Our garden is overflowing with tomatoes. These days there are many, many more ripe tomatoes than our house can harvest and eat in a day.

In addition, at long last, my white platter dahlias have begun to bloom, just as the early bloomers have become slower to bloom.

Yesterday, despite the fact that September is bike commute challenge month, I decided to take the bus into work. I was feeling a bit under the weather, and that combined with now being quite invested in my current book, Net of Jewels, by Ellen Gilchrist led me to opt for the bus. (Side note: about the book which has nothing to do with the story, is that it appears to be dedicated to my second cousin’s husband.)

Anyway, I took the bus in to work.

Then while at work I was waiting for people to join our web conference and decided to see what bikes were listed on Craigslist. Low and behold there was an Azor Oma, the quintessential dutch step-through bike. There is a great bike shop in town, Clever Cycles, that sells them new. However, the price is such that I’ve never been able to justify buying one.

I decided I needed to try it for myself, and so yesterday afternoon I left work and took the bus to see the bike, which was conveniently located one block from my bank.

This bike had been bought in Holland and thus was a 3 speed with coaster brakes rather than the 8 speeds with roller brakes that Clever Cycles sells. I rode it around the neighborhood and then called Craig and asked what I should do.

In the end, I negotiated a bit then bought it and rode it home. So now it seems I am becoming a collector of three speeds and a more committed member of the Slow Bicycle Movement.

Today, I rode my Trek into work (since I want to spend a bit more time away from traffic getting used to coaster brakes again) and settled into a quiet day at the office. And Craig totally Bonzi rolls me with this link: http://www.felonyflats.com/roadsign.jpg

Tiffany has a whole stack of orange jumpsuits with her name embroidered on them.

Tiffany and Jeremy bought a house in Marysville and moved in Labor Day week-end. We met her at her work and she took us from her work to her house via an old farm road.

Her house is great, a big fenced back yard, a newly remodeled kitchen, wood floors and lots of natural light. Her brother Shane came down with his girlfriend Crystal and six tuna steaks that he’d brought in off the boat that morning. We had an incredible dinner of steak, tuna, baked potatoes and salad. Yummy!

Can you guess what Mike and Jan were getting ready for?

As luck would have it, Craig’s cousin Mike and his partner Jan were also in Marysville to visit some of her friends. We met up with them for breakfast and shared food and stories.

Then Craig and I loaded up the car and headed up to Anacortes where we left our car at Betsy and Doug’s and loaded up our bikes and rode to the ferry terminal to cross over to Lopez Island for a night camping.

Outside Betsy, Doug and Mason's on the way to the ferries

It turned out that Betsy was going to be the captain on our ferry and thus, one of the dreams I’ve had ever since Yonna told she was a captain was realized—I got to hang out in the wheel house. It was incredible to carry on a conversation with Besty awhile at the same time she read satellite pictures and worked with the quarter master to take us across the sound.

I'm standing here to block your view of the sensitive equipment.

The ferry was full of other bike riders, both those loaded for camping and those there as credit card tourists. It was exciting to see. This was my first time loading my bike up so completely and yet it worked just fine. I was amazed to pass people on the hill that were riding unloaded while my bike was so packed, but if there is one thing I’ve learned about myself and hills, I have to ride at my pace.

We had a site reserved at the Lopez Farm Cottages, which was under 2.5 miles from the ferries and boasted showers and morning coffee. Unfortunately, my internet reservation led me to set up camp in a small loop that had already closed for the season, so just as we left camp to bike around the island we were told we’d have to move to the other spot. Luckily, he agreed to let us make the move after dark and use the light for exploring the island.

We rode through the one block village and then on down to Otis Perkins Park. It was a beautiful day and thrilling to see so many bike riders of all types out and about. On our way back we stopped at the Galley for a beer and a snack.

Lopez sunset from the Galley

We sat at the bar by the pool table and got to experience of bit of the culture that small island living cultivates. We also met Robert and Sara Lynn a newly married couple currently living on Orcas.

Robert and Sara Lynn by the Blue Bull at the Galley

The conversation kept us at the Galley a bit longer than we’d planned and so when we left we made our way home in the dark (except for our bike lights mind you) with hardly a car passing us by. We found our new campsite and then headed over to pick up our tent and re-make camp. Afterwards, we went to the pavilion/restrooms and met some friendly people from Seattle sitting by the fire. We sat with them for a while and chatted and then retired for the night.

