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

It was wet and disgusting pretty much all day today, so I spent the vast majority of it sending my minions after various and sundry bugs, zombies and of course gold. Managed to find myself a mistress to redecorate my tower, forged some new armor, and killed off two more of the bosses. ‘Twas fun, if exasperating at times.

Did some tri club work this evening, coding of pages and sending out schedules for the other co-leaders to help decide when our next events are through the beginning of June. No bike today because of the thunderstorms, and didn’t feel like running since I’m supposed to run in the morning tomorrow.

Did get a lovely visit with JT last night – Thai food and good company, always a good combination. Almost dragged myself out to the local garden store, but decided to wait until next weekend when BC’s back in town and make him help. If I can drag him out shopping, that is – dunno what sort of time at home he’s going to need after seeing his grandparents and being out of town.

Just as I was wondering how my other friends who knit find time to do it, I discovered the secret to getting myself to sit down and do it: have a really busy, stressful day at work.

Came home from work, sort of ate. Loaded up the Resident Evil movies on the TiVo, and proceeded to add several inches to the scarf, I’m guessing at little over a third of what’s on it now was added over the past couple of hours tonight. And it was quite soothing, with the movies, the rain and hail, and the repetitive nature of this particular project (31 stitches, RS: k1, *k1b, p1, repeat and k1 at end; WS: *k1, p1, repeat). Precisely what I needed to get law, and work, off the brain.

Going to be interesting soon – I’m almost done with the first skein, so I’m going to have to switch off shortly. Shouldn’t be difficult, but it’s another new step to take. Not tonight, too tired for that, but soon.

Since getting tested, getting back to exercise has been slow. Motivation, breaking the non-exercising habits of the past couple of months, all nasty little barriers to overcome. Still not back to anything resembling a regular workout habit. Blah.

Work’s been pleasantly busy. Big project from last year has raised its ugly head again (the good idea of an outside agent which just happens not to be legal – so sorry), so we have to respond to yet another Hill inquiry about this thing. Ugh. Doesn’t help that the particular field office involved won’t shut up and get into line with HQ on this one, and admit that they’re reading the law wrong. The other big project has been a nice distraction, and finally seems to be coming together in a way that I think will work fairly well as a narrative, and in a way that the #2 in our office (who is ultimately charged with this memo) will like. Step increase kicks in this month at some point, so a little extra money should show up in ye olde paycheck soon, which is always nice.

Keep hoping for slightly warmer weather in the morning (I’d be okay with low 50s, thanks), mainly so I can go outside and bike. I don’t want to set up the trainer yet again and have to crank out miles in front of the television any more. Unfortunately the lows for the next week look to be in the mid-30s, so more trainer time it shall be. At least that lets me clear out my backlog of magazines & catalogs (I usually browse magazines when I get bored with the TV and am stuck on the bike indoors).

Headed up to Baltimore shortly for the Celtic Solstice Five Mile Run. Looks like it’s going to be a cold one. At least it’s not snowing like they first thought it was going to this morning.

And let me just say thank heavens this storm front has rolled into DC finally. First, we need the rain, and second, it’s only 11:45ish and it’s already below 70 in my apartment tonight, meaning I’ll actually be able to sleep well.

It’s welcome to keep raining for the next two days as they’re predicting, too. We need more than that, but it’s a good start, no matter the mess it’s going to make of the commutes.

Someone at work today called me lazy because I took the elevator down a floor to find a working bathroom, rather than taking the stairs. I laughed and declined to point out that I went 70.3 miles on Sunday. Lazy. Ha.

Firefox 2.00000000000000000whatever sucks donkey balls on the Mac. Not all the tabs fit on the screen, each one has its own “X” button rather than a single button that would close the one active tab so you have to keep moving the stupid mouse cursor to shut them, hitting apple-key-W won’t close the entire window if it’s the last tab, and the font for the bookmarks menu is too large to hold all of my delicately balanced bookmarks on one page, like it all used to do just fine under version 1.5. I am not amused. Additional features are not always improvements, folks.

