Before you bike to work on Thursday, brush up on your inner urban cyclist with a free bike clinic with tips on navigating through the city -- not to mention step-by-step instructions on how to fix a flat. Get there by 7 for the workshop. REI San Francisco, 840 Brannan, SF. more ›

Ask the Cube Expat!: Are you plotting ways to escape yet another dreary staff meeting right this minute? Dragging out your coffee breaks? Itching to ditch your day job but don't know where to start? Then you should make the trek over to Sausalito tonight and check out freelance writer and editor Michelle Goodman as she lays down a blueprint for breaking beyond the cube. Goodman dishes out advice on how to transition into part-time, flextime, at-home, outdoor, overseas, nonprofit, or self-employed work -- tonight at Habitat Books. If you can't make it across the bridge in time (the event kicks off at 7 pm), catch her again in the city proper, tomorrow at the Borders in Union Square, or pick up a copy of her book online here. Habitat Books, 205 Second Street, Sausalito. more ›

The Bay Area should be proud of at least two high profile record releases from local artists this week. Oakland's own The Lovemakers drop their major label debut Times of Romance on Interscope Records, and San Francisco's John Vanderslice keeps it real by releasing his latest, Pixel Revolt, on indie stalwart Barsuk Records. more ›