The next morning I found that there was no coffee in the canister. We took it as a sign to load up and head into town for coffee and breakfast. It was a beautiful day and Craig spotted a hardly used version of almost the same model Trek 520 he rode around Australia. Within the half hour I saw someone ride past on my same year’s model Trek Pilot 1.2, a first for me.

We caught the 12:30pm ferry back to Anacortes. The ferry was filled with bikers, those of us coming from Lopez were loaded in the back, but there were bikes all through the ferries that had been loaded at the earlier island stops.

The bikers from Lopez waiting to exit the ferry

We made it back to our car, and with 3 quick stops got home before 8pm, which meant we could get Thai take-out, because I love coming home and carrying on my vacation for the rest of the night!

What I had forgotten was that Craig’s uncle Dan taught and coached at Wasilla High School. Craig read an article today about Sarah Palin where they mention her parents by name and he came to realize his uncle is good friends with her father. Which should be no surprise since it is a small Alaskan town-now-suburb.

Anyway, Friday night we went to see Tom play a show at the Nine Muses Acoustic Cafe. Craig brought his video camera and recorded two songs before his battery died.

Saturday was a near perfect day of hanging out and just catching up. Craig worked with a singular focus on the stairway to the basement. I spent my time grocery shopping, working on computer projects and cleaning up my office. Plus, Craig’s stimulus check-purchased Bikes at Work trailer (made in Iowa) was delivered.

Saturday night we used the bogo personal pizza coupon Laura gave me for Hammy’s Pizza that was set to expire the next day. As Craig said after we first had Hammy’s the night we got back from Hawaii, “we’re dating a new pizza place.” They don’t deliver to our place until after midnight, but they aren’t so far away that it isn’t worth going to them.

While we ate our pizza we used Hulu to watch Friday night’s episodes of The Daily Show with John Stewart and the Colbert Report. Truly, the best recap of both the Palin nomination and the end of the Democratic National Convention that I could have hoped to see.

On Sunday we got up early and drove 200 miles south on I-5 to attend a reunion of Craig’s extended family. It was a crisp day that reminded us that our summer like days will now be fewer and further between.

His parents, aunt and uncle and cousins were all there. Unfortunately circumstances beyond her control caused Teresa to have to cancel her trip up.

While we were there Craig lured Bonzi down the slide. Craig and I had just finished the fantastic BBQ and when Bonzi got to the bottom of the slide he realized that he was no longer being held back by his leash and bounded across the field at top speed, not stopping until he reached the table where all the food was laid out.

On Monday Craig assembled his bike trailer:

And that evening we had a small group of friends over for a Labor Day BBQ, followed by an outdoor showing of Over the Edge. In the end, there were only seven of us left for the movie and we were all wearing sweaters, jackets and down blankets.

Tomorrow Craig and I are headed north to Marysville and then Lopez Island. At least I’m a bit more prepared for it being cool out.

Yesterday I took the day off work to make some headway on the halter dress I am hoping to complete while my mom is in town. I’d made the front pieces, and had basted together the “bodice.” I was intimidated to go further as the next steps involved the vague phrase “finish seams” as well as setting pleats. I have no experience with either of these actions and wanted the help of a more seasoned seamstress. Plus, I needed someone to help me fit the dress.

We spent all afternoon working and have only three steps left, listed in order:

1. attach the bodice to the skirt
2. attach the zipper
3. finish the upper back of the bodice

I am still a novice seamstress. There are parts of this dress that clearly show my skill level. Still, with a little effort and luck I’ll have a completed dress this weekend.

Even better than the progress on the dress was having an opportunity to hang out with my mom. The fact that we live nearly 3000 miles apart means these afternoons are far and few between, I savor all the time I can get.

Wheel Building (aka Craig’s Birthday, Part 2)

After an afternoon of sewing it was off to Kevin’s for a wheel building party I put together as Craig’s birthday present. He is a difficult person to gift, and I’d spent weeks before his birthday trying to figure out what I should do. I realized that anything I thought about buying would be more for me than him.

It wasn’t until the week before his birthday, while I was talking to Kyle at the bowling alley after the Big Lebowski bike ride, that I thought of a wheel building party. Kevin (as Craig says, nine on the calendar) agreed to host so I had him pick the date. He’s built a lot of wheels and has a well stocked bike shop in his basement.

