Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

Because I do. You hop on I40 and drive for forever. Then you take an off ramp for a freeway that heads North and drive for another hour. Last weekend I went to visit my college and maid of honor, who now lives in Santa Fe with her husband and two children. I hadn't seen her in over three years. She used that time to produce not one, but two adorable boys who are now 2 years and 3 months old. I used that time to....um.....maintain course.

For whatever reason, we rarely talk. Neither of us is big on the telephone and e-mail just seems inadequate. Despite pretty much never talking, the instant I walked into her house we were chatting away as if we had just seen each other yesterday. She refers to our friendship as the low maintenance kind.

We had an awesome weekend. My friend's husband gamely took charge of both children for the entire day and we went off for some hardcore shoe shopping and gallery browsing. My friend works for a state program that purchases art for state buildings. So awesome is this job that when she asked about a couple of pieces that were not on the gallery floor, the woman working in the gallery went into the back storage area, found the pieces, and set them out for us to look at in a private room under the special lights. Sweet.

Also sweet: I bought cowboy boots. They are awesome. They make Moses roll his eyes.

I'm not sure when I'll get the change to visit my friend again, but I hope it's not another three years. You need to have that person in your life who just effortlessly gets you.

Geronimoooooooo!

Garion has been on a serious Geronimo Stilton kick lately and apparently these books are all the rage among second grade boys. In case you are not hip to the 8 year old scene, Geronimo Stilton is a mouse who lives in, wait for it....Mouseopolis, and runs a newspaper called the the Rodent's Gazette. He has all sorts if improbable adventures and then writes books about them. That's right, the mouse writes the books. Try to keep up. Also, he is something of a reluctant lady's man--I mean lady's mouse--this totally cracks me up.

Anyway, today is library day. When I pulled up to the school I spotted three second grade boys standing around, each with a Geronimo Stilton book in their hands, reading. And Garion was leaning in to read over the shoulder of one of them. That would be four, 7-8 year old boys so excited about books, books for crying out loud, that they were reading them in public in full view of other children while waiting for their parents. Geronimo Stilton, you rock my world.

The New Old Bicycle

Last month, my father-in-law gave me an old English-style 3-speed bicycle. The beautiful kind with fenders and a step-though frame and upright handle bars. The kind that you need a bell and a basket for and the kind that you can ride while wearing a skirt, if the mood strikes. I'd been trolling craigslist for just such a bicycle for some time, but couldn't find one in my price range when--voila!--one was magically transported to my garage. Magically as in Moses went out to his dad's place one day and came back with a surprise for me.

Wait. What was that? You don't care that much about my new bicycle? You want to know what my son was for Halloween and why I am such a slacker mother that I never post the Halloween picture until sometime in November? Okay. Fine. Here:


He was a wizard. He was a wizard because although he originally intended to be Indiana Jones, the thrift store did not have the perfect Indiana Jones jacket and a jacket that looked "good enough" for mom was not good enough for the boy. And if Garion can't do the costume exactly right, he's not going to do it all. Which is completely frustrating and monumentally irritating when you are in the middle of a busy thrift store a week before Halloween and all of the sudden he says "I don't want to be Indiana Jones....I don't know what I want to be." But it worked out in the end. He's wearing my law school graduation robe, which will give you an idea of just how tall my baby is. Also, in my defense, it is only November 3rd, and I think this is most timely Halloween post ever, so there.

Now we can talk about my old new bicycle, which I am thoroughly smitten with:



I forgot to take a picture before we took it apart. And yes, that is my dog in background thinking that maybe if he stares hard enough at the bucket, one of the tennis balls inside will come flying out and play with him.
I should have started my bicycle search at The Land (my father-in-law's place) to begin with because I think that my father-in-law is storing at least one of every mechanical thing ever know to man out there. You know, just in case the world ends and humanity will need the last [insert mechanical item here] to figure out how to make more. Unfortunately, time at the land also means that the bicycle needed a little love. Well, actually quite a bit of love. Here's the hub, after I brushed off a bucket full of red dust:


And the rims, with a not insubstantial amount of rust:


The rust proved to be overwhelming and after reading about some safety implications of riding a bicycle with rusted-out rims, I decided to order new rims and a new hub. These are harder to track down then you would think. But yesterday--oh joy!--my new rims came and they are shiny and beautiful. Now I just need to finish cleaning up the bicycle, and possibly painting the frame. Then, as soon as I have some free time, I can put it all back together and have a lovely, beautiful new old bicycle to tool around on. Just in time for winter and snow. Someday I will have better timing. Until then I will dream of beautiful English-style three speeds with new rims and wizards who were Indiana Jones in their previous lives.