Now that we both have bikes, and both these bikes actually work, I decreed that Saturday trips to Starbucks would have to be by bike (barring nasty weather like the rain we've been getting on and off lately). Richard gave me a look and noted that it was an awfully long way to the coffee shop and did I maybe want to start off smaller? Nonsense, I replied, full of idiotic enthusiasm and blithely ignoring the warnings of impending rain. So, we hopped on our bikes and off we went.

I discovered two things very quickly. The first was that we lowered the seat on my shiny new purple bike too far, but I figured I could put up with it for the one trip and raise it later. The second was that I haven't ridden a bike in years and my butt has apparently lost all the bike seat calluses it used to have. I am sore in places a woman should not be this sore. Ow. I mean that in the most sincere way.

But we did it - there and back, and aside from the sore rump and a determination to raise that seat so maybe next time I'll actually be able to get a little bit of power on the pedals, it wasn't bad at all.

We also made a decision. We've been toying with the prospect of taking our honeymoon trip to Ireland this year. But with the uncertainty of employment and the fact that it might be difficult to get that much time off so early in a job for either of us, I wasn't sure if it would work. However, now that we've got the bikes and (yes, despite the sore butt issue) I'm remembering how much I used to like bicycling everywhere back in college, I made a suggestion. Postpone our honeymoon til next year, and take the time in between now and then to get us into biking shape. We don't need to be able to do speed races; all we need to be able to do is to ride cross-country all over Ireland. And I think if we work at it a bit, we can actually reach that goal.

Now that I've rearranged my work schedule so I go in an hour later (and come home an hour later too, but that's okay), I've got lots more time in the morning. I figure if I can get out in the mornings and take a very short ride for the next week or so, I should be ready for next Saturday's trip to Starbucks. And maybe by then my butt won't be yelling at me the rest of the day for plopping it onto a narrow little seat and making it exercise. Or at least that's the current working theory.