Disneyland Post Apocalyptic Crowds

Initially scared by all the news and various media reports that Disneyland was closing and not letting people in due to ovehwleming holiday crowds and even friends warning me that they were close to going insane, driving up to the happiest place on earth was a little bit of a concern.  If you know me, I'm always down, so in the end,  we charged ahead.  Amazing weather to boot, it was a great day!  We didn't really have time to explore certain areas of the park but all in all, we did the "important stuff" minus the water rides.  We even got to hang out with JP and his high school friend Frances. One thing that both Adelle and I never did before was the Toy Story ride and experience the Wonderful World of Color Show at California Adventures.  That show was pretty darn awesome.  They even had a dedicated Tron: Legacy bit choreographed.  Great stuff.

If you didn't know...

I GOT MARRIED 2 WEEKS AGO!!! YAY!!! ...and I have to admit that I'm now really scared that my "slacking off" in rudimentary fitness training and triathlon "getting-ready-ness" has all but succumbed to a horrid tantrum of binge drinking, food gorging and a desire to imitate and be the best human wasteland I could be. Here's a quick clip of the Mr. and Mrs. Nicolas!

Pulling up the map of the TriRock San Diego yesterday actually made me feel a little comfortable. I say that only because it doesn't look as daunting as I originally made it out to be. Granted, I know that it's only a sprint, but once again I'll admit that I am not where I'm suppose to be. Well, I could have prepared like a champ but at least this baseline will be an accurate sample of what I'm capable of. Like I said before, I'm just hoping for a finish. I'll be updating the work out calendar when I get back to San Diego on Friday night and as I'm typing this out, I just realized I forgot my Garmin.

A Random New Year's (yes I know it's already February)

I know that I haven't posted in a while but I might as well start with the randomness that New Year's Eve brought. I spent the day with my fiance having a great breakfast / lunch, took some pictures around the area (Solana Beach, San Diego, CA) and just hung out knowing that we wouldn't be with each other that night. It would be the first time that we were not able to spend the midnight together since we have been with each other. She was working, I happen to be off that night, but it ended up working out just right! I called up a friend and was invited to hang out! It was great...the randomness = new friends, old neighbors, good company, great food and the random bar that apparently was throwing a New Year's Eve Party for a different breed. Needless to say, we were the only Asians around (not that that matters) and we missed the flyer describing the party as a lesbian night out! =) Good times though! We each donated food cans taken out of Jerome and Joyce's pantry used to discount the cover charged, enjoyed the night then went back to their place and play some quiz games on the PS3...and of course, enjoyed more food! Here are some pics! [gallery link="file" columns="2"]

I have quite a few more pictures that I'll be posting here too in the next few days!  Stay tuned!

The Last Month

The month of September ended in a whirlwind of vacationing, moving and surviving the slew of mosquito bites that I suffered both from Nicaragua and Atlanta. The last week in September was dedicated to moving, but after a great night of splurging at Taco Mac with some good pilot buddies, my roommate and I still hadn't made a final decision on where we would end up. Eventually being forced to move out of our apartment because the management ended up renting it out to a couple of college girls, we were lucky to be able to negotiate for a "non-upgraded" 2 bedroom, two bath for even cheaper than what we were paying in the same complex! The non-upgraded tag once specifies that it has black appliances rather than white ones, but you can't tell the difference at all anyways. We now have a pool view, and a 1-year lease for $818/mo (that's actually $750 + their fees for water / sewer / garbage, etc). I think we definitely scored as we're also closer to the front of the property making it so much easier to access the huge trashbin, Starbucks across the street, my favorite Cuban restaurant Coco-Loco, as well as Best Buy and the MARTA. I'm happy with the place and I'm just happy that my roommate, Mark Russell and I have a place that we both like a lot. Dealing with Comcast in trying to get the cable line activated was a little bit of a cluster, but apparently, it was disconnected within our apartment!? I guess it would have made sense for them to send out a mechanic guy to our apartment rather than just assuming turning it on from the outside was all they would need to do.

I finally made it back to San Diego by way of ATL-PHX-SAN and the last leg was great. Southwest is always just really friendly, but I have to admit that the two Delta pilots were great company for the 3.8 hrs in the jumpseat. Thanks for the ride guys!

For now, I'm just excited to be back home but there is so much to do when it comes to cleaning up my desk space, taking my bike out for a ride and hanging out with my favorite girl!

In the meantime, check out my new favorite drink at http://elijahnicolas.posterous.com/favorite-new-drink-and-turtwig-on-a-couch-at and the relaunch of the "peak interest" podcast at www.peakinterest.net or via iTunes.