I remembered some more vignettes from the race that I want to put to writing later this evening. Should’ve been in the initial race report, but I wanted to get it up sooner rather than later.

It’s the last month of the federal fiscal year and I’m again one of the most popular attorneys in our office, if not the most popular one. The next month is going to be b-u-s-y.

That light coming from yon burning orb in the sky? It’s fall light, not summer light. No humidity to futz it up, and much cooler out than it has been. Clearer, but different in hue and tone. Nice to see, nicer to know I can throw the windows open and not waste electricity on the AC. But so not ready for it to get darker earlier.

The season for ruining coasters.

You see, it’s a tad humid and warm at the moment here in DC, it being summer in the South, and I like to drink cold drinks when it’s this warm out. The colder the better. Cools your core, comforts you, and all around makes you feel better. Most frequently it’s simply water from the refrigerator, but in any case it’s cold, which means in this humidity that the glass attracts condensation like the Old Country Buffet attracts retired people.

I’ve just about ruined one older one I was using without thinking much about it (the one that holds my usual sipper bottle). Poor sucker’s starting to mold I’ve kept it so wet. So I’ve hauled out the big guns and scattered them around the apartment – the sandstone and metal coasters. Not much gets through those. Hopefully they’ll hold out until the humidity breaks, sometime in December.

Had an incredible meal last night at Vegetate with BC. He said if that were what veggie cuisine were like all the time he’d not really miss meat. Not a bad compliment. We did the restaurant week thing there, and added the wine pairings, which worked well (especially the ruby port with the chocolate-with-hot-peppers torte & ginger sorbet – yum!). Fantastic meal. This is only my second time there, but we’ll definitely go back. I just wish they were a bit more Metro accessible (they are, they’re just a good several blocks walk from the Metro).

Much snuggling and talking followed.

Contrast that meal with the one we had at Viridian on Tuedsday. For a restaurant known (among the veggies I know) as being very veggie/vegan friendly, it was disappointing that none of the prix fixe entrees was vegan. I did end up doing three courses, and the courses were okay, but the restaurant lost out – ordering the vegan entree and the two other pieces separately came out to less than the prix fixe price. Odd. And the video of the house demolition (which played over and over again over the bar) was distracting without being entertaining. I’m sure I’ll go back, but not any time soon.

Phone replacement ordered for my Treo. That’s all I’m saying for now, since it won’t arrive until next week. Suffice to say I’m looking forward to the switch, and thank you, thank you, thank you to a friend, who shall remain nameless, for a nice discount on it.

Took the tri bike in to the shop yesterday, so no riding for a bit. It’s had this persistent creaking noise for the past month and it’s driving me nuts, so I just said, “figure it out and fix it,” and left the bike with them for a week. So, long run this weekend, then some rest, perhaps Sunday a dip in the cult co-op pool and some sun to even out the lovely biker’s tan I have (“you’ve got a built-in wife-beater,” says BC). Looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks (and showing off BC) on Saturday afternoon at a get-together in the inner ‘burbs.

Relatively quiet this week at work. It’s a blessing when Congress goes out of session (a mixed blessing – it’s been hot and humid here like most of the country, but a blessing nonetheless), especially in my practice area. Playing catch up on a couple of things, and managed to dig up a nice source of funds which had been forgotten. That was worth at least my annual pay, so I feel like anything else I do this year is gravy, to paraphrase my first CFO in the government (after I did something similar).

Oh, it’s not the iPod that’s died, it’s the iHome speaker/clock/radio thing – the dock has somehow slipped and won’t connect correctly. I know this because the Apple dock that synchs the iPod with the computer works perfectly with no slippage. Good to know the old 3G is ticking along like clockwork.

Still debating Chesapeakeman, too. I think the low-key setting seems more my style. Won’t be as much crowd energy, but I think I actually prefer that, given my treatment of most exercise as a solo thing. We’ll see, but I’m thinking I may be having a talk with my boss about it this upcoming September.

Thank you to my f-list folks from MN who checked in to let us know you were okay.

