auntie veronica

meet abby 'baby bear' my 3yr old niece. she spent a week with us in austin.

she's cute, strong minded willed, and full of energy! niki and i had a lot of fun with her around!!
the first day at the house was a little rough. my poor abby was sick. she woke up with a tummy ache. it was a bit scary having a sick kiddo in the house... the immediately  call my mom! once my mom had talked me down from my small panic, i called her mom (^_^) and she knew right away what her baby needed. (♥ moms are wonderful ♥) i had to go to the store to get some crackers and coke (her mom's miracle cure) and poor abby was sick in the store. good thing i was fast enough to grab a bag from the bakery just in time or it could have been really icky.  twice we had to make a b-line for the bathroom. i bought pepto, children's tylenol, and kids tums but never opened them because the coke and crackers worked! yahoo!!!

a little bit of down time with a movie (we saw annie at least twice a day while she was here) and she was ready to go swimming again. we went for a short swim the night before and she told me time and time again she was ready to go even though she felt bad.
on wednesday we went to the zilker park. she loved the slides and the swings. i think the swings were her favorite because she made me push her till my wrists started to hurt (^_^).

i learned that walking more than half a mile is a bit much for a 3yr old. after playing her 'lil heart out on the playground we did the mile long hike home with her on my shoulders. *whew* i went to target straight away to buy us a cheap stroller.

that night our friends jessica, devon, kristy, jared and 'lil baby franko went to the long center with us to watch an outdoor movie. armed with a blanket and a stroller we were good to go. it was late and we had a busy day so i propped the stroller op on two wheels and rocked her to sleep. she slept like a log. i thought to myself "babies are easy" HAHA!


jessica told me about the children's museum in downtown. she had taken devon's nephew there and said he had loads of fun. early thursday morning we strolled on over there. they had tons of stuff for kids of all ages to do. she started off in the kitchen area washing and cooking me some yummy plastic grub. then we meandered through the rest of the place playing with dominos, milking cows, playing train conductors, building with blocks ... the list goes on and on. they had a story time and we listened till she got hungry so we left to eat our lunches that i packed. what an awesome place for kids! she had so much fun.

on our walk home from the museum we stopped at butler park for a cool down by the fountain.  here is a video of abby playing in liz carpenter fountain.



here is another video of her singing to me while i cook.


see what i mean by super cute!!!

B.U.tiful weekend!

the weather has been absolutely gorgeous this weekend!!! warm, breezy, and not a cloud in the sky! i've spent as much time as i could out of doors. my hubby is on the road for a mini tour with his band, so i've been home missing him terribly.  no matter how beautiful it is outside, it's more fun when you have someone to share it with. on the bright side i didn't have to cook or clean cuz i made a point not to make any messes (^_^). my only chore was to have a fun and relaxing weekend. i have to say i did an outstanding job! i went for a walk in the park on saturday after eating falafel in south austin. i didn't take any pics cuz my phone was low on batteries. when i came home i sat on the patio with my cats and read a book 'til it was dark. then i came inside; ate the rest of my falafel and watched i captured the castle. i did a little bit of editing on a chapter i'm going to submit to librivox, and capped the night off with a little more reading in bed. i've been reading:

i'm lost in kovthe's world! i love it when i find a book that's hard to put down. i'm starting to get upset because i'm almost at the end and the second book isn't out yet (ToT).

i woke up on sunday and did a little more editing 'til hunger decided to distract me. i put  some stuff together for a picnic (blanket, book, sunglasses) and walked to p. terry's to grab my lunch.  people were out in full force! the honey suckle wasn't attracting bees so i stood in the shade smelling the sweet nectar while i waited for my food. they were swamped so i was doing a lot of smelling (^_^). i walked to lady bird lake; watched the doggies at the dog park; took some pics of the beautiful scenery and looked for a nice shaded place to have my picnic. i found a perfect spot off the hike and bike trail by the fountains. there was a rock i could rest up against and it was right by the water so i had excellent views. i finished my lunch and was about two chapters into my book when i heard something in the bushes. all the sudden there was a huge hairy and sopping wet dog headed my way. he shook his wetness all over me then to make matters worse he decided my blanket was a great place to relieve himself. i was in shock!!! it took me a  second to realize what he was doing before i jumped up and got my stuff out of harm's way. all the while his owners were mortified. they were in a canoe and couldn't do anything but call him away. they made him get in the canoe after that. wow! of all the places that dog could go potty he had to go on my blanket. HA!
i got my stuff together and moved to another place and tried to continue reading but i couldn't get my mind off of how yucky my blanket was. i thought about throwing it away but that seemed to wasteful so i came home and washed it. now i'm sitting on my patio 3 stories up and far away from all the dogs and their dirty business. happy weekend everyone!

