Now that S1 has moved on to a 20" bicycle, S2 inherited the 16" one.
"But," she complained, "this is a boys' bike." This is a first. We've been palming off her brother's old clothes and toys on her for 5 years with no word of complaint. Still ... frugality dies hard.
Two cans of spray paint can do wonders, especially if she gets to choose the colors and hold down the sprayer.
I've long been a user and fan of Google Maps -- its user interface and data mining simply can't be beat. In places like New York City, it even links to train and ferry timings, so you can get combination walking+public transport directions.
One country's industrial desolation is a
nother country's aspiration.
S1 has outgrown his 16" bicycle and so we went out and bought a 20" one yesterday. I had taken it out of the box and started to assemble it when I discovered that I needed an Allen key. Turned out that I had three sets of Allen keys -- in one set, I had 4mm and 5mm. In the other set, I had 7mm, 8mm and 10mm. The third set was English units -- 5/32, 3/16, 1/4 and 3/8-inch keys.
But the Allen key that I needed to assemble the bike? 6 mm. Of course Home Depot's not going to carry a single key. I'm going to have to buy yet one more set, this time one that includes a 6mm key.
Wikipedia, useful as always, offers: 4 mm keys are almost exactly the same size as 5/32", and 8 mm keys are almost exactly the same size as 5/16", which makes 4 mm and 8 mm preferred numbers for consumer products such as self-assembly particle-board furniture, because end users can successfully use an imperial key on a metric fastener, or vice versa, without stripping. Wish the designers of Schwinn bicycles would read Wikipidea.
The change from Office 2003 to 2007 broke all my Powerpoint presentations. Old templates and macros didn't work. Text got randomly resized. Callout boxes pointed to the wrong things. I can never just borrow slides from older presentations -- I need to inevitably edit the stuff. And now, just when I thought I'd caught up, Microsoft is releasing the beta of Office 2010. Yikes! Enough already.
Yesterday at the bridge club was one of those days when nothing worked. Consider this deal where we scored a dead bottom.
I was playing South, in 6
on a 4-3 heart fit. I cash the two top spades and lead the third spade for a ruff. West discards a diamond; I ruff with the 9. I then cash A-K of hearts and learn the bad news about the heart split. I come back to my hand with a diamond. Then, I cash the Q-J of hearts. At this point, West has his fifth heart and I have none. Then, I play a club to the Ace and club back to hand and start playing clubs from the top. West can ruff the club, but he is end-played. He doesn't have a spade, so has to lead a diamond to the K-diamond in dummy on which I pitch my remaining spade. Then, a club to my hand.
6 made on a 4-3 fit when West has more trumps than me! Unfortunately, though, every one else was in 6NT and that contract has 12 cold tricks.
Sarah Palin is going to be visiting Norman to sign her book. The story quotes a book store manager as saying that she wants to visit small towns. In pursuit of "real America", no doubt.
But here's the thing. What kind of small towns have bookstores big enough to host a celebrity book signing? College towns. Towns whose politics would tilt 180 degrees from the hockey mom's.
