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

I swear, they need to licence people to wear cologne or perfume. So few people wear it properly (i.e., subtly). Came into my office this morning and rode up in the elevator with a guy who’s going to be leaving his favorite signature scent all over the building today. It certainly lingered in the elevator long after he’d left. Probably got it for Christmas or something.

I can’t tell if it was a sign of how long it had been since I had last been out doing serious wine shopping or if I’m just a wino, but with J’s help I just picked up three cases of wine from Pearson’s (one mixed, two complete). Probably a little of both. But now I’m set for months. Or at least I hope it’ll last months.

I found it quite nice to be able to shop for spirits on a Sunday. Normally shops that sell both wine/beer and harder liquor have to close on Sunday in DC because of our antiquated Blue Laws. The place was hoppin’, about as busy as I normally see it when I’ve gone in the evening during the week or on a regular Saturday. The clerk allowed as how they’d been that busy all day. Anyway, because Xmas day and New Year’s Day are on Mondays, DC’s liquor laws allow liquor shops to stay open the Sunday before. There’s no real reason they can’t be open 7 days a week normally (aside from outdated hopes for moral suasion), but one lives with the law one has, not the law one wishes one had. Nonetheless, it felt like a bit of a stick in the eye to those ridiculous laws to buy alcohol until my heart was content.

Since we’re not getting snow any time soon here in DC (it’s getting up to almost 60 today), I decided to add snow to my web page. Yay for simple java script files. Enjoy!

(the instructions and file to add it to your own can be found here)

Had a horrible dream last night in which I was diagnosed with lung cancer. When given the diagnosis I blurted out, “But I’ve never smoked!” and then I remember that essentially I had smoked for the first 15 years of my life, since Mom smoked up until 1987. Then we segued into having to tell my parents about the cancer without trying to blame Mom for smoking. Whee.

Boring as all heck here at work. I’ve been trying to avoid too much web surfing, but have enjoyed sending semi-snarky emails to co-workers (while keeping in mind that most of them are FOIA-able, so keeping them down to an R rating). Cynical statement of the day (while discussing trophy spouses):

I prefer cats. Yes, they make me sneeze, and they fuss occasionally, but they snuggle well, you can toss them out of bed if you need to, and they’re oh-so-grateful to be fed. And they’re perpetually cute if you pick the right breed.

And now the rest of my office has left (early dismissal announced while I was in the middle of writing). I’m staying to give office coverage until 5, with the reward of 2.5 hours some other day, which I’m thinking may be Tuesday morning after Monday night’s party.

After biking all over creation today (well, not quite, but more than the usual for me as I had errands to run, post-gym), and swimming for an hour, I feel much, much better. Moose + Exercise = Much Better Mood. It also = much hungrier Moose, but that’s par for the course.  It helped that it was insanely warm here in DC today, around 70 F (~21 C) for the high, where the normal high is about 23 degrees cooler than that, around 47 F (~8 C) or so. So after all that it was home to wash clothes, grab some leftover soup and chill out.

Work is in that odd state of not-quite-fully-loaded-up, but not-quite-on-down-time either. We always expect it to be quieter, but somehow the inevitable last minute crises appear. At least it’s not completely dead, though then I would be able to catch up on filing and clear off my desk.

Party tomorrow evening, and seeing MG for probably the last time before he takes off for his trip back home for the holiday. Office party is also tomorrow (my particular section, as opposed to my larger attorney office, which was last week). My boss asked one of the organizers if it was going to be a dry party. We assured her it was not, so she zipped off the requisite mother-may-I letter to the building manager and got our permission (long gone are the days when feds could legally keep liquor in their offices without any check or fear or reprimand).

Not sure if I’ll get a run in tomorrow morning or not. If not, so be it. If so, yay. Would be better with, to stave off the party calories, but that’s what the rest of the week is for.

Went from a week of so-so sleep to a night of no sleep Friday and it absolutely wrecked my Saturday. Couldn’t nap to save my life, didn’t do any of the errands I’d wanted to do, and I was a snarling, irritated mess. Thankfully I was able to spend the majority of it alone, and did get better sleep last night, which meant I was able to run those errands today, but didn’t do a lot more than that.

Part of the sleep thing is that MG is a restless sleeper, and I’m not the deepest sleeper in the world, so when he’s tossing or talking, it can wake me up. I may have to try ear plugs or something. He’s told me to wake him up, but that’s not my wont. Something will have to be found, and I’m sure we will, but working it out in the meantime has left me irritated.

