I'm a Horrible Blogger

Okay, I am officially addicted to blueberries. I eat about 5 pints a week. Yes, 5 pints. I'm starting to worry that I won't be able to function with out them when the season is over.

We took a suffocating car trip (in the non air conditioned Volvo) up to Plano yesterday for Asia World Market shopping madness. We still had a few meat analogues left from the last trip, but I we wanted to get more to continue..er, start really, this long lost series of fake meat reviews. We don't eat them that often, but I will try to post photos of the dish and the packaging whenever we try them out. We had some fake mutton the other day that was bought mostly as a joke because we'd never had real mutton and both thought it sounded especially disgusting. It looked like dog food, but actually tasted kind of like tasty chicken fried steak. We grabbed another bag yesterday, so I'll try to get a shot of the packaging to post. Asia World also has the absolute best vegan red bean pastries ever! We had them for dinner...

I know that I keep promising to cook/post more often, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. It's not that I'm not cooking, but it's basically just been the same old stir-fries, quinoa salads and fresh fruit--all pretty tasty, but none from recipes really. I will definitely have at least a few food-dedicated posts in August, but I've decided to start posting about other things (bicycles, thrift stores, puppies, and general Dallas-ness, most likely) to fill the gaps.

Recycled Rack

Mason scored a pretty sweet bike rack for us yesterday. While they were installing a new one at work, he asked what they were going to do with the old one. They were just going to throw it in the dumpster! So, he asked if we could have it. It's a little big for the courtyard, but it's pretty awesome. People sure do love to throw perfectly useful things away.

We Rode To The Rally

Mas and I are both having sinus issues this week, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go see Obama speak yesterday. We busted out our bikes, knowing that we wouldn't have to worry about parking (or paying for parking) if we could get our slightly ill selves the four miles to Reunion Arena. Except for the cold air in my lungs, it was a great ride. Riding in that direction is generally pretty nice. You don't get a lot of honkers or people yelling at you to get off the road. It's mostly downhill going toward downtown and the weather was great.



We left at a 9 and arrived at the arena at about 9:20. We knew that there would be a line, but we had no idea it would be as insane as it was. The line wrapped all the way around the building, through half of the parking garage and snaked around to the back of the garage. We estimated that there were probably 8,000 people in front of us. I tried to get a photo that would give an idea of how long it was, but I couldn't get enough of it into one shot.



There were probably at least 10,000 people in line behind us by the time the line started moving toward the entrance. It wasn't very well organized, but (after a bit of trampling) we finally made it inside. In all, we waited in line for about three hours, but nobody seemed to mind at all.



Almost every seat in the arena was full. I've heard that they started turning people away when he began speaking at around 1:00. His speech was incredible and the crowd was the loudest I've ever heard.



I've also never seen a crowd as diverse as this one. There were old white women, young black men, Muslims, Latinos, tons of the 18-24 crowd of all races--and everyone was chatting, getting along and really excited about the day. It was amazing and really makes you think that without the press spinning things to make us all afraid of each other, this country would be capable of so much more.

Is It Spring?

I hope so. We finally got to spend a day riding all over town. It's been too cold lately to actually enjoy being outside, but it was in the mid-seventies yesterday and it's going to be nice (if a little rainy) all week. I packed up a lunch, Mas aired up our tires, and we rode to the Goodwill on Greenville, over to Paperbacks Plus in Lakewood, up to Tietze Park to picnic, up further to Buffalo Exchange, back down to Lula B's and then to Fiesta to pick up some fresh veg for dinner.



While at Paperbacks Plus, I found this cookbook full of tasty looking vegan recipes. This is the seventh edition from 1992, but it's still in print if you want to order your own.

Guns Don't Kill People...

They just allow morons to send innocent cyclists to the hospital (via Bike Commuters).

Issues

Our Car Free Month has started off with a pathetic whimper. My bike has been in and out of commission for the last week. I've been having major pedal-falling-off issues. Mason put his saddle on the $7 Free Spirit that we bought for parts and tried to lend me his bike, but it was still a bit too tall for me. We did manage to make it to lunch with his dad yesterday, but my fenders got jammed with mud on the way back and it was pretty much concrete by the time we got home. Because that wasn't quite enough of a hassle, as he was riding the Free Spirit to work today, one of the tires blew out forcing Mason to walk (carrying all of his gear) the rest of the way. So, I've been online all day ordering tires, searching for welders, parts shopping and bike browsing. On the bright side, that's how I came across the insanely designed piece of mind blowing fiberglass ridiculousness pictured above, the Bowden Spacelander. Produced only in 1960, it also came in black, green, blue and white. Apparently, only about 500 were shipped before the company was forced out of business by a woman who claimed that she had been injured by one of their vibrating chairs...

Set the Date

We haven't driven since our trip to OK, but we've yet to start our Car-Free Month challenge. Mason's family is coming down to visit this weekend, so we will most likely be riding in a car at some point. While that isn't technically driving, it definitely isn't "car-free". We have a guitar show to work in late July which may also require driving, so we've decided that the challenge will run from June 19th until July 19th. The rules are: (1) no driving any car, truck or SUV and (2) no riding in any car, truck or SUV. Public transportation is allowed, but bicycling will be our main form of transportation (as usual). I don't think that it's going to be much of a problem at all.

