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

Tired this evening for some reason. Long day, but I got the (hopefully) final polish on The Project From Heck before it goes up to our front office to get ripped to shreds. Tomorrow is assembling the associated binder with all the cases and other materials we cite. Joy.

Went to a men’s knitting group tonight. All of three of us showed up, one of whom was way, way late. I stayed two hours, chatted a lot with my friend who showed up at the same time I did while we knitted, got a goof I put in the last time I sat down to knit taken out of the project (ripped out 4-5 rows to get below the goof, got it back on the needles successfully, and now there’s no sign of the goof. yay), and put several more inches on the thing. It’ll be done, eventually. Not like there’s a massive rush to finish a scarf now that Spring’s here (though getting the hot thing out of my lap while knitting will be a plus). It’s only once a month, so I can go again. Was nice to get out of the house and listen to the two-person band who was playing jazz/blues while we were there.

Short run tomorrow, and a swim after work, then it’s making potato salad and getting myself ready for a brick workout up in Columbia with the club. Get to test out the course (which I fully expect to kick my ass, since I’ve done zero hills this year), see what it’s going to be like in 2 weeks for the race itself. Get to see BC that evening, and he’s bringing over Tiger Woods golf to make me practice. I told him that’s fine, but I get to drag him into Super Smash Bros Brawl if he does bring Tiger Woods. I think that’s a fair trade.

Oh, and I almost forgot, called the student loan company to confirm that they credited the payment and I have a zero balance. Won’t get the official letter from them for another month to 45 days, but the helpful woman on the phone did confirm that it is in fact completely paid off now. Hooray!

I suppose the little note by the door of my gym on Monday was the universe’s way of giving me a little nudge, a small push to take advantage of something I’ve thought about for a while. The note itself wasn’t very big, or rather the typeface wasn’t very big. The message, however, was huge. After years of fighting to keep the facility open, the YWCA board had finally had enough and was throwing in the towel in two weeks, closing for good on the 19th of May.

So, after I got over the initial shock I went and swam my final workout there, cleaned out my locker, and headed home to figure out what the heck I was going to do for a pool. I’ve settled on the little gym in my neighborhood. It has the huge (to me; I’m lazy) advantage of being 3-4 blocks away, but the annoying disadvantage of having a non-standard pool – 18 meters instead of 25. Calculations will be a bit more challenging (so a “50” is actually 54, and three lengths instead of 2), but having the pool so close will mean fewer excuses not to go swim, especially since it’s literally on my walk home from work.

I dropped by the facility yesterday to get a guest pass, swam there this evening, post-haircut. I need to dig up the coupon from the local rag for $30-40 off the “initiation fee,” and sign up for good next week. The rate is slightly cheaper than the YWCA was, a nice additional benefit. Going to take full advantage of the free week first before I give them any money, though.

Swimming in the shorter pool was, well, odd. Drills were easier, but straight up swimming was, well, short. 9-10 strokes to get to the end, versus 14-17 on the 25 yard pool. It’ll do, at least until full summer and the outdoor pool at Hains Point opens. A 50 meter pool sounds really nice right now.

We’ll see how the rest of the facility shapes up this upcoming week, but I’m 99% sure this is where I’ll end up. Closer, smaller, hopefully better.

Not quite two hours on the bike this morning, and not quite 31 miles. I was pleased, if a tad sore toward the end. The training log for the week actually looks like it should, minus the swimming, without major gaps between workouts. Most, most pleased. And my mood is much better, now that I’m actually exercising regularly again.

Plan for the day is shopping, shopping, shopping. Flatware, various household items, etc. Maybe some clothes. And if I can get in touch with himself I’m dragging him with me. Regardless, I think I’m going to head out soon and hit the ‘burbs to try and track some of this stuff down.

Unfortunately, between work and the need for more food in the house I did not get in a run this evening. Got home from yet another meeting with more Hill staffers this afternoon to once again talk about The Project From Heck and was just utterly wiped out. So, the last of the frozen pasta got cooked, some homemade sauce added to, and then much deliberating over which store to hit and which food to put on the list. If I don’t end up biking in the morning I might not bike at all tomorrow – it’s laundry night and I’ll be in a world of hurt if I don’t get to that tomorrow.

Getting a tad better at the exercise routine this week. I’ve been trying to switch my schedule back to getting up earlier and getting to bed earlier. It’s gradually working, but not quite as quick as I’d like. So, it’s been evening workouts so far this week. And with another meeting with congressional staff tomorrow, the pattern will repeat again tomorrow, too – long run will be in the evening, and no swim for moi. Hopefully I’ll have the sleep back to normal next week and swimming can resume then. Hell, maybe I’ll be back to normal Friday. Who knows at this point. But it’s 214 days to the Ironman, so gotta get that set and fast.

I’ve been told asked by Mom for her old flatware back (so she can stop shuttling the stuff they have between the house and the motor home). I inherited it from them many, many moons ago when they upgraded decided to change to a different pattern. I won’t shed any tears of giving up the rose pattern, but it does mean I have to shop for the stuff, which I’m sort of dreading. I’ve looked at the stuff in the past, but never with any mind to actually buy. Now I suppose I should pick something out before I go down for mother’s day so I can present her with her flatware. Good thing she hasn’t asked for the old Pfaltzgraf or then I’d really be screwed. Though plates that weren’t vintage 70s might look nice.

