Say It Ain't So, Floyd

I just don't get it. Why do these guys take the juice if they know they are going to get tested? I guess we don't know for sure yet if Floyd Landis is justly accused of doping during the Tour de France, but it's certainly disappointing for cycling if he did.

Not much to write home about today. Our landlords & next-door neighbors for the past 10 days are moving back to America tomorrow, and I'm very excited that they have offered to loan us their bicycles for the year. Thanks! Should be fun to explore on velo.

French words of the day: an idiosyncrasy of the French language which many find endearing (and which I find to be a royal pain in the ass) is the assignment of either a male or female gender to every object. "La" for female; "Le" for male. Many of them are obvious, like "la femme" (the woman) or "le garcon" (the boy). But some of the assignments just don't make a hell of a lot of sense. For example, the word for beard is "la barbe". Apart from circus freaks, there just aren't a lot of female beards walking around to my knowledge.

Why can't we all just learn Esperanto?