My biggest (mostly) irrational internet pet peeve is the proliferation of people suggesting “:wq” when “:x” is strictly better.

Well said and agreed. It felt awkward because next week was supposed to be a lighter period for me at work after some sustained intensity, while she’s ramping up for a big project due at the end of the month. So all along, we’d planned for me to shoulder more of the packing and last minute planning. I just wanted to make sure that she knew that I appreciated how much extra work I was passing on to her, and to express that I needed to find ways to make it up to her.

However, late last night I found out that the choir’s original plan worked out and they don’t need me to go at all. So…yeah.

To cap off one of my strangest days in recent memory, I just got a call asking if I can go to England all next week to accompany a choir tour. Nothing’s confirmed yet, and I’d have to pull some major strings to get out of my obligations here. However, I’d really love to go.

Unfortunately, we’re moving a few days after I’d get back, so I’d pretty much dump all the packing on my partner. She says I should go regardless, but I definitely don’t feel great about that.

I also just finished up a take-home interview project for a part-time software development job. I’ve been trying to break back into that world for some time now, so I’m very excited about the opportunity.

My version of the “could care less” pet peeve (which is annoying but tolerable) is when people reverse the order of the cases in a “let alone” phrase. The entire point of “let alone” is that you fail to meet the general case, so of course you don’t satisfy the specific case.

For example, if I asked someone “Have you ever been to Germany?” they might answer “I’ve never been to Germany, let alone Europe!” As is, this is nonsensical, but if you reverse the order, all is well. Most examples in the wild aren’t this obvious, but they’re commonplace once you start looking for them.

Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch.

I’m going to a nearby convention for work for most of this week. The convention itself isn’t terribly interesting, but it has been nice to catch up with old friends and meet some new people.

Looking ahead, this is my first proper weekend off in over a year, so I’m looking around for a good destination for a weekend trip (something I’m told normal people do!). Any recommendations within a 4-5 hour drive from downtown Chicago?

We’ve moved with our cat twice now and are preparing for our third. We’re very lucky in that my partner’s parents live in the same city, so we always take the cat to their house, leave her there while we get everything moved, and then take her to the new place once it’s ready. That seems to stress her out less than moving everything while she’s around, and she gets a nice vacation out of the deal!

She’s maybe a little nervous for the first day or two, but always seems to settle in quickly. She also does this adorable thing whenever she goes somewhere new. She’ll slowly walk along the perimeter of each room, mapping it out and sniffing everything, and when she’s ready, she’ll go on to the next room and repeat. It’s really quite something to watch!

Our rent skyrocketed so we’ve been looking to move, and after a hectic week of making appointments, going to showings, and all that unpleasantness, we found a great new place today! We really lucked out in a lot of ways to get this place. The icing on the cake is that it’s about two blocks away from my work. I also made quite a bit of progress on one of my side projects earlier in the week. So in all, a busy week but a good one :)