Missed the Blog

It's been a while since my last update! A lot happened in the last month, but I'll just give a short version. Early August my parents, Ivy and I went to Taiwan. We were unfortunate to be greeted by Typhoon Morakot. It's my first typhoon that I have any memory of. It was pretty bad and it happened on Aug 8th, the weekend that we were meeting with Ivy's family. A lot of plans changed because of the Typhoon, but we did get to meet. I felt bad for the loses Taiwan endured. My trip to Taiwan was unexpectedly extended by about 4 days because I got bumped from my flight. I received $5000 NT compensation, but I nearly spent it all on the high speed rail + meals to meet up with Ivy and her friends at Kaoshiung.

After returning to LA I was mostly busy studying and also house hunting. Apparently this summer was a seller's market because of the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers. Home prices got jacked up, which was defeating the purpose of getting the $8000 tax credit. I'm mostly looking at homes in the Walnut area, which seems more valuable than Rancho Cugamonga or Diamond Bar. Although houses at Rancho Cugamonga are nice and new, they are in the middle of the desert (literally at the outer fringe of civilization). Maybe in the future the area would boom, but as of now it seems inconvenient for simple day-to-day stuff.

For Labor Day weekend I went to Santa Barbara and one of the Channel Islands. The trip was pretty cool. I didn't know we had all those islands off the California coast.

We did get to see some dolphins on the trip to the islands. We step foot on an island that's only one square mile. At the top of the island you could see ocean on all sides. That's a pretty gnarly feeling.


Next week a couple of my cousins and then later an uncle will come visit us from Taiwan! It looks like my mom has planned out their visits. My uncle is actually here for business, but has one day free. My cousins will be here for 2 weeks. They will stay at our home for the visit.

Going to Taiwan!

I'm on my way to Taiwan! The purpose of the trip is for my parents to meet Ivy's parents and then to discuss wedding plans. Last week Ivy finally picked out her engagement ring from Blue Nile. It's a very bright ring and she likes it very much. Cut is ideal, color grade is F and the clarity grade is VS2. We looked at Kay, Robin's Brothers at the malls, but their diamonds seem like cheap grades. I think we got a great deal at Blue Nile. In Taiwan we'll pick out our wedding rings. If we can't find what we want then we'll buy in the US afterwards.

Out luggages are filled to the max for the most part. A lot of the stuff are not even ours, but rather stuff friends and family in Taiwan want us to bring back. So yesterday Ivy and I went to the Duty Free store at Hollywood (Kodak Theatre). They marked up their prices quite a bit. I was amazed that a bag of M&M's cost $12! I could get a bucket full of M&M's from the grocery store for that amount of money. Also the stuff they sell are the stuff I don't use any way. They are mainly beauty products and upscale branded clothing and handbags.

At the Star Walk we saw a small shrine at Michael Jackson's star. Madame Tussauds seems to be a new attraction as I never seen it before. I got a photo of me and Snoop Dog! Hollywood was super crowded with tourists yesterday.

Bike Report: 1060 Miles, 13 lbs Lighter

I slowly broke the 1000-mile mark about a week ago riding my bike! Now I'm over 1060 miles. I also lost about 13 pounds since mid April!

The hills in Walnut were a killer at first, but now they seem ok. I could only do 14.3 miles (about 1.5 loops around the major roads in City of Walnut) in about 53-54 minutes, that's only about averaging 16 mph. That's a slow average, but considering I'm climbing the Amar hills twice I'm happy with it. I have yet to encounter anyone riding faster than me.

My fastest segments (because they are either downhill or flat) are:
Lemon Ave. southbound (35 mph)
Grand Ave. southbound (32 mph)
Valley Blvd. westbound (23 mph)

Speeds vary greatly when there are uphill climbs mixed with downhills:
La Puente Rd. westbound ( 15-25 mph)
Nogales St. northbound (10-18 mph)
Amar Rd. eastbound (6-30 mph)

Settling down in LA

I finally got my (small) truck load of stuff back last week! The United Van Lines drove their 18-wheeler up our hill and had to make a tight K-turn at a cross street. The semi-truck was huge, probably the biggest I'd seen. The cab seemed like it could sleep all 3 people who came to unload. I shifted though all the stuff and got most of the things I need out already. The rest will probably stay boxed until I find a new place to live.

I'm in the process of looking for a house to buy in the San Gabriel Valley. The housing market is still inflated here in LA. For $300k I could move into a mansion in Texas or Ohio, but here that's only a condo's worth. I have yet to get my pre-approval from the bank, but it seems like my price range will be $550k or less. My parents are going to help me out big time for the down payment since it's 25%. No more 0% down for doctors like before. I'm also looking at maybe a 15 year morgage, but first is to pay my parents back. The interest rates are low, so that's to my advantage.

Ivy and I will head back to Taiwan in August along with my parents. They will meet with Ivy's parents for the first time to discuss wedding plans. Hopefully things can get hammered out then. August will likely be hot in Taiwan. I'm also studying for the boards. We'll see how that goes. It's slow going so far with so many things going on. I know my trip to Taiwan will somehow disrupt the studying a bit.

On side notes, Fred had his surprise party at Seaport Village in San Diego. It was my first time seeing fireworks from San Diego's harbor. They had 4 fireworks going at the same time. Later that weekend Ivy secretly bought me my birthday present. It's a Gucci wallet! It's early, but no complaints. She had noticed that I needed a new wallet, but couldn't bring myself to spend more than $40 on a decent one. I wonder how much this Gucci wallet costs.