I cannot believe the amount of life that’s happened in the last 10 days — too much to attempt to catch up on in detail. So I’m going to go with a fortunately/unfortunately summary format.

Fortunately on Sunday, March 10, I did my first bike race, Mason Lake Road Race #2!
Unfortunately, I was dumb and not devious, so I wasted a lot of energy and didn’t do as well as I could have.
Fortunately I still got 9th out of 30 women in my race and I felt quite strong, so I know I can do better.
Unfortunately, a bunch of people passed me during the final sprint.
Fortunately, nobody in my race crashed and we all finished safe, sound, and rather damp (it rained at the start).
Unfortunately, I had to drive the almost two hours there by myself.
Fortunately, one of my teammates needed a ride home so I had carpool company on the way back.
Also fortunately I had an incredibly fun time and finished feeling excited to do more racing.

Fortunately, on Saturday afternoon Mom, Dad, Rachel, and I started making our submission to the Seattle Times Peeps contest.
Unfortunately, it was a lot pinning Peeps and sugar got everywhere.
Fortunately, there were lots of great news stories to make Peep parodies of.
Unfortunately, I had to leave before everything was finished.
Fortunately, Mom and Dad went nuts this year and did a bunch more elaborate Peep setups:
– Peepal Conclave
– Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un
– St. Peeptric’s Day
…all of which combined into the Seattle Tomes Newspeeper

Fortunately, Benji has finally figured how to roll over all over the floor, in one direction.
Unfortunately he keeps bonking into things and rolling over things.
Fortunately, we have a sunken floor in the library, and that keeps him contained.
Unfortunately, he tends to get stuck at the edges.
Fortunately, he’s started figuring out how to roll the other way, but so far only a little bit.
Unfortunately he still can’t go forwards, which makes getting toys frustrating.
Fortunately he still can’t go forwards, which makes keeping him contained much easier.

Unfortunately, Benji has almost outgrown his infant car seat and, therefore, the car seat-attached stroller.
Fortunately, we were able to get a nice umbrella stroller that’s super lightweight, easy to maneuver, and that Benji likes just fine.

Unfortunately, our car had a recall on some of the parts and we had to take it in to the dealership.
Fortunately it was all free, except they found a leaky water pump (not related to the recall) that we had to pay to replace.
Unfortunately, the new water pump leaked coolant onto the garage floor.
Fortunately, I was able to drop the car off for them to look at fairly quickly.
Unfortunately I ended up with a two-door Scion iQ, which barely fit Benji, our new small stroller, and me.
Fortunately it was purple and nicknamed the Purple Grape, and was a hoot to drive.
Unfortunately I had to go across 520 in it, and getting the toll charges will be complicated and unpleasant.
Fortunately, Benji and I were going across 520 to participate a study conducted by the Infant Hearing Lab at the UW. (That’s right, Benji is now part of SCIENCE!)

Fortunately, the first day of the study Benji was mid-wake period, perky, happy, and charmed all the researchers. He also responded vigorously to the noises.
Unfortunately, he yanked the little earbud out of his ear halfway through.
Fortunately, they’re used to that and popped it back in in no time.
Unfortunately, I had to wear headphones and listen to music (so I didn’t give Benji any subliminal clues), and the selection was horrifying.
Fortunately, I could plug in my phone and listen to NPR.
Unfortunately, the second day I had to wake Benji from his nap early and he was tired and grumpy the whole time, and didn’t respond nearly so well.
Fortunately, we have one more day of SCIENCE, so maybe that will go better.
Unfortunately, it costs about $10 roundtrip in tolls.
Fortunately I get $15 per visit to the lab, and they pay for parking, so I’ll end up about $15 richer at the end. And I’d do it for SCIENCE.
Unfortunately they don’t have these T-shirts for babies.

That’s all I got time for right now. But also Ian and I are enjoying re-watching the new Sherlock TV series, I’m going to another bike race on Saturday, and we have truffle honey bacon that tastes like the Platonic ideal of bacon.