Having another fun “in DC” moment. Kyle and I were on our way back from Paul & Al’s place after having some laughs, drinks and a movie. Both the DC United and Washington Nationals games were letting out so metro trains were all manner of messed up and on odd schedules. A Green Line train to Mt. Vernon Square? What the hell, man?! Not just one, but 3 of them!? Oh, hell no.

I was busy semi-ogling a dumb-cute looking blonde when I noticed a girl near us had a stack of at least 10 Nats tumblers, lids, straws and all. Gin causes one to either fight or make friends and for me it’s the latter and the three of us struck up conversation on the way home discussing Five Guys vs Jumbo Slice and why Alberto’s isn’t Jumbo Slice and who’s cat was crazier, hers or Kyle’s.

Good times, and a nice way to cap off an evening in which I was prepared to be very frustrated with metro nonsense. Paul & Al’s place is lovely, I’m totally jealous, but the universe needs to move Capitol Hill closer to Mount Pleasant. When the least amount of time to get there is 30 minutes, that’ll be messy on busy metro days. Still, movies at their place beat going to the theater any day.

What a perfect way to start the day. With a good ol’, “What’s that smell?” when you step off the elevators. Our building’s trash chutes are still off-limits to us, so we’re still carting our trash and recyclables down behind the basement entrance. Makes Spring Cleaning oh so much fun, lemme tell ya. But some people see fit to leave their bags outside overnight, perhaps as a reminder to grab them in the morning and take them out. And this could be from an older resident since the board was kind enough to say that they don’t expect them to make that trip all the time, but still not what I want to run into on my way out to work.

Looks like more wibbly-wobbly weather with rain on the way… maybe. I’ll just keep popping my pills for the time being. I’m hoping for some good weather this weekend though so I can head outside and build up a tolerance. My co-worker mentioned that today feels like Friday for her, but I feel a day behind and thought it was Hump Day when I woke up. Regardless, bring on the weekend already! The office definitely has a vibe of weariness to it today and people are ready for a break.

I’m giving up my daily trip to Starbucks… I must be insane, right? I was playing around with some of the trends and graphs in Mint yesterday and for fun I looked at what my spending at Starbucks was over the past year. It was about enough to buy a new 2.0Ghz Super Drive Mac Mini, more on Minis later. Still, I got in today and made a cup of moroccan mint green tea and got a little breakfast. So far, so good.

I’ve given up coffee and/or caffeine in the past, usually with the support of co-workers whether it was for eating better, or for solidarity with a pregnant office mate, it doesn’t always affect me. I might feel the craving for caffeine, but I don’t normally get the headaches and other withdrawal symptoms. I think that I shall most miss the standard routine of going to Starbucks, the baristas remembering my order, smiling at the cute long-haired, soft-spoken ditzy boy behind the register and of course knowing that I was one of the movers and the shakers. Financially, it’s a much better move, healthwise it can’t hurt and as far as being a foodie, I can brew much better tasting things on my own in the office, I bet.

I am trying to take a much more active (less whiny) approach to my health and weight. While I still enjoy my comfort food moments, I realize that they are becoming more often than not and I need to do what I can to cut back, make more fresh food, keep better snacks around, etc. The farmers’ market down the street opens this weekend and I’m already planning a trip over there and then perhaps a walk through the zoo. I’d really like to pick up some fresh ingredients to make salsa for a weekend snack. Time to break out the “healthy” cookbooks and practice some better habits. Not that I have a beach trip to slim down for, but it’s gotten to the point of not being comfortable in my own skin and I have the power to change that.

I think I’ve sorted out what to do with the leftover Mac Mini. I’ll hook it up to the HDTV and use either a VNC or a KMS application to control it. I’d even like to get a Windows partition on it so that it truly serves as a media server or perhaps just a media gateway since there’s not really enough space on the Mini to keep things on it. Unless I send it away to have more diskspace and memory added to it which isn’t such a bad idea, really. But getting that whole setup started will be another weekend project. I may be hitting gadget overload, but I think that messing around with stuff I already have around the house is a lot better than heading out and buying new stuff.

I think part of my building may have just been on fire…

I got home and had barely sat down when I heard sirens outside along 16th St. It’s pretty common so I didn’t give it much thought until I heard the very urgent siren/horn combo of a truck trying to get through traffic except that it didn’t fade off into the distance as usual. I looked out the window and the street below was completely clear except for three fire trucks and one emergency services vehicle. A truck was spooling out hose behind it and two firemen were running after it. I took the stairs down and there was another fire truck behind our building. I didn’t see or smell smoke, there was no excessive heat, and I saw other residents who also had no clue what was happening. Some firemen rushed in past us, but the officer at the door didn’t respond that we needed to evacuate just yet. The building’s fire alarm wasn’t going off.

Of course I grabbed my camera, but left my cell phone behind. And after being down there for a few mins, I saw Jhim and Richard on the sidewalk. Jhim was trying to call me to let me know that my building might be on fire. After a bit of chatting, I walked back upstairs and ran into Ms. Lee who is the keeper of the spare unit keys. She and Raul were helping the firemen check apartments.

Apparently a unit on the 6th floor, not directly below me, was where the incident started. I imagine they were able to contain it as there was no call for anyone to evacuate and now the trucks and personnel have all left. Still, a very odd thing to come home to. And of course I’m down there thinking, “You have got to be kidding me, barely a week after I buy a new tv and the building’s about to catch on fire!”

Everything seems fine now, though I’m sure there will be some messages passing back and forth across the condo’s e-mail list.

I strongly suspect that it has a lot to do with last night’s martinis, but today has just been a day full of cravings, some of them quite random. It may also have something to do with my pregnant co-worker sitting next to me and my getting sympathy cravings as well.

First off, I really wanted a glazed donut at Starbucks, but they were out. Then I wanted sausage, but we hit the cafeteria too late, and it was too cold to head back out. I craved tacos around mid-morning, then wanted shrimp for lunch which I was able to get hold of. After lunch I wanted Lay’s plain potato chips and pickles, and when returning from being unable to find that, I wanted roast chicken. Then just before leaving the office I could have really taken down a big ol’ prime rib. While walking to Best Cellars in Dupont I almost took a side trip over to 17th Street to get some merguez and hummus, and finally when I got home, wings were all that would satisfy.

So I’ve settled on wings this evening, with some good wines. I suppose more than anything I should be proud of myself for not succumbing to any or all of the above today. Tonight’s going to be one of the first really cold nights, and even though I’ve had the heat on a while, it doesn’t feel like it’s working. Normally my place benefits from the ambient heat from the floors below, but today I’m wondering if something’s up with the building heating, or if it’s finally reached that cold point where even ambient heat disperses too quickly.

*ding! Food’s here!