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

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.

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.

I’m currently sitting in my parents’ motor home, listening to the remnants of Hurricane Ida blowing past. Every now and again a particularly strong blast of wind manages to shake the coach back and forth. Reminds me of a camping trip we took when I was little and we had to flee into the vehicle we’d driven up in because the tent was literally about to be blown over by the wind that night. That’s not a concern here, obviously, but it is a bit disconcerting when your “home” rocks with the wind.

Completely forgot to bring any snacks, or Adult Tang, so I think I’ll be shopping tomorrow rather than this weekend. While I’m out in the wilds of Virginia I find it a good opportunity to hit stores I wouldn’t normally get to, or get things that it’s easier to haul home in the car rather than attempt to carry home via the Metro. If I can get out, that is. There’s more than a bit of flooding going on here, which made the drive down interesting once the sun set.

I got to spend the past two weekends with Mike – I went up for Halloween in Salem with him, and then he came down this past weekend for Code and a visit. We continue to talk nightly, and haven’t managed to run out of things to talk about. I head back up in early December to see him next, and visit Provincetown for the first time.

I’m thinking of taking a CPR course in late December. It would be good to know just in general, and also for my continuing work with our New Triathlete Program with my tri club. I’m trying to get myself back into “triathlon” mode, picking up literature I need to go over both for NTP and for my own training, and reinvesting myself back into a training mode that I’ve been out of since September’s race.

No pictures yet, but I finished sock #1 of the set I’m doing from the Braun’s Woods colorway. Fairly pleased with how it came out – the fit is really good. The way the colorway came out was a bit odd – I get a nice spiral up the leg, but the foot alternates between some light striping and two big chunks of pooled colors. Hmmm. I expect the 2nd sock (which has been cast on) will come out about the same.

Dug through stash to see what I might have for some quick hats for the two younger nieces for giftmas. Given my brother’s job situation they’ll get a check from me as the main gift, but something tangible for the little ones is good to do, too. Hopefully the bits of stash I’ve identified will be enough for two hats for them. Oh, and may I say that I am very, very glad I got a ball winder, as that’s making re-packaging yarn to carry with me much, much easier.

Nice weekend here. One of my body electric brothers was in town and crashed here, so got in lots of walking around, playing tourist. I need to go ahead and join the Smithsonian as a supporter of the American Art Museum – I always end up taking people up there rather than the Mall! I especially love some of the crazy folk art stuff on the first floor; we ‘Mericans have managed to come up with some batshitcrazy stuff (as well as some seriously good art, but the batshitcrazy tends to catch the eye). ‘Twas good to catch up with him and reconnect, and I always enjoy playing tour guide in my little city.

Up a bit too late to run this morning, so will do so this evening instead. Will have the advantage of being warmer then, too. Made plans with Mike to head up there the first weekend of December. He’ll be down the weekend after next, so I’ll get to see him soon! There’s a game day that weekend, too, so I get to show him off as well. The holidays will be a little bit crazy, and we briefly toyed with the idea of a visit “home” to his parentals, but it’s a bit soon for that yet. We talk a lot, more than I normally ever like to talk on the phone (friends will confirm I’m more of a texter than a talker), but it’s not felt forced or anything. Still smitten, obviously.

It’s about time for me to go through the Uberlist for this year, catalog what’s been done, what’s yet to be done and is still doable, and what’s completely out. Not quite sure how I’ve done – I haven’t kept up with the list that well this year (in terms of looking it over), but I suspect I’ve done a bit more than I thought I might, realistically. But that’s another post.

The club held a seminar on IM training and what not this evening. It was well attended (that it was at a bar, with a private room, helped I’m sure), and was very useful. Little reminders of things I’ve read, confirmation of other things, and some new info. I know I’m going to be doing a lot more posting to our web site with questions this next year as things come up, but it was good to be reminded that I have this incredible resource there, with a great community to turn to when I need ’em.

Was going to bike up there, but decided I didn’t want to deal with Porter Street on my fixie, so I took Metro instead and got in a bunch more knitting on this latest sock. It’s funny, it was pooling pretty randomly when I was doing the little bit of stockinette stitch at the ankle, but since I started a k2p1 rib after a couple inches it’s now doing a very wide spiral up the leg. I guess that little bit of extra yarn made the difference in pooling versus spiraling. The toe, sole increases and the heel all striped up nicely, but I think I’m just slightly off when I’m at the mid-foot and ankle diameters. Weird. Next batch with this particular brand of yarn (Blue Moon’s Socks that Rock) will probably need to be smaller or larger needles (more likely smaller). Not that the pooling didn’t look good, but it’s not as nice as the natural stripes that are supposed to come out of it.

Got to talk to a couple of girls on the way home who were curious about the knitting. That was fun.

Chatted with Mike when I got home. Going to plot out tomorrow morning’s run, lay out my gear, and get my butt to bed now.

