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

Literally. The husband took off for the day to hang out with friends, and had made some noises about how “crowded” he felt the main level was getting, so I dug into a few things down there to straighten them up before he had a chance to put things “away” in places I’d never find them later.

Then I culled T-shirts and other clothes in our dressers. Removed each drawer and tightened the screws on the rails. Moved on to my office, tossing papers that we no longer need, like old bills that we needed to prove residency when we first moved in, and filing away tax stuff. Found the cats’ file just in time for their next vet appointment in two weeks. Between the stuff I couldn’t donate from the bedroom, and the papers from the office I filled a small garbage bag.

Did other things in between, like eat, and do my daily run at Animal Crossing, but mostly I’ve been organizing and cleaning all day. The dust hasn’t been fun, but making sure the drawers in the bedroom can open without jamming, either from being overstuffed with clothes or loose rails, was worth it.

Other than that life has been busy at work for both of us. After two days of gross we’ve both recovered well from the vaccinations, though I still have a fairly prominent red spot from the monkeypox shot. The husband got a new tattoo from an old tattooer. We discovered the guy who did most of his left arm has a studio within walking distance of our townhouse. I’ve given him an idea for another one for myself as well, and we’ll see what he comes back with, design-wise.

Our power went out for a little while yesterday afternoon, and it apparently got a good distance around us, because my dental office was also hit. Had an ‘every-six-months’ appointment this morning, and they were still having problems getting into the computers. Thankfully all I needed or wanted was a cleaning, and that didn’t require a computer. All good on that front, and I’ll call them next week to schedule the next appointment and deal with billing.

I was a little worried I was going to have to go into the office today, because the power cord on my work laptop didn’t seem to be charging it after the power outage. I was all set to try a couple different things and then make the drive in, but after sitting powered down all night it was drawing power just fine this morning, post-dentist. Thank heavens. The Metro is current closed down at the office, so it would’ve meant a drive one way or another.

In the meantime, it’s Apple systems update day, so I’ve been updating all of my devices, and getting the husband’s computers for good measure while he’s at work. Much easier to do during the day at home than waiting until everyone is trying to do it when they get home from work.

The combination of stuff is going better now. We added several new bookshelves, and are gradually moving his books over, bag by bag. Also in the process of converting an old, large bookshelf into large dressers. Yay convertible Ikea furniture. It’s gonna be cramped, but it’s doable. And it’s getting better than the last entry when I was going nuts. Still haven’t found the yoga strap, though.

Injured my back twice this week, once while biking and once while lifting a large water bottle for the office water cooler. Not the lower back, strangely, but the mid-back, lower ribs, on the outer back. Guess it’s past time for more strength training. Phhhbbbbttt! Letting it recover a bit, then will work on strengthening the area. Past that, training has been almost non-existent, again. Commuting and his work schedule are completely non-supportive of doing any training. Blech. I may still be able to do the tri in May, but the half marathon in March is out at this point. Ugh. I hate wasting the money on the race fees, not to mention the loss of health and weight gain. Another thing to look forward to when he moves in – no more driving across town twice a day, and time to exercise.

One of the major disadvantages of combining households into the existing dwelling of one half of the couple is that that person already has a mental map of the place and where everything goes. It might not be perfect, but in general they know where stuff is. Then you introduce a second person and all their stuff, and suddenly neither one can find any of their own stuff.

He hasn’t even moved in yet, and he’s already losing my stuff. *sigh*

Tonight it was the yoga strap. Wanted to do some nice, quiet, end of the day yoga. Pulled out the mat, the blocks, a bolster, but the strap was nowhere to be found. It *used* to live with the blocks, but those got moved up to a different shelf, and it seems the strap didn’t move with them. At least not that I can tell.

Last week it was my winter cycling gloves and ear covers. Finally dug those up not from any of the usual places where I keep my winter gear, but rather in the linen closet next to the sheets. *double sigh* At least my hands and ears are warm now on the commute, but it was a cold couple of days before they were found.

It’ll get better, I know, but in the meantime I think I’ll be doing more yoga to try and let go of the frustration, strap or no strap.

You know you needed to clean when doing so sets off your allergies (from all the dust that’s kicked up).

Yesterday I sent the boy off to a conference for the weekend, and dropped the dawg off at dawggie day care. Got the oxygen sensor in the mini replaced this morning. Been cleaning off and on since, and I think it was the vacuuming that pushed my allergies over the edge. Ah well, at least there aren’t obvious dust bunnies all over the place now, even if my nose is going nuts. We painted last weekend, putting black chalkboard paint on half the entryway hall (and it works; it’s not like that hallway could get any darker, so the black doesn’t detract), and a nice green (“Douglas Fir”) in the living room:

Plus we moved around some furniture, and with all that it stirred up a lot of dust and carpet fuzz. So today has been putting things away, finding new spots for things, and rocking out to Queen’s Platinum Collection.

But now I think it may be time to goof off a bit with the Playstation.

