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

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.

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.

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.

Despite my best efforts to be a complete and utter slug today, I did actually manage to get something done today, namely laundry. Otherwise I called in to work because I hadn’t really slept, and then crashed until noonish to catch up on sleep. Then there was Dead Space. Lots and lots of Dead Space. I actually beat the game once through just now (started it Saturday; easy mode), and I’m trying to decide how much more I’ll play in the near future to max out achievements. Sounds like a good inauguration day activity (when not watching the events, that is).

Called the SIL this evening, no word back tonight, so I’ll pester again tomorrow. I can tell I’m still on edge because my poor fingers have been gnawed down to nubs (I bite my nails/cuticles when I’m upset). Perhaps throwing myself back into work tomorrow will help assuage some of this, and I’m hoping my SIL will have better news about my brother (and their efforts to clean the apartment). Who knows?

Still need to organize some shelving I picked up on my way home (yay Ikea!) which looks pretty good, but needs to have some sense of what-goes-where on it. It’s given me an idea for the entertainment stuff as well, which might not need to be as large as I’d assumed before. We shall see. But first tomorrow evening is prep work for the new triathlete program for this year. We’re getting off to a slightly later start, and I’m hopeful this will help cut out some of our volunteer burnout from previous years.

All in all a very good Thanksgiving day. Was nice and quiet for most of it. The store this morning was uncrowded and uncharacteristically quick to get out of. The cooking went well, and I took the better of the two batches of cupcakes with me (made 2 dozen). Unfortunately I’ve broken a ring on my icing piper, so it was slathered on by spreader rather than piped nicely, but they did fine.

Side note: I really, really want to make the margarita cupcakes I found in the cookbook while flipping back to the buttercreme frosting recipe.

The dinner itself was fantastic. I took a zucchini risotto as well as the cupcakes (the mushroom selection stunk, so zucchini it was). The bird came out perfect, which the host was rightly proud of. He also thoughtfully saved me a batch of potatoes sans butter/milk, which was much appreciated. The other selections were equally tasty, with lots of good vegetables.

Some Wii was played, and I set Jon’s Wii up (he hadn’t played with it since he’d moved – in June). Next thing you know he’s going to be getting messages via the Wii from a certain someone who will have him registered here shortly. Bwhahahaha. We did warn him what the blinky blue light on the front means now, too.

Got the kitchen cleaned up just now after getting home, so no mess in the morning. Off work early tomorrow, and will plan to stop by the gym after that, swim, and hand in my receipt for the new shoes & lock. Wonder how they’ll do the credit.

Got the news that early registration for the Nation’s Tri opened for DC Tri Club folks, so signed up for that tonight. Hopefully with the stretching I’ve started doing on my feet will keep the PF under control, and keep it from recurring, and I’ll be able to do the race this time around.

Picked up replacement shoes (shower and gym), as well as a new lock this evening. Both pair were on sale, which is always good even when someone else is paying. Still, the replacement costs is going to be almost as much as they make from me for a year’s worth of locker rental fees.

Quiet night. There are happenings around town, but I got home from the shopping, laid down for a quick nap and woke up an hour later feeling pretty cold (for no apparent reason), so I stayed in and behaved myself. Earlyish morning tomorrow to pick up some last minute food needs for tomorrow night’s dinner, then it’s some cooking and some time spent in Crobuzon (aka my town in Animal Crossing: City Folk) before I zip down to Alexandria.

Friday in the office should be nice and quiet (I hope!). I’d like to get filing done and clear a ton of shit off my desk.

This past weekend sucked. I finally got productive around Sunday afternoon when I had a cleaning/laundry fit, but prior to that it was a lot of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, avoiding walking, and playing on the Wii. My usual “leave me alone until I feel better” attitude gets compounded when it’s semi-painful to walk as well; doesn’t encourage me to leave the house for a lot when it can potentially hurt to do so.

Did get out Sunday morning to use a gift certificate my newbies had given me at the end of their tri program, picked up some cross-training implements to help with that process. Was a good excuse to get out of the house, but even the walk to and from Metro ended up making my heel sore.

