Some FormSpring Questions and Answers on my life chez Hsieh:

How many prospective husbands did you have to reject before you found one who both took ideas seriously and respected your insistence on doing so?

I had two longer-term boyfriends before Paul and I began dating. My incompatibility with them was more about temperament than intellect.

Does keeping the passion alive between you and Paul come naturally for you, or does it take concentrated effort?

I don’t think those two things are mutually exclusive.

Paul and I don’t “work on our relationship.” We’re in agreement that that’s pretty much bullshit. We talk about issues as needed, but we get along so well that those conversations are short, sweet, and to the point — and rare.

However, we’re super-busy with our projects, such that we work at night and on weekends more often than not. So sometimes we have to carve out time from our projects to simply enjoy spending time together. I’m not talking just about sex, but even just time snuggling on the sofa or taking a walk or something. However, once we carve out the time, the activity in question … uh… “comes naturally.”

Did you and Paul explicitly decide to not have children?

Yes. I was more interested in kids, although ambivalent about taking the required time away from my career. However, Paul was totally opposed to kids. I’d much rather have him than kids, so I stuck with him!

Since you and Paul do not want children, would you two consider having a robot as a pet or a great helper doing tedious chores in your house?

I would love an army of servants… or robots. I’d hire a person just to do my one to two loads of laundry per week … and to make the kefir and set out my vitamins and pick up my dirty clothes off the floor and clean out my closets and wipe the mud off the dog and buy groceries and do the weekly finances and clean the goo off my mouse and refill the bird feeders and cut up raw meat for the beasts and de-worm the horses and water the trees and manage house repairs and …

Need I go on? I hate chores with a passion.

[One of these days, I'll answer the questions about how Paul and I met and married. It's a somewhat long story, so perhaps I should make it into a podcast.]