By "found" he means "bought"

New wheels
Originally uploaded by average lavender

Friday Liz called me at work and clearly stated it was the day I was going to get a new bike. I stayed pretty skeptical until we started calling around SF bike shops searching for the right one: the Surly Long Haul Trucker. After being referred to three other shops the fourth, San Francisco Cyclery, came through: yes, they had a LHT, size 52 - in fact they had a whole bike and just a frame set. We hurriedly consulted George, jumped up and down, deposited a paycheck and set out. The girl who helped me was confident that the 52 was going to be too big and I believed her but felt growing panic and disappointment because there's no way they'd have any others in stock. Ooooh ye of little faith: they just *happened* to have a 50 hiding in the top row! Now there are plans for new handle bars - either the ones from my old bike (same drop style, just wider) or something a little more classic like the Albatross bars from Rivendell (of course.) I look forward to taking all the stickers off and some day getting a new stem that isn't as clunky and fat as the one it came with. This morning I took a little ride down to Mill Valley and back and it impressed upon me how out of shape I am.

We've also planted the beginning of our tiny potted garden: basil, parsley from Liz, one sun gold tomato plant from one of the women I work with, another sun gold because one just wasn't going to cut it, snap peas because George loves them, and lettuce to somehow inspire us to eat more salads. The tomatoes each have their own big pot and living across the driveway in front of the neighbors house because they get way more sun. Here's hoping it doesn't all die.

Meh

It's true, most of my energy focuses on bagels. My boss is great vat of ideas but takes her sweet time implementing them so I've been trying to be really excited and really pushy about things at work. Next up: homemade organic marshmallow, the gateway to rice crispy treats. Other foods of note recently include some mediocre granola I made for breakfast this morning, the lemon tart slated for this afternoon and the earl gray cupcakes from last week. I went to the extent of using cake flour for them and was really pleased with how they turned out - light, airy, one may even say delicate. The earl gray flavor wasn't overwhelming and they weren't too sugary. The first few I brought home I just dusted with powdered sugar because George is never keen on the buttercream and after he, Yannick and James tried them we (me, Yannick) decided they really needed the buttercream which made them all the silkier.

I have yet to find a replacement for my bike and while I have a Schwinn to tide me over it's a completely different style of riding. Slowly I'm feeling more and more defeated, strangely outcast and sad about my lack of road bike, there's a fantastic freedom in zipping around efficiently and I miss it. Craigslist isn't helping and ebay makes me feel crazy and apparently everyone else in the Bay Area is looking for a 52cm road frame. Soon I may bite the bullet and just buy myself a *new* bike.

Yesterday I finished the back of the sweater I started, today I work on the left and right front. I knit and elephant and a piece of pie.

We're mostly exhausted and stretched just a little too thin. We'll be taking a quick trip to Portland mid-May with Liz and Yannick which can only be fun, exciting, refreshing, and exhausting. Liz and I are looking forward to rollerskating.

P.S.

Like, three hours after that last post I was riding my bike to have lunch with George and Yannick and got into a bad situation and hit a parked car with my bike and ruined the frame beyond repair. Only minor damage to myself but R.I.P new bike.

=(

bulleted

The bike

For all practical purposes, my bike is complete!






One of her flashiest features are the tires: SpeedBlends made specially for Rivendell. When they're rolling the colors merge and have a nice teal-to-pink progression.




A couple other things I really enjoy are the microfiber bar tape, the waxed thread securing it, and the sleek, attractive stem. (Notice the u-lock attached to the bike...) The next step for it will be a shorter stem so I'm not reaching as far and a little saddle bag so I don't have to carry around a bag on my back.


Trips and visitors

My trip to Asheville was great, I got to spend time with Hope which is something I really could stand to do more of. We spent most of our time tearing paneling out of the littlest room in the house and painting painting painting. When I left we'd finished the walls & trim in the bedroom and almost all of the studio and the first coat in the kitchen. The time we spent away from the fumes was filled with trips to Lowe's, going out for food, touring around the city, and a really sucessful trip to and antique mall where we walked out with a chrome breadbox, a set of rectangular chrome kitchen canisters, a little kitchen table (mostly for the heavy-duty base, not the paint-splattered institution-like top), and two awesome chairs.

Dyani and Conor have arrived in California, Conor will be starting classes at U.C. Davis anytime now. They came down for the weekend where Dyani got a new bike: a new Volpe! She'd been looking for a nice touring bike and I, naturally, couldn't shut up about how amazing the Volpe is and pointed her to a bike shop that had one the last time George and I were there. After test riding and discovering it was on sale and loving it, she decided to get it. Hooray!

Liz is coming back tonight! We like Liz, she makes us feel like we have friends and know how to have fun.


