Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Don’t you hate it when you get up, get all ready, and realize you could’ve slept in for another hour?

I’m all assembled for the brick (bike-then-run; or as we like to say, Bike/Run/ICK!) and picnic up in Columbia on the tri race course. We’re not supposed to get there until 10, so with not quite an hour drive, I have not quite an hour to go until I pack up & take off. Debating making another bit of coffee for the car.

Whipped up a potato salad for the picnic part, and it’s pretty darned good, if I do say so. I’d never heard of steaming the celery and onion as well as the potato, and I think it makes a big difference in the texture and mouth feel for the thing (in a good way). Definitely a keeper recipe.

Busy week at work, but we did manage to pass The Project From Heck off to our #2 attorney for his review this weekend. I expect a call for edits next week, but I’m hoping that it won’t be a complete re-write. In any case, it’s off my plate and I don’t have to worry about it this weekend, which is a huge relief.

Nothing like preparing for the brick workout tomorrow on the race course we’re going to be racing on in two weeks and reading things like this:

The Columbia Triathlon run course has been acknowledged as one of the most challenging in triathlon.

Ugh. This race is going to be an interesting challenge.

Tired this evening for some reason. Long day, but I got the (hopefully) final polish on The Project From Heck before it goes up to our front office to get ripped to shreds. Tomorrow is assembling the associated binder with all the cases and other materials we cite. Joy.

Went to a men’s knitting group tonight. All of three of us showed up, one of whom was way, way late. I stayed two hours, chatted a lot with my friend who showed up at the same time I did while we knitted, got a goof I put in the last time I sat down to knit taken out of the project (ripped out 4-5 rows to get below the goof, got it back on the needles successfully, and now there’s no sign of the goof. yay), and put several more inches on the thing. It’ll be done, eventually. Not like there’s a massive rush to finish a scarf now that Spring’s here (though getting the hot thing out of my lap while knitting will be a plus). It’s only once a month, so I can go again. Was nice to get out of the house and listen to the two-person band who was playing jazz/blues while we were there.

Short run tomorrow, and a swim after work, then it’s making potato salad and getting myself ready for a brick workout up in Columbia with the club. Get to test out the course (which I fully expect to kick my ass, since I’ve done zero hills this year), see what it’s going to be like in 2 weeks for the race itself. Get to see BC that evening, and he’s bringing over Tiger Woods golf to make me practice. I told him that’s fine, but I get to drag him into Super Smash Bros Brawl if he does bring Tiger Woods. I think that’s a fair trade.

Oh, and I almost forgot, called the student loan company to confirm that they credited the payment and I have a zero balance. Won’t get the official letter from them for another month to 45 days, but the helpful woman on the phone did confirm that it is in fact completely paid off now. Hooray!

I suppose the little note by the door of my gym on Monday was the universe’s way of giving me a little nudge, a small push to take advantage of something I’ve thought about for a while. The note itself wasn’t very big, or rather the typeface wasn’t very big. The message, however, was huge. After years of fighting to keep the facility open, the YWCA board had finally had enough and was throwing in the towel in two weeks, closing for good on the 19th of May.

So, after I got over the initial shock I went and swam my final workout there, cleaned out my locker, and headed home to figure out what the heck I was going to do for a pool. I’ve settled on the little gym in my neighborhood. It has the huge (to me; I’m lazy) advantage of being 3-4 blocks away, but the annoying disadvantage of having a non-standard pool – 18 meters instead of 25. Calculations will be a bit more challenging (so a “50” is actually 54, and three lengths instead of 2), but having the pool so close will mean fewer excuses not to go swim, especially since it’s literally on my walk home from work.

I dropped by the facility yesterday to get a guest pass, swam there this evening, post-haircut. I need to dig up the coupon from the local rag for $30-40 off the “initiation fee,” and sign up for good next week. The rate is slightly cheaper than the YWCA was, a nice additional benefit. Going to take full advantage of the free week first before I give them any money, though.

Swimming in the shorter pool was, well, odd. Drills were easier, but straight up swimming was, well, short. 9-10 strokes to get to the end, versus 14-17 on the 25 yard pool. It’ll do, at least until full summer and the outdoor pool at Hains Point opens. A 50 meter pool sounds really nice right now.

