As a sop to the poor, housebound thing I'll be in a few months when Minnesota starts to become cold and awful again, I've been biking a fair amount lately. Not a lot — I haven't biked to work yet because I dread going up and down the ramps on Snelling — but prettymuch whenever I'm going to Minneapolis. Where at most it's about 30 minutes to anywhere I'm going.

I've had a few inconsequential, not-entirely-sober falls, and I've gotten pretty turned around in that strange city to the west when coming back at night, but for the most part it's been positive. I can get to Markie's or Town Hall or Cari's, and back again, without getting lost. Basically that's all I ever need to do, though there are rumblings about a more ambitious bike ride in the coming weeks. As long as it's not down that hill in St. Paul. I've pushed my bike back up that enough for one lifetime.

This was a busy week. I pulled out the carpet downstairs, which was dubious even if it wasn't visibly covered with the dread black mold, and I've pulled out what I can of the waterstained particle boards underneath. On Monday I have what I hope is my final code inspection, checking some work on my water heater vent that's been completed for months now.

I also got a letter this week telling me that I'm officially off of St. Paul's vacant house list, which saves me from a $1,000 monitoring fee.

I bought a PS3 Slim, or rather Barry floated the purchase for me for a month so I could play Borderlands co-op with him and Nick on the platform of his choice. Pretty excited about that, since I was planning to purchase one later this year but didn't expect to have the money for a while yet.

I'm sending back the Season 2, Disc 2 DVD of Pushing Daisies as soon as I get it on Monday, so that I can finish watching the (fantastic) series on Blu-ray.

I bought curtains, yes, the expensive curtains from Sears that I was complaining about on Facebook if you saw that, after pricing similar curtains elsewhere. It turns out decent pleated curtains are expensive, outrageously so if you don't get buy readymade from a chain store, and I refuse to get blinds.

(As everyone I've ever lived with has at some point or other noticed, I cannot operate blinds correctly. But I also prefer the look of curtains in any case.)

On Thursday a few of us got together at Cari's for Project Runway, which so far has been enjoyable, the terrible ads we have to watch now that it's on Lifetime notwithstanding. I pre-partied with a homemade and thus way too strong gin-and-tonic before I left, which I'm guessing was my downfall, as Jenna would say.

Downfall because even though I felt fine all night, I woke up at 2 in the morning, startled to find myself throwing up Girl's Night red wine all over my white sheets. I have to say, I'm really, really impressed by the effectiveness of Shout Gel Advanced. They should do a viral marketing campaign featuring twenty-somethings who make bad decisions.

On Friday on the way home from work, I realized I had a flat tire. Like really flat, either because I ran over a nail in the alley that morning or (I can't resist a paranoid twinge) because someone had let the air out. I filled it up again and drove home; it'll be interesting to see if the air has leaked out while it's been in my garage this weekend.

I should mention that when I was walking to my house that night I saw a squirrel, a rabbit, and several birds all fleeing in separate directions from the same spot. Another secret conspiracy against me!

Rather than deal with my car I biked to a coworker's housewarming that night, which was a good time. I don't know those people too well so I got a bit too quippy, which was unfortunate albeit expected.

Everything stayed low-key, but at one point one of his housemates was on my case for occasionally (and legally) biking on the sidewalk, claiming I could kill a pedestrian, which I think is far less likely to happen than my getting hit by a car.

(I can't remember who I was talking to about this a week or so ago, but I don't understand why some bikers insist that we all act like traffic, when casual riders like myself appreciate having the sidewalk as an option. There aren't too many pedestrians to yield to around here at 10 at night, and I don't count on drunk drivers noticing my LED taillight.)

Since I was still a little hungover from Thursday night's debacle, I biked home early, after three hours and three beers. And of course after assuring everyone that three lager beers over that timeframe is not enough to get me drunk, and it isn't, I immediately crashed my bike in a hidden sinkhole in my coworker's front lawn. I'm guessing that no one in the backyard saw that, because how could you not laugh?

Also happening this week: my littlest brother, Josh, is engaged now, which I found out on Thursday at Cari's (same place I found out about Matt, as I recall) so yesterday I had those guys (plus Paul, my brother-in-law once removed) over for pizza and videogames. Which is to say, the usual. I'm sure there will be grander festivities sometime next spring.