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

What is it about traveling that always throws my system off? My hands are covered in eczema from something, likely the stress of travel and not drinking nearly enough water. Driving a ton more today, down to North Carolina to visit my grandparents and back, probably didn’t help any.

The family is doing okay, and it’s been a pleasant visit all told. My brother didn’t make it down with the younger two nieces, but I did get to see the eldest niece and give her a hard time (as well as an antique pendant for her birthday). Picked up a set of mid-century import china I’ve had my eyes on for the past 3-4 years now (dragons!), and I’m also hauling back a mounted set of moose antlers from my grandfather (a moose he evidently hunted himself in Canada some many, many years ago). Where I’m going to hang the antlers is a whole other question, but at least they fit in the back of the mini to haul back to DC. Going to have to figure out how to clean and preserve them, too – they’re a tad dusty and dry from years in an attic.

Managed to avoid having to plant walnut trees by delaying the trip until mother’s day. Sneaky, but smart. Though I’ve also missed the last good weekend to get in long training before the race next Sunday. So, I’ll just have to wing it on the 17th. I know how to do it, I know I can do all three events separately, and I’ve done this race before, so I’ll finish, but it ain’t gonna be pretty.

Had some fun on the dating front, but I’m not going into it yet. Too early to tell where it’s going, if anywhere, so aside from noting that something is happening, I’m going to leave it at that.

Okay, thank you Netflix for partnering with everyone under the sun. Here I was thinking I’d need to buy another computer or HD TiVo or some sort of device to play the “watch instantly” movies (while still being able to chat on the laptop, mind you), and while playing with the Xbox this morning I discovered I could watch them via a free download on that device. It’s nice to not have to spend more money for entertainment, and also good since the Xbox is the only thing plugged into the TV with HDMI at this point, so the picture quality is pretty good, even for downloaded content.

The week was an odd one, with the swings in weather and going out to be social and work oddities. Now that we’re past the initial stages of stimulus work, it’s getting down to crunch times for many offices – implementation and distribution of funds. Which means a lot of serious work, as well as the occasional eyebrow-raising inquiry (seriously, you think that a contract to maintain and develop a web site for aid recipients to report their progress doesn’t fall squarely within the definition of “management and oversight” of your program? please).

Finally running time machine this morning with my backup drive. A bit late, I know, but will be good to have it done at last. Cold wash got done, dinner plans with Richard and his new beau this evening. Need to get to the grocery store soon (tonight? tomorrow? not completely out of food but it’s getting there). Date planned for Monday. At some point I should get in a long bike ride this weekend. Need to finish up a sock I’m working on so I can get started on its mate. All these little necessities of life which catch up if you don’t keep up with them.

A mixed weekend for me. Had a big club event on Saturday where a lot of our newbies got to get out on a ride with the rest of the club and get in some social time. Today I let a guy I’ve been seeing for a couple of weeks know that it wasn’t working and I didn’t want to go out again.

The ride and run on Saturday went pretty good for me personally. I won’t be as fast as last year on this course, but I’m going to be able to do it, and that’s the important part. The base is coming, and I’ll be well set up for the other two races I’m signed up for this season. So I was pleased with how that went, exercise-wise, even past the social aspects, which were also good. I wore my ultilikilt out to the site, and it was quite a hit, getting a lot of positive comments (and a lot of inquiries if I was going to ride that way). Fun times.

The dating just wasn’t working out. He’s a good guy, but not what I’m looking for in the final weighing of things. And even knowing it wasn’t a good match, it’s still difficult to cut things off (“change is stress”).

Got to see NRJTM this afternoon for lunch outside in the glorious weather we had for most of the weekend, as well as some shopping to pick up some sundries. Caught up with some friends online after that, and headed to a late dinner now with a friend who’s just moving back to DC after a west coast hiatus. Will be good to see him and meet his new bf.

Had an impromptu hill workout on a run this evening since the wind was coming in steady, fast, and directly in my face for half the run. Even lost my visor at one point to a good gust. But it was still a good run, and I’m glad I skipped the swim this evening to do it. I think I’m going to be able to build up to Columbia by the time it rolls around, which is a good thing.

Work was nuts again, though we did get a chance to be helpful on something late this afternoon that’ll have a big impact on our stimulus spending next week. Not that the head of the BGA will appreciate it, but it’s there. At least the initial screwup wasn’t ours.

I was released from some of my previously planned volunteer activities this weekend, so am heading out tonight and may do so again tomorrow, depending on folks’ other plans. That and I must go clothes shopping, since last weekend didn’t pan out. In the meantime, though, it’s time to get out of the house.

DC is hunkering down for another snowpocolypse. Somewhere along the line of 4-8″ of snow is expected to fall, beginning late this afternoon. Of course what this means is that everyone in town seems to be doing the usual panicked dance, trying to get groceries before it all hits. My quick trip to the grocery to stock up this morning went pretty well, and without a lot of drama, thankfully. Even ran into my supervisor and her husband picking up a few things. Wasn’t a lot of ice on the car when I left,nor was it particularly doing much when I came back.

Zipped over to the gym afterward, to run on a treadmill and do my stability exercises. Lucked out in getting a treadmill; it was pretty busy this afternoon. Twenty minutes actual running, with five minutes on either side to warm up and cool down. Again, on the way over there were a few flakes by no real snow yet. I understand Atlanta’s airport has been shut down for a while now because of the snow & ice coming up the coast.

It will be interesting to see if the snow actually appears and what OPM will do about it, in light of the President’s earlier comments mocking the area for shutting down over the last snow storm. It would be nice to have a day off, but if it’s just unscheduled leave, I’ll be going in.

