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

I am most decidedly not a fan of cold weather, not that this is a revelation for anyone who’s known me or read what I’ve written online over the past decade. Being stuck inside, not being able to run or bike outdoors, all makes for a grumpy Moose. This weekend ended up being a wash as far as most activities go, though I did manage to get on the bike in the trainer both days an get some decent exercise in. For the most part I just vegetated and didn’t seem to do a lot past playing a lot on my DS. It’s weekends like this that make me question the decision to live on SW; it’s so much more socially isolated down here, despite the convenience to work and training. Though when I sit down and think it over I honestly wonder if I’d be any better at getting out if I lived any closer to folks. Certainly I’d have less of an excuse not to venture out, but would that be enough to motivate me to do so? I’d like to think I would, but I can’t know that at the moment.

That said, I’m getting the hell out now because I can’t take the apartment and the lack of human contact any more. So, off to JR’s for me thus evening and meeting a friend or friends for dinner. I may not like going outside in cold weather, but I can’t ignore the need to get out of my little shell, so wrestle with winter I will.

So far so good on the new year. Did manage to get up too late to bike (on the trainer) this morning, but managed it this evening. Stopped by the gym on the way home and, once again, the manager wasn’t in so they couldn’t take updated credit card info, but I left a note to have him call me. I think the first time I’ll get in to actually swim will be next week, but I’d like there to be no hang ups with getting into the pool. Not that I’m dying to get into the pool, but since it’s a third of the triathlon, and my weakest leg, it’s kinda necessary.

Got to ring in the new year itself with Mike and some friends of mine here in DC. Was a pleasant time together, with fun friends, good drinks, and board games.

I’m taking a sort of perverse amusement from the fact that it’s below 50 degrees down in Tampa where my snow bird parental units are. The bone-chilling cold we’ve had here in the DC area for the past several days hasn’t been fun, but it’s not like it doesn’t get down here on occasion in the winter, so we can prep for it. Tampa? Not so much, at least not as cold as it’s been getting. Crazy stuff. And partially why I’m trying to clear the gym up – I can use their treadmills to run inside so I’m not out in 20-some degree weather freezing my toes off.

And of course I already want to change some items on my Uberlist, but I’ll stick with what’s written for now. Doesn’t mean plans don’t change, even this quickly, but that’s the fun of a big doc like that. I’m thinking something more private and flexible might not be a bad idea, though, so help set out priorities and make some longer term plans for handling stuff.

1. Ironman Louisville
2. Eagleman Triathlon
3. Columbia Triathlon
4. Total 200
5. Get an entertainment center
6. Reorganize the closets
7. Replace my dishwasher
8. Replace the disposer
9. Frame my graduate school diplomas
10. Assist with a CBE class
11. Knit something for my nieces
12. Paint a room
13. Play a game online with a friend
14. Reduce my caffeine use
15. Clean behind the fridge
16. Find a storage option for my bicycles
17. Fix or get rid of the mountain bike
18. Attend a heart circle
19. Have friends over for dinner
20. Host a bad movies party
21. Host a game day
22. Do a massage exchange
23. Take a knife skills class
24. Pick up items from Les
25. Read the unread Chinese fiction in my collection
26. Get ink
27. Clean out my kitchen cabinets
28. Come up with a display for my medals
29. Frame my finished cross stitch projects
30. Get a body fat scale
31. Get a power tap for the tri bike
32. Decorate the bathroom
33. Go to the Holocaust museum
34. Grow balcony plants
35. Cook some of what I grow on the balcony
36. Donate more books
37. Get away from my desk at lunch
38. Volunteer at a race
39. Get a pedicure
40. Attend a play
41. Do regular core work
42. Reduce surface clutter in the apartment
43. Finish two pair of socks
44. Clean out the work desk
45. Readjust my sleep schedule to earlier
46. Get rid of the extra crates
47. Dispose of the roomba battery properly
48. Store my bike rack better
49. Get a better tool box
50. Get a new heart rate monitor
51. Volunteer with the tri club
52. Get out to more NTP workouts
53. Integrate a regular yoga practice
54. Get closer to race weight
55. Eat more fruit
56. Attend a Code party
57. Dance
58. Go clothes shopping
59. Replace my tuxedo jacket
60. Get cufflinks
61. Take a CPR class
62. Replace the aerobars water bottle
63. Cut down on miscellaneous extraneous purchases
64. Get up to Boston as often as practicable
65. Bring better snacks to the office
66. Stay on top of mail-order nutrition needs
67. Bake cookies
68. Donate the moose dishes
69. Get replacement shades for the leg lamps
70. Mount the antlers
71. Rearrange the art in the bedroom
72. Go through the boxes in the closets and toss what I can
73. Keep sending cards
74. Beat a DS game
75. Beat an Xbox game
76. Beat a Wii game
77. Get a PS3
78. Beat a PS3 game
79. Prepare 2011’s tracking sheet
80. Replace the shower liner hooks
81. New bath towels
82. Prepare 2011’s Uberlist before the end of 2010
83. Annual physical
84. Two dental visits
85. Get through one dental visit without getting fussed at to floss more
86. Look into toe surgery
87. Track my workout/health stats more consistently
88. Analyze the stats to see where I need improvement
89. Treat my eczema more aggressively
90. Replace a set of sheets
91. Pay off a student loan company
92. Pay off a credit card
93. Donate unused tri stuff to the club
94. VO2 Max test
95. Resting Metabolic Rate test
96. Clean out the file cabinet
97. Rearrange the kitchen counters
98. Find a chiropractor
99. Find a regular place to get my hair cut
100. Replace the couch
101. Cull my files at work
102. Repot my office plants. Again.
103. Deactivate web accounts that I don’t use.
104. Cut down the number of unwanted voluntary web site emails
105. Start archiving historical info on the NTP
106. Get the Xbox 360 repaired
107. Get a new, larger TV
108. Organize/toss the electronic “stuff” in my cabinets
109. Toss old computer games, manuals and guides
110. Recycle my old PCs

