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

BC and I had a nice, low-key NYE, over at a friend’s house with a few other folks. Much fun was had playing Godzilla Unleashed on his Wii, and aside from a single glass of champagne at midnight I didn’t touch a drop (I drove up there so we didn’t have to deal with taxis or Metro). Driving home was the most challenging part – drunken people popping out in the road at random intervals, all trying to flag down any taxi they could. What. A. Mess.

No new year’s day run this year – we got up too late, and then had to zip off to another get-together at Richard’s place in the afternoon. No matter, we got in a nice 4 miles today which, while cold, wasn’t bad. The cold symptoms are calming somewhat finally, but aren’t completely gone quite yet. Rest, relaxation, lots of water, and no drinking. Am going to begin exercising again, though. I just can’t wait any longer.

Speaking of which, signed up for my third and final triathlon for this year, the Nation’s Triathlon here in DC. So I’m doing Columbia in May (Olympic distance), Nation’s Tri in September (Olympic again), and Ironman Arizona (aka IMZ) in November. And a couple of other running events, I’m sure, sprinkled in between (Lawyers Have Heart 10k in June, the National Press Club 5k in September, etc.). Aside from IMZ, they’re all local things, so not a ton of travel for races this year, which should be a bit easier, especially if I’m transitioning jobs later this year.

We did a little shopping today, and I picked up some extra controllers for the two gaming systems, as well as recharging stations for both – no more disposable batteries.

So, a nice quiet beginning to the year, which I hope bodes well for the rest of it.

Wiped out. Completely wiped out. But a fun time was had in getting to here.

I spent the past three days with BC and his family. They do big stuff for the holidays, culminating in a big party the evening of the 25th at his Mom’s place. The 24th was relatively sedate – some last minute wrapping, prepping food for the next day, and some good Indian take-out for dinner. Wine and spades (the card game) after dinner, then a late bed time. The morning of the 25th bloomed with BC’s younger sister (29? 30?) coming in and announcing that Santa had come and we had to to come out to see what he brought.

At least, I’m told she did. I don’t recall it at all, and BC says I just buried my head further and snuggled up closer to him when she came in. Eventually we got up and did gift exchange with BC, his younger sister, Mom and Step-Dad. After that we cleaned up and then it was off to his oldest sister’s house for brunch and more exchanging of gifts. His brother-in-law did a fantastic job with the food, and including vegan dishes for me. Had fun picking on his niece (12 y/o), then it was off to Dad’s place.

The event at Dad’s went very well. This was the first time bringing a boyfriend to Dad’s event, and I think it went well. Step-mother’s family was in full force, and they were a trip and a half. Unfortunately there was not a damned thing there I could eat, so nibbling, just sipping of red wine over the course of the afternoon. Whew. Dad was gracious and pleasant, so was a pretty good time. Finally it was time to return to Mom’s house and the party, already in progress.

Plenty of food for me at Mom’s, which I dived into as soon as I could. And more wine. And then there was singing.

A big family tradition is the singing of carols. I have a fairly strong baritone (aided by the wine), and I’m not shy of singing in such a crowd, so I kept us mostly on key and pace, which I think Mom appreciated. No solos this year for anyone (thank heavens), but it was quite fun. At the end of the night BC volunteered the two of us to clean up and sent Mom & her husband off to bed. We got it pretty well policed, all food and dishes put away, and everything else straightened up nicely for the morning.

Slept in this morning, obviously, and thanks to lots of water at the end of the party and while cleaning, there was no hangover. And, as an added bonus, the plague that’s been stuck in my system for the last 2-3 weeks seems to have finally, finally been killed off. Late brunch, relaxing at the house with BC while his parents were at work, a good movie & cuddling. Finally came home at 5 or so.

No energy whatsoever tonight, so not going to set up the new Xbox 360, nor pop in any of the games I’m playing at the moment on the Wii. Working the next two days, and a good, long sleep tonight should be just what the doctor ordered. Get to have a talk with da bosslady this week about job prospects and how to proceed with these things. I trust her, so I know it won’t be a problem to tell her I’m considering some other options, but it’ll still be an interesting conversation.

With the plague over, hopefully there will be a return to regular training. I’ve missed getting out to run, and being active generally, and I know from past experience how much I need that activity for my physical and mental health. So, time to dig back in, and prep for the year to come.

BC and I went out to two NBA basketball games this weekend. The first was Friday, Suns versus the Wizards (he’s a particular fan of the Suns due to a) they win; and b) he lived there)). The second was this evening, due in the most part to his mother, who got tickets to us in the SECOND ROW not quite, but close enough to center court, and I have to say, having to strain my neck to see the big jumbotron thing above us was, well, a problem I could learn to live with.

They didn’t quite sweat on us. But they came damned close. And there was a) a waitress who brought us beer without having to get up; and b) access to a really, really close (and tiny) restroom in which to get rid of the same.

