The Living is Easy

There's been a lot of porch- and park-sitting going on here in Phila recently. The temperatures have been in the mid-60s all week and everyone is out basking in the sun, myself included. I even decided to bike to work today, taking the Ben Franklin Bridge home!





And I've also been very, very busy getting ready for the growing season! There's a fun article in the April issue of Grid about my friend Nic and some of the projects we're doing together (I'm in it!).



So as you can see, lots of things are happening. We have a work day this weekend for the Walnut-Hill Mini-Farm and Grower's Co-op, and things are also ramping up in Camden, and at the two community garden plots that M and I tend. Details on all to come soon!

West Philly's Pedal Co-op

I've been wanting to post about this awesome West Philly business for a while now. The video says it way better than I ever could, so take a peak. Good work West Philly!

Woot Woot

After much research and obsessing, I finally purchased my new bike (my sole Christmas present for the year)! I'm suuuuuper excited about it and wishing that the sun would come out so I could take it on more test rides around the city. I haven't named it yet, any ideas? I sold Bonanza Jellybean and I still have Boomer Petway. I guess those bikes were used and came with personalities already attached. This one is like a newborn and I will have to wait to find out what it's like. Oh yeah.

Oooo, That Dirty Rat!

This is what happens when you're a good person and you ride your bike to school everyday.



A rat makes a nest on the engine of your car during the cold and rainy days of winter, using the insulation from the hood of your car. You discover that the rat has chewed through wires and it will cost you over $500 to fix the wiring. You curse the rat, and hop on your bike.

Someone Stole My Bike

I know, can you believe it? Someone stole the bike that I was fixing up at the bike church. It's partially my fault for being a trusting person. I should have made sure it wouldn't happen by bringing my own lock, but I trusted that the spirit of the bike church would make it immune to selfishness. I was wrong. I had my name and the date on it, so there's no mistake. It was stolen. At least I still have good old Bonanza Jellybean, though she's taken to falling over on me and giving me black-and-blues recently. Sigh. I'm gonna go cry now.

YAR!

The photos of my friends and me during the pirate critical mass are up, along with their blog post all about the time they spent here in Davis. See it for yourself on their website.

Brakes and a Chain

I've taken on another project: Bike Rehab.

I'm incredibly tired of my old cruiser. She's served me well, but let's admit it, she's kind of "baby's first bike," and I'm ready to move onto something a bit more sophisticated. While I was away on the east coast, a friend "found" me an old bike (read: took it because it looked abandoned). Here he is:



He's in really good shape, all he needs is brakes and a chain. And perhaps some new paint and tape for the handle bars. And new tubes. But honestly, that's not very much and it shouldn't take more than a few weeks and a lot of help before he's up and running.

Here's where I will be doing my rehabbing: The Bike Church. The idea is "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." It's located on campus and it's totally volunteer and non-profit.



It's completely un-affiliated with any religion, but they've truly embraced the theme. When the bike church is open, there are "ministers" available to help you work on your bike. But they don't take bikes and fix them for you. You have to do all the labor yourself, and there are literally piles of bikes and parts lying around that are available to use. You can borrow tools and get advice and parts, and there are suggested donations for all of these services.



Spare parts area:



I hope to learn a lot about bikes while I do this, and I'm already feeling far less intimidated by my bike than I was previously. Minister Simion helped me put some front brakes on my bike on Wednesday, and now I know how the brakes work on my bike! Amazing how that happens. Learn by doing. Wish me luck!

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon: a links-heavy update post

This week I got an impromptu visit from an old high school friend I haven't seen in six years. She and her boyfriend are on a nomadic adventure, travelling the country for the next three months trying to determine where they want to live next (they got tired of NYC). Check out their travel blog. If you look at their Flickr site, pretty soon you will probably see pictures of us dressed as pirates for the Critical Mass we did on Friday, or partying at The Domes, a cooperative community on campus. It was awesome to see them and I hope they decide to settle close to me!



I'm getting excited for my spinning class to start, though I still need to finish teasing the wool. Hopefully my friend Kim will help me dye it after it's been spun. Here are some examples of her beautiful hand-spun and hand-dyed silks, and the hand-spun yarns I found on the new-to-me blog brooklyntweed. If mine look anywhere close to these, I will be happy.



I went contra dancing at the The Co-ops on campus yesterday with my friend Sarah, and we danced our butts off for over three hours! I'm actually sore today. It got me really excited for next weekend when I'll be going to the Hoes Down Harvest Festival at my CSA farm, Full Belly. It's gonna be awesome!

It's all about me

A while ago I was tagged by the lovely Carlene of knitsquirrel. My job is to tell you eight interesting things about myself. I've been thinking about it for a bit, in order to cut down on redundancy and come up with all sorts of different types of facts (though most of them still have to do with things that I like, or enjoy doing). Anyway, here goes.



1. I discovered recently that I tend to laugh hysterically immediately after something scary happens. I don't mean scary in the sense of scary movies, it's more like things that could have caused me severe bodily harm. For example, I've been in multiple near-misses involving my bicycle and other people or other people's bicycles (and one time, a door), and immediately following the swerve to avoid these things, I break out in maniacal laughter. It's strange, and I can't help it.



2. I think that the best way to get to know someone is to spend time with them at the house they grew up in (bonus if you can get some time with their family too). It really adds context to a person, and I've been all over the country visiting friends to see what their houses and families are like.



3. Plant nerd alert: I've decided that I want my future children to have Latin plant names incorporated into their names. My favorite of the moment is the genus name for maple: Acer. My first little boy will have Acer as his middle name, and we will call him Ace. It will be awesome, and he will love it. Maybe.

4. One of my top five favorite things to do (other than eat ice cream) is to watch movies outdoors, preferably on huge screens. When I was studying abroad in Hawaii, my friends and I spent every Sunday night on Waikiki beach where they set up a huge movie screen and played free movies. But one of my favorite outdoor movie events was last year when I watched Rocky while sitting with my friends on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Classic.



5. I have a bordering-on-unhealthy obsession with Dolly Parton. The woman, her music, and her movies.

6. I don't see the point of flowers that have no scent. Why? Though I have been warming up to gerbera daisies lately.



7. I once put a 200 pound female sea turtle in a headlock. It was during an internship in Hawaii where I was monitoring the nesting activity of Hawksbill sea turtles, and we had to tag her before she got back down to the water. Despite my iron grip, she proceeded to drag me down the beach, carrying me away like I was a fly on her nose. We eventually threw a towel over her head to calm her down and tagged her, but I had visions of being dragged down into the sea and spending the rest of my life as a mermaid, coming up only to sun myself on the black sand beaches of Hawaii.



8. Finally, I love eating foods that require a lot of effort to actually eat. I'm not talking about preparation, but the actual act of eating them. For example, pomegranates (which are starting to ripen about now!), clementines/satsuma oranges, and crab legs. I love the process of peeling away the outer skin to get to the good stuff. I'm not sure exactly why, maybe it's because it feels like I earned it after all that effort.