We have not visited as many zoos as I'd like, because Austin is not a fan of them. He was complaining on the way to this one, telling us that if you've seen one zoo then you've seen them all because it's the same animals over and over again.
While there are many animals that we do see in each zoo, once we were inside the zoo, we were surprised to see that they had quite a few unique animals there. So he joked that he was so glad he talked us into the zoo, because you always see a wide variety when visiting multiple zoos and they are never the same. We should listen to him more often, lol!
We only saw about half of the zoo due to getting distracted by Blue Bell Ice Cream and a visit to the Botanical Gardens, but what we did see was awesome. We loved this zoo!I overheard something today that had me remembering how hard it is to be a Mom. I think part of why it is so hard, is because you lose all of your brain cells when you give birth to the child. I used to think we gave our brain cells to the child, and that's why we lost them...but as Bill Cosby can verify-that is not the case. So I imagine the brain cells are in that same black hole where socks get lost.
I heard a woman telling a child about four years old one of those things that only a parent would tell a child. While holding a water bottle two inches from his face she said, "If you'd get it...then you'd have it". I saw the child look at her like, wait a minute...let me grab a notebook here so I can be sure to fully grasp this. 1. If I'd get it. 2. Then I'd have it.
No, he didn't really do that. But he did curl his lip at her all Elvis like to indicate just how dumb he thought she was. Ahhhhh....kids...gotta love them. They drive you into a sleepless stupor and then bask in their superiority. I wanted to let him know that once upon a time, before he entered her world, she was brilliant! But I knew he'd never understand until he had children of his own. So I just giggled instead.
Living the life in South Carolina.
Winter's first casualty: the Co-Habitant's Pletscher twin-legged kickstand broke.
These things have a spring inside that regulates the folding of the legs. A few days ago the spring snapped and the legs went limp, so he removed the contraption. The working theory is that the winter wind swayed the bike upon the kickstand back and forth and stressed out the spring.
Not sure that fixing it is possible, since it may be hard to find a replacement spring. Has anybody else had this happen to a Pletscher Twin Legger?
Believe it or not, the Co-Habitamt has a backup kickstand. (How many people can say 
This morning I ran into Nao Tomii - a Boston area sculptor, bicycle component manufacturer, and recently launched framebuilder. I was excited to see that the roadbike he had been building for himself was now finished: There he was, riding it... in a matching outfit!
Tomii frames are fillet-brazed - a process I've been intrigued by after watching Ian Sutton building Icarus frames in the same workshop occupied by Bryan of Royal H. Cycles. Nao learned fillet brazing from Ian and began making his own frames this year.
Fillet brazing (pronounced kind of like "fill-it") is a lugless method of joining steel tubes together using a heated filler material. The construction, as far as I understand, has the strength of lugged steel. The look is absolutely unique: seamless and "liquidy."Whereas lugs create interruptions at the joints and welds create visible seams, fillets givethe impression of one tube flowing into another. There is no beginning or end to the joint and the effect is mesmerising.
It almost looks as if the frame is sculpted, which makes it easy to understand how this particular method would appeal to a sculptor.
To my eye, the streamlined look of the joints lends itself especially well to road/racing bikes - reinforcing the idea that they are light, unencumbered, fast. And on this particular bicycle, this is further reinforced by the "airy" colour.
Lilac-gray and white -
- with strategically placed powder-blue accents (an excellent paint job by Circle A).
The "lighter than air" effect is a clever way to suggest racy qualities without resorting to a traditionally aggressive colour scheme, like bright red. I love it and would like something similar should I ever have a road/racing frame built from scratch, or an old frame repainted.
The pewter headbadge, handmade by Nao, adds just a bit of flourish as the finishing touch to an otherwise minimalist frame. Sigh, I love it. This bicycle is just so perfectly elegant and tasteful.
