22 February, 2007

Day. From. Hell.

Category: Diet,Food,Work — Moose @ 12:01 am

Today… sucked. There’s no two ways about it. It just sucked.

From the moment I walked in the door I was in meetings or running crazy trying to pin things down for the budget office and didn’t get a break until 3:30-ish, at which point I ate a Clif Bar, and then got back to the craziness. Now, understand, I always eat lunch. Without fail. I have never skipped lunch in the three plus years I’ve worked at the Big Government Agency. I missed lunch today. Which sucked. Sucked Elephant Butte (aka a lake full of radioactive waste, as opposed to Elephant Butt, which is merely annoying).

So tonight I chatted online, I drank wine, and I still ate pretty much next to nothing. I couldn’t eat anything, I just wasn’t hungry. Stress + break-up diet (aka more stress) = no eating. Ugh.

Tomorrow better not be as bad. If it is, well, I’ll deal. And I know it’s temporary since we’re just now dealing with this year’s budget, a third of the way through the fiscal year, but it’s still annoying as all hell.

18 February, 2007

If Only

Category: Music,Sex — Moose @ 8:52 am

“But I know some girls who told me
‘Ride a bike, or ride a pony.’
Honey, I’d ride a moose
if only that would please me.”

I’d Like To Come by The Wet Spots

Trifecta

Category: Relationships — Moose @ 12:25 am

Managed a pretty amazing feat yesterday with MG:

1. Broke up;
2. Did it badly; and
3. Managed to insult him in the process.

That took talent (and a good dose of self-delusion mixed with mild depression). Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

13 February, 2007

Fire (Not), Sleet, Immunity

Category: Commuting,Friends,Geek,Law,Weather,Work — Moose @ 10:10 pm

Nothing quite like a false fire alarm at 9:30 p.m. to get the blood flowing. At least, since the last one, they managed to turn the volume up on the alarm (last time I could barely hear the thing in my bedroom – this time it was clear). Got all dressed, but neighbors were coming back up the staircase to let us know it was a false alarm by the time I popped out to say hello to folks. And thankfully it was while I was still awake and not in bed like the last one.

As yet no word on whether we’ll be out or not tomorrow because of the sleet/freezing rain/snow/whatever the heck it’s doing out there now. They let us off early today, something of which I was happy to take advantage. Traffic, even leaving almost an hour after the dismissal, was insane. I was on a bus, but it took us an eternity to get home. Had it not been ugly out I’d have just walked and gotten home faster, but as it was I enjoyed the warm bus far more than I would have enjoyed getting away more quickly.

Been helping an Australian law professor whose acquaintance I’ve made online do some research this afternoon before MG came over. Was fun to do some basic research that was law related, but not work related. Also, the Australia constitution is an odd affair. Not that the US constitution is a perfect work, but there are marked differences between the two documents. Was interesting to compare the two on the subject of (sovereign) immunity.

12 February, 2007

Chocolate, Ethics, Money and Storms

Category: Exercise,Food,Weather,Work — Moose @ 9:46 pm

Got tired of picking up certain chocolate stapes of my diet piecemeal, so ordered a bunch online tonight. Is good to have regular snacks that are also good for you. And storable.

Ran through a bunch of ethics reports at work today. I don’t normally do ethics work, but it’s the sole rating factor for our office, so we’re all pitching in. Thankfully they weren’t onerous, I got a good batch, so all but one are done, out of about two dozen or so. Hopefully tomorrow the Senate will take up and pass their version of the year-long budget bill so we can get our funding by the time it runs out on Thursday under the current structure. I’d also kind of like to get the pay raise I’ve been approved to receive, too, which is dependent on the final appropriation. Wretched congressmonsters, do your freakin’ job.

Leg is still sore, so still no running/biking. This is getting more than a little irritating, especially since I have races in two months. Still have plenty of time to get prepped, but I get irritable when I can’t exercise, so there I am.

Somehow I doubt the huge winter storm they keep predicting is going to actually materialize. We’ll see, but regardless I’ll be at work.

11 February, 2007

Sorting Stuff

Category: Books,Friends,Health,Home,Stuff — Moose @ 7:15 pm

Quiet weekend here. Steven was in town and crashed here for the weekend, but my legs were bothering me (a side effect of the prednisone, I think), so I was rather more of a stick in the mud than usual. Was good to see him, but was disappointing I didn’t feel up to wandering out (or doing much of anything). Did get in a lot of gaming, both on the DS and the PC, which made me wonder if I really needed to upgrade the PC as little as I use it. Eventually, I’m sure, but it’s not a priority in the budget.

Also caught up on reading (not but so much you can do when the most comfortable long-term position is with your legs stretched out and relaxed), both the current book (“Ironcrown Moon” by Julian May) and delved into the ever-present pile of magazines. I’ve gotten “free” subscriptions to a couple of magazines over the years, and they end up sitting there until I spend 15 minutes to flip through them, see if there’s anything interesting to read (usually not), and toss ’em out. They end up costing more in psychic distress (clutter) than the “free” label would imply, so getting them out is always a good thing.

