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

Our power went out for a little while yesterday afternoon, and it apparently got a good distance around us, because my dental office was also hit. Had an ‘every-six-months’ appointment this morning, and they were still having problems getting into the computers. Thankfully all I needed or wanted was a cleaning, and that didn’t require a computer. All good on that front, and I’ll call them next week to schedule the next appointment and deal with billing.

I was a little worried I was going to have to go into the office today, because the power cord on my work laptop didn’t seem to be charging it after the power outage. I was all set to try a couple different things and then make the drive in, but after sitting powered down all night it was drawing power just fine this morning, post-dentist. Thank heavens. The Metro is current closed down at the office, so it would’ve meant a drive one way or another.

In the meantime, it’s Apple systems update day, so I’ve been updating all of my devices, and getting the husband’s computers for good measure while he’s at work. Much easier to do during the day at home than waiting until everyone is trying to do it when they get home from work.

While I enjoyed seeing our guests over the weekend, I was also very glad to send them on their way back home this morning. Living with two other people in your apartment, which already feels cramped as it is, even when those two people are related to you, is draining as all fuck. Didn’t help when the 3.5 y/o would get cranky because her uncles wouldn’t put up with as much of her shit as her mother would.

Did get a little bit of sun out in a paddle boat in the Tidal Basin. That was fun, and it showed that the case of runner’s knee I developed back in March/April is finally well on the way to being healed (the boy and I were the paddlers). I’ve been taking it very easy the past few weeks, canceling this race season and letting the knee heal properly. Didn’t want to repeat 2008’s year of the plantar fasciitis goof but continuing to re-injure the knee again and again. While it’s definitely better, I’m still going to take this entire month off from swimming and running. I haven’t tried cycling yet, but I will do so soon on a trainer in the living room, to see how that does. In the meantime I’m doing weights and core strengthening to give myself a good base to come back to when I do start back up with tri training. It’s been annoying as all hell, and my hips are incredibly sore from the strengthening, but the knee’s healing, and that’s the important part.

I’m flattered by the number of friends who think I run fast enough to qualify for the Boston marathon. Not even close here, but I appreciate the sentiment. I’m safe, trust me.

That said, the boy’s sister was running it for charity. His family lives in the greater Boston area, and his parents were expected to be at the VIP seating near the second bomb. Thankfully they stopped, earlier, at another spot on the route where they found a better view, so none of them was hurt. My future sister-in-law was still out on the route, and got pulled before she could finish, based on the security concerns.

My first thoughts, after comforting the boy, was how we’d need to marry early, to make it official, so we could take care of his (soon ‘our’) niece. And while I’m happy we don’t have to do the legal shit earlier than the ceremony in late May, it was still scary as all hell to contemplate that his ENTIRE family would be out at something and be killed. Given his sister’s wishes we’d still have gotten his niece to raise, but the lack of legal protections scares this lawyer.

Also annoying is our utter inability to help with blood donations. Despite having a safe profile, despite testing consistently negative for communicable diseases, I can’t donate, because I’ve “had sex with another man since” the year I turned 5. Not before I was legal, but, y’know, the FDA rules don’t make rational sense, they just fuel prejudice rather than public health purposes. So, yeah, I’m gonna make this political; fuck you, FDA, and your stupid rules, and how dare you prevent me from helping my fellow citizens when they need it.

Two quick updates: 1. The parental unit visit went very well; and 2. I think we have a solution for the dawg.

Was very good to see the parentals, and they enjoyed hanging around in DC. This was the 2nd time they got to see the boy, so it was “grill the man who’s going to be our future son-in-law” time. He was much, much more relaxed than the first meeting, so it went off without a hitch.

On the dawg, I spoke with my brother and I think we can work something out where the dawg will stay with him and his family, with the boy and I kicking in the cash to take care of dawgger. At least in that way we’ll be able to get down and visit him, and perhaps if future living arrangements allow, take him back. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Otherwise things are going okay. Work’s work, the end of the year stuff has started, which tends to keep me nice and busy. Starting to lay out plans for next year’s tri season, and planning for the bike ride the boy wants to do. And making more plans for the eventual consolidation of households in the spring, most of which revolves around adapting my apartment to fit us both.

My Big Gubm’nt Agency (BGA) has fucked up something in its spending and internal controls, which means we get to report a violation of law. Was telling the boy about this yesterday evening, because it’s been dragging on for months now as we investigate, but we finally met with several senior managers and came to agreement that it is indeed a violation and so we have to report it per statutory and regulatory guidance. And somehow I got tasked with writing the first draft of the letters, which have to go to the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate (aka the Vice-President), the Comptroller General and the President himself, through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Whee! Thankfully I’m not the one who will sign his name to the letters – someone much, much higher in the BGA gets to be that lucky stiff, but I have to write the majority of the story here.

The funny thing was that I didn’t consider this any big deal, it’s just part of my job. An annoying part, to be sure, but just part and parcel of working as an attorney for a BGA, practicing appropriations law. In mentioning that I had to write the letters, and who they’re going to, the boy did a double take, repeated the recipient list (with the phrase “you have to write letters to…”), and gave me a shocked look. I suppose it doesn’t help that he’s been watching the entire run-through of the show The West Wing lately, so he’s had politics on the brain.

It’s hard not to become jaded about such things, since they are part of my job, albeit a rare part. But it was interesting to see the reaction from someone who doesn’t live and breathe politics in his daily life.

Hauling a six year old around one of the most popular-with-kids museums in the Smithsonian system is tiring, to say the least. No sense of personal space, popping around wherever they can. The most amusing part was that she was rushing us through so she could get to what she truly wanted to do – go to the gift shop! She made out okay there, picking up a cherry blossom festival branded panda and some candy to take back to her sister.

