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

Awesome run this morning, about 10-11 miles (probably 10, given the ‘off’ factor of my pedometer). Totally on pace and what not to run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in 3 weeks. Yay! *knock wood*

Our newbies had a group run, either 25 minutes or 30 minutes, depending on the group (sprint/olympic). None of the sprint folks showed up (whoops), so we just looped around Hains Point. I had been all worries earlier in the week about biking over and then having someone to watch gear, then had the “Duh!” moment when I thought about my long run this morning and that the meeting site was only about 2 miles from home. So, ran over, met them, ran sweep with the last runner (great conversation), then did another loop with one of my volunteers (fastish for me, slow for him), then home.

It’s going to be one of those weird spring days where you can’t decide quite which jacket to wear. No matter, one way or another I am getting The Heck Out Of The House today. I think some furniture window shopping is in order.

Quiet weekend here. Steven was in town and crashed here for the weekend, but my legs were bothering me (a side effect of the prednisone, I think), so I was rather more of a stick in the mud than usual. Was good to see him, but was disappointing I didn’t feel up to wandering out (or doing much of anything). Did get in a lot of gaming, both on the DS and the PC, which made me wonder if I really needed to upgrade the PC as little as I use it. Eventually, I’m sure, but it’s not a priority in the budget.

Also caught up on reading (not but so much you can do when the most comfortable long-term position is with your legs stretched out and relaxed), both the current book (“Ironcrown Moon” by Julian May) and delved into the ever-present pile of magazines. I’ve gotten “free” subscriptions to a couple of magazines over the years, and they end up sitting there until I spend 15 minutes to flip through them, see if there’s anything interesting to read (usually not), and toss ’em out. They end up costing more in psychic distress (clutter) than the “free” label would imply, so getting them out is always a good thing.

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.

Quick thoughts because I need sleep, post swim and post vegging tonight with the TiVo.

Thinking about hiring a coaching service for my season this year. We have a deal through the club that’s not bad, and some specialized feedback might be a very good thing. Have until the end of the month to decide, so i’m going to ruminate on it.

Got my nudie calendar for this year finally. Third year running for this particular one. Just something about the models he’s chosen… It’s smaller (width wise) than the previous years’ calendars, but it works really well in the space I have it in – the extra length lets it match the bulletin board more easily. Good choice.

And, of course, there’s the naked butt staring out at me when I come into the living room now (nice back!).

Ran completely out of coffee this morning and was too hungry to stop at the grocery store on the way home. Will have to try and get some tomorrow evening after the gym and dinner with MG.

Running should prove interesting tomorrow morning, but from the state of the sidewalks I’ve seen today it should be dry where I’m running. If not, I go slow. No killing myself this year, I’d like to actually run the silly 10 miler this time around.

After the odd email exchange about our newbie program, the volunteer meeting yesterday went well, though I found out I’m the sole co-leader from last year who’s continuing on into this year. Ack! So, whole new crew, but with a lot of infrastructure set up for this year. It’s going to be a fun season. Now we just have to find a goal race so we can get some of the other information into focus. As the one carry over I’m getting a lot of questions, and that’s fine. Just call me Mr. Triathlon.

Have done some little wanderings around the edges of MAL this year. MG and I went to the hotel last night and chatted with friends for a couple of hours. Then today we went to the market and I plunked down far too much money on stuff from Nasty Pig (but it’s going to look lovely once I get the jeans hemmed, and wear the bar vest out to the Eagle). Ran into tons of friends, saw some folks whom I though I recognized but wasn’t quite sure enough of to go say hello, and generally enjoyed myself. Did end up a little dehydrated at the end, I think, but am making up for it now that I’m home.

Need to do lots of cleaning tomorrow, laundry and general straightening. FJ!! is going to stop by, I think, while he waits for his flight after leaving the hotel, and the place definitely needs to be made more guest-worthy if that’s to happen.

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 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.

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…

It is, sometimes, good to be the sibling with no kids and who’s the responsible one.

Case in point: At Xmas, I get cooking equipment and jewelry. He and my sister-in-law get baby stuff and food things.

Drove down to Tidewater for the annual between-the-holidays visit (easier than dealing with holiday traffic), and we exchanged presents this evening. I made out like a bandit, though I think my fave is a silver ring with a dark green tourmaline in it that fits exactly on my right ring finger, and that does not clash with my favorite steel-n-ceramic ring (which is the only ring I wear daily these days). The moose cutting board has to be a close second, though. The relatives all seemed to like my choices of gifts as well, which is always good news.

I’ve also managed not to down a single drop of water since somewhere around 10 this morning. Coffee all the way down in the car, and nothing but wine since. I still marvel that despite not really drinking a lot around us kids when we were growing up my parents have somehow turned into total wine people. Or maybe they just pretend when I come down, but in any case, most visits are tests of my liver because of the amount of wine consumed.

I’ll be drinking a good chunk of water before bed, I suspect, just to stave off a possible hangover. The blow-up mattress is ready to go, just need to dump sheets on it. The parental units have retired, and the brother, sister-in-law and nieces have retreated to their own desmesne.

The younger niece (9 months old now) is not quite a terror – she’s crawling, and standing, but not yet walking. Cuter than should be possible, and was (thankfully) not all that fussy when strange ole Uncle Moose picked her up and held her. But very, very wiggly. You had to be very careful or next thing you knew she was dangling by a single toe and straining hard to get that dislodged so she could go on to the next conquest. Wrapping paper was her favorite play toy of the evening (aside from my necklace and general person), and we had a minor crisis when the older niece popped open a tin of mints and scattered them all over the floor. Watching five adults scrounging for white mints on a slightly off-white carpet is a funny sight, but when compared with dealing with a choking toddler, we went with the mint hunt.

Shopping tomorrow. I’m looking at going to BJs to get huge amounts of necessities like adult Tang and the like, and a trip to Homo Depot to check out programmable thermostats (gotta love being a home owner). Then on to a late lunch with one of my two surviving great-Aunts, and general visit time with the ‘rents. So far so good, and glad I came down.

With lows in the mid to high thirties this week, and as I get ready to start running and biking regularly again, it got to be time to haul out the winter running gear. The collection’s slowly grown over the years as I’ve needed items for particular weather conditions, or as I’ve found good sales in the spring. I remembered the collection as I was preparing for a short run this morning, and hauled out a top that was perfect for the temps (mid-40s).

In the same storage container was the bulk of my long-sleeve t-shirt collection, which was also a pleasant find. I’d left a couple out in my drawers to tide me over for the change in seasons, but I definitely needed shirts, even for just hanging around the house.

In he meantime, I’ve misplaced two DVDs that I use for indoor bike workouts. Found the short one (which I’d misplaced when I moved), but now I can’t find the two longer ones. I’m sure they’re around somewhere, but heaven only knows where.

It did feel good to run this morning in the cold. As usual, I needed the gloves to begin, but by the halfway mark they were too warm. The hat covering my ears lasted a little bit longer, but not much. I look forward to more cold runs this winter as I do base training for next year, and should be well prepped for the two spring races I want to do.