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

I bought a signed copy of a memoir about breast cancer written by a lesbian this evening. I’m not sure why I did this, except that it sounds like it will be interesting reading (lesbian relationship drama!), and perhaps it might help me deal with my mother’s own survival over having had breast cancer a decade ago. An odd way to learn about it, but one does what one can.

No running this week after Tuesday morning’s run. My knees began to hurt, which is a sure sign that New Shoes Must Be Purchased, so I will do that this weekend. The race last weekend went well, despite evidently needing new shoes. I ran it under 30 minutes, as was hoped (28:10), but not under my PR (27:33). I did have to remind myself that the PR was set on a very, very flat course and that this one had two slight hills at either end, so that was some slight bit of consolation. That said, I was still happy with the results. If only the marathon would go so well.

Otherwise the silence has been merely busy. It’s the end of the U.S. Federal Fiscal Year, and since fiscal law is what I do for my Big Government Agency, it’s a relatively busy time of the year for me. I still enjoy it, thankfully, but it has kept me somewhat occupied of late. I also purchased a new game for the DS, Lost Magic, and am enjoying that thoroughly. It’s horribly distracting, but I have put it down every now and again.

Still seeing MG, and that continues to go well. He makes me happy, I enjoy the time we spend together, and I look forward to more time spent with him.

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.

Okay, the oven works, the cake came out very well. It does seem to run hot for the setting it was on (i.e., 375 setting was reading 425 or so when I pulled the cake out), but that’s why I got an oven thermometer, to be able to tell these things. Never trust the dial on your stove, always double check it.

I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that the practice triathlon I thought was a couple weeks off is actually a week from today.

Whoops.

So I swam this afternoon, and biked to dinner (City Lights, with a new gay vegan here in town), since the mountain bike got out of the shop yesterday. New tires, new brake pads, tightened & realigned deraileurs & brakes, all of these were added or done and it made for a very nice ride. I think the tires I chose are a tad more street friendly than the last ones, making it overall more pleasant. Was going to get up and do a ride on the tri bike, but was up verrrrry late with dinner and a very pleasant conversation with a young gentleman, so no biking early.

Instead I did more stuff around the house, finally hanging the grocery bag holder under the kitchen sink, and breaking down and trashing the last three boxes. Cleaned up the bookshelf in the front hallway, rearranged the liquor supply/wine rack, generally put things away from the living room. It’s looking much more put together, and will be great once I tackle the book collection and figure out how I want to order that. I’m still leaning toward more shelving, with some closed shelves on the bottom for stuff like computer supplies and the like that don’t need to be on display.

Went to take the dead lamp out of the living room (one of the two torchieres died about a month after I moved in), forgot that with no bulb in the glass had no anchor, and SMASH went that. Thank heavens I had shoes on. Brought home the need for a decent broom, even with a vacuum cleaner.

I live such an exciting life now.

Finally got the damned DVD/VHS player hooked up. Only been what, three and a half months since I moved in? I need a longer coaxial cable so the thing can sit back further, but for now it works, which is great. Even got the aspect ratio right, so it’s showing wide screen. Yay. No more watching DVDs on the laptop. A newer DVD player would show a better picture on this TV, but for now, I’m simply happy I can watch them again.

The Incredibles is looking pretty darned good.

Ran this morning. Two big lessons: 1. I need to be more consistent in my training; and 2. I need to run earlier in the morning.

‘Twas a trifle warm out there today. Because I was going for longer than my nice little Thursday morning 7 miler I decided to leave the District and head down the Mount Vernon Trail. Was quite nice, a good trail, well maintained and fairly busy. Only complaint I had was that they need more trees (for shade) but less vegetation (which blocked the nice breeze off the river). Otherwise it was a pretty good run. Did two hours, and out and back with a little side detour in East Potomac Park (found out where the driveway off Buckeye Drive goes now!).

Did a load of cold wash just now. Need to do more laundry, but no time. L is picking me up to go see Assassins at Signature Theater this evening, with an early dinner beforehand.

Put away the ‘toys’ from where they were, out in the open, to not quite so out-in-the-open. Sorted them by purpose (restraint, penetration, etc.) and put them away accordingly. Even managed to hang up a couple of pieces of art – no longer will I have to worry about smacking the Japanese prints I’m keeping for my parents as they are now hanging in the front hall. The mirror’s up near the front hall, my first cross-stich is up in the bathroom hallway, and there are still books all over the floor in front of the bookshelf. Bit by bit.

I helped a friend clean/declutter today. Never again will I complain about having too much stuff.

Oh.
My.
God.

We spent three hours and barely made a dent in the one room I tackled (the bedroom). Only got to surfaces, no drawers, though the ones I saw needed it, badly. Cleared off two pieces, a dresser and the bedside table. Got most of the desk done before we had to leave. I’ve not seen that much dust in forever.

Dear heavens what a mess.

