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

Household

1. Move.
2. Get another bedside table.
3. Get a new dining room table.
4. Get more plants for inside the apartment.
5. Replace the food processor.
6. Get a new carrier for the cats.
7. See about getting a cat tree for the beasties.
8. Cull my belongings before I move, not after.
9. Get a television.
10. Donate/sell extra stuffed animals.
11. Sell the Kirby vacuum cleaner.
12. Organize & put my CDs away.
13. Replace bookshelves.
14. Find and get a better storage option for my DVDs.
15. Take the cats in for their annual physical/shots.
16. Get rid of old computer equipment.
17. Give GLAA their materials back.
18. Sell my old Palm.
19. Repair or dispose of my old bedside lamp.
20. Get new dining room chairs.
21. Organize my book collection.
22. Get an ice cream maker.
23. Get new sheets.
24. Replace old towels.

Exercise

25. Run the Cherry Blossom ten-miler in under 2 hours.
26. Run a 5k in under half an hour.
27. Run a 10k in under an hour.
28. Race two triathlons.
29. Complete a fall marathon.
30. Practice more Yoga.
31. Bike more when running errands.
32. Work on my core strength.
33. Try Pilates.
34. Get a wetsuit.
35. Get a professional massage after races.
36. Get comfortable riding in the aero position on my bike.
37. Decide whether I’m doing an Ironman race next year & if so, sign up for it.
38. Weights, weights, weights.
39. Get more exercise clothes.
40. Get speed and cadence sensors for the new bike.

Health

41. Cook at home more.
42. Get back to a flat stomach.
43. Get to bed earlier.
44. Eat less processed food.
45. Attend another body electric seminar.
46. Eat less, more frequently.
47. Refrain from drinking to excess.
48. Get below 155lbs…
49. …and stay there.
50. Develop and follow a stretching program.
51. Get a body fat scale.
52. Get a physical.
53. Lay off the spicy foods.
54. Try meditating.
55. Minimize my consumption of sodas.
56. Get an eye exam.
57. Get new glasses.
58. Cook more tempeh.
59. Price out tooth whitening with my dentist.
60. Find a good recipe for home made miso soup.
61. Use my cookbooks more.

Social

62. Have friends over for dinner.
63. Go to the Eagle.
64. Get out of the apartment more.
65. Go dancing.
66. Host some Bad Movies parties (2 or more).
67. Do more massage exchanges (6 this year).
68. Go visit friends in another time zone.
69. Dinner party.
70. Host a soup night potluck.
71. Send some more snail mail cards to friends & family.
72. Go see my new niece when she pops out.
73. Remember my brother’s birthday.
74. Go see my family over Xmas.
75. Take someone to CBE in the fall.

Money

76. Set up a filing system for financial records.
77. Squirrel away more money in savings.
78. Set a plan to save funds up for a down payment.
79. Make a plan & start the process to buy property.
80. Confirm with the credit agencies that my credit reports are now mine and only mine.
81. Close another credit card account.
82. Get a paper shredder.

Web/Computer

83. Post reviews of all the lube I’ve been buying.
84. Post reviews of my cookbooks.
85. Get a backup drive for the Mac.
86. Beat Kirby’s Canvas Curse.
87. Play a game with my niece on the DS.
88. Write more on my web site(s).

Work

89. Get some plants for the office.
90. Join the professional bar for my BGA.
91. Update my resume.
92. Figure out some lunches to bring in from home.
93. Find a source of Scharffenberger chocolate for work.

Misc.

94. Renew my passport.
95. Take a knife skills class.
96. Thank you notes.
97. Get a new toiletry kit bag.
98. Get more dress pants.
99. Finish watching The House of Flying Daggers.
100. Watch the other Chinese movies I bought on DVD.
101. Commission an original piece of art.
102. Get another piece or two of Nasty Pig clothes.
103. Get myself the ring I’ve been eyeing.
104. Make three recipes from Vice Cream.
105. Get new styli for the Treo.
106. Get more luggage

I find myself wary of crossing streets. Go fig. Actually, I find myself wanting to have a large mace or sledge hammer prominently held in hand with which to threaten errant drivers (and just think of the weight lifting benefits of hauling one around!), but I don’t suppose that’s practical in this day and age.

I also find it sad that “a good night out drinking” is having two glasses of wine before dinner and being happy I don’t have a hangover (even if my nose is a little sniffly from the lovely Steele zinfandel I was sipping).

I’m currently talking to a realtor about co-ops/condos down in the SW Waterfront area of DC. I like the concept of owning, and the tax benefits therefrom, but the whole house hunting part is just nerve wracking & stomach churning, and this after all I’ve done is skim listings online & fill out some basic loan information. Oy. This being an adult thing can be difficult.

