Two-Wheelin'

When the gas money runs out and Liz needs transportation to her gig as The Professor (see last post), now she'll have two-wheel power, thanks to new front end purchased by yours truly.

The guy at the bicycle shop on College Avenue, a half block from the New Haven Green, asked me if the old wheel was stolen. I guess that happens a lot around here. I had to explain that, no, it just dropped off the bike while we were driving one day. Doh!

The guy gave me one of those silent "yikes" expressions, then went to work on a spiffy new wheel, tire and tube.

Now, I bought the bike for Liz at a yard sale about a year ago for $25 dollars, and only that much because I wasn't able to talk the dude down to $20. So, at $58, the new wheel cost more than twice as much as the bike. But that's cheaper than a new bike, and it'll be worth it for all the good times ahead biking around Connecticut.

Primaries and SCSU

The Indiana primary Tuesday proved to be a long one, especially for Dave. He got home around 4 a.m., taking the last commuter train out of the city. North Carolina was called very early in the evening, while a county in Indiana held up the slim-margin win for Clinton.

For me, I was able to leave work and post the outcome on Courant.com from home sometime after 1 a.m. We are usually up then anyways.

In other news, I will be teaching a course about online journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, which is a four-year university here in New Haven. The journalism department at SCSU is offering the course for the first time, and I will be designing the curriculum. The course won't begin until next January, so I have plenty of time to get things together.

The head of SCSU's j-school is a columnist for the Hartford Courant. He asked my boss if she or one of her staffers would be interested in teaching. The deputy online editor is already teaching at UConn and my boss has a full plate, so they asked me mainly because I live in New Haven and have a perfect work schedule where I could easily teach a morning class and still make it to work on time.

It's going to be a challenge but one that I'm looking forward to.

Our friends from Wausau, Keith and Kris, made a stop in New Haven this weekend during their week-long trip to New York. (Keith was a groomsman in our wedding.)

They were our first visitors to our apartment besides Dave's mom who helped us move in. It's nice have the space for visitors.

We took a stoll to the New Haven Green and ate dinner at a Korean and Japanese restaurant. Dave and Keith went for a run this morning, and then it was time for corned beef hash and eggs at our favorite diner.

Our next visitors are coming in about two weeks. My parents are making the long drive out east to visit Dave and I and then drive down to D.C. to visit Nathan and Kyle.

I finally took some photos of our apartment to share. I have interior shots that I will put at http://picasaweb.google.com/eputnam97

Where has my wheel gone?

Dave and I took advantage of some great springtime weather this weekend with a trip to the Berkshires to visit Dave's grandparents, who live in Windsor. (Dave went to high school in the neighboring town of Dalton.)

Dave's grandparents have been graciously keeping our bikes this winter, so we decided to drive up there for a visit and to get the bikes. While we were there, we took the bikes out for a 10-mile ride on a rail trail.

We have a bike rack that attaches to rear of the car to transport the bikes. When we got back to New Haven, my bike was missing its front wheel! Somewhere between western Massachusetts and southern Connecticut, the wheel fell off without our notice. I just hope it didn't hit anyone or anything!!!

Washington, D.C.

Dave and I just returned from a weekend visiting Nathan and Kyle in Virginia. During our trip, we went to Mount Vernon and to the new Newseum, a museum dedicated to the field of journalism that just opened on Pennsylvania Avenue.

It was good to see Nate and Kyle, who we had not seen since the wedding.

Although crowded, Mount Vernon was totally worth the visit and likely a repeat visit in the future. The house and grounds, including a view of the Potomac, were breathtaking. http://www.mountvernon.org/

Luckily, we got into the Newseum for free. Because Dave works for News Corp., which donated money to the museum, the $20 admission fee was waived. It's in intersting mix of the past and present. The food in the Wolfgang Puck cafeteria is good, too. http://www.newseum.org/

Please take a look at all of our photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/eputnam97

That Old English Wit

No one turns popular wisdom on its arse quite like Oscar Wilde.

Case in point: "A Woman of No Importance," which we had the pleasure of seeing Saturday night at the Yale Repertory Theatre. (My apologies for the snooty Ivy League spelling of theater, but I'm just copying what's written on the program.)

Somehow I was able to make it home from work early and usher m'lady into the witty world of high society in Victorian England. The plot was somewhat irrelevant. Anyone who goes to an Oscar Wilde play for the plot should be forced to repeat English 101. It's the zingers on relationships and propriety that make the experience a delight, as oppose to a "bore" or an "utter tragedy," as old Oscar might say.

Here is one of the play's particularly biting Wildean riffs: "Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious. Both are disappointed."

Or this: "Children love their parents. Eventually they come to judge them. Rarely do they forgive them."

Of course, these aren't so much truisms as they are observations. They have the ring of truth, but each member of the audience must decide how much stock to place in them, taking into account that a particularly cynical perspective on love and marriage might be deemed disagreeable to the lady or gentleman sitting next to you in the theater.