Did take the time to make a good batch of soup today. I’d bought the veggies earlier this week and just hadn’t gotten around to making the soup itself. And let me just say, whoevver invented curry powder has my undying gratitude. Love, love, love the stuff. Combine it with peanut butter and I’m in heaven. Folks who’ve been to my previous soup night parties will have had this, the African Bean Soup. So had good soup, put some in the fridge, and several servings in the freezer.

I’m also thinking it’s finally time to have a soup night party soon. Haven’t had a get-together in the new place yet, so sometime after the new year I’ll have one.

While home at lunch, I went by the office, asked to swap out my pedestrian fob for one of the car gate radio fobs. Had to fill out a piece of paper, but they gave it to me, no charge. Was quite nice to be able to bike onto the property this evening without stopping. Go squeeky wheel.

Rest of the afternoon was slightly crazy, work-wise, but bearable. Got my monthly haircut (she went even shorter than usual, looks good), then biked back downtown to swim for an hour. Did not have to time to make soup as I’d hoped, but the ingredients will keep until tomorrow, post-gym (with no haircut to take up the extra time). Or perhaps until the weekend when I can take an afternoon to simmer it down nicely. Hmm…

Managed to forget my wallet this morning (d’oh!), which wouldn’t be a big deal, but my monthly haircut is this evening, so I kind of needed it. So, told my team leader I was headed out for lunch today (I normally work through lunch at my desk), and biked back home. Much nicer than doing a veggie burger at work, and it’s nice to come back and check email on a real computer (as opposed to my cell phone). Hopefully the pasta will be done shortly and then it’s back up the hill to try and fix a (hopefully not too) big goof by one of our program offices with regards to their budget. Fun, fun. One of those times when I actually have to put to paper all of the ‘truths’ that folks ‘know’ about how the federal budget gets executed, which means some folks are not going to be happy…

I’m a tad worried about Mom’s memory.

She’s been paranoid for years now about getting alzheimer’s, which I think unlikely, but she has been showing signs of “chemo brain” as she calls it (a diminishment of mental capacities after chemo). The most notable thing is that she repeats anecdotes a couple of times within the same conversation. It’s not every conversation, but it’s enough that I’ve started noticing it. Now, I’m not one to talk but so much about repeating the same story to someone, but I at least separate my tellings by a day or so. Doing it in the same conversation is a bit different, like she’s losing short term memory. Will have to discretely mention it to Dad and see if he’s noticed it as well.

Hated, hated, hated driving. It’s loud, it’s boring, and I do not see how people do it on a regular basis. I am so glad I moved a mile and a quarter from work so I can walk or bike. Multi-hour commutes just blow my mind. That’s inhumane, IMNSHO. Didn’t help that the nimrod who rented the car before me smoked in it, using the center console as the ash tray (which the rental car place missed). The only good thing there was it allowed me to ID the sweet smell that occasionally comes out of my air units – I suspect now that the previous owner might have smoked. Not a biggie, it’s not come out in a while, but it was there when I first moved in and had to run the air units.

Speaking of the air units, I’ve asked the building operations guy if there would be issues with installing some programmable thermostats in my apartment. Tired of trying to remember to adjust the heat (which means it usually stays just a trifle cool).

Picked up oodles of veggies this evening to make soup tomorrow. And oatmeal. And other stuff. This after I was too lazy to change out of the shirt I biked home in this evening (I did switch out of the tights in favor of jeans). In this weather I don’t even break a sweat biking home (it’s <10 minutes to home – downhill), and this shirt’s comfortable, so what the heck. Did sit down and pay bills, which was needed, as well as arranging for some other errands I needed to get done. Productive evening, if not the most exciting.

Too much to write about right now, and no time to do it. Will attempt to get more thoughts to ‘paper’ here in the next couple of days.

Good lunch today with RNJTM at his place of employment. This after getting rid of the rental car and somehow managing to get into my BGA, deposit a check in the ATM (I bank at the BGA’s credit union), replace my lost badge, drop off two bags of candy in my office, go to the bathroom and leave, all without seeing any of my co-workers.

Came home, napped, got in a run (first exercise in two weeks – damned cold). Found out the internet was down, watched them release a squirrel who’d gotten into our lobby (yay for the exterminator [who regularly comes in on Mondays] having a live-capture trap), cleaned some, then off to dinner with MG, who is now trying to fix his ailing laptop in the other room since the internet is now back up. Oh, and managed to register for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler (third time’s the charm?). Next step, planning how to approach the race this year.

Lots of thoughts about the family, Mom’s memory, driving, etc., but for now I really, really just want to get to sleep.