30 December, 2009

Uberlist 2010

Category: Lists — Moose @ 5:02 pm
  1. Ironman Louisville
  2. Eagleman Triathlon
  3. Columbia Triathlon
  4. Total 200
  5. Get an entertainment center
  6. Reorganize the closets
  7. Replace my dishwasher
  8. Replace the disposer
  9. Frame my graduate school diplomas
  10. Assist with a CBE class
  11. Knit something for my nieces
  12. Paint a room
  13. Play a game online with a friend
  14. Reduce my caffeine use
  15. Clean behind the fridge
  16. Find a storage option for my bicycles
  17. Fix or get rid of the mountain bike
  18. Attend a heart circle
  19. Have friends over for dinner
  20. Host a bad movies party
  21. Host a game day
  22. Do a massage exchange
  23. Take a knife skills class
  24. Pick up items from Les
  25. Read the unread Chinese fiction in my collection
  26. Get ink
  27. Clean out my kitchen cabinets
  28. Come up with a display for my medals
  29. Frame my finished cross stitch projects
  30. Get a body fat scale
  31. Get a power tap for the tri bike
  32. Decorate the bathroom
  33. Go to the Holocaust museum
  34. Grow balcony plants
  35. Cook some of what I grow on the balcony
  36. Donate more books
  37. Get away from my desk at lunch
  38. Volunteer at a race
  39. Get a pedicure
  40. Attend a play
  41. Do regular core work
  42. Reduce surface clutter in the apartment
  43. Finish two pair of socks
  44. Clean out the work desk
  45. Readjust my sleep schedule to earlier
  46. Get rid of the extra crates
  47. Dispose of the roomba battery properly
  48. Store my bike rack better
  49. Get a better tool box
  50. Get a new heart rate monitor
  51. Volunteer with the tri club
  52. Get out to more NTP workouts
  53. Integrate a regular yoga practice
  54. Get closer to race weight
  55. Eat more fruit
  56. Attend a Code party
  57. Dance
  58. Go clothes shopping
  59. Replace my tuxedo jacket
  60. Get cufflinks
  61. Take a CPR class
  62. Replace the aerobars water bottle
  63. Cut down on miscellaneous extraneous purchases
  64. Get up to Boston as often as practicable
  65. Bring better snacks to the office
  66. Stay on top of mail-order nutrition needs
  67. Bake cookies
  68. Donate the moose dishes
  69. Get replacement shades for the leg lamps
  70. Mount the antlers
  71. Rearrange the art in the bedroom
  72. Go through the boxes in the closets and toss what I can
  73. Keep sending cards
  74. Beat a DS game
  75. Beat an Xbox game
  76. Beat a Wii game
  77. Get a PS3
  78. Beat a PS3 game
  79. Prepare 2011’s tracking sheet
  80. Replace the shower liner hooks
  81. New bath towels
  82. Prepare 2011’s Uberlist before the end of 2010
  83. Annual physical
  84. Two dental visits
  85. Get through one dental visit without getting fussed at to floss more
  86. Look into toe surgery
  87. Track my workout/health stats more consistently
  88. Analyze the stats to see where I need improvement
  89. Treat my eczema more aggressively
  90. Replace a set of sheets
  91. Pay off a student loan company
  92. Pay off a credit card
  93. Donate unused tri stuff to the club
  94. VO2 Max test
  95. Resting Metabolic Rate test
  96. Clean out the file cabinet
  97. Rearrange the kitchen counters
  98. Find a chiropractor
  99. Find a regular place to get my hair cut
  100. Replace the couch
  101. Cull my files at work
  102. Repot my office plants. Again.
  103. Deactivate web accounts that I don’t use.
  104. Cut down the number of unwanted voluntary web site emails
  105. Start archiving historical info on the NTP
  106. Get the Xbox 360 repaired
  107. Get a new, larger TV
  108. Organize/toss the electronic “stuff” in my cabinets
  109. Toss old computer games, manuals and guides
  110. Recycle my old PCs
28 December, 2009

It Broke

Category: Annoyances,Stuff — Moose @ 11:12 pm

Not my day for stuff. First, I discovered the zipper on my coat is broken (luckily I have a backup). Then the roomba, which claimed to have a full battery, crapped out in about 10 seconds of vacuuming. Then the Xbox 360 decided to freeze up on me. Multiple times. I dread the thought of having to send that beast in. Plus I really wanted to wreak havoc with my minions tonight on Overlord.

None of these are insurmountable, or even particularly difficult, but they are annoying.

21 December, 2009

Remapping the Keyboard

Category: Geek — Moose @ 5:25 pm

Finally found a replacement program for DoubleCommand (DC) that allows one to remap the useless as all get out Right Option/Alt key on the newer mac laptops to a Function key so you can page up and down web pages with one hand. KeyRemap4MacBook. Been checking DC’s site for an upgrade (which never came) for months now, and finally gave up, searched the web again, and found a decent replacement that works. Very pleased with it.

DC worked well on the old iBooks, as it had mastered the remap of the useless “Enter” key that appeared beside the arrow keys and enabled one to then use the arrow keys as “page up” and “page down”, making web browsing on longer web sites (like LJ) much easier to do. But, they never upgraded the program to do the same for the new Right Option key that appeared for whatever odd reason in place of the Enter key on the newer mac laptops. But, KeyRemap now does the trick. Yay.