lazy days

it's been exactly one month since i posted here!
not much has been going on and i've been a bit too lazy to finish some of the other post i've started. this wasn't meant to be an all bike blog. this has been established as a v-ron brain dump zone... anything goes!!! i'm working on a post about a revamped sweater. the idea was better than an then outcome but what the heck ... it was a learning experience! i also made a reusable shopping bag from some old scrubs. on occasion you should expect to hear about my orchids and probably a few blogs about how bad my cats are (^_^).  like i said... it's a brain dump. i need an outlet so i don't bore my friends and family with all this.

with all that said... i'm gonna talk bikes now.

i had to return the helmet that i got from amazon. it was huge! it came with extra padding but it was still too big.  i guess i've got a small noggin. so i'm looking at this ----->


i saw a nutcase helmet at mellow johnny's, but at the time i thought it was a child's helmet. i'll have to go there again and see if they can order me this in my size. or find out what size i am and order it myself.

the bike rack i got is still sitting on my bedroom floor. it's one of the things on my to-do list. i'll have to get some bolts for it though... the dumb thing didn't come with any hardware.


my hubby and i went to boconcepts to test drive some dutch bikes. unfortunately they changed the date. the weather hasn't been cooperating here in austin the last few weekends. however, they had one on display. it was PURDY

posted from livingontwowheels.org

look familiar?

easy virtue

ok ... they aren't twins but they do kinda look the same. been looking at the specs for the oma and... wow! then i look at the price! *sigh*

later gators!

awesomesauce!

hey la, hey la, my bike is back!

i've had it for over a week now. i took it around the block a few times and have been storing it in my bedroom for the last few nights. i really need to make up my mind as to how i want to restore it to it's former glory. i'm apprehensive about taking it apart. what if it doesn't go back together again. yikes!!!

i wanted to name my bike mr. rochester after the byronic hero from jane eyre. mr. rochester, flawed but full of vigor! i fancy myself rescuing it from ruin as dear jane rescues her loving master! unfortunately i feel naming it this will cause it to have a gender crisis. anyone that looks at the bike knows it's female. it's too pretty not to be. so i'm still searching for the perfect name. i've got a few floating around in my head. i'm going to let them ruminate awhile and see which will be best.

i bought a helmet and a bike rack today. i searched long and hard for a helmet that wouldn't clash with my vintage beauty, and wouldn't break the bank. i finally settled on a multi-sports helmet. here is a pic of the pink hawaiian print... i bought it in ♥blue♥. i must have bought the last one because the color isn't showing up on amazon anymore.

i also had my eye on a wood grained motorcycle helmet but changed my mind because it didn't have any ventilation.

i was one penny shy to claim free shipping from amazon so i threw in a bike rack. score! (^_^) i'm sure i'll be making a trip to the bike store to buy some band clamps because the bike doesn't have frame braze-ons.
 

recycled cycle

Raleigh Tourist DL1-L
Originally uploaded by blai00

that awesome hunk of steel in the picture to the right is all mine! i drove out to cedar park to test drive that beautiful brit in the freezing rain. it is in the shop getting a bit of work done. considering it is 30+yrs old it was in pretty good condition. click on the pic to see all that needs to be done (i've annotated the heck out of the pic)


the rod brakes on this bike are crazy cool, but the only problem is it is missing a bolt for the rear brake. the front brake works great. i'm having the the repairs done at a local bike shop, but unfortunately they didn't have the right size bolt. so my bike is sitting up at the shop 'til we can find something to fit. here is a pic of the missing bolt.

 

i haven't found  a stamp to help date the bike but i read on various sites that say if the sturmey archer hub is original it can be helpful when trying to figure out the general age of the bike. mine is dated 77.

i'm too picky!

going to look at a bike today. well, i hope i'm going to look at a bike!!!

 I've been searching for a comuter bike for awhile. I have this grand idea of the perfect bike.
heavy enough so it doesn't rattle my insides when i ride it, internal gear hub, racks, upright dutch style ridding, disk brakes, pref. vintage or vintage looking!!
my dream bike doesn't really exist. or at least i don't know enough about bikes to find/make my dream bike. the important part of the bike is style...yes rideablity (rideablity = v-ronism = not in the dictionary) is important too but style is the key. im really into the vintage dutch style bikes. they just look so cool! they scream out "HEY ! look at me i'm carefree and have all the time in the world!" can't wait till i get one in my hands.
so i was so happy to see this beauty listed on craigslist last night

it's a 3 speed raleigh tourist. i have no idea what year it is but i suspect it is late 70's early 80's that is just from doing a little bit of digging around on the web. i just hope my little legs are long enough for the pedals. this is some info i pulled from the wonderful interweb. this is from raleigh catalog off of sheldonbrown.com

don't hurt ur eyes... click on the pic silly!

the difference is that this catalog list the finish as high gloss black and the craigslist post says that the bike is green so i assume they are not the same year. either way the good new is that the ladies frame list only one size.. so does that mean that it is one size fits all  (^+^). I emailed the CLposter last night and he said i should call him after 2pm today. so that is what i am doing.

waiting.......waiting..............waiting

peace - Vron out!