The Legal Moose’s Glen

It feels so good to be able to stand up to pee again.

I went and got another curved barbell for my Prince Albert (PA). I’d had one before, back when I had the original 10ga in, and hadn’t seen the point in getting new ones as I upped the size of the gauges from 10 to the 4 I have in now. Just one more piece of metal to use temporarily and discard or put away when I went up again. Since I’m pretty much set at the 4 now (I can’t see going higher at this point; it’s quite large enough), it was time to get a new piece of metal.

It is true that peeing with a PA can be a bit of a challenge at times. There are tricks you learn (turning sideways, pinching, etc.), but when it comes down to it, with a captive bead ring it’s just easier to sit down than risk a mess. This is especially true at home, where I have to do the cleaning. This is the only real drawback to the PA, in my experience, and while it is minimizable with the CBR, it’s also nice to have a better solution while keeping the jewelry. As the PA Wiki entry above states, it’s not the extra hole that causes the issue, it’s the liquid rolling along the curved surface of the jewelry. Hence the curved barbell as a way to combat that, since it just creates an extension of the natural arc of the stream.

Got home, popped the sucker in after cleaning it and putting some slightly larger balls on the end (to make sure it stays in place), and took it for a test drive. As expected, was a direct shot, no spillage. Truly a glorious piss. And all while standing again.

I’m in the process of putting an offer in on a co-op apartment down in southwest DC, near the Waterfront Metro station. Nothing quite like contemplating more than doubling my debt load (after student loans) in one fell swoop. Thank heavens for the tax benefits that come along with mortgage interest payments in this country.

I’ve otherwise been busy, helping with the club’s new triathlete program, working out myself, and just generally living. My calf is still out of commission; tried running last Thursday, a week and some after the initial injury, but ten minutes in at a moderate pace I could tell it was not ready yet. I’ll take this entire week off and try to be patient. Thankfully swimming and biking have not been affected by the calf’s little injury, so I’ve been able to stay up with those in the meantime.

For reasons I’ll not go into here I broke things off with CT last week. For the first time since the Clinton administration I’m single. And you know, I’m okay with that; I’m looking forward to having some “down time” from dating, to be honest. I want to get the new apartment arranged, do my race, get the new triathletes through their first race(s), and simply take things day by day otherwise. Heaven knows I need to take some of the down time and retool my eating habits; I’ve been eating for stress, not for hunger and fueling my body, and the scale’s been showing it this year. Not that buying the apartment and breaking up are doing wonders for my stress levels, but this has been just plain silly. There’s no reason my eating should have been that out of whack. Ah well, live, learn, and move on.

Got a starter Prince’s Wand (link not safe for work) last week. The starter version was nice, after a ton of cleaning (it was obvious they hadn’t cleaned it before they shipped it), but if I were to continue with one I think I’d have to go and get a custom one done by Steel Werks Extreme (again, link not safe for work). The starter one fits okay, but a more customized version would be needed for more than just hanging out in it, if you will.

(how sad, I just realized I didn’t have a “sex” category for that last bit of text; shows how little I’ve been doing anything in that department lately)

Anyway, brought some work home tonight so I need to go read that and get prepped for a semi-big meeting with my chief deputy poo-bah tomorrow.

Started culling my belongings this evening. A small bit, just going through books that I want to get rid of, but it’s a start. Since reading Affluenza I’ve been feeling the burden of having so much stuff around the house. I don’t use so much of it, so why am I keeping it all? Ugh. So, started the process of getting rid of some of it this evening. I’ll likely donate the books to the library for their use or sale, but if anyone wants any of them, let me know. Lots of my sci-fi paperbacks are gonna go bye-bye shortly.

Next step is the stuffed animal collection - I’ve wanted to cut that down for a while and donate the bulk of it to a charity that could have kids actually using these things rather than having them take up closet space that could use better used. If anyone has a charity suggestion for ‘em, here in the DC area, let me know.

I’m also thinking that it makes sense to go through my casette tape collection, write down the albums I’d like to duplicate, and get rid of those, too. I don’t have a tape player and I’m not inclined to go get one, so those can go away as well. It’s a big box. Anyone with a desire to take some Taiwanese pop music off my hands?

I also need to get myself on eBay or Craig’s List and get rid of some more valuable things (vacuum cleaners, antique mixer, Tungsten|C, etc.). Inertia demands that I simply continue to store these things, but why keep them around, especially if I can make a buck or two off of them.

Doesn’t help that I’m a natural hoarder, from a family of natural hoarders. I don’t know how much parents cleaned out their house when they moved. Well, not true, I ended up with several things to “hold” for them when they moved, but there was So Much Stuff in that house that it just boggles the mind when I think about trying to clean it all out. I don’t want to get to that point. Or, rather, I want to draw back from that point, because I certainly have a ton of stuff here that isn’t needed. I’d hate to think what anyone having to clean the place out for me would think of all the crap I’ve kept over the years.

Part of the book culling is being able to get rid of two older, cheap wooden bookshelves that are in the bedroom and therefore are a potential egg laying spot for the bed bugs. Once the books are removed and thoroughly shaken out, the shelves will go down and go into the trash, thrown far enough in that they can’t be salvaged and possibly transmit any bugs. Plus that’ll help unclutter the bedroom a lot. And if I have less space to store books, perhaps I won’t buy as many (yeah, right - they’ll just stack up like they do beside my reading chair now).

Yup, it all comes back to the bugs.

So far, so good from the latest round of treatments; no bites since Wednesday. Well, none since Saturday/Sunday, actually, but none in the bedroom since I’ve been sleeping in there again since Wednesday. I have my fingers crossed, but I’m definitely not holding my breath at this point.

Work’s been busy as all hell, but so far it’s mainly been manageable. I went over my to-do list with da boss today and she seemed okay with my ordering of the priorities, so I’m plugging away at the list now. Should get through a good part of it soon, I hope, which leaves me time to get to some of my more long-term projects. Provided the usual emergencies don’t keep popping up as they always do.

No real plans for the weekend. Earrings I ordered waaaaaaay back a month or two ago came in, so I’ll be stretching my ears up a gauge or two on Sunday when my piercer’s back in the shop. Shouldn’t be too noticeable, it’s going from an 18ga to a 14ga, which isn’t that extreme. But I’d decided I wanted something a tad less delicate than I have in now.

Run planned for the morning (in the rain!), and perhaps a swim on Sunday. Been ages since I’ve been in the pool, but it should be dead Sunday morning, which is always a good thing - no lane sharing needed. The exercise habit’s slowly getting back to normal, which is a very, very good thing. I always feel better when I’m in the exercise groove, and heaven knows my mood’s needed a lift of late.