Kitty Crack

Cats on catnip are pretty funny. Ours (we have three: Fysh, Jade, and Jupiter) roll around in it, lick a lot, and become very playful. Playful in the cute way cats in cartoons play with balls of yarn. I was always real careful about how much I gave the cats because I figured they'd OD on the stuff, and I'm a cheap bastard. But, the last time I went to the vet and she gave Milo (sadly, he's no longer with us) about a 1/4 cup of catnip.

Who would have thunk that cats like morel mushrooms? Turns out ours do. We were woken up last night by the sound of a paper bag full of dried mushrooms being batted around the hardwood floors.

I dragged my sleepy butt out of the bed and poked around the house until I found Jupiter staring at me, with the bag of mushrooms in his mouth, and a look that said, "You thought they'd be safe in the cupboard, didn't you? Sucker." Needless to say, they're safely stored away in a drawer now.

If catnip is kitty marijuana, then I guess morels are kitty crack. They went nuts just smelling the mushrooms and playing with them like dried-up bugs. I wonder what they would have done had they done more than just nibble the shrooms.

On an unrelated note, I went to the bike store to get a couple more spokes to replace the one that broke last night. I chatted with one of the bike builders there while I was waiting for another to put new handlebar tape on my road bike. This guy has 9 bikes, and he's built all but 2 of them! The kid couldn't have been more than 18 years old. The latest one is a full suspension frame, and the down tube has a triangular cross-section with 8 gussets. Or perhaps the head tube had 8 gussets - it was large enough to house some 1.5 inch Manitou fork. He said that he just needed to pony up the cash for a rear fork.

Yeah, I get all excited that I can replace a couple of spokes and true the wheel up. This guy builds his bikes from scratch.

But, my point is, I had to get the rear wheel in order because I'm gonna race this weekend. Mary has some sort of herb conference - not what you think, she's a naturopathic physician. I've only done one other race, a duathalon. It was was fun - but I did the bike portion after my friend, Nick, ran the race. As a result, I was able to pass a ton of people because they were all tired out from running the first 5 miles. Now I will be able to ride against fresh riders. The question that remains is: am I a beginner or a clydesdale?

Meanwhile, I ordered the new rear wheel. It'll be here in about two weeks (he has to order the PW Hub as he didn't have it in stock). No more fixing spokes.