Thursday, June 12, 2008

Back to Basics

I passed my drivers test on Tuesday. Barely, but I did. How exciting. I also decided to bike to and from work (although I started at Yonge and Bloor). It was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm sore today from biking with a heavy backpack. Overall though, I feel good about the amount of cycling I've been putting in and hope I keep up with it. I feel good for the most part lately and I think it helps.

Saw the Red Dons and the Estranged on Tuesday as well. I really like the Red Dons, straight up. Some people were iffy on them but I thought they were insanely good. I was way too tired and preoccupied to focus on preparing a review around the show, but needless to say I was impressed. Steve's band also got a lot of good feedback which is awesome.

This Friday we have some band coming to perform in the office for lunch, and next Friday Lick's is catering a BBQ. To make things even sweeter, the Friday after that marks the start of half day Friday's for the rest of the summer. Yessss. Speaking of not sweet, we tried this Caribbean place in the weird strip mall on Don Mills by my work today. Yuck.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

I suppose I'll start writing in here again

Operating this as a music blog was too much for me. I can barely write for Exclaim any more. I'm not sure if that is a plain lack of motivation, the lack of good new releases, or the fact that working in the music industry sometimes takes the fun out of music for me, albeit mostly in temporary spurts. Funny, considering the title I chose for this blog. Anyway, I suppose I'll just write about life.

Last night Patrick, Sandy, Rick, Steve and I rode out to the Leslie St. Spit. While the frequency of my biking adventures this summer have (comparatively) been great, the distances I've ridden have not been. I didn't have any idea how far we'd be riding, and it was only the second weekend on my new bike (more on that later) but I did it. Of course it would be the first place I'd get a flat, all the way out at the lighthouse (probably the furthest point). Thankfully just as we were getting ready to take a long and increasingly dark trek back to the main roads, a kid with a patch kit showed up. I learned how to patch a tire, as well as a lesson to always come prepared. Sandy had tubes with her all along, but my bike is so small it only uses 650c's, and apparently those aren't as common. I'm learning!

Anyway yeah. Sandy took tonnes of pictures at the spit so hopefully I have those up soon. In the meantime, here's a picture of my new bike:

It's an IRO Heidi. Thank you to Matt for recommending the company. I got a great deal, and it was the only place I could find a frame small enough for me (this was a 46, and it JUST fits me. I could have used a cm or two smaller). Any suggestions on what I should name her?

Here are some more pictures from the spit, including the flat tire fiasco: