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

It’s (still) a U.S. Federal holiday today (Juneteenth), and the husband and I have taken advantage. I did my morning workout, then we headed out to the movies to see Masters of the Universe again, mainly so we could get out of our housekeeper’s hair while she cleaned. Then on a lark we hit IKEA to see about new shelves for my office. Picked some out, but didn’t buy because we needed to figure out what to do with the current shelving and cat tree that are in here now.

Came home, and went ahead and rearranged the current shelving (it’s a set of four modular blocks that stack on top of each other – an expensive impulse purchase pre-husband that I’m trying not to get rid of). They fit within the office in some spaces we thought they might, so I went ahead and moved them. Still trying to figure out what to do with some of the stuff that was on them (much of which desperately needs to be put away out of sight somewhere). This has annoyed my male cat because his spot was in the very bottom cube where we kept a heated bed for him. The bed moved with the cube, about 4-5 feet over, but of course he keeps looking for it in the old spot (in his defense, it’s been there for six years, or almost half his life). But hey, now the stuff that used to live on top of the printer is elsewhere so I don’t have to unbury it every month or two when we have to print something. Only thing that truly doesn’t have a home yet is a vacuum cleaner we kept on this floor in my office for the occasional minor mess (because who wants to walk down two floors to get one?).

And somehow now it’s 5:30ish and I am spent.

The tiny town we go to for our anniversary each year (Cape Charles, Virginia) has been putting out Xmas ornaments as a fundraiser for the last 9 or so years. We managed to pick up most of them from our innkeepers, but she didn’t have this years. She texted me last night that the new one was out, so it’s been ordered. This year is the local theatre, which ironically is the one place in town we’ve never been. Most years it’s closed, or we just miss whatever is showing, or it’s showing something we have no interest in (this year was a Dave Matthews cover band – no thanks). Once we got past the first 4-5 of them I put a note in my phone with an inventory to make sure we don’t buy extras.

The husband is flying back from Chicago this morning. Has been nice having the place to myself and setting an earlier schedule, but I look forward to hearing about the trip, and the big Spider-man exhibit that was there.

Picked up the latest Ravenloft book from DnD. I remember the original Curse of Strahd coming out in the early 1980s and loved that one, so even though I have little to no time to play DnD these days I still enjoy reading the source books.

I think it’s finally time to try running again, a year out from the knee surgery (June 12, 2025). The exercise/mobility program I’ve been doing has been fantastic for my body overall, not just the knee, but definitely has helped there. Who knew that lots of squats and lifting weights was good for you? Everyone, of course. So I’ve hauled out some of my favorite books on the subject to develop a return-to-running plan. I also discovered that there’s a local running group that meets on Sundays a short walk from the house, so I can get some social interaction with it as well, once I’m sure I’ll be back to it. I’m medically cleared, and have been for months, this is more the mental hurdle of “am I going to injure myself again”.

Making more use of the local library this summer, but as a result I have a backlog of books now. While I get a lot of reading time on the Metro sometimes you don’t want to haul the giant hardback with you along with everything else (lunch, etc.). I no longer mind the weight (thank you exercise program), it’s more the bulk of it. Add to that my usual cyclical backlog of comics. I’d gotten them all read the last time the husband went out of town, but when you add to the collection weekly they can overwhelm.

Left work as the winds picked up for what were supposed to be thunderstorms (they never materialized over my route). Turned off the work phone on the Metro, as I am officially off the clock until next Friday. The husband and I are headed to the Eastern Shore of Virginia for our annual anniversary trip (actual anniversary is the 26th). Looks like the weather is going to be cool (65-75F/18-23C) and rainy, which is not so good for tourism for the town, but is fantastic for us, since we spend a good chunk of the time sitting on the porch and reading.

A couple of errands tomorrow (pharmacy, library, ATM; cleaning and re-coating the car windows with Rain-X; packing), then finalizing which books and knitting projects I’m taking, and packing. We’ll see the Mandalorian and Grogu movie on the way there, per tradition – we stop halfway to the Bed and Breakfast and see a movie to break up the drive. The car is good to go from an oil change and annual maintenance last week, and as luck would have it they didn’t find anything extra (e.g., tires, alignment, etc.) that needed doing.

So ready to get out of town.

Puttering around the house this morning, doing all sorts of little maintenance things. Watering the new grass-and-clover mix in the back yard, brushing a cat, refilling the dish soap dispenser. The foaming hand soap dispenser in the kitchen is starting to run low so I looked online to remind myself what the ratio of soap-to-water is (1 part soap to 5 parts water). In doing so I discovered that the designers made it easy for you – fill the clear part at the bottom with soap, then fill the rest to the ‘max fill’ line under the metal portion with water and voila – just the right ratio without needing an external measure. I love little details like that, where designers work with the product to make it easier to use and aesthetically pleasing.

