I had a moment of decisiveness yesterday and finally bought a bicycle. I've been meaning to buy a bike for about two months because I really miss bicycling and also because, in my car-deprived state, I feel a serious need to control some vehicle. The weather here suddenly got beautiful late last week, and it was torturous watching all the bicyclists riding around the city all weekend.

So yesterday I went to a sporting goods store with the pretext of just seeing what they had to offer. They had a decent selection of bikes, and they even had a few in my size, which is kind of unusual. I looked around for a little bit and then decided that one of the bikes had my name on it. After talking to the salesman (I figured out from context the Russian words for kickstand and bike pump--подножка and велонасос) and laying down about two thirds of my monthly salary, I left the store with my brand new Stern Energy 2.0 bike. I thought about riding home, but the tires were not fully inflated (the велонасос that came with the bike  is a piece of junk that leaks more air than puts into the tire), so I left it in the garage of the AH. But I anticipate a lot of riding this summer. Here are some pictures of my new toy: