Okay. Here's the main reason why lately I haven't done the amount or quality of writing I normally produce. I've been designing a kit -- that's the shorts and jersey set for competitive cyclists -- for my son's team, Bicycle Heaven. He's been working there since he was legal to work and had been hanging out there, learning the ropes, a year before that, so I'm infinitely indebted to that elite bike shop for helping make my older boy less of a maniac than he is.

This is the first kit I've ever designed -- I'm only still at the mock-up stage, by the way -- and it has proven to be a challenge. Designing in two dimensions has its own set of obstacles and considerations that I barely think about anymore, having done it well for nearly a decade, but designing in three dimensions with the goal being a physical product and not a website is altogether another set of challenges. I put in 14 hours to get it to this stage and I'm still looking at half again that many to get it to the templated stage when FINAL final approval comes in from the sponsors. Regardless, I would do this again if given the opportunity since it's for a great cause and a great bunch of people.

Here's the front:

And here's the back: (and, yes, I realize the colors are juxtaposed on the shorts; it'll get fixed ;-)

Check out all that Bicycle Heaven has to offer by visiting the store at the corner of Stone Hue and Huebner here in San Antonio or click here to check out their wondermous site I designed for them a couple years back. Viva la Bicycle Heaven!