We watched 4 1/2 hours of Buffy yesterday. Steph had to go to Vienna today to research her PhD. As there was no way I wasn't going to watch the end of season 2 for two weeks while she was away, we watched the last four episodes together in the afternoon. As the end was upsetting, we had to watch the first couple of episodes of season 3 right afterwards so we could see that things weren't that bad after all. Yes, we're wimps. Not only were we scared by season 1, we were emotionally damaged by series 2. Only fate knows the fun that awaits us in series 3.

I get to go to Vienna on Friday for a long weekend with Steph, which will be wonderful, but in the meantime the house is going to be horribly lonely. We don't do separation very well. I'll either spend all the time being incredibly productive and writing wads of stuff, or I'll watch most of Buffy season 3 on my own. I fear the latter.

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It's all sunny outside. It was raining when I came in to work, but it's turned into the nicest day we've had since last Thursday. The upshot of this is that I'm staring wistfully at the window instead of doing my budget projections. I was taken out for lunch by the advertising agency I use, so half a bottle of nice wine has added to the overall wistfulness. This is not a day that wants work to happen to it.

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No writing to report, sadly. I know I should, but I'm still not being grabbed by any stories right now. The alternatives are: a) an anti-science fantasy, b) a sad story about a group of elderly women remembering their childhood, c) a new novel (as yet not properly thought out), or d) a complete rewrite, probably ditching 99%, of the novel I wrote some time ago, Water Ways, Iron Roads. The latter is the novel I used to learn how to write a novel. I love a lot of what's in it, but it's a mess, and I would probably be starting pretty much from scratch again. The question on that one is whether I can bear to spend another six months to a year on writing something I've written once before. The anti-science story isn't rolling at the moment; I don't have the voice for it, but it is based around a very heartfelt criticism of science, or at least the presentation of science. The other two, well, the new novel will be writter some time, no doubt, but I feel the need to knock out a few short stories first. That should leave the sad old people story, but that one doesn't seem to want to roll at the moment either. I may just need to force it.

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Incidentally, I think Steph's website rocks. I'm damned proud of it, having designed it. In fact, I think it looks better than mine, and I feel jealous.