Had a good coaching call this afternoon with the mobility program folks (yes, one free week back in January turned into a twelve week program, has turned into a twelve month program now – I’m really enjoying it). The prompt for us to talk was about how (if at all) we track our workouts/physical well being. A lot of folks shared that they would use something until it got too much, then give it all up entirely, or for a short period, then resume the same ramping up of intensity regarding the pressure they felt from the tracking. I told them it reminded me of a conversation I had back when cell phones were still relatively new. Was out with friends and when one of them kept stopping in the middle of whatever we were doing to take calls, answer texts, another of my friends looked at him and said, “Remember that it’s your tool, not the other way around.”

That stuck with me (obviously), and I think it’s a useful framing to think about whatever device someone might be using to track activities (garmin, apple watch, etc.). It’s definitely an attitude I make sure people know I have with regard to my work cell phone – that thing is for my convenience; it’s not an electronic leash whereby anyone can reach me at any time.

Today was all about running errands. Getting my TSA PreCheck stuff was a breeze – no line for that service and was in an out as quickly as the quirky tablet would let the poor MVA (aka the DMV – Maryland uses “Motor Vehicle Administration”) worker process things (it was having issues, but she handled it stoically). Was actually out of there before the scheduled appointment time, unlike the rest of the MVA, which was packed. Then we wandered the Annapolis shopping mall, picked up some odds and ends, and window shopped at the LEGO store before heading to lunch. Some book shopping afterwards for the husband to finish purchasing the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (he’s hooked) and me to grab yet another cookbook. Mailed some stuff to family members, then hit the mother ship branch of our comic shop for a comic frame and a back issue we missed. Was a successful, if long day out.

In unrelated news, I had forgotten how much dreck Animal Crossing: New Horizons makes you dump all over your island to “decorate” it to get it up to a five star rating. Like, I want it closer to a wild forest, not a planned botanical garden, but that’s not what it wants. Just want to get there before the update drops in two weeks. I suppose this is what I get for starting over on the Switch 2.

Bed at a normalish time yesterday, but still slept in until 7 or 8 something this morning. We watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night because our young friend had read some Reddit post about it being a good post-breakup movie (?), he hadn’t seen it, and we love it, so it worked. Ordered pizza in for them, a sub for me, and movie time. Perfect.

This morning the husband did some more of his graduated Xmas cleanup. Two of the three trees are now down, and all of the legos. Supposedly the focus on the rest of the stuff will be this weekend. I just show up and help, and happily leave the organizing to him.

Because of the young friend’s moving to his own place and needing to get new furniture the husband has been spending a lot of time with him at the local Ikea, and I think he’s grabbing some shelves to help organize the utility closet downstairs. He showed me what he’s thinking, but again I’m leaving this to him.

Currently waiting for the new bread maker he got me for Xmas to finish the first loaf. The volume versus weight measures seemed a little off in their recipe, or the flour was too tightly packed, but I ran with weight side, as that’s usually safer when baking. This first loaf is all for the husband, being regular wheat flour and having dried milk in the ingredients (both of which bother my digestive system). I’ll try a piece, but that’s probably it. Next will be trying a gluten free loaf with brown rice flour and the manufacturer’s recipe.

The family got underway around 6 this morning. I went back to bed after they left and slept in until 10-something. In the meantime the husband was still very much awake, so he cleaned. Worst part was that we had at some point attracted at least one mouse into our garage, so he spent most of that time cleaning up mouse poop and clearing out attractants. On the plus side, that side of the garage looks much better, and we tossed a bunch of stuff we no longer needed.

Now we just have to figure out where to store the stuff we got for Xmas. The bookshelves are already packed, and we always get more. I think a donation/used bookstore run may be in order soon.

While we were hoping for a relaxing next week, one of our young (late 20s) friends broke up with his fiancé on Boxing day, and I think we’ll be hosting him to help work him through the emotions there. First long term relationship, so all of the attendant stuff that goes along with that. Ah well.

And tomorrow will be an early morning. But we played games until far too late this evening. Holding off on stockings til the morning. Non-food stuff is sorted, but I need to split up the candy.

Good run to get comics, and lunch at the local Italian restaurant next to the comic shop. Brief nap mid-afternoon, but not quite enough. This is why I took Monday off as well, so I can catch up on sleep once they head out.

One more sleep ’til Xmas.

The husband’s sister and her family should be here in a little less than twenty-four hours. Loins are girded, last minute laundry is going. Ran to Home Depot for cinder blocks to prop up a table on our deck to solve the issue of an inflatable Santa sliding off the edge (back onto the deck, thankfully, and not off the front of the house). The husband is baking cookies (“stress baking”). Beds have been made. We did a run to BJ’s yesterday, but I’ll need to drag the sister-in-law to the grocery store after we figure out what stuff we want to cook for the week. Haircuts scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning. Then it’ll be trying to stay out of the way while the husband obsesses over cleaning things that are already clean, and drives me nuts by wanting to me to put things ‘away’ into some mystical ‘away’ place that doesn’t exist in our townhouse.

I’m most excited that everyone is going to get a small Easter bunny in their Xmas stocking, because BJ’s not only already had Valentine’s candy out (semi-normal, though still too rushed), they had a partial array of Easter stuff. So of course we picked up some kit-kat bunnies, because why not. I guess it beats leftover Halloween candy. I understand that orders have to go in to get stuff shipped in time, but c’mon guys, Easter? Already?