Since Craig had all the necessary parts I was told that if I provided beer and pizza then the 4 wheels that needed building might all be completed by the end of the night. Kevin noted that he had pizza stones, so rather than ordering pizza we could just make it. This way he could show off his renaissance skills in a single night.

Last night Kevin and I managed to get two pizzas in the oven before anyone else arrived. Once others arrived I quickly began to realize that if Kevin continued making pizza we would lose a critical component necessary for successful wheel building.

I had planned to meet my mom and Rusty down the street at the Kennedy School for dinner and leave the mechanics to their building.  I had to postpone the meeting time to ensure that all five pizzas made it into the oven, and then ask Kyle, who had no wheel in hand, to ensure the pizza came out without burning.

We made some great pizzas, such as the one below with wild mushrooms (shitake, maitake and morels) and fresh garlic:

That said, if you are thinking of organizing your own work party I highly recommend either ensuring that the dedicated cooks are not required for the work, or better yet, uncouple the activities and order out.

Before I left I gave a “friendly reminder” that I wanted the night to be fun, but also hoped that at the end of the night the wheels would be built. This is a bit of the scene while I was at dinner, notice the rarely used, but still important nipple driver on the orange blanket:

The wheel building moved inside after dark and everyone that had not seen it before was exposed to Kevin’s awesome bike collection and shop. If you aren’t a bike enthusiast, you might just see a lot of bikes, tools and parts (like me). If you are, his hand crafted bikes, assorted specialty tools and well stocked parts might make you drool.

Here Kevin is truing a wheel:

Notice the yellow box of JagWire derailleur cable on the wall in front of him. The point here is that rather than paying the steep mark-up for buying the cable retail, Kevin bought in bulk and now has an amount of cable that would last the average cyclist 30 years, though in his case he will be lucky if it lasts ten.

I got back to the house after 10, and found that four people remained and were all nearing completion of the wheels in hand.

Before we left, Kevin proposed that we all drink a toast to Sheldon Brown who passed away in February.

To quote BikeSnobNYC:

I doubt that there’s any cyclist who hasn’t consulted his site, or who doesn’t still. And as the architect of the cycling canon he’s done more for cycling than any pro cyclist, or critical mass, or white bike, or orange bike ever has. No matter what you ride, how you ride, how long you ride, or how long you’ve been riding, you’re a fan of Sheldon Brown.

As for the wheel building party, thanks to the fact that Craig has great and committed friends I took four completed, ready to ride wheels home. Today, the mountain bike wheels still need rim tape, but its a beautiful day and Craig could be riding his Bianchi to pick some up right now.

Thanks again everyone!

]]> http://www.pantiesinapinch.com/?feed=rss2&p=11 0 http://www.pantiesinapinch.com/?p=9 http://www.pantiesinapinch.com/?p=9#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:05:05 +0000 pinch http://pantiesinapinch.com/?p=9 Happy 4th of July!

Wednesday was Craig’s birthday. We celebrated by having a picnic at Mt Tabor and watching the Velo on the Volcano bike races. It was more humid than usual for Portland, but a lovely night. Later that night we awoke to a magnificent thunderstorm, also a rare occassion here in Portland.

Since we are now entering July, this seems like as good a time as any to try and recap the first six months of 2008. Here goes…

January

Craig’s sister, Teresa and Craig’s man-crush (otherwise known as Teresa’s boyfriend) Dave spent New Year’s with us. Craig came down with the flu so we rang in the new year at home watching Arrested Development. When Craig realized that he hadn’t taken photos for 2008 for the humancalendar Bonzi got to stand in as “human” and represent the double ought eight for a couple of days until Simmi could come over and pose as a proper human 2008.

January also marked my first meeting with Alayne, an awesome personal trainer. I helped her create a website for Personal Team Fitness, and in the last six months she has helped me achieve a level of fitness I have not experienced in my adult life. Yay, Alayne!

February

We started off the month with a good old fashioned chili rumble. Thanks to Molly it had a kick-ass flyer. Although hard to tell from the small version above that is actually a depiction of our house, complete with myself, Craig, Kevin and Bonzi being deluged by a volcano of chili.

Since we’d never had an all chili potluck/cook-off we didn’t know what to expect. However, the timing was right, the lure of warm chili and good friends brought together 13 chilis for the competition and a variety of sides. Patrick has a great photo and recap on flickr.