Made it back to my own apartment this morning, after weathering the storm at the boy’s place. No damage here, thankfully, and the soil in the planters with the rosemary on the balcony is nicely damp. There was a little pooling on the balcony, but that was swept off easily.

At the boy’s place, the cheap seals around the windows and his outer door (a large glass affair) didn’t stand up to the sustained winds, so we had a good bit of leakage, mostly at the bottom of the walls, directly into the carpet. Unfortunately the only solution for said leakage is to wait until everything dries and then re-caulk the exterior, which isn’t helpful in the middle of a storm. So we laid down towels and (in the one place it was dripping from the top) a stock pot, and picked up what water we could. Rented a rug doctor to pick up a lot of it yesterday once the rain stopped, but I’m afraid he’s going to be dealing with smelly carpet for a while, until the university’s own folks come in and do a deeper cleaning.

I was exceedingly glad that there was a covered parking option at the boy’s school, so I didn’t have to worry about the car at all during the storm. If I’d been at home it wouldn’t have been a major worry (my parking spot isn’t near any of the trees on our property), but it would have been a slight background thing. As it was the only thing with the car was a lot of tree stuff that splashed up on it from puddles on the way to/from the grocery store to get the rug doctor, which mostly washed off last night when I left it out to get rained on.

So it’s back to work today to see what messes we’ll have to respond to. Hopefully our facilities in the NE are okay, and any hazardous materials were adequately locked down.

If for no other reason, I want the election done and over with so I can know how chaotic the next two months after that will be (transition to a new administration [high chaos] versus retention of the incumbent [mild chaos]). Add to the normal mess this whole “sequestration” thingey and I’m not making any travel plans for late December, much to the boy’s annoyance, since we’re supposed to go to Boston and then to the midwest for a wedding. It would be nice if we could count on Congress acting like adults, but they won’t, so in the meantime the rest of us are stuck.

Went in to get new orthoses from a new podiatrist this morning. Hoping these will be better. We talked a lot about the mechanics of the inserts and what did and didn’t work, so feeling pretty good about this set. Will be nice to be able to run again. Saw the dentist Tuesday, teeth are all good. Seeing a new allergist next week, which should be interesting, not least because I’m off allergy meds for the next week. The last time I got tested the only result was being told that I was pretty much allergic to everything, which was neither helpful nor illuminating. So I’m looking for a bit more precision this time, and a different treatment regimen. I’m just tired of taking sudafed daily to dry out my sinuses. Breathing normally without drugs would be a welcome change.

The boy and I are slowly fixing my apartment for his eventual move in. We both have plans this weekend, so can’t do the furniture move/painting we thought we could, so that’ll shift to the weekend after. It’s good that we have time to adapt it and don’t have to do it at once, I think that’s going to help me with the transition. I suspect it’ll be harder on me since we’re taking a space that I’ve had as a solo sanctuary and sticking two people in it. Not that it’ll be stress free for him, either, but hey, my blog, my feelings.

Two quick updates: 1. The parental unit visit went very well; and 2. I think we have a solution for the dawg.

Was very good to see the parentals, and they enjoyed hanging around in DC. This was the 2nd time they got to see the boy, so it was “grill the man who’s going to be our future son-in-law” time. He was much, much more relaxed than the first meeting, so it went off without a hitch.

On the dawg, I spoke with my brother and I think we can work something out where the dawg will stay with him and his family, with the boy and I kicking in the cash to take care of dawgger. At least in that way we’ll be able to get down and visit him, and perhaps if future living arrangements allow, take him back. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Otherwise things are going okay. Work’s work, the end of the year stuff has started, which tends to keep me nice and busy. Starting to lay out plans for next year’s tri season, and planning for the bike ride the boy wants to do. And making more plans for the eventual consolidation of households in the spring, most of which revolves around adapting my apartment to fit us both.

The parental units arrive on Tuesday. They last visited in 2006. Just after I bought this apartment. Well before I was engaged. 14 years since i’ve lived in DC and this is the 2nd time they’ve visited. But I’m (incredibly) not bitter. Yeah.

The boy told me to handle to dawg issues. His beagle can’t move into my apartment in the spring. And he can’t deal with the whole not there things. So, me.

I wish I wasn’t underwater on my mortgage. I like the dawg. We’ll make other arrangements so we can get the dawg back when I can move.

Thanks, housing bubble.

So there we are. Forget the wedding, how do we deal with the dawg?

Spent most of the afternoon today cleaning up my apartment, preparing it for a visit by my brother and one of his daughters (so part of prep has been kid-proofing). I hardly spend any time here any more, since most nights are spent up at the boy’s place. Now that the clutter, which accumulates because of the aforementioned “no time here”, is all cleaned up and put away, the place looks pretty darned nice. It’s easy to forget how well I’d set it up for myself.

The first newbie triathlete class is going well, despite their goal race getting cancelled. The next class starts in three weeks (eeck!) and then we’ll have both going through the new goal race for the first class, in early July (three weeks later than the original). I think we’re up to the challenge, but it’s going to be tough.