No longer pretending to be a grad student

I have been accepted to my grad school program in urban and regional planning at the University of Minnesota! I'm really excited and can't wait to start. I even enjoyed the orientation that they offered last week, even though it was billed as a session all about OneStop and how to register (topics so ingrained in my soul from actually being involved with setting up the course schedule so people could actually register).

Pretending to be a grad student

I'm enrolling in urban and regional planning courses this fall as a non-degree-seeking student. Yes. I didn't get into the Master's program at the U of MN's Humphrey Institute for Fall 2008. I am optimistic. Instead of emailing me and telling me exactly no and don't bother us again, the director emailed me and told me that the committee encourages me to take a few courses and if I'm successful, I should reapply. She also explained that they are keeping my application open, and will not have to fully reapply for next year.

So I'm definitely going to take PA 5211 Land Use Planning. It meets before work and the course guide description is really exciting.

Goals rather than plans

My friend pointed out to me that this plan continuum thing is really harsh. It doesn't really take into account the steps that it takes to achieve things, which is presumably to point to make this plans. I think that I originally made them because I was feeling direction-less and the idea that safety nets were set made me realize that I had a plan, which made me feel better about it. The reality of it is that I obviously shot low with the plans and ended up in the easiest groove. So these new plans are a bit more ambitious.

I did a little research on the Humphrey website and discovered that the person that I thought that I was communicating with all of this time is indeed not at the Humphrey anymore!

Still waiting for an answer...

How did I end up with plan F

A few years ago while I was graduating from college, I composed a list of plans.

Wow. I'm living plan F and have been for 2 years!!! Yikes.

Last November I felt like I was in a hole that I couldn't get out of.

I better start composing more plans!

A. Get into the MURP program and work at the Center for Writing until finished.
B. Get into the MURP program and work as a grad student somewhere, supplementing my income with something like a loan or a second job.
C. Get a job that requires a linguistics degree.
D. Work teaching ESL.
E. Get a job that requires a bachelor's degree

So. I guess that I would be on to plan C or D if I didn't get into graduate school for a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning from the Humphrey.

The next Philip Pullman movie might be out before I blog again!

I was driving home last night from our new house in Northeast. I went up to the red light at 29th and Johnson and made out two figures walking together in the darkness. I could tell they had flowing garments and assumed that they were Somali women. As they stepped into the light of the street lamp (why isn't there more street lighting in Nordeast?) their features became apparent. Two Buddhist monks in saffron robes and shaven heads were walking calming up Johnson Street.

Ubuntu 7.10 does do WPA!

I don't know how I did it, but I just spent the morning getting my Dell Latitude laptop to connect to our wireless router! Over joyed! I guess that I just needed to be more patient?

Golden Compass is coming out 7 dec 2007

Eating and drinking in the library

There is a coffee shop in the basement of Walter Library. When it first opened, I was really concerned about books and coffee mingling in the same area. I was fully indoctrinated into the idea that these two things should not mix by my elementary school librarian. I went to visit it when it first opened and was relieved to see that the space between coffee shop and books was respected.

Now they have a small circulating fiction/nonfiction library in the coffee shop! I love the idea, but there is a confused 7-year-old inside that is wondering if it is some kind trap set by librarians.
You can go and see which titles are available online

where are you, upholsterer's cooperative?

I'm really getting into upholstery. I'm redoing my little club chair that has been my constant companion since 1997. It is really a nice little chair whose cover is very threadbare.

I found out about a group of women who started the Upholsterers' Cooperative in a NE warehouse. This morning on my run I decided to run there and back (address is 1740 Madison).

It was much windier than I expected and I still have my rag-tag running clothes that I always assumed that I would shrink out of. I was fine until I got to 1740 and it didn't exist.

I lopped home a bit down-hearted and into the wind.

Next run is scheduled for Friday.

sweater for my sister

I knitting Belle Epoque presented in the Winter 04 issue of knitty.com. My friend (who introduced me to Knitty so long ago) and I are finding these last few issues exposing us to really grotty designs so I'm sifting through the archives to expand my knitting repertoire. This is how it looks on the designer.
I've been researching her other designs and found that she is relatively flat chested. As my people are quite curvy, I'm hoping this will work out. I'm using Cleakheaton Studio Mohair in a dark rose shade (# 19). Once I started knitting with it, I realized that was just a tish more rosy than her tea cozy. But I also noticed that she was wearing a scarf with a similar color so I'm a little less worried that it won't suit her.
I was misunderstanding the lace pattern instructions to the point where I thought that I was going insane. Somehow I figured it out at last yesterday afternoon, much to the relief of the boyfriend who no longer needed to suffer from expletive outburts every few minutes.

Silly blog things

my sister was posting these things on her myspace thing so I thought that I would have a go. They seem really reasonably me.

You Are Beer!

You don't need to get totally wasted when you hit the bars. More of a social drinker, you just like to have fun with your friends. And as long as the beer keeps flowing, you're a happy camper. But don't mix things up: "Beer Before Liquor, Never Been Sicker!"

What Alcoholic Drink Are You?

What European City Do I Belong In?

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Don't panic, the painters returned

Every thing is painted and up on the wall.

I'm starting a bee hive in New Brighton next month. I still have to get the equipment! But the bees are ordered. I thought that I wouldn't have to worry about hive collapse disorder because I'm only going to be moving the bees from Stillwater to NB and then they are on their own, getting where they want to go.

I think people should starting using the word "tuckpoint" in meetings and such, like people use dovetail and piggy-back (my sister, who thanks her lucky stars that she isn't in meetings all the time, doesn't believe me that adults in a professional setting would ever use the phrase piggy-back).

I'm walking the 2 miles to the University now. It is really pleasant. I go down Fillmore to Summer Street, cross the freeway and then through Marcy Holmes, over the railroad bridge and roll into Dinkytown about 55 minutes after leaving home.

Painters! Please come back!

We are finally getting our apartment painted thanks to our landlord. The painter came and did both bedrooms, the hallway and half of the "living-dining-kitchen" room. He still has a second coat on the big composite room and a wall in the kitchen.

We did 2 walls in Fairfax Brown. As we have extraordinarily high ceilings, it makes the room very warm and cozy. Only things it that one of the walls is textured. When I came home and saw the wet, freshly-painted wall, it made me hungry for big gooey brownies.

Our bedroom is pretty decadent. Our sage green walls are complemented by an enormous ficus that we inherited from my boyfriend's sister. She has been taking care of it for ELEVEN years.

I was browsing the Urban Dictionary today and decided that the phrase " c'est-pas-une-eglise-icitte" was cool, so I thought that I would put in on my blog. I'm really simple. I know.

I really need to get my commuter bike tuned up. I'm feeling really wimpy (yet privilaged) to drive to work everyday. I have parking as a benefit from my online high school job.

Please don't eat the daisies

I just stumbled upon a very peculiar movie in the replay machine tonight. We recorded everything that was possible to record right before we moved so that we would have stuff to watch before the satellite gets installed in our new place.

It was called Please Don't Eat the Daisies. I have pages of pre-pubescient diary pages about random movies that I stumbled upon on cable, so this text going to be very similar to those.

It has Doris Day and David Niven as a couple with 4 children, all boys and 3 of which appear to be about the same age. The youngest son is kept in a cage because he is really silent and clever and gets into trouble(?) Strangers ask if he is queer.