It’s been a fun visit, though. Played some on the Wii with her, chatted with my brother, played tourist. Fun stuff. And after we put them on the train tomorrow, the boy has the rest of the afternoon off with me. Not a bad way to spend most of a week.

Went to see the family this past weekend. And I do mean the whole family – it was my one surviving grandmother’s 90th birthday, and most of the cousins and all the aunts & uncles were there. Was good to see people, but getting stuck in traffic set off a lot of resentment I’ve been holding in with regard to dealing with my family. It boils down to the fact that I always go see them, they never come up here to visit. Big huge city full of free museums, great restaurants, and a successful attorney willing to buy a lot of good meals, and my parents have been up exactly once, when I made them come get me and drag me to a triathlon back in 2006. Ugh. So, yeah, I was screaming at traffic and family and generally getting a lot of that out of my system while in the car.

So of course I’m dragging the boy down to meet them this upcoming weekend. Ha. At least, I think I am. We’re making tentative plans to go down and visit the beach, since the parentals make for a convenient free place to stay down near Va Beach. And since I’d like them to meet him, and he couldn’t come down this past weekend (trial by fire, that would’ve been!) because he was up visiting his own family in another long planned trip. Final details to be planned out, but it’s been cleared with the parentals, so it’s more likely than not.

February just sucked gorilla butt.

Since I haven’t posted since mid-February here, there have been a number of changes, with the usual ‘things in threes’ as well. On top of the death of my grandfather, Mike and I broke things off, and I finally discovered what the third casualty was. In the mess in the middle of the month my office and I completely lost the invite to the GAO annual one-day update on the state of appropriations law over the past year. On Friday I found out it had happened the day before. Understand, this is the one bit of professional development I get to do each year which is actually relevant to what I do at work (as opposed to the annual CLE requirements & courses for the bar, which are a complete waste of my time), and I haven’t missed one since they started doing them until this year. So, yeah, February sucked gorilla butt.

March has been better. I’m on track to do okay in the half marathon next weekend, and by extension the 10 miler next month. I’m getting a good base built for the IM, setting the stage for that little challenge at the end of August. To keep myself on track there I’ve actually stopped drinking. I’ve found that when I do drink, even just a single drink, I tend to drag badly the next day, which prevents me from training (and puts me in a foul mood). The IM is too important to me to let a preventable thing stand in the way, so I’m not letting it. I’ve gone out a time or two to bars with friends now, and it’s actually not been bad not drinking.

Works’ been crazier this month than last, and we’re starting to run against political pressures on spending. Thankfully my office advertised for another fiscal law specialist, which closed Friday, so we’ll start setting up interviews for the next week or two. I hope the process goes quickly, I definitely need the help, and soon.

The family visit was a good one, despite the circumstances. All of my cousins were there, even if all their spouses & children were not, so we had all of the grandchildren present, something that hasn’t happened in decades. Really enjoyed seeing them all.

We’d known granddaddy wasn’t in very good health for a while, so this was hardly a shock. It was a little quick based on how the nursing home had presented it on Thursday (3 weeks) versus what happened (he passed on Friday morning with his wife and youngest son present).

The whole thing did end up hitting me harder than I’d expected, especially once I got home. It definitely threw me into a funk out of which I’ve not quite pulled myself. Getting out of the house last night helped, and I did a little (planned) retail therapy today to pick up a PS3 (thanks, DC tax refund!). Have it mostly set up but want to wait until a little later today to actually get into a game. I took the entire week off, which was good and allowed me time to do things like get groceries and the aforementioned retail therapy, as well as trying to process some of the mental mess that’s come out of the whole thing. Hasn’t helped the mood any that I had to cancel this past weekend’s trip to go see Mike, and I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to get back up there to see him. It’s a question of timing, more than anything, between what I’ve got going on and what he’s got going on over the next month or so.

So, that’s where I am at the moment.

It’s been a heck of a week here. With the snowmageddon, followed by the 3rd blizzard of the season just a couple of days later, I was off work for the majority of the week, and actually chomping at the bit to get back just so I could socialize with people again. Not to say I didn’t see my neighbors on occasion, but it’s not like we spend a ton of time hanging out. Finally got back to work Friday morning only to leave early after getting the news that my grandfather passed away that morning (probably while I was trudging through snow to try to get to work). I’m headed down here in a bit for the funeral, if I can ever get myself moving this morning. I will enjoy getting to see all of my cousins, at least.

In better news, I managed to pay off a student loan last month (the one with the highest interest rate) and just yesterday scheduled a pay off payment for a credit card which should hit that account tomorrow. It’s a card I keep low and try to pay off monthly anyway (I put a couple of recurring bills on ‘autopay’ on it), but I’d gotten a small balance there with an unexpected expense or two, so now that’ll be back to normal. Used the federal tax return to kill that off and rejiggered the budget to put the extra cash I was using to pay it down (less the regular bills) over to paying off the next card. That second one should get paid off by the end of this year at the current pace (9 months?), freeing that cash up for other debt. I know, “been there, done this” with the cards & student loans, but with my mortgage having been sold to an idiot of a company (not to name names, but they go by the initials “Green Tree Servicing”), I want the other things gone so I can do things like fix up the apartment here and have it in a more sellable position, as well as more comfortable/livable in general.

The snow has been limiting on being able to get out and run, so I’m feeling a bit behind on my training for the half in March, but I think I can get some good running in while down at the parentals’ place this week and get back on track.