Some occasional Subwar 2050.




My own experience (and something that's been on my mind a lot lately), although my excessive time is spent in books and trying to *make* a game vs. playing them...

I've asked for lots of leniency, especially when it's late and I'm having problems. Or the rare case that I'm super-excited because I've figured something out. You can't always just shut it off at say...exactly 10PM each night, it'll just keep you awake and that's no good to anyone. It helps that the dogs now sleep in the living room as they could get restless until the entire 'pack' was settled into the bedroom for the night. I swear, even behind a closed door they could tell when I was late-night tip-toeing into the kitchen to cheat (usually for a handful of cashews or dates). Then I'd get fussed at for disrupting her sleep, but mostly for the cheating.

But now she's totally cool with me taking whatever time I need hacking away in my man cave, knowing I do my best to spend time with her and also to (and this is very important) get the proper amount of sleep. As long as I take a one hour break each evening for coop exercise (man cave becomes personal gym/yoga studio or we drive to the track) and that I shut it down every Friday afternoon and clean up with a shave, nice clothes, best cologne, etc. Friday date night is very nostalgic, going all the way back to high school/early college. No matter how much studying or whatever there was to do, after work (leaving ~11PM from local competing grocery stores) we'd spend the rest of the evening together, usually going to LSU Godfather's Pizza and/or the midnight showing of Rocky Horror. And now we're back to the old routine, sometimes even driving out to LSU (a bit further now), except there's no longer a Godfather's Pizza.

That's how *I* manage it anyway.