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

I looked at the calendar this morning and realized that the practice triathlon I thought was a couple weeks off is actually a week from today.

Whoops.

So I swam this afternoon, and biked to dinner (City Lights, with a new gay vegan here in town), since the mountain bike got out of the shop yesterday. New tires, new brake pads, tightened & realigned deraileurs & brakes, all of these were added or done and it made for a very nice ride. I think the tires I chose are a tad more street friendly than the last ones, making it overall more pleasant. Was going to get up and do a ride on the tri bike, but was up verrrrry late with dinner and a very pleasant conversation with a young gentleman, so no biking early.

Instead I did more stuff around the house, finally hanging the grocery bag holder under the kitchen sink, and breaking down and trashing the last three boxes. Cleaned up the bookshelf in the front hallway, rearranged the liquor supply/wine rack, generally put things away from the living room. It’s looking much more put together, and will be great once I tackle the book collection and figure out how I want to order that. I’m still leaning toward more shelving, with some closed shelves on the bottom for stuff like computer supplies and the like that don’t need to be on display.

Went to take the dead lamp out of the living room (one of the two torchieres died about a month after I moved in), forgot that with no bulb in the glass had no anchor, and SMASH went that. Thank heavens I had shoes on. Brought home the need for a decent broom, even with a vacuum cleaner.

I live such an exciting life now.

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.

Ran this morning. Two big lessons: 1. I need to be more consistent in my training; and 2. I need to run earlier in the morning.

‘Twas a trifle warm out there today. Because I was going for longer than my nice little Thursday morning 7 miler I decided to leave the District and head down the Mount Vernon Trail. Was quite nice, a good trail, well maintained and fairly busy. Only complaint I had was that they need more trees (for shade) but less vegetation (which blocked the nice breeze off the river). Otherwise it was a pretty good run. Did two hours, and out and back with a little side detour in East Potomac Park (found out where the driveway off Buckeye Drive goes now!).

Did a load of cold wash just now. Need to do more laundry, but no time. L is picking me up to go see Assassins at Signature Theater this evening, with an early dinner beforehand.

Put away the ‘toys’ from where they were, out in the open, to not quite so out-in-the-open. Sorted them by purpose (restraint, penetration, etc.) and put them away accordingly. Even managed to hang up a couple of pieces of art – no longer will I have to worry about smacking the Japanese prints I’m keeping for my parents as they are now hanging in the front hall. The mirror’s up near the front hall, my first cross-stich is up in the bathroom hallway, and there are still books all over the floor in front of the bookshelf. Bit by bit.

I have a set of pages I read on a regular basis, every evening, and I added my LJ friends list and the page I use to write on my web site, which now prods me to write, ready or not. A purposeful thing, meant to force my fingers to get moving.

I managed a great feat today – I unpacked the last two boxes of books. Most of them are on bookshelves now. Most of them. I discovered that I need more bookshelves to fit them all, even with having dumped as many as I did when I moved. A bunch of paperbacks are now crammed onto some shelves in multiple layers. I’d prefer they be visible now, but in time they will be.

But now I’m completely moved in. Everything might not have a ‘permanent’ home yet, but it’s all out and mostly put away. Even managed to hang another piece of art. Slowly it’s become home.

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.

This was a very long weekend. A goodly part of it was spent on the way to, the way from, and in Quakerstown, Pennsylvania to watch my newbie triathletes compete in their first race. The Steelman was a well run, well organized race that had both an olympic and a sprint distance race run at the same time (sprint started 1/2 an hour after the olympic folks). It was a lot of fun cheering them on, seeing them finish their first race, and just generally getting caught up in the race spirit without being in the race myself. I think that’s the first time I’ve been a spectator at a race since 1999 when I went to visit Ironman Canada with RNJTM. Was a lot of fun.

Once I got home, and got showered, I moved things around int he apartment again. The bed placement, even with the air diverters I hunted down, was just not working. The air unit has been blowing over my face when I sleep, which has caused at least one cold, and possibly a second. So I moved the bed around to the opposite wall. It works, though not like I’d prefer to have the room. At least the air thing is now solved so hopefully no more a/c induced colds this year.

