Biking and shopping

The sun came out this afternoon—welcome back, summer! To celebrate, I decided to go for a short bike ride after work and end at QFC to pick up some groceries and an iced latte at Starbucks.

I quickly discovered that I am not a big fan of bike riding in the late afternoon when people are going home from work. I much preferred the empty streets from Sunday afternoon! I don't know how people can stand to commute to work by bike, both coming and going during the busiest traffic of the day.

After risking my neck going south on Colby—well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a little nervewracking driving by diagonally parked cars that may or may not be wanting to mow me down—I switched over to Hoyt for the return through downtown, which was a little bit quieter.

I had a moment of embarrassment when I felt the back of my pants riding a little low...then realized that I was wearing red underwear, so not only was I kind of flashing the cars behind me, I was waving a big red flag at them! So to speak. I remedied the situation by taking off my jacket (I was a little warm anyway), and tying it around my waist. Both problems solved, and modesty was restored!

About eleven miles or so later I was at QFC and ready to buy my groceries—mostly stuff for tomorrow night's book club dinner—and head home. I had brought both bike bags but still needed to be careful not to buy so much stuff that I couldn't carry it all home!

I ended up getting everything on my list except for water (obviously) and laundry detergent, which I really wanted but was afraid would just not fit in the bags. Even so, my purchases filled five grocery bags, all to be transferred into my two bike bags!

Well, bottom line, I am a packing genius. I managed to get everything into the bike bags, even leaving a small pocket unused. When I was loaded up I looked like quite the pack mule!


No, I didn't leave the latte on the bike, I carried it in my hand!

Here are the groceries unpacked at home. They include...2 bags Romaine hearts, 1 bag spinach, Fiber One cereal, rustic Italian bread, feta cheese, Parmesan, fresh basil, 4 T-bone steaks (for book club), olives and feta in oil, salsa, anchovies (for making Caesar salad), mustard, an onion, garlic, sushi, 2 eggplants, deli turkey, a bag of lemons, and sushi for lunch tomorrow!