Weekend

We bought a bike trailer a few years ago -- more than a few, come to think of it. I think Kiera may have been an infant when we got it. We sprang for a Burley -- there are different brands out there, but I'm pretty sure it's still true that if you're serious about biking with a trailer, you go for that particular brand. When we first got it, I was the one who figured out how to clamp it to the bike, because as a former technical writer skilled at translating from "techie" to "English," I was able to decode the manual. What fascinated me at the time was that the engineering of the trailer was a beautiful thing to behold; the user interface design was terrible. I showed Ed how to do it and he's done it ever since.

I had never actually pulled this bike trailer before Saturday. But on Saturday, one of the girls suggested a trip to Liberty Frozen Custard. Ed has them convinced that the only way to get there is by bike (or at least, he's got them convinced that the only way THEY'RE ever getting there is by bike); it's just off Minnehaha Parkway. Molly doesn't fit into the trailer anymore, but she does have one of those tagalong bikes. Ed took the tagalong, because it makes it harder to balance and is in general more difficult to use than the trailer; I pulled Kiera.

It was a glorious June day: sunny, breezy, warm, crisp. The parkway bike path is lovely and I was impressed once again at the engineering that had gone into the trailer. It's not difficult at all to pull on a flat surface, though Ed suggested that I downshift early on hills, and this was excellent advice.

On Sunday, we went walking along the river, then to a friend's party. At the party, I ran into a friend who'd been at Fourth Street and was surprised that I hadn't been there. If you were hoping to run into me, I apologize for disappointing you. But -- our summers here are short and really, really beautiful, and June is frequently the nicest month of the entire year. Biking along Minnehaha Creek to go buy frozen custard sounded like a lot more fun this Saturday than going to a hotel, even if people I liked were going to be hanging out there.

Indian Food

If you're local to me and you like Indian food, there's a new Indian restaurant in my neighborhood. Ed and I ate there tonight and it's really, really good.

It's called Gandhi Mahal, and it's at 3009 27th Ave S. -- basically, if you know where the Center for the Americas used to be, it's across the street, down the block from the post office. Next door to Midori's Floating World. It just opened, about three weeks ago, and everyone there seems a little bit anxious and really eager to please. Did I mention the food is really good? Ed got the Kamal Ke Mango with lamb; I had a sampler platter. The thing that struck me as I was eating was that when Indian food is done right, there's an incredible complexity of flavor (plus they give you chutneys that can completely change the experience from bite to bite, if you're so inclined), and it has been a really long time since I've had food like this, done this well.

If you like Indian food, you should definitely go try it. (Alas for us, Indian food is one of the few kinds of food that Molly is really not fond of. Kiera likes curry as long as it's very mild, but Molly will complain. Though the naan might make up for it.)