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

The cold is progressing in the normal manner. Which is to say last night was my usual sleepless night (I always have one when I get a cold, like clockwork, on day 3 or 4). Thankfully it was over the weekend so I didn’t have to take time off.

Other than killing monsters (yay for Diablo II), it was a very uneventful weekend. Missed two handsome gents who were in town, and the aforementioned parties and dinner. Did run out to the grocery store this evening, just in time for the bottom to drop out right before I checked out. Brought a golf umbrella, but everything from the knees down was soaked right through (and is currently on a drying rack). Used some of the time yesterday to finally get some crap off the kitchen floor and put away, as well as rearranging some of the cabinets so they work better for cooking and eating. I have floor space again in the kitchen, which is a very good thing.

A very good thing because I will be cooking at home more. I looked over ye olde finances and I need to trim some stuff, and dining out/take out is an easy and obvious target. Hence the grocery shopping trip for some stuff to make for lunch this week. Will be healthier anyway, and allow me to stick some more money toward paying down the student loan with the highest interest rate. The cards are gone, so the next target’s in sight. Wish me luck.

The typical DC spring thunderstorm just blew through, making a mess of the early to mid afternoon commute. Saw many folks caught unawares, lots running for shelter, and tons of lightning coming down. Thankfully it was a fast moving storm, and it’s pretty much gone now, and should be nice and pleasant by the time I have to ride home.

‘Twas a pleasant weekend. Did some shopping Sunday, including a massive Whole Paycheck Foods trip to pick up much needed sundries. Indulged my inner fag and finally broke down and bought some Garland and Callas for the music collection. Has been most pleasant listening to them at work today.

Well, that and Julie Brown’s, “The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun.” My tastes are nothing if not eclectic.

Joe was kind enough to take some pictures yesterday and I’ll get some of those uploaded later this evening.

Going to make a batch of pesto this evening and kill some time with the TiVo. The ST:DS9 episodes are starting to pile up and I’d like to get through a couple more so I don’t overwhelm the poor machine. Nice and low-key, perhaps with some Big House Pink as well.

Finally got a chance to taste/use the little Cliff Shot Bloks I’d picked up at the Cherry Blossom expo, and I’m hooked. It was so much easier on the bike to fish one of those puppies out and have something to actually chew on, rather than having to tear open a container of goo one handed and then worry about where to put the little container when you’re done. Definitely going to be the calories of choice for the bike portion of my upcoming race (since I don’t seem to do well with sports drinks when exercising). Used them on a nice 2o-ish mile ride this morning.

Then this afternoon I swam, did 3 500 yard repeats after a long warm up. It went well, so I’m feeling okay about the swim portion of the race. The bike will be tough, but definitely doable, and the run, if this calf doesn’t get better this week, will be torture itself, but overall I think I’ll survive it.

Managed to get up to Dupont for lunch with a friend, and back down to the Y for the swim and then home again before the rain really hit. It’s going nicely now, a good, steady, relatively light rain. Enough to keep the kids indoors, not so nasty that I have to close the balcony doors. Is a nice, quiet counterpoint to my tapping on the keyboard. Should take the nice, quiet time to do some more cleaning, but I’m feeling cleaned out after yesterday’s straightening and getting the chairs unpacked and set up.

It looked as if I had killed the Scarecrow in my living room.

My dining room chairs arrived today, and inside the boxes they were padded with this paper wrapping that included some sort of straw stuffing that, no matter how careful I was, got all over everything. Whenever you moved the padding, it fell everywhere, along with the twine that I had to cut off the outside. Even tried to clog up the vacuum cleaner when I went after it that way. But in the end, I have dining room chairs, and can finally sit somewhere other than the couch to eat.

Otherwise it was a calm day. I got rid of the last of the donatables from the old apartment, got hissed at by Boris after I clipped his claws, claimed my flours & other baking sundries, forgot to get my mail, and had a nice time seeing Richard. Took the cart to the grocery store, hauled back some sundries for making some fun things (marinara, anyone?) and some more staples. I’m gradually rebuilding a kitchen, now I just need to cook some more. Tempeh gets made tomorrow – I’ve been craving a good rice dish, and since the rice cooker was among the things reclaimed from the old place, I can make some again. Without picking up the phone, even.

Long bike ride planned for tomorrow, then off to whatever Arena stage is playing at the moment. Might have to talk Lawrence into Jenny’s for dinner, stick down here in the ‘hood.

Didn’t run this morning, but did run this evening, same long loop I did on Sunday (since I’l really supposed to be doing Very Long Loops at this point in training). Will attempt an hour on the bike in the morning if it’s not too cold/nasty tomorrow morning. Otherwise, long swim instead.

Work was in one of those “everything is flowing as it should” rare moods this morning, knocked out two long time problems, then lunch arrived and all my mojo went out the window. Oh well, at least I killed two projects before it fizzled.

