This summer has become the summer of 2-wheeled vehicles for me and my circle of friends. When Adam moved out here a year ago, he decided he only needed a scooter to get to work and back, and that he and Carolyn didn’t need a second 4-wheeled vehicle. Our great friend Pug, has been a scooter enthusiast for as long as I’ve really known him, and has converted to rolling on 2 wheels pretty much exclusively for a WHILE, long before the scooter craze caught on lately. He’s got a scooter centric blog and proves that you can do a LOT of things on a scoot including bring multiple surf-boards to the beach with you. Then there is Toby, who found a SWEET old school Enduro 125cc bike to ride around his new SoCal neighborhood. Adam and I also took the California Motorcycle safety class a few weeks ago, so we’ll have our Motorcycle licenses and a break on Scooter/Motorcyle insurance. Obviously gas prices have been a big part of this, the “22-mile-each-way” commute to my new job will be a lot cheaper on a scooter than in my car.

So a couple of weeks ago, to really put to 2-wheeled lifestyle to the test I decided to ride Adam’s scoot 100 miles to Oceanside, CA from North Hollywood to visit Pug and see the Tigers play the Padres. The ride down was an adventure, complete with a few wrong turns and attempts to take closed roads, and I eventually had to use the freeway. In the end though, it was great and round trip it was less than 2.5 gallons to go over 200 miles! The trip home was much easier too and took less than 2 hours and 45 minutes, on surface streets!

It went so well, I bought my own scooter. A Lance Venice 150cc. A sweet little Retro-Styled freeway legal scoot that I absolutely love. I’ve been using a new iPhone App called AccuFuel (which you can download on your iPhone or with iTunes by clicking here) to track my mileage and as of today, I am getting 81MPG without tuning it or anything, that’s “out-of-the-box”. Sorry for the generic PR photo of the bike, but attached is my last MPG figures from AccuFuel. I promise to post a “real” picture of my scoot soon!

So... Bowling. I swear, I'm like addicted. Alex and I managed to go once a week for about a month and a half, then we took a little break, and I couldn't believe how much I was fiending to go bowling again. After a few unsuccessful attempts to go, Mackenzie and I decided to make a point of going bowling last night, like we made plans a week in advance since we both wanted to go so badly. Now, I've been trying to learn to bowl the "right-way", you know, like putting spin on the ball and all that... It was little frustrating at first, since I had just been bowling by trying to throw the ball as straight as possible my whole life leading up to that, and as a result there were a few pretty ugly scores while I tried to figure out how to throw the ball this new way. However, it is starting to pay off I think, as last night I bowled my best game ever, a 169. Now I know that 169 isn't the greatest score ever, and out of 300, well its not even really all that impressive. For me however, who was, up until a couple months ago, just happy to break 100, its pretty crazy. In that Game I also scored my first Turkey, or three strikes in a row (to be specific it was acutally a spare, three strikes, and then another spare, but who is counting, right? ;) )... Anyway, it was a blast, and I think I'll be bowling a little more often in the coming months(I even looking into a league while at the lanes last night). Man, what fun, I honestly, can't wait to go again!

Hey everyone, Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. The Tigers crushing defeat at the hands of the Cardinals, a team we swept during the regular season put in quite a personal tail spin that I am only now recovering from. I kid, things have been busy, but at the some time, not really much worth blogging about. But I'll list the events worth mentioning here in list form, hopefully I have more exciting posts for you in the next few weeks! Thanks for checkin in!

Oh, the picture above is of the Pumpkins that Arlene, Alex and I carved the week before Halloween...

Halloween

The Saturn broke down on the 101, luckily Arlene had Triple A and saved my butt by getting my car towed to a shop

We went to Santa Monica Blvd. and partied with all the other crazies in Hollywood, it's a lot like 6th Ave. in NYC

DMV

The Supreme Irony in the Saturn Breaking down is that I had spent that morning at the DMW registering the Saturn as a California Vehicle

While at the DMV I also registered to vote (too late for this election I fear)

And most importantly I also got a California Driver's License on the 31st, making me officially a California Resident...

Side note, I tried for over 2 years to get a New York Driver's License and the NYC DMV made it so hard, it never happened, in California, it took less than an hour at the DMV and the gave me an appointment in under 24 hours when I called to set this all up...

Car Breaking Down

The car broke down on Halloween and wasn't fixed until the end of the day on the 1st

The car then broke down again less than 3 miles from the repair place on the 2nd when I tried to drive to work

Coco, the mechanic apologized profusely and fixed it on the 2nd for free

I got a ride to work in a Tow Truck on the 2nd

Work

Still doing computer consulting for GLAAD

Almost time to turn in my Application to the Director's Guild of America's Trainee Program, but won't hear back about that for a few months...