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

Nice weekend, spent it with the parents, in anticipation of the week we’re spending together starting tomorrow. We played tourist, visiting various Smithsonian museums and watched ‘Rolling Thunder,’ the motorcycle parade in memory of the fallen, zip down Consitution Avenue when travelling between museums. Was quite fun, but quite draining. One forgets how much energy it can take to deal with holiday crowds and large museums, as well as lots of walking/standing that doesn’t occur in everyday life.

The race is in five days. Five days in which I’ll have little to no access to the ‘net in order to post. Will update as soon as I’m able, and I’m sure I’ll be writing while out.

Hadn’t swam in a while, but did so at the pool here at the cult co-op this afternoon/evening. At first I was feeling a tad out of breath, which led to some bit of panic over my chances in the race. Thankfully after a bit I calmed down, and I came to that zen-like calm that can come over one while swimming. The swim’s not going to be the easiest, but I suspect I’ll get through it okay. The wetsuit will help, the extra buouancy means less effort spent staying up and more spent going forward. Of course, the water temperature will be a factor as well, but I suspect I’ll be relativelty well insulated with the suit, cap and socks. Only time will tell.

I’m doing a quick spot of laundry this evening, and have my stuff laid out for the race all over my bed. I’ll pack most of it tonight, and get up early tomorrow to finish it up and await my parents’ arrival for our impending trip. Looking forward to the time off, it’s most needed.

I hate when I overschedule.

I’m normally fairly good with putting things in the two different calendars I maintain (work and home), but I forgot to put in an after-work-work-function (aka happy hour with the other young attorneys) and scheduled dinner with a friend this evening as well. Given the relative positions of the friendships and what not, I’m choosing dinner over HH, but I hated having to spill the beans that I’d overscheduled and was not making HH (even with the real and good excuse that I have to run and get my new glasses after work today). Ah well.

Been in a mild funk the last two or three days with a lack of sleep, general feeling of pessimism, and dealing with the last bits of the relationship with CT (a handover of some things I left at his apartment). Not terribly fun, but I know it’s a temporary condition, just have to keep telling myself that.

The dining room table arrives today, as does a stool/side table for the balcony. The chairs are on backorder until the middle of the month, but that just gives me time to clear the remaining junk out of the way. Once the table’s set up I’ll have a chance to look at various designs of couches I’ve been looking at, to see if any of them would work in the space. For the most part the dining room table will be in the folded mode against the wall, so I’ve got some space for a couch in front of it, but I’ll need to actually see the space, as well as measure, etc.

Work’s nuts, with several things bouncing around. Thankfully the bosses are understanding since they’re bouncing on the same issues (as well as others). Fun stuff (not). Hopefully will settle down soon, but if not, oh well!

It’s strange how the smallest things will set off the strongest memories.

I cleared out the last largeish box in the dining room, broke it and two others down, and went to repack my box of old casette tapes into another, newer box (yeah, I still have casette tapes). At the bottom of that box I found a variety of things, including a a copy of a law review article from a professor I think I must have helped host when he visited my law school (just googled him, only vaguely remember the man), some other old correspondence from people I didn’t recognize, and three sets of pictures of myself, The Ex, and our four cats, Katie, Zach, Alex and Allison. I only briefly glanced through the pictures to identify them, but it was still enough to bring on a melancholy mood. I miss those cats, especially Zach and Katie (our first two, and the first two pets I’d owned outside of my parents). They’d be about 12 now, if they’re still around. Last I knew they were at The Ex’s mother’s place, and were indoor/outdoor cats, something we never allowed them to be when we had them.

There were pictures of all four cats right after we’d given them baths, looking all bedraggled and pitiful. Pictures of The Ex with them as kittens lying around him. Pictures of me with them. Pictures of them in two of our apartments.

Lots of memories, both good and bad.

I’m glad that was the last big box, I don’t know that I could’ve handled stumbling on any more of that kind of thing right now.

Drove down to the home of the parental units today. The drive was uneventful, though I seem to have maintained my case of leadus footus, and managed to get here in a little under 3.5 hours. I’m reminded of why I enjoy not owning a car, and not driving on a regular basis – it drives me batty (no pun intended). People don’t get out of the way when they’re not passing, they go slow in the left lane, they don’t use turn signals, etc. Ugh. But I got here just fine.

The niece is enjoying Super Princess Peach, and ’twas fun seeing her. My brother, on the other hand, lives like a pig. Admitedly, he was sick the past couple of days, but their apartment is an absolute mess, with stuff everywhere. Glad he’s not in a highrise or he’d have had bugs all over the place – they love that kind of environment. I shudder just thinking about it.

