before gym workouts i usually drink an abb speed stack energy drink. the caffeine really helps and this drink has some other scary sounding ingredients:

For high intensity training and calorie burning, Speed Stack utilizes Methylxanthines to work synergistically with Alpha and Beta Agonists Receptors

the speed stack gives me a good burst of energy for 30-60mins, just enough time to have a powerful workout.

anyway last night before i left work, i was feeling low energy and to stay awake for my drive home i had a rockstar and then when i got to the gym had my speed stack. the workout was really strong, but when i got home i was seriously seeing stars and almost felt drunk. i thought i’d counter the effect with some scotch but that just made me feel ridiculous. anyway, a rockstar + a speed stack = about 400mg of caffeine which is too much to take within a couple of hours, i’ll be more careful next time.

or at least not really… we had first class standby tickets for new york, but since there was some fucked up weather on the east coast earlier in the day, the flight before ours was canceled which filled up both of the red eye flights we were going to try to get on. since we were at the airport and ready to go somewhere, we went with our back up flight which is always empty late at night: sin city.

we were disappointed, but it might’ve been for the best. the weather was in the high 20′s in new york, and my unreliable iphone weather reported a mix of cloudy weather and rain and snow. in an attempt to humor ourselves we stayed at new york, new york and drank and gambled and partied. since we were there for a couple of days we also just kinda hung out, shopped, watched i am legend at the theatre and taka rode the insanity ride at the stratosphere. we’ll try for new york again in the spring when travel isn’t as hectic and the weather is tolerable.

not quite the real thing, but vegas is always a good second choice

me, eric and ben went up to stephan’s place in downtown la on saturday night. we went to the same bar/restraunt we went to a few weekends ago and drank cheap pbr (maybe the second time i had drank pbr in the same day?) when we were walking back to stephan’s place, we saw this group of 30+ jews? mormons? quakers? stop across the street from a beat up old building and started singing jesus songs really loud. we were directly infront of them when they started singing, but it seemed that they were all looking up towards the building. our best guess was that the buidling was a whore/drug house and they were trying to sing some jesus into them. maybe they were just having fun. pretty cool either way.

stephan has a trendy loft in a renovated old building, with huge windows that look into the city. using his binoculars to try to see women changing in far off buildings has never made me feel so urban. we drank beer, argued about the geekiest things and played wii and mame arcade games. next time, we’re gonna daisy chain two x-arcade controllers and get some 4-player ninja turtles action on. yep. watchout.

after 6 months of me trying to freak out dave and eric that the ‘el tigre’ hill would be the scariest ride ever, we all sailed over it no problem, and finished together in 3:26, my second best time.

the trip was a lot of fun. me, eric, dave, and his buddy ross piled into eric’s car and even though we hit some fucked up traffic coming back, it was some pretty good ‘n funny bro time. and next year passports are going to be required, so the border’s only gonna be more insane.

as usual, we ate tons of tacos, drank gallons of beer, lowballed street vendors and threw bottles at the tranny hookers. i also seemed to have my shirt off more than usual.

check out all the pics, but be forewarned, there’s a lot of gay porn:

http://public.fotki.com/b…daride/

i finally got a chance to get some wakeboarding in on wednesday. by around 1p, most of the cloud coverage had burned off and the water in marine stadium was a warm 74f. i took some pretty nasty crashes off my first few jump attempts and my neck is still kinda stiff today, but it’s a lot like snowboarding where it takes a couple of outings to get as good as you were at the end of last season. everyone tried the wakeboard, except taka who we pulled around on the boogie board to her and everyone’s amusement. the boogie board actually broke, so i’m gonna have to find another solution for people that just want to have dumb fun like that.

by the time we were finished wakeboarding, the sun was already about to set, so we pulled into acapulco, had dinner and a few more drinks, then cruised out to the queen mary to watch the fireworks. the show was fun, and we were only about 100m or so from the barge that the fireworks were launching from. there were lots of new fireworks that i hadn’t seen before, although the finale was a bit lackluster.