Michael, who was the catalyst, turning what was first planned as a winter chili open house into a all chili potluck and cook-off (thereby allowing Craig and I to play host and not cook any chili at all) by noting what a great chili he makes, proved it by winning the vegetarian category with, “Business Time” a habañero chili. The meat, and overall winners with Bryan and Julie Bingham, with a white bean chicken chili, “White Shadow.” The two of them are shown here with their crown of glory:

February is also the annaul celebration of the Dove Lewis Superheroes. Bonzi has been donating blood for over four years now. This February was the first time I was in town and we were able to attend their celebration for the dogs. It was held at Lucky Lab, and Bonzi got a certificate for his 16 units. He also got dog carrot cupcakes and a goodie bag of treats and toys to take home. They took photos of all the dogs at the event to create mugs to sell on Cafepress. His is adorable, so please buy one and support Dove Lewis.

It was a beautiful day, so before the event we went across the street to Clever Cycles and rented a bakfiets. Craig took Bonzi and I for a ride along the Eastbank Esplanade and Springwater Trail Corridor. You can get a sense of our adventure in the video Craig made:

Bonzi\’s Bakfiets Ride

March

In March, the long discussed article about the chicken cooperative I’ve been involved in was finally out in Edible Portland. You can read the article, but there was also a video made by Cooking Up a Story, that I think is a better representation of my experience, mostly because I’m interviewed. It has been a lot of fun spending my Wednesday nights tending the girls at Zenger Farm, and I have to say, I’ve had the best eggs of my life over the past year.

Barack Obama came to Portland for the first time in March. Craig and I went to see him at the Memorial Coliseum. When we drove to Little Rock and back for Christmas 2006 my aunt Martha loaned me The Audacity of Hope. We enjoyed having him read his well-thought and well-rounded ideas about how our country could be a better place. The book ended as we passed Mt Shasta just before midnight, and Craig said it best, “How can it be over. He isn’t president.” That said, we had the nose bleed seats for his speech, and once again Craig said it best, “It doesn’t matter if its a rock band or a politician, bad seats in an arena really ruin the experience.”

March also marked my 36th birthday. For my birthday Craig made me doors for the previously open storage (Dave’s cabinet) above the built-in shelves in my office. He custom-crafted a wooden labricorn silhouette painted Bonzi brown as adornment:

I also went to D.C. for a meeting. While I was there I got to see my cousin Mary Catherine, who I hadn’t seen for years, and my dad. We ate delicious food and had great weather. The meeting itself was also informative and interesting!

When I got back to Portland, Craig and I flew down to Sacramento and spent my birthday with Teresa and Dave. It was a fantastic week-end. We rode bikes all over town, even through the mall, and ate lots of great food. Teresa even through me a birthday party complete with “friends” and homemade cupcakes!

Its worth mentioning that just before my birthday, it was my second anniversary of having Craig as more than a great friend. I love Craig. I don’t think I can put into words how great it has been to spend so much time with someone that appreciates me for the person I am, and yet just by being the person they are, makes me want to be a better person. He is fun, creative, considerate and so much more.

April

My dad and his younger brother and sister all came out to Portland for a long week-end in April. I had not seen my uncle John for a decade or more. I hadn’t seen my aunt Sara and her husband Bruce for a few years. It was wonderful to have them in town for a few days.

I finally got to see Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. I had read about it years ago and had been hoping that I’d get the chance to see it. Thanks to my bikportland feed on my google home page I learned it was playing at the Hollywood as a benefit for Austin Miller. The directors were on hand to discuss the film. It was every bit as good, if not better, than I could have imagined. These kids  had a vision and spent their entire childhood bringing that vision to life. It was a great reminder about the importance of sticking with your dreams. Persistence does pay off.

I had a meeting in Chicago at the end of April, and got to have dinner with Steve Schmidt and his friends from Italy, Paolo and Marcelo and their Blake/e/e/e bandmate from Indiana, Oren. Paolo and Marcelo made an incredible authentic Italian pasta dinner. They were days away from starting tour, and unfortunately, I failed to recall, and thus make, their show in Portland.

After leaving Chicago I flew down to San Diego so Craig and I could see one of the last Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline shows and visit his friend Brick. I’m a huge sucker for Spiritualized, and I really did feel that I was going to miss out if I didn’t get to see them play acoustic with strings and gospel singers. The show was incredible. We were able to stand at the front of the stage, and thus block out most everyone else and just focus on the music.