It is your typical late 50's early 60's movie. Doris wants to move out to the country. David wants to stay in the Big Apple (the chores! the stores! kind of thing). In this case, Doris wins. The next thing that surprised me was the scene when the neighbors come over to welcome them. I think that these characters, a minister, a dowdy woman, and a veterinarian, are supposed to especially annoy the David Niven character, who is professor/theater critic. That is the only reason that I can think of to introduce such a motley crew. One of the boys rudely asks the veterinarian, "Hey, are you a man or woman" and the veterinarian cheerfully responds, "I'm a veterinarian!"

The other thing that I surprised me is that Doris never broke out into song in the normal fashion. Of course, she got to sing, but there were excuses worked in, for example, once she is singing because she got the lead in the community theater production. Or she was singing because she was taking care of elementary school students in the afternoon.

New home

I am no longer on the OIFS blogroll so there is no pressure to actually blog about biking, which I haven't managed to do a lick of all summer. I did manage to put on my Nitto handlebars purchased at Hiawatha Cyclery and fucked up my brake cords.

I moved in with my boyfriend. I have never done this before, despite my 27 years. My best friend with whom I was living with for the last 5 years understands, I think.

We have our apartment almost completely set up. I'm going through my books and selling them on Amazon. Some are ridiculously valuable and after entering 37 in last night, I got 2 sales within a few minutes.

We bought a shower head with that detachable thing. We are seriously customizing this rental property, including adding value to our storage unit with track shelving.

job with a laptop

I just started my part-time admin assistant job this week and it comes with a Compaq nx6110 laptop! I'm living my fantasy of sitting around in a coffee shop and working on a laptop. I think that I will actually get a banjo brothers bag now with a laptop sleeve as I don't really have a suitable bag for this thing yet.

I'm on my way to the 5th Congressional District DFL Debate at the Temple Israel tonight at 7:30pm. I was chatting with my new boss about this election and it wasn't even supposed to have a debate because the MN DFL wanted to put their energy behind the governor race (more important races) then a shoe-in election to replace Martin Sabo in a District that has been Democratic since time began. But some candidates didn't want to take the endorcement convension into account so here we are with a debate. I'm always up for a debate. Bring it on.

Rhodes Car finally "roaden"

I finally got to try the Rhoades Car that my dad purchased to be car-free in small town North Dakota. If you will recall, it is a 4-wheeled bike with a boat seat and a plastic case on the back for a trunk. In person it looks like a really early automobile, with only a chassis.

I rolled out of my dad's short acute angle of a driveway. As I turned out of the driveway to left, the right wheel hovered over the pavement. I tried to pick up speed, but it seemed a little sluggish, not used to trying to pull around so much bike. As I turned left again, I had more control. I tried to do a yooie and found that the turn radius was really dull.

I personally found a lot a play with the steering and the wheels. I'll investigate and see if it needs adjustment. I read the user manual and it wasn't very illuminating. It recommended to take the car into a professional to change a flat.

Slippers "just like mom used to make"

I finally managed to mail these slippers to my sister. I love the pattern. It is really simply yet durable and easy to fit any foot.

Boston and the origin of the "live long and prosper" gesture

I got back from Boston on Wednesday night. As Boston is a great city to walk in, I just assumed that it would be a great place to bike in. I was going to rent a bike and explore, but their traffic signals are crazy. Everyone jaywalks because all of the signals are red for about half a minute.

I did the Freedom Trail on Monday until the U.S.S. Constitution when I decided to jump on the ferry back to downtown. I splurged for the guided tour. It was led by a passionate pie lady with a rolling pin that she would use to punctuate her emphatic gestures. The Freedom Trail took me past the Italy-Ghana game at a little Italian cafe in the North End so I stopped. I stood, watching the last 30 minutes of the game and experienced an Italian goal. Sitting in front of me was an American soccer hooligan. He was chiseled and shaven with a shiner and a broken nose. I was slightly horrified because I didn't know that those things happened in America.

Tuesday I lounged around Harvard Square. I bought two soccer books. During the hottest part of the day I went to see "An Inconvenient Truth", that documentary with Al Gore. I'm glad that he has decided to be his dry-humored relaxed self. For supper I went to Charlie's Kitchen which turned out to be my cousin's favorite. It was down-home with a bar for random singletons like me. I struck up a conversation with an amazing woman named Karla. She was in town (by that I mean Cambridge) to lead a seminar on social justice. She was still planning her activity. She wanted to give her students (the cream of the crop from all the Ivy League schools) a list of conversation topics that they will have to go out to Harvard Square and engage specific schicks of society in. She also comes to the Twin Cities fairly often so I promised to take her to Al's Breakfast. I saw the "Dewey, Chattham, and Howe" office window. My boyfriend and I thought that it was fictious until now. I didn't see Car Talk Plaza though.

On Wednesday I raced to make it to the free Black Heritage guided tour through Beacon Hill. It was outstanding and I recommend it to anyone. We stopped at the Vilna Shul, a turn-of-the-20th-century synagogue that is under renovation and our tour guide and the rabbi gossiped about the fate of the Coburn House that should be on the walking tour, but was being torn down because it wasn't on the historic registry because it was in the interior of the block. Doh! Our tour guide recommended coming back to the Shul because they had a great exhibit on Eastern European synagogues that were destroyed during the world wars.

So I did come back afterward and found the rabbi training in his new docent-intern, a freshly bar-mitzahed (a word that they used, didn't know that it could be a verb) young man named Daniel. The rabbi showed me around the Eastern European synagogue exhibit and then on the second floor, it was the interns turn. We were standing in front of the ark and he let me examine it quietly for a few moments. Then he said,"First let me tell you about the Star Trek symbol" My eyes darted around the ark, searching for a communicator badge carved into the wood. They rested on a carving of 2 hands making the Vulcan farewell gesture with the index fingers and thumbs touching.

They explained that there are different levels of rabbis. The urban communities were able to attract the rabbis that were able to make this hand gesture themselves. The rural shtedel (sp.) attacted run-of-the-mill rabbis so they added this carving to their arks. The gesture is used to channel God to the people. The fingers are separated so that more of God will come through, not just the triangle, but also through the fingers.

Leonard Nimoy grew up in the West End of Boston in a synagogue established by a community from the rural part of Eastern Europe. So when they asked him to come up with a Vulcan hand gesture, he used this. The orthodox urban Jewish community was alarmed because they were never supposed to see this symbol, as they heads are always bowed when it is made by their rabbi.

blogging must not be my forte

I'm impressed that I stayed on OIFS blogroll and I'm a little sad that one kid stopped blogging about bicycles and bathrooms. It is my last week at CCLC. It is a sad one, but I'm ready to move on. I've downloaded as much of my knowledge as possible into our new student worker. We even had beinah telepathic experience. And they hired a resourceful new web person.

I've been trying not to freak out too much about my prospects. I managed to completely finish my B.A. in Linguistics this May. So now I'm a little closer to actually being a linguist. I will post the final draft of the page-turner senior project "Nominalization in Dene Suline" later. I've been applying to different places at the U. A large percentage actually made it through Donhowe. So far I have had one call for an interview. I don't know why I won't get this because they seem really harried and busy. I hope that I fall in with a bunch of kooks, like I normally do. It is possible that I draw the kookiness out of people, so in that case, no worries.

I get to go to Boston on Friday for a few days for my volunteering thing. That should be fun.

running a 5K this weekend

I'm running my first 5K on Sunday. It is the Race for Justice, put on by the U of M Law School to help lawyer do more pro bono work and still stay current on their student loan payments.

I'm thinking about getting rid of my Ross Compact. It was fun during the summer but now it is just big and heavy and I think that I can do better.

