Got home late last night after spending the weekend with Andrew bicycling to Kansas City and back. It was about 120 miles each way; some of you might remember next summer Andrew and I will be biking across the USA from the Southern Florida Key to Seattle. This was a training ride to work out details with the new equipment. It felt really good to do a couple of centuries, but I have to admit the new saddle leaves something to be desired; I think I'll switch back to leather. In the mean time, its computing while standing up. Andrew is much faster than I am anymore, but then, I can ride all day. I brought Stella and Carbone with me, and they rode in the trailer the entire time. For the trip, I bought a kiddie trailer that clamps to the rear axle to carry equipment; I like how they handle better on the downhills than the equipment trailers, plus they do double-duty to haul ferrets. I think they had a great time--Carbone would dance all over the place when I hit a good bump. Andrew and I have a mandatory break each hour, and the ferts would get out to go potty, drink, eat and explore. I don't know who was more tired last night; me or the ferrets. They slept in my tent the entire night and never bothered me at all. Maybe they did but I was too tired to notice. ;-). No potty mistakes tho', very happy about that. You can tie Stella to the end of a stick and she wouldn't care. Carbone, however, hates his halter and leash, although he is beinging to understand they and the outdoors go together. And he does love the outdoors. I weighed him Friday and he is up to 3.8 lbs. Muscle. I also had to install new anti-ferret barriers into the kitchen this weekend; Jet has learned how to make the old ones look like ladders. She gets this running start, hits the barrier, and leaps over it. Totally amazing. The only problem is I'm a short-legged kind of guy, so the new barriers are more of a hazard, if ya know what I mean.... Aging: I lot a lot of comments on this one, many asking why I didn't say how much tooth transparency equalled a certain number of years. The problem is pictures or desciptions can never teach you what experience can; the best way to learn aging is by doing. Check out ferrets of known age and see if you can guess the age correctly. The more you do, the better you will become. Just takes practice with known age feedback. Bob C and the 20 MO Frankenferters [Posted in FML issue 2101]