Magical Me

One of our favorite assets is a really great street bike that we won in a drawing at the Provo Freedom Festival in 2004. (Never underestimate the power to fill out a million drawing entry forms...you may just win one!) We just wish we had two!

Chris has the luxury of working just 2 miles from home, so he frequently rides the bike to work so that he can get some exercise and I can have the car. Unfortunately, we get pinch flats all the time. We are both kind of clueless about this kind of thing, evidence being that our little tire pump is supremely inadequate and probably only fills our tires to about 20 psi. (If you know anything about bikes, this is not enough) Our good friends David and Michal are seasoned cyclists and gave me the ten minute low-down on how to fix a flat. Then for Chris's birthday I spent $20 at Walmart getting a tube repair kit and a decent floor pump with a pressure gauge.

Today I decided to venture out into the unknown to attempt to repair the tube myself. I have to say, I must have looked pretty goofy as I tried to figure out how to take the tire off the axle and as I puzzled over how to remove the tube from the tire. Picture me on my front porch bending over a tire with my pregnant belly, nicely combed hair, and with unusually dirty fingers scratching my head every 30 seconds. The repair kit came with patches, a metal buffer, and these goofy little hooks that I had no idea what they were for. I would just ignore them until it was absolutely necessary to use them for something. Sure enough, you definatley need the hook-thingy to get the tire off the wheel.

Then, I pumped up the tube a little to see where the air was leaking out. It was not hard to find. I followed the only two instructions on the repair kit, which were to buff the area around the hole and then apply the patch. So far so good. Then I faced the challenge of reinserting the tube into the tire, which I accomplished in only five minutes (half as long as it took me to remove the tube), and easily put the tire back on the bike, pumped it up as much as I could with my weak little arms (about 65 psi...), and rode around my parking lot beaming like a little kid on Christmas. I fixed a flat tire all my myself! I feel like superwoman!

Total time for this project: 30 Minutes
Total number of lifeline calls: Zero!
Total cost: $20
Total satisfaction: 100%

Now as a disclaimer, I will not post on my blog if the tire is somehow flat again tomorrow, and I have no idea what to do about brakes or those annoying chains that sometimes fall off...that's for me to learn in another life, and in this life, we'll have David fix for us. But come on, give me some credit here for getting my hands dirty and doing it by myself, no matter how much you want to laugh at me, oh wise bicycle sage!

Recent Discoveries

I've recently become familiar with the following things and I think they are pretty cool:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (this one's a given!)
Google Reader (thanks to Sarah)
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale (Liz got this for me for my birthday)
Endless Pools (I'm expecting one for my next birthday...)
Our new Honda Civic (Thanks to Becky and Mom!)
Facebook

Although not fresh discoveries, I still think these ones are fabulous:

Michael Buble (He's really good looking in addition to being a fabulous musician!)
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Digital cameras
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (I know I'm 24, but I never outgrew this one...)
Craigslist
Wikipedia

What am I missing?

Produce injustice

Grocery store. Produce section. Someone once told me that you only have to refrigerate the things that are refrigerated at the grocery store. Tomatoes for example are traditionally not refrigerated at the store, so technically, does this mean you're not supposed to refrigerate them when you get home? I picked up a bag of tasty, sweet, purple grapes on Monday and noticed that it was on a display that was not refrigerated. So I put them in my fruit bowl on the counter and forgot about them. Today I helped myself to some grapes and they're furry! Ewww! I guess I should have refrigerated them after all! How are you supposed to know? This is an outrage!

Chicago Vacation Highlights

Supermom's strategies for the sick

Disclaimer: This post is about vomiting...

I've realized over the course of the past three weeks that I have inadvertently developed strategies for dealing with pregnancy sickness; how to nip the nausea in the bud, how to make it wear off a little faster. Granted, my strategies don't always work, but at least they make me feel like I have some sort of control over my body.

1. The most obvious strategy I've recognized myself doing is that in the kitchen, I inhale deeply before opening the refrigerator, pantry, or garbage can, so that I have a prolonged exhale while said door is open. This way, I don't actually have to smell the fridge or pantry (even though they don't really smell that bad...to a pregnant woman, it's poison). Although, I must admit that there are times when even the thought of what the fridge smells like is enough to make me sick, even though my nose is closed.
2. Diaper changing. I tried using the same inhale/exhale strategy with stinky diapers, and it just took too long. I tried holding my breath or covering my face with my shirt, but then I just threw up in my shirt. So I've resorted to changing in the backyard if its cool enough, otherwise I open windows and sit under the swamp cooler to get the smell to quickly dissipate. So far this seems to be working.
3. Wait it out. Babyproof the room as well as possible, closing the bathroom door upstairs if Leah decides to venture up to her bedroom, and arming myself with the phone, the remote, and a bottle of tums, I lay inverted on the couch wimpering and restlessly drooping. (Just as long as no one rings the doorbell...)
4. I drink a big glass of water with breakfast. That way if it bounces back up, its not as gross.
5. Choice of breakfast foods: M&M's never seem to come back up.
6. Be sick. Get it over with and then promptly eat crackers and sprite and see if it stays down.

*Sigh* None of my techniques are actually fail proof. If only experience yielded improved performance.