Our new bikes

The latest exciting thing to happen in our house is that my husband and I got new bicycles. Good ones, bought at a bike shop and not the Wal-Mart. Finally I'm starting to get the exercise I really need! We usually ride for 20-30 minutes most days of the week, which is plenty of exercise to keep my heart healthy and hopefully to lose some weight.

One of my favorite things to do is to lead him onto streets that he doesn't know, and get him to admit that he has no idea where we are. And then just around the corner he sees a landmark he recognizes, and now he knows how to get home. I teach him new streets every time we go out! It won't be long before I'll have to take 40 minute rides with him in order to keep finding new streets.

We look like total dorks I'm sure. We both wear helmets to protect our wise brains, and we just bought some proper clothing last weekend. It's no fun to bike in cargo shorts that keep riding up your legs the whole time. And in a T-shirt that sticks to your back when it gets sweaty. So now we've got some high-tech stretchy breathable fabrics to ride in.

The bikes we picked are called Comfort Hybrids, which is a combination of beach cruiser plus racing bike plus mountain bike. They took some key features from each type of bike and put it all in one. They're from a company in Europe called Specialized. I was disappointed when I checked Consumer Reports (AFTER the purchase, of course) and saw that my bike was rated lowest of all the hybrid bikes they tested. Mostly it was because of the shifting that it got low marks. I'm starting to have difficulty with my shifters, but it seems like an adjustment is needed and not a whole new bike. I'm just outside the return period though, so it makes me a little nervous to be having these problems at this point. Really, I hope it's just an adjustment.

And the other exciting news in our house is the discovery of a great recipe. It's a copycat recipe to duplicate the Mustard'n Curry^TM sauce at Chicken Kitchen. We loved that place in college, but they don't have any of them where we live now. We're still tweaking the recipe, but if you want a copy just send me an email.