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

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.

The nice thing about being off work is having time to do a more involved breakfast. Toast with lemon-pear marmalade was a treat.

That said, I was about ready to give in and get the Bizzy Gal version of coffee this morning – the water was taking forever to boil.

Okay, got laundry done, went grocery shopping, assembling the race gear now, as well as cleaning the house now (and by “cleaning the house” I mean that I set the Roomba loose in the bedroom while I was out shopping and it’s now getting the kitchen and front hall done). Car reservation made. Hotel reservation confirmed.

Once assembly’s done, there’s not a lot more to do except try to relax. Which will likely drive me crazy. Thankfully I have Sacred to keep me somewhat distracted.

Tomorrow’s plan is to pick up the car, get BC, then off to Bear, Delaware, for packet pick up the race on Sunday. It doesn’t appear they’ll be doing live updates, but I’ll try to get something up on LJ after I’m done.

Was up until 4am. Sleep was not to be found. Then, I was rudely awakened at 8am by the sound of a chipper/shredder taking out the limb that came down Saturday night outside my window. Called work, went back to bed. Just getting up now, and only up because I got hungry. Well, that and the half-awake dreams got really, really fucked up and I couldn’t take them any more.

I even hauled out my neti pot to help clear out my nose. I haven’t used that thing in years. It did do a good job of clearing some stuff out, so I’ll probably see about doing it as a regular practice. I think I got the head position better last night than I have (chin and forehead level – previously I’d had the chin too far down I think) after a lot of insominac reading last night. And hey, if it helps, water and salt are cheap, certainly cheaper than sudafed.

I sense much monster killing today, around napping. And a little bit of work, since I have a meeting with a political appointee tomorrow about his project and how to fund it in a way that doesn’t kill the thing.

The season for ruining coasters.

You see, it’s a tad humid and warm at the moment here in DC, it being summer in the South, and I like to drink cold drinks when it’s this warm out. The colder the better. Cools your core, comforts you, and all around makes you feel better. Most frequently it’s simply water from the refrigerator, but in any case it’s cold, which means in this humidity that the glass attracts condensation like the Old Country Buffet attracts retired people.

I’ve just about ruined one older one I was using without thinking much about it (the one that holds my usual sipper bottle). Poor sucker’s starting to mold I’ve kept it so wet. So I’ve hauled out the big guns and scattered them around the apartment – the sandstone and metal coasters. Not much gets through those. Hopefully they’ll hold out until the humidity breaks, sometime in December.

Had an incredible meal last night at Vegetate with BC. He said if that were what veggie cuisine were like all the time he’d not really miss meat. Not a bad compliment. We did the restaurant week thing there, and added the wine pairings, which worked well (especially the ruby port with the chocolate-with-hot-peppers torte & ginger sorbet – yum!). Fantastic meal. This is only my second time there, but we’ll definitely go back. I just wish they were a bit more Metro accessible (they are, they’re just a good several blocks walk from the Metro).

Much snuggling and talking followed.

Contrast that meal with the one we had at Viridian on Tuedsday. For a restaurant known (among the veggies I know) as being very veggie/vegan friendly, it was disappointing that none of the prix fixe entrees was vegan. I did end up doing three courses, and the courses were okay, but the restaurant lost out – ordering the vegan entree and the two other pieces separately came out to less than the prix fixe price. Odd. And the video of the house demolition (which played over and over again over the bar) was distracting without being entertaining. I’m sure I’ll go back, but not any time soon.

Phone replacement ordered for my Treo. That’s all I’m saying for now, since it won’t arrive until next week. Suffice to say I’m looking forward to the switch, and thank you, thank you, thank you to a friend, who shall remain nameless, for a nice discount on it.

Took the tri bike in to the shop yesterday, so no riding for a bit. It’s had this persistent creaking noise for the past month and it’s driving me nuts, so I just said, “figure it out and fix it,” and left the bike with them for a week. So, long run this weekend, then some rest, perhaps Sunday a dip in the cult co-op pool and some sun to even out the lovely biker’s tan I have (“you’ve got a built-in wife-beater,” says BC). Looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks (and showing off BC) on Saturday afternoon at a get-together in the inner ‘burbs.

Relatively quiet this week at work. It’s a blessing when Congress goes out of session (a mixed blessing – it’s been hot and humid here like most of the country, but a blessing nonetheless), especially in my practice area. Playing catch up on a couple of things, and managed to dig up a nice source of funds which had been forgotten. That was worth at least my annual pay, so I feel like anything else I do this year is gravy, to paraphrase my first CFO in the government (after I did something similar).

Oh, it’s not the iPod that’s died, it’s the iHome speaker/clock/radio thing – the dock has somehow slipped and won’t connect correctly. I know this because the Apple dock that synchs the iPod with the computer works perfectly with no slippage. Good to know the old 3G is ticking along like clockwork.

