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

Following the stress of this past week, I ended up going out on Thursday to meet the regular crew at JR’s, then on Friday, in a convoluted fashion, I ended up at the new Ziegfield’s/Secrets. Two late nights, and even without drinking terribly much, it was more of that sort of stress than I’m used to. It was fun, but I don’t see how some guys do that week after week.

Tonight’s plan is a dinner date, sober, with one of the regular crew from Thursday. Don’t know if it’ll go very far past this as I hadn’t realized he smoked when I agreed to the date, but hey, we’ll see how it goes. Can’t really do much past dinner because I’d like to bike or run tomorrow, and I need more normal sleep pattern back before the upcoming work week and the new stresses that will entail.

On a side note, I wonder if anyone has studied whether people buy less cologne/perfume in jurisdictions where they don’t allow smoking in the bars.

It was interesting to see that Z/S is within walking distance, as long as you feel safe walking through/around the public housing between there and the cult co-op. The experience was a bit crowded; I don’t think they have a very good layout for the bars – too crowded and too few bartenders. Getting ignored by one bartender as he worked the back bar didn’t help my impression of the service. No dancing upstairs, either, despite a large dance floor and lots of dance music playing for the dancers.

Our new political leadership, at the urging of certain offices who have an axe to grind, has decided that the lawyers in the BGA are the source and instigators of all delay or other ills affecting the BGA. I actually had one political tell me to my face, in regard to some impossible language coming our way in the upcoming appropriation, that we collectively were being “insufficiently creative.” As if all there is to lawyering is to wave our hands and declare that red is green to suit the immediate political desires of the leadership. As I recall the last administration had their attorneys do some “creative” lawyering, and that turned out just swimmingly (not). Little twerp.

Needless to say, this has not made working terribly pleasant at the moment, especially in the face of the extraordinary demands on us under the stimulus act.

Adding to the difficulties are the normal issues with any transition, getting the politicals on board and up to speed, and also just getting our senate-confirmed folks nominated and through the senate vetting process. The tax woes of earlier nominees have caused an increased scrutiny of all nominees by the white house, thus further slowing the process (plus the desire to have cabinet secretaries all in place before lower appointees are nominated).

We’ll get through this, but it would be nice to have more, and less hostile, political leadership in place in the face of these extraordinary needs.

PT again today, am doing much better, foot-wise. One thing I did was ask for new orthoses to better balance my odd little feet. He’d put a couple cushions in strategic places on my current orthoses the last time and those did seem to help (until the tape fell off). Keeping my fingers crossed.

More importantly, it was an hour in which I was able to turn off all my little electric devices and be “off-line” for a while. Felt like heaven.

Tonight I’m headed out, because I need to get the hell out of the apartment and see people other than my co-workers in a social setting. So, off to a haircut and JRs for moi now.

Well, as if I didn’t know it already, that speech proved that I’m going to have a very, very busy four years.

By special request, Moose’s Rules of Life:

1. Life is inherently ridiculous.
2. People are stupid.
3. Fat is flavor.
4. Of course I don’t fight fair; I’m an attorney.
5. Youth is fleeting, but immaturity can be forever.
6. The hotter the guy online, the further away he lives.

#2 is by far and away the most quoted of the rules (especially when I’m driving). #1 gets me through so many days working for the Federal government. #3 is more a truism than a rule, but it’s been there for a while now, so it’s stuck. #4 goes without saying. #5, well, it’s fun. And #6 is so, so, so, so, so, so true.

So there you have them, or at least what they are thus far.

Finished up another hat. This is the same pattern as the Mardi Gras Hat I made last fall, because it’s for the bf of the man I made that one for.

I like how the yarn striped the colors in a diagonal down, in sort of a camouflage-like effect (fitting, for a former military man). Have to hunt the man down to give it down to him, but it’s finally done.

Spoke with K today, she got her hat and was just bubbling over with happy over getting it. That really made my day.

My brother is visiting for the next couple of days, just got in this evening. I have him plopped in front of the Xbox and Bioshock at the moment. Should prove to be an interesting visit.

Thank you, DC Ofc. of Tax & Revenue, for timely processing my tax return. Thanks to that, one more student loan bit the dust tonight. Zing. Just two more to go with that company and all the private loans will be history.

Had dinner with a friend this evening whom I hadn’t seen in a while. He got all boyfriended last year, and between that and my own craziness we hadn’t seen each other in ages. It was nice to catch up, and learn some of his new haunts these days.

I think I’ve figured out a pattern for a scarf for myself. Given that I’ve knit maybe one thing for myself (the brown fingerless gloves, which I’ve not used because they need some repair), I think that’s pretty noteworthy. Well, that and the fact that I really dislike wearing scarves. They’re a necessary evil, and they always seem to be too bulky, which is why I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what I want in a scarf (thin, short, non-bulky – a bit of insulation for the neck, but not something that’ll puff out the jacket). Have to do a test swatch soon in the yarn I think I want to use (yay stash!), and then I’ll get to working it up. In the meantime I’ve made a bunch of progress on a traditional sock, and started a new hat for a friend (to match the one I already gave his boyfriend – same pattern & yarn brand, different yarn colors). Yes, I’ve had knitting on the brain.

Been doing my stability exercises as prescribed. I suspect these, like the IT band stretches before them, will become part of the overall maintenance repertoire. Not a bad thing, certainly something I’ve needed to do, so it’s good to get some direction there.

Which brings me to this race season. I’m signed up for two races at the moment, and I might do them, but I’m not going to focus a lot on racing this year. My focus needs to be more on weight loss and overall stability (i.e., injury proofing). I’ll still be training, but those two things need to be priority over actual racing, so that I can come back with a much better 2010 race season (and a healthier body overall).

After a marathon evening of knitting, I’m done with K’s hat:

If I had to do bits of row 77 over again, I was going to scream. Actually, I did scream. Not too loud, didn’t want to scare the neighbors, but OMG I hate, hate, hate purl-2-together-through-the-back-loop now. I mean, nice effect, but given how tight a knitter I am, I kept having the damned stitches slip off the right needle while trying to get the thing through the back loop. Now that it’s done, I’m glad I picked the pattern – it was challenging, but not impossible.

For once being a tight knitter paid off – I finished it in one skein, no additional yarn needed. So glad it’s done now; hope she likes it, and gets back to work soon to tell me about it.

As far as habits and coping mechanisms, knitting seems to be a healthier alternative to drinking. So far.

Long, long, long day. We have agreement on the stimulus bill, but no text yet to see what’s changed and what they still left there and fucked up. And there was some truly fucked up stuff in there, like mandated competition for grants, all grants, even the ones which are just supposed to be spread among the states evenly by some sort of formula (because it’s smart to have, say, Delaware competing against New Jersey for grant money). Not brilliant, but typical of rushed legislation with good intentions.

Got several more rows done on the hat, the decreases and slips in the rounds have started. It’d look better if my stitches in the cables were more even, but I’m still pleased with how it’s coming out, and I think K will like it. There’s a bit of an increased urgency now, as she started chemo on Monday, and radiation this week as well (1 day of chemo, 5 of radiation each week – yowch). So I want to get it done and off to her this weekend so she’ll have it if she needs it. Plus I need to know if I’ll need any more of the yarn, since my one supply is waaaaay out in Vienna. It’s supposed to knit up from one skein, but that can vary, and I’ve heard other folks say they’ve needed a smidge more than a skein to finish these.

So, yeah, instead of going out to drink, or staying home to drink, I popped in more bad movies and got a bunch of knitting done. And now it’s crash time so I can hopefully get what I need to get done tomorrow done and get out of there to my PT appointment.