I also knew that I wouldn’t be going out too much but I think I still enjoyed myself this year. Tax benefits certainly made it easier. I know I haven’t been hanging out with friends too much. Not sure why. Perhaps I like staying at home whenever I can. There’s nothing like having no where to go and enjoying whatever is on tv or Hulu.

The place still looks pretty much the same as I had it sine I’ve moved in. I’ve only added a bed, washer, dryer, tv and a tv stand. Everything else was given to me by friends and family. Still using those furniture. Perhaps I’ll get to buy some bedroom furniture and then some living room furniture. Definitely no rush since I don’t need anything at this point. Besides, I’m trying not to add more clutter in my life. I’m trying not to over consume.

To kick off this momentous occasion I decided to do my planned ride to Santa Monica this morning. I rode out around 8:30 am after I made a PBJ sandwich and loaded up with some energy drink and water. It was a chilly morning so I brought a light riding jacket. I rode east on Burbank Blvd to Sepulveda Blvd. A Harley rider pulls up to me on one of the stop and asks if I wanted to race for pinks. I laughed and said my bike don’t have pinks. He smiled and we went our separate ways.

I road the unfamiliar road down Sepulveda until I reached Wilshire. On Wilshire I went Northwest onto San Vicente into Brentwood. Brentwood was a scarier place to ride than any other neighborhood I’ve been today. People don’t know how to react with a bicycle on the road. I was able to signal a car to slow down on a right turn because a man was making his way slowly across the sidewalk. That was my good deed.

I followed San Vicente until it turned into Ocean. That was my destination and I pulled off into the park lined street to catch my breathe and eat my sandwich and rest up. After a few minutes of relaxing, I proceeded home. Going up Arizona. They closed the street on Second for a farmers market. I walked through the market and got back on my bike and road all the way to Barry Ave and turned right. I made my way to end of the street on Ohio and road up until that street ended. It brought me to Thayer and I made a right and ended up on Santa Monica Blvd. From SM Blvd I was on the bike lane until Avenue of the Stars. I then took the ramp down to Olympic Blvd. Took Olympic all the way to Rimpau. Turned left and the right onto 4th St. I took 4th all the way until it ended on Hoover. That was where I got lost. I somehow ended up on Sunset. I overshot where I wanted to be. I then rode back down Sunset towards Hollywood. Looked for Griffith Park Blvd. I was again held up a bit by another farmers market. Walked through that and proceeded to ride up to Los Feliz on GP Blvd. From there I took Los Feliz Blvd till the LA River Bike Path. I was finally at a place I had rode before. Went north on the path until I reached the end at Victory. I decided to take a more scenic path on Riverside Drive. I also decided to take a series of Bike Routes of Burbank. Until I couldn’t go further North. That lead me out to Buena Vista Blvd one block before the railroad track south of Empire Blvd.

All that took about 3 and a half hours and stretched out to about 55 miles. LA streets are pretty bad. Cracks and holes line almost all the streets that jarred the heck out of my poor bike as well as doing a number on my body. I’m a exhausted now but I’m glad I finally did this ride. Planned it for quite some time. Now I know what the journey looks like visually.

Happy Halloween!

I became a charter member and and officer for my company’s Toastmasters club (first one on the list). Sorry guys, this is only opened to employees of the company. I’m actually really excited about this one. For awhile now, I’ve been to join Toastmasters but with this opportunity, I can hone my public speaking skills. That’s one area I feel I need the most improvement on. Hopefully this will instill the skills I need.

I’m still settling in at my new home. Worked out a weekly routine now in which I pick a day to visit the folks and spend the rest of the week riding into work (if weather permits). I have my laundry day and my grocery shopping day on the bike. I’m definitely been car-lite. Only filling up twice a month. Riding about 50+ miles a week to work and running errands. I had a roommate who stayed for 3 months and moved out at the end of March. Although she was cool, it is definitely nice to have the whole place to myself. I am able to leave stuff all over the place as I choose. It is certainly one of those benefits where you couldn’t put any amount of money on.

My file-server died recently. I had to rebuild and recover the machine this past week. Upgraded to Slackware 12.2 for 10.0. Not much difference. I finally switched from a Dual Celeron computer to a P3 500Mhz . Yes very impressive. If you haven’t already realize, I don’t buy the latest and greatest when it comes to my computers. Heck, the computer I’m typing on was given to me by a co-worker who decided to buy a laptop when her hard drive died. It’s a P4 3Ghz w/HT Dell Dimension 4700. Decided to put Ubuntu 8.10. Main reason to see what the hype was all about. I have to tell you, I like it alot. I am able to do everything I can on a Windows or Mac system. I’m able to use virtual machines to run Windows for free using VirtualBox. I haven’t tossed my other systems away. Still using the laptops to portable access and the Mac for my home theater system. It’s nice to see how Linux has finally evolved to something that is useful and can compete with the likes of Microsoft and Apple.

Another thing I want to mention is that I’m thinking about doing 2 things that are going to be life changers. No, not get hitched! I’m thinking about going car-free. I read, “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life” and got me thinking about a car free life. It is very doable considering I’ve already being car-lite. Even if I have to rent cars twice a month, I am not paying more than I am on car related expenses every year. I’ll be sure I’ll post up when that happens. The second big thing I am going to do is cut my hair. Not just cut it for my own selfish need. I am planning to donate my hair for a good cause.

See even guys can donate their hair. I’m thinking about giving it to this cause. I may or may not make a video like this guy but definitely some pictures will be required. Again, I’ll make sure to post up here. For more information on hair donation, check this page out.

