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

I keep finding good excuses not to get to the pool. That will have to stop soon. Maybe next week. However, the bike and run workouts are going well, and for the most part are happening as planned, which I take as a good sign here in the beginning of training. Getting back into the groove of training can be the hardest part of the training season for me, so I’m liking that I’m getting into the right schedule for it. 8 mile run planned for the morning tomorrow, so crashing here soon to be rested for it.

Today was one of those “OMG, none of the non-lawyers at the BGA can write their way out of a paper bag!” days. Statutory citations I’ll give a very, very wide pass on (since, well, that’s my job to provide and correct them), but basic sentence structure (subject-verb-object), not so much. Things like that make my brain hurt. And there was a lot of it today, as there was yesterday. It’s all a wee bit frustrating, and virtual red ink (track changes) just isn’t as satisfying as whipping out a real red pen and leaving a trail of bloody words strewn across a physical page. Oh, and the next office that asks me where a package is, when the package came in at 7 pm on Friday, at the same time that same office dumped another, 200 page, time-sensitive document on me, I will have them killed. Slowly. With a real red pen. Preferably fountain, with poisonous ink.

The business of every day life continues apace. Laundry was done. The cult’s co-op’s new management team was fussed at over missing notices about impending pest control measures. Talked with Mike. The usual stuff, which is a good thing.

My new mortgage servicing company has made a fine festuche of the escrow statement on my PMI as I moved over to them. Sent them a doc on 12/10/09 to have them correct the error (they somehow assumed I wasn’t going to pay the PMI that was on the bill for December and January, despite never being late with a payment?!?!). Called today because the February bill shows an increase (which was threatened in the incorrect escrow statement) to collect the “missing” PMI. They did indeed get my letter via fax on the 10th, but no one ever bothered to send it to the escrow department to have the thing fixed. Oy. So, step one was having that happen today, and I’ll call to bug them in a week. In the meantime I have to pay the bill with the extra $17 and change on it and then deal later with getting that somehow credited to a future bill or to principle. Right. It’s not a ton of money, but frankly I don’t want to pay them a penny more than I owe them. I have little faith in this new company so far, though the reps I’ve spoken to in the two months I’ve had them have been fairly pleasant to deal with.

Oh, and my favorite part of dealing with them? For the first time since about my third mortgage payment back in 2006 I’m paying my mortgage via check. Why? Because they want to charge me to make the payment online, in an amount that adds about 1% to the bill. No thanks, I’ll happily pay the USPS to deliver it instead. Dingbats.

And there’s some question why people dislike financial institutions?

Anyway. Other than that, training is going okay. My foot began to bother me a little at the end of last week, but several nights of sleeping in the brace has staved off the ever-possible plantar fasciitis. Went absolutely nuts in making soup last week, so I have gobs of the stuff in freezer bags now for easy meals later (whip up some fresh rice and heat up the soup, voila, homemade meal in no time). Curried split pea soup and African bean soup (also slightly curried, but with peanut butter in the broth – yum). Mood is much elevated thanks to regular exercise again.

Mike is looking at condos in Beantown these days. It’s been fun to watch the excitement and apprehension that goes along with that process. In a lot of ways I wish I were up there to look at places with him and watch the possibilities unfold. I did have to admit to him that I was a bit apprehensive when he first said that he was going to buy rather than rent when he moved this spring (it does make the long-distance aspect of the relationship a bit more, well, lasting for the near future), but spitting it out and talking about it with him released that anxiety. Yes, we’ll be traveling back and forth for a while to come, but I think he’s worth it.

Work has been hellacious as we move toward budget hearing time with the President’s budget coming out on Monday. Today was spent going over mind-numbing anticipatory questions and answers (the programs guessing what the Hill is going to ask us, and then answering said questions). On the one hand it’s a good picture of the overall direction of the BGA. On the other, it’s tedious and time-consuming, and one gets tired of correcting grammar and statutory reference mistakes. Eh, as long as they keep paying me. Though I do look forward to getting the ad out on the street for the other appropriations attorney position we’re supposed to be putting out. Soon. I hope. (Help!)

NTP is in full start-up mode. The newbies register on Wednesday and then the fun begins. I have two docs to edit up this week, and then we’re good to get started.