Showed my parents pictures of the new place via snapfish. I’ll get them uploaded & posted here sometime this next week, after I’m back.

Otherwise it’s quiet here. Going to do some shopping tomorrow with the ‘rents, and I think we may be doing cake for the niece. After that drive I should sleep like the dead tonight, and then I have to figure out if I want to swim or run tomorrow. Either would be good, it’s a matter of where & how long.

I’m in the process of putting an offer in on a co-op apartment down in southwest DC, near the Waterfront Metro station. Nothing quite like contemplating more than doubling my debt load (after student loans) in one fell swoop. Thank heavens for the tax benefits that come along with mortgage interest payments in this country.

I’ve otherwise been busy, helping with the club’s new triathlete program, working out myself, and just generally living. My calf is still out of commission; tried running last Thursday, a week and some after the initial injury, but ten minutes in at a moderate pace I could tell it was not ready yet. I’ll take this entire week off and try to be patient. Thankfully swimming and biking have not been affected by the calf’s little injury, so I’ve been able to stay up with those in the meantime.

For reasons I’ll not go into here I broke things off with CT last week. For the first time since the Clinton administration I’m single. And you know, I’m okay with that; I’m looking forward to having some “down time” from dating, to be honest. I want to get the new apartment arranged, do my race, get the new triathletes through their first race(s), and simply take things day by day otherwise. Heaven knows I need to take some of the down time and retool my eating habits; I’ve been eating for stress, not for hunger and fueling my body, and the scale’s been showing it this year. Not that buying the apartment and breaking up are doing wonders for my stress levels, but this has been just plain silly. There’s no reason my eating should have been that out of whack. Ah well, live, learn, and move on.

Got a starter Prince’s Wand (link not safe for work) last week. The starter version was nice, after a ton of cleaning (it was obvious they hadn’t cleaned it before they shipped it), but if I were to continue with one I think I’d have to go and get a custom one done by Steel Werks Extreme (again, link not safe for work). The starter one fits okay, but a more customized version would be needed for more than just hanging out in it, if you will.

(how sad, I just realized I didn’t have a “sex” category for that last bit of text; shows how little I’ve been doing anything in that department lately)

Anyway, brought some work home tonight so I need to go read that and get prepped for a semi-big meeting with my chief deputy poo-bah tomorrow.

The knee’s fine. The little ligament that runs down the inside of it is still mildly sore to the touch (technically a ‘sprain’), but with no pain, I’m cleared to exercise. So I’ve done that (exercise), with two spinning workouts on my tri bike this weekend (yay for spinning DVDs to keep one focused).

The new triathlete program for the tri club is coming along well. First meeting is next weekend, got the space lined up, hopefully have the intro workouts set for them, and we’re just waiting to hear from a race director about the first race for the two groups (sprint and olympic). Let’s hope it all goes this smoothly.

My own training has been semi-spotty; I’ve not been on the schedule as much as I’d have liked, but am getting back to it. Been running with a coworker on the treadmills at work, and that’s been fun. Is nice to run with someone else, and we’ve gotten to chat about a lot of work stuff (real work and gossip), which is always good. I’m still not thrilled that they don’t have towel service at the work gym, but the convience of not having to travel further than a few floors down and a corridor or two over is outweighing that little detail. For now.

The resolutioners haven’t quite disapeared from the pool yet, but the weeks are ticking down.

Seeing CT tonight, either shopping or a movie, not sure which. Food somewhere in there, too, I’m sure. Now that the weather’s dropped I get to wear my new jacket out (hooray for coupons from ye old credit card company) and hopefully not freeze my butt off. Alas, the March weather we had this past week died in the last couple days, with winds buffeting the scaffolding stuck on the outside of our building and driving us nuts whipping the ropes/cables against the windows new and old.

Well, so much for my doctor’s appointment this morning (the entire reason I took today off from work, truth be told). They just called, emergency came up, blah, blah, can you reschedule to tomorrow? Um, no, I had taken today off just to have this appointment, and I really don’t want to waste more annual leave take more time off from work, it’s not an emergency, so I’ll just see him in February when I come in for my physical. (insert ugly mutterings under breath)

Well, not quite true, I have other errands I need to address today while off from work, like laundry and getting my bike checked/fit adjusted so I don’t get IT band problems Every Time I Ride It More Than 20 Minutes, but hey, those weren’t the reason I took today off. Oh well.