I am loathe to admit it, but I really, really enjoyed it. I still despise (with a passion unsurpassed) the game of football, but after two games in person I am more than ready to reconsider my childhood dislike of basketball. This game made sense, unlike that obnoxious game full of overly obese “athletes” who do nothing other than run into each other. I liked this, and I would be happy to go back, if, that is, BC will talk to me after trashing american “crap ball” while in the bar before the real game tonight.

And if you tell my brother and my father before I do, I will hurt you. I want to see the look of shock on their faces myself.

Went to see Enchanted with BC on Monday. I most decidedly did not cry at the end; I had something in my eye. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, so there.

Dinner tonight with RNJTM to talk Ironman and life in general. Should be fun, as always.

Seeing BC Friday & Saturday & hopefully Sunday as well. It’s to be a full weekend – Grubbycrawl tomorrow, two events on Saturday, plus the start of the USAT club challenge (meaning I have to get off my butt and go swim and run). Looking forward to all of it, and looking forward to doing all of it with BC. We’ve had some integration of stuff with friends, but are still working on the mutual introductions. He gets to meet more of mine this weekend, which’ll be good.

Work has been torture today – it’s my last day in the office until next week, and on top of that our email went down for most of the day (after the firedrill at 10, that is). The network is still hosed for getting at documents, so trying to work on a lot of things isn’t the easiest thing today.

Since my last serious update I’ve run a 5k with BC & his family (local turkey trot this past weekend), made progress in both Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess, picked up a couple more games on sale, found out my year-end bonus is coming (hello, new oven), had a soup & bad movies party, and have been otherwise occupied with life. BC & I are doing well. I’m headed down to see my folks for Thanksgiving, partially to see them before they take off for Florida for the winter, and partially so I don’t force the whole vegan thing on BC’s mother on the first major holiday she’s known me. She and her husband are doing well with it, but I am a bit sensitive to such things.

Back on the subject of games, what nimrod at Nintendo thought fishing would be fun? I spent a good 10-20 minutes yelling at the screen (“This is not fun! This is not entertaining!”) while trying to fish in the damned Ordon village before I gave up and googled the answer – you have to wiggle both controllers side to side, not up and down as Nintendo tells you to do. Once I switched I caught the requisite fish easily, but that was decidedly Not Fun, unlike the rest of the game. They’re lucky its not a larger part of the plot or I’d have been tempted to sell the game. My time is too precious to me for un-entertaining games.

And I beat Puzzle Quest on the DS finally. BC’s envious, he’s still working on it. I saw they ported it to the Wii as well, but I don’t see how the game would be much fun without the stylus and touch screen of the DS.

[…]

I love trying to explain legal citations to folks. Case in point, I was just telling one of my budget folks about 3 provisions of law she needs for footnotes, and for each one there at least 4 different ways to cite it – the amendment which gave us the funds acceptance authority (section XXX of public law YYY-YYY), the original section which was amended (section AAA of public law BBB-BBB, as amended), the US Code cite (cc USC dddd, note), and a statutes at large cite (eee STAT ffff), and all four were useable depending on her audience (Tre*sury, for example, only wants cites to the Statutes at Large). I told her to go with the code cites for our internal reference – they’re easier for non-lawyers to find, in my experience.

Anyway, haircut & laundry & playing on the Wii tonight, then driving to Tidewater tomorrow for the holiday. Hopefully will be a nice, quiet time.

Children should not be allowed out without adult supervision. Case in point, the kids running down the wrong way on the escalator to make the train in the Metro. At least they didn’t stop the thing like the last group of urchins I encountered on their way home from school.

And yes, this does make me a grumpy old man. Which makes the fact that BC’s mom keeps hinting at wanting us to have kids all the more amusing (amusing to me, not so much to him, but then again she’s not my biological mother – my own mother has said nothing of the sort and seemed kind of surprised when I mentioned children).

Heading back to the office after getting a sty looked at. Nothing big, and thank heavens Metro is reliable most days, allowing me to zip out & back without too much delay.

[side note – did we not outlaw mullets yet? Why would someone wear something so bad looking on their head?]

Tourists are out in force today. I’d have expected more of them next weekend rather than this weekend, given the holiday.

Heading to the cooking expo this weekend with BC to drool over ovens & cooktops I can’t yet afford or fit into my kitchen. I enjoyed it last year, and am looking forward to checking out the gadgets. I’d like to find a place that offers a knife skills class that’s both convenient and that won’t try to make me do something like de-bone a duck. I’m not holding my breath on that, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

I’m helping another staff with interviews they’re doing for a position which will have a focus on the type of law that I do, so today I wore a suit so I’d look presentable for the interview. My boss walked into the office early in the morning and asked why I was in a suit (I normally don’t even bother with a tie). “Oh, I have an interview,” I replied. Her eyes got really, really big. “You know, I’m helping [the other office] with vetting and there’s an interview today,” I continued. She was quite relieved to hear that. And then accused me of being cheeky, which I suppose I was. But one does have to have some fun with the boss on occasion, no?

