Bikes and recipes and knitting

Lots to show today, folks. 

We'll start with the bicycles. I don't own a bike here in Vancouver and use the share bikes when I need one. 

They are easy to find in this part of town, but they don't cover all of the west side across the water, so none out by the university or far into Kitsilano. 

I put my code in on the keypad, and my secret number, and the bike is unlocked from the rack. When I am done I ka-chunk it back into a rack and it is locked back up. 

There are pretty good bike paths around downtown, some separated from traffic by bollards or flower pots, and some not. This mark is just on a quiet side street and I think means, "Bikes can be here and you can't hit them with your car." 

This sign is on a path in Stanley Park and it means, "Go either way on your bike." Parts of the path are one-way, and there are almost always separate lanes:  pedestrians here and bikes there. Roller skaters and skateboarders go with the bikes. 

In cooking news, I was looking through the New Basics and marking salads and muffins, and thought I should maybe find something more to Stephen's taste, so I made Shallot Wine Sauce to go on a nice steak. The book has you cook the steak in the pan and then make the sauce in the meat juices, but we barbecued the meat and just made the sauce with butter and olive oil. It's just shallots and chives cooked in butter and wine; what could go wrong? Delicious on the meat and fine in any sort of leftover melange in the following days. 

I miss the days of casual having-friends-over-for-dinner parties. I look at these recipes that feed eight people and know that there are only the two of us here! Next week I should be having lunch with my cousin but nothing is set in stone yet and I don't want to get all menu-planny when it might turn out that we go out for lunch or something. 

In knitting news, I got a book from the library which has the pattern for my fancy mittens. I have only an old photocopy, and thought a fresh look would help kickstart a new round of work on the second mitten. We shall see. The blanket has long rows and is a bit same-old-same-old, so perhaps some high-stress fair isle in the round will be just what I need.