has your heart grown fonder?

Last night after upgrading my version of Firefox I reopened my browser to discover a blank content area confronting me here. Obviously, I've been quite absent recently, having fallen behind not only on my own writing, but on uploading pictures to Flickr, posting quick links or even on keeping up with what my other friends are writing and photographing.

My overall excuse is two-fold. Yes, I've become engrossed in a couple of new computer games, but I've also been just so stressed out recently by work that most days when I get home I want to do nothing that requires much thought or energy. Unfortunately, this may not change for a while, as many of the more serious underlying issues at work are not going to go away for the foreseeable future, if ever, while one specific new project that's been dumped on me is pretty much keeping me occupied full-time (including skipping lunch and staying late daily, and cancelling two days of leave that had been planned since January) through March 31. Regretfully, I feel like I can't really write too much more online about work, so I'll have to stew about it privately.

On the more positive front, we've been busy planning our three-day trip with my mother to New York next month, and she's becoming very excited. Tonight we're seeing An Ideal Husband at a local Arlington theater, and this weekend we head up to Maryland for the wedding of some friends, so there are respites, at least.

And I promise that I'll have more pictures online soon; I have a ton on the PC that just need to be color-adjusted, cropped and posted, and I expect to take quite a few this coming weekend.

Fortunately, my wonderful and patient boyfriend has been maintaining his site and his photos with more regularity and consistency, so you can always keep up on our comings and goings there when I've gone silent.