7 February, 2007

Snow, Grape, C-Pop

Category: Diet,Habits,Health,Mandarin,Music,Weather — Moose @ 8:42 am

Lovely spot of snow out there this morning. And unlike the last batch, when it was melting minutes after finishing falling, this stuff will be sticking around a few days, if the weather report is any indication. Pretty.

I think the tummy woes are a combo of the meds I got for my ear (two more days…) and my usual glass of wine with dinner. No warning on the bottle, but a couple sites warned against that combo, and I think I know why now. So, will lay off the grape for a bit until the meds are out of my system and hope that calms it all down. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy not going to work today in the snow.

Played more with live365.com’s streaming through the TiVo and discovered a streaming Mandarin pop channel. C-pop at its best. Not quite as fun as Bossa Nova Breakfast (my current fave evening channel), but it’s fun this far. Had forgotten what a guilty pleasure C-pop can be, as I don’t have much of it on my iPod (most of what I bought in music waaaaay back in 1992-1993 when I lived in Taiwan is on cassette tapes, not CD). Pure sugar-pop for the most part, with little to no redeeming musical value. Think Spice Girls, and soften that. And they randomly throw in English phrases (my fave is when the old band Beyond would throw in a gratuitous “Go to hell!” in the middle of one of their songs). Fun stuff, but not something I’d inflict on friends unless I were feeling cruel.

6 February, 2007

Cut, Tummy, Connections

Category: Friends,Health,Triathlon,Weather,Work — Moose @ 11:32 pm

Damned screw top wine. I cut myself opening the bottle tonight. Poor thumb.

The stomach woes continued today, to the point where I’m taking tomorrow off to deal with them at home rather than at the office. Felt like I spent half the day in the bathroom (not quite that bad, but it wasn’t pleasant). Brought some work home, so I won’t be a total slouch, but I hope it’ll be better after tomorrow. And not having to venture out in the snow until evening isn’t a bad thing, either.

Good dinner this evening with Richard and another gay librarian here in town to whom I’d wanted to introduce him. Had fun watching them library-geek out, and they seemed to get along well. A good professional intro for both.

The newbie triathlete program is progressing well. Had our weekly conference call and everything seems to be on schedule. We’re definitely communicating better this year than last year, which helps tremendously. If you’re in DC and want to do a tri, let me know, we’ll be happy to help train ya.

5 February, 2007

Loving/Not Loving

Category: Geek,Home,Leisure,Television,Weather,Work — Moose @ 9:49 pm

Okay, and no one told me I could stream bossa nova jazz through my WiFi and TiVo, why? So loving this tonight as I clean and straighten and putz. So mellow, so perfect. Love bossa nova.

And now for a not-loving TMI moment:

If I never see another lentil cooked in the middle eastern style again, it will be too soon. All damned day I’ve been farting onions and mujadara spices from last night’s dinner. Ugh.

So anyway, mixed love today. Loving the streaming music, loving the laptop on the couch again. Not loving the cold, not loving the gas. Loving the cleaner apartment, not loving reviewing ethics reports (long story – it’s not even my area of law, but we’ve all been roped into it in our section).

4 February, 2007

Router, Recovering, Running

Category: Geek,Health,Relationships,Running,Weather — Moose @ 11:03 pm

My wireless router, after several years of good service, died unexpectedly last weekend. Not such a big deal for the computer, I was able to hook the laptop in directly to the cable modem and get service just fine. The TiVo, on the other hand, was getting fussy with no regular updates, so rather than wait for the local Apple stores to get in the latest version of their router, I popped out to Best Buy and picked up another D-Link router. The last one was a D-Link and it worked well until it died. Took a bit to get the new one working with the iBook, but it’s all good now. So nice to be able to sit on the couch and type again. it’s much more comfortable on my back.

Between the router being dead and stressing some over that (something in my control was broken and that drives me nuts), and the sinus thing not yet being 100% done (drugs – yuck), and MG also not feeling well, it was a blah weekend. Did get out and see Into the Woods with L and friends tonight (the new season at Signature), which was pretty well done (they need to work on sound issues, though – it’s not miked, which is good, but they faded out a bit when not facing at least sideways toward us). Needed to get out (and not to shop for a router).

Discretion says tomorrow is an indoor biking day, with the low around 8F in the morning. I have sufficient gear to run in it if I wished, but why the hell would I want to? 20s I might do, but not single digits. At least not yet. I suppose I could always go to the gym and use the treadmill, but that’s so deadly dull for me. Oh, did get new orthotics on Friday, tested those on a short run mid-afternoon today. Wonderful. Was nice to have the cushion under the ball of the foot again (the old ones had the cushion fall off). Hopefully with two pair now I can save on wear & tear by keeping the newer ones in the running shoes all the time.