Elephants on Bicycles

It’s been a while since I’ve taken the time to give a weekender update so I thought I’d throw one up here. I can’t really remember what went on Friday other than making a pizza (I love making pizza’s) but I think I got to bed nice and early so that was great. I don’t get nearly enough sleep these days and have to take advantage when I can.

Saturday was sadly our final CSA pickup for the year. However, because there was an error at the processing plant Ben and Lisa didn’t have the delicious bacon with them that they had promised to bring so that means we’ll have an excuse to see each other once again on Tuesday. Nothing like some thick cut bacon for breakfast or a quick BLT sandwich. I’ll be sad not to have that excuse for Sophie and I to get out of the house early on Saturday mornings but I know we’ll find plenty of other options.

After the farmers market and some breakfast and such we got around to heading down to Tiny Canary for the fall artist market. Before getting to the event we had a little picnic at the park with some gyros and hummus from that new Hella’s Grill at the corner of 3rd and NW BLVD (will definitely hit it up again). Anyhow, Tiny Canary seemed a little leaner than previous years but that may be because they spread it out a little further or it might just be the economy. Tina and I decided to treat each other for our anniversary and then threw in some goodies for Sophie along the way. While Tina went for a lovely necklace I received the above print from TugBoat Print Shop (http://www.tugboatprintshop.com/) which will find a home in our bathroom – I believe.

The colors are fantastic, the cut lines warm and the artists, Paul and Valerie, extremely kind. Sophie helped to support Wholy Craft! by picking up a Mr. Pickles shirt and some finger puppets. The puppets have made friends with her Bee finger puppet already.

In the afternoon Sophie and I made ourselves scarce. The weather was perfect (like 70* in the middle of November) so I hopped on the bicycle and Sophie hopped in the trailer. The alterior motive here was to give Tina some time to do whatever she wanted and to give Sophie a little nappy nap. Both worked out. I’ve been talking with my friends at the City of UA about putting on a bicycle tour of the city’s northern park system so I did a quick tour myself with Sophie to get some route ideas and timing. I managed to clear all the Reed Rd, Thompson, Burbank and Sunny 95/Greensview parks before Sophie woke up just as we were pulling up to Fancyburg park. Since she was awake we pulled off and joined the scrum of kids and parents playing on the monkey bars, swings and slides. After a half hour or so of playing we made our way back to the bike and headed past the last park at Wickliffe before pulling into our garage.

Tina took over with Sophie for a little bit so that I could work on my mad-max project. Good panniers for dual-sport motorbikes can easily set you back about $1200 when it is all said and done. Since that’s probably about what my bike in total is worth I went a much cheaper DIY way: 20mm Fat Boy Ammo Cans.

All things considered they came out pretty good (see above) and now I’ve got some good waterproof storage on my bike. Since I ride year round and in any weather that is a very helpful thing. The bright orange hand warmers worked well this morning on my commute in much less pleasant temperatures. I still need to do a little further modification as the left side pannier droops a little bit but it is nothing that will cause any serious issues.

Neither of these drawings represent a final scale plan but we’ve got some projects that need done at home and I’m looking forward to building the furniture for them. The first picture is my general plan for a new sideboard/buffet for the dining room which will include moving the wall sconces to provide more room for artwork. The next drawing is for some basement shelving units which I believe (after some hardware store recon on Saturday) are down in cost to about $30 per 8′ section of shelving. My price estimates were off when I drew up those initial plans. The basement has been more of a dungeon since we moved in and is the final major project we have to tackle so getting to the point of drawing these designs is exciting to me. As for the sideboard, well, it will be the first piece of furniture built in my new basement workshop!

Saturday night we shared a campfire, roasted some marshmallows, got rid of lots of sticks and leaves and generally enjoyed the evening. Our neighbors stopped by and it was really nice to chat with them and find out what they’ve been up to. For part of the evening we heard plenty of cheers and general merrimaking going on around the neighborhood as people celebrated the OSU Buckeye’s football win which is sending the team to the Rosebowl. For me I mainly just enjoyed swinging Sophie in her swing in the darkness, looking at the stars and imagining she was in a rocket to the moon.

Sunday we ran some errands, went to the park and played lots of games at home. The weather cooled off some, the clouds returned. It was the perfect way to wind down a weekend.