Bikes!

It's a two-wheeled world right now with the warmest March I can remember.

The flowers are blooming, the magnolia is bursting out all over and vacation is within sight. We usually leave a frosty Indiana behind when we take off for Spring Break, but I'll be OK leaving for a while regardless of the balmy weather here. A break will be good for everyone.

I was fortunate to have a quick start to the weekend, which was good because I rode my bike to work Friday morning and was able to make it a leisurely return trip and still pick Alison up from school on time. Saturday, Ali and I rode north while Jenna and Amer rode east. We met in the middle, which just happens to be Huddles, home of our current favorite frozen yogurt. After a little lunch and mother-daughter fun, the girls and I rode south with a little side trip in Broad Ripple.

We'll have to return Jen this afternoon, but it'll be another bike transfer so it will still be fun. We'd keep her if Amy could bear to give her up, but we've tried that before. There seems to be little interest in a full-time, one-girl trade from Team Tokash to Team Reed.

When they were small, we all used to play together, but I'm becoming increasingly unnecessary to their good time. They get plenty of time alone, but I still try to infiltrate their twosome when I can. I have discovered that my success rate skyrockets when my credit card is showing. Or if I have food. This morning I bribed them with a walk to Good Morning Mama for breakfast with a soda chaser from the vegetable stand across the way.

"I like to get these old-timey bottles," says Ali as she worked the bottle cap opener. "I take off the label and let people think I'm drinking beer."

Jenna's bottle was stamped with Cocoa-Cola Light so there was no disguising it. But the novelty of it all wasn't diminished at all. Ali had talked up the soda possibility on the walk in, telling Jenna that my favorite soda of all time -- Moxie -- was available there.

"What's it taste like?" Jenna asked.

"Gasoline," I said, delighting in her gasp.

"Gasoline?! What does gasoline taste like?" she said, horrified.

"Terrible," I said.

"Why do you love it?"


"Oh I don't. I just like the fact that it makes me think of Lisbon Falls, Maine, where Ali's Uncle James lives."

"Oh. Is he the tall one? I remember him."

That led us to a discussion of the word "moxie" and that got us all the way to the restaurant where all things breakfast were devoured.

I kind of hogged the girls while Jeff did most of our weekend chores and may have dabbled a bit in his baseball draft preparations. He managed to get tennis and basketball in, so I don't feel too bad about his weekend.

I've done little to prepare for vacation, but Alison is already packed. I'm going to have to get on that. Right now, though, I'm going to eavesdrop on the girls.

Last I saw them they were sharing a container of raspberries, and I heard this from my almost daughter: "Look, Ali! They have little hairs. They're going through puberty!"

Oy. I can only imagine what I'll learn.