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

Feeling a little light-headed from paint remover fumes. I’ve been cleaning off the brass (it turns out) knobs on my kitchen cabinets this afternoon. Along with the dreadful paint color (“winter garden”), whatever idiot painted the kitchen also painted over all of the knobs with the same dreadful paint. Which is odd, because they had to them screw the knobs back on after at least a single coat of paint because the screws in the back were not painted over. Oy. So, 6 of ten are done. I thought perhaps from the way the paint was peeling off the knobs that they’d be more a dark nickel color, but brass they are.

Mostly done, but decided to break from it when the fumes got to be a bit much, even with the fan(s) going. This was after breathing in a plethora of other cleaning products as the place got scrubbed down, vacuumed, swiffered, etc. this morning and afternoon. Much needed cleaning, but never completely fun stuff.

I’ve started the process to purchase the new stove, first step being to find out what’s needed in terms of wiring, etc. to handle it. Given that the current one is original to the apartment (i.e., from 1963) it was better to ask first and see what kind of conversion box might be needed., if any. I have to call tomorrow to have them come check it out this week and give me an estimate on the work (conversion box, if needed, removal and installation of the new unit, etc.).

BC and I popped out to a party last night. I stuck to water, so slept fairly well and got in a bike this morning on the trainer before beginning to clean. Probably balanced out the not drinking by eating too many cookies today, but so be it.

Mind-numbingly boring work today. We’re reviewing emails in response to a Congressional inquiry, and actually what we’re doing is reviewing the work of the summer interns, and while I’m sure the member was expecting to find something smoking, what we’re finding instead is that people are really, really dull over email. If I have to read one more argument about where to go for dinner, or an announcement of another new baby, I may scream. Unfortunately the torture continues tomorrow.

Oh, and a manager (not in the counsel’s office) at the not-so-BGA called me today unsolicited to let me know there were attorney openings coming up there, and offered to answer any questions I had. I’m going to take her up on it tomorrow, since finding the actual structure of the counsel’s office there has proven to be a futile task. Again, nice to have folks with whom I’ve worked think of me for such things.

So, after the doc review, as a treat I stopped off at Jenny’s and picked up Chinese take-out (mmm, Fiery Tofu…). Ate at home, cleaned stuff up in the living room (pre-gaming chore), then set myself to setting up the Xbox. I actually crawled under the “entertainment center” (aka my desk) and unhooked all the cables from the PC that’s not worked in months now due to lack of a fan, and got that cleaned up and put away. Then the Xbox itself was relatively easy to set up and get into. Used the same old same old user name on there, ‘legalmoose,’ because my first choice was already taken and I didn’t feel like trying to come up with something else. Got hooked in, got the free month of Xbox Live Gold membership, and then popped in Bioshock.

Wow. Blown away. Absolutely loving this game, as evidenced by the posting here at 11:30ish. I had actually set an alarm on my phone (appropriately enough with the old horn “ah-OOOga” sound) for 9:30. That got snoozed a couple of times. I just played the thing on Easy mode, but am really enjoying it.

This is actually the first time I’ve played with a controller of this type. I know, scrape yourself off the ground, but up to the DS purchase, all my gaming had been on the PC. Now I’ve the DS, a Wii and an Xbox, and I love all three for the different types of experiences they give. Still having problems with the camera (for some reason I want to push down to move the camera up, and vice-versa – holdover from some other, older game on the PC maybe?), so occasionally I miss stuff, but the plasmids are quite fun. I’m playing the nice guy, rescuing the little sisters instead of killing them, ’cause for this one I wanted to see how that played out. Next time, slaughter.

So I have Bioshock, and Mass Effect (still in the shrink wrap), and two games that came with the system (some racing game and a Marvel Comics marketing ploy, I mean game). A fun addition to the living room, I have to say.

Nothing quite like having maintenance cut all the electricity in your building to tell you it’s time to leave. They’re doing some routine work on the electrical system that required it all to be off. I’m just glad I’m not staying home today with this cold, and that I don’t regularly work from home.

