Surprise bicycle

[helen99]

Today we went to the thrift shop to drop off a TV and microwave. Since we were there already, we decided to take a look around. I got a dinner set for two (well not entirely matched, but almost). The set consists of 2 glasses, 2 bowls, 2 dinner plates, 2 side plates, and 2 each of knives, forks, and spoons. Not bad for ten bucks... I also found a CD by a celtic band called Lunasa (consists of instrumental celtic background music). rialian found some shirts, some of which are pretty nice, and one of which is an, ahm, uniquely patterned creation...

Then as we were about to check out, I saw a little blue mountain bike in seemingly great condition for $34. All bikes were half price, which reduced the price, after taxes, to about $18. I picked it up... I really was not expecting to buy a bicycle today, but I did. So now I have a bike that's short enough for me to ride, and it's a girl's bike (the main reasons I never rode Eyovah's bike before it was stolen). We put it inside since we're pretty sure there's a ring of bike thieves posing as handyman types in the general DC area - but it's small enough not to really take up that much room so I can clear out some space in the utility closet for it.

After that we went to Brookside gardens and traipsed around the place, learning various botanical names. The sun was bright and it was kind of cold, but very nice. Among many other things, we encountered three gazebos, a stone labyrinth that we walked, many trees and shrubs including 2 bald cypruses, 3 ponds, a large bird made out of rusty motorcycle parts, and a couple of fountains... (which one of these objects doesn't match the others?)... The bird was actually for sale ($4,000.00 - too bad since it was very nifty).

After that we went to Conscious Corner shopping center to eat at Great Sage and shop a little at Roots. Unfortunately we think they used soy to fry the potatoes, because rialian had to go home and sleep shortly after that. When he wakes up, we're going to our friend's house for a to watch a video on string theory.

Comments

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Ooooo!!! Name of video on string theory, please??

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I was told the video was called "Parallel Universe", but now I can't find any DVDs by that name on Amazon. It's possible they got the name wrong. I also didn't see any credits or title at the beginning (it may have been a home recording). I'll ask them to send me the exact name and author next time I see them.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

Coolness, it would be much appriciated.

Update

[helen99.livejournal.com]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/parallelunitrans.shtml
I asked rialian and he said it was something from BBC (see above link for transcript). It's obviously a made for TV thing and therefore doesn't cover the decade of work that went into it, but it briefly covers the evolution of M-theory (which was the result of string theory).

For the non-TV perspective

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Superstring Phenomenology and the Brane-World

This was actually linked from the BBC site but the link didn't work, so I hunted it down.

Re: For the non-TV perspective

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

It works for me, though from a brief scan of it, it seems to be rather math heavy.

Re: For the non-TV perspective

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Just got back from the bookstore. I found a book called "Parallel Worlds: Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos" by Michio Kaku. It describes what was presented in the video but goes into a little more detail. He doesn't get into the math at all, but explains the concepts.

Red Letter Day

[iliandriel.livejournal.com]

Wow! sounds like a lovely day altogether. I love it when I have one of them. Every thing seems to go well for you no matter what. glad that you got the bike it will come in handy.

I love celtic music it touches the soul. I love Enya also. Her voice makes you want to hear more.

Re: Red Letter Day

[helen99.livejournal.com]

So far it's still sort of in pieces - we found out that the gear shifts were broken (why they probably got rid of it in the first place). We ordered the parts and they came in yesterday, but we're going to New Jersey this weekend to visit friends so I doubt we'll get around to it until next week. Hopefully the bike will be ready to ride by a week from Sunday - then we can go to the park so I can relearn how to ride! That should be fun.

Re: Red Letter Day

[iliandriel.livejournal.com]

Well you know what they say about bike riding you never forget, but rather have to remind your body about balance. I'm not the most coordinated person in the world and tend to tire easily.

Drivers here scare the piss out of me so I'm not riding a bike on the streets anytime soon.lol

Relearning should prove to be entertaining.lol Good luck on that.