Okay, I take it back, resolutioners can go suck my metal-enhanced cock.

Got to the gym tonight and all 6 treadmills were full. Including with one of my favorite gym goers, the treadmill walker. Yes, I know there are reasons why someone would just want to walk, but honestly, go hop on an eliptical and let someone who wants to actually use the treadmill for what it was designed for, running, use it.

Grrr.

I’ve done my southern roots proud and had my black-eyed peas, served up in a vegan version of hoppin’ john. Alas, I did not make cornbread or collard greens, but I did make the peas, and that was the important part, according to my grandmother.

Otherwise, the new year has thus far been nice and quiet.

I did my traditional new years day run. Since recovering from mono back in 99/00, and making my first run on new year’s day 2000, I’ve made it a tradition to run on that day. No heart rate monitor, no watch, no music, just whatever clothes are needed for the weather, my shoes, and me. Was a good run this afternoon, my first outside in a while.

I apologize to those of you who’ve been so kind in your emails, calls or text messages. As you may have figured out by now, I’ve been dealing with some pretty nasty depression of late. Right now I just want to get moved to a new place, get settled there, get away from the bugs and the loud music, and see where it is I’m going from there. This has not been helped by the lovely cold sore that popped up yesterday morning with none of the usual warnings (no tingling, etc.). Woke up and there the little fucker was. Thankfully it’s progressed along just as quickly and the meds I have seem to be helping speed it along. ‘Tis past the painful stage and onto just plain annoying. But it did not help my mood any yesterday, and it just reinforced the decision to stay at home and just ruminate on stuff.

The good part of this, however, has been that I’ve been cooking up a storm. In additon to the aforementioned hoppin’ john, I’ve made roasted butternut squash, breakfast tofu scramble, barbeque baked lentils, and garlic roasted asparagus for various meals. I’ll have leftovers galore this week for lunches, which is better than buying stuff on campus any day of the week.

Still working on this year’s uberlist. Did learn some things from the past year’s list, and I want to make this thing work.

So, looked over this past year’s Uberlist 2005, and listed below is what I accomplished off the list (not bad, at 63 items done out of 105). Some of these were rather nebulous goals, but I felt like I met the ones listed below (there were some others that, while partially successful, did not make this list). Overall, I think I did okay at it. Working on the upcoming year’s list, and will post that after the new year begins. Some of the unfinished goals will carry over, some will be modified. In any case, this is as close to a year-end wrap-up as you’re going to get out of me.

Uberlist 2005

1. Drink more wine.
2. Vacuum the apartment once a week.
3. Donate more things to charity.
4. Clean out more storage space.
5. Add a regular weight workout to my fitness routine.
6. Get a triathlon bike.
7. Get a new platform for the bed.
8. Get my Palm to successfully interface with my iBook
9. Pay off another credit card in its entirety.
10. Clean my bathroom more often.
11. Lower the threshold at which I reach “critical mass” for cleaning or decluttering a space.
12. Consolidate down to one bag to carry back and forth to work (versus the three current ones).
13. Get some Nasty Pig gear to wear to the Eagle
14. Manage my GI system better.
15. Get back down to a 30” waist.
16. Get a filing storage system.
17. Trash old, unneeded financial records, safely.
18. Cull the book collection.
19. Put more money into my TSP retirement account
20. Squirrel away more money in savings.
21. Get a real trashcan for my room
22. Replace the trashcan and recycling can in the kitchen.
23. Bug the building to do more about the pest issue in the kitchen. (called 2/14/05, caulking done 2/16/05)
24. Eat fewer cookies.
25. Eat more fruit.
26. Cull my clothing collection.
27. Buy more dress shirts and ties.
28. Go shopping more often.
29. Get to the grocery store more often.
30. Solve the sagging problem on my large bookcase.
31. Practice more Yoga.
32. Buy Dreamweaver.
33. Redo the countfour.org website.
34. Redo the diary section of the site.
35. Clean out the linen closet.
36. Dump all the old products I have around the house that are never used.
37. Throw out old, unusable shoes.
38. Get rid of the extra kitchen door.
39. Watch more porn.
40. Get an iSight camera.
41. Take more pictures.
42. Get out of DC for the inauguration
43. Reduce the amount of “stuff” in the apartment.
44. Dust more often.
45. Get more exercise clothing.
46. Get a wireless mouse for the iBook.
47. Play Diablo II with friends.
48. Look into the value of my comic collection.
49. Attend CBE in May.
50. Eat less, more frequently.
51. Take the cats to the vet for a checkup and shots.
52. Write more on countfour.org.
53. Write more on the diary site.
54. Chill on the constant use of emoticons while writing.
55. Call my parents more often.
56. Text my friends more often.
57. Do lunch with the other young attorneys in my office.
58. Expand my collection of sex toys.
59. Continue to ignore my crazy grandparents.
60. Do my best to not involve myself in the commission now that I’m not on it.
61. Go up a gauge on the PA.
62. Get the tools to exchange body jewelry.
63. Find more healthy snacks to eat at work.