Oh, and Mason bungeed a tape deck to his handlebars so that we could listen to Centro-matic while we rode to estate sales today.

Mounted!

We (and by we, I mean Mason) finally put the camera mount on my bike. It's fairly steady for being a camera mounted on a moving object taking photos of other moving objects. We only rode to the dollar store and back, so the test shots weren't of anything interesting. That's Mason in front of me on our street.

I Don't Need No Car

We drove over 400 miles this weekend. It was silly. These dudes know what's what. I am glad to be back on the bikes, even though we're not cool enough to ride scrapers. This week is the time to start working on the tandem, I think.

again with the neighborhood photos...

We took the dogs for a walk in the opposite direction yesterday. The above is what you find walking toward downtown from our apartment. It's quite different from the east side, but still nice. Yeah, noice. Noice. Yeah, noice. Unusual, yeah. Yeah, noice. Yeah, no, it's noice, it's different, yeah, it's unusual. Yeah, unusual. Noice, yeah... Our usual eastbound route is almost solely residential. In this direction, you pass the Dallas Seminary, Baylor Med Center, St. Andrew Kim's, the dog park, the Wilson Block and some fairly rundown shops. Most people never drive this way because of all of the DART construction, so it makes for a nice walk and a friendly bike route.

We also biked up to the pet shop for dog food, over to Scalini's for a tasty pizza, to the hardware store for an upcoming bike project and back to Fiesta for guava empanadas (vegan!). Oh, and I cut Mason's hair. His new job doesn't require him to look presentable, so it's back to cheap, terrible haircuts by me.

Our Neighborhood - E

It's been raining all day--all week actually. Between today's showers, we managed to walk the dogs and go for a ride. The above photos are of our street, taken during the walk. We're going to try to walk in different directions every day to get photos of all of the areas around our apartment. Before we started biking, I thought that our neighborhood was a little inconvenient. We are two miles from everything on Greenville, two miles from everything in Deep Ellum, two miles from Lakewood and at least two miles from anywhere we'd want to go downtown...not that short of a walk, but way too close to justify driving. Now that we have bikes, we can get pretty much anywhere that we want to go in 15 minutes--and we never have to pay to park. This was our ride today. We stopped by the farmer's market, but neither of us had any cash and the ATM was broken. We decided to ride over to La Fiesta Fruits for some aqua fresca, but they were closed. Oh, well. Riding downtown was nice.

Next Stop Adventure

photo by matt gauck

My latest Microcosm order came last week. Today, I read the first issue of Next Stop Adventure. 24 pages, quarter letter. Short, but really interesting. It made me want to go pick up Mason, grab our bikes and ride a couple of hundred miles*. I'll forgo sleeping on the roof of KFC...

*yes, extremely slowly.

Updates

The camera is out of commission, but I have two updates.

Worm Update:
They have been really busy for the last month or so. We stopped adding waste in mid-April. The can was about 3/4 full at the time. When I checked it this week, it was down to about 1/2 and pretty dry. I added a couple of quarts of water, and we've started filling it again. Next month, we'll be separating out the castings to use on the herbs. We'll also be able to see if they've been multiplying. If so, we may have to give some away or start another bin.

Gas Challenge:
Well, it ends tomorrow. Barring some sort of unforeseeable emergency requiring us to drive 60 or 70 miles between now and then, we made it with loads to spare. In fact, I only rode in the car once during the entire month--and it was to get bike supplies for the challenge. It has really forced us to ride every day, and we won't be going back to driving just because it's over. We are taking a trip back to OK (app. 450 miles total), but it will be one of maybe five for the entire year. We should more than make up for that by our reduction in mileage here. All in all, I would say that this challenge has been extremely beneficial for both of us. Gas is over $3 a gallon here (and it's not getting any cheaper). I'm glad that we no longer rely on it for our daily transportation needs. We are both already in much better shape. I can ride much farther/for much longer than I could a month ago, and I really enjoy it. Actually, I think we are both just much happier in general. After our trip, we intend to start a new challenge, our Gas Free Month. An official date has not been set as of yet, but it will begin sometime between the 5th and the 10th. I'll also be keeping a log of any miles that we drive between now and then, if there are any to log...

Crate Obsession

It was really nice out, so we spent the day biking to estate sales. We picked up three extra crates for more bike storage along the way. One was free (from the curb, along with a stack of brown envelopes, a lamp timer, some reflectors and a piece of steel for the future S.U.B. project) and the other two were a dollar each at a sale. We also picked up an old scouting tarp, sheets and pillowcases, a few books and some gifts for our trip home in a few weeks. The total trip was about 17 miles, including a stop at Fiesta for the above sickeningly sweet sno-cone and crate of fruit. The first five miles were in Hollywood Heights and the C streets. Both are way hillier than our usual routes. It was such pure pain that it made the last 12 miles feel like nothing.