I decided to take a first stab at getting through the backlog of books and magazines I have in the house by cancelling daily delivery of the Post. I only get to skim the paper as it is, and daily comics aren’t worth the hassle. They, of course, tried to do everything they could to keep me on, reminding me of the specialty sections, offering to lower the rate, &c. No dice, switch it back, thanks.

Now maybe I can work through the stack. Since it’s bad when you’re getting your mail and your first thought upon seeing a magazine is “oh look, another magazine I’m not taking the time to read.”

It seems to be the season for folks’ iPods to die, based on my blog/LJ reading. Not to miss out, my heaven-knows-how-old 3rd Generation iPod is currently giving me fits. The battery’s been shot for ages, but that’s not a big deal; I only use it on a platform speaker at work (where it’s charged as it plays) or in a car (where, again, it’s plugged in to charge). I use a 1st generation shuffle (the gum stick sized ones) if I want to listen to stuff while I’m out and about, since for the most part I don’t need to see a screen to listen on the Metro or while out walking, I’m not sitting on Metro that often to need to watch things, and I’d rather lose a hundred dollar piece of equipment than a multi-hundred dollar piece were I, heaven forefend, to get robbed.

So, true to the trend, the connection with the platform speakers at work seems to be cutting in and out, which is very annoying. I just want the current iPod to keep playing as it does now, without needing a real battery, and just as a big hard drive to keep my music. Grr.

Haven’t been sleeping well this week, I think it’s the usual August heat and our AC not quite keeping up. The joys of aluminum architecture. I suspect melatonin is getting ingested this evening as I’m really not ready for another sleepless night, and I really need to be able to train, which doesn’t happen (or doesn’t happen well) when I can’t sleep.

…

There are times I want to talk about work, and times when I’m glad I can’t. Let’s just say that it’s a scary world out there, boys and girls, and leave it at that. And I don’t even get to see the really scary stuff, yet, since my big ole clearance hasn’t come through yet.

Been busy otherwise. BC and I are seeing each other usually once during the week, and then a ton of time on the weekends. He might be buying a house waaaaay out in the ‘burbs, so I shall be investigating transportation options out that way. I know I can bike it, but that’s not so viable when it gets cold out. We’ll see. The joys of not owning a car, sometimes.

Oh, and speaking of such things, I got the payoff info for one of my sub-loans from the more expensive of the two variable rate student loans companies today, so a check is going out tomorrow to pay that puppy off. A minor victory, but a victory I’ll take. Every little step like that is a step closer to being debt-free, and will help accelerate the rate of repayment on these things, so huzzah for that.

Finally cooling off in here now that the thunderstorms are rolling through. I can’t really hear them over the dishwasher, though. It was a ‘clean the apartment and do laundry night’ for me, hence the dishwasher running. The dining table looks nicer without so much crap on it, as does my desk. Amazing what actually filing the stuff in the ‘to file’ pile will do for the place.

Now if I could just make a dent in the ‘to read’ pile.

Good bike ride this morning. I’m hoping the weather will be relatively nice so I can run in the morning. While I’ve been biking a lot more, and finally getting back to swimming, I’ve neglected my running over the past week, which is probably a contributor to the foul mood from yesterday (which was gone after a good night’s sleep and the ride this morning).

Popped by the bike shop to pick up supplies. Sadly their choices of Shot Bloks was very, very limited, so I only picked up a couple. I’ll have to pop back out somewhere else to pick up more. Still haven’t been able to try the margarita flavored ones, but I wasn’t too keen on the pina colada ones. They were okay, nowhere near as gross as vanilla clif shots were, but not a favorite. I prefer the black cherry or cran-razz flavors so far. Oh, and the bike shop was able to take my old bike tubes to recycle them. Yay! Better than dumping them in a landfill, for sure. Glad I remember to take them with me to work this morning in anticipation of the shopping trip.

Swim tomorrow, then maybe dinner in town with BC and some friends. Have to behave as I have a long ride on Saturday, around 4 hours or so.