Not my day for stuff. First, I discovered the zipper on my coat is broken (luckily I have a backup). Then the roomba, which claimed to have a full battery, crapped out in about 10 seconds of vacuuming. Then the Xbox 360 decided to freeze up on me. Multiple times. I dread the thought of having to send that beast in. Plus I really wanted to wreak havoc with my minions tonight on Overlord.

None of these are insurmountable, or even particularly difficult, but they are annoying.

Finally found a replacement program for DoubleCommand (DC) that allows one to remap the useless as all get out Right Option/Alt key on the newer mac laptops to a Function key so you can page up and down web pages with one hand. KeyRemap4MacBook. Been checking DC’s site for an upgrade (which never came) for months now, and finally gave up, searched the web again, and found a decent replacement that works. Very pleased with it.

DC worked well on the old iBooks, as it had mastered the remap of the useless “Enter” key that appeared beside the arrow keys and enabled one to then use the arrow keys as “page up” and “page down”, making web browsing on longer web sites (like LJ) much easier to do. But, they never upgraded the program to do the same for the new Right Option key that appeared for whatever odd reason in place of the Enter key on the newer mac laptops. But, KeyRemap now does the trick. Yay.

Spent the last three days of Snowpocalypse 2009 playing the last of the three games in the Metroid Prime Trilogy, finally defeating the last three bosses (on the 2nd try) a little bit ago. While I’d originally planned to do a run, I suspect it’s still a bit too icy out there to run on the roads/sidewalks, so it looks to be a day on the bike trainer in the living room. Not thrilling, but I’m glad to have the option.

The snow was lovely, and I’ve yet to venture out into it because, frankly, snow is best (to me) from a distance. Preferable a few thousand miles of distance, but hey. I wasn’t upset at the extra day off today (OPM shut down the federal government here in DC to give the localities another day to dig us all out, plus Metro’s not yet running full steam, or wasn’t as of last night). Since I’ve stayed in I’ve been giving my face a break from shaving, proving again why I don’t grow a full beard (I can’t; the right side doesn’t grow in completely). I think I’ll keep it until tomorrow morning, letting the skin have another full day’s break from the scraping. Periodically ice and snow will fall off the apartments above me, or be pushed off, and the noise is jarring. The more regular drip of melting balconies hits the windowsill in my bedroom every now and again as the building heats up.

Glad this happened this weekend and not next weekend. The drive up to Pittsburgh is going to be taxing enough as it is without adding ice and snow to the mix. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to run up in Baltimore Saturday, but there was no way I was taking a mini cooper on I-95 in “blizzard” conditions.

Both of the last two days have meant I’ve had to leave office parties to do work and then been cut off from socializing from my coworkers. I actually got to utter the following phrase to a field office person: “I’m sorry, this will have to wait until tomorrow when I’m sober.” That was a good feeling. I also got to yell at people, with the appropriate caveats that I was not sober and this was not personal, even if it was. I should be able to drink at the office more often.

A week until I head to north-of-Pittsburgh to meet Mike’s family. I’m nervous. I shouldn’t be, but I am. I’m sure it’ll go fine, but I’ve been through the whole first meeting of the family before, and while I know I’m charming and all that, it’s still nerve-wracking. I haven’t procured the necessary bits of liquor yet to grease the wheels, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to before Friday next week. This does not bode well.

