It is also the kind of day that calls for some preparation. One of my clients asked me, “Allie, please bring us something green tomorrow! I don’t have anything!” I gladly agreed. So the night before I made these little construction paper shamrocks for my clients.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:25 and I was up. I rolled over and hugged Karl, “Happy St. Patrick’s sweetheart.” Karl smiled and rolled over. I got up and pulled out all of my green jewelry, and my old school “Kiss Me I’m Irish” Button I got at a cultural fair in high school. (It is one of those two image ones, it rocks.) I put on my green eyeshadow, and green shoes, and my green shrug I stole from my sister Chelsea. (Love you Belle!)

Work was fun. The best part is that I was scheduled to get off early that day so I came home and was excited for dinner later.

Part II The Pashley

When I got home I got online to check my e-mail and found that Karl had sent me something very interesting. You see, one of our goals this year is to buy each of us a bike so that we can become a little more active and maybe even save a little on gas. Karl had been on ksl.com and craigslist.com and had found a bunch of cool bikes listed for sale, and had e-mailed the links to me. I opened each of the links and had no idea what I was looking at. So I called our friends Krysta and Zac to see if they could help.

Zac and Krysta are what you would call “Bike Enthusiasts.” They sold their car last year and bikes have been their primary source of transportation ever since. When I say primary source of transportation I mean it: to the grocery store, to work, to school, to church in a skirt or tie, they bike. They bikes MILES and MILES every day. Especially Zac who has school up at UVU. They sport “One Less Car” stickers on their bikes and except for long distance trips, they bike everywhere. Zac now works at Mad Dog’s bikes here in the area, and their apartment, their parking space, their balcony, and the bike racks below their are full of bikes. They have somewhere close to 15 or so bikes here with them in Provo, not to mention the mountains of bikes Zac still has at his parent’s house out in Moapa Valley. I knew they would be able to help.

Krysta was making dinner in the kitchen, ratatouille, and Zac was working on homework when I arrived. I sat myself down on the couch next to Zac and handed him our laptop, with the links still up. He slowly started going through the links, as I looked over his shoulder. We talked about the pro and cons of the bikes, and the cost it would take to repair them. We were on maybe the third or fourth link down when Zac went quiet. The picture below popped up:
It didn’t look like much to me. It was all dusty and covered in garbage. I read the description. It was only $70 dollars for the bike which was below our budget, it just seemed so old. Suddenly Zac called into his wife who was still working in the kitchen, “Krysta, it’s a Pashely Princess Cruiser!” Krysta jumped out of the kitchen in a flash, “What!” Zac turned to me and said, “Call this guy now, you are buying this bike, if you don’t I will, I am serious.” He then turned to Krysta and they had an excited conversation where I only really understood a few words. It was like when I was a little kid and my parents would spell things back and forth to each other. I knew it was a big deal that I was aggressive about getting this bike so I called the guy right away.

It was still available. I asked “is that a real Brooks saddle?” The guy, Mike was his name, said “yes.” As this was happening Zac was freaking out next to me, “NO, NO! Don’t! If you sound too eager, he will raise the price!” I told Mike I was very interested and would probably buy it I just had to call my husband to make sure. I called Karl, and her was excited too, great bike, great price. We stopped by the bank on our way out of town to grab some cash. (Mike and Hannah, who I think is his wife, lived in Salt Lake) We called them again to confirm that we were on our way to pick it up. This time Hannah answered. She said that someone else had called and offered them $120. My heart sunk. It was all my fault, I had been to eager on the phone and they knew that they could ask for more. I told her I would call right back.

I called Zac. He said, “BUY IT! $120 is still a really good price, this is a $1,500 bike!” We hung up and I talked to Karl. As long as the price stayed at $12o, we could get it. I called Hannah. She said, “If you are willing to pay $120, you can have it.” We left for Salt Lake. It was late in the day and my phone battery had died, and Karl’s only had a little left, so we turned off the phones. The 40 minute drive seemed to take forever. I sat anxiously twisting my hair all the way.

We got off at the 900 south exit and I turned my phone back on. Their was a massage from Mike. I finished listening to it as we pulled up to the house. “Sorry to keep doing this to you, but someone just offered us $150 for the bike so, uhh, call me back.” I was furious! She said we had it for $120! Karl said, “We had a verbal contract, write the check now, they can’t ask us for more.” So in good faith I wrote the check, hoping that they would keep our arrangement.

