[I wrote this a few days ago, but have held off until posting it by now because I wanted to make sure everybody in the chain of command at work was in the loop before it hit the gossip circuit.]

Starting at the end of March, I’m going to be working at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. This is going to be delightful in a lot of ways which I don’t have time to list, but two among them are (1) that I will be working with bubblebabble, and (2) that I will be working in Kendall Square, which is on the Red Line partway between my place and plumtreeblossom’s, which in turn is probably going to trim close an hour from my round-trip weekday commute. [EDIT: Google Maps doesn’t think it’s going to be that dramatic, but it’s certainly going to be a more restful and somewhat quicker commute.]

And I am excited to be working on a larger scale in a more complex and varied environment than I have been so far.

Yay! I have a new housemate, starting officially on the first but gradually moving in between now and then. And he seems nifty and (like me) is a Unix sysadmin and he and plumtreeblossom get along really well, judging by their very animated and far-reaching conversation when he first came over to see the place.

(Of the top of my head I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t mention his LJ name here, but I feel weird about doing that without explicit consent. But, O housemate, feel free to identify yourself here if you like.)

I am moving back down to the smaller bedroom, and he’s taking the larger one. On the whole, I think I’d be happier back in the downstairs bedroom anyway; there are advantages to being on the same floor as the bathroom, the kitchen, and your office.

Now it’s bedtime.

spacechicken has posted some photos of his and bcat1’s twins to Facebook. Here they are!

I’m an uncle! My sister bcat1 and her husband spacechicken have had their twins! (I have to say, spacechicken got off easy. Next pregnancy, attempted induction, and C-section, he can have the babies!)

Rider was born at about 11:50 today at 4lbs. 12oz., and Genesis was born around noon at 4lbs. 5oz. (I don’t know whether she was named after the book of the Bible or the rock group.) Mother and babies are recovering apace, and as you would expect bcat1 is wiped out. She’s still in the hospital, and is likely to be for a few days; Rider and Genesis will probably be there for a bit longer.

I got the news in a phone call just now from my mother silverlibre; she and ka9sqb are very excited about being grandparents. She’s probably going to fly out to North Carolina soon to spend some time helping, with ka9sqb following. (I wish I were in a position to be able to travel, but hopefully later in the sprint or summer. plumtreeblossom and I can’t wait to meet the babies!)

There are many reasons I miss living with docorion, and this little essay of his on death and his relationship to it as an emergency physician reminds me of some of them.

So plumtreeblossom and I (and docorion and many other people we know) were quoted extensively in a great story on polyamory in today’s Boston Globe magazine. The print edition has photos of me and docorion as well as the photo of Alan and Michelle that’s on the online edition. The online version (linked above) has a video that docorion and Alan (W.) and Michelle were interviewed for which is, if possible, even better than the article — at any rate, I think it does a great job of presenting polyamory effectively to non-poly people in a way that lets the warmth of the relationships and lives described shine through. I am really pleased about how it all turned out.

PS: Alan M. discusses the article at his blog Poly in the Media, and Kamela reviews it favorably in her Boston Open Relationships Examiner column.

Wow, it’s been an intense few days. The spectacular show I’ve been involved with had performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, and Saturday afternoon. It was just spectacular — easily the most ambitious show I’ve ever been involved with. And it was huge amounts of fun.

Except for a day’s work on Friday — during which I passed out during a coughing fit and fell off my chair —, all my other time was spent with my poor sick plumtreeblossom. She says she was sicker than she’d ever been before in her adult life, and I can believe it. She’d have periods of not really being lucid, although she’d also have periods of being completely conscious of all the misery she was in. And she felt utterly terrible about having to miss the performances. (Actually, I was ill enough that if she’d been completely well, I’d have at least considered backing out of the performances because my cough was so bad. But I managed, and since all the coughing was away from the mikes I don’t think it distracted the audience too much.) On top of all this, she heard of an unexpected and tragic death in the family (her niece’s mother, who was still very much a part of her niece’s and her brother’s lives, died at 37 due to an undiagnosed congenital heart defect), so she had that to deal with too. Poor my honeywuzzle.