I finally started on the straps for the Oskar Werner bag. I also found out that my friend at Augsburg is doing film studies now, which sounds super cool. Another friend is in Budapest doing a masters in public policy, specifically software patent law.

running a lot

I have been running a lot lately. I can hardly believe that I have run 49.2 miles this year. I haven't been biking much. I put the old drop-downs on the Ross Compact. Somehow it wasn't as fun as riding on the Schwinn in the summer. I can't wait to get the Schwinn down from my bike rack.

Last Saturday I was at the Bike/Travel/Fitness expo in the bowels of the Minneapolis Convention Center. I was volunteering at the Minnesota Ironman booth. I was able to sneak away and I got to ride my first fixie. Edina Cycle had a bunch of recumbants and then they had a 52cm Redline fixie hidden behind their big Minnehahaesque quadcycle. I was drawn to it. The sales guy told me that he had better flip the hub and I said, no that is what I want to try. Apparently I was braver than he. The only anxious part was taking off on the cement floor. Once I was going it was smooth and fun. I backpedaled a lot because I was riding around a very short track. This hurt my knee.

I visited Hiawatha Cyclery last Sunday with the boyfriend. It is a really cute little store. We chatted about a lot of the products and the background on the stuff. The boyfriend had never seen an Xtracycle so that was fun. Jim also had a Redline fixie for me to check out. It goes for $500. I got my back Reelight (which he was sweet enough to sell me separately) and a water bottle. After we left the store, the boyfriend turned to me and said, "Wow, you ARE a bike nerd". I forgot the difference between a geek and a nerd, but I think that I'm more of the one that know everything about a category of thing, as opposed to knowing everything about one specific thing.

back from Ireland

I went to Ireland with my dad for 3 weeks. It was the longest time we had spent together since I moved to the Twin Cities nearly 9.5 years ago. Holy crap, I have been here for 9.5 years.

I learned alot. I learned how to drive a stick shift down a very narrow road that looks like there is only room for one car anyway so I didn't have to worry about which side of the road to be on. I learned to veer towards the left when I met another car and to smile and wave. I learned to check to make sure that I have a jack when I drive off with my rental car. I learned alot of other stuff that is not car related as well.

I rode my bike to work and back for the first time in months. It was good. Windy. The Midtown Greenway is one of the most depressing places in Minneapolis in this muddy goopy time.

I'm starting to train hardcore (well, hardcore for me) for this Leukemia/Lymphoma Society marathon this summer. I'm going to 2 group runs every week and then I run on my own 2 times a week. I ran 4 miles on Wednesday. It was the farthest I have ever run in my entire life. I like the fact that I'm being introduced to distances around the Twin Cities. I had no idea that it was only 2 miles from Lock and Dam #1 to Lake Street along the river. Our coach seems to enjoy the Minnehaha Falls/Creek/Lake Nokomis area, so I'm looking forward to becoming intimately acquainted with those areas. I was really worried about injuring myself with the mileage that was assigned this week, but I believe that if I run any distance slowly enough, I'll never get hurt.

off to Ireland in a few days; new word for snow

Until today, as a former-North-Dakotan Minnesotan, I thought that I had experienced almost every kind of snow.

I left to go on my training run-walk this evening (if you, addressing ,of course, the legions of souls who patronize this here site have not noticed, I'm raising money to cure leukemia and lymphoma, see sidebar at right). I didn't believe the forecasts for snow. It was warmish (34 degrees fahrenheit) and dry (my hands were really dry at least). I started my 4th run time (12 minutes left of the run-walk) and I noticed tiny snow flake. They got bigger. I started inhaling them. It was a good kind of inhale, fresh and clean. After my last run period, I was walking down 25th Street and I heard the snow fall. I had never heard it before. The snow was icy-ish and frequent. It made a sound like paper being rippled. A few people commented on my lack of winter clothing and pitied me for getting caught in the snow fall, until they saw from my expression how much I was enjoying it. I can only explain my recent acquaintance with this sound with a) avoiding the snow fall by watching Star Trek episodes one after the other. b) being in a car or on a bike during this kind of snowfall c) global warming introduced me to the paper crackle snow.

I recently became fascinated with the idea of reintroducing the classical education to the young people in K-12. Not in the home schooled christian sorta way though. It just seems sensible to incite debate during junior high, instead of continuing to force students to memorize shit. If you let the younger kids know that the memorization part of their lives will be over at some point, they might get into more it. They might find songs to memorize stuff. I'm all for the trivium. I might even make a t-shirt that says trivium on it.

"You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older, and now you're even older. You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older, and now you're older still."
--They Might Be Giants

Erik's is ok if you are looking for something obsure

O.K. I have had a personal grudge against Erik's Bike shop ever since one of their stores opened in Dinkytown right next to the Varsity Bike shop, the bike shop that always had my back as a student at the U. This weekend we were looking for a race for an axle for a Giant road bike from the 1980's. We went to Freewheel, the Hub, Penn Cycles. We tried to go to Grand Performance and Express Bikes (they are closed on Sunday!). We tracked down Rice Street Bikes, where the bike was purchased originally. Now it is a frisbee golf store.

We finally gave in and went to the Erik's bike shop in Dinkytown. There was a young man manning the store, all alone. "If you like pina coladas" was cheerfully playing the Muzak and I felt a pang of sympathy for the guy. He found the races! In like 4 minutes. Pretty impressive.

A friend and I spent the afternoon yesterday being vulture-like at a yarn store that is going out of business on 58th Street and Nicollet. I snagged 10 skeins of 100% mercerized cotton for $20, some little circular needles and sock yarn that actually makes making wool socks cheaper than buying them. I'm looking for US #19 circulars that are 40 inches long to make t-shirt rugs. I think that I should be able to make Tubey with the cotton. I hope that it is springy enough. I made the swatch last night and it was beautiful.

knitting crazy, free beethoven cd's

Last week I actually did a really very "Office Space"-ish thing. I was manning the front desk at my office and I actually started to knit to pass the time because there was nothing going on. No students, no emails, no phone calls (a couple days earlier a young man called who seemed unfamiliar with voice messages. Kati: You called the Center for Writing? Guy: Yah, but no one answered. Kati: You didn't even get a voice message? Guy: Oh, well someone answered, I just couldn't talk to them.)

So, I added a little knitting progress thing in the sidebar. Pretty cool.

I've started on a hat for my roommate. He has a yellow winter jacket with gray accents so I'm making him a gray hat with dark blue accents. I like that he will remind people of the new Guthrie or IKEA. Will it make people realize that the new Guthrie looks like IKEA? At Christmas my boyfriend's mom served scrambled eggs in a beautiful dark blue bowl. I immediately thought of IKEA.

If you go to the Orchestra on your way to work this morning, they are giving out pastries and Beethoven CD's.

My transmission is toast. Luckily I have rainy day money. Money for that weird rainy day on Tuesday when I took my car into be looked at.

tea cozy for my twin

Here is a picture of a tea cozy that my sister found in her stocking yesterday. I finished in during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when all of the Christmasy magic is supposed to happen. I knitted it while watching the new Doctor Who series so when I look at it. I think of Doctor Who. My sister thinks of Fraggles.

My prematurely arthritic car

I bought a 2000 Hyundai Sonata this spring. It has been privy to the love and affection of my boyfriend, his dad, and I through multiple tune-ups, adjustments and painting the back fender (I bought it that way) over the summer. Now its computer codes are telling us that its torque converter is malfuncting. This basicly means that when it is cold and/or irritable it refuses to remember how to shift gears. I was brought up on a VW Rabbit so I know how to shift gears. If only it would let me help it! After an afternoon in a parking garage, it shifts like it always did.

