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

Went to the Corcoran this evening to hear Karim Rashid give a talk on design as part of the events surrounding the Modernism exhibit they’re currently holding. It was a good talk, I enjoyed it thoroughly (as did Richard, whom I had invited along). He talked a lot about democratization of design, both in terms of making things more available and that more and more folks are now able to design and produce things in this digital age.

He was especially not impressed by items which are expensive simply because of the name/label attached to them. To paraphrase: “A $300 t-shirt had better be damned incredible and do a lot for you, like heat or cool you to the perfect temperature instantly, or keep your nipples from popping out or the like.”
Perfect example on his the latter point, at dinner afterward Richard showed me two books he had put together through Apple and iPhoto publishing that are just magnificent. To think anyone would be publishing their own photo books (not merely collecting individual photos in an album) would have been incredible not that long ago, yet here were two quality productions done from home.

All in all a good way to spend a Thursday night.

So, I’ve finally started training for this triathlon season. Sort of.

Ran this morning, since I didn’t get in a single run this weekend. Didn’t sleep well Thursday or Friday nights, so was too wiped. Friday it was the asshole downstairs neighbors and their incense again. I left a very ugly email for management about not getting that fixed yet. They of course did not come into the apartment today to do anything to the remaining hole in the wall that’s letting this crap in. Someone’s getting an ugly phone call tomorrow.

Anyway, ran this morning, swam this evening. Pool was mega-crowded. One of the few times I’ve had to circle swim at the Y, which always throws off the pacing of a workout for me. The other two folks in the lane were a tad slower than I was, but not too far off. Gave me some time to rest before heading back out. Was an okay swim.

Plan is to get up and bike with the club in the morning, provided it’s not raining.

Should definitely sleep well tonight.

Still have to write up the race report from the previous weekend. Oh, and I signed up for a 10k in two weeks. Because I’m insane. And didn’t have a race in May yet. Though I have a friend looking for a 5k in the area because he’s never done a running race and I said I’d do one with him.

What else? Work was nuts today. We had field counsel in from all over the country and I got to meet some of them in person finally. Otherwise I was buried in my office writing up stuff to go the uber-boss to tell him why we don’t think we have a legal problem with someone another BGA claims is a legal problem. Whee. That and trying to pry more information out of yet another BGA. At least they’re paying me well now.

Mixed messages and missed texts ended up scuttling Saturday plans, so was relatively good and quiet Saturday evening. Biked with my newbies Sunday. Made plans for dinner with a friend on Thursday. The same missed connection from Saturday seems to be missing making plans for this week as well. Oh well, his loss. Plans made for this upcoming Saturday to go to, of all things, an amusement park. Only riding the rollercoasters if they’re not too big. As Bug can attest to, I’m not a big fan. Should be a trip.

My sunglasses broke this morning; ear piece came off. Thankfully I have an eyedoctor appointment on Monday (along with the dentist – double whammy), so I’ll be able to either fix these or order a new set. Also have to get new regular lenses, I’m sure. The ones I have now must not have gotten the scratch-proof coating, they’re all scratched to heck and it’s beyond annoying when around any sort of brightish light. Look forward to being able to read the TiVo screen from my reading chair again. How much we want to bet I’m down another quarter of a diopter again this year?

Otherwise, kicking up the training for my first sprint race the first weekend of June, and settling back into a routine. While includes crashing at not quite 10 pm. Oy.

Oh, and on the removal of The Awakening from Hains Point? Let ’em have it. Maybe fewer tour busses will travel down there now while we’re trying to bike and run.

Shopping, shopping and more shopping.

D’s in town from Brisbane and the first thing he wanted to do was shop. The US dollar is very weak currently compared to the Australian dollar, so everything is relatively inexpensive when compared to home for him. I believe my favorite quote was, “It’s like going to Bangladesh!” Thanks for the monetary and tax policies, Mr. President.

Did get in some proper touristy stuff on Sunday with a visit to the Corcoran Gallery’s Modernism exhibit. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend it, it was well done. We dragged Tod and Doug out with us and then zipped to a late lunch after. But cold, so very cold this weekend. Easter is not supposed to be colder than Christmas in this hemisphere. Not to mention the brief snow Saturday morning. Brr!