So the last 2 weeks came and went rather quick. I had the opportunity to spend almost all my time here at my home. Can’t believe it’s almost 2 months living here. I have a tenant / roommate living at the other room. It’s the gf’s sister who was looking for a place to stay since her job was relocated to Studio City from WeHo. It’s nice to have someone looking after the place when you’re not here. Except she works almost similar hours as I do.

The place still needs furniture. I haven’t had the chance to dive into my woodworking ambitions. Not sure if its because I’m lazy or I don’t have time. Maybe because I know that this new hobby is going to cost me some dough to buy tools, I’m just holding off on it for now. I do need some furniture so I’ll save up for it. I did get to do my first major upgrade to the kitchen sink. Not really something I absolutely needed to do but the old sink was leaking pretty bad and I was going to just change out the parts of the old sink. Unfortunately, the bolt on the handle would not budge and the allen wrench I used kept on rounding off corners in the hole. I just gave up after trying for about an hour. Ran over to good ole Home Depot and picked me up a Moen faucet. The job took me another hour and I was done installing. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was ripping the old one out and getting wet as well as having rusted metal fall over my head because the bolt underneath the old faucet was corroded pretty bad. I couldn’t unscrew the bolt but rather ripped it out from the top of the sink. Here’s a few shots of the old faucet and the corroded bolt

Here’s a nice picture of the end results of the new faucet.

I have to say I’m pretty proud of my work. I celebrated by making dinner for everyone.

Last weekend I had the chance to attend a wedding of a very good friend of mine. We were friends since 6th grade. She’s finally getting married. This gave me the chance to reconnect with people in past. One notable figure was my 8th grade history teacher. He looked the same except more white hair. Also got to see some college buddies and their kid. It was good to see everyone again. I contributed to the wedding by helping them build their website and creating their slideshow. Fortunately it turned out great with their multiple day visit and feedback. My gf said their attention to detail made my slideshow better and made me look good. Hopefully we’ll get that thing on YouTube soon.

I also had a chance to get in a good ride on the same day as the wedding. It was a good 20 mile ride around Burbank, Glendale, Los Feliz, and Griffith Park. I found another route that leads me up the Verdugo Mountains and San Gabriel mountain area. It’s a 30 miler through Sun Valley, Sunland, Glendale, and finally Burbank. Haven’t done it yet but will be doing it soon when I’m feeling ambitious and adventurous. In the mean-time, my daily commute to work every Tuesday to Friday will keep me happy.

Shoulder Dolly

With my Amazon credit I ordered one and finally had the opportunity to use it today. There was a bit of skepticism in the part the moving party but I was able to convince a friend of my sister to help me move the refrigerator down a flight of stairs. Lifting the thing was a amazing. But when it came time to bring it downstairs, we struggled a bit. The person going down the stairs had the bulk of the weigh on him. We then continued moving both washer and dryer which was much more successful. Especially the dryer since that was light. We easily moved it down the stairs without any struggles. It was a matter of adjusting the straps properly so that item was evenly distributed and high enough off the ground so it doesn’t interfere with the steps. My dad even asked for it when we were moving the heavy items out of the truck! Unfortunately, I didn’t bring it because we had a heavy duty dolly and the place we moved to had no stairs.

Check out their website for more information. This will certainly come in handy when I get into woodworking (hopefully). And now an instructional video to go over how to really use the thing.

Unfortunately, I’m also trying to get over a cold. I’ve been sleeping it off while taking nyquil and dayquil (at least the local pharmacy’s version of it). I think I’m getting better but I don’t know if it’s because of the drugs or not.

I was able to ride my bicycle into work for 2 times last week. It was about a 13 mile ride. The City of Burbank is fairly bicycle friendly. Plenty of bike lanes and bike routes. There were only a few places where it got a bit crowded. I need to spend more time with the bikes when I get better. It’s just so hard with so many new home improvement projects.

I’ve been thinking about building my furniture. Wouldn’t it be cool to build something from scratch and perhaps maybe make some cool gifts for friends and family later? I’m going to look into and see if I can build a simple bookcase. Will have to document the process when that happens.

Marie and I went back yesterday to clean the carpets. It took almost the whole day but we left my place with a wet but clean carpet. I went back today and found that majority of the carpet is dry. This means move in day has officially started! I spent the day gathering all my belongings from my parent’s garage and have it ready for the move.

On a down note, my car has been making a weird grinding noise. I suspected that it was something to do with the transmission. My dad and I took it to the local mechanic and they confirmed that I need a whole new transmission. That means I’m out another $2400 and no car for a week.

This blows because I wanted to buy a washer and dryer, a new bedroom set with a bed, a couch, and finally a new television. It’s so tempting with all these great sales for Black Friday. I can’t even finance because of my projected negative cash flow. I guess my Christmas will start next year when I get my tax return.

• Re-keyed all the doors.
• Added gas and electricity utilities in my name.
• With the help of others, primed all rooms and painted 2 rooms.

I still have to prime a wall in my office and the master bedroom’s closet tonight. Then I can begin painting the office and other rooms. Hopefully things will be done by Sunday. I can begin cleaning the place. I’ll be cleaning the bathrooms, kitchen, patio, garage, and the area at the front of my house. I will finally need to vacuum, spot clean, and wash the carpets.

I can then finally think about packing up my stuff and prepare for my move next week. At least I’ll have the entire week off. There is going to be some home improvement projects in the future. But first I’ll have to buy a washer and dryer, bedroom set, living room furniture, and a flat screen television before I can think about home improvement projects. It’s funny how Lowe’s and Home Depot become your favorite store overnight.

I spent several days now figuring how my cash flow will work. I should be okay if I don’t splurge. I am welcoming myself back to living frugally. Wisebread.com, here I come!