Despite my declarations that I would be holed up inside my apartment until Wednesday morning, I did wander out into DC today to grab lunch with Chris up in Columbia Heights. Our first choice of restaurant was packed to the gills with a line out the door (at 1 pm, mind you), and the second choice had a 45 minute wait. We took the 2nd choice and zipped over to Best Buy to waste some time (setting a phone timer so we would know when to wander back). Got in relatively quickly after we returned, and had a perfectly nice lunch (not-quite-screaming-but-just-occasionally-fussy-baby notwithstanding).

The city is just abuzz. I haven’t seen it this packed in ages, and everyone is just full of this energy surrounding the inauguration, it’s wild. The Metro was busy, but not insane. Lots of “Is this our stop? This is our stop! Quick, get off the train!” type conversations going on, but for the most part folks were getting tickets and getting through the stalls pretty quickly and not being obnoxious about getting in and out of the cars and generally not being in the way. I am, however, glad I’ll not be going anywhere near Metro tomorrow. As busy as it was today, with 8 car trains and all of them relatively busy, tomorrow will promise to be a madhouse.

I’m glad I went out today, it was neat to see all these folks who are so excited to be here.

Okay, getting back to exercise = one tired Moose.

Biked yesterday, swam tonight (aside – I don’t seem to smell like chlorine as strongly as I did when I swam at the old gym. hmmmm…). All good stuff. It helps that the USAT Club Challenge started today (swim month!), so I have more pressure motivation to get in the pool, at least. And while “running is my prozac,” swimming and biking are definitely helping.

Spent a good part of the weekend straightening and reorganizing and throwing stuff away. You see, I stopped after brunch at a couple of furniture stores and purchased a couple lights and some shelving, so it all had to get put into place. Oy. Happy with the purchases (one lamp had to get ordered, so will be here in a couple of weeks), and how the integrated into the place. Almost panicked over the shelves – bought 4, but only 2 fit in the space for which they were intended (and did not want to have to drag them back to the store), but the other two fit nicely in another spot where they actually (*gasp*) match the furniture, unlike the shelf which was there before. Decorating is hard, and I’ve not the gene for it, but occasionally I get it right. And, bonus, now it’s finally bright enough in here to knit with dark yarns.

While today was about quiet contemplation and recovery, tomorrow has to be about cleaning. Ick! Place is a mess, and I need to do beau coup laundry. My massage table hasn’t moved from the front hallway yet because I need to vacuum its normal resting spot before it goes back. Oy.

I think I’m headed to an LYS tomorrow, too. Friend of mine has expressed an interest in starting knitting, and far be it for me to refuse help there. Probably pick up some 7s and some simple yarn and start him on a scarf.

I finished all but the thumb on the first of the pair of gloves I’m doing for our secretary at work. They look really good – I purposefully loosened my style versus the ones I did for myself and I’m quite pleased at the results.

Speaking of mine, I’m wearing them tonight as I head up to the Eagle for Flogging 101, and it’s nice to have some warmth but still be able to tap this out on the phone. I did discover an end I’m going to have to work back in tomorrow, but that shouldn’t present too much of a difficulty.

* * *

Okay, flogging 101 was a lot of fun. Ran into one of my buddies from CBE this past weekend. Turns out he’s on the board of SIGMA, which (along with seeing the new schedule of play dates) was enough to convince me to renew my membership. Will have to send them a check this week.

The flogging itself was interesting. Learning how to hold yourself, how to hold the flogger, where to strike, how to vary your striking, etc. Started hitting newspaper, moved up to someone’s back. Definitely can see the attraction of it, from both sides. Might have to add a flogger to my repertoire come MAL this January. One guy recommended one particular vendor who should be there. Will have to check them out. I could see getting to like doing this.

And, slight change of plans for the evening and into tomorrow. Kento is heading through DC and crashing at my place this evening when he gets here. It will be good to see him, even if it was unexpected.

Did much shopping this weekend, and picked up several pair of socks, the first of which did the trick today at work – no heel pain. We’ll see how they do tomorrow after waiting in line to vote. But so far so good, and definitely better than the old thinner ones. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

My plan is to get up early tomorrow morning to get to the polls first thing and be done with it. Not that there’s a question as to which way DC will go, but there are local races I’m interested in voting in, so I’d like to just be done with it first thing. Plus I’m supposed to get into the office slightly before my normal reporting time because for some odd reason my boss scheduled an early meeting the morning of election day. Don’t know what she was thinking.

Ah, the day of the annual physical. Such fun.

First, though, the dermatologist looked me over and said he saw no signs of melanoma. Yay. But because my brother’s had one, yearly visits from here on out to get checked. Boo. Pet peeve: Once again, Dr. Hyper, while thorough, was not in the room for very long, and while there was not quite bouncing off the walls. I think he needs to switch to decaf.

On the actual physical, everything looked and tested out normal (as expected). 105/70 BP, no immediately glaring abnormalities on the EKG (which was new this year – baseline test this time), heart rate’s still low despite the lack of regular exercise, and everything else he prodded and poked seemed satisfactory.

While out & about I popped into the jeweler where I got the necklace that matches my steel ring, as the necklace itself had come out of the clasp (the rubber was pulling away). They didn’t have them in stock, so it’s been ordered in, but they did have the matching watch, so I was bad and got it. Looks quite nice, though I think is more “jewelry” and less “actual timepiece” as the face/hands are small. Like I check a watch more than I check my cell phone, anyway.

Dismal, grey, rainy day here in DC. The rain held off until after the appointments, but has been going on and off since. I came home to nap and catch up on some other things (not work, unfortunately, but I’ll skim that after dinner). Headed out again to catch up with a friend for dinner here in a bit, then it’s back out of that mess for me.