In other news, after the fight CT & I did talk & resolve the issue(s). Still wasn’t fun to experience that, but into each life, rain, &c.

Anyway, time to get started with cleaning before I head down to the bike shop. At least I can get some of that done in lieu of the appointment, though I made pretty good progress on the main room last night.

CT and I had our first real fight tonight. I walked away from him in the middle of it. He was not pleased, I was not happy, we both had ugly words to say to each other over it. We were both slightly intoxicated, in the L’Enfant Metro station, and neither of us was going to back down, which made it really ugly. But you know, I’m not one to get into something in front of Metro police, so when they walked over in the middle of it and started making a big deal about something dumb, I walked away.

I’m particularly proud of the way I acted, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to get arrested over something stupid. We’ll talk tomorrow and we’ll get things straightened out, but tonight, I’m glad we’re not sleeping together.

Of all the Christmas traditions my family has, I think the one I love the most is that Mom always makes stockings for us. When we were growing up it was usually candy, an orange, a toothbrush, maybe a little toy. As we got older there were variations on the theme – small umbrellas, different candies, other useful things. Eventually, it dwindled down to just candy, until one year when I was in graduate school, Mom decided since my brother and I were both now over 21, we were too old for candy and she was going to get us more adult stuff.

Miniature bottles of booze.

This year, knowing that I like bourbon and/or whiskey, I got 11 mini bottles in a variety of those two liquors. Including, I might add, some Knob Creek, which I’d been meaning to try as a variation on my favorite, Maker’s Mark.

So when you see these mini bottles show up on my liquor table at a party, now you know why.

But this is still definitely my favorite tradition.

Been down at my parents’ place this weekend. Thus far the visit has gone well, and it’s been pleasant to see them, my brother and his family, and my aunt and her family. Folks have liked the stuff I brought down for them, and it’s just been a good time. I almost felt guilty in terms of my haul versus my brother’s (he didn’t make out well from the parentals in terms of “stuff”), and then I remembered that they’re paying his rent while he works on his MBA. At that, any guilt flew right out the window.

My brother did finally give a return on the gift I got him two years ago, as well as this year’s gift. Two years ago I got him a vegan dessert cookbook and a nice cheesecake springform pan. He loves the faux cheesecakes at Sticky Fingers, so I figured I’d give him a way to make his own. He hadn’t really tried it until he started grad school this fall, but along with the new food processor I gave him (yeah, he made out well from me), he’s been baking up a storm. The cheesecake was very good, and the fudge not bad (he used carob instead of chocolate, and while carob is okay, there’s no substitute for good chocolate). It’s a good thing he cooks, too, since his wife is (admittedly, on her part) not terribly handy in the kitchen.

I’ve also managed to keep up my exercise schedule, swimming yesterday for an hour, and I’ll go back to the local Y to run today. I’d not normally been so good about sticking with exercise when down here.

I will say that I’m very glad that my parents have WiFi, though.

Added more links off the Glen’s main page, catching up on the sites I read, either daily or less frequently. Will have to work on the coding later to sort them on the page, but for now they’re up and running at least.

Originally we thought my parents would have me sleeping in the motor home, but when it was revealed that there was no water in there, so if I wnted to use the loo it’s meant either going and then using a gallon of water to flush the thing manually, or coming inside, I said forget it and volunteered for the blow up mattress. It’s been okay so far, though some off dreams have resulted, mainly involving train travel and somehow or another wandering around San Francisco. Very odd, but not too bad, I’ve still managed to get enough sleep here.

Went grocery and wine shopping with Dad just now. Strangely (for them), it took me prompting them before we had anything to drink last night. The normal routine the past few years has been them practically popping the cork before we walked in the door, so to have almost gone two nights here without any wine was shocking, to say the least.

Oh, and while out with him I was reminded of something I forgot to mention here. Being an employee at a Big Government Agency, I have to go through mandatory training each year on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace. Our training happened at the beginning of this month and was the usual exhortations not to pick on other people in the workplace, etc. Well, as I’m heading out of the training, one of our political appointees (one I’ve seen before in the halls) decides this is the proper time to start chatting me up. Literally, right in the hallway outside the training room, and down the hall as we walked back to the elevators, he chatted with me, subtly came out (as if I couldn’t tell), and then not-quite-overtly flirted with me. After he left it was all I could do not to laugh out loud at his ironic choice of timing.

Well, it’s almost time to haul out the Tofurkey™ (the real turkey and ham are already done), welcome my brother and his family back in, and open another bottle of wine, so it’s time for me to zip.