The Co-op is dead. Long live the Co-op.

12 kinds of soy milk
No buttermilk

And then...

"Our card machines are down: no credit or debit cards, no checks, cash
only."

As so often over the past thirteen years, I went to Walgreen's.

Reports of enlightment greatly exaggerated

I'm flabbergasted that in our day and age, someone can (try to) use the color of a kid's diapers and the painting of his toenails as reasons not to allow a parent to see his kid. The kid clearly likes his diapers: '"(Kennedy) pulls down his pants and says, 'Mommy, look how pretty they are,'" she said of the diapers.' Likewise the nail polish: '"He'd say, 'Mommy, I don't want to get my nails wet. I don't want to mess them up,'" she said. "It took two hours to get him in the bath."'

Props to Urlacher. I think he knows something about masculinity, and I hope his example of openmindedness is heeded. Now if only I could get my kid to be a little less overwhelmingly gender-stereotypical in her dress!

CBF=>ATA

There's significantbuzz in our local corner of the bike geekery blogosphere about the recent name change of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation; it's now the Active Transportation Alliance. Reaction seems to range from the "what a colossally stupid idea," to the "what a colossally stupid idea and if you're not pissed about it you should be." I'm somewhere between these two responses, myself. SFBikeBlog's post covers most of the objections I have (and then some), but I feel more betrayed as a Chicagoan than as a biker. For the record, I don't think I'll be renewing my membership: an organization that treats its members this way is not one that I want to be a part of (though I seem to find myself in more and more such situations). The way that they made this (locally) momentous decision smarts personally, while picking a goofy name that doesn't say anything about what you stand for only offends me intellectually.

But I'm doubly disappointed that they're adopting the nickname "Active Trans." Have they no members in Lakeview? Anyhow, here's the first thing that occurred to me on hearing the term:

(Yes, that is a mixte frame.)

Cyclocross update.....

I know what you're thinking--"why no race reports? You have been racing, right, Dingbat?"

Well, I missed two weeks, one due to travel and one due to ill-health but the other reason is simpler. I've been terrible. Slow. Feeling like someone's adding glue to my tires when I'm not looking. Looking back a lap or two in to make sure I didn't somehow forget to unhitch the trailer. That is, when I'm not looking back to see who's blowing by me this time.

And extra-frustrated when Nemesis (the quy who outsprinted me in JP, and whom I beat in Hawthorne Woods) is third place overall in the series.

I think, though, I can boil it down to two factors: One, umm, cardio fitness. I'm just not riding enough. Two: I'm not eating enough on race day. Breakfast followed by fruit and fruit juices is not enough fuel in the tank, which is why I'm able to go go go for a lap and a half and then--bonk. On the grass, it's not as dramatic as on pavement, so it took me a little while to figure out.

Anyhow, I had fun in Lansing yesterday; there was a sandpit and I had a blast sprinting to catch a guy at the finish line. I wasn't until I'd gasped my way around the course that I realized that I hadn't caught him so much as lapped him at the line. But I held off the guy who was on my lap, which is a satisfaction. The important thing is that I got excited to train again after putting my finger on the big factors in declining performance.

Read Joe's race report for something a little more inspiring. Or Michael Barry's fun (if perhaps occasionally overwrought) recent article in the Times.