I'm knitting franticly. Unfortunately I still don't have the hedgehog pictures.

hedgehog sweater

The last week I was commissioned to knit and felt a sweater for my friend's hedgehog. I completed it over the weekend and am anxiously awaiting the reception of the sweater by the hedgehog. Most people think that it will tear it to bits. I'm still optimistic that everything will be fine. Once the sweater is determined a success, I will post my pattern here.

new bike computer, new reasons to go fixie

Thank you, aflowercallednowhere for the bike computer! I haven't hooked it up yet, but I am admiring its analogue clock face intermixed with the blocky digital text fonts.

On Thursday I didn't exactly bike in. I drove to Stadium Village where I can park all day for free and I rode my folding bike to my East Bank office. It was really slick. Now I'm thinking about just storing the bike in the trunk. I did wear a surprisingly warm combination. Finding nothing especially clean in my room to wear, I pulled on some pantyhose that I had forgotten about. I put on the Columbia fleece pants over them. The ride was a cosy warm one. Granted I wasn't going really fast and I wasn't in the Midtown Greenwindtunnel, but I might try that combo again.

Ever since the ride on Wednesday night, I have been seriously thinking about converting my Ross Compact into a fixed gear. I was riding up Nicollet and my chain dropped down to the granny gear. Then I was trying to stop for a car who decided that we had a telepathic link because he proceeded to turn right into Quang's without a signal. The person in front of him was also turning and signalled so I was already slowing, but I had not yet come to a complete stop because I thought that I could slowly go until the car passed. I wasn't going that fast so it wasn't too dangerous, but I didn't stop with the help of my brakes. Backpedalling then would have been nice. My brakes were all gunked up with snow.

I believe that I just have to switch the bottom bracket and get rid of the extra gears. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciated it. This Ross is from the seventies, has a fixed wheel in the rear and a BB that takes care of the freewheel function. I don't know if the gears are detachable from the rear hub, I sorta suspect they are not.

Hostelling National Meeting update

I was just rereading some old posts and I thought that I should say that the National Meeting for Hostelling Int'l was great, sans Garrison Keillor. We ended up getting Catherine Watson, the recently retired travel writer for the Star Tribune. We had a lot in common and I chatted her up after the talk. Mr. Keillor would not have been as good as Watson; she gave the perfect talk about her ADHD nephew who is bouncing around Europe right now. There were about 115 people there and I personally met 60. I basically lived at the Hilton that weekend. There was a Canadian sex convention at the convention center at the same time. And a CPA convention.

I need wind pants

I'm pretty comfy riding now with my socks and a system for the top that includes wicking, insulation, and wind resistance. Now I have to figure out the bottom half. Having done some winter running and skiing I thought that I could use those techniques. For the most part that is ok; my insulating fat on my legs keep me pretty warm. Only right behind my knees, I have been experiencing ice crystalization. Perhaps the wind pants are the answer. I bought a pair of deeply discounted fleece pants from REI this week and I'll try them tomorrow to see how it works.

rite of passage; eureka moment too late in life

So, my rite of passage is that I took the plunge and bought some SmartWool Adrenaline socks. They fit my feet perfectly. Just so you know, I have tiny feet for an adult (5.5 or 6 US) and I don't think that I have ever had socks that fit exactly. The oversized socks that I've lived with up to this moment have always made my Achilles tendon look like it was preggers.

I know that this sounds really stupid, but this morning I realized that Mr. Fahrenheit, the guy behind putting the 0 degree at the freezing point of sea water, was on to something. I also thought that it was a really sailor-centric system. It is also a system that is really useful for anyone who is wondering if their tears will freeze when they are waiting for the bus.

Winter bike ride; new folding bike

I think that I just recovered from Thanksgiving about a half an hour ago. My ride home was filled with adrenaline. Before the holiday I put my gangly winter bike in my U of M bike locker to get it out of the way so that I could cram more friends and relatives into my apartment. So yesterday I thought that I would rescue the bike from being locked up for a record amount of time, but the lock was frozen.

Today, really itching to ride, I slammed up against the door a number of times and it worked. The hobbit-sized door opened like butter. The adrenaline started rushing when I found that there were spots along the Greenway-Hiawatha route that were sheets of ice. I refuse to get studded tires for me $20 department store junk bike.

My da gave me at folding Dahon Boardwalk bike over Thanksgiving. It feels a little strange, mostly because the handling is so sketchy on the snow and ice, but it is pretty fun and it is really quick to fold down. It is cool. I might actually invest in studded tires for that puppy.

New obsession

I'm beginning to be obsessed with the Pedersen Bicycle. I hope that I can ride one this year when I'm in Europe.

worst blogger ever

I was hoping that my witty descriptions of life would help compensate my complete lack of digital camera.

There is this bike in my 'hood that I see locked up all over with these tall kids-bike-esque handlebars but with a twist that I long to digitally photograph. Well actually a couple of twists. The tops are twisted around so that they resemble a brass instrument more than a handlebar. I was wondering how they made them look so shiny if they actually just fashioned by some welder. Would it be cool to make a brass instrument that could be used as handlebars? You could tool down the street playing Sousa?

Here is the latest results of a quick quiz that I took to help me procrastinate from making a yarn pom pom. Who really procrastinates making a yarn pom pom. I probably need help. I was think about making a "things to do before I'm 30" list and which would basically include a list of all of the drugs that I want to take, since I've pretty much done whatever the fuck I want for years. I don't suppose that it is appropriate to discuss this quiz in any personal statements that I might write for a grad school program. I'm pretty inappropriate anyway.

You Should Get a PhD in Science (like chemistry, math, or engineering)

You're both smart and innovative when it comes to ideas. Maybe you'll find a cure for cancer - or develop the latest underground drug.

What Advanced Degree Should You Get?

My winter bike is scaring me

Ok. I know that I have a pretty low tolerance for strange sounds or movements associated with bike-riding. During my longer rides in the summer I would freak out about rubbing sounds and swishing sounds or regular clicking noises. During these times, I was calmed by a quick check of everything.

This Ross Compact that I bought as a winter bike is scaring me. I've ridden it about 16 miles so far. When I get up to anything over 10 mph on the greenway, it starts slightly twisting and pulsing. My seat moves slightly up and down. I feel like I'm on some kind of Dr. Seus-invented machine. I'm convinced that I will end up with a broken frame or something. My veteran cyclist co-worker suggested that it was the head bearing. The head bearing doesn't seem loose or anything. Isn't that a diagnostic detail? My dad wants to sell me his Da Hon Boardwalk folding bike. I am going to research this purchase as thoroughly as anything else. Apparently the frame hinge can get rusty really easily and sieze up. This was reported by a gentleman in England. I hope to use it as my foul weather bike because it has fenders.

In other bike news, my father has ordered the single passenger Rhoades Car a four-wheeled bike. He has been an avid cyclist for years and now he has Parkinson's so his neurologist has forbidden anything that is 2 or 3 wheeled. He is selling his car and will live car-free in a small town in North Dakota. When I was in high school I had a dream that my VW Rabbit had bicycle pedals and I was tooling around town on it.

Commuting article in NYTimes

Although they are still claiming that bike seats make you impotent, instead of considering that the rider may have adjusted their seat improperly so most of the weight is not on the sit bones, here is an article in the NY Times this morning about this "new" bike commuting thing.

Gas Math: Subtract 2 Wheels
By ALEX WILLIAMS

FOR morning commuters, the hours trapped in gridlocked traffic are a ripe time for fantasies of drastic change. It is little wonder that many have pondered the notion of pedaling a bicycle to work.

