I've bought only three cars in my life: a new red VW Golf in April 1992, when I moved to Seattle; an 18-month-old black VW Golf in April 2002; and a 2007 Mazda 3 in April 2016.

The 2001 VW was still running fine and had recently passed the 150,000-mile mark. However, it, like the 1992 Golf, had a manual trans­mis­sion (a “stick shift”). Emma had a Morton's Neuroma removed from the ball of her left foot around 2003. It seems to be coming back and she was having increasing difficulty depressing the clutch. Between the ever-increasing traffic in Seattle and Seattle's steep hills, drivers need to change gear often. It …continue.

There was supposed to be a second showing of The Queen of Ireland doc­u­men­tary this morning at the SIFF Uptown, preceded by a panel discussion on Marriage Equality. We attended the discussion, which was moderated by Phil Grant, the Consul General of Ireland. The three panelists were Rory O'Neill, aka Panti Bliss, out of drag, the accidental activist who became the face of marriage equality in Ireland; Mayor Ed Murray, an Irish-American and Washington state's best-known gay politi­cian; and Gary Gates, an LGBT de­mog­ra­ph­er, married to an Irishman, who advised the Irish cam­paign­ers.

I have a strong interest in marriage equality, going back more than 20 years—I was wearing a HERMP shirt …continue.

We married on May 6th, 2000. We went to Vancouver for the weekend to celebrate our sixteenth an­niver­sary. It was our first trip out of town since August, when we returned from two months in Europe. We drove up on Friday, stopping in Marysville to have lunch with a friend and to buy some clothes at the Outlet Mall.

On Saturday, we went up Grouse Mountain for the first time ever, to enjoy the views on a clear day. After that, we drove along the coast in West Vancouver as far as the scenic village at Horseshoe Bay and the Whytecliff Park. We concluded the day with a fine dinner at Adesso.

On …continue.

Damn my supra­or­bital ridge anyway! I spent at least half an hour tonight scouring the entire house for a small suitcase, only to find it within 3 feet of the back door—but above my eyeline. Someone (probably me) had placed the suitcase on a high shelf a couple of weeks ago. I simply didn't think to look up. Most humans don't. Our ancestors must not have worried too much about predators dropping from above.

My most recent trip to Montréal was a year ago this week for PyCon 2015, following another trip there two years ago this week for PyCon 2014.

My first trip to Montréal was a very long business trip in 1995. Four colleagues and I spent five or six weeks in Montréal, just before the Quebec in­de­pen­dence referendum, working onsite for our client, in­te­grat­ing the UI we had written into the rest of their software.

We had to bring our own computers, as they declined to provide us with any equipment. In 1995, this meant shipping our desktop systems and our heavy CRT monitors. Through Canadian Customs. And back through US …continue.

Ad­ver­tis­ing would make you think that acne is a problem only for teenagers. Not true. It's never entirely gone away for me. I often find spots on my nose. Less often, on my chin or forehead. I've even had a few spots inside my ears.

For some reason, I woke up with three spots this morning: on the side of my nose; under my jawline, hidden by my beard; and on the back of my neck, near the hairline. Go figure.

I had a mole excised today.

I have a few moles on my body, mostly on my legs. My doctor has disliked the look of some of my moles for years. After my most recent annual physical, I went to see a der­ma­tol­o­gist a month ago. There was only one mole that she wanted to treat, low on my left calf. She took a biopsy, using a tiny little saw to peel the top layer off after the area had been numbed with a local anesthetic.

The results came back a week later. The mole was “abnormal” but not cancerous. It was rec­om­mend­ed that the rest be removed. The skin is tight …continue.

It's better to stay calm when things aren't going well. Stress and panic are contagious. When you're broad­cast­ing stress or panic on all channels, other people start picking it up. If you can keep your cool, others are more likely to remain calm too. Often that's for the best, but sometimes it backfires because others in­cor­rect­ly believe that everything is still okay.

Knowing when to ask for help is an art. You learn a lot when you persevere and try different things, many of which may fail. The failures will likely show you where your un­der­stand­ing is deficient; you learn some of the many ways in which things can go wrong. If you …continue.

Emma is once again at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma. It's a convention of knitters, crocheters, and prac­ti­tion­ers of other fiber arts, and Emma goes every year. She takes classes and hangs out with her fellow knitters. It's always held over Valen­tine's Day Weekend, so I tease her about preferring knitting to romantic dinners with me.

Emma and I have a bargain. If one of us cooks a nice dinner, the other cleans up. While I can and do cook, Emma does most of the cooking. Therefore, I do most of the cleaning.

I always thank Emma during dinner for the meal, and Emma invariably thanks me for cleaning when I'm washing pots and pans. I—a lifelong smar­tass—usu­al­ly respond, "Thank you for making a mess."

So far, she's taken this with good grace—prob­a­bly better than I deserve. In truth, the cleanup is usually far quicker than the cooking.