Starting to get back into a routine now after a couple of weeks of head cold, travel, complete abandonment of exercise, etc. Ran Monday and this morning (much to the chagrin of my legs), went to the men’s knitting group tonight and got another inch or so done on the leg of the latest sock, cooked a good meal last night, getting into the groove of the new fiscal year at work, etc. A return to semi-normalcy, which is very welcome.

Part of cooking last night was using my microwave convection oven for the first time as an oven and not just a microwave. I knew they didn’t take as long to cook, but didn’t expect quite how much faster it would be. The little 3 lb turkey breast that the label said should take 2.5-3 hours in the oven took 45-60 minutes in the microwave convection oven, and came out quite nicely. Color me impressed. Add to that the butternut squash, roasted in the normal oven, and some asparagus to go with and it was a nice little meal, with some good leftovers. I need to cook more, and this was partly an experiment to see how easily I could cook up something like the turkey breast for taking into work instead of buying the deli meat sandwiches and all the filler they have in them.

Before heading out to the knitting group I raided my stash and managed to find the yarn I was going to make into a scarf last spring (improvised design, didn’t work). I have found a better pattern which is almost exactly what I was envisioning for myself, so was good to find existing stash for it. I should catalog the stash again, and add in all the new sock yarn from the summer, but meh. Also managed to find some stash for a couple of other gift projects. Score.

Spending time with Mike this past weekend was wonderful. Still very much smitten there, and looking forward to seeing how it grows. We just fit together well, and he makes me want to be better.

Running’s getting going again because I have a race in two months, and I will be prepared for this thing and its hills, come hell or high water. Fridays are going to start being hill workout days – heading up toward the Mall via L’Enfant Promenade (that dreadful monstrosity of I.M. Pei’s), and if I can get far enough, up around the ‘hill’ around the Washington Monument. This is the problem with having moved down to the river – it’s relatively flat here, and thus harder to train on hills without traveling. We’ll see how this Friday goes.

Friends visiting over the next three weekends, including Mike in early November. Busy times, and good stuff to do – will help get me out of the apartment, and back into a social groove. While I am doing the IM in August, I need to better balance a social life of sorts, no matter how limited, and settle back into a better pattern of living.

One more day left in the fiscal year. Thank heavens. With the impending doom coming (not, though it seems like impending doom from their attitudes), our program offices are increasingly nuts. And we’re pushing back just as hard. See, this is where attorney arrogance comes from – dealing with clients who insist on doing things which are, to legal minds, incredibly stupid.

Ugh.

The head cold stuck around through the weekend and my grandparents’ 70th wedding anniversary party. It’s still here, not quite going away yet. I suspect the driving Saturday and Monday and the resultant dehydration didn’t help any. It was great to see lots of family, cousins I haven’t seen in years, but was also good to get back to my routine today. I’ve been trying to look at my eating habits, and I counted it as a net gain that I didn’t gain any weight while eating out with the parents. Because eating this weekend was a mess, including far too much cake.

Still having fun flirting with Mike. This cold better be well done and gone by the time I get up there, as this is not how I would like to spend the limited time I get with him, with a sore throat and a drippy nose. In the meantime, I need to go shopping this weekend for more clothes before I head up (and in general).

And now I’m babbling, so it’s time for me to crash.

Well, I made it through the triathlon season. I think this is the first time in my five years of doing tris that I’ve done all the races I was signed up for, and didn’t get a major (or minor) injury. No broken wrist, no broken ankle, no sprains, no plantar fasciitis, none of the usual maladies. Not bad.

The last race, the Nation’s Triathlon, which I haven’t written up, was my fastest to date – 3:17:21, or about 15 minutes faster than my previous fastest Olympic distance race. I attribute most of that to the bike. This was a relatively flat course compared to the other races I’ve done, and it showed. However, that said, while the swim went really well at North East (in that I swam the whole thing), I managed to swim, bike, AND run the entire distance with no pauses for rest, which I have to say I’m particularly tickled about. I’ve always had to take walking breaks on the run, and it was soooo nice not having that happen this time. Getting there, albeit slowly.

It does bode well for a good season next year, with a bit more thought going into preparation now. As I mentioned last month, I’m signed up for three races, an Olympic, a Half and a full IM, and I’m starting to do some off-season stuff to help get going for next year, planning out the general tone of workouts, getting in some yoga, etc. I want this next year to work, racing-wise, and to do well at the IM.

In other news™, I find myself smitten. A friend I’ve known very casually online popped down to DC from Boston over Labor Day weekend, and let me know he was coming in. We planned and then met up for bear happy hour at Motley on Friday night, and well, I finally slept in my own bed again Monday night after putting him on a train back to BWI to fly home. To say that we hit it off well would be an understatement. I’ve very much been enjoying chatting with him, flirting via SMS, etc. Mike’s a good guy, and I look forward to getting to know him better. Longer readers will know that I rarely travel on my own (when not for races), so the fact that I have plane tickets to Boston next month should be a sign of how this is going. We know it’ll be a challenge living in two very different cities, but since when have I done anything normally? And I think he’s worth it.