Then, today, not a ton of pain. Wandering around the office was fine, no real pain. The bike ride there and back was fine, of course (biking hasn’t irritated it at all, thankfully). So bizarre, pain the one day at minor stuff, none the next at a more normal course. Wish it would just heal up already, this is long past the point where it got old.

Got completely and utterly soaked on this afternoon’s ride. It had been threatening rain on and off all day, and I’d been a zombie most of the day, so I finally got going around 4 or so. Was great for the first 2 long loops, then a little over halfway into the third the bottom dropped out. Not much to do but keep riding at that point, and it’s not like I’ve never raced in the rain (Mooseman, Richmond Powersprint, anyone?). Did an additional short loop – was considering going for the long loop again as it started lightening up, but then the bottom dropped out, again, on the backside of the short loop, so I headed in after that one.

Yesterday was all about being a slug. Got up late, knitted (per the previous post) & caught up on TV. Played Bioshock. Made pancakes. Was fantastic, especially after the chaos of the previous weekend, and the mess of the work week.

Limited email today. My inbox at work hasn’t looked that good since, oh, early February 2004 (i.e., right after I started there)? Evidently we had a “catastrophic cascading hardware failure” in our network stuff which killed off all email access. Whee! Still feel sorry for the CIO types. Explaining this all to management will not be fun. Especially since as of now we still have no crackberry service.

The peanut thing in the slow-cooker worked pretty well. I added water, thinking there wasn’t enough liquid, but it seems there actually was, after the veggies sweat out and shrunk down. So it was “stewier” than expected, but still good. It’s definitely been worth it to have dinner waiting for me when I get home. Now I have a bunch in the freezer for later, again, easier than trying to come up with fresh food every evening, and better than processed stuff as well.

Otherwise more splicer killing in Bioshock, and now it’s zombie movie time, before I crash.

I will say this about the economic news: at least it’s stopped people from commenting on the other inanities which the two campaigns keep spitting out. Though I’d not wish this nonsense on us any day of the week. Re-regulate the markets, tax the hell out of the salaries these fuckers made while screwing the rest of us over and bringing ‘value’ to their companies (which are now defaulting on everything they did), and to the extent necessary, let the market ‘correct’ their actions without bailing their asses out. They so love the market, then live by its rules and don’t expect the rest of us to bail out your poor choices.

I feel very, very sorry for our IT folks today. Our network connections (email, internal drives) went down sometime right after lunch, and stayed down all day (and, from the lack of email on my work crackberry tonight, looks to still be down). Not fun, and I’m sure they were sweating buckets trying to get it all back up.

In the meantime, with no access to pretty much anything I need to actually write things, I worked for a brief while on a presentation I have to give next Friday (before that program seized up and refused to play nice, thankfully after I’d saved my work to the desktop), and then I ended up leaving early along with most of my coworkers since there wasn’t a hell of a lot we could do. I played a lot of Bioshock once I got home (needed to just kill time & monters), and enjoyed the fruits of the slow-cooker’s labor all day, a garlicky chicken stew, which needed a touch more salt and a lot more garlic; eight cloves was not enough to make something ‘garlicky’ in my book.

Cleaned up the slow-cooker and prepped veggies for another batch of stew tomorrow, this time a peanut sauce, after I’d bagged up today’s stew for the freezer. Saved one serving for tomorrow’s lunch.

Finally updated WordPress this evening, both on the main CountFour home page and on the /legalmoose site. Got tired of the constant “a new version is out, update today!” warnings that have been there for a while now. Also popped in some more plug-ins, to make viewing the site friendlier for mobile browsers (thank you for that example, Brian), and to be truly obnoxious and make Twitter go off when I post new things here as well (thank you Brian and Fredo). Put in a new cross-poster for LJ which seems to work better than it had before (since my preferred one stopped working a couple of iterations of WP ago), even if the text box is a bit much. I suspect that’s editable, but I’m not going to worry about it tonight.

And with that, I’m off to bed.