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

Fall has hit DC with a vengeance. From temperatures in the high 60s at night, we’re currently at a lovely 53 degrees (up two from the low!).

This kind of weather makes running outside much more pleasant, not to mention being able to cut off the A/C and throw open the windows all night finally. And, bonus, I get to haul out the big, fluffy white bathrobe(s) when it’s colder than cold inside the apartment when I get up in the morning (I can so hear Margaret Cho channeling her mother, crying out, “soooo gaaaay!” right about now). I love the fluffy white bathrobes, but there’s really no need for them when it’s warm out.

The temps will climb back up over the weekend from their current lows, but them they’re back down again next week. I expect soon we’ll hear calls here at the cult co-op to switch the A/C over to heat (it’s an old all-or-nothing system, one or the other, not both). The BGA, which has the same sort of system, will do the same. Which will, of course, result in an indian summer heat wave which will bake us in our units for a week or two, but so be it. In the meantime, it’ll be fun to watch people scramble for portable heaters.

I bought a signed copy of a memoir about breast cancer written by a lesbian this evening. I’m not sure why I did this, except that it sounds like it will be interesting reading (lesbian relationship drama!), and perhaps it might help me deal with my mother’s own survival over having had breast cancer a decade ago. An odd way to learn about it, but one does what one can.

No running this week after Tuesday morning’s run. My knees began to hurt, which is a sure sign that New Shoes Must Be Purchased, so I will do that this weekend. The race last weekend went well, despite evidently needing new shoes. I ran it under 30 minutes, as was hoped (28:10), but not under my PR (27:33). I did have to remind myself that the PR was set on a very, very flat course and that this one had two slight hills at either end, so that was some slight bit of consolation. That said, I was still happy with the results. If only the marathon would go so well.

Otherwise the silence has been merely busy. It’s the end of the U.S. Federal Fiscal Year, and since fiscal law is what I do for my Big Government Agency, it’s a relatively busy time of the year for me. I still enjoy it, thankfully, but it has kept me somewhat occupied of late. I also purchased a new game for the DS, Lost Magic, and am enjoying that thoroughly. It’s horribly distracting, but I have put it down every now and again.

Still seeing MG, and that continues to go well. He makes me happy, I enjoy the time we spend together, and I look forward to more time spent with him.

Have I mentioned lately that I love where I bought my apartment?

Got to work this morning, changed from biking gear to office drag, and realized that I’d forgotten my cell phone. Whoops. So rather than panic and have to run back right that instant to get it (OCD much?), I made a plan to bike home at lunch, eat while here, and get the phone. It’s only a 10 minute trip door to door, so it’s easily done.

I could so quickly get used to doing this.

Making some fresh pasta, having some fake sausage and a nice pesto sauce. Called the parental units to check in with them. Checking email and the blogs on a real, non-work tracked computer.

Yeah, I could get used to this.

If you go out on a run, but take no equipment for recording heart rate, distance, pace, etc., did it really happen?

Felt the need to just run this morning, the up and back along the waterfront that I consider my usual not-quite-2-miles-when-I’m-feeling-icky run. Up, back, no beeps, no watch whatsoever, so clue how long it took me or how my heart was doing. Just a nice run to remind myself that I do this stuff because it feels good, and because it’s fun.

Not been wanting to write much of late. Had a lot of things going on, personally, and no real desire to share them with the world at large.

Running’s been going pretty well. Did not quite 15 miles on Sunday. Ironic sight of the day while out running: Woman sitting on her back porch in a “Race for the Cure” T-shirt, smoking a cigarette.

I can tell I’ve been a little stressed, though – eating like there’s no tomorrow. Makes one yearn for the days before 14 year old anorexics started having strokes and you could still get real dexatrim over the counter. The new stuff just isn’t the same, and who needs a dressed up caffeine pill, really? If I wanted to get jittery I’d just drink more coffee. Not there’s been a lack of that in my diet, either.

Anyway. Writing more out of a sense of obligation than any real desire to post, so I’ll end this here and save us all trouble of more inane writing.

Did measured speedwork for the first time in, like, ever, this morning. And it was So Much Fun. 1.5 mile tempo pace, half mile cool down. Was supposed to do three repeats, only did two repeats because I thought I didn’t have enough time (turned out I could have – oh well), but man was it fun to run faster than normal again.

Might even be able to beat 1/2 an hour on the 5k I’m doing next month if I keep that up. Not that 1/2 an hour is terribly fast on a 5k, but I don’t think I’ve done that yet, and it’d be nice to do.

The tempo trainer thingey I got last week is definitely helping me keep the turnover going. Turnover (how many time your feet hit the pavement) was steady (with the beeping) at both the fast and the recovery paces, which is as it should be. More proof that switching over to the evolution running stuff was a good thing. I’m sure I was quite the sight this morning, tempo trainer beeping in one hand, heart rate monitor held in the other (showing pace and distance). But still, it was so much fun running up and down the boardwalk area at the Waterfront doing the repeats. I wish I’d discovered this stuff sooner.

Finally got the damned DVD/VHS player hooked up. Only been what, three and a half months since I moved in? I need a longer coaxial cable so the thing can sit back further, but for now it works, which is great. Even got the aspect ratio right, so it’s showing wide screen. Yay. No more watching DVDs on the laptop. A newer DVD player would show a better picture on this TV, but for now, I’m simply happy I can watch them again.

The Incredibles is looking pretty darned good.

Life’s a mess, as always. The air thing seems to be fixed now, I’ve killed off the last head cold from that craptacular little adventure, and I’m running again.

I had a visitor over the weekend, a boy (in the BDSM sense) who is perhaps relocating to DC. Had a very fun time with him, despite the head cold. Played tourist, played period, though not as much as either of us would have liked (again, the head cold). Mildly disappointed at that, betrayed by my body. But a fun time with him, nonetheless.

Otherwise I’ve been feeling even more anti-social than my usual wont, killing off the shows on my TiVo, catching up on the DS games I’ve been neglecting, pulling down the books I’ve not yet read and starting in on some of them.

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.

I am hopeful that an email I received in response to my complaint to WebSense about livejournal being classified as a “personals/dating website” will help get it unblocked at the BGA. They claim to have looked over the site and put it into the category of “Message Boards and Clubs.” I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but not hold my breath.

Fighting off a head cold at the moment. No fun, but they do happen. Better than the case of stomach ickies caused by some questionable Chinese food earlier this week (spent what felt like a good part of the day in the loo the next day, though thankfully it was all coming out the right end).

Been playing the DS again, mainly animal crossing. I hope to have three new types of fruit trees up tomorrow, but we’ll see. So far I’ve had bad luck with getting trees to grow. I suspect I wasn’t watering them immediately and thus they were all wilty the next day and gone the third, but we’ll see.

Work was an absolute mess this week. One of the customer organizations within the BGA is having problems and they’ve been consuming far, far too much of my time over the last year. To the point where other customer organizations are now calling to find out where their stuff is and I keep having to stall because of the constant emergencies with the problem child. Ugh. Not where I like to be on customer service, but I suppose these things happen. Anyway, that’s absorbed most of my week, with the result that another organization is going crazy to try to get another thing off my desk that I Just Can’t Get To Yet.

I’m so glad it’s the weekend, looking forward to catching up on some much needed sleep.