Been thinking a lot about decorating, again. Mainly paint and some minor things around the apartment. It’s been 4 years-ish since I moved in and I’ve not painted a thing. Whoops. I did come up with an idea for the color (though not the exact shade) for the bedroom this afternoon. Looked around when I got home and I think it’ll work. Not saying much past that, but I’m hopeful. Need to find someplace to do some framing for me, too (oooh, and there’s an idea for the front hall. Hmmm…). Anyway, it’s a slow process (re: 4 years, no paint), but is good to get some more concrete ideas. Oh, and cleaning out of closets will happen shortly. Lots to do, lots to do.

Wrestled with my poor, old, non-working dishwasher for a few hours this weekend. It no longer drains completely, perhaps the result of a blockage somewhere, perhaps a broken valve. I explored as much of the interior systems as I could, easily, but at the end of the weekend it was Dishwasher 3, Moose 0.

I did learn that I have an appliance-screw sized attachment for my electric screwdriver, however, and I also found the troubleshooting sheet that came with the DW. Unfortunately I didn’t discover the attachment until the beginning of round 2 of cleaning, and I have to say, trying to get tiny appliance screws out with pliers is not fun. Removing the baskets to get at and clean various filters went much faster after the discovery. The other discovery, the troubleshooting sheet, was a fluke caused by the poor installation of the DW by the previous owner. The area under my sink has no cabinet walls – evidently they got ripped out to install the DW, so while I was putzing around looking at where hoses went, I was able to look at the chassis on it’s right side. There, stuck into the outside of the DW, was the sheet. Who hides such a thing like that? Nonetheless, it was nice to find as it did help identify more places to check.

It’s still not draining, and I’ve done all I can without disconnecting the power and hauling the unit out from the cabinet. I suspect I’m just going to revert back to my original plan and replace the unit this next year with one that’s more energy efficient.

I did learn a lot about the care and feeding of DWs in this whole process, thus once again living out my father’s definition of maturity: Learning to become an expert at those things you never wanted to learn in the first place.

As sometimes happens, I reached clutter saturation this week, so have been spending the day throwing stuff out and putting things away. It’s amazing how much junk accumulates.

Decided to just toss all the various back issues of magazines. I’m never going to read them, and I’ve been letting the various subscriptions lapse as it is, so I just need to get rid of this extra paper. I’m also thinking of finally dumping my subscription to the Sunday newspaper. I sometimes do read it, but more frequently than not it just sits until I put it in recycling. I feel kinda bad about it, I grew up with newspapers, delivered them for four years in high school, but it’s just not the way to get news any more.

New sock is going well. It’s a shame there’s not a bar in town where I could order a beer and flop down in a comfy chair to knit. LOL There’s only but so much coffee one can drink, or knitting one can do on Metro.

Cold’s still here, but better. Not feeling the need for quite so much sudafed to keep the sinuses in check today, more like just the normal allergies dosage. Let myself sleep in, and now I’m sipping coffee from my SF Zoo mug this morning and missing my boys out in San Francisco. And as much as I love my apartment and my neighborhood, it’s times like this when I wish I’d bought a place up in northwest so it were easier to get out & about to places for things like “food”.

Brought some work home this weekend, so that’s what I’ll be doing most of the day. The newest political in my chain of command came from the private sector (with no gubm’nt experience), so I think his expectations don’t quite match the reality of being a federal attorney. He’ll learn. But in the meantime I’m going to try and redo this memo such that it doesn’t suck completely. 17 pages? I don’t think so. 5. Maybe. Note to field counsel: footnotes and glossing are your friends, especially with a busy management chain.

Anyway, off to go give y’all more gubm’nt than you’re willing to pay for.

It’s reached the point in the year where frozen berries in the morning smoothie are no longer just a tasty addition (fruit! vitamins! flavor!), but a necessity (cold!). Better tasting than adding ice cubes, but still good at bringing the temperature down, post-workout.

I’m trying hard to be stoic about the fact that I live in an older building with a combined either-or air system that hasn’t yet changed over to cooling, despite 90 degree temps over the weekend and the next two days. I’m trying, but I daresay not succeeding terribly well. Let’s hear it for unseasonably warm temps after unseasonably cool temps. Not that I’ve run the heat in the past month, but hey. It’s made sleep somewhat elusive, as it does every year when this happens (and it does happen every year, which is why I’m trying to be stoic; I’ve had to deal with it for a decade now, so you’d think it would be easier). Hopefully the run this morning and a swim this evening will help with that tonight.

