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

I decided to give up caffeine again because it was affecting my sleep, which in turn was screwing with my training. Today was day two, and I warned BC that I might get a bit testy in a week or so. So far, so good, no headaches, sleeping better, all good.

I have, however, been extra-snarky. Like, really, really overly sarcastic at every little thing. Poor BC got to see a lot of it this weekend as we watched TV and I did a complete snark-a-thon at pretty much every show. Not quite what I was intending when giving up caffeine (New and Improved! Now with extra Snark!), and hopefully it’ll pass shortly as my system gets used to the change. Until then I suppose I’m going to have to watch my tongue more than usual.

We should have this “Superbowl” thing more often. I just went to the grocery store and it was dead. I mean, a dozen people in the entire store including all of the employees. Dead. And, on the way there, I literally so no one on the streets, no cars, no nothing, until I got to the grocery store parking lot. Wild.

The day started early with a volunteer stint down at Hains Point with the tri club. They were running a 5k and 10k, so I helped hand out numbers and what not. Then BC and I met a friend in Dupont at the farmers’ market for shopping and lunch.

Since I don’t do the football thing, and BC was headed out to a superbowl party, I instead did a little needed shopping, picking up moisturizer & hand lotion at the mall. Also picked up a couple balls of yarn to knit samplers with (lighter than dark brown, thank heavens) since they were having a sale at the local place. Then I picked up The Orange Box for the Xbox so I could play Portal. Let me just say, GLaDOS is one twisted computer. Love her. Didn’t take long to finish the game, but that was quite fun. No health, no weaponry, just getting from here to there. And, of course, cake.

Quiet rest of the night planned with some volunteer work, and then perhaps some more gaming of some sort.

After spending several hours reviewing a document just to find out that the office who sent it up for review couldn’t actually make any of the changes we sent back, I was more than a tad pissed as I left work this evening. Walked home (no buses convenient when I was near a stop), made some dinner, pigged out on some soy ice cream (better than drinking), and popped down for more knitting. Managed to add several inches of knit stitch to the thing as I cleared out stuff on the TiVo. It was mostly calming, and I feel a little bit better, but it’s going to be hard not to go in tomorrow and want to bite someone’s head off over wasting several hours of my time which could have been better spent doing work that actually needed to be done.

In other news, work actually gave me a choice of blackberries, which is both gratifying and annoying. Gratifying because I won’t get one of the ancient, leftover ones from someone else. Annoying because I have to choose and I know nothing about the devices. If anyone has a reason why I should go with either an 8800 series or an 8300 series model, let me know, otherwise I’m just going to tell them 8800 series.

I’m also missing BC. We moved a date originally scheduled for yesterday to tomorrow, and I’m feeling withdrawal. Hopefully our schedules will better match for it then.

The SOTU was a good excuse to sit still and knit for a while – listen to the speech, but not watch the goings on. I got several rows done on a new swatch, all knit stitch (I’ve still not braved purl yet), and I’m happy with how evenly it’s coming out this time. It helps that I cast on only 30 stitches rather than 42 – the needles aren’t really big enough for 42 – so it’s nice and even this time. It’ll either be a scarf or a pot holder, we’ll see. Depends on how often I can sit down with it in the evenings, and how bored I get.

Still don’t have the whole “how to hold the thread in the right hand” thing down yet – I keep twisting it too tightly around my index finger. Will have to get my friend TH to show me how she holds the stuff. Or learn continental style. Who knows. I’ll get it eventually, I know.

Interesting speech for some of the stuff he addressed. The earmarks portion (the reason I watched, actually, since it has a bearing on my practice area) will be an interesting change, and is going to cause a lot of headaches with Congress (who will find a way to earmark funds, even outside the official committee reports, trust me). It’ll certainly keep my BGA’s government relations people busy. I suspect those same folks will be culling quotes from tonight’s speech for a letter we have to finalize tomorrow morning as well. Makes me glad I don’t have my work blackberry just yet.

It is, of course, too little too late. Earmarks rose precipitously under the last term of (R) control of the Congress, and while they’ve come down some, they’re still pretty high. Not that (R)s alone are to blame – (D)s earmark plenty, too. Not sure of the solution, past taking the measures he’s going to put into place – an executive order signed tomorrow to ignore these extra-legal set-asides is a good start. Weaning Congress completely off pork, however, is going to be an uphill battle.

Got my heel shot up this morning with cortizone, to counteract the plantar faciitis I’m dealing with off and on. The night brace is helping, but I got to a point where I finally agreed with the doctor that a shot was called for. We’ll see how that does. I want this stuff done with, it’s not comfortable at all.

BC seemed shocked when I told him, “Why yes, I do own that lovely red & black Nasty Pig jock that you sent me the link to, and it’s quite nice.” I think he thought he’d seen the entirety of my toy/play clothes collection. Silly man.

