For my sweetheart’s birthday, I decided to go out and rent a cruiser and take her up the California coast starting from where she lived. I rented a brand new 2007 Honda Shadow Aero. It had 2 miles on the odometer when I picked it up. The bike had a really nice exhaust sound. I don’t like loud bikes like the many Harleys out there. I now know how important it is to have a full-face helmet or a windscreen. The wind killed me when I was wearing the open-faced helmet that they provided me. After riding on the freeway to her house and back home afterwards, my eyes was red for 2 days.

We had alot of fun riding and relaxing up the coast from Long Beach to Malibu. Even took her out through Mullholand and then back down PCH. We took frequent breaks to stretch out. Unfortunately, her back pains got to her at the end so it made it painful to sit longer than the 7 hours we were gone. It’s definitely an experience I’m willing to try again. But maybe not that long all at once. We all that was said and done I brought the bike back with close to 200 miles of riding. Motorcycle rental was provided by Eagleriders. The one in Santa Monica / Marina Del Rey is the only one that rents out the Japanese bikes in the Southland. Most places rents out Harleys or BMWs. They don’t rent out sports bikes if you’re wondering.

On another unrelated note, I finally put 59% of my position into cash. My trailing stop-loss mark was actually met today so I had to make that switch to cash to reduce further damage by this recent bearish market. Hopefully I’ll have to see if my move was right. Moving your money out of position seems a bit overwhelming. I am worried about the fees and tax implications. But since its in a roll-over IRA, I don’t think I have any issues with tax since an IRA’s capital gain does not impact my taxes since this is tax deferred. Also the money market mutual fund’s overall fee is only 0.13% per year. That’s about just a meal a year so no biggie. Now I have to do the same with the remaining 41% of my portfolio. Unfortunately, this one is in my 401K so I have to wait for a recent transaction I initiated. On May 12th, I moved the majority of that portfolio into a Small Cap and International Fund. Both sectors suffered a 6% decline so far since then. I would have only lost about 4% if I left it the way it was in multiple funds. Oh well, live and learn. I’m willing to move that into cash as soon as we hit about 10-12% stop-loss. Hopefully this will happen later since I can initiate another transaction. Only crappy part in dealing with my 401K is that you’re only allowed 2 transactions a month.

On a positive note, I’m looking to be completely debt free next Friday. I think I’m going to have it on video of me screaming, “I’m debt free!!!”, much like how those Dave Ramsey callers do it on his radio show. Hopefully I can post that on here when it happens.

Murder mystery at Aphrodisiac restaurant (formerly Lunaria) in Century City went fairly well. They used props, served a dinner, and had over the top acting. It was definitely quite an experience and I would recommend going there once. I have to say I solved the case but they gave the prize to a 12 year-old kid. A new career in detective work.

We also had a delicious lunch on Sunday at Newport Seafood restaurant in San Gabriel. A 11 course meal with lobsters and crabs. It was awesome! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera and wasn’t able to get pictures for the event. We went to Shon’s house and had a quick poker game. I dropped $40 in a matter of 30 minutes. I was playing too loose. Too much confidence in my game. I have to reevaluate my strategy. That’s the thing about Texas Hold’em, there’s always room to learn and the checks and balances to keep you humble. I need to take a break from the game for a little bit before I test the waters again.