oh, a silver dream i had...

my new bike! is great! and speedy! and so shiny!

i took the bike out for a few rides this weekend - a 2 and a half hour ride on saturday and a short spin on sunday - and she rides like a dream! honestly, i wonder if anyone saw me and thought "gee, what's wrong with that girl?" because there were a few times where i was downright laughing out loud and smiling like a fool. that's just how fun this bike is. the handlebars are just upright and swoopy enough, and the seat is comfortable and bouncy, and the fenders are so shiny. i even understand the simple gear system - a first for me. my old bike had a ridiculous amount of gears and i never quite understood how to use them. i just turned the handlebar grips at random until the clicking and grinding stopped... then if the gear was too hard or too loosey-goosey, well then i just started turning the gears at random again. which resulted in me using about 2 settings total - something scientific like "use 4 on the left side and 12 on the right for big hills" and "use 16 on the right and 7 on the left for flat spots" - something along those lines. this one in a six speed - the right handlebar grip has 6 gears, marked 1 through 6. very clear for idiots like me.

it's just great. i can't even find the words right now. the bike wasn't the kind of bike i thought i needed, but i am so glad i went with my gut on this one. although, maybe i'll have less of a gut after riding it for a while? har har. i went to citybikes in adams morgan on sunday - got a bike lock thingie and a contraption to hold my waterbottle. all set! weather permitting, i am riding to work tomorrow - something i haven't done since last fall. i can't wait!

in other news, we went to the drive in over the weekend - first trip of the year! "kung fu panda" was better than i thought it would be - i usually hate dreamwords animated stuff. and "incredible hulk" kind of sucked. i slept through the last 40 minutes or so. we didn't stay for the third movie, since it was after 1:00 and the place is all the way up past baltimore. i went to bed around 3:30, and MAN did i ever sleep in on sunday.

tomato watch, 2008: 5 "bloody butcher" tomatoes growing nicely; 7 smaller tomatoes - possible egg or st. pierre - on the way as well. yay! i suppose in a week or two we will start eating tomatoes!