The Rabbit

George has been plugging away at Rabbit repairs. I'm not too sure of the specifics, but I know that lately the work has been unfortunately frustrating. Parts not fitting and having to be reordered, bolts in ridiculous, hard-to-get-to places. Maybe he'll make his own post someday about it and it'll be more in-depth and interesting than mine. (hint hint)

birthday weekend

george's birthday was pretty quiet and strangely exhausting. he ended up with the poached pear and almond tart, which turned out not perfect, but better than expected-and it's delicious! he spent the morning working on the dashboard and the display for the rabbit and in the afternoon we went into san francisco to say bye to karl and lindsay and to track down the elusive krylon spray paint for plastics in the color orange (we were hoping it'd be perfect for the dash.) driving through san francisco is always stressful and irritating (always), but more than just driving, parking is a nightmare. being that it was george's birthday and i was already exhausted he did all the driving, which he soon regretted.

karl and lindsay sent us home with various householdy things (like a totally sweet salad spinner), then it was back to marin and off to dinner with the boss & co. at the pub/brewery up the street. which only lasted until about nine but felt like two am.

yesterday was quiet. ish. we drove all over looking for a seatpost for my bike, never found it, had sandwiches in sausalito, and finally picked a color for the dash. the color is a nice light green (more like a celery and less like a mint), we think it'll be perfect.

the bike is coming together well; we've got everything we need save for bar tape and a seatpost. because the frame is old it uses a post with a smaller diameter-26.0mm as opposed to 26.2 mm. we went to six different bike shops yesterday and none had the correct size. we did discover our new favorite bike shop, the village peddler. george ran all of the cables for me and has been working on the brakes because after fighting with them and being defeated three or four times, i just couldn't bring myself to work on them. hopefully today we'll be doing some derailleur alignment.

as for the cats:

more exploding tires!

after trying again and having the tube explode again george and i decided to just set the project aside and wait for some more informed help. i did, however, get the bottom bracket, cranks, and some pedals put on yesterday:



Rivendell's wheel-builder, Rich Lesnick, emailed me yesterday to say my rear wheel was all assembled and ready to be picked up. this morning we headed out, with a box full of pastries, to get the rest of the missing components.

in order to get to walnut creek from here we get to do exciting things like go over the richmond-san rafael bridge and through the caldecott tunnel; at these two places we realized what is wrong with california drivers: they can't merge! that's right, all these instances of traffic being jammed, backed up, out of control and ridiculous are because people can't grasp the concept of merging- preceded, i suppose, by sign reading. by chance, we thought our car was making a terrible burning smell so we got off the interstate to check it out. it turned out to be someone else's car and when we got back on the interstate, just before the tunnel, we managed to miss almost all of ridiculous waiting.

once there we picked up the wheel, a saddle: the women's b.17 because it really does suit the bike better, two burrito wraps, new brake pads, and little nut/bolt combo missing from one of the brakes. they took a look at the wheel and tires and determined that (surprise!) a smaller tire would hold to the rim better and more safely than the ones they'd previously given me.

all that's missing now is bar tape and a seatpost (which we'll have to scrounge around for, apparently this frame requires a fairly skinny one.)

george installed his new, wider handlebars and got some red bar tape for them which turned out to be a pale red so it looks kind of pink. he's pleased, but may shellac them to try and redden them up. it's a good look for his predominantly silver and red bike.

in cat news: it's true and confirmed, the cats have fleas and ringworm. this means lots of baths and anti-fungal cream for them, which by this point they're fairly okay with. they're not clawing our eyes out, but they're really not happy about it. there's been floor and laundry bleaching and scrubbing all around. i mean, it's not like we're living in a filthy hole or anything, we clean and launder regularly, the windows are always open, they get advantaged regularly: what the fuck?

saturday is george's birthday (the big 2-5) and hopefully we'll be going to the beach with liz and mike. i think he's decided that instead of a cake (i had suggested carrot cake with strawberries and whipped cream filling, frosted with either whipped cream or buttercream) he'd like a tart. and quiche. but not at the same time.

you know, more bikes

what do you find in the bottom of a jug of maple syrup after it's been sitting for a while? a crystallized pancake!




i had my doubts about amaryllis bulbs, but they were a) unfounded and b) wrong. towards the end of last summer susan (george's mom) gave us a bunch of them and naturally i brought them all the way across the country and about a month ago decided to give 'em a go. the result was this great bloom - however, it was too heavy for the rest of it so it fell over and broke off. so the leaves in the background are still in the pot and the flowers are actually in a blue thermos. we fooled you though.




after discovering a flexible bondo-like substance, george got to work remodeling our new/old dash! he cut some custom vents and applied the aluminum strip (at the bottom). we haven't decided what color to paint it yet, the front-runner right now is beige (because it'll match the color of the roof inside.) the other option would be black, but we have a theory that a lighter color would help keep the car cooler in the hot summer sun.

saturday we made a trek out to walnut creek to check out rivendell bike works with karl and lindsay and it was a tremendous success. the guys there were really nice, really helpful- nay, ridiculously helpful. the rear spacing on my new/old frame is narrower than bikes these days and someone invented a pair of tricky little tools to a) increase the spacing and b) re-parallel them. the best part is that i got to do it myself! that way i couldn't blame anyone else if it fucked up the frame, wouldn't have to pay them to do it, and i got to do it myself. we walked away with a bunch of snazzy new bike parts and a rear wheel on order. i froze on the saddle choice; i've been eying the brooks b.18, but didn't realize that brooks makes a womens version of the b.17, which is less cruisey and more roady. lindsay got a b.17 for her 1980-something schwinn le tour, which she was super psyched about (apparently the current saddle is really dirty and suede thanks to the bike's previous owner.) hopefully by the time my rear wheel is ready to be picked up i'll have made a decision. instead of getting me new handle bars we got george new, wider, handle bars so i'll have his old ones.



