Palace of the Brine

This is just an update on me being Mr. Mom and such (no attacks by the vacuum cleaner, yet. Which is such a relief seeing we don't own a vacuum except for our glorified dust buster).

A common sight in our home now is a pile of oats in front of the kitchen sink. Our emergency food storage consists of a couple bulk bags of oats, rice, and beans we bought and use for regular eating too. Grace has figured out that she can get to the oats anytime there under the sink, and she'll just open the door, reach in, and start eating tiny handfuls of raw oats. We're turning her into a health nut, like her mom.

I actually haven't minded being the stay-at-home dad this semester while Emily's in school. I'm sure it helps that I still go to go to school myself, and I still go to work for about 20 hours a week once she gets home. Mike and Kitye help a lot and occasionally let Grace spend the night at their place so I can work a whole day once in a while.

Life is pretty busy actually. How do you get bored doing this? Aside from household chores I spend a lot of my time working on the car (getting it all tuned up and ready to last another 50,000 miles in S.F.). I took Grace to a junkyard the other day and let her play around on the seats while I had at it and picked some pieces off of another 1986 Camry up in American Fork. Good times. I even replaced the brake light plastic piece (which wasn't really meant to be replaced by itself. I am THAT good). Ordered a new distributor cap and wires from NAPA to pick up later. I've got rubbing compound, wax, a new seatbelt, and the few parts to work on the car with. Also need to rent a shampooer and clean our car and rugs one day.

In the mornings Grace and I eat breakfast together, watch a couple shows while I excercise using some resistance bands that were given to us and doing situps/pushups etc. The PBS kids shows are actually pretty good. "Superwhy" with Wyatt and the Super-readers is one favorite, so is "Word World." I have fun watching them. I made a joke about Dragon Tales at work, and realized noone else would get it. So I sheepishly admitted to watching the show religiously.

We also do puzzles, read books, and go for bikes rides together. We went to Borders this morning and had a great time chasing each other around and laughing and making faces. Then we usually eat lunch together before picking Emily up or playing the guitar or going down for a nap.

Plus, when she's playing with her toys, I read and research whatever piques my curiosity on the internet. The new Wikipedia article on the church is excellently done. Even the article on Blacks and the church is thoroughly well done too, but it doesn't seem written by a member of the church (although I don't know who else would've written it). Quite lengthy.

I've worn myself out reading about bicycles. I couldn't find any local bike shops (LBS) who had a fixie in anything close to my size, so to determine my readiness, I kept my bike in higher gears (even harder than most fixies) and rode up to the entrance of Rock Canyon a couple times in the last few days. Sometimes, it wasn't too bad, other times I must've been too out of it or something, cuz I couldn't do it without the lower gears. Anywhere else, anywhere flatter, and I'd totally go for it (since I stay in the same gear nearly all the time anyway). So, I'm thinking I'll save the fixies for a fun toy for later on. Maybe when I can ride around San Francisco in the top gears all the time.

I did find a website with less known Motobecane factory-direct bikes, Bikesdirect.com The bikes are pretty comparable to popular name brand bikes component-wise, but MUCH MUCH cheaper. Unless you live near a Cycle Spectrum (Arizona, Texas, and Florida only), you can't test one out until you get it in the mail. They get very fair reviews and are considered great value bikes.

I also discovered a new category of bikes. I always wanted a road bike for lightness and efficiency, but felt I would break one with the way I ride (curbs do not stop me like it would to anyone on a roadbike). Turns out, there's Cyclocross bikes built just for the same reasoning. They fit wider tires, and allow for fenders. I am wondering if I would like riding on a "less comfortable" road bike style frame, though. Won't know until I test one out.
So here's the new list:
Motobecane Fantom CX $499 - Cyclocross. I like the road bike style with beefier tires (ones I won't likely break)
Windsor Cliff 29 $569 - More mountain bike style but with big 29" wheels. I like the lockable front fork and the mechanical disc brakes.
Fisher Kaitai $659 - Same as the Windsor, but with skinny wheels and buyable from a store (and most stores offer a year of tune-ups, service, or something for buying the bike through them). Fisher is a better known brand and always a favorite.

They all have solid components and am not worried about any of them being lame. Feeling more confident about all these than the last list.