"Being a first-time father kept me so preoccupied for a few years that I didn't really bother thinking about the downstream effects of not keeping in touch with anyone, " Spenser says.
In the coming weeks Mr Abe will be preoccupied with a cabinet reshuffle, even bringing in heavyweights from enemy factions if they can be persuaded.
Lately, though, he has been preoccupied with a different kind of battle: a fight with his mortgage companies to save his family's home from foreclosure.
As concerns about deflation retreat for the moment, investors are now likely to be more preoccupied with a potential squeeze on companies' operating margins, based on the economic data reported by the U.S. Commerce Department over the past two days.
Whether such leverage is sufficient to persuade the Obama administration, preoccupied with a range of competing domestic and international challenges, to depart from a policy of "strategic patience" is still unclear, even allowing for the appointment of a new secretary of state - John Kerry - who reportedly favours a more engagement-centred approach to North Korea.
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The government has not passed a big reform for years and seems preoccupied by holding a ragged coalition together until national elections in 2014.
Before his recent show, as he hoisted a cup for a photo-op toast with the band and Cowboys players hung out, the singer looked like a preoccupied party host who had left something cooking in the kitchen.
Mr Yeltsin has been preoccupied lately with a much more straightforward attack on the communist legacy, proposing that its main relic, the preserved corpse of Lenin, be removed from a mausoleum in Moscow's Red Square and buried conventionally.
And these people wouldn't necessarily be in favour of a Republican Party that's preoccupied with making the world a better and more secure place for those who are already very wealthy.
As well as a being preoccupied with publicity and maintaining his comb-over, the billionaire media mogul is a self-confessed "germ freak, " who prefers bowing to the pressed-flesh of handshakes.
Since then, the Hotel Detective has been a bit preoccupied with thoughts of butler management.
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But, in a world preoccupied with the war in Kosovo, will anyone be listening?
One is the challenge of getting more coverage from a press preoccupied by the two main parties.
It will be interesting to see if the canny appointment of a wily struggle veteran as President Zuma's new spokesperson will help to change the growing perception of a leader preoccupied with patronage and consensus, and too often silent on key issues.
Believe me, I'll take questions. (Laughter.) I just wanted to note -- I meant to yesterday, and I admit I was a little preoccupied -- I meant to note yesterday that it was the 25th anniversary, I believe, for Peter Maer -- is he in the house?
The widow of a detective who had worked in a county sheriff's office wants to know why her husband had seemed so anxiously preoccupied shortly before he died of a heart attack.
The market square is a scene of total chaos as you make your way through bustling crowds preoccupied with the business of bartering for a prized commodity - the green leafed plant khat.
You can be sure that President Obama would welcome an America in which the Republican Party is preoccupied with remaking itself into a watered-down version of the Democrats.
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It is suggested that the UN is unable to achieve this as it would be preoccupied with ensuring everyone has a say and therefore that nothing actually gets done.
One was that they would always be too preoccupied with national interest to pursue a true European course.
Faced with a worsening fiscal crisis and a Pentagon management team preoccupied by the fight ashore, the Navy had to come up with something radically different to arrest the decline in warship numbers.
All this was felt as she watched the preoccupied adults around her preparing for a new life, trying to end the yearning for an old one that she didn't know she saw how their eyes searched the distance for the shadows of mountains or the wide, open sky for the monsoons, one last time before it was gone forever.
More recently, the country has been ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which until only a few years ago was preoccupied with swadeshi, or self-sufficiency.
This is a timely reminder that however preoccupied this country is right now with itself, it has become and will remain intimately involved in the Middle East and beyond.
Preoccupied with the faux pas of serving a heavy French meal on a hot summer eve, I had failed to take into account the more basic problem of cooking in Manhattan this time of year.
It is a paradox that, in spite of dramatic increases in life expectancy and improvements in health in the developed world over recent decades, as a society we are obsessively preoccupied with the specter of hazards lurking in our environment and consumer products.
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With Liverpool toiling to a 0-0 draw against Fulham earlier in the day and Tottenham preoccupied with their FA Cup semi-final against Portsmouth, the home side knew a win would open up a potentially decisive gap on their rivals for the final Champions League place, with some difficult fixtures lying in wait.
Like Palestine, Iraq is a story that has gripped and preoccupied Arabs everywhere.
Preoccupied with preserving their Premier League status, a number of them have rested their regulars for FA Cup games and fielded clearly understrength sides.
Wallace was preoccupied with the manipulative desire-mill of a media-saturated society.
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