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

I sat down in the bathroom, for the usual reasons. The middle stall, beside me, was occupied. Soon he took some paper off the roll. And then some more. And then again. It didn’t sound like he was blowing his nose, but he kept taking off bits of paper, with only seconds in between each burst of unrolling. Then he flushed. And then started again with the paper. And flushed again. This happened (flushing and continued rolling) at least twice while I was in the stall, and once more when I was washing my hands.

This after noticing that the jerk who uses the paper hand towels to cover the seat instead of the perfect good (and flushable) seat cover things (he regularly clogs up one of the toilets in the bathroom, which doesn’t get fixed for days on end afterward) must’ve been in the stall I picked sometime before I was, because there were extra towels on the floor around the toilet.

I work with some really freaky men.

As the weather has cooled down I’ve been bitten with the baking bug. It happens most years at this time, but with a renewed focus on cooking at home, and the attendant reading of cookbooks, it’s come on bad this year. So I decided the next foray (after the first attempt to use the oven) would be muffins. Lemon poppyseed, using a recipe that I knew worked.

Blended the stuff up, almost forgot the egg replacer, but got it in before too late, popped it into the heated oven.

Unfortunately, like the last time, though I had carefully gotten the temperature up to the right place, it again zipped over the set temperature. Some slight burnt edges, and the flour was not quite the freshest (it’ll be replaced ASAP), but they did come out edible. Not perfect, but not a complete waste of time, either.

It’s almost like the oven refuses to cut off once it reaches the right temperature. Thankfully there’s a little light over the dial so I can tell when the heating element is on or off – that’s what clued me in that it was still going even though it had long since reached the right temp. Not sure what type of tweak it’ll take to fix that, will have to research the stove model and see if there’s any way to fix it without replacing the unit. Do need to get it fixed or figured out before I start making bread on the weekends again, though. Muffins are one thing, a week’s worth of bread is a whole other thing.

Okay, so today was most certainly the start of the last week of the fiscal year. Nothing quite like watching budget people wig out over other staffs’ mismanagement of their programs.

So I came home and did what I normally do when I’m stressed out. I downed a fifth of good bourbon. Since I’m not currently drinking until after the marathon, I cleaned.

Somehow putting things in order seems to calm me down, as I’m sure I’ve written about before (but I’m too lazy to look up any entries). The dining room table is clean, the desk is clean, my triathlon/exercise books are in order, and I’m about to tackle the cookbooks (those have been driving me to distraction of late as I try to find particular books and they’re in no order). The floor is clear enough (and was even before I started, honestly – this has been an effort to attack surfaces above the floor) that the roomba ran nicely around the whole place while I worked on particular areas, rescuing it as it ran into the bathroom or got stuck on the living room carpet. A nice, soothing scent’s been going in the burner, and I just closed up the house for the night, to shut out the noise.

It’s certainly a healthier reaction than the other usual one, and I do feel better for having cleaned stuff up, but it always strikes me as odd when I ‘come out of’ a cleaning fit and find specific spaces put into order and looking much, much better than they had at the begining of the evening. Neuroses are such fun.

I have my first sports injury of the season – on my right foot “the little piggy that had none” got a lovely matched set of blisters that made the last 2-3 miles a very unpleasant walk home. Hopefully they’ll callus over and negate the need for any serious ugliness, but it was an obnoxious ending to a long run. Yay for weird toes (this particular toe smooshes down against the one next to it, such that it has a little wedge-shaped callus already, in front of where the new blisters appeared today).

Did myself a favor this time, ran out about 5-5.5 miles on the Mount Vernon trail, turned around and headed back into East Potomac Park to do three loops around Hains Point, mostly because there’s a ready source of water in Hains Point (three public bathrooms). I ended up filling up my fuel belt water bottles twice, and drained them all each time (8oz x 6 x 3 = 144 oz water). Was only down by a pound from my weight in the morning, so that wasn’t too bad.

The knees have had their usual soreness post-run, but with the freedom of sandals I was able to make it to the grocery store and back without pain. We’ll see how the piggy does in shoes tomorrow.

