Odds and Ends

There have been many little things going on lately, none of which was long enough for a full post.  Now that they have completely cluttered our mental desk, it's time to dump them here.

Cailan has started to role-play family values and has learned to make a respectable-looking hunk of flesh out of silly putty.  Here we see a parent lovingly providing for it's child.

Heather rode a bike bigger than her.  We actually had the chance to ride full suspension 29er's.  A couple that work at a local bike shop are very interested in buying an off-road tandem and we offered ours for a test.  They reciprocated by letting heather ride this Niner and letting me use one of the shops $6000 demo Niners.

Honestly there was so much difference in body position between our trusty old bikes and these new-fangled machines that we couldn't honestly evaluate the performance advantages of a 29" wheel.  Heather was able to clear a few uphill obstacles that had confounded her before.  But neither of us had to charge up a new bike - probably for the best as we are getting ready to paint our house.  It will no longer be our "new grey house" but rather our "new green house"  (pics as it happens.)  Our bids ranged from $7000 to $2100 -guess which on we took...

In the world of music something quite interesting has come up.  In the normal, unpredictable manner, I got a gig!  I will be performing in the workshop production of a new American opera in Little Rock Arkansas right before thanksgiving.  The show is called Billy Blythe, and is the coming-of-age story of Bill Clinton.  The irony is that after years of looking too young for opera roles, I am now being cast as a 14 year-old Bill Clinton...