Category: bliefs

My Mavic OpenPro 700C Wheel – front

All I was doing was inflating my tire one second and the next second…
BAM!!
…my ears were ringing.

My first thought was that I had burst the tire and I gave a little curse (‘spose it was probably a loud curse but I couldn’t hear anything).
[Tangent]
If a loud curse is uttered in a garage but your ears are ringing loudly…did the curse happen?
Grumpy – care to weigh in on that one?
[/Tangent]

Since it was about 23:00 I moved quickly upstairs to reassure The Mermaids that I was safe, not bleeding, and all that.

Through the squealing E-flat in my ears I couldn’t make out any words of concern – as I approached I saw why – all snoring.

[Tangent]
Hmm, that’s slightly…well…not reassuring?!
The lightest sleeper in the house is immune to the sound of a gunshot in the garage, not 30 feet from her head. How is it then that the sound of a fly buzzing at the other end of the house causes ME so much grief at oh dark thirty?

Well, maybe a gunshot is overstating things but I can tell you that 140PSI released instantly through the sidewall of an aluminum rim, even a weakened one, is plenty loud.

I guess we’ll sleep through the next earthquake.
[/Tangent]

Having ensured that The Mermaids weren’t afraid for my life, or theirs, I returned to survey the damage.
It wasn’t the tire that blew it was my rim!

Guess I overinflated a little bit?

So – since I have to commute tomorrowtoday I set about replacing my wheels with, as it happens, my brand-new-used set of bladed spoke, Mavic Ksyrium Equipe700C wheelset which I bought from a racing buddy at work not 6 days ago. Too bad they still have the 12×25 cassette on – that’ll make for some hard hill climbing in my future.

You see, I knew my old rims were wearing thin, I just didn’t know they were THAT thin.

Anyway, long night of replacing tires and wheels aside – I am extremely glad that I wasn’t riding when my wheel failed – that could have gotten ugly in a bad way in a real hurry.

Ugly!!

BoomBoom - Firepower!!

Buses passed

If ‘buses passed’ can be used as a measurement of distance traveled by bike then today was a longer commute than normal – by a factor of 4.

Four city buses, one #9 and three #7 coaches were passed by a half-sick commuter on a bicycle between Rainier Beach high school and Dearborn – a distance of 5.5 miles.

Maybe Metro’s new RapidRide name should be applied elsewhere – just sayin’.

A whopper

Tonight I read The Emperors New Clothes…
…only the finest, and the colors were exquisite. He…

Dadda?
Yes?
What’s ‘eggkwisite’?
(it was TheWeeOne)
It means ‘great’ or ‘awesome’.
Oh.

I was content with my definition and I tried to move on but there was an almost imperceptible wiggle, in the peaceful blue water in front of me, a skillful tug at the line.

Dadda.
Yes?
‘Exkwisite’ means big, reaaally big.

Wha? Now pause || Right here.

LaGrande was also there, paying attention, and she saw something she recognized. She wasn’t quite sure but she had seen these little tantalizing worms on hooks before – just hanging there – and something told her they were to be avoided. She leaned over into my far ear and casually waved the back of her hand and said

It’sokay, jus…just let her…

But she didn’t finish because I was already nibbling.

Wha? No it doesn’t sweetie, it means ‘awesome’.
(LaGrande now, with a helpful movie reference and because she too couldn’t resist the wiggle) It’s like B-Awesome!
Yeah, like B-Awesome!

No it isn’t Dadda, it means big…and stretchy!

Right there she saw me rise, felt the telltale nibble, and set the hook.
LaGrande slumped a little bit, swam off, and I was dazed, confused, and suddenly at full tilt, what is this *thing* in my lip?

Wha? B-b-b-but it says that “the color was exquisite“. Can a color be big?
Yeah.
How do you make a color big?
Dadda, it means stretchy.

Even weirder, I couldn’t even swim the direction I thought I could swim.

Okay, well then how do you make a color stretchy? Is this pink (in the bedsheet) stretchy? How do you stretch a color, like this pink?

Oh the splashing, what a fighter! But, not much point to this then is there. Amid the ruckus she reached out and skillfully pulled on the sheet and stretched it mightily as if to say…see – don’t worry, it’s gonna be just fine.

Ack!

I flailed some more, came fully out of the water, looking around for something hard, and pointed to the headboards of the big yellow bed.

What about this yellow? Is it stretchy? How can you stretch this yellow?

Being reeled in unawares, I still felt I had my head, but the surface approached. She reached out and pressed her hands across the smooth surface of the headboard and with a sly giggle said

You can’t…Dadda…(like don’t you know) it isn’t exquisite.

Whoa, i was suddenly landed! Wha, in..a…boat. What just happened?
I flopped around for a few short seconds sucking in gills-full of pure oxygen. I could only hope for a peaceful resolution.

My captor was merciful – there was no barb – and after only a small indignity, I was released.

‘Exquisite’ is, for now, stretchy-big.

The last week in pictures

Last week we went to

and pretty much the first thing we did was

Once The Mermaids were properly outfitted they were introduced to

and many of her friends.

By the third day the shine had worn off just a little bit and we settled into what you might call


As you can see, it wasn’t all bad, the weather was warm and other than a touch of fever and a sore throat for a couple of days the

and the

The girls were positively

at almost every turn. You’d have thought they’d

They weren’t crazy though, they were simply excited. Everything was as it should be really and

showed us a pretty darn good time.

Why? Because we love you.

FaceBliefing

See what I did? I said it.
I said I wouldn’t and I did.
I went the other way.

BUT

I’d like the pie heated and I don’t want the ice cream on top, I want it on the side, and I’d like strawberry instead of vanilla if you have it, if not then no ice cream just whipped cream but only if it’s real; if it’s out of the can then nothing.

BT, DT, BTS -Disneyland

We saw more characters than I knew existed and probably rode more rides than are in the park – mostly because we did our favorites about three, four, or five times each.

TheWeeOne proved fearless on Splash Mountain, The Matterhorn, and in the hotel pool where she learned to dive.

LaGrande lost a tooth (naturally), made a new friend from Utah, and mastered her fear to go on her first big roller-coaster, the California Screamin’.

When they met the evil queen, the queen was naturally jealous and pressed these two princesses on their beauty. TheWeeOne engaged;

You agree that I am beautiful?
(nod)
And, of course, I am the fairest in the land?
(?)
I am the most beautiful.
(TheWeeOne didn’t really even pause)You are beautiful, but not as beautiful as me.

Instant classic.

I think, by all counts, we’ve had a fair estimate of success.

yahoooooooo

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Second Verse…

…much different than the first.

The WeeOne chose her own clothes, hair style, and shoot location.
It is tough to argue with success.

schoolus incognito

Oh, and she also said that she would be going into class alone – that last one, not so much.
She worked it out to her satisfaction:

How old are you?
I’m seven! You know how old I am!
Mommy! When I’m seven I will go to school, ‘cross the parking lot, by myself!
You’re right.

Update: Forgot to mention, as if it wasn’t terribly obvious, that this was The WeeOne’s first day of school.