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

Well, fuck. I had ordered a stove a while back from one company, and it was backordered for forever, so I cancelled that order, found it at another company (and cheaper!), so placed an order there. Well, it seems that the manufacturer is no longer making that stove, so they just emailed me to let me know they cancelled the order. UGH! I just want a freakin’ workin’ stove, people. This should not be this difficult.

Damned tiny apartment kitchen (the current stove, and thus the available space, is a 20-incher, so I’m stuck at that size unless I want to pay lotsa money to redo the space entirely, which I don’t, and the selection is seriously limited).

Back to more searching for stoves. *sigh*

Went to the podiatrist today because I had a scheduled appointment to get my foot zapped (aka “Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy”) to help with the plantar fasciitis, but in the end I didn’t get zapped. He had given me a 2nd cortisone shot the last time I was there, about two weeks ago, and that seems to have done the trick. Even after the 10k on the 14th, I’ve not had any heel pain, so it appears, six months plus later, that I’ve finally licked this one. Let’s hope so, this was not a fun injury. And I’m tired of sleeping in a night splint.

So, with no need to sit on my ass for the rest of the day recouperating (I took the day off), I went and ran errands.

You know you’re a triathlete (or other endurance athlete) when you go spend $40+ on “nutrition” and none of it is stuff you’d just sit down to eat. Powdered drink mix, shot bloks, gels, etc. All stuff I need and was completely out of it.

Then I ran up to Homo Depot and picked up more paint swatches than you can shake a stick at. BC has offered for forever and a day to help me paint my apartment and I’ve never taken him up on it. So, time to pick out colors before he rescinds the offer. Should be a trip.

Hauled the shuffle out, got it all charged, then promptly left it at home this morning. Whoops. Watching the other guys working out proved to be a bit more entertaining today, anyway. While there were two guys in the weight room on Tuesday (one of whom was the other’s trainer), today had half a dozen other folks, making it fairly crowded, but not so bad that I couldn’t find space for lunges and push ups. Upped the weight and reps slightly today, as Tuesday was purposefully light. Still not too difficult, which is the point of this stage.

I had forgotten how often one ends up having to wash a load of cold wash clothes once real training begins (not to mention biking to work again, which I started back with last week). Doing that tonight, then some reading, then bed. Was up far too late last night with Halo 3 (addicting, even when I die, over and over and over and over and over), so I need rest before the next run in the morning. Skipped biking this morning because of the storm last night (didn’t want to risk all the limbs I knew would be down on the road this morning).

We actually lost a chunk of our fence here at the cult co-op when two big limbs came off one of our larger trees. Thankfully no one’s house or car was hit, just the brick wall.

You know it must be past time to vacuum the carpet when you get up from doing your post-run stretching and you have the occasional carpet fuzzy stuck to you.

One thing on the weights yesterday was that I forgot I have a 1G iPod shuffle (the kind that looked like a white stick of gum) that I used to use while doing weights (or running on the treadmill). Thing is so old I can’t even find anything but support references to it on the Apple site. Hauled it out this morning to charge and reload with music. Some of the music that was on it (I have it fill randomly from “my top rated”) was stuff that I’d removed from that particular playlist, so was happy to see it gone (mostly stuff I’d listened to far too often). I think I still have my 3G iPod “classic” around the place somewhere, too, though as I recall it won’t hold a charge and will only play when plugged into something that provides power (the result of playing it on a docking station at work for too long).

In other news™, BC texted me this morning to let me know he finally picked up the bicycle he was getting from a friend. The assimilation continues (he said, with an evil cackle).

I bought some plants & two new planters for the balcony (I blame Marn. And Martin.) So, without further ado, before and after pictures:

And I just discovered, post-planting, why it is that I was feeling so warm:

Teach me to go out without sunscreen. ;-p

Getting a tad better at the exercise routine this week. I’ve been trying to switch my schedule back to getting up earlier and getting to bed earlier. It’s gradually working, but not quite as quick as I’d like. So, it’s been evening workouts so far this week. And with another meeting with congressional staff tomorrow, the pattern will repeat again tomorrow, too – long run will be in the evening, and no swim for moi. Hopefully I’ll have the sleep back to normal next week and swimming can resume then. Hell, maybe I’ll be back to normal Friday. Who knows at this point. But it’s 214 days to the Ironman, so gotta get that set and fast.

