Dude (as an expletive). Visiting my mother is like being one-on-one with someone like that, only (a) she goes off on these religious rants, which I'm not; ( she goes off on these I miss <random dead person> rants -- and I don't handle death well. And then she tells me she doesn't like my clothing.
So I talk about my cats. Cats are awesome.
x2 on the get them together, but even better might be get her talking about the husband and his photography and cameras and whatnot.
What is this "cable management" of which you speak?
Here's how bad I am -- there is no "back" of my rig, and when I want to listen to anything on the computer, I have to connect the USB cable and the power to the headphone amp, otherwise I keep them disconnected, because they span the doorway.