Closed one card in its entirety today, lowered the interest rate on one of the remaining ones, and removed a third one from my wallet.

I called the large servicer of my two main cards to dump the low-limit ($700) bank-I’m-not-with-any-more visa I had with them. Since I no longer have an account at said bank, it’s not needed for overdraft protection, and I don’t have particularly fond memories of the bank anyway, so Die, Die, Die. It was my oldest credit card, which is supposedly worth keeping on the report, but screw it, I was simply ready (emotionally) to get rid of the thing. It had been the little credit card I started with, waaaay back under a previous bank, and it had been one of the most reasonable ones for making payments and interest rates and what not, but as soon as previous and not-with-any-more merged, not-with-any-more farmed out their card serving to the large servicer instead of handling it in-house, and the servicer promptly jacked up the interest rate on the card. Jerks.

They did get rid of the card, but in a sneaky way. The servicer merged the credit limit into the other visa I have with them (upping it by the aforementioned $700), and somehow merged the accounts so that the remaining visa now looks like it’s the old one, to keep the “cardholder since” longevity. Whatever. So long as a card died today, I’m happy. The old one is now tacked to my bulletin board, along with the other ones I’ve paid off.

Oh, and the servicer was so happy with me for completely paying off the cards that they lowered the interest rate on the remaining card to their lowest available one. One that is less than half what I had on the card a year ago, and is actually lower than the original rate I’d had waaay back when under the previous bank. Wunderbar.

DiscoverCard™, on the other hand, did not want to play when I called about an interest rate deduction. Instead of processing a rate reduction over the phone, as they’ve done the past 3-4 times I’ve talked to them., they’re sending me paperwork to fill out (!!!!!) to request a rate decrease from the current one, which is also now somehow a floating prime+ rate instead of the fixed rate I’ve always had with them. So that got the card removed from the wallet so it won’t be used. Don’t want to play nice, I don’t have to give you any business – no transaction fees for you! Meh. Not like their “cash back” rates are any good anyway, unless you’re participating in one of their specials. AmEx has better return rates (on paper, at least).

And at this point, it’s “who can give me the most for giving them the business” when it comes to cards. I’m going to try AmEx once their new card arrives and see how I like them. I’ve heard very good things about them, and I like the options available on their web site (payments can be made every 2-3 days, not every 8 [!!!], nor do you have to “schedule” payments several days in advance before they credit to the account), so we’ll see how that works. No more carry-over balances for this man, that’s for sure.

Is much happier to be in this position than the one I was in a year ago, owing out the whazoo and begging for rate reductions to get rid of balances faster, and not seeing any end in site to the debt. I still have a good chunk of debt (student loans – oy!), but there’s an end in sight, and I’m in a much better position to actually be able to plan for things like, say, buying a place of my own now, rather than simply spending all my money and psychic energy dealing with existing debt. Definitely a happier place to be.

Dear heavens, is it really only Tuesday?

I head down to the Tidewater area this weekend to visit the parental units in their new semi-permanent digs in Great Bridge. Am headed down early because a) it’s easier to get leave, and b) they want to head off to Florida in the RV right after the 26th. Will be a relatively quick visit (Friday-Monday), but that’s enough I think.

Life otherwise is relatively full. I have way too many events to attend at the moment, it being December, and my performance is showing it. Slept in a tad too much this morning, was still too tired from Sunday, and so cut the swim short. As dedicated as I am training and doing this half-Ironman™, I did finally learn that it’s perfectly okay to cut a workout short if my heart and/or body is just not in it. Better to rest, knowing I went out and tried, than to go for broke, injure myself and force an even greater (and more damaging) rest upon myself. Didn’t run this evening, either, but I’m not terribly worried about that. Did laundry instead, in prep to head out to the ‘rents’ place.

