Days 8 - 12

Day 8
Another record-tying day of heat! Stayed home and went through yet more boxes of files (still even more to go before I'm done). Finished reading Split Screen by Brent Hartinger. I enjoyed Hartinger's previous books in this series (Geography Club and The Order of the Poison Oak), but wasn't captured by the brain zombies that seemed so prominently featured by the subtitles of this third book. I'm glad that I finally got around to reading it--the way that the book is split into two was really enjoyable, and effectively demonstrated how our "shared" experiences are both common and different. And, I thoroughly enjoyed how this split narrative highlighted Min--I hope to see more of her in the future.

Day 9
Explored the online training courses available through work and completed one unit in the "Introduction to Word" training. Started reading Chris Beam's novel I am J. Spent a lot of time lounging around!

Day 10
Worked. Headed downtown to catch the Capital Pride Parade and met up with some friends afterwards to extend the celebration.

Day 11
Worked. Spent some quality time at home with my boo. We lost power just as we were about to cook dinner, so we headed off to our favorite sushi restaurant, MoMo Sushi in Alexandria, VA


Came back just after power was restored, and got to see most of the Tony awards, though we did just miss the opening by Neil Patrick Harris :(

Day 12
Had a fitful night and ended up sleeping in until almost 9:30 a.m. (which is like getting up at noon for us morning folks). Spent the rest of the morning in a haze/daze. Still, I managed to complete some on-line training ("Introduction to Excel" and "Introduction to Access"). Then, gently spurred on by my boo, I went on an afternoon bike ride. I rode out 5 miles on the W & OD trail, turning around at East Falls Church. The ride out wasn't too tough, though I did constantly feel as if I were going so much slower than all the other bikers. It was only after turning around to head back that I realized that there was a slight uphill grade!

The other excitement was caused by my failing brakes. My rear brakes weren't working great at all on my last ride, but I still went on this ride without doing anything about it. I WILL ALWAYS CHECK OUT MY BIKE'S CONDITION BEFORE GOING ON A RIDE IN THE FUTURE. I figured that as long as my front brakes were working I was good to go. So, when I realized during my ride back (downhill) that my front brakes were hardly doing anything to slow me down, let alone stop me, well, it was BAD. I got home safely, though more by luck than design.

Needless to say, as soon as I got back home I googled "how to adjust brakes on a mountain bike" and did some DIY bike maintenance. My google search had a bunch of results, but I started with this video, followed by the free tutorial from bicycletutor.com, and the brake diagrams from bikewebsite.com.

Afterwards? Made enchiladas (re-fried beans, spinach, bell peppers, and onions) for dinner.