’m learning that for as organized as I am, I’m not organized enough, for as attentive as I am, I’m not attentive enough, and while I’ve got the energy to make it all happen, I don’t have the attention span and I simply can’t remember everything that gets dumped on my plate. I’m trying to find the right tools to help me remember, and I’m learning that David Allen’s Getting Things Done strategy is a good one-it’s looking more and more attractive. In the meantime though, they gave me a shiny new laptop, so between that and my beloved Io, I’m pretty much set from the technology perspective. Now if only they’d spring for a new Blackberry, maybe that shiny Blackberry 8800 or the Blackberry Pearl.

In other news, Valentine’s Day was absolutely wonderful. Raevyn and I both took the day off to spend together and do something memorable. It just so happened that Wednesday was also the day after a night of snow and ice that’s probably the worst we’ve seen this winter in the DC area, and probably, given the temperatures today and predicted for the rest of the week, the worst we may see before this winter ends. Even so, we lazed about the house for a while and finally got up the nerve to head out, even though the parking lot and sidewalks in our townhouse complex were barely after the previous night’s treachery. The parking lot had one narrow plow lane that had been cleared but was subsequently solid ice, and because of that plow’s half-hearted attempt, all of the cars were now plowed in, sitting on top of ice with snow on top of that. We brushed off the car and hopped in, thinking we might get lucky and gun it out of the parking space, but promptly got stuck on the ice, half in and half out of our space. With the help of neighbors and an exceptionally butch mailwoman (who literally redescribed to me what it meant to be masculine – one of our neighbors gave me a shovel to try and dig the wheels out, and she promptly took it from me and dug the car out for me. She even offered to drive the car for me out of the ice. She’s my hero. Seriously.) we managed to get ourselves out, and despite the horrible roads, make it to the metro station to head downtown.

We parked in a relatively clear space and headed into the city, planning to catch lunch at the Java Green Cafe, one of Raevyn’s favorite destinations for lunch, (and dinner, when she chooses to bring food home) but found it closed when we arrived. Not too much of a surprise, since the snowfall had closed a great deal of things downtown, including the schools and many businesses, although the DC government had decided not to close. We instead stopped by a nearby Chipotle for lunch, and promptly got back on the train to head further downtown to the Smithsonian stop from where it was a quick jaunt over to the Freer Gallery, our destination for the day. We saw the beautiful Peacock Room, and partook of the exhibits on display, from the Landscapes in Japanese Art to Daoism and the art of China, and Tea Bowls in Bloom. We saw an incredible amount of pottery and bowls during our tour around the Freer, but all of it was beautiful. The landscapes on massive bamboo screens and elegantly decorated Shoji screen doors, adorned with gold leaf (like the one above) and beautiful paintings were inspirational to say the least. I could easily go back and spend more time seeing everything we saw, especially since we managed to traverse the entire gallery over the course of the day.

We left and came back home, managed to get out of the parking lot safely, and retreated to Yuan Fu Vegetarian, a local all-vegan place where Raevyn could close her eyes and point to the menu and find something delicious she could eat. We filled our bellies and happily went home to curl up and recharge for the werkday following. It was a beautiful Valentine’s Day.

The weekend came too quickly, and we had a world of fun at Tim and Brooke’s Crush Party, meeting new people, catching up with old friends I hadn’t seen, and having a surprisingly wonderful time drinking shots with oddly sexual or romantic names (like Chunky Pannies and The Bleeding Heart and The Happy Ending) and surprisingly low alcohol content but lots of flavor. We hit the Paper Moon Diner before heading home, and relaxed the rest of the long weekend.

So we’ve been pretty busy. This weekend is looking pretty clear though, aside from perhaps heading downtown to see Tim spin, and I’m not too eager to fill it up with appointments. Sometimes I just need a little time to stay home and play with my geeky toys – something that’s been a bit overdue.

In still other news, I’m starting to ramp up posting at my home away from home, Gearlog, and I’m going to start posting other tidbits over at AppScout, Gearlog’s sister blog. I’m really thrilled about this.

And since all of that, the Lunar New Year has turned, and all of my Chinese friends are celebrating (to you, I say the above!) the year of the boar, symbolizing prosperity and good fortune; (someone correct me if I’m wrong here) and today of all days it Mardi Gras. Hey mister, give me some beads.

I think I’ve pretty much caught you up. I can’t say how many times I’d sit down to write out my thoughts like this and wound up with a frustrating, disconnected disconcerted mess over the past several weeks, trying to explain how things were going at the office, and new things with blogging, and so on. I’ve finally managed to break through a bit and start writing again, and I’m glad for that. Let’s see if I can keep it up.