Away, away!

I am headed across the country for one of my rare business trips. As work is on the agenda morning, noon, and night, I will not be updating for the duration. I will return to talk smack about child seats in celebration of Lunar New Year, something of a big deal around these parts.

Although I am still not 100% there on the habit of bringing a camera everywhere, I have at least gotten better. So I know that my mom will miss the photos of the kids. Sorry, mom.

In the meantime, I leave with a story and a photo.

Recently while riding home from work, I saw a father riding with his daughter in the stoker position behind, with a child seat (empty) behind her. Is that an Xtracycle, I asked when we were both stopped at the red light. He seemed pleased that I recognized it and we rode along for a while talking; he told me he’d had the Xtracycle for 10 years but that most people didn’t have any idea what it was. I told him I knew it on sight because our friends at school have a Big Dummy. He said he was envious of the Dummy, but I was more impressed he’d had the Xtra since before his kids were born, given his daughter’s age (probably 7 or 8). I like having these conversations with other riders, which happens more often than I expect. I miss it when we are driving, where the only “conversations” involve honking horns. Riding my bicycle for the last few weeks has been keeping me sane; it was for several days the only time I was not simultaneously feeling horribly guilty and incompetent.

Put a bird on it (San Francisco-style)

The caption on this photo amuses me, but my husband, who purchased this shirt for me, and our son, who chose it, are less entertained. It it hard to read the thought bubble on the shirt in this photo, which really makes the bird, but it says, “Things will be different when I learn how to breathe fire.”

How true that is.