Paxton or Pullman?

Working together, Jason and I scored 100%!
(I don't know whether to continue being proud or start feeling ashamed.)



 

How will you do? http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/paxton-or-pullman/
Of course, they did not ask the ultimate Paxton or Pullman question:
Brain Dead (1990): Paxton or Pullman?

Rejecting the Suburban Car Paradigm (TM)

I sold my car, Hailey, this month.  Thankfully, she went to two dear friends, Josh and Kadie, who will love on her and treat her right.  I feel rather Mr. Bennet-y about the whole thing, as I never imagined she would be sold with so little cost and inconvenience to myself.  But, they needed a new(ish) car and I had one to sell, and we all know and trust each other and everything went swimmingly.  Tra-la-la!  What a glorious turn of events!

So, I have coined a phrase to describe this new era in my life here in the 'burbs: "rejecting the suburban car paradigm."  Nearly everyone believes that you cannot live a full and complete life in the suburbs nowadays without a car.  Sadie and I are out to prove them wrong.  We'd put less than 200 miles on Hailey since August; I would start her once a week to pull her out a few feet to get to my Sunday School supplies in the file cabinet in the garage.  Other than that, Sadie and I have been effectively without a car all this fall and winter.  And, much like the ancient Persian couriers so esteemed by Herodotus, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay we courageous suburban cyclists from our course.  And Sadie has (almost) stopped complaining about her eccentric, bicycle-loving mama to any and all marginally sympathetic ears.

I have found a new bike.  Heart! Heart! Heart!  It's a suh-weet Trek FX WSD 7.3:

 

I'm hoping to pick it up today from Bicycles West.  My current bike, Petunia, is way too small for me.  The frame of the FX (tentatively named Jack Black) will be 17".  Petunia is only 13".  When my legs are fully extended while pedaling her, the bend in my knee is close to 90°!  It's amazing I haven't blown a knee (or two!) out on these WA hills over the past four years.  Also, while at Bicycles West, I'm going to have Sadie's bike's mountain bike-style tires replaced with thinner, faster road tires.  Maybe she'll have an easier time keeping up with her old mom then.

 

So, here's to a new chapter in our suburban lives!  Bike on!

Conundrum

I'm reading Emma again, which, of course, has that famous conundrum of "courtship."  It turns out that Jane Austen was a rather prolific writer of conundrums* herself -- little riddles that are clever plays on words.  Her whole family was so witty and brilliant that, were she not simply fabu, you might just hate her a little.  Anyhoo, while I was biking home from Sadie's swimming class this afternoon, I thought up a wee conundrum myself.  It's a reaction, really, to a preposterous but trendy thing whose hefty price tag the other day caught me so off guard that I actually laughed at the person who quoted it to me.  See if you can figure it out:

My first is, in short, a scientist's den;
My middle is simply to cheer;
My last is the work of an ennuye pen;
My whole is now something quite dear.

*This appears to be an English-coined word based upon some sort of Latin term that came out of Oxford in the 17th century.  Since it is not direct from Latin, we pluralize it using the English -s.  At least, that's what the OED tells me, and I BELIEVE!