Another Saturday Come And Gone

Not much happening around here, except for maybe, oh, the second greatest thing that has happened to me in my life (the first was meeting and marrying The Other [Younger] Half). Ok, Ok make that the fourth, since I have to include the births of my 3 children. The fourth greatest thing in my life happened to me last night. I finally picked up my new bike. For you geeks it's a 56cm Surly Cross Check with a Shimano 105 drive train, including a 36 spoke DuraAce rear hub, Brooks Flyer saddle and Crank Bros. Candies Pedals. Everything on the bike is pretty much black, silver or white (even the rims for the wheels are black, sweeet), so when I picked it up from the shop that built it up for me, the owner called it the "Death Star." After a bit of initial tweeking last night, today I took SS Death Star out on her maiden voyage. It was better than......almost anything I can think of. This morning I did the tour of Minneapolis, following the trails around the city, 42 miles in all. This is the longest continuous ride I have ever done. It was unbelievable. After 39 miles of riding I ended up on the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis and I put the hammer down and punched it up to 20mph on my little cycle computer. It took so little effort, even after all that riding. My butt even cooperated. You have to understand, a Brooks saddle is basically a thick piece of leather streched over a frame. No padding. At all. Once you get the saddle to conform to your butt shape, you can go forever. The problem can be the break-in period. Suffice it to say that I am posting this sitting down with absolutely no pain at all. I can't wait to get out tomorrow. I may even post some pictures over on Picassa of all my bikes. Just look for the album labled "Bike Porn."

The kids spent last night at the Evil Grandmother and Dreadful Man's house. So it was just The Other (Younger) Half and me. Friday evening. Alone. We spent a wild night of her doing homework and me watching "Red Green" on the teevee until I fell asleep. We're just like a couple of newlyweds we are.

Today, after she got done rubbing Nekkid people at the Massage Parlour, The Other (Younger) Half took the girls out for a little girls day out. 'Nika got her ears pierced and not one tear was shed. Our little baby is growing up. This is the same child who could not get to sleep because her "foot hurt." We found out the solution to this intractable foot pain was to put a damp paper towel on her foot when she went back to bed. This child doesn't have just a low threshold for pain, I think she has a negative threshold, if that's possible. KyKy had her ears double pierced today. I have no problem with that, ear piercing I mean. But if she comes home with a railroad spike driven through her head because that is what all the cool kids are doing, I guess I might have second thoughts about her getting that second piercing in her ear. Slippery slope and all. This leaves me as the only holdout to having holes poked in my body. The Madster has pierced ears as does The Other (Younger) Half. TO(Y)H even has a little diamond stud in her nose. She didn't listen to me when I told her that it was farm animals in this country that traditionally have holes poked through their noses. Oh well. Next time you are looking for our family, just look for the mutilated group with all the bling hanging from their sensory organs.