We knocked on the door and Mike answered. He was a short, dark haired guy with wirey dark stubble and an overly firm hand shake. He took us around to the basement to see the bike. By this time he had pulled it out of the pile of junk and wiped off the dust. It…was…BEAUTIFUL! Up to this point I was really only here on the recommendation of a good friend that I trusted. Mike walked it up the stairs and as soon as I touched it, I thought, “It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.” It was magic. It’s beautiful had made leather seat spoke to me, and the jet black paint sparkled.

Hannah came out to see us. “We’ll take it I said, $120, right?” There was a nervous half second pause where I am almost sure she and mike exchanged a glance, and she said very deliberately, “Yes.” Karl wrote her name on the check and we walked the bike to the car. Zac and Krysta had lent us a bike rack, but neither of us had ever used it before so it took us 20 minutes to get the bike on properly. We were parked across the street from the house. Mike was still working on something in the back and I caught glimpses of him as we worked on getting the bike on. As we were about done I looked over and Hannah and Mike were outside. Hannah was on the phone facing Mike, who was looking at us. They were getting another, better offer, I just knew it. I told Karl to wrap things up, that it was time to go. We jumped in the car and hurried away. We made it, the Pashley was ours!!!

Part III: Getting Pashley Home

Isn’t she beautiful?

I called Krysta and Zac when we got home and they came running down.

Here are some close ups. This is a Brooks Saddle. (That’s the fancy English bike term for seat.) To buy the saddle alone is usually about $130. Mine is slightly broken in, so it is more comfortable than a new one…yeah, better than new!

The company is called Pashley. They are centered in Startford Upon Avon, England. This bike is called “The Princess.”

Don’t I look just great on her?? Krysta was so jealous. Apparently she was going to buy one of these a couple of years ago, but at the last minute didn’t. She knew everything about it. She told me all about the built in bike pump, and the front light that ran by generator. Then there was the skirt guard, and the built in wheel lock, not to mention the internal 5 speed and break system. Krysta said, “I am glad it went to someone who would appreciate it.” And I do Krysta, I do!

As we hung out for a while, talking about how lucky I was to get it, Karen tromped around and fell, bloodying her lip! She was all smiles however after a few hugs and kisses from mom and dad.
Brandon and Leah were expected for dinner at any minute so we waited outside with the bike. Karen looks like a little leprechaun.

Part III: The Dinner Party

Brandon and Leah arrived and Zac and Krysta went home, with promises to see us tomorrow. (The Pashley need new innertubes, the wheels were totally flat, so Zac promised to fix them for us.) It is here I want to mention that they would have come to dinner but they had already eaten with another friend, and Krysta doesn’t like corned beef.

Here is Karl in his pimp shamrock hat.
The rest of the hats were green and had this sticker on them:

Leah and Brandon…in their hats, don’t they look so cute!

I mentioned that I wanted a bowler hat, so Leah made sure to get one just for me!

Leah, I love you!

He was really sad that he looked cognitivly impaired.

So, I did mention that Branny and Leah brought a CASE of Apple beer. We all just drank and drank and drank to our hearts content. You know, it’s just beer with apples in it, Right Branny? No, it is this delicious apple juicey stuff. Soooo good!

They even brought green silverear and plates!

I even bought some green “crusty” dinner rolls for the occasion.

Leah’s grandfather was Irish, and her mother Sue is English, accent and all, so her family loved the Holiday. She told us this funny story about leprechuns attacking her house every year. So she and her sisters started to set traps for them, with Barbies as bait. The Leprchauns were too smart for that. One year they even strung they barbies up naked to the cealing fan!
It was good times! The corned beef turned out great, and the apple bear was flowing!

It started to get late and we started to get board. Leah made a leprachaun out of all the parts of our dinner.
To finish the night we went to Cold Stone for dessert. We finally used that gift certificate mom gave us for Chirstmas. Thanks mom!

Part IV: Life with my own bike.

One Thurday we went on our first little ride on the Pashely to Diego’s this little Mexican place a few blocks from our house.

Happy.