This past weekend, I celebrated another birthday. It was good to spend time with family and friends. Ever since I bought my house, I’ve been very conscious of every penny I’ve spent. Because of this, I’ve opted to stay home more often. Don’t get me wrong. Staying at home and doing absolutely nothing is enjoyable to me but I realize I need to be around friends and family.
I celebrated by having various different meals. I had the guys over for a much needed poker game. I walked away being the big winner of the night. I still think it was the fact that it was for my birthday. This broke my losing streaks at 2 levels: (1) this was the first time I won with my own poker chips and (2) this was the first time I won at my own house. There’s still one more streak that hasn’t been broken yet and that’s winning with my infamous “Poker Pimp” shirt. I never win wearing that shirt. Maybe next time.
I took time off on Monday to go to Disneyland and California Adventure. I have to say I really like CA Adventure. Maybe it was because it was an entirely new experience. Either way, I really like that park and wouldn’t mind going back again. Only regret is I didn’t get to go on the “Tower of Terror” ride. Disneyland was good too. Enjoyed the interactive Toy Story ride. It’s like being in a video game during the ride. Saw updates on Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. It was crowded, hot, and humid but I enjoyed every minute of it. Love that “Fast Pass” system.
As usual, I’m still going through the rigor off uploading my photos on Flickr. I’m probably at 80% complete. I’m hoping to get this done by end of this week (fingers crossed). Then I can upload some newer pictures from this year. Till then, I’ll keep chugging away.
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.
Bicycle, Restaurants
| 
Bicycle, Bike Oven, Dj Chickenleather, flying pigeon, food, Highland Park, Josef, Martin Chow, San Antonio Winery, South Pasadena, train, Veronica
On December 12, was Richie’s birthday. We celebrated by taking him out to King’s Fish House in Long Beach. Had a very nice lobster dinner and awesome cheesecake with chocolate dipped strawberries. The meal was delicious and the company was good. I’m sure he had a great time. He couldn’t stop raving about the cake.
On Saturday, we went over to Sun City for our 5th Annual Holiday Party. We had a huge selection of food! We were entertained by a very thorough and fun trivia game that Sophorn came up with. We also had a couple of intense games of Jenga and our world famous White Elephant gift exchange. This year was probably one of the most funniest exchange. Good times good times.
This past Saturday I spent my entire day at the Long Beach Convention Center gawking at motorcycles from various manufacturers. I also bought some custom molded earphones for my listening pleasure. We probably walked the whole show 3 times waiting for the earphones to be completed. Some highlights of the show included getting autographs from MotoGP’s Colin Edwards and AMA Superbike riders Bostrom Brothers and Josh Herrin. I also got to see both MotoGP bikes of Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner. Not to mention 2007 AMA Superstock Champ, Ben Spies’ Suzuki.
To close out the rest of the evening, I spent some time with friends eating at Seafood Village in Monterey Park. The meal was delicious and the company was good. On Sunday, San and I went to volunteer as facilitators of a silent auction. We basically collected the auction sheets once the bidding ends. Nothing to exciting but got to learn a bit on how auction and silent auctions are executed. All-in-all, a very productive weekend.
Here are some photos of my 31st birthday celebration. We were grubbin at The Crab Pot with friends. Pictures was provided by Peuv, the official photographer of the Johnny Lam fan club. 
On the 9th day of our vacation, we went to eat dim-sum in Richmond, British Columbia. Hands down the BEST dim-sum we ever ate! I’d go back to Vancouver just to have another meal. We spent most our time coming back into America. 2 hour wait at the border. We even had guys selling ice cream in between the 2 lanes. We then took a detour out to Microsoft. Nothing really to see but plain buildings. We drove around trying to find where they developed the Xbox 360. No luck. We eventually made it back to Tammy’s place.
Its been awhile since I got so many consecutive days off. What began the weekend with a great Radiohead concert, ended with fireworks and some time with friends.
Saturday night spent sometime playing so poker. Again I lost only one buy-in. I was up alot but seem to lose all my gainings in the last 30 minutes of play to Greg. This has happened probably the last 3 times I’ve played with the guy. Again, minimizing the loss was still maintained.
Sunday night I spent with my college buddies with some good BBQ and drinking games. We played a few drinking games and polished away more than half of the beer that was brought. The food was delicious and the creme brulee was prepared by Prince and Sandy. They sure know fine dining. Also congrats to them on their engagement. Like I’ve said before, this is the year is the year of engagements, weddings, and babies. The night ended with a couple of hours of fragging on Halo 2. It was fun to get reacquainted with that game. Makes me want to buy a 360 more. I must hold off on that purchase until the end of the bachelor party this year.
Monday was spent watching Superman Returns and dining out at Outbacks Steakhouse in Long Beach. Yes, a Fourth of July weekend at an Australian themed restaurant. The party moved on to a karaoke bar in Garden Grove where we sang the night away or until midnight or so. Superman by-the-way, was great! It really went back to the roots of Superman and made it better.
