Wednesday, June 15, 2011

I bought a bike today, and other things

So, I finally took the plunge and decided to by myself a bike today.  It is a cruiser bike to ride around town on.  The store had two in stock (in the back, which they so nicely put together for me).  Unfortunately, they were the two that I was trying to decide between online.  They both had excellent customer ratings.  Why is this unfortunate...well, it meant I had to make a decision.  If I were to have decided on looks alone, I would have bought the Huffy Cranbrook Cruiser.  It had a nice retro look, which I really liked.  Comfort-wise, I think I liked the Schwinn Delmar Cruiser slightly more, but it was close, and it's not like I could really ride them much in the store.  I also liked that the DelMar had a rack on the back.  In terms of price, the Huffy was 9 or 10 dollars cheaper. 

So, do I go with the one that's the better price and the one I think looks cooler, or the one that is slightly more, but has a slight edge in terms of comfort, and a rack already included.  This was a tough decision for me, I called home and spoke with my brother and after much debate in my head I decided to go for the Schwinn.  I think part of it had to do with the fact that I tend to correlate Huffy with kids bikes and Schwinn bikes with adult bikes (even though the looks of these two bikes seemed the opposite of that to me).  Also, the Schwinn received slightly better reviews on the website.

Now, after one ride on the bike, I am happy with my purchase.  We'll see how it holds up over time.  The ride was very smooth, and although the roads were flat, not downhill, the bike coasted really well.  I was not planning on riding the bike quite so soon, but unfortunately it would not fit in my car.  So, my solution was to ride the bike home, then walk back to the store and drive my car home.  This solution worked pretty well and didn't take too long.  I'm thinking of hooking a laundry basket to the back so that I can ride my bike to get groceries.  I would put a link here so you can see what type of laundry basket I'm talking about, but I can't find it online (it really doesn't look too bad - I tried it out when I got home and it actually looks quite nice on the back - not too ghetto).

In other news, I'm considering buying a house.  Therefore, today I went and took a look at a few houses.  Once again, this means decisions, which I am not good at.  I also went to the bank to find out information about loans and what I would qualify for. 

Last, but not least, I will finally be getting a bed.  A co-worker is selling a bed - frame, headboard, footboard, mattress, box springs...the works, and she is even throwing in free delivery.  Now, I haven't really felt the need to buy a bed.  I like sleeping on the couch quite a lot, but I figure that guests might appreciate a real bed to sleep on, so...I decided I should get one.  I also figure if I'm getting a house, I should probably have at least one bed in it.

Also, if you want to vote on a house, you can go to this website and let me know which houses you like.  I'm not looking for anything very big, but I am looking into the possibility of getting something where I can rent out part of it. 

Saturday, June 11, 2011

A funny offer

So, I was at work yesterday, and one of the residents came up to me and said (paraphrased - and I probably don't do the real offer justice):

"Just so you know, this is an offer I don't give to too many people; but, well, would you like to go out to the smoker with me and watch me smoke a cigarette?"

I don't think anyone has ever invited me to smoke, but this isn't the first offer anyone has ever given me to go on a smoke break with them.  This is definitely the best smoke break offer I've ever had.  It makes me laugh.