Keep on Biking

I finally got a chance to ride my neighborhood trails at Whiting Ranch park. Too bad I hurt my left wrist, and I didn't even fall this time! I borrowed a friend's mountain bike (seen here).This is what my ride home looks like:
Well, it used to look like that before the time change and the winter setting in. Now a days it is dark and cold. One day it was so foggy that I took a turn too fast and slid into a ditch. I've also been upgrading my commuter bike (seen above). In addition it now has a rear rack with a pannier, a frame mounted tire pump and a frame mounted. This leads me to say that I got addicted to Craigslist. That is how I got all the aforementioned parts.

Dia de Los Muertos

That's were I went to celebrate and listen to hispanic music like Quinto Sol. There was some awesome paper mache art and I took a picture similar to one I took a few years ago at Dia de Los Muertos on Chavez street. This year the festival was held at newly developing block next to the Toy district of LA.

Halloween Bust

Saturday I went to a Halloween party over at Smidgie and Matt's. One of the DJs was wearing a Kiko outfit and the mix was a sweet hip-hop latin mix which included the Chavo del Ocho theme song. Outfits were far out, unfortunately, there's no pictures because my pants were so tight I left my phone in the car.

And its not a birthday without piñatas!
It turned out to be a fantastic weekend with the highlight being watching High School Musical part 1. Very fulfilling.

Oktoberfest at Big Bear!!!

Last night I went to Oktoberfest at the Big Bear convention center with Bethany. I was the designated driver which kept me out of trouble, and probably the reason why I didn't go home with two baby llamas. No matter what anyone says, accordions are awesome and I will be able to play one some day. p.s. Polka dancing awesome also.

160 miles and counting

So for my 24th birthday I decided to buy myself a motorcycle. I know, I should have had one while traveling in South America, but hey I can't be like Ché in every aspect.
Today was the first time refilling my gas tank. I started out with about 5,900 miles on my Suzuki DR650. These last two weeks I drove it what I thought was hard because I had a lot of fun accelerating like crazy. Still I got 46mpg, which makes me feel better than when I was driving alone to work in my 32mpg car. I guess nothing will beat my bicycle which is rated at 30mpb (miles per burrito). I know I have it easy when the hardest decision to make in the morning is whether to take my car, bicycle or motorcycle to work.

24 Hours of Adrenaline

Still have the scars to show my first mountain bike race. It was an 8 man team from my work for 24hours of a 10 mile course at Hurkey Creek. I totally pulled off a superman by accident and then later in my first lap I got a charlie horse in mid-air and came crashing down...it was awesome!

From the foothills to the beach

This past weekend I rode my crappy old mountain bike from Lake Forest to Laguna Beach, hung out at sunset and then took the bus back home. It was a scary ride at one point along El Toro road because the bike lane ended and I was at the mercy of sharing the lane with speeding cars.

On a side note, here's an update on the evolution of my commute to work. First, roller bladed to the bus stop and took two busses (total time 2hrs). Then, bike to the bus stop and take the San Diego creek trail to work (total time 1.5hrs). Then one day I totally missed the bus because the times changed and I didn't get the memo. So I had to decide to wait 40minutes for the next bus or ride my bike the other 13miles to work. That's when I realized that riding my bike was way faster than taking the bus. Weeks later and a new low end Shwinn road bike later and I get to work in an hour and back in 1hr15min.

Sunset Blvd got Kinky!

Yes, Kinky! in Hollywood! They played at the Sunset Junction Street Festival. I managed to round up a group of skurves to go see the festival. Good times had by all. I also felt a great surge of pride when the lead singer introduced the guy on keys and accordion who is from Chihuahua!!! See, some good things come out of that city after all.

OCGP

The Orange County Great Park is...well, great. During the summer they opened the big orange helium balloon ride and a concert series of Friday night dances and Saturday concerts.

Friday I got to move my self to the Argentinian/LA rhythms of Los Pinguos. I may have appeared on local Irvine news channel because when they were interviewing with the dance floor as the background I proceeded to dance conspicuously in the shot. Although, I was not alone in this because soon came into the scene some OC wanna be hippy hipsters. Good times had by all I guess.

Then Saturday was Quetzal, an LA Latin rock band. I am proud to say that I took my mom to the show. There was much dancing had by all, but it was initiated by little kids who weren't afraid to shake their bon bons. As a side note, now that I lived in Guatemala, the word Quetzal carries more meanings and memories.

Ahoy there Red Head

Last night I went to a Red Hot Summer Party in Hollywood to send off Todd who managed to enroll in semester at sea without being enrolled in college. The theme was red so I wore my red collared shirt with red dickies and my red and white pimp shoes and piano belt with the guitar rock star bottle opener belt buckle. Good times...I even had some Caltech possy with me consistin of jeeves, maritza and alex.

Get a little lower

I really like visiting some place and catching a random festival...especially if its a lowrider bike festival in Venice. One of these days I'll take my lowrider bike (which I recently added a bugle horn to) and ride from Venice to Santa Monica and back.

In my travels around LA (latin america) I saw some sketchy people, like the bum in Lake Titicaca that was passed out on the sidewalk at 3 in the afternoon with his penis hanging out through a hole in his shorts. Nothing beats L.A. (Los Angeles) area in diversity of wierd people. In L.A. the crazy people come up and talk to you or follow you to your car and that's wack.

But hey, I like talking to interesting people so in Venice I went up to this one hippy looking old man and proceded to have an hour conversation about politics, weed and gynecology.