Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for Laurie's contact info. I'm looking forward to chatting with her. It's been interesting to see that most of the networking contacts I've been given for the literary scene have been females. 

So I looked up the history of the bicycle:
-In 1817 it started out as a walking aid -- Baron von Drais used it in the royal gardens -- that the rider would straddle and use his/her feet to move it forward.
-It was a fad that faded and didn't reemerge until 1865 with pedals attached. It was called "bone shaker" because riding on the cobble stone streets was so uncomfortable.
-The big front wheel bike came in the 1870s and was developed because a bigger wheel would travel farther with only one rotation.
-They changed the design to eliminate the large front wheel because people would fall off pretty easily and would drop 4 or 5 feet. They added a chain and gears to increase the number of tire rotations per pedal.
-With an increase in strong metal and rubber after WWI and II bikes became widely distributed, especially to children.

Ok, that's enough nearing out from me. Hopefully that answered some of the questions we raised though. 

I hope you had a nice evening last night. I, much to my dismay, did not eat a peanut butter cookie. You are truly committed to, not only peanut butter cookies, but to the national food day celebrations, which is highly commendable. Hopefully I won't drop the ball on the next day, which is actually tomorrow -- Strawberry Shortcake Day according to this incredible website. I love the graphics for each month, and if I'm not mistaken the background is supposed to be deep space.  

I'm not sure if Kitchen Klutzes of America day is technically a "food" day, but I do hope that nobody loses a finger today. 

If you're free this Saturday we should get together. It's supposed to be in the 80s, which isn't too bad. Talk to you soon.