Where do I go to... buy a bike.

I.
Bought.
a.
BIKE!!!

A warm thank you to Neighbor Joe for telling me about Chubby's Cruisers. I found a bicycle that was right for me. I got a "hybrid", that is, it is a hybrid between a mountain bike and a cruiser.


The owner, Nicole, on my new bike.



My bike, with a basket.



More bikes. I just bought one though.


I asked the owner how she got into selling bikes. She said that she started off fixing and selling bikes from her backyard and then decided to open up a store.

Nice staff. Nice owner. Good selection of bikes. Any bike that you buy from them they will do check ups and fix anything that needs to be fixed as long as you have the bike. There are certain limitations to that though. They won't fix your bike if you intentionally break it, or something like that. Anyway, its a great place to get a bike. I highly recommend them.

Chubby's Cruisers
2047 La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
310.202.0005

South Park Flea Market

I forgot to post this last week!

I went to the grand opening of downtown's new weekly flea market. When I found out that it was organized by the same people who organize the one at Fairfax High, I knew it was worth checking out.



I bought a small pouch that I now use as a camera holder. Here is the designer, Miguel Torres, holding his creation:




He also sells very cute and affordable dresses that he and his aunt made in their studio a few blocks away from the flea market:






He even makes a kind of "masculine" bag that I have never seen before:





Nevermind the arbitrary gender double standard, its much easier to carry your wallet, cell phone, keys, note pad, writing utencil, etc. in a purse than it is in your wallet. I have been seeing more and more men carry purses, and I hope to see that trend continue.

It has some venders selling "marketable things" at reasonable prices, but knowing that it has to compete on the same day with the the extremely popular flea market at Fairfax High, I am not sure how successful this flea market will be.

I think if it also included a farmer's market, or at least more vendors (that do not sell designer imitations), it would stand a better chance.

Proyecto Matzo Ball Soup

The Significant Other (TSO) has a really bad cold. So the other day I made TSO matzo ball soup. Its just what we do when somebody is sick.

I had to go to a local grocery store to get the ingredients. I decided to walk to Ralph's, even though that is not where I do my regular grocery shopping. Its a 45 minute walk (it could be a looong walk if you are carrying heavy groceries), and the few times I have been there, I ALWAYS (100% of the time) had problems with exiting the parking garage and validation system. I regularly shop at Trader Joe's in Silverlake, or farmer's markets. But I'll leave that for another post.

I headed towards Ralph's with no specfic route in mind. I was just making it up as I went along.










Around Grand and 8th St some guy struck up a conversation with me about the architecture in downtown, adaptive reuse, sexual harassment in downtown, and digital photography. We parted ways when we got to Ralph's. Here he is walking and talking:



As soon as I got to Ralph's I needed to rest a little and get a caffeine fix. So I sat down outside, and did a combination of people watching, and prepared my lecture on the catalytic hydrogenation of olefins with a Pd catalyst.




Then I went back inside to do some shopping. Hey, did you know that Ralph's carries the best apples I have ever eaten in my whole entire life? I always stock up on them whenever I go.




Its the pink lady apples in the organic section. Hey, its neighbor Joe getting some!




I saw this guy with an interesting shirt, and asked him if I could take a picture of it:




Then some guy standing nearby said I should take a picture of his shirt too. Then I said "OK!", because I love photographing Angelenos. He was joking and didn't realize I would take him up on it. But I smiled pretty and took one anyway. He was self conscious about the smudge on the upper right of his shirt. I wonder what that dude in the tie in the background is thinking?



I got all the ingredients I needed for the mazto ball soup (carrots, celery, matzo ball mix, chicken stock, eggs, garlic, parsley, baby dill) and then headed home. On my way back I walked passed a film crew packing up their stuff and saw a pretty bouquette and took a picture of it.




This one masculine film crew guy noticed me taking a picture of it. He playfully picked up the bouquette, and posed a kissy face for the camera. I live for this kind of stuff.

How I Roll

I wish I could ride my bike around town and be safe doing so.- Or at least have the illusion that its safe. But the truth is, I just do not want to share the road with cars and people who are driving them.

Instead, I stroll around town in this:

My scooter parked in my office.


When I am rolling around the city, people often ask me "What are you riding?" And then I say "a xootr." And then they say "what?" And then I spell out "x-o-o-t-r".

If I am not in a hurry I will get off and let them try it.

If where I have to go is less than 1.5 miles, I ride the xootr.
If where I have to go will take me a half hour or less via walking and public transport, I do public transport. [This has been my new policy ever since I finally got my own car a few months ago (I'm 26 years old). Before then, I would do foot and public transport because those were my only options.]

Tampons in public places

It is unusual to find "feminine products" in vending machines.

Every now and then close to half of the population's uterus linings shed and sometimes they get stuck somewhere without convenient access to anything to help with that. Anyway, I hope to see that selling tampons in public vending machines become more mainstream.

Some vending machine in the chemical sciences building in UC Riverside

Garment Recycling

Patagonia set up a box at Adventure 16 (on Sepulveda and Pico) where people can discard some of their unwanted clothing. Patagonia will then

*granulate the fabric into small pellots
*break down the fabric (on the molecular level) into its raw polyester material
*turn it into polyester chips (as good of quality as "virgin" polyester chips)
*melt the chips and spin it into a fiber
*make clothing out of it



According to Patagonia's website, as of right now only the following items can be recycled:

Patagonia fleece (including Synchilla® and Regulator® insulation)
Polartec® fleece from other manufacturers
Capilene baselayers
Patagonia cotton T-shirts

Buttons, zippers and snaps do not need to be removed in advance. They come off in the recycling process.

They are working on new technologies to be able to recycle different kinds of garments from various manufacturers.

More information can be found here.