But even for those who live in Sun Belt cities with ample bike lanes, this drive-time fantasy usually runs aground on bluntly practical shoals. There are laptop computers to lug and children to drop off at day care. There are potholes and thunderstorms. And, of course, there is the sweat riders work up, which clashes with an $800 business suit.

For a growing number of bicycle fantasists, however, the obstacles no longer seem quite so insurmountable in the face of $70 fill-ups at gas stations. Bike manufacturers have reported significant sales increases since the summer, when gas in many areas passed $3 a gallon.

At the Interbike International Bicycle Expo, an industry convention late last month in Las Vegas, commuting was a major "buzz topic," said Tim Blumenthal, the executive director of Bikes Belong Coalition, a trade association. He said the industry is seeing "a whole new breed of customer, people who haven't ridden bikes at all, coming in mainly because of eyeball shock at the gas pump."

Janelle Gunther, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is among the recent converts. "A couple weeks ago I was joking with some friends and saying that when gas goes over $3 a gallon, I won't pay it, I'll refuse to use my car," Ms. Gunther, 35, recalled.

The next thing she knew, she was leaving her Toyota Camry in the driveway and pedaling the five miles to the lab. She figures she is saving about $40 a week. She usually showers and changes at work, although more than once she has found herself scurrying into an early morning meeting still clad in her Lycra cycling gear. "No one bats an eye," she said.

Bicycle sellers are unsure what percentage of the recent sales gains can be attributed to commuters as opposed to recreational riders inspired by another Lance Armstrong victory this summer in the Tour de France. But several sellers, including Chris Hornung, the chief executive of Pacific Cycle in Madison, Wis. - the largest distributor of bicycles in North America, including the Schwinn and Roadmaster brands - said that the timing of the boom and the types of bikes that are selling indicate that commuters account for a healthy portion.

Mr. Hornung pointed out that it was sales of multigear adult cruiser bikes with medium-wide tires and cushy seats, "the sort commonly associated with commuting," that "jumped off the Richter scale," rocketing 20 percent in the week of Sept. 7 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the spike in gas prices.

At Breezer, in Sausalito, Calif., a manufacturer of comfort-oriented "transportation" bicycles - they feature fenders, bells and cargo racks - sales have risen 33 percent this year. During this past summer of fuel-price surges, sales were double those of the summer before, Joe Breeze, the company's founder, said.

Kevin Coggins, who owns a bike shop called the Spin Cycle in Cary, N.C., said inquiries about commuter bikes like Breezers are up. He also has noticed he has more company on the road each morning during his 45-minute bicycle commute from nearby Raleigh. "Normally when I ride to work, I see four or five people" in the bike lanes, he said. "Immediately after Katrina, I would see one or two dozen."

Skeptics who have weathered more than a few business cycles may be tempted to dismiss the sudden enthusiasm for pedal power as nothing more than a momentary spasm of household-budget anxiety that will pass the minute oil drops $5 a barrel. (Recent studies indicating a relationship between certain bicycle seats and sexual dysfunction could also cool some of the enthusiasm.)

And in a country that worships horsepower even the most ardent bicycle commuters face an uphill battle pursuing a mode of transportation traditionally associated with college professors or factory workers in Beijing. According to the most recent national figures, those of the 2000 census, only 489,000 Americans pedaled to work, compared with 97.1 million who drove alone.

In sprawling cities like Los Angeles and Houston, the great distance between home and office makes bicycling almost impossible. In New York City cyclists who do not fear being flattened by taxis must be fortunate enough to work in a building that provides bicycle storage.

Even in leafy college towns like Davis, Calif., and bicycle-friendly cities like Cambridge, Mass., the problems involved keep many from considering bicycling to work. Kyle Littlefield, 32, of Bryan, Tex., who works in marketing at Texas A&M University Press, recently joined the ranks of bike commuters, but he and his wife are already scrambling for a way to get their two young children to day care. "It's all contingent on my wife finding a carpool situation with one of her friends," Mr. Littlefield said.

Scott McGolpin, 42, a public works administrator in Santa Barbara, Calif., said that his decision to cycle 14 miles to work, which saves on his Ford Expedition's $50-a-tank habit, came at the cost of an hour of sleep every morning.

Advocates of bicycle commuting are hoping the apparent end of an era of cheap oil will provide momentum for cities to expand bike lanes and trails, install more bicycle racks on streets and buses, and perhaps even build bicycle stations like that in Chicago, where commuting riders can lock up their bikes, shower and change.

Elizabeth Preston, a spokeswoman for the League of American Bicyclists, a advocacy group in Washington, said that the federal transportation bill signed into law in August sets aside about $1 billion for bike lanes and trails, "so the people who start commuting now will find better facilities and a more reliable infrastructure than the people in the 70's did."

In some cases, taking on the additional challenge of bicycle commuting can be like a second job. Harry Brull, 56, an organizational psychologist in Minneapolis and an avid recreational cyclist, said he had always wanted to leave his Audi at home in St. Paul and enjoy the bracing seven-plus-mile ride along the Mississippi to his office downtown.

When gas hit $3 a gallon, he took it as the nudge he had been waiting for. He joined the Radisson hotel gym next to his office so he could shower. The weekend before his first trek, he stocked his office closets with suits, shirts, belts and dress shoes.

"On Monday morning I got all excited," Mr. Brull said. "I made sure to put my computer in my messenger bag and gather all the papers I thought I would need." The plan came off without a hitch, except for one detail. As he arrived in town glistening with sweat, he realized he had forgotten to pack his underwear.

While he plans to continue cycling, at least until the harsh Minnesota winter arrives, he acknowledged that his morning ride comes at a price in his jacket-and-tie profession.

"It does add another level of complexity to a life that's already complex enough," he said.

Sibley Bike Depot needs your help

I was just emailed this announcement from John at the Minnesota Bicycle & Pedestrian Alliance:

Calling all bicyclists! The future of the Renaissance Box building that houses the Sibley Bike Depot and several other community-based non-profit organizations is in jeopardy. Please come by on Sunday, October 9, 2005 at noon to sign a petition and show community support for the Sibley Bike Depot remaining in the community.
Central Community Housing Trust (CCHT), a non-profit developer hopes to purchase the building and wants to continue the community aspects of the Renaissance Box vision. This is at the same time as the Grand opening of the Wacouta Commons park, a block from the Depot and your presence will make a difference! Please come to show community support. Meet at the Renaissance Box/Sibley Bike Depot at Noon. See you there!

Also: The Sibley Bike Depot will be having an open house during the
St. Paul Art Crawl, Friday, Oct 14th 6:00 to 10:00 PM & Saturday, Oct
15th 1:00 to 6:00 PM. Please stop by, enjoy the artwork and talk bikes.
We look forward to seeing you!

A Curious Sight

I suppose that is a title that could be used for most days to describe me. Today I was a curious sight because I procured a pair of metallic-looking plastic fenders at my favorite used bike place and then rode home with them in my Land's End "professional" briefcase that I got from my favorite uncle for high school graduation and have been using extensively ever since. Only half of the fender fit in the bag so the rear fender started out curved over my head like an iconic halo. Soon, however, because of my height and the flexibility of this thing, it sagged into my face, making me out to be a Jordi La Forge like character. It bonked against my forehead the entire way home and from the expression on most people's faces, it looked like I was being bonked by a heavy metal fender.

I raised the seat on my Schwinn Traveler which was a really good idea. Now I don't have the labia pains that I used to complain of.