I’ve been told asked by Mom for her old flatware back (so she can stop shuttling the stuff they have between the house and the motor home). I inherited it from them many, many moons ago when they upgraded decided to change to a different pattern. I won’t shed any tears of giving up the rose pattern, but it does mean I have to shop for the stuff, which I’m sort of dreading. I’ve looked at the stuff in the past, but never with any mind to actually buy. Now I suppose I should pick something out before I go down for mother’s day so I can present her with her flatware. Good thing she hasn’t asked for the old Pfaltzgraf or then I’d really be screwed. Though plates that weren’t vintage 70s might look nice.

BC should get back Thursday or so. Miss him a lot, it’s been a long week without regular contact.

It was wet and disgusting pretty much all day today, so I spent the vast majority of it sending my minions after various and sundry bugs, zombies and of course gold. Managed to find myself a mistress to redecorate my tower, forged some new armor, and killed off two more of the bosses. ‘Twas fun, if exasperating at times.

Did some tri club work this evening, coding of pages and sending out schedules for the other co-leaders to help decide when our next events are through the beginning of June. No bike today because of the thunderstorms, and didn’t feel like running since I’m supposed to run in the morning tomorrow.

Did get a lovely visit with JT last night – Thai food and good company, always a good combination. Almost dragged myself out to the local garden store, but decided to wait until next weekend when BC’s back in town and make him help. If I can drag him out shopping, that is – dunno what sort of time at home he’s going to need after seeing his grandparents and being out of town.

Okay, when I said I was spent when it came to cleaning for the day, I so lied. The parental units called, and when I’m on the phone with them I generally have to wander the apartment and do minor straightening, which lead to cleaning off all the surfaces in my bedroom. That then lead to tossing out more crap, putting away the latest two medical devices I’ve picked up (the vertigo collar and the plantar faciitis splint), etc. Hell, I even cleaned up the pump bottles of lube by the bed so they aren’t dusty/lubey any more.

Yeah, it’s been that bad today.

I also finally tried out the screws BC got me for the PC’s CPU fan, and they worked. I had forgotten what fun it was to own a PC. Anti-virus software needed updating, there were 10 gazillion Winders updates to download, etc., etc., etc. It’s running a full scan now (not that it needs it, but Norton insisted), while I ignore the thing in the corner.

Thankfully TBS has been playing the Lord of the Ring trilogy all day, so there’s been some noise/distraction going in the background most of the day. Frodo’s just about to get gotten by the giant spider, so all’s right with the world.

Upgraded my install of WordPress, too, which managed to break the LiveJournal crossposter on the front page of the overall site. That’s what I get for following the directions and deactivating the plugins before I upgraded. I forgot to deactivate it on this portion of the site, and it’s supposedly still working. Hopefully that’s true, as I’ve liked having the dual-posting option, and the programmer who wrote the crossposter hasn’t upgraded it in a couple iterations of WordPress.

Heaven willing tomorrow at work won’t be quite as evil as it was the last two work days. I do have more writing to do, I know, but not nearly as much as this past week held. If not, I’m not sure what else I can clean.

Definitely on the upward side of a stress cycle today, as evidenced by a massive cleaning spurt this morning and early afternoon (washed curtains, put tons of things away, tossed a bunch of junk, scrubbed down the bathroom & microwave, etc.). The main bit of it was sorrow over not running the 10 miler this morning. I briefly entertained the idea of going ahead and trying it, but thankfully common sense prevailed and I sat it out, as I have no desire to kill my legs/knees/ankles. That said, I was in a massive funk all day yesterday over it. Damned vertigo.

Am decidedly spent now, at least when it comes to cleaning. And if I keep going I’m afraid my hands will pay for it this week.

Such a predictable reaction to stress. At least it’s a productive one.

Yesterday was the first time in forever and a day that I’ve done two workouts in a day (a short run in the morning, swim drills in the evening), and today everything is sore. Hips, arms, core, the works. And I still want to hop on my bike for an hour or more here this morning to get in one more workout this week. I know this’ll get easier, but I did not want to get out of bed this morning. As it was I let myself sleep in.

Going to attempt a visit to the Washington Design Center today with BC (depends on when he gets over here, I suppose). It’s here in SW, and I’ve never been, so I want to check it out. Spring has sprung and I’m wanting to rearrange my living room. I have ideas, but it’s always fun to see what other folks have done to tweak those ideas.