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Memorial Weekend Highlights

1. If you have a temporary crown, do not eat Milk Duds. If you ignore this, know that Fixodent may be required to reattach the crown to your now nubbin tooth.

2. The Sunflower Bike Shop in Lawrence is fantastic. Their people are helpful, but don’t hover. I will not specifically call out any Kansas City bike shops, but several could learn tips about customer service from Sunflower.

3. My old tri shoes were starting to mildew, so I bought a new pair. They remind me of the shoes Uncle Eddie gave to Clark in the movie Vacation.

4. A new helmet was also purchased. My old helmet was involved in an altercation involving a “Road Closed” sign. (Yes, my head was in it at the time.) I used it for three more years, not realizing helmets are good for one collision only.

5. If a restaurant is good enough, I have no problem eating there two days in a row, as was the case with Esquina in Lawrence. The tofu tacos are especially good.

6. While I like the concept of open water swims, I am squeamish about things touching me while in the water. Twenty of us showed up to swim 3,000 meters around the perimeter of Weatherby Lake yesterday. Problem is, the perimeter is where all the lake crap (seaweed, lakeweed, whatever) is floating. Love the people, love the lake, but do not love having tentacle-like vegetation brushing against my face.

7. Do not leave cupcakes with buttercream frosting unattended in your car when it’s 80 degrees out. That’s a no-brainer, but I’m a slow learner.

8. When riding yesterday on an unfamiliar bike path, I see a sign showing a bicycle on a steep descent. So I ride my brakes and proceed slowly down the hill. To a large creek. So while someone thought to alert riders to steep and technical, they didn’t think the fact the path ended in a waterway was important. Huh.

9. Boyfriend and I met some friends Sunday for a bike ride. It was going to be Sundae’s debut. (Sundae is a mountain bike that Boyfriend built for me out of his bicycle graveyard.) It took me .38 miles to break the chain. I felt awful because, well, I broke it. He felt bad because the chain was defective. Clearly, we're newly dating since we both assumed responsibility. If this had happened a year in, the conversation would’ve been much different.

10. Finally, we watched a show last night on KCPT about international cemeteries where U.S. vets are buried. It was touching, sad and beautiful. But mostly, it was a nice way to remind me of what the holiday is about.

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