After the holidays: family

R.'s sons are back with us after their usual holiday with family in Asia. Our dog L's still not quite well, poor guy, no urgent fears but medical testing continues until we can get him back to normal. R's sister came along to visit before she returns to Asia; this afternoon they are all out in Glasgow city center. I am happy to stay at home with L. and relax, I am currently listening to Rylan on BBC Radio 2 while L. snuggles beside me on the sofa. Yesterday, assorted family headed to York on the train, via Edinburgh and Newcastle. R. brings me nice things back. It turns out that some Viking museum center place there has some ride around an egregiously stinky exhibit. I've been to York a couple of times for not-pleasure reasons but have not yet even ventured inside York Minster.

After the holidays: work

At work, I've been trying to finish off a non-trivial task that I started last month. There are plenty of aspects to get right: I am trying to improve the performance of a part of our code that comes in different flavors, is called in different ways, and can utilize various constituents. Generative AI assistance has been helping me along. Perhaps I have finally got it all to a good state, we will see what the coming week brings. I start next week by filling things out for our annual performance review cycle. I look forward to working on my next task which is a smaller, more usual one. I have been putting some extra time into the meatier task because it's important and has already lingered plenty; it will be a relief to finally tie a bow around it, here's hoping.