BC: I’m blaming this all on you!
Moi: What, the hangover?
BC: I have a 9:00 am call with my admissions counselor to talk about the web interface I have to use to take my classes.
Moi: It’s college; hangovers are expected.

I am at the point with Zelda: Twilight Princess where I just want the game to fucking well be over and done with. I’m not even really trying to play it any more, I’m just following a game guide to get through it. Nowhere near as fun as Bioshock or Mass Effect (both of which I was able to follow, without the need for a guide, to a successful end). This game has made me cranky from the first, and I will glad when it is done and over with.

And no, stopping is not an option, I want to see the bloody ending at this point. But there better not be any more fucking fishing. If I have to fish in this game one more time I shall kill someone.

Well, that was a pleasant way to spend a weekend. Most of it was, thankfully, spent with BC. Quiet night in on Friday. He went home for a good chunk of Saturday, then came back that evening for an outing.

We headed out with friends for drinks, dinner and Cloverfield Saturday evening. The camera work did not make me sick, though I suspect it was a one-time watch for me (big screen – good; small screen – meh; at least that was my impression of it). I do also have to echo another bloggers comment that “I wanted to see more monster, and less people.” The relationship drama stuff could have been cut down in order to see more of the actual attack, and I suspect any military folks watching (as was the premise at the beginning) would have edited out all that extraneous stuff in favor of “more monster.”

We were very nearly late to dinner because, well, in the spirit of MAL (which we did not attend) I attacked him in some of my Nasty Pig gear when he came in the door about an hour before we had to head out. That was quite fun.

Sunday was langorous. We finally bestirred ourselves from some gaming in the morning after sleeping in (Mass Effect on the Xbox for me, Bioshock on his laptop for him), got a nice big late lunch at Thai Tanic, then picked up stuff at Whole Paycheck for a mushroom & sun-dried tomato risotto that evening. Yum!! Fantastic recipe out of Vegan with a Vengeance, though I modified it slightly (more rice, mainly). We were glad to spend most of the day indoors, since the temps never really made it out of the 20s. Poor BC forgot to bring gloves, so when we hauled the groceries back to the car (two bags total) I handed him one of mine for his bag. He laughed, but still took it gratefully as we wandered back, one gloved hand with groceries out, one hand firmly ensconced in a pocket.

Unfortunately he had to work today, but we have date plans tomorrow – another nice night in with movie and some soup (a curried split pea soup, to be precise). For most of the day I was a bum. Did hop on the bicycle trainer to spin out a few miles for a little over an hour, but mostly played more Mass Effect. Beat the game late this evening playing on “casual” mode, so I’ll have to play it through later on a more difficult level. For now it’s back to one or more of the games on the Wii, I suspect, so I can finish those and perhaps lend them to BC.

Back to the salt mines tomorrow, though even with all the other stuff I was doing this weekend I think I came up with a solution to a sticky wicket one of our programs has gotten into by mis-reading some of my office’s advice. Clarification (to the program; not here) shall be forthcoming tomorrow.

I did a flexibility and core strength assessment tonight as part of beginning my tri training season. One word: Ouch. Mostly flexible, except for the lower back, but not strong at all when it comes to the core strength (which I suppose matches with the not-so-flexible part). Ouch, ouch, ouch. At least I know where a major weakness is, which I was expecting to be the case, and can address it now.

Ended up stuck at work until 7ish tonight on a couple of phone calls and negotiations. I feel like a horse trader with all the back and forth stuff I’ve been doing these past couple of weeks. I am, evidently, the guy with the answers, or so it feels like. Regardless, I took some time to put together a presentation for my colleagues on this year’s budget and what changed for our BGA. Hopefully da boss lady will like it and I can get this thing done soon because I think it’ll help a lot of the other attorneys who’ve never looked in at our appropriation.

So, back into the routine, but with some twists this year. Should be interesting.

Retail therapy was in order today. I was almost out of body wash anyway, and I was feeling a tad bummed (more on that in a bit), so I zipped out to pick up BC and headed out to Tyson’s for therapy. I lucked out again with suit separates (Mr. Klein loves me), and picked up a nice black suit, which I needed.

Was feeling bummed because I decided not to apply for the job with the other not-so-BGA. Ultimately they dropped the position to a GS-scale one, so it would be a lateral switch over. In the end it would mean a longer commute, longer hours, and a much more politicized atmosphere, with no more money. So, phooey on it. I was kind of excited at the possibility of moving, but thankfully I’m quite happy where I am, so staying isn’t a bad thing (unlike leaving the previous job), but it was still a bit blah making. It had me up late last night thinking about it (stressing over it?), which I’m sure contributed to the funk.

Better this evening, but still have to tell da boss lady tomorrow. She’ll be greatly relieved, and it’s always nice to be the bearer of good news for the listener. Even if one is disappointed at the cause.