If you can't test, throw in the towel

So, I've been really struggling lately keeping a balance between my personal and professional lives. My personal life, I feel, is crazy right now. There's a lot going on with the wedding, less than five months out and, on top of that, it just seems like May and June are always much more busy than November and December - which for the life of me, I can't determine why that is. I'm feeling as though something has gotta give or else I will and it won't be pretty...

Unfortunately, most of this frustration comes from having to sweat the small stuff. For example, I've asked my family to let me know when my favorite uncle is dropping by so that I (and, possibly my bride) can stop by and visit since we're normally out and about. Two weeks ago, he stops by and they don't call. It's worse when I come in at 11:30 PM and I see his car. My family is going through some big changes and, in the process, I've come to realize that we're all not going to be able to spend that "quality time" together as much as have in the past. Maybe I'm the only one to realize that at the moment, but when simple favors like these are repeatedly forgot or ignored, it hurts.

Now, knowing that my bride and I are preparing to move her into our home post-Oct15, my father dropped our van off at the shop to have the transmission fixed. He has no idea how long they're going to have it nor an estimate of anything. We've been planning and attempting to arrange this move for at least the past 2-4 weeks!! Do I need to spell it out on a chalkboard or on penmanship paper so that my parents can get it?!

If only the behavior of people was as deterministic as unit testing software:

public void testParentsKnowAboutWedding()

{

Person dad = new Person();

Person mom = new Person();

Person firstBorn = new Person();

Family family = new Family(dad, mom);

Assert.AreEqual(dad, mom.Spouse, "Mom isn't married to dad");

Assert.AreEqual(mom, dad.Spouse, "Dad isn't married to mom");

family.addChild(firstBorn);

Assert.AreEqual(1, family.Children.Count, "First-born not member of family");

Person brideToBe = new Person();

Wedding wedding = new Wedding(brideToBe, firstBorn);

wedding.InformFamilies();

Assert.IsTrue(2 < wedding.NotifiedPeople.Count, "Mom and Dad don't know about the wedding");

}

(I don't know what's worse the fact that I wrote that out or the fact that I actually thought about how I'd design an application that would do such a thing so that the test was practical and "realistic")

I digress...