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

I live about a block away from an army base here in DC. Since the weather is nice at night, I have the balcony door cracked, which means I can hear the bugle calls at night. At first I thought they were a recording, but tonight definitely proved that it’s no recording – the soldier playing taps this evening was having problems hitting and sustaining the high notes. It wasn’t painful, but it was definitely off a bit.

In other news, to those of you who got an incorrect notice through Friendster that today was my birthday, I apologize. It’s actually Tuesday, the 3rd, not the 1st. I’m not sure why F’ster thought it was the first, but I’ll blame user (moi) error. Sorry about that.

As the weather has cooled down I’ve been bitten with the baking bug. It happens most years at this time, but with a renewed focus on cooking at home, and the attendant reading of cookbooks, it’s come on bad this year. So I decided the next foray (after the first attempt to use the oven) would be muffins. Lemon poppyseed, using a recipe that I knew worked.

Blended the stuff up, almost forgot the egg replacer, but got it in before too late, popped it into the heated oven.

Unfortunately, like the last time, though I had carefully gotten the temperature up to the right place, it again zipped over the set temperature. Some slight burnt edges, and the flour was not quite the freshest (it’ll be replaced ASAP), but they did come out edible. Not perfect, but not a complete waste of time, either.

It’s almost like the oven refuses to cut off once it reaches the right temperature. Thankfully there’s a little light over the dial so I can tell when the heating element is on or off – that’s what clued me in that it was still going even though it had long since reached the right temp. Not sure what type of tweak it’ll take to fix that, will have to research the stove model and see if there’s any way to fix it without replacing the unit. Do need to get it fixed or figured out before I start making bread on the weekends again, though. Muffins are one thing, a week’s worth of bread is a whole other thing.

Okay, so today was most certainly the start of the last week of the fiscal year. Nothing quite like watching budget people wig out over other staffs’ mismanagement of their programs.

So I came home and did what I normally do when I’m stressed out. I downed a fifth of good bourbon. Since I’m not currently drinking until after the marathon, I cleaned.

Somehow putting things in order seems to calm me down, as I’m sure I’ve written about before (but I’m too lazy to look up any entries). The dining room table is clean, the desk is clean, my triathlon/exercise books are in order, and I’m about to tackle the cookbooks (those have been driving me to distraction of late as I try to find particular books and they’re in no order). The floor is clear enough (and was even before I started, honestly – this has been an effort to attack surfaces above the floor) that the roomba ran nicely around the whole place while I worked on particular areas, rescuing it as it ran into the bathroom or got stuck on the living room carpet. A nice, soothing scent’s been going in the burner, and I just closed up the house for the night, to shut out the noise.

It’s certainly a healthier reaction than the other usual one, and I do feel better for having cleaned stuff up, but it always strikes me as odd when I ‘come out of’ a cleaning fit and find specific spaces put into order and looking much, much better than they had at the begining of the evening. Neuroses are such fun.

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.

After the fire incident Saturday it really brought home that with no action on changing the rules here at the cult co-op that I really couldn’t bring the cats here. So, per his request, I let Richard know by Labor Day whether the cats were coming or staying, and they’re staying. Not an easy decision, certainly, and I despise being the one who leaves his pets in a break-up, but I was not going to risk having to lose them at a later date because they got discovered and the cult co-op forced me to get rid of them. That would have been more horrible than I care to imagine.

So, I’m a family of one now. I’m sure it will sink in more later, but for tonight it just feels very… odd.

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.

When I moved into the new place and set up the TiVo, I noticed that Spike TV was playing Deep Space 9 on reruns, in order, several episides a day. So I signed up for a season pass and have been watching them bit by bit. The run ended recently and so I caught up to the last several episodes, not being able to stop watching as the story progressed in a marvelous fashion up until the end. So somewhere around 2-something last night I finished up the last episode. Worth staying up for, but left me a tad tired this morning, when the building’s fire alarm went off sometime after 6 a.m.

I vaguely remember drifting out of sleep, but only realized what was going on when I heard the fire trucks pull up. Will have to have a discussion with the building to see about making the alarm a) louder and b) more annoying. It was a constant beeping which really was no more annoying that someone’s alarm clock going off on the other side of a large house. Not nearly sufficient to wake people up in the case of a real emergency.

Having lived in a large building where the alarm went off every 2-3 months, I wasn’t about to evacuate until I knew there was an actual reason to. So I watched as the firemen in one of the trucks were unable to get into the property. They ended up setting two ladders so that they could go up one on one side of the fence and down another on the other. I cannot believe none of the security guards, nor any residents had keys to open the fencing. That’s going to change, period. I suspect folks will be yelling up a storm at the board meeting on Wednesday about this.

After brunch most of the day was spent with MG, a gentleman I’ve recently started dating. Some shopping, some wandering, a good nap at his place, then home again before heading out to dinner with RNJTM. Now it’s crash time so I can get up and run in the morning, another 15-16 miler planned as prep for the marathon.

I can tell autumn is approaching for several reasons now:

There are massive numbers of migratory birds who are now clustering outside my office window (well, one floor up from me, actually), and they are LOUD. They keep flying back and forth between the trees on the Mall and the BGA office building, and it’s very distracting. I can even hear them over my radio/iPod speakers sometimes.

It’s not quite as bright in the morning now when I get up. Partially this is because I discovered when I (finally!) got rid of the old living room curtains left by the old owner that he’d also left some external sheer-ish things that I could put up to make the room darker, so I did that. And partially it’s because ye olde lazy sun is not getting up as early now. Bastard. I want bright light at 6 am, thankyouverymuch.

I can walk to work in a dress shirt and not be soaked through by the time I get here.

Fall races are close enough to feel “real” now.

So, ’tis on its way, even if we’re not quite there, at least here in my little slice of DC. Now watch the temps shoot back up into the upper 90s again.

Okay, the oven works, the cake came out very well. It does seem to run hot for the setting it was on (i.e., 375 setting was reading 425 or so when I pulled the cake out), but that’s why I got an oven thermometer, to be able to tell these things. Never trust the dial on your stove, always double check it.

You can tell it’s almost the full moon – work is starting to get crazy again. Really crazy. Ick.

Sunday I managed to burn myself pretty well on the shoulders on my morning run. Got up too late (must’ve needed the sleep), so ran later than I’d have liked to, and the shoulders got nicely toasted while out and about. Doesn’t hurt, just looks pretty wicked red. Biked a tad, too. A lovely dinner of Indian food with L, then up chatting far too late.

A meeting of the cult co-op this evening. Very slow, not many folks showed up, which is typical of the summer months. There’s still a few members who do not like change, and they’ve been agitating against change. The latest tactic is to bad talk the building manager (whom they dislike, because she’s competent and doesn’t kowtow to them) behind her back once she’s left for the day. Charming. A shame we can’t record it, get the manager a nice suit for slander. Ah well.

As for now, it’s time to crash so that I can get up and do some speedwork in the morning. Not looking forward to it, but it should help. And it’ll be a welcome change from the normal slowish pace.