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

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.

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.

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).

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.

I was on a triathlon course, but it was a really, really badly designed course. We had a long run from the swim course (meaning I had no glasses on), on an unmarked dirt road with spectators wandering in and out of the way. Finally found the bike course, which was similarly unmarked with spectators milling about. After getting lost at least once and backtracking, I made it back to the run, where I and everyone else promptly got lost and never found the finish. Very odd dream, very much not my experience with triathlons, where courses have always been well laid out, marked, and where the spectators stay the hell out of the way (with the exception of the port-a-johns, unfortunately).

I wish I could figure out for certain what my triggers are for depressive incidents. Injury is certainly one, as is feeling unwell/sick. But one does so tire of dealing with that crap. Nothing like wanting to just sit around and mope for days. And eat. Let’s not forget eating. Which of course adds to the depression, while feeling fat, fat, fat, and unable to control the desire to eat. Being currently at the highest weight I’ve been at in a number of years isn’t helping, either. Ugh. Thankfully the incidents don’t usually last for all that long, but it’d be nice to short-circuit them entirely. Or find a way to let it sweep over me and be done with it.

In happier news, ran into a friend while walking home tonight. She’s (finally) gotten a new job and is now working literally right around the corner from me at another BGA (fellow fed lifer there). Will have to get lunch with her and catch up.

But not any time soon. The CR has heated up, with passage in the House, and with it a lot of demands on my time at work. This has beeen such an unusual year, what with the former Congress totally punting on their one major responsibility in their final year – funding the Federal government’s operations. Unfortunately the Senate’s not going to take up the CR until a week from Tuesday, a little over a week after the next year’s budget request comes out this Monday. What a mess. I’m sure that hasn’t helped much, either.

I’m going to need to ramp up my running, getting up early enough to get in decent miles to build up to the two April races, and ramp down some of the other cross training stuff I’m doing. I don’t have any tris coming up until the fall, so it’s not crucial to maintain the swimming and biking quite as much as the running. The endorphins from running are more helpful, too. Of course, the cold weather out there isn’t much fun, but I’ve got enough clothes to stay warm enough out there. And regular exercise does help the mood. A lot.

I love this description of cheese:

{the scene: some goblins are in a dungeon, having just raided food from above, and are looking over what they’ve found, including some cheese}

Goblin1: What the hell is this stuff made of?
Goblin2: Well, humans live around a lot of cows…
Goblin3: Cows?
Goblin4: Large, Fleshy beasts that eat grass.

Goblin 2: The squeeze the creature’s milk out of large, dangling nipples next to its groin. Then they let the lactation go rotten until it hardens and… and…

Goblin1: [general look of horror]

Yeah, I’d say that about sums it up.

I suppose this is one of the drawbacks of training as I do, what with swimming and what not. it seems I have a nascent case of swimmer’s ear. At least, I think that’s what it is now. Previously (because I’ve had lighter versions of these symptoms before in the winter) I’d just assumed it was a bit of excess snot built up in my sinuses, as the symptoms weren’t that far apart (slight pressure on the eardrum, which is really irritating when you’re running and your eardrum is beating in time with your steps). Now, I’m pretty much convinced it’s swimmer’s ear, so i’m backing off swimming this week, seeing my physician’s assistant on Wednesday, and in the meantime I’m just about steadily saying: OUCH!

This. Fracking. Hurts.

I’ll be getting some earplugs next week, too. Ouch.

In other news™, I keep thinking I want to get a Wii, but then I remember that I barely have time for my DS these days, which means I’m really not playing games at all, which means a Wii would pretty much be a waste of money. Which is annoying, because it looks fun, but I’d rather save my $$ and pay off a student loan this year. Irritating to be so ‘adult’ at times. I’d also rather spend my time, at least until July 22, on training our newbies for their first triathlon. After the ear’s better, of course.

Ouch.

Been doing a bit of reading lately. Currently on the plate, aside from the usual magazines (Runner’s World, Instinct, Genre, Triathlete, etc.), are Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds, Blindness by Jose Saramago and Ironcrown Moon by Julian May. I’ve liked both Mr. Reynolds’ and Ms. May’s works. His are pure hard science sci-fi, and hers are I suppose technically also hard science, but with a hint of fantasy, given the mythological overtones in her Saga of Pleiocene Exile. Mr. Saragamo’s Nobel-winning novel was recommended, and loaned, by a co-worker.

Okay, just one comment (no spoilers) on Battlestar tonight – is it me or is the long hair and beard thing on Baltar making him look more and more christ-like?

The wind is literally howling outside my windows. Every few minutes it picks up and sounds like animals screaming outside. Spooky.

Was a triathlon weekend. The regional meeting for our region of USAT was held on Saturday. They hand out prize money based on the highest attendance, so went to help bolster the club’s chances (we won). Last year we plowed that back into the newbie program, and there’s a good chance it’ll happen this year as well. Yay for that. Then today I edited docs for the program and sent some along to the other leaders. Hopefully we’ll be all set for next Saturday’s info meeting for this year’s program. Also picked up some more winter/cooler weather gear (hooray for sales).

This past week was absolute hell at work. We had drafting assistance requests for hill staffers out the wazoo, and they’re still not done on action to complete our funding. I think the plan is that the House takes it up on Wednesday, then the Senate does next week. Which is a mess because the President’s budget for the following year gets released a week from tomorrow. Oh, and we were still negotiating bits of that as well. Oy! I look forward to the moment when next year’s is out and this year’s finally gets finalized. Of course, then we’ll start the hearings on next year’s but that’ll be a change of pace from where we’ve been.

Made a mess ‘o chili tonight so I have lunches this week. My usual cheap haunt on site has closed down for the next 2.5 months for renovations, and the other places just give you too darned much food, so looks like it’s time to get on the ball and carry stuff in again. Was good chili, so should be great tomorrow.