Simple dinner of black beans (canned, zapped), saffron rice (from a bag, stove top cooked) and fried potatoes (fresh, again stove top cooked) with MG this evening, which was quite nice, satisfying, and blessedly simple. Going to try and make crock pot oatmeal this evening with the kitchen timer I bought a while back. Am keeping my fingers crossed that it works; warm breakfast with minimal effort in the morning sounds oh-so-nice, and the durned crock pot ought to get some play at some point.

Last night I noticed something that was, to me, odd. MG was over, and I just noticed that I have felt much calmer when he’s been staying over lately. I say odd because I’ve felt more like I’ve been the calming one in my past relationship (one ex referred to the calming influence of my presence as soaking up the “Moose soporific rays”, and not in a derogatory way). So it was startling to realize that the effect was working in the opposite direction. This weekend makes seven weeks since we met, and it’s just grown more comfortable in the interim.

In completely unrelated news™, I am seriously craving tater tots. Methinks a trip to the grocery store on the way home is in the cards. Mmm, tater tots…

As much as I love what I do (most days), I really hate the end of the federal fiscal year.

Everyone’s hair seems to be on fire, and unfortunately for them I am the Only Attorney That Can Save Them (or so they think – I try not to disabuse them of the notion, as it means more job security for me). Which makes me both popular and loathed.

Whee.

So, I’ve been stress eating instead of my slightly better normal routine (it’s not perfect, but it’s better than it has been this week). My stomach is starting to complain about the treatment. I don’t blame it, but it’s getting annoying. And building on the stress.

Oh, and to top off this lovely week of stuffing myself with every bad food I can lay my hands on, I was told today that the powers that be have offered me up as a sacrificial lamb to go to the Congress next week and help explain why what we did a month or so ago didn’t require notifying them or asking permission. Not like, bright lights and subpoenas, but in a less formal setting, a meeting with our appropriators and their staffs. The staffs I’ve so far managed to avoid meeting in person. I trust and hope this means a grade promotion is on the way this fall.

Fall has hit DC with a vengeance. From temperatures in the high 60s at night, we’re currently at a lovely 53 degrees (up two from the low!).

This kind of weather makes running outside much more pleasant, not to mention being able to cut off the A/C and throw open the windows all night finally. And, bonus, I get to haul out the big, fluffy white bathrobe(s) when it’s colder than cold inside the apartment when I get up in the morning (I can so hear Margaret Cho channeling her mother, crying out, “soooo gaaaay!” right about now). I love the fluffy white bathrobes, but there’s really no need for them when it’s warm out.

The temps will climb back up over the weekend from their current lows, but them they’re back down again next week. I expect soon we’ll hear calls here at the cult co-op to switch the A/C over to heat (it’s an old all-or-nothing system, one or the other, not both). The BGA, which has the same sort of system, will do the same. Which will, of course, result in an indian summer heat wave which will bake us in our units for a week or two, but so be it. In the meantime, it’ll be fun to watch people scramble for portable heaters.

As MG and I were getting dressed this morning, he in a suit for a planned trip to NYC on business, and me in my bike jersey and shorts to bike to work, all I could think about was how it would make the start of a lovely pr0n scene, with the bike messenger coming to make a special delivery for the gentleman at his office.

Surprisingly, we still made it out on time.

Rawr.

The new shoes have helped the knees. Biking up to get the shoes has also helped get me out of my “I’m walking to work” groove and back on the bike. I do like that it’s quicker, it’s the whole changing clothes at either end part that’s not particularly fun.

But it definitely felt better to bike in and back today.

Work’s still crazy busy. Wish I could talk about some of it, but alas, the cone of silence continues as I do like keeping my mostly-comfortable job. Two more weeks and we get to move on to the next set of craziness, also known as the continuing resolution period until after the election. It’ll go at least until then, and possibly later depending on which way the electoral pendulum swings. One house gets lost, they’ll likely ram the budgets through ASAP. If the current majority stays in power or gains, they may just punt the decisions to January. Either way it’s bad budgeting. Too bad the typical voter doesn’t care about whether they put a budget in place or not.

Otherwise there’s not much to report. I’ve become even more boring than I was, but most days that’s just fine by me.

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.