For some reason, we never think to eat real meals before our day trips. We never remember to bring food with us, either. By the time we unloaded, we were starving. Enter vegan "chicken" and dumplings! Carrots, onions, garlic and potatoes with water, soymilk, unchicken broth powder and parsley. Simmer. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, parsley, oregano and thyme. Cut in Earth Balance, then add a little soymilk. Drop spoonfuls into broth. Simmer 15 minutes. Salt and pepper. Eat. It was 100% un-photo worthy, but very tasty. Next time, I'll measure more carefully and post it to VegWeb.

Friday Was Fun

Yesterday, we left at around noon to bike to a couple of estate sales in the M Streets. The first was laughably overpriced; the second was okay. We weren't planning to go anywhere else, but it hadn't taken nearly as long as we thought it would and we were bored. So, we decided to bike up to the Half Price on Northwest Highway. One wrong turn and two miles later, we ended up at the lake. We stopped at a surprisingly vegan friendly 7-11 for some snacks, and decided to ride around the lake. It was a little hot, but the ride wasn't too bad at all...except for the bike jocks. There were loads of them scowling at our lowly 3 speeds and cutting off pedestrians left and right. About half of the cyclists at White Rock are perfectly fine, but the other half are the impatient, inconsiderate, self indulgent Hummers of the bike world. In fact, they were much worse than any car drivers that I've encountered since we started biking. The above photo was taken just before one of them yelled at me to get out of the way. Other than that, it was a good day.





My favorite part of White Rock Lake is this ridiculous replica of Mount Vernon. It was the home of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, whose family was the inspiration for the show Dallas. I think that I read somewhere that the Hunt family sold it in 2002.

Sunny Day Ride

original photo by oshendoshen

We avoided a car trip yesterday by walking the mile to pick up the tandem and resigning ourselves to pushing it back to the apartment. The seller had told us on the phone that the tires were completely shot, but we took the pump just in case. Luckily, Mas was able to get enough air into them for the ride home. After a rough start (ok, several rough starts), we managed to ride in rhythm for about half the trip. I was in front steering; Mason was in back freaking out. About 4 blocks from home, he bailed and I rode alone the rest of the way.

We're thinking about turning it into a shoddy makeshift S.U.B. for grocery runs. It won't be anything close to an Xtracycle, but it also won't cost $399 (not that an Xtracycle isn't 100% worth that). We're actually looking at making our next large purchase two of these, in hopes of going car-free. That won't be for a while, and I'm sure it will be the subject of countless posts beforehand. Maybe this will suffice until we have the extra cash? Maybe...

The card reader is dead, so no actual photos today. Just imagine a gold Huffy one speed with an extra seat (similar to the above), rust on the handlebars and tires with dry rot. It also has a handmade/handpainted orange and yellow chainguard with a sun and the words Sunny Day Ride stenciled on it.

$26 and a trip down the street

Well, we are officially insane. Really, totally off it.
I've been watching this auction all week, and I won today with a high bid of $26! That's right, it's a tandem. A gold Huffy tandem beater. We're going to pick it up tomorrow. The guy only lives 8 blocks from our apartment, but we'll have to drive--the tires on are shot. Everything else is supposed to be fine. Seriously though, what were we thinking?

Gratuitous tandem p0rn to follow.

I Heart Riding in the City

I just finished the first issue of Urban Cyclist. It's great, so check it out and
buy a sticker or give them some money. After all, it is National Bike Month.

It's Not The Heat...

Today was Mason's day off. Tired of watching movies, we decided to ride down to Grand and Beacon to the Ladies of Charity Thrift Store. We didn't find anything, but we went across the street to Super 99 Cent Happy Store and bought an excellent Mother's Day gift for Mason's mom. We've completely stopped making frivolous purchases in the last few months, but this was so amazing that we had to buy it for the only person we knew who could possibly appreciate it. It was extremely humid, so we stopped at Kalachandji's on the way back for tamarind tea, but the restaurant was closed. We got a bottle of root beer from the gift shop instead and loitered under a tree outside the chapel procrastinating the sweltering trip home.

Gas Challenge Update:
Mason has driven a total of 4 times in the last 11 days; I've ridden in the car once. We still have half a tank of gas to last us until May 23rd. We're hoping to take a challenge break after that, so that we can make a trip to OK to see our families the first weekend in June. Then, we are going to have a 30 days Car Free Challenge.

Grocery Day

We had to drive the wagon for the third time yesterday. It was for a good cause, though. We went up to REI to get a rear rack for Mason's grocery crate. While we were there, we picked up an LED headlight, some levers, reflector stickers for our crates, a compact pump and some new patch kits. We're down to about half of a tank, but I don't foresee many car trips in the next few weeks. The first two drives were for Mason's training, which is over. He's been riding to work everyday. Luckily, there is a shower for him to use if he manages to get there early enough. I've been riding with him halfway in a pathetic attempt to get mildly into shape.

Today, we made our first full grocery run by bike. Mason's crate means double the room, and we managed to carry everything with a tiny bit of room to spare. We have a lot of love for bungees and zip ties.