Last day at work this week for me today. More touristy stuff and shopping with D the next two days, then I’m off for my half marathon on Saturday down near my parents. I offered to do a 5k with a friend who’s not done one before when I get back, so looks like I’m adding to my race schedule, though a 5k isn’t going to kill me. And it would be good to have a benchmark prior to my next Sprint triathlon the first weekend in June.

Brr! It got cold again for this morning’s ride. Claimed it had dropped to 43 when I got home. Yuck. But, the cherry blossoms are just coming out, and are gorgeous. Also, saw a fox on the Potomac side of the Point. Big sucker, too. Very red, huge tail. Bet he loves the golfers.

Finally ordered myself a digital camera that arrived today. I’ve had a hand-me down one for a few years, but it’s been dropping pixels, so it was time to upgrade. Got one that’s relatively hardy, water and shock proof so I can drag it out biking. Still learning how to get it to work, of course, but so far so good. Need more memory for it so I can take more than 10 pics at the high resolution, but I have time for that. Looking forward to snapping photos.

Work’s starting to pick up some more of late, but so far I’m staying afloat. Several small things have popped up and I’m hoping those will get resolved in short order so I can get back to some larger projects, but one never knows at the BGA.

So, I am be-couched (be-sofaed?). In any case, I have seating.

An orgy of cleaning followed an announcement on Thursday that the delivery guy would be here today (as opposed to two more weeks from now, which was the original delivery date!). The place actually looks much, much closer to what I want it to look like, with all the stuff off the dining table (including the dust). I’m sure I’ll get pictures up later.

Anyway, he arrived, in a mini-van with my couch strapped to the top in a big box. The thing is large enough that we couldn’t fit into the elevator, so up the stairs it was. So glad I live on the 3rd and not the 8th floor. Assembly was easy – screw on the legs and flip it over.

I’ve found a taker for the old futon couch, but that won’t happen until tomorrow or Tuesday, so it’s taking up some room. Thankfully I have the room for it, without needing to trip over it every time I go to the kitchen, but I’ll be glad when it’s gone.

I do need to get art or a mirror or something for this wall, though. The bookshelf used to be here, and that obviated the need for anything, but now that it’s just the nice, low sofa, there’s a big lot of plain wall there that is crying out for something. Paint, a painting, something.

Otherwise there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot else going on this weekend for me. The time shift was hell on my system for some reason, so not a lot got done this week aside from work and the cult’s board elections. Hopefully this next week will be better.

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.

After deciding I needed to keep myself out of the house as much as possible yesterday, I did just that. Wandered up to Dupont to get coffee (had used the last of it to caffeinate myself yesterday morning), and lunch at City Lights. Devoured two plates of steamed dumplings (was starving by that point), then off to Adams Morgan.

Popped into Skynear, looked at several pieces of furntire, and bought a couch.

Yeah, was just going to window shop, but said “screw it” and got the couch. I’d been eyeing it off and on for a couple of years now, so I screwed up the courage and ordered it. Will come in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’ve got to rearrange funiture again.

Shopped a bit more, popped in to se a friend, then home. Tried to nap, didn’t work, so I hopped online. When I did, friends were setting up a dinner & a movie thing to see “300”, so I said sure, why not, and hopped out again. We met at a loud beer hall restaurant with a large selection of beers, a cousin to the Brickskeller here in DC. Several ciders with dinner (a very, very disappointing pasta – definitely a burger kinda place), then off to the movie, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I think they did a good job staying true to the roots of the story in the graphic novel in the way it was filmed. Very entertaining.

Then it was off to Remingtons for a couple more beers. Met several friends from gay.com, some of whom I’d not seen in years, some of whom I’d not met in person.  Headed home via Metro (15+ minute waits at each station), alone. Was fun, and social, and far, far too late to be out, as is witnessed by the cold sore this morning. All things in balance, and when you push too hard, too fast, you pay. I regret not an instant of it, it was far too much fun, and needed. Though I would prefer not to have the blemished lip, it, too, will fade, and balance will return.

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.