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

Spent a good chunck of this morning with a splitting headache, both from physical sources (lack of sleep, the sore), and work itself (another Big Government Agency is proposing something that I can’t find any legal basis for doing). An overly heavy lunch and some advil helped somewhat, but not completely. Was very happy to leave, though it was a tad late.

The newbie program proceeds apace. Having a weekly conference call is helping tremendously this year to keep us focused and going (and to spread the work). I think we’re doing much better than last year at this.

I rearranged the living room furniture in anticipation of the new couch. Yeah, I have several weeks yet, but I wanted to experiment before the thing was actually here. I’m not entirely convinced this set up works, but we’ll see. The books from the one bookshelf are still all over the floor, so it’s hard to tell how it’ll look when it’s all together.

It’s March, so no more snow effect on the glen. Perhaps wishful thinking, but I’m downright tired of the stuff now.

None of the days these past two weeks were as bad as last Thursday, but they were pretty darned busy. Today was the epitome of it all, with several meetings with folks, the outcomes of which were almost pre-ordained, and all of which required I wear a suit, so suited I went. It always gets comments, since most days: a) I don’t wear a white shirt (white drains me of what little color I have); and b) I don’t wear a tie or jacket. I look good in the suit, and occasionally I toy with the idea of jazzing up the wardrobe with a couple more, but the idea of wearing one to work, or of dragging it to work on the bicycle in warmer weather, is not exactly appealing.

Running’s almost back on track and it appears I’m actually going to be able to run the Cherry Blossom on the way to the half-marathon I have in mid-April. (*knock wood*) Do need to creep back into the gym for some stablization, but the running’s going okay. When I have run, it’s certainly been a good sleep aid. It’s only a little after 8 as I write this and I feel like I could crash right now.

The newbie triathletes get started tomorrow with a meeting and a short run. Looking forward to this year’s program, if we can just tamp down the “and you need to do this, and this, and…” nature of one of last year’s leaders. I appreciate the help, but chill! We can do this, trust us.

Attracted some sort of bizarre anonymous stalker over at LJ on my last post there. Left the comment there for the heck of it, though did freeze the thread for posterity. It and another comment on someone else’s LJ (since screened) were directed at comments I made about not revealing which Big Government Agency (BGA) I work for in my writings online. I discuss work only in the most oblique manner, and it’s not like folks couldn’t find out where I work if they tried, but I prefer not to let my BGA be searchable through my writings, since there are folks who go out and look for news about the BGA (any BGA does, actually), and I’d rather not compromise my employment.

And as to the offer of sexual aid in the comment, don’t do me any favors.

Full triathlon weekend, after the newbie meeting tomorrow, we have the club’s postponed annual meeting on Sunday, plus my long run for the week, 8 miles or so. Will be cool again in the morning, so out come the tights once more (this morning was in shorts and a long-sleeve T, and that was a bit warm at the end).

A nice, quiet start to the new year. I did go biking with the club. We did about 20 miles (plus to and from the site), most of which was in the rain. Should’ve put on my toe covers, but I don’t know that it would have kept my socks from getting as soaked as they did. Regardless, it was a fun time, and I’m going to try to do more rides with the club from now on. It was just too helpful to be out with other folks on the bike.

Though I suppose it is, as I told one friend tonight, “the masochism tango in all its forms.”

What that would mean is earlier bed times, though, since the weekday rides are at (ugh) 6:30 am. Not a bad thing, overall, but the change will be rough to adjust to. I’ll have to confirm that we’re still biking, since it’s not really winter here yet in DC (no temperature lows are predicted to get below freezing in the next week, and we have highs predicted in the 60s).

(side note: I worry about the areas that are getting neither snow nor rain this winter – that precipitation, no matter the form, though snow is better in some areas, is necessary for the spring and summer or large parts of the country could be in drought, yet again, which is Not A Good Thing)

Lots of cleaning today and all weekend (and two big batches of soup made as well), and likely will continue. I’m still trying to cull down the posessions, even after the culling I did before the move. I emptied out an entire footlocker worth of stuff, so now I have to figure out what to do with the extra locker. I think I know how it all accumulated, but I’m glad to be rid of it.

Anyway, off to bed for this Moose, have to get up and run. That Cherry Blossoom race is only 3 months off now…

I alternate between really bored and really excited about projects at work. There are two long-term things on the desk that I absolutely dread working on because they’re just terribly dull, complicated, and seemingly never-ending. Then there are some more fun projects that I keep trying to get to, that are equally important as the other two dull ones, but which never seem to be able to come to the top of the stack, despite ongoing talks with various folks about the status thereof. I need to just knuckle down and kill off the dreaded tasks, but they always manage to sap my will to live.

And they wonder why I don’t want to be a manager.

Did finally manage to motivate myself to hit the grocery store and pick up a few foodstuffs on the way home. Had meant to yesterday, but came directly home, had something simple from the cupboard, and crashed semi-early after doing a couple of things around the house. Slept really, really well, and really, really late (for me), but needed the catch-up from the weekend and the return to work.