This was the first time I’d ever done Foley (sound effects), and it was a huge amount of fun. In fact, it was the first time for all four of us out on stage, but plumtreeblossom (Foley captain) had done such a fabulous job of training us and forging us into a team, and Sarah (Foley coordinator) did such a good job of figuring out how to adapt to plumtreeblossom’s absence on-stage, that it all flowed really smoothly.

I wish I’d been able to stay for strike and the cast party, but I wasn’t really feeling well enough for the labour (wouldn’t have wanted a repeat of my fainting experience earlier that day while I was carrying a heavy expensive speaker!) or for a late night of debauchery, and I needed to go see plumtreeblossom, who’d been a little concerned about being alone through the day’s two performances.

I can’t say enough about how wonderful the experience of being in that show was, and how proud I am of the entire group and how lucky I am to be able to do community theater and live radio drama with such a wonderful, talented bunch of people.

As far as our health, plumtreeblossom and I both seem to have turned a corner. Friday evening all my free thoughts were devoted to figuring out how I could get medical attention quickly after the show was over, and whether plumtreeblossom needed to go back to the ER. But Friday night something seemed to shift, and Saturday morning I was feeling not well, but much, much better. And plumtreeblossom was having a rough time on Saturday when she woke up, but after she got some calories in her she was doing a lot better than she’d been in a while. We were actually hopeful for a while that she might make it to the theater to watch the last performance, but she didn’t get better enough for that. But she was definitely better, and today she’s better still. So we’re both still coughing, aching, and exhausted, but I’m pretty sure we’re both over the worst of it and on the road to recovery.

I can’t believe I haven’t posted this before now! I blame illness, extreme busyness, and not enough time for LJ. Anyway, by now this event is not news to very many of you because it’s been all over LJ, but in case you haven’t heard about it or didn’t know I was involved:

I’m involved with a live radio drama presentation of an adaptation of The War of the Worlds, with four performances at the end of this month at the Somerville Theater. I am doing Foley (i.e., sound effects). Among other things, you will get to see me fall down. My beloved plumtreeblossom is Foley-team captain; she’ll be onstage making lots of noise too, as will surrealestate and Laurie and Emily, whose LJ names I don’t know (if they have them). And the voice talent is very nearly as awesome as we are!

The War of the Worlds show is part of The Big Broadcast of 1938, and you can follow that link for reservations or more information. (In case anyone is confused, you use the switches and lights on the right hand part of the page to navigate the site; they turn into icons for the particular function when you mouse over them. The bottom one is for reservations.)

The War of the Worlds is loosely based on the famous Orson Welles broadcast adaptation of the novel, and tells the story from a Boston perspective. The other part of the show is an episode of the Frank Cyrano Byfar Hour.

Music is provided by the amazing Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band, so it’s guaranteed to be incredible. The whole shebang is put on by the Post-Meridian Radio Players.

Performances are Thursday the 29th, Friday the 30th, and two performances on Saturday the 31st. You should come see it!

Hi! plumtreeblossom took a bunch of pictures of Festival@First 6 with my camera, and I’ve just finished selecting and uploading them to Flickr. (She had previously cropped and posted a bunch herself.)

The photos I’ve uploaded are available as a set in my Flickr photostream as well as in the Theatre@First Flickr pool; the ones plumtreeblossom uploaded a few days ago are also in the Theatre@First Flickr pool as well as posted to her journal.

And here are links to the individual shows (by Flickr tag):

• Cupid’s Beau
• Breakfast with Warhol
• The Usual
• Not Funny
• Helluva Poker Face
• Canyon’s Edge
• Season’s Greetings
• Dan in the Lion’s Den (plumtreeblossom’s play)

Sorry they aren’t cropped or colour-edited; I just haven’t had time.

(Cross-posted to my personal journal and theatreatfirst.)

I’ve had a lot stacked up to post about lately, but the only thing to talk about right now is that plumtreeblossom’s cat Rowley is dead.

( Cut for those who can’t deal, but I’d love it if those who can read do. It’s not gory. )

I love you, sweet Row-Row. And I love you, dear plumtreeblossom, and I am so glad that the logistics worked out so that I could be with you so quickly and stay with you through this.