I don't know if this ride counts as a commute: I do it once a week to the local Humane Society to volunteer there. It's sorta like a job, right?..

So the ride in was pretty slow due to construction and the fact that my route passed through two university campuses just as the majority of students were getting out of their classes for the day... Traffic was pretty backed up; I was glad I was using bike-laned streets to whip right by half-mile long traffic jams. The ride back, however, was fantastic! Little traffic, cool but not yet freezing temps... Even though it was mostly uphill, it was just so damn fast and smooth! I stopped by a liquor store to get some beer and they even let me roll the bike right in.

I also stopped by an electronics store to pick up a mouse - and it's the second bloody time I get called "sir" in that store (doesn't correspond to my gender...). I guess short hair, bike garb (no lycra though) and especially the alpha dog expression that takes a few minutes to get erased from my face after I leave traffic make it easy for people to mistake me for a man, and a macho one at that.