I was obsessed last week with finding a good foul weather bicycle that I could potentially crap up. My biking coworker is a hard-core winter fixie fan. I was really curious about it for a while, but this week I decided to try the whole "riding through winter" thing with a Ross Compact that I bought for $20 this week. Maybe next year I will make it a fixie so I have a summer of practice before I'm carreening on icy roads. It has a decent derailler and everything. I put upside-down upright handlebars on it. It is blue with salmon and violet decals. I'm in denial about its salmon decals so I bought bright pink handlebar tape to go with the blue. The faux-metal fenders are for the Ross.

I was entertained today by a young man who came up to me at the Homecoming lunch on the McNamara lawn. I was reading the Women's Press and he came up unexpectedly. He thought that I was someone else but didn't realize it until he squatted down to talk and I looked up. I was friendly (not "why the fuck are you bothering me" or anything) He told me that he thought that he met me at the University Pegging Society. I asked him what that was and he didn't want to tell me. I said he didn't have to and to change the subject he asked me about my shirt. I happened to be wearing my favorite shirt today. My friends and I made it to commemerate the first and only trip taken by a baby elephant on public transportation. You see, in Wuppertal, Germany there is a monorail called the Schwebebahn. My friend and I became intrigued by it a few years about because of the movie "The Princess and the Warrior" The Schwebebahn is suspended over the River Wupper for a number of miles. In 1950, when the circus was in town, they thought that it would be a good idea to take the elephant for a ride on this monorail. It panicked, pushed out the wall of the carriage and jumped out into the river. The elephant was ok and apparently lived until the 1980s, according to the wikipedia article. This guy thought it was cool and got up to say good bye. After he had walked about 10 feet away, he turned around and said, "I'm going to tell my friends about your shirt".

Cannon Valley Trail

Me boyfriend and I went on the 20-mile (we went 40 miles round trip) Cannon Valley Trail that is a converted rail bed between Cannon Valley and Red Wing. For some reason, a reason that seems ridiculous now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I thought that this trail would be especially hilling and challenging since we were going to the river town of Red Wing, a city known for their rugged bluffs untouched by the glaciers. The trail was very tranquil, well-maintained, with a slight elevation increase from Red Wing to Cannon Falls (duh, because it was built for a train). The part near Welch was really un-Minnesota-like (or at least the Minnesota that I've known). The only unsettling part of the entire afternoon was that we rode past a rifle range that was conveniently located along the trail. I would have shit myself if there were anyone actually patronizing the range. The line of fire was at an unsettling acute angle with the trail. I'm sure that was fine when the railroad was going through, but I let my imagination run wild and pedalled my ass away!!

As I was pedalling into Red Wing, I was reminded how much I miss riding into a city on the train. It was cool that one can experience that on a bike as well.

My Hefeweizen is working out. It is carbonated for the most part and quite refreshing.

Biked to Selby and Dale

I rode my bike to a monthly meeting that I have above the Mississippi Market at Selby and Dale. I couldn't believe how well I was treated by cars on Summit Ave!

2 strange observations:
A guy passed me near Snelling on Summit. He was large, spandexed, and on a mountain bike. I soon discovered that either he wasn't maintaining his speed or else he just passed me when I slowed up the hill, but I quickly found myself in the awkward position of practically drafting him. Should I pass him now? That just seemed tiresome.

I realized that I didn't want to pass him because he was fascinating. He was riding almost exclusively with his helmeted head down, looking at his front chainwheel. He kept changing the front gear and spinning. I think that he was in the lower one up front when he passed me and didn't expect me to be gaining on him, as I'm almost always in that highest one in front. I think that I introduced him to the mighty large front gear. He was playing with it for blocks. Finally he got it because he zapped away from me at Lexington.

On the way home I was on the east river road bike path. There is a part were the pedestrians and bikes mingle. I was cautiously going downhill and then up hill slightly. At the top of the hill stood a baby boomer couple with a poodle. Ever cautious of poodles (and baby boomers for that matter) I was relieved when I saw that they saw me and they moved their dog out of the way. As I passed them I said, "Hi". They said, "Hi" and the woman said in a really sarcastic upsetting tone, "Thanks for the light." I was so confused I didn't have retort. Clearly there has been some bad blood between cyclers and that couple. If they hadn't noticed me, I would have dinged my bell and everything. Geesh.

Biking to Work - Bike Routes to the U from Whittier

I've been getting a real kick out of riding my Schwinn Traveller to work. I splurged for a bike locker (#56 by Smith! I feel like a rock star, last time I investigated getting one, all they had for me was in St. Paul or at the Huron Lots.) with the idea that when I'm leaving in the morning I would more quickly grab my bike than spend $2 for the bus or $3.25 for a spot in the Huron Lots.

I'm a little upset that the bus is now $2 dollars during rush hour. The $1.75 was bad enough but there was clever psychology built into it. I know that I could get a Metropass but I have been noticing that, for me living in a neighborhood that butts up against downtown Minneapolis, clearly I get a LOT more exercise if I bike, but a surprising amount if I drive too, because of the 10-15 minute walk from the Huron Lots to my building. The bus picks my doughy ass up a block from my house and deposits me roughly 100 m from my building.

With the bike superhighway closed this week, I found another super slick way to get to work. It has 2 freeway overpasses, which aren't as tedious as I thought they would be. I really enjoy the human interaction on the one near the MIA. For years I've seen that 24th street is identified on bike maps as a friendly alternative to Franklin. I went on 24th in my youth and found it really frightful. Now it is really pleasant. I don't know if the city changed the street so people don't try to make 2 lanes (I think that was the problem) or if I have just become more brave.

Anyway, here are my favorite routes from Whittier to the University of Minnesota's East Bank.

Through Downtown (IMO best if it is raining):
1. Take Nicollet to 12th street (street, cars don't tend to bother you, you really must book it to get away from the buses, tho. When I bussed I was also so impressed with the volume of cyclers making their way up Eat Street in all weather)
2. Turn right on 12th (bike lane, left side, one way going with bike lane)
3. Turn left on 2nd Ave (bike lane, middle lane, going against cars and with buses)
4. Turn right on the street after Washington (bike lane, right side, two-way)
5. Turn left at 5th Ave from the middle of the road (genteel 4-way stop, please at least put your foot down so that I will be treated well at that intersection)
6. Go down the little ramp, carefully cross the west river road
7. Take a relaxing ride on the Stone Arch bridge
8. Get onto 6th St SE and turn right at University.

Down 24th Street:
1. Take the pedestrian bridge over 35W (I walk it because it is small, tight and I've seen a lot of elderly on it. One old man teased me with "Why aren't you riding that bike!?" my reply was "Because I'm terrified!" He chuckled and told me that I shouldn't ride my bike over anyway.)
There is a set of stairs on the east side.
2. Get onto 24th street.
3. Go until you get to Cedar (This morning the stretch seemed ridiculously short, I almost didn't believe that I was there when I got there)
4. The next overpass starts right in front of you on the left (I didn't know what that was for years!) This one I ride because it is clearly made for riding and I smile when I see the daisies on the east side.
5. Go over the LRT and take the trail to the left until you get to the Ceder/Riverside station.
6. Take 6th street S to 20th (the block past Cedar) (bike lane, two-way).
7. Turn right on that street in front of CSOM.
8. Turn left past the CSOM subterranean parking garage entrance.