Checked my credit reports again, for the first time since I sent corrections to all the companies in May. Experian and TransUnion were both correct now, with no errors that I could find (and increased FICO scores since the last time I checked – sweet), but Equifax had done nothing to my file. It still listed me as Moose III (I’m Moose II), and had my Laurel, Maryland address, the one I moved out from in 1999, as my primary address. The woman I spoke with last night suspected I probably have multiple files there, so I’ve faxed off a letter with information and a copy of my driver’s license today to help them sort that out and get back to me. I’m ticked that they did nothing with the materials I mailed to them in May, so insisted on a fax number this time (“Well, we don’t really like to take things by fax…”), and after many hours of trying, the letter and photocopy finally got through (the number was consistently busy all day). Hopefully that’ll be sufficient to get the various files reconciled there and I can get a real file to go through instead of this crappy anemic one they keep trying to foist off on me.

It’s gotten into some nastily cold weather here in DC, I suppose prepping us for the shortest day of the year here in a week or so. I’m stilll contemplating which coat to get from dear old L.L. Bean™ this winter to replace the ‘heavy’ one I’ve had since, oh, high school. The coupons have been rolling in from Christmas and the purchase of the bicycle (none of it sitting on the card, mind you – it’s all been paid off, almost as soon as it goes on), so it’s just a matter of time, but man, this week has had me itching to get a new one like mad. I think it was in the 20s both going to and coming home from work, with not much of an increase in between. Send me back to the sub-tropics, please! I want my only-gets-down-to-40-at-the-coldest winter weather back. Shorts by March. Definitely much more my kind of weather than this crap.

I used to like fall. The comfortable temps, the holiday prep, etc. Since I’ve started running and the like, though, it’s more of a pain in the ass than anything else.

The light is wrong, clear, yet “off” from the norm. Leaves everywhere make the paths treacherous to my klutzy self – either they’re wet and slippery or dry and treacherous. Plus they hide rocks, sticks and other things that can make one, oh, say, break one’s ankle.

Give me summer any day of the week.

In other news™, I made the plunge on Thursday and signed up for the Mooseman 1/2 Ironman for next June 4th. Yup, I’m insane, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. Right after I clicked the “submit” button, I think it hit fully that I was actually going to be doing this. I’ve been wanting to do a 1/2 Ironman distance race this next year, and how could I resist a race named the Mooseman? But yeah, life is going to be a lot different with the training and what not. 2006 promises to be a busy year.

I want to do a fall marathon as well, and I’m undecied as to whether to try to get into the Marine Corps Marathon or to just go for another local-ish fall marathon. Since my eventual timeline is to try for an Ironman race in 2007, I’d kinda like to have done a full marathon first (I did a 1/2 marathon back in 2003 after the bike accident and before the broken ankle – 2003 was a particularly bad year for accidents), before attempting one at the end of a triathlon.

I’ll probably also end up doing Diamond in the Rough to help with the club championship series for my tri club as well. Past that, I’ll have to dig for other races for next season yet. But Mooseman and Diamond will be the two that I’m going to focus on for now, with Mooseman taking priority.

I think I may be fighting off a head cold at the moment. Sudafed has been drafted once more, and I’m hopeful it’ll be a short thing. Been spending a lot of time out of the house lately, and some late nights have probably caught up with me. I’m trying to get stuff out of my system before I become a triathlon hermit. Once I start the training, I don’t anticipate that I’ll have much energy for much else outside work, training and the other minutiae of life. And honestly, I’m okay with that. Triathlon, specifically building toward an Ironman, is something I’ve wanted for a good many years, and now I’m pursuing it, and that’s what’s going to be the priority for me.

Cancer Survivors May Not Get Needed Care. The short version is that the Institute of Medicine found that cancer survivors aren’t getting the long-term follow up care they need after their initial treatments. Scary quote:

Half of all men and one-third of women in the United States will develop cancer in their lifetimes. Thanks to advances in early detection and treatment, the number who survive has more than tripled over the past three decades.

I have to say, cancer is the one health risk that just gives me the willies. My mother is a breast cancer survivor, her father and two brothers have had prostate cancer. Both of her grandmothers died of cancer, one from breast and one from ovarian cancer. My father’s mother had a cancerous tumor in her brain that killed her, and her sister, his aunt, has had melanomas removed from her face. If there’s a genetic component, I certainly have a high risk, then, given that family history. I’ve already had a talk with my doctor about it, after the latest diagnosis of an uncle. I’m going to start screenings for prostate and colon cancer about 5-10 years before the normal recommended time to start those, just in case. And otherwise I try to do the right things with diet, exercise, etc. But just the fact that it could pop up at any time scares the living daylights out of me. With other health risks (i.e., HIV, colds, broken bones, etc.) I can weigh the risks that they’ll happen or not and manage those to a point where I’m comfortable with my actions. Not so much with cancer. Scary, scary stuff.