well, first of all taka’s back. she didn’t pass some government regulated safety test during her training and she got booted. she’s obviously disappointed, but i’m happy to have her back :)

on friday morning, me, taka and ben met up with shal and helped her take her first load of stuff down to her sd pad. it’s a really fancy, modern place in a super swanky building. it’s got floor-to-ceiling windows and you can watch the baseball game from the roof. it’s pretty insane. after we got all the stuff moved in, we went to the mall and ben waited in line for 3 hours for a gay iphone while the rest of us just did normal shopping. the funny thing about the damn line was that after all that waiting, there were still plenty of iphones left. one of the first people that were able to buy the phone actually walked past the line and sold some dimwit their iphone for $900. had he just waited for the 15 minute line to go through, he could’ve saved about $250. but that’s the insanity of apple fanboys.

that evening we walked to a local pizza place and then to another “standard”-ish bar which was cool, but by then i was pretty hammered. i don’t even remember walking back to shal’s place :)

from ben:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benackerman/sets/72157600246679082/

from shantelle:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=mvj83ef.assatxqn&x=0&y=-21weud

well, kinda couples weekend… there were varying leveless of couplesness, but it was a fun crowd. me, taka, mike, lisa, al, elaine, ben and vanessa (in order of couplesness) stayed in rosarito this trip. we assumed that that’s where all of the 10,000 riders in the rosarito to ensenada ride must party, seeing that we’ve stayed in ensenada and inbetween before with no luck. turns out bicycle riders don’t party… go figure.

we didn’t get into town until about 8pm or so on friday. our hotel was a 10 minute walk or $3 cab ride to the downtown area. we ate tons of tacos and drank buckets of beer and listened to funny covers by a live band at macho taco for a few hours and i got to bed around 1a. our hotel was kinda creepy. it was as huge as a regular hyatt or something, but only the 5th floor was lit. the parking garage seriously had 10 cars in it, and the people running the frontdesk looked like crazy mafia or something. lisa had read lots of reviews (after we had booked/paid for it) about how it was corrupt and dangerous and terrible service… but for all the worrying and creepiness, it was actually a decent place, although a bit overpriced.

the ride was awesome. it had rained the day before, but cleared up just in time for the start of the race. in the end the only people that rode were me, mike and taka. al had busted his foot, and everyone else was there just for the good time. we finished the ride in a little under 4:30. we actually started at the start line this time (unlike the last few times where we started about a mile ahead), so the first hour was with heavy traffic. after the start gun went off, it was 10 minutes before we even got on our bikes. i think had we skipped ahead like we’ve done in the past, we could’ve saved at least 45 minutes. we only made 2 brief stops for bathroom breaks (freakin’ women) and other than that no stopping, no walking. taka set a fast pace up “el tigre” (1000ft climb in 2 miles), and was dinging her bell and yelling “passing on your left” as me and mike chased. at one point when i went to put my hand on her back for a bit of a push, she pushed off me and pulled away. she had something to prove and i was so impressed and proud :) i told her i’d build her a road bike for the next ride, because if she can haul ass up those hills on a 40lb mountain bike, she’ll fly on a sub-20lb road bike.

the finish line fiesta was sponsored by corona this year, so we just chilled, ate crazy tacos and drank coronas for a few hours. by the time we headed back up to rosarito, i was pretty dead. we showered and by the time we headed out to get dinner, rosarito was pretty much a ghost town. we grabbed dinner at a lobster restraunt and then me, taka, mike and lisa headed back up to the rooms, and i’m actually still not sure what the other guys did, because the 4 of us woke up early on sunday and headed out to beat the traffic.

anyway, tons of pics coming, stay tuned :)

i can’t remember how long it’s been there, but for at least the last 10 years, we’ve been going to the wow! store. half music/half electronics, it was the perfect place to hang out before or after a movie, with a huge 50′ tv screen in the center and plenty of things to browse or buy while you waited for friends, or were trying to work off a buzz. at one point they even had a coffee shop inside. sadly they’re now completely closed, and the space is going to be used for a fucking walgreens.

last night after margarita monday as we were stumbling through the parking lot, we saw the main wow! letters lying in the parking lot awaiting pickup or disposal or something. ben and i were able to get some final parting pictures with the W that we grew up with :`(

margarita monday was great. i’m still on the tail-end of my cold so i didn’t drink as hard as i have, but shali and shantelle came up reppin’ the OC and jean and courtney came down bringing the west la love, so it was a good time with a great ratio. we watched ‘blades of glory’ which was pretty damn funny, esp with a buzz… it did seem though that it was an snl skit that just lasted 2 hours. i don’t know if i would’ve enjoyed it nearly as much sober.