BC should get back Thursday or so. Miss him a lot, it’s been a long week without regular contact.

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.

Promised myself yesterday that I’d allow myself to sleep in this morning so I’d be better rested for the meeting on the Hill, and I’d head home and do my long run after work. Did the sleeping in, did the meeting (which went fairly well, all things considered), got home and almost wussed out on the run. Quickly decided that I wasn’t feeling blah, I was just feeling lazy, and that wasn’t a good enough excuse not to run, so off I went. Shaved 4 minutes off the 6.6 mile loop I’m currently using for my long run, which felt pretty good.

After the meeting on the Hill and subsequent conversations with my various supervisors, I feel like I have a better grasp on what I’m doing to tighten up this memo. Tomorrow is all about editing and tightening, so it should be interesting. I think we’ve tracked it all down, we just have to do more than just describe the law now (synthesis!).

BC arrived safely in England and seems to be happy to being visiting his relatives there. That was happy news via SMS this morning.

Hopefully it’ll be warm enough in the morning to ride.

Yesterday? Pretty much a waste. Between the heat, humidity, and the urchins I slept hardly at all, so was just in a daze for most of the day. Lots of mindless Xbox play, reading, and eventually some knitting and TV watching.

Today, on the other hand, I feel like I’ve biked half of DC. At least I biked the southern half. It was the first ride for our newbie triathletes today, so I was out on ye olde and venerable (and quite heavy) mountain bike. ‘Twas a lot of fun, and as usual I rode sweep so I got to have a good chat with the young lady at the back of the pack. We did an impromptu tire changing demonstration as well. Overall it went very well, and no one got lost or injured.

After that I zipped home, called the parental units, then it was off to Barracks Row for bike and LYS (Local Yarn Shop) shopping. I went a new route to get over there, which is slightly out of the way, but safer than riding across M street, which had been my usual route. This turned out to be a very good thing, as there is evidently a baseball game going on this afternoon, so there were tons of cars all around the stadium. That would have been most unpleasant to bike through. As it was, there were more cars on the “back roads” than there normally are, due in large part to the new temporary parking lots in that part of southeast DC. Strangely there were also a ton of cars unsuccessfully attempting to find parking on the southwest side where I live as well. I guess they didn’t see the “there is no parking except for the parking lots so take Metro, you idiots” advertising all over the place in the weeks leading up to opening day.

Finally home to some lunch and settling in for a bit. I hope to see BC at some point (dinner?) this evening, since he takes off to see his grandparents in England on Tuesday and will be gone until late the following week. Work has had us both stressed out like there’s no tomorrow, so we’ve not gotten together for a bit, not having a ton of energy left after legal writing hell for me and late nights fixing the bad accounting from his predecessor for him. Miss him lots.

I was told not to think about The Big Ugly Project this morning by da bosslady, and I was happy to comply. Caught up on other stuff instead, including sending out the weekly happy hour announcement for the work crowd (I’m the office social coordinator) for this Thursday. All in all much nicer than last week, though I know more of TBUP will be coming as the week goes on.

A pretty good swim tonight, though the pool was a bit more crowded than it’s been when I’ve gone in the evenings. I debated running this evening, since I missed running this morning, but the cooler temps made the decision for me. Plus the whole “train your weaknesses” thing (and swimming is most definitely my weakness in triathlon).

I do need to clarify something from yesterday’s posts – I do not have vertigo again. That, thankfully, is done and gone for now, and hopefully for the foreseeable future (though I won’t be going dancing anytime soon to test that particular theory of how it happened). I was lamenting the fact that because of the vertigo I couldn’t train, which then meant I had no base to build up to for the races this spring. Still miffed about it, but there’s naught to do at this point except aim for the next races that I can train for. So there I go.

Busily trying to work through two dozen honey tangelos my parents shipped up from Tampa before they left to drive the RV back to Tidewater. Normally I end up giving a bunch away because I can’t get through them fast enough, but I suspect that’s not going to be the case this time around. They’re very, very sweet, and I find myself bending over the kitchen sink to devour one more often than usual (it’s easier to peel them, and spit the seeds down the disposer, right there). Good stuff.

I swear, tie manufacturers are getting skimpy with the silk these days. It used to be I had to carefully balance most ties to get the little end not to show under the larger piece, but these days I’m lucky if the little end meets the loop they give you to hold the little end in place. And no, my neck has not grown by 3-4 inches, either. Cheap bastards.

Work was an utter waste of a day. Would have been better spent pretty much anywhere else.

Swimming was a mix. There were glimpses of clear, effortless power, and then there were thrashing strokes that would have been more embarrassing had more people been there to see them. The last bits of the stroke drills are hit & miss, too. Mostly hit, but some miss. Felt good when it was “on,” though. The run this morning, on the other hand, was completely on. Stayed in zone 1, kept a good pace, went a little further. Very nicely done.

Also had a fun weekend with BC. His mother did an Easter dinner, and we were mercifully not part of any family drama. Played Apples to Apples with the family after dinner, which is always fun (I kept picking adjectives like “unscrupulous” and “dead,” though. Hmmm…). Didn’t get to the Design Center, but it’ll be there for another weekend. Much talking and general silliness other than the visit to see Mom. Enjoyed that a lot.