Bicycle Cake Built for Two

You might have gathered that I’m engaged to be married. The wedding is approaching fast, which means all the accompanying eventsare happening.

Being a fairly non-traditional bride, I didn’t think I’d be much into wedding showers and bachelorette parties. Alas, my dear friends have proven me wrong—I’ve had so much fun with the festivities!

Maybe it’s because they’ve integrated themes of car-freeness and cycling throughout—like this bicycle cake built for two! At first glance, I was certain it was store-bought, but when we cut into it, we could tell right away that this was soft, moist cake made in someone’s home kitchen.

Thanks so much for an amazing cake and shower, Alicia!

Car-freely,
Amy

I Heart NYC

A couple weeks ago, I got to spend a weekend in New York City, during which time I realized that I LOVE New York City. Here are a few reasons why:

1. They have inviting, green bike lanes. 
2. They have helpful, bike-only traffic lights.
3. They have amazing, crazy, fast cyclists.
4. They have New York bagels (obviously).
5. They have this one amazing bar that not only plays ’80s songs but plays the music videos, too. (When was the last time you saw Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know?” video?)
6. They have a city park made out of old train tracks.
7. They have the most perfect picnic spot in Central Park.
8. They have the right ingredients for an absolutely amazing bachelorette weekend—even for this anti-wedding-tradition bride.

Thank you, Tracy, Meredith, and Courtney!

Car-freely,
Amy

A Girl’s Best Friend

What first came to your mind when you read the title of this blog post?

Diamonds? Wrong answer.

For a number of reasons, they’re not my best friend. I won’t go into the reasons here, because when I express my feelings about diamonds, I usually wind up on a soapbox. Suffice it to say, that my fiance, Tom, understood why I didn’t want a diamond.

Read my engagement bike story here.

Car-freely,
Amy

P.S. After you read my “Why We Ride” story on the People for Bikes site, share your own, why don’tcha?

Signs of Spring

Two days till spring is official, and who knows how long until the weather shifts to spring full-time, BUT the spring season is here for Denver B-cycle!

On Sunday, they had their annual spring season launch event, which involves hundreds of volunteers riding the B-cycle bikes to stations around the city where they’ll live until next winter. That’s right: I said the volunteer work involved riding a bike. Not a bad deal, huh?

There were some other perks to this Denver Bike Sharing volunteer event, too:

• I tried out the commuter-friendly B-cycle, with all its handy features: bell, chain guard, skirt guard, tool-free seat adjuster, pedal-generated lights, big fat front basket, and built-in lock.
• I got a free t-shirt, free vegetarian burrito, and free chocolate and peanut butter chunk cookie that kind of made my weekend.
• I spent a sunny Sunday afternoon outdoors with three of my favorite people: Tom, Clay, and Andrea.

In spite of the fact that I bike around the city all the time, I’d never ridden a B-cycle before. I usually just ride my own bike, but my very first B-cycle experience was a positive one. Cheers to the coming spring!

Car-freely,
Amy

So, I shouldn’t wear a bike helmet?

And she’s okay!

Now they’re telling us not to wear bike helmets??

Check out this article in The Atlantic called “The Bike Helmet Paradox.”

The gist of the story is that:

• No one really likes to wear bike helmets,
• Pressuring and/or requiring people to wear them could just make them not ride their bike, and
• Bike helmets’ impact on bike safety has yet to be proven.

Well, we certainly don’t want to deter any more people from riding their bikes, do we?

Everyone talks about how lovely and safe cycling is in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, where there are tons of bike lanes, tons of bike-aware motorists and almost no helmets. But Denver—capital city of the fourth most bike-friendly state in the U.S.—still has multi-lane, shoulderless boulevards  and negligent, ignorant and aggressive motorists, which definitely make helmets feel like a smart move here.

Will cycling ever gain universal popularity if you have to wear a dorky helmet while doing it?

I don’t know, but any article that works in the Wayne’s World video clip where Stacy flips over the car on her bike is worth a read.

Car-freely,
Amy

P.S. Thanks, Tom, for one more article recommendation!

Beer on the Bus

Last week on the bus ride home from work, the man sitting next to me reached into his bag, pulled out a can of beer, popped it open, and began drinking.

I have never seen seen someone drink beer on the bus before.

At first, I thought maybe it was one of those energy drinks. But when I stole a few quick looks at the tall-boy can, I could see “Keystone” written up the side of it. I think it was Keystone Ice.