Haven’t touched the uberlist yet for this upcoming year. I’ve thought about it some, but not put thought to file just yet. Soon. Oh, and I’m debating a change in my normal new year’s day routine. Normally I go on a run, commemorating my return to running from 2000 after having mono. Just me, no electronic devices, no watch, nada. Just a run. But this year my club is having a ride that morning at 10, and I think I want to go do that. I joined the club so I’d have folks to train with, and part of moving down to Southwest was to get over to Hains Point and practice with them, but I’ve not really taken advantage of the proximity like I had intended to, so I’m thinking it’s time to get out and practice with them. Still could run, but I suspect a slightly more social beginning to the year should be in order.

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.

I love watching people trying to parallel park. I can see tourists doing so all day long on Independence Avenue outside my office window and it provides no end of amusement.

Speaking of amusement, day two of sudafed (yay head cold) is progressing nicely through the floaty feeling stage of the drug. Makes critical thinking oh so much fun. Did manage to avoid taking it last night before bed, so wasn’t up all night, but I did have several fun dreams as I floated in and out of consciouness (I usually don’t remember dreams unless I’m not really deeply sleeping).

The first was a scenario where I was working at a summer camp, likely a scout camp (but not the one I worked at up in Maine). I remember being really excited because I could keep up my triathlon training, though on my mountain bike, not the tri bike (dirt roads), and get in some much needed open water swimming practice. As well as getting some skin cancer sun exposure.

The second I’ve now forgotten. I don’t recall that it was terribly long.

The third and last one was teaching English to junior high school students in Taiwan, which involved me speaking a lot of Mandarin. While it was good to exercise those attrophying language muscles, it made for an odd dream (trying to explain to these kids where the term “alphabet” came from? why?).

Anyway, was good to sleep without drugs (though with a humidifier), but not the most restful night I’ve had. I’m hopeful I can avoid the almost inevitable sleepless night that comes with most of my head colds (and thus causes me to miss a day of work – because if you can’t infect your co-workers, why bother having a cold?).

I killed Firefox 2.0 from the iBook this morning. I had already beeen annoyed that I couldn’t close all the windows by hitting control-W as I could under 1.5 and earlier (it would close the last tab, but leave the window open with a blank tab), and that I couldn’t close the tabs by hitting the little ‘x’ button in the upper right corner any more (they put the x on each individual tab, which made them moving targets), but when it wouldn’t let me hold down the trackpad button and get the little function menu, that was the last straw. Thank you for your efforts, but you’re no longer desired. Glad I saved the installation file for 1.5.0.2. Blech.

Up early this morning to go run a turkey trot 5k run. Got to bed by 9:30, and was out like a light, so did get a good eight hours of sleep (for the first time since the weekend). I suspect a nap will be in order as well, but we’ll cross that bed when we get to it. No feasting plans today; I feel no desire to attempt to overeat.

And I’m definitely not making another tofurkey (haven’t tried an unturkey yet). As I put it to a friend of mine yesterday, because they pump it full of chemicals to make it taste better, your shit stinks like tofurkey for the next day and a half or so, and I really don’t need to be reminded of the meal for that long or in that way. Besides, I’m vegan because I don’t want to eat meat, so the idea of a big ole fake meat centerpiece to a meal is, well, kind of tacky to me.

Looks like the predicted rain is holding off this morning, which is good news for those of us running the race this morning.

Okay, to the earlier list I need to add:

4. Sleep.

As in, getting enough of it. Which, of course, affects #1, Consistency. Up a tad too late this morning to go running, so doing some needed stretching instead (silly IT band). But sleep definitely needs to be on the list for focus this next year.

Oh, and I’m sure it’s all Heath’s fault, but I was having really, really vivd dreams about rimming last night. And yes, that’s a good thing.

When I moved into the new place and set up the TiVo, I noticed that Spike TV was playing Deep Space 9 on reruns, in order, several episides a day. So I signed up for a season pass and have been watching them bit by bit. The run ended recently and so I caught up to the last several episodes, not being able to stop watching as the story progressed in a marvelous fashion up until the end. So somewhere around 2-something last night I finished up the last episode. Worth staying up for, but left me a tad tired this morning, when the building’s fire alarm went off sometime after 6 a.m.

I vaguely remember drifting out of sleep, but only realized what was going on when I heard the fire trucks pull up. Will have to have a discussion with the building to see about making the alarm a) louder and b) more annoying. It was a constant beeping which really was no more annoying that someone’s alarm clock going off on the other side of a large house. Not nearly sufficient to wake people up in the case of a real emergency.

Having lived in a large building where the alarm went off every 2-3 months, I wasn’t about to evacuate until I knew there was an actual reason to. So I watched as the firemen in one of the trucks were unable to get into the property. They ended up setting two ladders so that they could go up one on one side of the fence and down another on the other. I cannot believe none of the security guards, nor any residents had keys to open the fencing. That’s going to change, period. I suspect folks will be yelling up a storm at the board meeting on Wednesday about this.

After brunch most of the day was spent with MG, a gentleman I’ve recently started dating. Some shopping, some wandering, a good nap at his place, then home again before heading out to dinner with RNJTM. Now it’s crash time so I can get up and run in the morning, another 15-16 miler planned as prep for the marathon.