memoryloot

As some of you may know, I have been shopping for a new home for a few months now. After a long escrow period, I am finally a home owner! I officially closed escrow at noon today. My bank accounts were emptied in the process. I don’t officially move into the new place until the last week of November. The seller is renting back the place so that she can wait for her escrow to close as well. I was over at the house yesterday and could see that she’s already packed up many of her stuff in preparation for the move. The place should be all mine on November 8th. I will then need to paint 2 of the rooms and do some cleaning in preparation for my move. Needless to say, it’ll be a busy few months to get situated.

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!

Yesterday, I decided to take the bike out for the day to run errands and finally meet up with a group of friends for dinner. All was well until I was getting ready to leave. A security guard comes by and tells me never to park at the parking center again. I was asking, “Where can I park then?” He pointed to the back of the parking lot at other signs and tells me that his boss doesn’t like it when bikes are locked up to sign posts. I told them he should install some bike parking locations so that all the bikes can use it. He continues to tell me that his boss won’t do it. The only thing I could do was to tell him I’ll be sure to write to the city and tell them of this situation.

Well, I just sent my email to them. I was so mad. Here I am, riding my bicycle around town for the day. I made a personal commitment to not start my car and drive. I was not going to be contributing to the demise of our environment and the congestion on the road. I felt in a way betrayed by all of this. Even though you think you might be doing a good thing, it won’t go unpunished. What if I had a $5000 bike (which I don’t)? A person with with any beat-up or nice car or motorize vehicle will have designated spots. All I’m saying is why can’t they be fair about this? Their city states that a ratio of 5% of all parking should be provided to bicycles. I definitely did not see that since almost all spaces were for automobiles.

And with that I am declaring boycott to the following list of businesses or locations:

• Baccali, 245 W Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801


• Din Tai Fung Dumpling House and it’s neighboring businesses, 1108 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007

It’s really not the fact that they don’t have parking but to tell a paying customer to never to park at the only places that we can park will get you shit listed. Enough said!

I recently found out the founder the Bike Oven opened his own bicycle store down the street from the Oven. I dug around his website and found that he organizes a “Get Some Dim Sum” ride every Sunday morning. Last Sunday was the 9th iteration of such a ride.

Coincidentally, my schedule allowed me to take part on this ride last weekend. I woke up early on Sunday morning and pedaled my way to the South Pasadena Gold line station and rode the train one stop south to Highland Park station. Upon arriving I was accompanied by a few others who also wanted to be part of this morning’s adventure. There were 2 other bloggers who joined us. Shannon from Sha In LA and Pat from Eating L.A. (stunning picture of me on this post). Check out their blogs for additional point of views.

I was joined by a few familiar faces besides Josef. Veronica, DJ Chickenleather, and Martin showed up. We casually strolled through Northeast LA. The bikes looked really cool but seemed restrictive. I kept hearing that the brakes were as effective as any coaster brakes. Also they were more of a sit back and cruise bike. I wanted the option to cruise and the ability to kick it up a notch should I need to. Luckily I was on my fixie. During the ride, I finally realized the beauty of riding fixed. I didn’t have to use my brakes as much as some people while we traveled on a slight decent and was required to stop frequently.

Our pack made it to the San Antonio Winery and we immediately made our way to the kitchen. The food took awhile for some (they were cooking 20 meals just for our group) but when it came I polished off my Italian Omelette without any hesitation.

We were invited to tour the winery. Our tour guide guided us through the few rooms explaining the history and process of making wine in the middle of LA. You don’t have to drive to Napa or even Temecula to get your winery fix. We had the opportunity to try some wine (Pat’s blog should have details on what was given to us).

By the time we were done and ready to go, the sun came up and warmed everyone up. It was pleasant a pleasant ride back. I especially like that Chickenleather was documenting the whole experience. One of these days I’m going to see if I can get a copy from him. We passed by a group where someone yelled, “Are you guys Midnight Riddazz??” CL wittingly replied, “Of course we’re not! It’s daytime.” That made me chuckle. Riding in a group like that made me feel like a kid again. It’s similar to riding in a group of motorcycles but slow enough to carry on conversations. Hard to describe unless you’re there.

I bid farewell to the group when I stopped at the Oven to help out for the rest of the afternoon. I’m definitely going to do this again. Hopefully more peeps can join me.