The dining room table was the pantry. The refrigerator was stuffed to the gills. Tiles were loose in the kitchen. Three different coffee makers. I made him toss out a couple boxes of things still in the box out on the side porch. He’ll get a huge break on his taxes when he donates all this crap, but man what a mess. the living room had dry cleaning laid out on the couch. There were no surfaces on which to sit, they were all covered in tchachkes or clothes or whatever. Expired medications. Old bills. Catalogs. Magazines never removed from the plastic wrap. Printer paper that was so wrinkled as to be useless. Clutter, clutter, clutter.

Never filth, just clutter. But far too much of it.

I may go back later to help, but only with the assistance of another person, I think. Definitely at least a three person job, two of whom need to be uninvolved emotionally with the clutter. Ugh.

I have a set of pages I read on a regular basis, every evening, and I added my LJ friends list and the page I use to write on my web site, which now prods me to write, ready or not. A purposeful thing, meant to force my fingers to get moving.

I managed a great feat today – I unpacked the last two boxes of books. Most of them are on bookshelves now. Most of them. I discovered that I need more bookshelves to fit them all, even with having dumped as many as I did when I moved. A bunch of paperbacks are now crammed onto some shelves in multiple layers. I’d prefer they be visible now, but in time they will be.

But now I’m completely moved in. Everything might not have a ‘permanent’ home yet, but it’s all out and mostly put away. Even managed to hang another piece of art. Slowly it’s become home.

This was a very long weekend. A goodly part of it was spent on the way to, the way from, and in Quakerstown, Pennsylvania to watch my newbie triathletes compete in their first race. The Steelman was a well run, well organized race that had both an olympic and a sprint distance race run at the same time (sprint started 1/2 an hour after the olympic folks). It was a lot of fun cheering them on, seeing them finish their first race, and just generally getting caught up in the race spirit without being in the race myself. I think that’s the first time I’ve been a spectator at a race since 1999 when I went to visit Ironman Canada with RNJTM. Was a lot of fun.

Once I got home, and got showered, I moved things around int he apartment again. The bed placement, even with the air diverters I hunted down, was just not working. The air unit has been blowing over my face when I sleep, which has caused at least one cold, and possibly a second. So I moved the bed around to the opposite wall. It works, though not like I’d prefer to have the room. At least the air thing is now solved so hopefully no more a/c induced colds this year.

Spent an hour tonight doing some yoga practice, something I’ve not done in a while. Did variations of standing poses, getting grounded, feeling how the legs supported the frame, how to adjust the movement of the body to keep centered and balanced. Felt good. Certainly it felt better than sitting online and running my fingers with friends. While I like chatting with folks, I have been spending a little too much time there and not enough working on things like the yoga practice. So it felt good to move the body again. I think perhaps hanging around with hundreds of people, many of whom are incredibly fit, was a motivator. Hmph.

Also starting to play with podcasts. I know, I know, I’m way behind the curve on them, but I typically do not use my iPod except as background noise at work, so listening to radio-type broadcasts where I’d have to pay attention to something isn’t my norm. Nonetheless I hunted down some mandarin-language podcasts through iTunes and will try to listen some more. My mandarin is very rusty, so listening to some currrent talk I think should help arrest and perhaps reverse some of the loss of skill there.

After rearranging the living room, and prior to starting dinner, I had another of those, “OMG, I own all of this” moments looking around at the apartment. It’s funny, both of the major rooms have now been reversed from how they were originally set up when I moved in, and both are probably more functional for the movement. It takes time to get things set up and arranged properly, but it seems like it’s taken longer than usual with my new home. And I haven’t even gone through and done a proper feng shui treatment of it yet, either.

Today was a wet one. I started it with a shower, then an open water swim out on the Chesapeake Bay with the club sometime around 8:30, another shower after that, then some more swimming at the cult co-op pool, then, of course, another shower. Very, very wet.

Came home from the first swim, hung up the wet suit, finally replaced my shower head (soooo nice to have a real shower head now), did cold wash (so no biking today – all my jerseys were dirty, and currently are drying on the rack).

Went and saw “The Devil Wears Prada” this evening with friends. Was quite cute, I enjoyed it. “That’s all.” Fun.

I’ve been reading a new cookbook I bought on Friday and it’s not helping my urges to add more things to the pantry and the kitchen gadget collection. There are items I need to add to the pantry, and will do so this week, but I don’t need (yet) a cast iron skillet. Nor do I need silicone oven mitts. Le sigh. But it’s been fun reading the cookbook. It’s a vegan one, and all the recipes look very accessible. The author is on my LJ friends list, and I remember hearing her trials of testing and what not, so it’s nice to read the actual book (finally) and see how well put together it is.

Off to crash soon, up for a bike ride, possibly, or more cookbook reading. Meeting of the members’ organization at the cult co-op tomorrow, and a bit of drama with that as a board member has caused a bit of a stir by perhaps getting our general manager to walk out on Friday. Moron.