At a loss

I simply could not think of anything to blip today, but then I remembered that I had bought a pineapple on sale at the market so I could photograph that.  I'd hoped to do it as a still life, but I just don't have the energy.

Today at the library I worked with the Taiwanese Bea, who came in with a number of different issues to deal with.  We read a dreadfully badly written article from The Economist about artificial intelligence, robotics and the biotech industry. We had to stop several times in each sentence, much less paragraph, to figure out what the author was saying.  This is a publication for the layman, but it was densely packed with industry jargon that was almost incomprehensible.  In addition, the writer kept throwing in poorly chosen colloquialisms that did nothing to clarify what he was saying.  The upshot of it was that we gained only a very sketchy understanding of the field.  Very frustrating for both of us, but particularly for Bea, who has decided that AI and Robotics is the field her college graduate 27 year old son should prepare for - this despite the fact that he has no interest in the field whatsoever and is just now studying computer science.  I pointed out that at that age he was entitled to make his own decisions about this sort of thing, and she admitted he'd told her it was spoiling their relationship.  I think there are some cultural differences here.  Whenever I do work with Bea, I find that my real job is to give her new ways of thinking about things so she can figure out what to do.

I'm still weary from last night's celebratory dinner, and we have three more birthdays coming up in the next two weeks - mine, Lex's and Sarah's.  We've decided to lump them all together and have a big party on Mother's day to celebrate.  An upside to this is that May can't come, as she can't manage the stairs in Lex's house anymore.  So we'll be a lot more carefree.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Andrew, Manda's husband, sat next to May and helped her to manage her meal, cutting up her meat and arranging plates and utensils so she could manage without knocking things over.  I really love Andrew - Manda couldn't have chosen a better man.