Trying to start finalizing plans for race nutrition and the like, pick up those last things I need to get (um, wetsuit?) and make sure I can stomach the food I want to have on the bike and run. Gotta plan this stuff out in order not to kill yourself in the race, so I’m trying to ensure I have a plan and that it’ll work.

Skipped out of the board meeting early tonight (yes, the cult co-op had a board meeting the day after a membership meeting) because I was too hungry, post-run. Dinner was good, some fake sausage, light salad, hummus. This was about an hour after the run, and I had already had a recovery drink and a protein shake before that. Food is good, and good fuel is better.

Having food at home is a good thing. Cooked yesterday (just some frozen pasta & sauce) for the first time, and made a good salad this evening. Starting to feel like home, finally, with some food in the fridge & cabinet (and my belly).

Work’s been odd this week, with absolutely no one in the office on Monday when I got in, which is really, really bizarre as I’m usually the very last person to get there in the morning. Easter Monday, go fig. And otherwise it’s just been a strange mix of busy and not-busy. And of course the last place I want to be is at work, preferring to be at home getting things together. Whee.

Calf is still okay, so I’m hopeful it’ll be okay when I run tomorrow or Friday (haven’t decided if I want to run or bike tomorrow). Swam this evening, pretty good swim, and not too busy in the pool, which was a pleasant change from the mornings. I still want to check out the two closer pools, but if an evening swim would be less crowded, that might be a better option (since I do like the YWCA facility overall).

I finally broke down and went to get some whole bean coffee from the local grocery store down here just now. Cola and/or napping in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t cutting it, and I wanted the ritual of being up and getting some coffee on the weekends.

Managed to get a good chunk of my clothes out of boxes and into either the closet or the chest of drawers last night, after I put the couch together and got the mattress out of the bedroom (where it was blocking the closet). It was really nice to get the couch together so I had somewhere to sprawl out upon, other than the bed. Also consolidated the boxes of books to one location (all dozen of them) so I had some floor space in which to put the couch. I need to dump empty boxes soon to clear up more space. As boxes have emptied and space has become available it’s been easier to get a feel for the flow of the apartment, even while it’s still in flux.

I am officially annoyed with Presta valves. I can’t seem to get my front tire on the tri bike inflated to save my life, which killed taking a ride this morning, until such time as the bike shop opens and I can figure out where I’m going wrong on the inflation thing. User error, but not sure where the error lies.

I’ve yet to use it on aught but the bathroom floor, but I picked up one of those “swiffer” things to get all the dust and tree sperm off the floor. While wandering around barefoot on Friday I noticed that my feet quickly turned black from all the residual dust. I wish I’d had a chance to clean the place now (hindsight, 20/20, all that) before I moved in, or at least have run a damp mop over the floors to get the dust up. Ah well, working at it bit by bit now.

But having the stuff mostly together in the bedroom has been wonderful. To have one space where I can stop, not be looking at five gazillion boxes in various states of repair and fullness, and just relax, has been invaluable for my mental health. The gorgeous weather we’ve had, which has allowed me to have the doors wide open, has also helped. I say doors because the way this apartment works, the “windows” in the living room are floor to ceiling glass which open onto the screened-in balcony, one of which slides behind the other to open up the room. The windows in the bedroom don’t open at all, but there is a door to the balcony which opens up into the bedroom to allow air in. Has been fun running from the bedroom to the living room via the balcony. I’m sure that’ll stop once it heats up outside, but it’s nice now, and lends to the feeling of openness of the apartment.

Packages seem to be a hit and miss thing. Got my blender and my TV just fine, but haven’t been able to get the toaster out of hock yet. It’s here according to Amazon, but they’ve not given me a package notice on it yet, and the guard couldn’t find it because “there are a lot of packages back there” in the office. Oy. I’m sure it’ll turn up Monday when the regular office folks are back in. Good thing it wasn’t something important like coffee making equipment.

I’ll get some pictures up once I dig out the camera and clear some more floor space.

I might lose a toenail. I’m not sure yet, but the Little Piggy Who Stayed Home on my right foot got rather testy in the last 5 minutes of my 2 hour run today. Hasn’t turned black or anything, but it’s definitely not happy with me.

After the run I dragged Richard with me to City Lights for some much needed protein (mmm, tofu…). Was pleasant, both the meal and the company, and I enjoyed both immensely.

I supposedly have a closing date now: April 7th. So in not-quite-three weeks I’ll be signing lots of paperwork to send myself into lots of debt (but with the reward of a place to live). I’m looking forward to it (the place to live, not the debt). I will likely hire movers this time, but I think I’m also going to have a “packing party” to get stuff into boxes beforehand. So if you’ve evern wanted to see what bad taste I have/had in clothes, or what my sex toy collection looks like, I’ll welcome any assistance.