Tonight, we went to the local 4th of July fair in Long Beach. This featured much of your carnival games, rides, and food. Oh the food was fantastic! We had some taquitos, tacos, and elotes asados (roasted corn on a stick). Washed it all down with a cup of horchata and a churro for dessert. Yes your traditional Mexican meal on the 4th of July. As you can tell that’s pretty much what the 4th should represent. The many different culture that has been integrated to the daily lives of people in America. The fireworks was pretty disappointing this year. First of all, we thought the fireworks was going to be launched from Queen Mary. Instead it was launched somewhere out side near the coast. It was pretty far away and the palm trees were hiding parts of the show. It was a very lack-luster display. We saw better fireworks on the way back from Long Beach. All in all, a rather mild ending to my long weekend.
Unfortunately, I failed to bring a camera to all the events mentioned above. No pictures for now. I’ve just haven’t been my phototaking self these days.
Ambiguous, Poker, Special Event
| BBQ, fireworks, food, Halo 2, Long Beach, Outbacks Steakhouse, Poker, Radiohead, Superman Returns
Exhaustion would barely begin to describe how I am feeling right now. Alot had happened since my post a couple of days ago. We experienced the true Chicago night-life and was not disappointed. Dinner was cheap Friday at Cafe Iberico and the sangria was flowing! We then went to the Signature Room in the John Hancock Building on the 95th floor. Awesome view from way up there while we were enjoying a couple of drinks. We then made a stop at the Smart Bar. For a person who doesn’t like house music, this place made it easy to enjoy it. The crowd was lively and it wasn’t the typical LA bar/club scene. People actually went there for the music. Go figure!
Saturday started close to noon when we woke up and decided to buy some souvenirs as well as check out Potbelly. Potbelly was delicious. The sandwiches was prepared perfectly. It was not overwhelmed by sauces or too much meat or too much lettuce like any of the other sandwich chains. It was a a good amount of everything and the bread was toasted perfectly. I have to say I wasn’t disappointed there. We then hopped on the blue line subway and went to Jamie’s cousin’s graduation party. Chicago public transportation was very easy to follow. We arrived on bus after a quick transfer from the train ride. It was so convenience getting around there between the trains, bus, and cabs. Cheap too! We had the typical filipino gathering with a plethora of signature filipino dishes. Yum!
When we left, we stopped by Garrett Popcorn Shop on Michigan. We waited for a good 45 minutes to an hour. The popcorn was delicious but was so oily, we had to stopped otherwise we would have spoiled our appetite before our dinner. By that time, it was already 7pm when we got back to our hotel room and had to prepare for dinner over at Rodan. Very good Lychee Martinis there. I had 3 by the end of the dinner. The Argentinian steak I had was overcooked even though I asked for medium rare. The appetizers and drinks was definitely the main highlight of the dinner.
After dinner we decided to head on over to the Funky Buddha Lounge, a hip-hop bar/club/lounge. Again it was a good mix of people in there. No pretentious LA crowds that we were accustomed to in LA clubs. People were there was just having a good time dancing and drinking and mingling. People were actually courteous as they bump into you. The was a breathe of fresh air. We ended up staying there for a couple of hours and gained access to the VIP lounge thanks to Lynn and Ray. The DJ was okay that night. He had alot of good tracks but the style of mixing wasn’t great. He would pull up a song and just play about 1-2 minutes before he mixed in the next set. People would go crazy for a song and then suddenly he would just take that away and throw in another track. I don’t think it was consistent DJing. Of course, who am I to say about this, especially since I’ve never done it before.
We left FBL around 1:30-2:00 and met up with Jamie at Sonotheque. I’ve never been to a drum and bass bar but this was very good. Similar to the Smart Bar but less industrial. We did not get out of there until close to 4am. We then grabbed some food over at a nearby taco restaurant and went back to hotel to get our luggage and catch our flight home. Yup, we did not sleep until we got on the plane. I was having such a tough time resting on the plane. It was not comfortable at all. When I got home, I just took a shower, unpacked, and hopped into bed until 6pm Sunday night. I have to admit, Chicago did not disappoint. I will definitely go back to visit at a later point in time. Thanks to Mary, Jamie, Lynn, both Ray’s, Tony, and everybody else who entertained us. It was one of the craziest weekends I’ve ever had experienced in a long while.
Travelling
| Cafe Iberico, Chicago, food, Funky Buddha Lounge, Garrett Popcorn, Jamie, John Hancock Building, Lynn, Mary, Potbelly, Rodan, Signature Room, Smart Bar, Sonotheque, vacation
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.
Poker, Special Event
| Adalyn, birthday, Century City, food, Lunaria, murder mys, murder mystery, Newport Seafood, Poker, restaurant, texas hold'em
Comments (0)