Spoke with management this morning, they’re tired of the smoke, too, so it’s now getting packaged up to send off to the cult’s co-op’s attorney for action. I can say I’d not be upset if they moved, or were forced to move. That is an advantage of a co-op, if someone is truly obnoxious as a member, they can be expelled (in effect forced to sell). Given the mark-up since they purchased, and their behavior, no tears will be shed here.

My bedroom is currently airing out because the cigarette smoke from my downstairs neighbor is back. Joy!

Children should not be allowed out without adult supervision. Case in point, the kids running down the wrong way on the escalator to make the train in the Metro. At least they didn’t stop the thing like the last group of urchins I encountered on their way home from school.

And yes, this does make me a grumpy old man. Which makes the fact that BC’s mom keeps hinting at wanting us to have kids all the more amusing (amusing to me, not so much to him, but then again she’s not my biological mother – my own mother has said nothing of the sort and seemed kind of surprised when I mentioned children).

Heading back to the office after getting a sty looked at. Nothing big, and thank heavens Metro is reliable most days, allowing me to zip out & back without too much delay.

[side note – did we not outlaw mullets yet? Why would someone wear something so bad looking on their head?]

Tourists are out in force today. I’d have expected more of them next weekend rather than this weekend, given the holiday.

Heading to the cooking expo this weekend with BC to drool over ovens & cooktops I can’t yet afford or fit into my kitchen. I enjoyed it last year, and am looking forward to checking out the gadgets. I’d like to find a place that offers a knife skills class that’s both convenient and that won’t try to make me do something like de-bone a duck. I’m not holding my breath on that, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

I’m helping another staff with interviews they’re doing for a position which will have a focus on the type of law that I do, so today I wore a suit so I’d look presentable for the interview. My boss walked into the office early in the morning and asked why I was in a suit (I normally don’t even bother with a tie). “Oh, I have an interview,” I replied. Her eyes got really, really big. “You know, I’m helping [the other office] with vetting and there’s an interview today,” I continued. She was quite relieved to hear that. And then accused me of being cheeky, which I suppose I was. But one does have to have some fun with the boss on occasion, no?

Short run this morning. First morning I’ve needed to haul out cold weather gear (tights, gloves, heavier top layer). Very short run, less than two miles, about twenty minutes, focusing on keeping the heart rate down rather than pace (though I do glance at the pace thing from time to time).

Fantastic weekend with BC. Went out drinking with he and Brian and Mikey on Friday, made risotto for dinner Saturday, home fries and tofu scramble for brunch Sunday, carved pumpkins with his family on Sunday afternoon. Lots of good food, lots of fun. ‘Twas nice to spend the entirety of the weekend with him, with no real plans to have to go or be anywhere if we didn’t want to. Very good time.

I have to get to serious cleaning this week in anticipation of the weekend after next. More a matter of putting things away than anything else, but it’s a necessity if I’m to have folks in here. And laundry must be done, and done soon. Had planned on it tonight, but didn’t have the energy for it, especially after zipping up to check on the cats at Richard’s place (thank heavens I have the mini for such trips now). Tomorrow or Wednesday, then. No plans to go out on Halloween, not for lack of an invite or two, just for lack of motivation to get all dressed up. I couldn’t care less about costuming, and there won’t be trick or treaters in the high rise. All my candy is at work anyway.

Looks like my site it down, so I’m going to leave this up on the laptop and try to post it in the morning. At least the building turned the heat on three days earlier than they planned to (I hope they got the new valves in!), so it’s not frigid in here tonight.

And let me just say thank heavens this storm front has rolled into DC finally. First, we need the rain, and second, it’s only 11:45ish and it’s already below 70 in my apartment tonight, meaning I’ll actually be able to sleep well.

It’s welcome to keep raining for the next two days as they’re predicting, too. We need more than that, but it’s a good start, no matter the mess it’s going to make of the commutes.

