Biking Milestone

Posted this on Facebook July 4...

With this week, just completed a year of cycling to work. Tally: 3 replaced tires (I recommend Kevlar), 6 new tubes (none following the move to Kevlar!), 1 new seat, 1 set of lost keys, 1 new chain, ~5000 miles cycled, and about 250,000 feet of uphill, homeward-bound climbing. And considerable guilt-free dark chocolate. My thanks to the shop crew at Outdoor Adventure for keeping the old Fuji rolling!

Lazy Sunday

Muse is growing really quickly. She will soon be bigger than Widget. She is a total klutz: she falls off furniture, lands short of targets, and stumbles over her own feet. She has an incredibly loud purr and uses it generously. In the photo, she is taking up the entire dog bed. The dogs are 10x her weight but she rules.

The hot tub is in the back yard with most of a deck around it. It is a comfortable place to watch stars and city lights, and full moon nights in the tub are excellent. Jake and Stu built the deck and just await a few more parts to complete it.

Stu's birthday is tomorrow, but since Quincy has band camp until late, we celebrate tonight. Her schedule is mostly worked out for the semester, although we are rearranging all her NMSU courses. She will spend half days at NMSU if all goes well.

One more week til NMSU and LCPS start up, and this is the last year LCPS start-up will be an important milestone of the end of summer. Feels strange.

Last night was a nice get-together at a friend's home to celebrate summer birthdays. I am incredibly fortunate to have such friends. Thanks to you all, especially Katie.

Here's to long weekends!

Saturday's celebration of Independence Day started with a 10:00 concert at NMSU of the Mesilla Valley Concert Band. It rained enough before to soak the music and make us all steamy, but the crowd seemed to not be put off. Stu, Jake and Quincy were all there, but only Jake made the front page of today's paper (above the fold!), perched in a tree watching the concert. Photo is at the right.

We finished the day watching the town's fireworks display at a friend's house.

Last weekend we got a new kitten -- Muse moved in to be a playmate to Widget. Widget has not yet appreciated this to the extent we hope she will, but Annie follows Muse around, totally entranced. Muse is about 3 months old and very playful. She was a pound kitty, but she had been fostered out to the pet food store. As we still get pet food from there, I am now afraid that they think we are suckers for every cat needing a new home...

Other news? Quincy finished up her run as stage manager for This is our youth, a play at LC's Black Box Theater directed by NMSU's CMI screenwriting instructor Amy Lanasa. Jacob will be doing some reseach for a food-safety lab on NMSU campus this summer, and Rosie still snores.

Rainy day at Cape Henlopen

In my child's mind, Rehoboth Beach is dirty and crowded and Cape Henlopen is the place where you can play with cool stuff that comes from the sea.

The Cape was great this morning, if rainy. Life guards huddled under umbrellas. Beach was clean.
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Rainy day at Cape Henlopen

In my child's mind, Rehoboth Beach is dirty and crowded and Cape Henlopen is the place where you can play with cool stuff that comes from the sea.

The Cape was great this morning, if rainy. Life guards huddled under umbrellas. Beach was clean.
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The George from the Lincoln

Night in DC. Thunder overhead and a choir singing by the reflection pool. Because if you are here in DC with a choir, why wouldn't you sing?
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Beautiful days in DC

We have had beautiful weather for touring DC -- yesterday we spent most of the day on bikes with the fattest tires in the world (picture below), following around NPS rangers on a tour of forgotten landmarks in DC. The Grant statue (above) is not so much forgotten, but it was good to be reminded that Grant gazes at Lincoln, his commander in chief (and beyond to the Lee estate in Virginia, confiscated to create Arlington National Cemetery). Quincy elected to not join us but did laundry. (Any advice?)

Also spent time at the Eastern Market and just cycling around the city. DC is a great city for biking.

Today we visit Ford's Theater and the Supreme Court. We also hope to hit Mount Vernon, the Newseum, and other highlights of geekdom.