Spent an hour tonight doing some yoga practice, something I’ve not done in a while. Did variations of standing poses, getting grounded, feeling how the legs supported the frame, how to adjust the movement of the body to keep centered and balanced. Felt good. Certainly it felt better than sitting online and running my fingers with friends. While I like chatting with folks, I have been spending a little too much time there and not enough working on things like the yoga practice. So it felt good to move the body again. I think perhaps hanging around with hundreds of people, many of whom are incredibly fit, was a motivator. Hmph.

Also starting to play with podcasts. I know, I know, I’m way behind the curve on them, but I typically do not use my iPod except as background noise at work, so listening to radio-type broadcasts where I’d have to pay attention to something isn’t my norm. Nonetheless I hunted down some mandarin-language podcasts through iTunes and will try to listen some more. My mandarin is very rusty, so listening to some currrent talk I think should help arrest and perhaps reverse some of the loss of skill there.

After rearranging the living room, and prior to starting dinner, I had another of those, “OMG, I own all of this” moments looking around at the apartment. It’s funny, both of the major rooms have now been reversed from how they were originally set up when I moved in, and both are probably more functional for the movement. It takes time to get things set up and arranged properly, but it seems like it’s taken longer than usual with my new home. And I haven’t even gone through and done a proper feng shui treatment of it yet, either.

Today was a wet one. I started it with a shower, then an open water swim out on the Chesapeake Bay with the club sometime around 8:30, another shower after that, then some more swimming at the cult co-op pool, then, of course, another shower. Very, very wet.

Came home from the first swim, hung up the wet suit, finally replaced my shower head (soooo nice to have a real shower head now), did cold wash (so no biking today – all my jerseys were dirty, and currently are drying on the rack).

Went and saw “The Devil Wears Prada” this evening with friends. Was quite cute, I enjoyed it. “That’s all.” Fun.

I’ve been reading a new cookbook I bought on Friday and it’s not helping my urges to add more things to the pantry and the kitchen gadget collection. There are items I need to add to the pantry, and will do so this week, but I don’t need (yet) a cast iron skillet. Nor do I need silicone oven mitts. Le sigh. But it’s been fun reading the cookbook. It’s a vegan one, and all the recipes look very accessible. The author is on my LJ friends list, and I remember hearing her trials of testing and what not, so it’s nice to read the actual book (finally) and see how well put together it is.

Off to crash soon, up for a bike ride, possibly, or more cookbook reading. Meeting of the members’ organization at the cult co-op tomorrow, and a bit of drama with that as a board member has caused a bit of a stir by perhaps getting our general manager to walk out on Friday. Moron.

Well, three months in it finally happened, I’ve become the grouchy homeowner.

Have fired off a series of emails over the past several hours, starting last night when I asked the cult co-op members’ email list if anyone knew why the pedestrian gates on N street were locked, forcing me to walk over into the driveway (a.k.a. “the River” in last night’s storm). Wouldn’t normally be an issue, but the security mechanism does not yet work and no members have keys (and the gates have been unlocked for months). This was especially annoying because I can see the pedestrian gate on the cul-de-sac at O street from my window, and it’s wide open. Followed up with another email to the building manager this morning with the same questions.

The next was to the building engineer asking if there was something that could be done to allow my balcony to actually drain. It has a drainage channel on the outside edge, and I’ve cleaned a bunch of crud out of it, even poked a chopstick through the end such that I can see it coming out from my bedroom window. No go, water still just stands there. So hopefully he can help with that, as the 1/4″ or so of water standing on the balcony annoys me.

The third was back to the members’ list, asking if I had missed a piece of paper under my door about access to the “members page” off the co-op web site. If there’s a way for us to get electronic communication from the cooperative rather than five gazillion pieces of paper under my door, I’m all for it, but you know, I have to know how to get at the stuff. Supposedly the co-op membership voted last year (?) to move to more electronic communications and stop the paper under the door method of notification. The board, predictably, has stonewalled. It would be nice if they’d realize this is 2006, not 1962, and get with the times. If there are members without computers, or who need paper, fine, let them opt in and get a special printing under their door. Not a problem. But don’t blanket the rest of us with paper we neither need nor want in this day and age.

I suspect the relative lack of sleep hasn’t helped, but the little things do add up.

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.