We’ll see how the rest of the facility shapes up this upcoming week, but I’m 99% sure this is where I’ll end up. Closer, smaller, hopefully better.

Dragged my ass all over Tyson’s Corner today. Multiple times. Finally settled on the Collins design from Poverty Barn. It’s a nice, simple design and had a solid feel in the hand, and wasn’t all ugly and/or frou-frou like most of the other patterns (patterns seemed to fall into two categories: 1. frou-frou crap; or 2. nice but odd feeling in the hand). The stuff is currently running through a short cycle in the dishwasher.

Did finally find Mom’s old pattern online after confirming that it was an Oneida branded pattern, called Betty Crocker: My Rose. You can see why I wasn’t terribly upset to part with it, though it’s not been an awful pattern. Not one I would have picked out, but it worked.

The only problem with the new stuff is that it had about 6 serving pieces, 4 of which were useless to me (gravy ladle, pie server, etc.). Ah well, means I get to hunt for more serving spoons when and if I need them, and can mix & match. Means a more interesting table, I think.

And yes, I do have secret dreams of being a house husband one day. Not.

I bought some plants & two new planters for the balcony (I blame Marn. And Martin.) So, without further ado, before and after pictures:

And I just discovered, post-planting, why it is that I was feeling so warm:

Teach me to go out without sunscreen. ;-p

Not quite two hours on the bike this morning, and not quite 31 miles. I was pleased, if a tad sore toward the end. The training log for the week actually looks like it should, minus the swimming, without major gaps between workouts. Most, most pleased. And my mood is much better, now that I’m actually exercising regularly again.

Plan for the day is shopping, shopping, shopping. Flatware, various household items, etc. Maybe some clothes. And if I can get in touch with himself I’m dragging him with me. Regardless, I think I’m going to head out soon and hit the ‘burbs to try and track some of this stuff down.

After much hemming and hawing over which bill to pay with my unexpected tax refund, I just scheduled the final payment for one of my student loan companies. They are, of course, fussy about wanting to be paid at a date in the future and not immediately (cue the rolling of the eyes), so I had to schedule the payment for next week and not today, but it’s in queue and set to go. One company down, three to go (private graduate school was expensive). This one had the highest interest rate of any of my companies, and this is an early payoff, so that’s interest saved, and a little more money in my pocket each month. I have to say, it was very nice to see one less red number on the side of my account listings in Quicken.

Unfortunately, between work and the need for more food in the house I did not get in a run this evening. Got home from yet another meeting with more Hill staffers this afternoon to once again talk about The Project From Heck and was just utterly wiped out. So, the last of the frozen pasta got cooked, some homemade sauce added to, and then much deliberating over which store to hit and which food to put on the list. If I don’t end up biking in the morning I might not bike at all tomorrow – it’s laundry night and I’ll be in a world of hurt if I don’t get to that tomorrow.

I zipped out to Harris Teeter over at Pentagay City this evening to do some much delayed, much needed grocery shopping. Decided that I really didn’t need to use the local Safeway (which has a deservedly awful reputation, as do most of the Safeways in DC), that I had a car, and could choose to go somewhere nicer, so I did. I hadn’t been in this particular grocery store before, and I have to say, it was an eye-opening experience. The produce was nice, there was plenty of it. The aisles were wide enough to walk down without hitting people (and there were no displays stuck in the middle of them around which one would have to navigate). And people were polite – I heard lots of “please” and “excuse me” and even the young person who almost backed into me while on his cell phone had the good social graces to look slightly embarrassed and stutter out “my bad, my bad” when he saw me. Oh, and they had wine and beer in the store, so no need to run to a different one to pick up some of that, too. It was altogether an incredibly pleasant experience.

I realized on the drive home that I was feeling like an abuse victim who had suddenly realized the world didn’t have to be as bad as it had been, that there were better people out there with whom I could associate. It was at once an astonishing and an awful revelation. And a telling one, that living in DC has made my customer service expectations sink to such a low level that minor things like polite phrases and helpful employees make a mere shopping trip feel like a life-altering event.