げに

[MeitanteiJesus]

明るい顔で部屋の中をチェックしながらぐるぐると回り、満足げに頷いた。

明るい顔で部屋の中をチェックしながら
While cheerfully checking the room,

ぐるぐると回り、
she turned around in circles,

満足げに頷いた。
and nodded authoritatively.

I'm assuming げに here is 実に, so is the connotation "authoritatively"? Because the dictionary definition seems to be "truly" or "very" which doesn't seem to make much sense here.

I'm also not too sure if I translated ぐるぐると回り right. ぐるぐる is to turn round and round while 回り is the surroundings, so should I have translated it as "she turned around in circles checking the surroundings" with the checking being implied from the previous clause?

[richvh]

It's 気に, as in
気 【げ】 (suf) (uk) seeming, giving the appearance of, giving one the feeling of
changing 満足 from an adjective into a noun.

[MeitanteiJesus]

Thanks! Would definitely not have figured that one out myself.

Could I also ask about 過ごす, specifically in the phrase:

実家よりよっぽど過ごしやすそう。
It seems I will be able to pass time much more easily here than at my parent's house.

Did I get that right? Or is it "rest" instead of "pass time"?

Edit: May as well ask this here too:

【大輔】その上、こうしてたまに帰ってくるといないし。

For some context the 2 lines before this:

Daisuke: I like this new room, since my old room was converted into a storage.
Akemi: It's because you only come back once in awhile.

So I'm not quite sure what is being said here.

その上、
Also,

こうしてたまに帰ってくると,
coming back so infrequently like this,

いないし。
???

[richvh]

し is put after verb phrases to list multiple reasons. (Ref: Tae Kim's Grammar Guide on Compound Sentences, a bit more than halfway down the page.)

Since it's only used once here, it's implied that たまに帰ってくるといない is only one reason. I'm not sure who the subject of いない is supposed to be, though. "If/when I don't come home very often like this, (someone) (Akemi?) isn't (here?)

[MeitanteiJesus]

Ah thanks, that definitely makes sense now. Didn't realize the いない was referencing an implied other party.

Seems really hard to identify these kind of things since in English everything is spelled out explicitly. Guess I need to practice reading more to get a feel for it