Metroid/Snow

Category: Driving,Exercise,Games,Racing,Weather — Moose @ 2:38 pm

Spent the last three days of Snowpocalypse 2009 playing the last of the three games in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, finally defeating the last three bosses (on the 2nd try) a little bit ago. While I’d originally planned to do a run, I suspect it’s still a bit too icy out there to run on the roads/sidewalks, so it looks to be a day on the bike trainer in the living room. Not thrilling, but I’m glad to have the option.

The snow was lovely, and I’ve yet to venture out into it because, frankly, snow is best (to me) from a distance. Preferable a few thousand miles of distance, but hey. I wasn’t upset at the extra day off today (OPM shut down the federal government here in DC to give the localities another day to dig us all out, plus Metro’s not yet running full steam, or wasn’t as of last night). Since I’ve stayed in I’ve been giving my face a break from shaving, proving again why I don’t grow a full beard (I can’t; the right side doesn’t grow in completely). I think I’ll keep it until tomorrow morning, letting the skin have another full day’s break from the scraping. Periodically ice and snow will fall off the apartments above me, or be pushed off, and the noise is jarring. The more regular drip of melting balconies hits the windowsill in my bedroom every now and again as the building heats up.

Glad this happened this weekend and not next weekend. The drive up to Pittsburgh is going to be taxing enough as it is without adding ice and snow to the mix. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to run up in Baltimore Saturday, but there was no way I was taking a mini cooper on I-95 in “blizzard” conditions.

17 December, 2009

Sober – Not; More Sober – Not; And They Wonder Why

Category: Dating,Drinks,Friends,Work — Moose @ 11:57 pm

Both of the last two days have meant I’ve had to leave office parties to do work and then been cut off from socializing from my coworkers. I actually got to utter the following phrase to a field office person: “I’m sorry, this will have to wait until tomorrow when I’m sober.” That was a good feeling. I also got to yell at people, with the appropriate caveats that I was not sober and this was not personal, even if it was. I should be able to drink at the office more often.

A week until I head to north-of-Pittsburgh to meet Mike’s family. I’m nervous. I shouldn’t be, but I am. I’m sure it’ll go fine, but I’ve been through the whole first meeting of the family before, and while I know I’m charming and all that, it’s still nerve-wracking. I haven’t procured the necessary bits of liquor yet to grease the wheels, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to before Friday next week. This does not bode well.

So I went out after work to a tri club event (where they told me I need to teach a class on cooking veggies), and then off to see the homos, where they flirted mercilessly and I resisted because I’m thoroughly in love and where we all frustrated each other. And then I left to come home and resist going to work in the morning because I suspect I’m going to hurt tomorrow. Oh well. The world will have to get over it.

8 December, 2009

Ordered/Sauced/Wet

Category: Cooking,Dating,Exercise,Running,Weather,Work — Moose @ 11:24 pm

Well, gifts have been ordered. The ones that I’m ordering online, that is. The appropriate parties will receive them in the appointed times. Whee. Thankfully ordering was relatively easy, once the harder part, the deciding, was done. That process took weeks, unfortunately.

After a long, dragging day at work (punctuated only by an office party at one of our program offices – yay for mid-afternoon beer), I came home to whip up some marinara with part of the bounty I brought home from the grocery store yesterday. I hadn’t gone in ages, so yesterday was particularly expensive. Thankfully homemade marinara is relatively inexpensive to produce, and freezes well, even with the addition of some ground turkey. I did manage to forget that it’s better to spice the turkey while ‘browning’ it, but given that it’s been a decade since I last did that, I think I can be forgiven. I’ll try not to forget again. But man, good sauce, completely worth the time to make it. And now I’ll have it to zap for a bit yet.

It looks like it’s going to be nastily wet tomorrow morning for the run, which kinda sucks since my last run up in Provincetown this past Saturday was similarly cold and wet. The joys of winter running. I think it would be prudent to make it a short run and just do 4 rather than the usual ‘long’ run on a Wednesday.

Provincetown was, as I intimated above, pretty darn wet for the one full day there. No snow, thankfully, but plenty of cold rain. Worth every minute of it, though. The concert was fun, as was shopping. And of course, seeing Mike was pretty darned keen. Next visit is in a couple weeks, then again the weekend after. Miss him a lot when he’s not here or I’m not there. But, it goes well, and it makes the time together a bit more special.

5 December, 2009

Weekend Away

Category: Dating,Music,Queer,Running,Shopping,Travel,Weather — Moose @ 7:53 pm

I’m spending a lovely, if wet, weekend in Massachusetts with the bf. Flew up yesterday after work, he picked me up at Logan, and we immediately drove out to Provincetown, a place I’d not been before (so, yeah, coming to the summer resort in December? Brilliant!). Overall it’s been a nice little visit, the town is quite cute, and I can see how it would quickly get overwhelmed on weekends in the summer, even worse than Rehomo Rehoboth Beach, DE does. Most of the shops have been open for some last minute shopping, and the overall atmosphere has been fun.

He’s singing in two concerts this evening with the local gay men’s chorus. I’m going to the later one, so am catching up on web reading until then. Got in a very wet five mile run this afternoon, which despite the rain went pretty well, if a bit fast (probably because of the rain – pacing was out the window as I simply tried to pay attention to running on the side of the road with some, though not much, traffic). Heart rate was similarly a bit high, but I’m not concerned – I’ll treat it as a last race-page workout before the Celtic Solstice 5 miler in two weeks.

We head back to Boston at some point to pick up his pug and settle in for a quiet evening before I fly back Monday morning, heading into work directly from the airport. I’ll get to see him again Xmas weekend in Pennsylvania, then again the next weekend when he flies down to DC for new year’s eve. Even with the distance he makes me happy, and that’s worth a lot.