Packed Weekend!

What a weekend! Ivy and I had an action packed Memorial Day weekend! I was on call, so I couldn't go far. Luckily Ivy and I were able to find things to do close to Columbus. The farthest we went was 80 miles to Kings Island (near Cincinnati). Initially I had thought about going to Great Smoky Mountains or Chicago, but they were too far. The whole weekend was pretty humid. We were sweating so much that we got pretty sticky the whole time. At King's Island we had to buy those big-gulp 42 oz. souvenir cups because they let you get refills for $2 with those cups. Guess what, with both of us sharing one cup, we went through the equivalent of 3 fills!

Here's the weekend breakdown:

Ivy arrived to Columbus late Saturday morning after I went out for a bike ride. For lunch we went to Benihana! Yeah, Columbus finally has a Benihana. It opened about 2 months ago. They don't have much business though as the restaurant was almost empty, but at least their sushi was just like the one in LA. Their lunch boat seemed bigger than LA for less than $10.

After lunch we went for a short visit at the Specialized bike demo at a local mountain bike trail. It looks like Specialized puts out these demos across the country as they travel in a truck and trailer. We only browsed for a few minutes before heading to see an RC airplane competition near by. The planes were huge in person, but so small in the air! The RC pilots got some skills too and did a few acrobatic tricks.

Later we stopped at the 15th annual Asian Festival at Franklin Park. The whole event was free with music and stuff. The music wasn't great and the boutiques sold pretty cheap looking stuff. They got a lot of foods there, but we decided to eat dinner elsewhere.

In the evening we spent a few minutes at a free concert at a city called Gahanna. We didn't stay cus they were playing country music, which both of us don't like. We then decided to go see the Star Trek movie. It was a pretty awesome movie!

Sunday morning I got up bright and early (6:30 am) for a 20 mile bike ride. Not a lot of people riding that morning, but other riders say "hi" when passing. At about 11am we arrived at King's Island! Memorial Sunday was filled with events at the theme park because it's the beginning of their "summer" season. There's a new roller coaster ride called Diamondback. They also had a BMX competition in which Sunday was the finals day. There was also a motocross acrobatics demo. But...the main event of the day was the Collective Soul concert!!! They threw in an extra concert by Pop Evil, but it's obvious everyone wants to see Collective Soul. Collective Soul played all of their hit songs and also a couple from their new album. We were sitting pretty close up to the left, but we were also in front of the speakers. It was so loud that my camera couldn't pick up the audio when I recorded videos. The day at King's Island ended with extended firework show and 3 pyrotechnic skydivers. The ticket for the theme park, including the concerts, was just $33 per person! That's so cheap compared to $70 per person at Disneyland. We didn't get back to Columbus until almost 1am.

On Memorial Day we basically slept in. I decided to skip riding my bike for a day. All we did was just visit the OSU campus. For lunch we had $6 Chinese buffet. The food was great and the restaurant was filled with people. I think Ivy over-stuffed herself cus she felt nauseous afterwards. She skipped dinner since she was flying back to LA.

So that's my 3-day Memorial weekend. In about 10 days it'll be my turn to visit LA. I am also 32 days away from my road trip back to LA! I've already booked my hotels at Kansas City, KS and Grand Junction, CO. We'll pass by St. Louis, Denver and Las Vegas. It'll be a straight shot with maybe short stops at the big cities.

300+ Miles

I broke the 300 mile mark today on my bikes! I started riding about a month ago. I'm averaging 16 mph and I ride 12-15 miles each time. On the straights I go about 18-20 mph. I found that road bikes are about 4 mph faster than a mountain bike given the same effort (power). Good thing here in Columbus we have a bike path near my apartment. It runs along the river and is very scenic since you are hidden in the forest. It takes you away from the traffic. I just hop on the bike and I'm at the bike path within half a mile. The bad thing about the path is that other people use it to jog, walk, walk their dogs, and rollerblade, so you really have to watch for these people. Today is the first day I got rained on too! The rain actually kept me cool, though.

There are still a lot of bikers who go faster than me. But I'm flattered that the last 2 days I have others riding my draft. Apparently by following very close to me they have less wind resistance. Naturally the stronger rider is in the front....hehehe! Riding my draft (or "sucking my wheel") makes me nervous because I have to keep my speed constant or the person behind would crash into me.

On other news, I finally got 1 of the 2 reimbursement checks from my interviews at Texas. I spent a total of $1800 on the interviews and I got back $1000. The other $800 should be in the mail right now. It sucks to get reimbursed this late.

Ivy's coming to Columbus for a visit on Memorial 3-day weekend! We have yet to decide what to do. I thought about going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but the round trip drive would be 14 hours and Ivy won't get to Columbus until Saturday afternoon. Apparently there are a lot of local events; I'm just not sure how interesting they would be.

7 weeks and counting!

Okay so I have about 50 days left of fellowship! There are a few things I need to get in place before I leave here. I have to get recertified in BLS and ACLS, complete my retirement fund withdrawal paperwork, and then do a complete inventory of the stuff I want to ship with the moving company (United Van Lines). As it turns out, I will probably drive my way back to California because I have some things that I don't trust the moving company for handling. I remember my BMW 325i was damaged back in 2000 from a mover. Also I have a computer that I don't want to wait 10 days for it to arrive in California. United Van Lines quote for the move was pretty high and may exceed the $5000 limit because 18-wheelers can't get to my apartment here in Columbus and home in Walnut. If I take the car out of the equation, then they can use a smaller truck to move the rest of my stuff door-to-door. I think I still have to sell a few things (like the one bed mattress) since I don't imagine needing them in California.

Last week, my bro Fred, bro Jack, Noelle, and mom returned from their vacation at Japan and Taiwan. It looks like they had a lot of fun and Fred and Noelle got engaged! Jack's photos are quite nice and I'm impressed by them. Of course, Ivy gets jealous seeing those photos. I say there'll be plenty of photos when I'm back to LA and have someone take photos of us! My mom said she can take photos for us, and I said Ha....!

I finally got back into bicycling after a long period of absence. I have now switched to road cycling with the Specialized Tarmac Pro SL and Specialized Allez Sport Comp (got a great deal on both). I'm finally riding fast enough that when I hit a bug, it'll just die and stick to my face! On my last ride, each of my eyes ate a bug. I was riding with my regular small glasses, so I decided to utilize my optometry coverage on my health insurance to get new sunglasses. I only have two pairs of sunglasses in my life time (both are at least 5 years old), but the lenses were too small to provide any protection. So my eye exam was completely free with my vision insurance at the OSU School of Optometry. The student spent 2 hours examining me, and did a lot of tests that I thought was unnecessary, but hey, she's learning.

I went for the Oakley Flak Jacket XLJ with Fire Iridium lens and Oakley Radar Path Livestrong Special Edition with Black Iridium lens from Lens Crafters. Both pairs of glasses are covered under my vision insurance! I initially ordered the Flak Jacket because of the more traditional sports look. Then they said that I could also get the Radar Path for 50% off retail. The Radar Path wraps around my eyes very well when I tried it out at the store. I think I got a great price on both pairs because of my vision insurance. They would be too expensive without it.