So I went out after work to a tri club event (where they told me I need to teach a class on cooking veggies), and then off to see the homos, where they flirted mercilessly and I resisted because I’m thoroughly in love and where we all frustrated each other. And then I left to come home and resist going to work in the morning because I suspect I’m going to hurt tomorrow. Oh well. The world will have to get over it.

Well, gifts have been ordered. The ones that I’m ordering online, that is. The appropriate parties will receive them in the appointed times. Whee. Thankfully ordering was relatively easy, once the harder part, the deciding, was done. That process took weeks, unfortunately.

After a long, dragging day at work (punctuated only by an office party at one of our program offices – yay for mid-afternoon beer), I came home to whip up some marinara with part of the bounty I brought home from the grocery store yesterday. I hadn’t gone in ages, so yesterday was particularly expensive. Thankfully homemade marinara is relatively inexpensive to produce, and freezes well, even with the addition of some ground turkey. I did manage to forget that it’s better to spice the turkey while ‘browning’ it, but given that it’s been a decade since I last did that, I think I can be forgiven. I’ll try not to forget again. But man, good sauce, completely worth the time to make it. And now I’ll have it to zap for a bit yet.

It looks like it’s going to be nastily wet tomorrow morning for the run, which kinda sucks since my last run up in Provincetown this past Saturday was similarly cold and wet. The joys of winter running. I think it would be prudent to make it a short run and just do 4 rather than the usual ‘long’ run on a Wednesday.

Provincetown was, as I intimated above, pretty darn wet for the one full day there. No snow, thankfully, but plenty of cold rain. Worth every minute of it, though. The concert was fun, as was shopping. And of course, seeing Mike was pretty darned keen. Next visit is in a couple weeks, then again the weekend after. Miss him a lot when he’s not here or I’m not there. But, it goes well, and it makes the time together a bit more special.

I’m spending a lovely, if wet, weekend in Massachusetts with the bf. Flew up yesterday after work, he picked me up at Logan, and we immediately drove out to Provincetown, a place I’d not been before (so, yeah, coming to the summer resort in December? Brilliant!). Overall it’s been a nice little visit, the town is quite cute, and I can see how it would quickly get overwhelmed on weekends in the summer, even worse than Rehomo Rehoboth Beach, DE does. Most of the shops have been open for some last minute shopping, and the overall atmosphere has been fun.

He’s singing in two concerts this evening with the local gay men’s chorus. I’m going to the later one, so am catching up on web reading until then. Got in a very wet five mile run this afternoon, which despite the rain went pretty well, if a bit fast (probably because of the rain – pacing was out the window as I simply tried to pay attention to running on the side of the road with some, though not much, traffic). Heart rate was similarly a bit high, but I’m not concerned – I’ll treat it as a last race-page workout before the Celtic Solstice 5 miler in two weeks.

We head back to Boston at some point to pick up his pug and settle in for a quiet evening before I fly back Monday morning, heading into work directly from the airport. I’ll get to see him again Xmas weekend in Pennsylvania, then again the next weekend when he flies down to DC for new year’s eve. Even with the distance he makes me happy, and that’s worth a lot.

Wrestled with my poor, old, non-working dishwasher for a few hours this weekend. It no longer drains completely, perhaps the result of a blockage somewhere, perhaps a broken valve. I explored as much of the interior systems as I could, easily, but at the end of the weekend it was Dishwasher 3, Moose 0.

I did learn that I have an appliance-screw sized attachment for my electric screwdriver, however, and I also found the troubleshooting sheet that came with the DW. Unfortunately I didn’t discover the attachment until the beginning of round 2 of cleaning, and I have to say, trying to get tiny appliance screws out with pliers is not fun. Removing the baskets to get at and clean various filters went much faster after the discovery. The other discovery, the troubleshooting sheet, was a fluke caused by the poor installation of the DW by the previous owner. The area under my sink has no cabinet walls – evidently they got ripped out to install the DW, so while I was putzing around looking at where hoses went, I was able to look at the chassis on it’s right side. There, stuck into the outside of the DW, was the sheet. Who hides such a thing like that? Nonetheless, it was nice to find as it did help identify more places to check.

It’s still not draining, and I’ve done all I can without disconnecting the power and hauling the unit out from the cabinet. I suspect I’m just going to revert back to my original plan and replace the unit this next year with one that’s more energy efficient.

I did learn a lot about the care and feeding of DWs in this whole process, thus once again living out my father’s definition of maturity: Learning to become an expert at those things you never wanted to learn in the first place.