more bikesn' halloween

we got TP'd! caitlin's friend lizzo toiletpapered our house on sat. night. and then left cookies.

it was about the nicest act of vandalism i've ever witnessed. lizzo's mom called later to make sure they hadn't tp'd the halloween lights, because she didn't want the house to burn down. ha! lovely concerned parent. here's a pic of the house.

tracy had a super halloween celebration last night - pies and apple crisp (my personal favorite) and plenty of decorations, including a cauldron overflowing with dry ice steam. very cool. i work studied at namaste yoga in rockridge last night, so i missed most of the festivities, but made it home just in time to watch 'laguna beach' with caitlin (it's "her show"). ugh. i honestly can't stand any of the teens on that show (all rich, entitled, hopelessly beautiful and not at all awkward like high schoolers should be), but i also can't look away. i spend the entire episode on the couch exclaiming "ugh!" "ew!" "i hate them!" but just can't stop.

i also spent some time yesterday volunteering for cycles of change - an org that runs programs at various schools in the east bay. they take kids out on bike rides all over the city. the kids get to work on an old, donated bike during the course and at the end, they've earned the bike with their own hard work in mechanics class, so they get to keep it. the program also has its own fleet of bikes that kids can take out for longer rides. so, by the end of the program, kids have a) earned a bike b) learned how to fix a bike, c) gotten out of their neighborhoods to see some of the amazing public parks around here d) learned all the safe biking roads in their city. it's pretty amazing. and they operate mainly on volunteer and underpaid staff hours (gregg lavender, who heads 3 programs in the area, gets paid for 25 hpweek, but routinely works almost twice that). i offered to volunteer for them, writing and such, and i'm going to buy two bikes from them. i sat there for a few hours while gregg and michel worked on several bikes for me to try. i got a great deal on two - one road bike that i'll fix up a little myself (er....once i learn how to) and one hybrid bike that'll be ready to go. and all the money goes to the org. you can check it out at www.cyclesofchange.org. very cool.