yes, my partner feels all i do is work work work. Always telling me to plan other things like vacations, or dates out. This has been a real drain on the relationship. However, i'm noticing that if i communicate more about what i'm working on every day, it smooths things over, and the same goes for friends and family.

It's the same with other things that you're passionate about. Your mind gets used to thinking about it and you don't even notice that it consumes all of your attention.

I'm sure your wife has something that she's very into but you just don't get/understand/grok.