Speaking of the run, on my run this morning I saw: 1. lots of pollen; 2. the sun rise over the Washington Channel; and 3. a Decepticon sticker on the hood of a parked car.

While last week was clearly allergies, this week feels like I’m fighting off a head cold. Sneezes, stuffy, etc. Did some last minute cleaning this evening while talking to a cousin who’s coming to town tomorrow with her hubby, and then with Richard, and then the new guy, and I probably shouldn’t have attempted any dusting while I have a semi-stuffy nose. It definitely didn’t help the nose. I did find some afrin in the cabinet while looking for my old staples of cold medications – that was a year expired. I generally manage my allergies better these days, with the result that I don’t get nearly the amount of head colds I used to, so I don’t have to keep what used to be my usual standbys on hand any more.

Work’s been semi-quiet, with passover, easter, and spring break sapping much of the work force. Did get one WTF question this evening that made me question the sanity of certain higher managers, but we’ll look into it. I find myself muttering the words “LBS” to my fellow lawyers a lot these days (“Legal, But Stupid”). It’s a useful standard to have for such situations. Not that one phrases it thus to the clients (diplomacy counts, after all), but it is useful nonetheless.

The cult co-op’s annual meeting wasn’t so bad. The usual suspects got up and spouted their insanties, and we got through it without a lot of other nonsense. Of course, they started half an hour late, and we barely had quorum, but hey. I did finish a baby sock, got back to the apartment all excited about it, only to realize that when I did the first one I must’ve skipped a step (a few plain knitted rows) because the original is much shorter in the leg than the one I just finished. Crap. I so fail at reading directions sometimes. So much for giving the co-worker with the new baby a pair of baby socks next week.

Did manage to sleep fairly well last night, bourbon notwithstanding. I think it helped that it was a nice, calm, peaceful night out chatting calmly with a charming gentleman in a not-too-obnoxious bar. After we left the one that was doing drag bingo, that is.

I get to skip work entirely tomorrow in favor of my one (one) professional development activity for the year – the annual approps law update over in the legislative branch. Huzzah. Then it’s work HH, followed by club HH. I’ll have to pace myself. And drink lots of water. And take taxis. But since I am working on Friday, I’ll definitely behave as hangovers at work are teh suxors. It’s not like I’ve been bad lately anyway, as evidenced by my surprisingly higher than ever before in my ten years as a fed sick leave balance. I keep this up I might get to a higher sick leave balance than my annual leave balance, which would be a definite plus since it means I could start using sick leave for doctor’s appointments instead of annual leave, and save the “good stuff” for real vacations like this June’s.

Holy shit, it’s Tuesday evening. As in “it’s already Tuesday evening,” and also “is it only Tuesday?” all in one. The time change threw my already precarious balance with sleep and the morning meetings completely off. Add to that a host of “too much work-itis” and you have a mix that’s just been more than a bit nuts. Oh, and social and cult/co-op obligations most of the week as well.

I fully expect my candle to be completely burnt out by Saturday evening.

I will cut my participation in the cult thing short tomorrow if I still find myself in need of sleep. Won’t be able to keep functioning otherwise, and frankly I despise those things and would like as little to do with the process as possible. The folks who are most vocal at these things are batshit-crazy and best avoided under normal circumstances. And then they wonder why they can’t get more participation. Despite the advantages of desk service and on-call maintenance, it is enough to drive one away from communal living arrangements.

The boy bingo has been interesting. Did confirm something based on a friend’s post from day or so ago – I have no tolerance for the folks who lie about their age online. I’m not talking about “oops, had a birthday a month ago and forgot to update,” but rather the deliberate attempt to blur one’s identity by moving up or (more likely) down in age in some vain attempt to make one look more attractive. The last few times I’ve run across that it hasn’t been a pleasant thing, and it engenders a sense of distrust in the person and who they ultimately are under their public persona.

Another reason it’s good to keep a clean kitchen: so when you drop 1/2 the coffee you just ground, and don’t have enough to grind more, you can reasonably assume you won’t make yourself sick as you scoop it off the counter and throw it in the pot anyway.