The beloved way on the Greenway:
1. Take the city streets to your favorite/closest entrance ramp.
2. Go on the Greenway to the east
3. At Hiawatha there is an insanely long light to cross
4. Once you cross you are on the Hiawatha trail. Be cautious at 26th Street. Try to time your arrival with the train because then everyone has to stop except for you and the train.
5. Go til the Cedar/Riverside Light Rail station
6. Do steps 6-8 from the route above.

2 weekends ago I rode the entire Gateway Trail there and back.
Last weekend I finally did the West river parkway, Minnehaha creek trail, Lakes trails, Greenway, Hiawatha, back to where we started. It was really fun. I too love the Minnehaha Creek.

Beer brewing

My Hefeweizen should be ready to drink. One of my tasters felt that it was more similar to a Belgian Witbeer because it had a really high alcohol content. It is probably because I brewed it during a heat wave.

Car-free Nicollet Mall

I have spent many a pleasant walk home from work down the newly carless Nicollet Mall, but this evening was my first ride down it on my bicycle. For people not in Minneapolis, Nicollet Mall is not an enclosed shopping mall or anything. It is a semi-pedestrian thoroughfare from the Mississippi River to southern downtown (essentially Orchestra Hall). Typically the only vehicles allowed down it were taxis, emergency vehicles, and buses. Metro Transit is trying out making the Mall bus-free from 6:30-11:30 every night because of the noise that disrupts evening dining al-fresco. At first I was a little inconvenienced because the buses now go down Hennepin, but now I'm convinced that they actually go faster down Hennepin.

Anyway, it was extremely pleasant because it felt like a bike street that is actually near people (as opposed to the bike super highway, the Greenway, which BTW will be closed for 1-2 days during the week of August 15)

I easily impress others?

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

New bike, bummer HI news

It has been too long since I wrote. Last week I went to Lakeville to buy a circa 1987 turquioise Schwinn Traveller from a young gent who apparently lives to fix up old, small 1980's road bikes. His unassuming garage was crammed full with bikes hanging from the ceiling. At 48cm it is about 2 cms too big for me. A coworker suggested that when I save up and get a properly fitted road bike that is about 46cm I could turn this one into my winter "fixie". He convinced me that it wasn't just a 1990's mountain bike like fad, rather that it is extremely practical to ride one of these in the frigid winters of Minnesota because there is nothing to freeze up or get icy. That seems nice. Plus I admire that fact that fixie riders can stand on their bikes at an intersection like they are on a unicycle. Super cool.

Speaking of super cool there was a couple of kids on the greenway this evening. They were 2 boys who looked to be in middle school. They had a homemade pedicab and their innovation included a really low seat for the passenger, almost like the passenger part of some shopping carts. (as a school girl my parents allowed me to ride in the area underneath in the shopping cart reserved for 64 cases of soda pop). I'm talking about the kind of shopping cart that used to be at Super Valu with the rectangular cargo area and the trailer hitch. I think that Lund's has that kind of cart too but I have never seen the oity-toity kids ride in it.

As I passed these kids I yelled "on your left!" and upon seeing their amazing contraption I yelled, "That is Super Cool!" The kid pushing the thing had the presence of mind to thank me and I motored away. If I see it again I may take a closer look at it.

The sad news this time is that Garrison Keillor cancelled on the Hostelling International National Meeting that is going to held the weekend before Thanksgiving this year at the Hilton. He will unexpectedly be out of town taping "A Prairie Home Companion". If anyone can think of some who loves to travel, likes people and is relatively famous, please leave a comment!

Home brew bottled

I just bottled my distressingly light colored Irish stout last night. I think that it darkened up quite a bit after I left it in my secondary fermenter for almost 3 weeks. Mostly through evaporation, I'm sure. Starting Specific Gravity: 1.050 Ending SG: 1.015

Here is a list of beers that I want to make at some point in my life:
Cream Stout
Chocolate Stout
Hefeweizen
Scotch Ale
Oatmeal Stout
Ginger Beer (gingery like Reed's)
Dortmunder
Java Stout
Dunkelweizen
Honey Brown Ale
Bitter (Red Dwarfish)
IPA
Cream Ale

I want to try to make Landesbier, this stuff that comes in a Red Stripe-like bottle that I had at a Klassentreff when I was living in Germany in my youth. It was sweet and refreshing. I'm sure it must have been an ale. It sounds easy to make.

I think that I will do a Cream Stout next so that I can make a black, dark as night beer.

Orthographic style sheet

Dene Sułine in northern Saskatchewan suffers from a violent sound shift from t -> k. For that reason they have had a hard time developing a usable orthography. In this computer age, they could develop a style sheet system that simulates what goes on in a Dene reader's head when reading text from that other dialect. Replace the t's with k's and account for acceptions.

I'm not sure if this is actually genius or not. I thought of it on the pot.

bike/grad school update

I finally got my 3-speed into a shop to have the internal hub overhauled. I also managed to have my work pay for it because of some pitch-hitting that I did over the weekend.

I won an ebay auction for a shimano rear derailleur for the mtn bike. The seller hasn't told me how much the shipping is yet.

I got an email from Saarland. I do not have the "pertinent prerequisites". Being ever tenacious I emailed them back to make sure. The coordinator told me in February that they would not make a decision about me until May.

A part of me is relieved. I don't really want to leave the comfyness of the Twin Cities.

Impatient for a bike

This might seem really lame but I have spent the last 4 months trying to rehabilitate 2 different bikes in a weird space race to see which one will be rideable first with the goal to maybe ride in the MN Ironman in the end of April.

pink 3-speed Hawthorne that I bought on a whim: Its attaction is the motorcyclesque gear shift (which, although super cool, is not that practical). Up until about 2 weeks ago, its main problem was the fact that I needed to take off the chain to replace the back inner tube. Now that I've finally got that problem fixed, thanks to a panicked call to my roommate's father, I can't seem to figure out how to hook up the internal hub gear system. To get the wheel off I simply unscrewed it. Now it refuses to screw on properly.

dark metallic blue 21-speed Bridgestone mountain bike that Dad bought for me in the early 1990's when I got sick of my Huffy "road" bike: In 2001 the back wheel was stolen. Solveig helped me purchase the new back wheel this Christmas. But I have resigned to the fact that my rear derailleur needs to be replaced. It is out of alignment and missing pieces. Plus my derailleur tubing is like paper mache

I think that what I would really want is a touring bike that is all put together now. Something that I can load up to commute or ride faster down the river roads.

Perhaps after I find out what will be happening to me in the next few years I can make these decisions.

Read to your children on the bus

I was on the bus yesterday and first of all I believe that the Transit Librarian drove me down Nicollet on the 18.

Anyway, once at 4th and Nicollet there was a family with a small boy, about the age of Josua in Life is Beautiful. The reason why I thought of the little boy from that film is because he had the same intonation and voice. They were speaking a Slavic language that I couldn't pin down exactly. Anyway, we all got on the 16 going east and the family had a huge selection of seats to choose from because it was noonish on a Saturday. They sat all together in 2 seats with the boy in between on their laps. They were sitting behind me so I sort of zoned out and watched the landscape flip past until at Cedar I realized that the couple had whipped out a book and was reading to the child. I was curious about the content and the father was reading it rather quickly. At Cedar he said, "Ama, Ama, Ama" and continued as if to say, "said the blah blah blah blah blah".

Needless to say, it was very comforting and the mother laughed everysooften as well.

When I got up I ruled out a Slavic language that uses Cyrillic because I peeked over their shoulder and saw the Roman alphabet. Polish?

