Today's Activities include: bicycling! with BOTH kids!

but not at the same time. and NOT in the rain! The sun even came out in the afternoon.

After an initial false start (R. did something to the bobike mount so I couldn't put the mini on. This was part of the adjust all kinds of stuff on my bike. Without checking with me first. When he was supposed to just be putting the new saddle on. Grrr.), I took A. out for her Very First Bike Ride. We didn't do the loop, because I didn't want to do the big hill on Lothrop, either direction. So we tried Spencer first (flatter initial section) and then Tuttle. We did some turns. We saw a dog. We chatted with people. Other than a binky escape (got caught on something on the way down, so we rescued it at a stop), no problems, but I kept it very short this first time in case there was a subtle issue I was missing. No trouble with the helmet or holding her head up. I had to adjust the strap on the mini as short as it would go, and then put her in, then put her helmet on, all while _not_ dropping the bike because the kickstand is hopelessly inadequate.

Lots of fun.

My sister and her family made it back from Maine and came over to hang out and have dinner. We got Benjarong takeout for the adults and Daniela's for the kids. R., T., A. and I all went to go pick it up. Initially it was going to be R. and A., but T. REALLY wanted more bike time away from the driveway so I decided to risk it. We're getting better about crossing Prospect, but crossing the street continues to be a very hands-on experience.

I know who should be counting his blessings

Gov. Sanford. That's who. I'm pretty sure a couple of these obits are going to really abbreviate the Sanford stories top spot in the news cycle. Altho I will note that if there is a god answering Sanford's prayers, I don't think much of his approach to things.

spooky little quote about credit and housing

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/wsj-real-time-economics-housing-bubble.html

CR is quoting Mian and Sufi, writing over at the WSJ in response to some people who claimed the housing bubble and its collapse didn't have a lot to do with consumption (CR and these two disagree. Guess who I think is right?).

"Finally, the effect of house prices on homeowner borrowing is isolated to homeowners with low credit scores and high credit card utilization rates. These “credit-constrained” households respond aggressively to house price growth, whereas the highest credit quality borrowers do not respond at all."

Two responses to this spring immediately to mind (beyond, "Duh"): the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is one. I feel guilty about the other one (which ends the same, but starts with, well, there's a _reason_ why...).

Quick on the heels of those two responses comes what I really believe: this is why we shouldn't let asset bubbles develop, and we _really_ shouldn't let people borrow against those assets if the loan terms are dangerous for them.