Bikes, Buildabears, and Bags...oh my!

May is an absolutely wonderful month. Many of my most magical moments in the last two years have happened in May, and this year is no exception.

This year, May is a remarkable month for many reasons -- but for this posting, I'm just going to focus on the fun I've been having.

I had a bicycle for a number of years that gave me no end of problems. It simply never could be adjusted for me. I've had massive wrist joint pain in every ride of this bike. My hands fall asleep after a while and ache for hours after I ride. Not a good thing... After a lot of thought, testing, and demoing -- I've picked up a new bike.

Meet Tinkerbell: She's a 2007 Kona Dr. Dew in a lovely shade of tinkerbell/orchid green-yellow.

She's got a lot of really nice components... Getting her back to the flat was a test in "pack-mule-ing", however.

The maiden voyage sets sail today, after a quick stop to pick up a sassy yellow bottle cage.

I did have to swap the WTB stock saddle for my own custom Terry one though -- I love Terry seats (and clothes!). Oh, and just a quick little note here -- DISC BRAKES! YEEEEEAH!

ON TO THE BEARS!
I collect Build-A-Bears. And by collect, I mean that I get them stuffed with hugs and wishes and love, dress them and often change their clothes -- and hug them LOTS (they even go web surfing with me much of the time). There is nothing more I love doing than dressing them all up for holidays -- and I ADORE making them all into "Santa's Workshop" for the winter holidays. This may has been *extremely* good to my Build-A-Bear collection.

I have in my collection now, TWO beautiful South-African Springboks:

Say hello to
Elliptic
&
Vanilla

They really are something else, let me tell you. They are only available from the South African Build-A-Bear, and they are worth every penny spent getting them.


I also picked up a really unique Dachshund!

Previously, I had only seen him available in Japan, with no hope of shipping to me, but when I stopped by Build-A-Bear yesterday, he had *just* arrived here, and so I scooped him up and took him home (with some appropriate dog toys, of course).




And of course, I also have to mention my 'rare finds' snag-of-the month -- I picked up the *original* Nikki's Bear (Lavender), complete with Pin, Cookie Monster (Cookie), and all four of the limited edition, numbered "Year of Friendship" Season Bears (Dewdrop, Oceandrop, Raindrop, and Snowdrop), with their pins as well -- *including* the super hard-to-find Spring Bear.

I look forward to picking up a Cheetah (Darjeeling), the first Kuddly Koala (Canberra), and of course the first of the Gem Bears (Cotton Candy).

BAGS! Crumpler is da shiznit!

While my latest bag purchase hasn't been decided yet (I'm still debating which one to get!) -- we did pick up the "Tony Blair Squirrel" for CBU. It's GORGEOUS and it replaces his sad little dying case logic bag (same size, same utility). The blue/yellow/orange colour scheme is bright and crazy, but the inside pattern is what makes us laugh.

CBU snagged me a delicious silver crumpler pendant and I braided some black cotton rope to make a cute little bracelet out of it.














What a may! I even managed to send out a Mother's day gift to my mom and a Birthday gift to my dad (with more of that gift coming at the end of this month -- on his actual birthday).

I think I'll take a break from all this fun and do more serious things in the next few weeks though -- I mean, I still have a Jeff Noon book I've got to read! Ooooh, and then there's this other book I wanted to pick up....