I did no work this weekend. I played on the computer, played Frisbee, and walked in the sun. I talked to family, ate dinner in the company of friends, and added even more books to my pile. In particular, I now have Gibson's Virtual Light, To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, and The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson (on loan from Esther). I'm halfway through Beauty by Sheri Tepper.

Okay, I did also read some technical articles. But I wrote nothing, and I coded nothing, and the time I spent reading from SIAM Review was as much leisure time as work time.

Since I did no work over the weekend, I felt a little guilty this morning. That guilt was quickly assuaged. When I received the mail requesting that I finish a piece of code ASAP, my guilt disappeared entirely. I have enough work to keep me comfortably busy for a long time. Now I need to practice saying no sufficiently often that I can keep the adjective comfortably. Uncomfortable levels of business tend to produce a cascade effect: without some time to ponder, it's hard to devise ideas that will save time in the long run. It's also more difficult to write code and text that will be a solid base for future work. At least, it's more difficult for me.

Alas, a weekend off didn't make the bug in my code disappear, nor did it give me any great ideas for how to pin down the problem. But as long as I have that bug, I still have an excuse to use the word alas, which I suppose is worth something.

• Currently drinking: Earl Grey