Other than that, the cold I had last week is pretty much gone, replaced by the lovely spector of DC allergies. Now I remember why I keep the sudafed around. As I mentioned above, the run went well. Hopefully I’ll be knuckling down a bit more on the training as I’m a little over 2 months out from the race (eeck!). Have to arrange for leave and all that fun stuff soon, too, but I think not until after I get moved.

If you had to have a day off this week, yesterday was the day to do it. It was absolutely glorious here in DC, high in the 80s, nice wind going, just gorgeous. I had the day off for my every 6 months cleaning (“You don’t floss enough, do you…”), which necessitated biking down on the mountain bike, then home again to switch bikes and go on a nice not-quite-2-hour ride on the tri bike. After a second shower, it was off to the grocery store with my bag lady cart to pick up food & sundries (TP!), then a nice, lazy afternoon resting from all the riding and walking.

This was the first time I’d gotten a chance to head out for any extended period of time on the tri bike since I bought it, and I was looking forward to the chance to sit down in the aero bars and see how that felt “in real life” (as opposed to sitting on the trainer). It was surprisingly comfortable, except for my neck. I’m going to have to get a different helmet, without the cute little visor thing on the front, because that had me keeping my head craned up at too strong an angle to see under it, which lead to some neck stiffness about half way through the ride. Oh, and I have to remember to get some fresh sun screen – I have a lovely farmer’s burn on my arms, with a nice sharp line across the biceps. The joys of being paler than pale.

Having just gone to the grocery store I was able to make a lovely, simple dinner of sauteed broccoli over pasta (heat olive oil, throw in cut up broccoli, cook for a while until the broccoli “reduces” down, then throw in chopped garlic, maybe some red pepper flakes, and pine nuts, saute a few minutes, throw in 1/4 cup or less of water, cover, cook 5 minutes or so to steam the broccoli, serve over pasta; add oil as necessary while cooking to ensure you have enough to coat the broccoli and the pasta), some salad and toast. Yum. That was lunch today, too.

This morning, though, the legs were really telling me I had run more than I have been used to (damned time out), and that biking in real life is not the same as the trainer; my quads were especially unhappy with me when I awoke this morning. Thankfully after a nice, slow recovery run this afternoon they’ve calmed down considerably.

Unfortunately as this week goes on, it’s getting colder and colder, reminding us that it’s still winter, officially. Hopefully it won’t be too nasty this weekend (doesn’t look it) so I can get outside and work out more. Winter’s hold is slowly giving way, and it can’t leave soon enough.

Wrote this yesterday, but my site was down, so couldn’t post it.

Spring is here, spring is here, time for skittles and time for beer.

Yes, it’s going to get cooler as the week goes one, but it’s glorious here in DC today. Saw daffodils in bloom while out running, that being the first sign of Spring in the DC parks. The second sign was, of course, the sound of lots of bicycle chains which hadn’t been oiled in months (perhaps years) out and about on the local trails. Most of these riders didn’t know to warn you that they were coming up beside you, but you probably heard their chains grinding from a good several feet away (if not that, then the sound of their wheezing as they rode too quickly, too soon).

Ran this afternoon, after the cold meds kicked in and killed the remaining bit of sniffles, and after a nice, hot, steamy shower to help them along (ah, snot in the shower, yum). The run felt pretty good. I was going sooooo slooooow, trying to keep my heart rate down where it’s supposed to be rather than just going out and running like I usually do. I’m very bad about actually using the HRM as it’s supposed to be used, to slow myself down and actually train the heart without overtaxing it. But since we’re fussing at the newbie triathletes about that, I’m trying to follow my/our own advice. So I was slower than molasses, but it was still a good run. Is so nice now that the calf’s back in action.

Did forget to put Body Glide on my nips, which started to tell me that was a very, very bad idea at the turn-around, but which ultimately calmed down and are fine now. Will have to remember that stuff for the long runs again.

Like a lot of people I seem to have missed the final 30-60 seconds of Battlestar Gallactica on Friday (silly TiVo recording times). Got the gist of it, but what a pain to have to re-record it. Otherwise, that was quite a season ender. Glad they took the premise of the original show and went where they have with it, it’s been good television for the most part.

I suspect the fools who made my veggie burger for yesterday’s lunch used some cheese as a binding agent. Too bad it becomes an un-binding agent once released into my gut. Behold, the Power of Cheese! Wicked little dairy products.

Taking it easy tonight. Nice relaxing dinner with Lawrence, then bed. Off tomorrow for my 6 month dental appointment and running other errands (time to buy more TP, bug my real estate agent about stuff, etc.). Might get in a nice bike ride since it’ll be comfortable out. We’ll see when we get there.