Independence Day!

We really didn't have much planned for today... grill up some Guamanian chicken (a family recipe) later this evening, have some watermelon, watch "1776", maybe find someplace to watch fireworks, or just sit out on our back deck and watch the illegal ones being set off in the park behind us (it's usually a pretty good show).

Well, now we get to toss a trip to Tacoma into the mix. To go with our nifty new bikes, some friends gave us their old (but extremely nice) rear mount bike rack... which requires a towing hitch (something we've been meaning to get anyway). U-Haul has a really good one and will install it for us at a decent price, but unfortunately, the closest U-Haul place that has them in stock is down in Tacoma (we could order one at the local store and they'd have it by Thursday, but we're impatient!). So, down south we go... probably going to see about visiting rackham's aunt and uncle in Yelm while we're at it, since we'll already be mostly there.

I'm rather excited about this, because having the bike rack up and usable means we can take the bikes out to some of the many bikepaths in the area -- in particular, we're looking at the Sammamish River Trail (which is part of the massive Burke-Gilman Trail) over in Bothell. You know, someplace FLAT!

And I'm surprisingly non-sore today after our 20-minute ride yesterday. A little achy, but in a good way.

Hope everyone who is celebrating has a fun and safe holiday!!

Annoying Jerks

Got back from bike-riding again just a bit ago (30 minutes this time!), where we'd taken the bikes down to the trail in Bothell... returning only to find that someone in a red Mega-Mobile (judging by height, size and paint chipping) had opened his or her door rather aggressively into my car. There's a lovely crease in the front fender now, tinged on the sides with their red paint (man, I hope it's visible on their car and they have to pay to have it fixed).

No note, no nothing... and they HAD to have noticed, because it's a pretty substantial crease. Grrrrrrr.

ETA: And there's a $100 deductible we'll have to pay to get it fixed. Which, by rights, should have been paid by the stupid, cowardly jerks who did it and drove off.