On Saturday we went to the annual day zero kick-off party for the Pacific Crest Trail. Both Brick and Craig hiked the PCT in the 1990s, which is in fact, how they became friends. Neither Craig nor I had any sense that the event would be hundreds and hundreds strong. It was really quite amazing. They took photos of all the hikers in each of the 2000s, and then a group photo for the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It was funny, but there were more people there that hiked in the 70s than there were for the 80s and 90s. Only later did Craig and I realize that likely many of the 80s and 90s hikers are still fully enmeshed in raising families, whereas the 70s hikers are likely to be retired. This is the 90s group shot:

The funnies part of this photo is that Craig asked Brick if Ryan was at the event. Ryan is a guy Craig had spent about a week hiking with in 1996. Only after they connected did he realize they had been standing right beside each other in the 1990s photo (Ryan is holding the 1990s sign). On Sunday Brick and Kristen took us to the beach and then we walked for delicious homemade ice cream milk shakes. A great week-end all around.

May

Craig and I went to Austin for Mother’s Day. Our friends Molly and Dave decided to get out of Portland for the hardest months of April, May and June. Craig had never been to Austin, so it seemed a great time for him to visit, and my mom and I had a great Mother’s Day in 2006, so she made reservations for us at the Austin Motel and we got our tickets and headed down.

The first day we were there we went to a great lunch spot thanks to Greg’s suggestion. While we were there Kevin texted Craig for some phone numbers and when he wrote back and mentioned that we were in Austin he suggested we go to Lance’s bike shop. We looked up the address on the map and since it was only a few blocks away we walked over after lunch. Our timing was impeccable. Though the shop’s official opening was the next day they were still letting folks in. And, Lance himself, had just arrived at the store from a ride. Craig waited for him to shower and then asked for, and got, a great humanclock photo:

The next day Molly and Dave took us out to the Guadalupe River for a fantastic lazy day of tubing down the river. I won’t say how much beer we drank, just that it was surprising to us all that it still wasn’t enough.

The week we got back to Portland we were teased with weather as fantastic as we’d had in Austin. While short-lived we enjoyed it while we could. We went up to Mt Tabor to watch a stage of the Mt Hood Classic. Craig shot excellent video capturing just how fast and frantic the event was:

I headed east for Memorial Day week-end so that I could visit my dad, and see his partner Ed’s new house. Ed had just moved into his house the week before, but when I got there it already felt like home. The weather was perfect for the house he bought:

The day after Memorial Day I went up to Brooklyn to visit Monica and Chris. Their daughter, Clementine, was due the day after I arrived, and yet she decided to wait until the day I was leaving to start her very slow process of being born. The contractions started Saturday, but she didn’t actually enter the world until Monday night!!! That said, it allowed me to have a fantastic vacation with Monica, walking all around Brooklyn, eating good and mediocre food, getting pedicures, and finding frocks. While I can’t wait to meet Clementine when we are in Hawaii for Dylan and Verena’s wedding I was honestly a bit relieved she waited since I know nothing about tending to newborns.

While quite blurry, I did get a great shot of Chris and Monica standing under an awning during a flash flood while trying to walk and help the labor along.  Dylan, Verena and I are in a cafe across the street where we had a flavor-less brunch:

June

In June we got new recycling and yard debris cans. Bonzi had to inspect:

The chicken co-op celebrated its first anniversary with a solstice pig roast and potluck at the farm.

June 12-28 was also Pedalpalooza in Portland. The first week-end our house all joined in on the Midnight Mystery ride. It was tons of fun to just ride through the streets with hundreds of other cyclist of all sorts. The next night roommate Kevin, Craig and other friend Kevin all joined the World Naked Bike ride (lucky for you, I have no pictures to share of that one). I chickened out on that ride because I couldn’t imagine being naked on my bike in weather that cold.

Our roommate Kevin had also decided that he would put on a ride for Pedalapalooza. He and his coworker and friend Kevin (no, not the Kevin from the naked bike ride, but I don’t blame you for being confused) chose the Big Lebowski as their theme and put together the “Dude Ride.” Along with Craig and some of his coworkers they did an amazing job of planning out a fantastic night. (Roommate Kevin is in the red robe and coworker Kevin is in the green.)