Short run this morning. First morning I’ve needed to haul out cold weather gear (tights, gloves, heavier top layer). Very short run, less than two miles, about twenty minutes, focusing on keeping the heart rate down rather than pace (though I do glance at the pace thing from time to time).

Fantastic weekend with BC. Went out drinking with he and Brian and Mikey on Friday, made risotto for dinner Saturday, home fries and tofu scramble for brunch Sunday, carved pumpkins with his family on Sunday afternoon. Lots of good food, lots of fun. ‘Twas nice to spend the entirety of the weekend with him, with no real plans to have to go or be anywhere if we didn’t want to. Very good time.

I have to get to serious cleaning this week in anticipation of the weekend after next. More a matter of putting things away than anything else, but it’s a necessity if I’m to have folks in here. And laundry must be done, and done soon. Had planned on it tonight, but didn’t have the energy for it, especially after zipping up to check on the cats at Richard’s place (thank heavens I have the mini for such trips now). Tomorrow or Wednesday, then. No plans to go out on Halloween, not for lack of an invite or two, just for lack of motivation to get all dressed up. I couldn’t care less about costuming, and there won’t be trick or treaters in the high rise. All my candy is at work anyway.

Looks like my site it down, so I’m going to leave this up on the laptop and try to post it in the morning. At least the building turned the heat on three days earlier than they planned to (I hope they got the new valves in!), so it’s not frigid in here tonight.

I like warm weather. I really do. But I like warm weather with air conditioning, if I’ve been acclimated to AC, as I have been the past few years (I survived the subtropics in Taiwan without it). And I have no AC at the moment because the weather is supposed to have broken by now, the cold front hovering over West-by-God-Virginia is supposed to have rolled over by now, and it’s supposed to be cooler than 76 degrees inside my apartment. Pig fucker weather systems.

This is, as you can see, making me testy.

BC and I just got back from 30 Days of Night. Wow. Perhaps it was because we’d gone to Zatinya and each had 2 glasses of wine with dinner and a glass of port as dessert, but that was, um, well, cheesy. And unnecessarily silly. And filled with far too many opportunities to whisper snarky comments in his ear. Not as many as, say, Dragon War, but still. I was left tapping my fingers and wondering when they’d just kill off the people already so I could go home to my overly warm apartment and attempt to sleep.

Annual physical was this morning. BP’s good (105/70?), resting heart rate was good, lungs, clear, etc. All the blood work should come back at the end of the week or beginning of next week. Got a tetanus booster since I couldn’t remember my last one and they had no record of having one at their practice. So far the arm’s not sore, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Back to work tomorrow after 2.5 days off, so will be email heck to catch up with. I’m sort of ready for it. At least I have massive amounts of candy to carry in for the office, so for that alone I’ll be popular.

Thanks to those who wished me well yesterday, I appreciated that.

BC and I went out to Vegetate for a marvelous meal, after he shared a gift or two (the eyelash curlers were a particularly humorous touch, and set the right mood for the evening). Then we came back here and proceeded to polish off a bottle or two of really good wine from the bottom of the rack, cuddle, and watch Mars Attacks, which he’d not seen (he had accused me once again of not having movies with real stars in them – so of course I had to pull out the one movie I have that has pretty much nothing but major actors in it). All in all a wonderful way to end the evening.

Today we were completely lazy and slept in until noon or so, with more cuddling and general gentle treatment of the hangovers we both had from the good wine the evening before. Just back from a nice dinner down at Jenny’s where we were mildly creeped out at the number of spiders hanging out right outside our window. There were two beer signs in the window, attracting a lot of bugs, so the spiders were very active, and very distracting as you’d catch them out of the corner of your eye. Not a place for the arachnophobic. But the tofu dishes we shared were both just incredible (their fiery tofu is fantastic – I almost always order it when I go).

He’s on his way home now, but he’ll be out tomorrow at Cantina, so those who’ve not met him will have a chance to do so if you come out tomorrow evening. Should be a fun time, and hopefully the really, really bad 80s cover band that was playing there this evening won’t be there tomorrow. If they are, we’ll have something other than me to pick on.

Happy hour started at 3 today.

Let’s recap this week:

• Didn’t sleep well from allergy issues.
• BC’s car window got smashed outside my co-op.
• iPhone locked up while running late to work so couldn’t call in to let them know.
• 2nd to last week of the federal fiscal year (my crunch time at work).
• Richard lost one of his best friends to cancer.
• My brother attempted, not for the first time, to kill himself Thursday morning, and is now institutionalized.
• A friend succumbed to leukemia yesterday, despite signs he was getting better.

This after my family lost another friend to breast cancer a couple weeks ago (again, after she was seeming to do better), and one of Mom’s close friends had to deal with a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment earlier this year. Mom herself is a breast cancer survivor, and might be facing some more surgery because of scar tissue related to her previous surgeries (no mastectomy, but some scarring from the lumpectomies).

I’m done, I’m just done this week.