The man didn’t try to hide the can, or the fact that he was drinking it. After living and Metro-ing in D.C., for two and a half years, I often feel anxious just sipping my coffee out of a travel mug.

As the bus reached his stop, the man tilted his head back to finish the beer, put the empty can back in his bag, zipped it up, and got off the bus.

Car-freely,
Amy

Tomorrow in Denver …

Here’s what a protected bike lane looks like.

Bike advocates in Denver are gathering at the City & County Building to wish Mayor Hancock a happy Valentine’s Day and tell him that we “heart” protected bike lanes. They’re going to hold “love” signs and ring bells and refrain from profane language. Isn’t that sweet?

Find complete info about the Valentine’s Day BikeDenver “love-in.”

I just got the action alert from BikeDenver, and I don’t think I’ll be able to make it, but maybe you can!

Car-freely,
Amy

The Two Sides of My Story

I have a flip phone, and I’m not afraid to admit it.

On the one side:

The other day after work, I was talking on the phone on the Light Rail station platform while waiting for the train to go home. I was talking to my friend who was ready to have a baby (and has since had a healthy baby boy!) any day.

Just as I was asking about baby names, some one tapped me on my arm and said, “Amy, I yelled ‘Hello’ to you three times!”

It was a colleague, who had been waiting on the platform, too. Because I was so engrossed in the baby talk, I hadn’t even noticed her trying to get my attention. She seemed put out.

On the other side:

On any given day, approximately five of my friends and family members are at different points of anger with me for not picking up the phone when they call me.

Nine times out of 10, I don’t pick up the phone, because I’m interacting with someone in person and either don’t hear the phone ring or don’t want to interrupt the present interaction.

Chew on that.

Car-freely,
Amy

A crappy morning, literally.

I hate to write about dog poop again, but our dog has diarrhea. Four times last night, he nosed the sheets to get us to let him outside. With a good amount of lost sleep, the morning didn’t start out well. And then:

• I was too tired to get up when the alarm went off, so I skipped my workout.
• The tights that matched the skirt I put on were in the laundry. (I pulled them out and put them on—desperate times.)
• I tried to squeeze one too many tasks into my morning multi-tasking and burned my oatmeal to the pot.
• My favorite cream-top whole milk had gone sour, so I had to use Tom’s Lactaid in my coffee.

I resigned to the fact that it was going to be a crappy morning, but then:

• I made it out of the house in time to catch the early bus, which I always shoot for but rarely make.
• On the long ride on the “0” bus, I got pleasantly lost in the book I’m reading (Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides).
• While transferring to the Mall Shuttle, I heard the ding that means the doors are closing and began running, and the driver held the doors for me!

The Mall Shuttle drivers never hold the doors.

Car-freely,
Amy

Let’s talk about dog poop.

The first lesson of dog ownership

On mornings that I bike to work, I dodge piles of dog poop as I roll my bike out of the garage. When I come home it’s dark, so I assume I’ve stepped in and rolled through quite a few piles.

A lot of dogs poop in our driveway … or a few dogs poop a lot in our driveway. Either way, there’s a lot of dog poop in our driveway—and none of it is from our dog.

I realize that a certain amount of illicit pooping is bound to happen in any neighborhood, but from the positioning of these poops—deep into the driveway, right up next to our fence—it’s apparent that people are bringing their dogs, likely on leash, to our driveway for the express purpose of pooping. Our driveway is somewhat secluded back by the alley, making undetected pooping easier, but it’s all over our tree lawn too.

We walk or run our dog and pick up his poop every time (except that one time when he pooped twice and I’d only brought one bag, but now I always bring two bags, and I picked up an extra pile in the park that wasn’t ours later that week to make up for it in the dog poop cosmos). Then, we come home and spend weekend afternoons picking up the poop of dogs whose owners have neither brains nor consciences.

I’m angry.

We plan to pave our weedy gravel driveway in the spring, but until then, we’re spending a good deal of time dodging dog poop and thinking hateful thoughts about our neighbors. I place blame fully on the owners, not the dogs, and I’d love to learn a way to make it all stop.

I’ve seen empty milk jugs stuffed full of plastic grocery bags and hung from trees and fences around the neighborhood. These on-site poop-scooping supplies seem to say, “There, now you have no excuse.” I’ll likely try that, and probably a sign, too.

Any other clever ideas?

Car-freely,
Amy