(click for a larger, readable version)


after work today i was ready to start trying to assemble some bikey things and decided to start by putting a tube & tire on a wheel, a nice simple place to start. everything was going fine until the tube exploded! being captain cool/clueless that i am, i forgot to put the rim tape on the rim. it's this nice cloth tape that goes around in the inside of the rim and covers the end of the spokes so they don't....pop the tube! it was a shocking, headache-inducing pop and it's still in my head. then george got home and enlightened me regarding rim tape and we set out for performance bikes for some springs for the brakes, bar tape, and a bottom bracket tool. on the way home we stopped and picked up sushi for dinner and got liz o and mike's message asking to crash on our couch tonight.

george is currently dismantling his handle bars. boy is sleeping on the couch. girl is stalking around outside. i'm sitting on the couch.

p.s. - we think girl may have ringworm again.

hot summer

lately we've been hanging-out machines; first dyani was here and while she was here we got a hang out a little with my paper-source-boss lori, we spent a good part of the weekend with karl and lindsay at the beach and playing wii, tonight we're dining with lil, tomorrow we're attending a little birthday bash for george's boss's son, bo (catered by wife/mom, jen with hot dogs!), then hopefully more hanging out with karl and lindsay, then mike and liz, then cynthia and leland are coming in july!

in the meantime george has been diligently working on our new-old dash for the rabbit. he's got it pretty well flattened out and cleaned up and soon we'll choose a color and install it. i'm not sure what his next step is, possibly working on the not-running problem, or the broken-horn-steering-wheel thing. regardless, we're one step closer to getting her running again.

my new-old bike frame has arrived and is beeeeeautiful! it's got part of a bottom bracket that needs to come off and then it's just a matter of amassing the parts, a good portion of which i'm hoping to get from rivendell bike works, and an up-coming bike swap in san rafael.

woo!

mourning and the lighthouse

after checking ebay and craigslist every day for the past week, i'm truly convinced my bike is gone for good. some people i've talked to have had optimistic stories of other people finding their bikes on craigslist and having the pleasure of getting it back, or simply finding it, or having it returned to them more than a year later. my bike has moved on. i have found a couple other bikes similar or identical to mine for sale and have considered buying another one, but i've come up with a better solution: i'm going to build my own precisely the way i want to. i deviously won an ebay auction for a Volpe frame from the late 80's and have started compiling a list of parts. the frame is scratched up enough that a dumb bike thief won't go through the trouble of stealing it, i hope.

dyani was here visiting for the last week or so which was a very welcome break from the lame stuff we usually do around here. she and her boyfriend conor are moving out to davis in september, so the first thing we did was drive to davis so she could sign a lease on an apartment. we did other californiay things like: go to the beach, the jelly belly factory, ride our bikes across the golden gate bridge (and then walk back after they got stolen), eat seafood, walk through chinatown, and check out the point reyes lighthouse.

















the cats, who we recently had to de-flea, are very big fans of dyani and are kind of bummed that they're not getting all that extra attention and entertained all day long anymore. while here dyani requested some baked goods and picked out chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate mint ganache and topped with mint buttercream. they turned out delicious and kind of stomach achey. luckily we've pawned three off on the neighbors and george doesn't seem to have a problem eating one a day so we've only got a few left.

in car news, george took a dash out of another rabbit to replace ours which is cracked and messed up beyond repair. he's going to sand down the few cracks this newer one and finish it with some bondo-like stuff and paint it. he hopes to have it running by the end of the month. we got a new set of tires for liz's car and now it rides like a dream - smooth and steady.

violated

dear jerk bike thieves,

i don't support your way of life, but you've left me no choice. i hope you enjoy reselling/chopping/riding my bike which i have loved and treasured and ridden with great joy for less than a year. i am glad i hadn't upgraded my saddle or found the right rack for the back. please do enjoy the lights and i hope the pump falls off so if you have a flat you're screwed. maybe if you're lucky you can be hit by a car while riding it just like i was.


sincerely,

girl who's bike you stole from in front of a bank on a sunday afternoon.

p.s. - thanks for stealing the bike i was borrowing from my really nice elderly neighbor, i thoroughly enjoy telling him it had been stolen and there's no hope of getting it back.

p.p.s. - you're a jerk.

montpelier visit no. 2

today i rode a sweet bike that colin made! george rode it too; he tried to do a wheelie and fell over backwards. we spent time with liz wandering around the town, visited the bakery and saw the new delivery car (a blue ford windstar), and some other stuff. mostly the bike is the coolest part.

[edit 5/3: the link to the sweet bike is a sweet video of me riding the sweet bike, but it didn't work out so hot. ]