I like warm weather. I really do. But I like warm weather with air conditioning, if I’ve been acclimated to AC, as I have been the past few years (I survived the subtropics in Taiwan without it). And I have no AC at the moment because the weather is supposed to have broken by now, the cold front hovering over West-by-God-Virginia is supposed to have rolled over by now, and it’s supposed to be cooler than 76 degrees inside my apartment. Pig fucker weather systems.

This is, as you can see, making me testy.

BC and I just got back from 30 Days of Night. Wow. Perhaps it was because we’d gone to Zatinya and each had 2 glasses of wine with dinner and a glass of port as dessert, but that was, um, well, cheesy. And unnecessarily silly. And filled with far too many opportunities to whisper snarky comments in his ear. Not as many as, say, Dragon War, but still. I was left tapping my fingers and wondering when they’d just kill off the people already so I could go home to my overly warm apartment and attempt to sleep.

Annual physical was this morning. BP’s good (105/70?), resting heart rate was good, lungs, clear, etc. All the blood work should come back at the end of the week or beginning of next week. Got a tetanus booster since I couldn’t remember my last one and they had no record of having one at their practice. So far the arm’s not sore, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Back to work tomorrow after 2.5 days off, so will be email heck to catch up with. I’m sort of ready for it. At least I have massive amounts of candy to carry in for the office, so for that alone I’ll be popular.

Hadn’t seen BC all week. Our schedules hadn’t meshed at all, so we hadn’t gotten together until this afternoon. When he walked in I just held him for several minutes. Hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him (and vice versa).

After a short while we went to go see D-War: Dragon Wars.

Worst.
Movie.
Ever.

This is so getting added to the cannon of bad movies. Thank heavens the theater was in no way, shape or form crowded, because I kept leaning into BC’s ear to MST3K the thing (actress: “Don’t we have a plan?” me: “Honey, you don’t even have a plot, of course you don’t have a plan!”). Lawdy, what a mess. Sudden scene changes with no warning or transition, people suddenly knowing all about this obscure Korean fairy tale, the Tim Gunn lookalike bad guy, it was all just dreadful. It was very difficult not to dissolve into loud laughter, though we did giggle a lot over in our little section of the theater. A lot of so-so CGI was really wasted there.

Checked in on ‘s pussy, who thankfully was still alive and happy. Off to an amazing dinner at Vegetate after that, then home to get in some needed alone time. He had to zip home, but we have a date set for tomorrow. Which is good, since I just spotted his sunglasses on the dining room table.

Prior to his arrival I was feeling quite blah this morning, so I spent a good bit of time cleaning, my default reaction to feeling out of sorts. The bathroom looks much better for it, as do all the floors. BC and I are going to go on a charity run next weekend, so I’ll finally get rid of a bunch of stuff I need to donate, and make room for some folding chairs I have, and my two clothes drying racks when not in use. I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts in general at home, and now that race season is almost over (with the big effort races out of the way), I can actually focus on home stuff. The whole “entertainment” portion of the main room is a bit of a mess, moreso since my PC is now on its last leg (the CPU fan is making a most disagreeable noise). The two pieces there, the large desk and the big shelving unit, were bought for my last, large bedroom, and not for this space. They sort-of-work, but not really. A more proper entertainment center with media storage and perhaps a small desk and book shelf would work much better.

Not that any of that is happening any time soon, mind you. Debt reduction first, more decorating later. Paying off that loan this week cut a good year off the total time it’ll take to kill off all remaining loans with that company (just two more there). That’s the company with the highest interest rate, so with the greatest chance for savings on interest by paying them off early. It’s definitely been nice to see the payoff date change from several years in the future to just a year and a half (well, less than that, but that’s date if I continue the current payments with no more early payoffs) with the two sub-loans paid off these past couple months.

Time enough, despite the fact that I feel like I would make a hummingbird look patient when it comes to these things.