Knitting Needles inventory

Knitting needles
Metric	2	2.25	2.75	3	3.25	3.5	4	4.5	5	5.5	6	6.5	7	8	9	10
US	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	10.5	10.75	11	13	15
Straight	0	0	0	0	M	x	XM	X	X	X	M	0	0	0	M	X
Double	0	0	0	0	0	0	X	X	X	0	0	0	X	0	X	0
Circular	0	X	X	X	0	0	0	0	X	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

I'm posting this so that I can keep track of the needles that I need

Key:

X=Have (wooden)

M=Have (metal)

0=Need (preferably wooden)

Spring Break in Toronto!!

Me boyfriend and I are planning a road trip to Toronto since maps.google and Mapquest routed us through Chicago AND said that it was only 14 hours. The plan is to sleep over at my friend's condo in downtown Chicago and then spend 4-5 days in Toronto and then return the following weekend. This is a wee bit last minute. We found out that our friend is redoing her kitchen and she is taking care of another huge German Shepard named Arthur. She already has a G.S. (not a Girl Scout) named Max and a cat. But she is welcoming us and I haven't seen her for a while. Maybe we can help them with something.

I have narrowed down our accommodations in Toronto to this two locales:
College Hostel: This one is a hostel near the University of Toronto.
Hostez.com | Hostel world
Pros: free garage parking, private room with 2 double beds for $60 a night, communal areas that look like friendly
Cons: on www.hostelz.com it received some poor reviews until April 2004 when it started to receive great reviews. It is possible that there double bedded room will not be available on the last night of our stay, but we might return earlier anyway.

St. Lawrence Residences and Suites: apartments for rent like my family stayed in once in Winnepeg only probably older.
Hostelz.com | Hostel world
Pros: kitchen and bathroom in unit
Cons: only 1 double bed per unit or else 2 bunk beds (you pay more for the 2 bunk beds), you have to pay for parking.

one day at a time

I was watching a few vignettes of the "One Day at a Time" reunion last night on channel 4. I was surprised to find out that the names of the daughters are the same as a friend of mine and her sister who don't have any other sisters and their parents divorced. And they were born in the late 70's and early 80's.

I found out that my high school's secretary doesn't understand what "certified" means. I asked them for a certified copy of my HS diploma for Germany and they said that they don't keep copies of diplomas and that "my dad should have my diploma". I explained that I actually had the diploma but that if I send copy it at Kinko's and send it to him, it would not be "certified". Needless to say even after she sent out my official transcript with a cover letter explaining everything, she still emailed me explaining that it should be certified because it was signed.

The only reason that I'm contacting my old high school is that German needs some kind of proof of a high school diploma and fill in the gaping hole left by not having an Abitur.

tenacious drunk?

My roommate and I were chilling in our living room last night. He, watching Star Trek intently; Me, knitting my neck gaitor with furvor because it was snowing and snowing means xc skiing.

We hear a loud crunch sound that doesn't at all resemble the crunch of icy snow. Out of our 3rd-story window we see that a little blue sporty sedan was struggling against a tree that it had just smashed against. Not only that, we followed the tire tracks back and see that it had first completely knocked down a telephone pole. While we were still at the window, the little car squirms its way back onto the street and shoots off.

Now there is a telephone pole lying across our apartment building's carriage drive. Yes, our building reminds everyone of Tara and now with the downed pole, it looks like the Union troops had their way with us. My boyfriend and I are going to put up sticks to mark the location of the pole because it is now submerged in snow.

Most puzzling dilemna all day

At Target today (make it rhyme) I was completely befuddled in the electric toothbrush isle. I have been thinking of buying a low-end Oral B toothbrush for a while now. I found the exact one that I wanted, the AdvancePower 950TX. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only $21. I was about to skip away with my purchase when something caught my eye. Right next to the classic recognizable light blue and white toothbrush of my youth that I had selected was a sparkly-glittery one that claimed to give you 3 mp3 downloads. There were actually people on the package. But they weren't brushing; they were crazy raver kids. Upon further examination I found that they were exactly the same toothbrush. They were identical twins, only one was wild and hip. Should I buy the juvenile sparkly brush that is $2 cheaper or should I get the more adult respectable brush that I could use far into old age (if these contraptions even make it that far). Who was this brush marketed too? Why didn't they try to trick the young kids with gabs of disposable income into bying the more expensive one. Were there people that would spend the extra 2 dollars to remain respectable?

Then it came to whether the sparkly brush would make me more immature. Then I realized that the most mature thing was to buy the cheap sparkly brush and be done with it. It is resting in my bathroom recharging as I type.

First entry with the correct time stamp

I just realized that my time stamp was set on the Pacific time zone. That is probably why karianna's blog claims that she posted something at 6:26 am (or maybe it was her comment that I saw somewhere, perhaps on SunPath's blog.

Strong interest inventory

I spent pretty much all day at an event for work making popcorn (I love my job). The goal was to lure wayward freshmen and sophomores into the Great Hall, and then pounce on them with interest inventories so that they can discover their place at the U. I took the short version of the inventory just to see what it was like. You mark on a list things that you enjoy doing. The things are catagorized into the 6 categories that some guy named Strong developed as attributes of employees not being in complementary distribution.
Investigative: enjoy researching on your own
Conventional: low tolerance for ambiguity
Realistic: the only one that really needs explaining. Working with your hands on something tangible
Social: helping people, etc
Artistic: like to do artsy things
Enterprising: if you said you like to sell stuff, duh.

Theoretically we were supposed to have 3 categories with the highest things marked.

For me, the first two tied and the second two tied.
First 2: Investigative and Social (I am told that this is very weird as they are on the opposite sides of the spectrum)
Second 2: Realistic (makes sense, I like working with me hands), and get this
Conventional!

I'm going to go to bed. My apartment is cold and my bed looks warm. I started running again in the evening so I hope that I have a good night's sleep.

Applied to the next 2 years of my life

I can't stop procrastinating. I have 3 reports that I have write up for my Field Methods course in Linguistics. I emailed the last bit of my graduate school application to Germany with minutes to spare (I'm still in denial about the fact that when the German website said "submit all materials by February 15, that they mean the applicant's time zone of February 15 and not the February 15 in Germany).

I better start preparing for plans B through F.

Mark Dayton... uff da

I woke up early this morning and found myself watching the rebroadcast of "Almanac" on tpt over cinnamony coffee (a concoction that my dad invented during his last visit) and peanut butter toast.
I have always liked Mark Dayton. There was just something about him that made him stand out when I watched the panel debates in 2000. I think that it was the way that he listened and tried to discuss instead of just spouting his own rhetoric in the cacophony of everyone else. Today I learned that he graduated from college and started teaching in innercity NYC. And that he overcame alcoholism (a part of me that is still pretty prejudiced against rich people makes me curious about why that wasn't brought up more in 2000). And that he was proud to be on the Nixon Enemy List. They quoted him in the seventies saying that he wanted the fact that he was on the List on his tombstone. My co-worker's knee-jerk reaction to him is that he is a wimp. She is also a great admirer of Reagan (she has a Reagan calendar up on the lee side of her cubicle to me, very smart).

Bass guitarist in Minneapolis

Open any issue of the City Pages , The Pulse, or the Rake and the classifieds are chock full of ads demanding bass guitarists. Is this a problem that starter bands have all over America? Reserved bassists personalities are not inheriantly drawn to the life of a rock star? I see this as an opportunity. My boyfriend reported last night that Aldi is selling a $60 guitar including the amp.

This is the makings of a revolution. He expressed concern that I will plan a bus trip to the new Aldi on Franklin and 13th, buy my bass guitar with my tax refund, and take my rightful place as the smoldering brunette bassist in a Sleater-Kinneyesque band.