This week my dear friend, world class ordinary-object puppetry artist Liebe Wetzel, fell off her bike.

Fell off and ripped all sorts of tendons in her right hand. She may never regain the use of her thumb, the doctors say. I say (pray?) that hands as intelligent as hers will come back, have to find a way to come back, can’t help but come back.

Or else, maybe she’ll do more characters using other body parts? (This movie features a bald head.) Here’s a hand-arm one: Moose. And here’s one with feet: Soul Man Chorus

Speaking of falling, another dear friend Lyena fell out of a tree four-plus years ago and broke her back, altering the trajectory of her life and her lifelong performance career. Here’s her website: lyenastrelkoffdotorg which tells her amazing story, and here’s a photo of Scott and I with Lyena and Dean at their wedding on New Year’s:

As far as my bicycling progress goes, we’ve decided not to do Team in Training this round, so that Scott can go to Megomeet and sell his playsets — though we might do the summer session that leads to a century ride in either Marin or Hawaii in September. And we will do Oakland Yellowjackets, which starts in April.

In the meantime, I haven’t ridden ALL WEEK! This is TERRIBLE. It’s raining, that’s one excuse, and I’m terribly behind on my three jobs right now (excuse number two), and… Ugh! Must get back on bike.

I have to revise my estimation of which bike store is the world’s greatest. This one’s pretty grand too, also not too far from our house, and sent me the MOST detailed emails this week offering great advice on which bike I might want to buy: Wheels of Justice

Speaking of falling off, falling into new activities, falling in front of friends and family, I will be performing next Saturday in an Action Theater improv show. I don’t know which is scarier. Bicycling, or performance.

In other firsts, I posted my first, and second, foodie articles on SFist.com this week.

And meanwhile, while it still rains, I knit: I’ve finished Scott’s hat, and now am starting on a not-too-matchy scarf. (Will post photos soon-ish.)