Still debating Chesapeakeman, too. I think the low-key setting seems more my style. Won’t be as much crowd energy, but I think I actually prefer that, given my treatment of most exercise as a solo thing. We’ll see, but I’m thinking I may be having a talk with my boss about it this upcoming September.

The natives are restless tonight. It’s the usual pre-July 4th firecracker week here in DC and they’ve been going off sporadically all night. My favorite was just a few minutes ago, an explosion so loud that I lost hearing for a couple of seconds, even here inside my apartment (with the windows open). I can only imagine what it did to the kids who set it off.

BC’s birthday was Friday, and some space he had tried to get for a blackjack night to celebrate on Saturday fell through so I hosted it here. I’m happy to report that the table easily seats eight. ‘Twas a fun time, and a good way to celebrate the birthday in a nice, low-key manner.

Needless to say, though, we didn’t get up until sometime around noon today.

Once we finally got going it was time for some shopping at the Macy’s sale downtown. ‘Twas fun to shop with him, he’s got good taste. Unfortunately I wasn’t looking for much in the way of fun stuff, more like socks and dress pants and the like. Regardless, the target items were found, and we wandered around a bit more downtown before heading back here for a bad movie and some cuddle time.

Should be an interesting week ahead. I’m acting team leader for my team this week, which seems (from the report from this past week’s acting team leader) to be a lot of getting tons of emails from our boss and forwarding them on for assignment. I know there are other things, but that seemed to be the most onerous part. Thankfully one of our main ethics attorneys will be there to consult (my team leader’s main experience is in ethics work), since I know little to nothing about advising folks on the federal ethics statutes and regs.

Finally cooling off in here now that the thunderstorms are rolling through. I can’t really hear them over the dishwasher, though. It was a ‘clean the apartment and do laundry night’ for me, hence the dishwasher running. The dining table looks nicer without so much crap on it, as does my desk. Amazing what actually filing the stuff in the ‘to file’ pile will do for the place.

Now if I could just make a dent in the ‘to read’ pile.

Good bike ride this morning. I’m hoping the weather will be relatively nice so I can run in the morning. While I’ve been biking a lot more, and finally getting back to swimming, I’ve neglected my running over the past week, which is probably a contributor to the foul mood from yesterday (which was gone after a good night’s sleep and the ride this morning).

Popped by the bike shop to pick up supplies. Sadly their choices of Shot Bloks was very, very limited, so I only picked up a couple. I’ll have to pop back out somewhere else to pick up more. Still haven’t been able to try the margarita flavored ones, but I wasn’t too keen on the pina colada ones. They were okay, nowhere near as gross as vanilla clif shots were, but not a favorite. I prefer the black cherry or cran-razz flavors so far. Oh, and the bike shop was able to take my old bike tubes to recycle them. Yay! Better than dumping them in a landfill, for sure. Glad I remember to take them with me to work this morning in anticipation of the shopping trip.

Swim tomorrow, then maybe dinner in town with BC and some friends. Have to behave as I have a long ride on Saturday, around 4 hours or so.

Clearly feeling more than a little bit of volunteer burnout today. I know it’ll pass, but at the moment I could take the three organizations I’m currently doing work for and happily pitch them all directly into the Potomac. I think this always happens the days I have meetings at the cult co-op. Those can be so incredibly contentious, over the smallest things, that they’re frequently quite unpleasant to sit through. Makes me wish I had already picked up how to knit, as at least that could occupy my hands while I listened to them drone on.

Got to see BC last night for dinner and a horror flick. Whoever set up the arms at the theater so they could be pulled up between the seats and out of the way is a genius, as that made cuddling during the movie all the better.

And to whoever decided to start the as-yet-unreleased new Nicole Kidman flick with images of a space shuttle breaking up on reentry, may you die a horrible, painful death. Like any of us needed to see that happening again. Watching the first shuttle accident live on TV in Junior High was bad enough, having to help with post-cleanup efforts from the second one in the early 2000s was worse. Seeing it on the screen was not pleasant. So, yeah, thanks for the memories, asshat.

Oh, and the smell of pot and incense is back. I’ve placed a call with the local police lieutenant to see if they can do anything about it if I report the smell when it’s back. Not entirely hopeful, but wanted to know my options there. I’ve had it with these folks, and with this smell.

I feel like I was just cock-blocked.

The meeting was scheduled for Friday, so delivery of the dressers was set for this afternoon. Guys got done assembling and I asked where the 2nd unit was. No clue. Called the store. The salewoman, from home on her day off, called to fall all over herself apologizing, is trying to find out why the manufacturer only shipped one unit, and has comped the 2nd delivery charge. In the meantime I’ve filled the one dresser that’s here and assembled, and put the other clothes on top of it (no more floor storage!).

Calming breaths, and concentration on arranging what’s here. Calming breaths. Calming breaths…