Every now and again someone comes across my path that I will take a particular interest to, earlier this week that person was Goodwin Gaw. In a world filled with loud and ego driven real estate moguls; Gaw tip toes behind the scene dominated by the likes of Donald Trump and the late Leona Helmsley.

Gaw, 38, is currently serving as the Vice-Chairman of Pioneer Global Group, and President/founder of Downtown Properties as well as the managing principal of Gateway Capitol, a firm dedicated to invest $200MM into China and Greater Asia. “That’s great, so who is he and how did he get there?” is what you must be thinking.

In this time and age we talk so much about being the leader, visionary, or trailblazer. Many of which are too ahead of their time; Gaw has been all the above and more. Born some 38 years ago in San Francisco he now splits his time between his operations in Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Gaw has constantly been ahead of the curve, with an eye for under performing properties which he has successfully purchased and brought up to spec. His impressive portfolio includes many of downtown Los Angele’s historic buildings, including the Roosevelt Hotel, the site of the very first Academy Awards, the Bradbury Building, One Bunker Hill and more.

However he did not get here on his own, Gaw began his path at KennedyWilson a Los Angeles Property firm specializing in purchasing troubled Japanese investments. From there on he struck out on his own at 27, purchasing the Roosevelt Hotel for $10MM. His father reluctantly invested $1MM, while he raised the rest through friends and family. Collectively they spent another $20MM restore the hotel to its present state. Today the hotel has a value north of $100MM. This was just the beginning, benefiting from the proceeds and success of the Roosevelt, Gaw started to pick up distressed properties then retrofitting them with fiber optics and leasing them to companies or renovating them as residential. He would take buildings performing at 20% then push them up to 100%.

In 1997 well before the bubble burst, Gaw had already seen the fall off and created Gateway Capital in Hong Kong, a fund with a board of 5 to speed up the decision making process, an ability that larger corporate firms lacked. With this new vehicle in play Gaw is set to invest over $200MM within China and Greater Asia. As the market suffers here, Gaw is still on his seemingly perpetual upstream.

Maybe it’s luck, chance or pure genius. At any rate I thought it was worth a mention, Gaw certainly motivated me without being titled the ‘Queen of Mean,’ or having his own prodigy reality tv show or anyone questioning his hair.

-Wallace

It’s late Monday and I’m currently exhausted, it’s been quite a long weekend and by that I mean I’ve been on the interior of an automobile for an over-extended amount of time. I was in Monterey for work, then back in Palo Alto for Sia’s birthday within the same night. The very next day I had to shuttle my mother back to their house in Evergreen, then Campbell for Sunny’s BBQ, home and finally Santana Row for Rob’s birthday. Sunday was the kicker, and thanks to Crystal for driving, I got up early after partying Saturday night and went to Crystal’s, from there she drove to Fremont to pick up a few of her friends then we went up 880 to Pt. Reyes for Hog Island oysters and a quasi BBQ/Picnic. I’m glad the weekend is over, and I’m looking forward to my own bed once again. You’ll probably hear me saying this many times over this month…as things look quite ambitious. Either way I’m excited.

On the business side of things, Richard Branson and his Virgin Airlines has made their break into the American market. They have also done so with a “bang,” so to speak. First David Beckham and Posh Spice, and now Virgin - The English are invading. Anyways they are not only offering the most technologically advanced planes in the sky, “A Multimillion-Dollar Ipod That Flies,” according to Wired Magazine, but the lowest price points I’ve seen. Period. Initial, and hopefully permanent rates are sub$90 from SFO to LAX, and sub$500 from SFO to JFK. These rates are eye-opening and as shockwaves are sent through the industry I need to capitalize on this and visit more domestic cities more often. Starting with NYC, as it’s been I believe at least 1.5 years since I’ve last gone.

Well…it’s time to go pass out now. I still have a long week ahead. For the moment, if I have yet to do so I’d like to wish Sia, Rob, Jenny, and Crystal a very happy birthday.

-Wallace

Over the weekend a bunch of us ventured out to Hume Lake located within Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. A huge thanks goes out to Sia who orchestrated the events of this entire weekend, he took the initiative to write out our programs, reserve the campsite, and the initial Costco run. This made it easy for the rest of us as all we needed to do was follow directions and eventually arrive at the campsite. The concept of ‘eventually’ really hindered my group. I knew Sunny aka Tinah, was going to arrive late, and had a pretty good feeling that Crystal was going to be a tad late as well. Knowing this I made sure I was ready be 5pm, Tinah did not arrive till 6pm to which we had to pack and run a couple errands, we did not pick Crystal up till 7pm. Hume Lake is 4 hours away and this put us at the campsite at 11pm. Not being one for hungry travelers we stopped at New Tung Kee Noodle House in Gilroy right before Pacheo Pass. This took up almost another hour. In an effort to save keystrokes we arrived a bit after 1am, Saturday morning. Set up our tent in the dark and proceeded to pass out. Sia wanted to make sure we were safe from bears, in his half awake form he asked if I was ok with having our toiletries in the locked cars. This made no sense to me, but I brushed it off…later I realized that bears are attracted to the fragrant scent of soaps, shampoo, etc so keep them in the cars and not in the tents was what he had meant.

The next day was relaxing. We woke up and ate, and ate, and ate, and ate some more. Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, and bread products; we had bages, sourdough, hogie rolls, you name it Sia bought it. We proceeded to pack sandwiches then head down to Hume Lake, where we proceeded to lounge, swim, dive, walk on logs and celebrate Sia’s and Michelle’s belated birthdays. Lucas initiates Sia’s cake spa treatment soon after. By the time we got back to camp and rested for a bit it was time to cook again, so we ate, and ate, and ate some more. Tri tip, chicken wings, sausage, and I’m sure I’m forgetting items such as potato salad, and nectarines as well but it was gluttony. After sitting around and digesting we moved s’mores and games; we played catagories, telephone (yes, telephone), and eventually a game of flip cup where Tinah had the distinctive pleasure of being least valuable player. Rather hilarious but Tinah is a good sport, and we’re sure he’s a good flip cup player.

We eventually all retired, then woke up only to eat, eat, and eat some more. Have I mentioned that none of us have showered yet? Due to a foresight, there were no showers within our campsite, and the available showers were closed by the time we left the lake. We felt gross, but I was surprised at everyone’s high spirits. By the time we all left, it was nothing but smiles and relaxed memories. I had a great time, thanks to those who came for making it memorable as well.

On a related note I picked up a Weber Smokey Joe on the way down. Von’s had it on sale for $15, I couldn’t pass it up, and I didn’t know if anyone brought a grill so I’m excited as I’ve always wanted one of these little (impractical) things. I have a grill for the beach, and a grill for the park now. No more lugging around a space hogging, Cadillac of a grill anymore. We found out that grilling Tri-Tips on this was a dream. Looking forward to getting more use out of it.

-Wallace

Walter & Jill’s wedding is coming up in a few weeks and we’ve been trying to figure out what we’re doing about lodging. The original idea after talking with Luis was to join him and Lisa down in Los Angeles, so I was ready to book a room at The Crescent or The Standard, but Crystal brought up a good point. Santa Barbara is a solid 3 hours from here, we aren’t going down in suit and dress so we’re going to need somewhere to ‘freshen up,’ we decide to spend the weekend in Santa Barbara. I went to go look for a hotel room; no rooms, no rooms, no rooms, 2 night minimum, no rooms, etc. That was the pattern and it looked like Santa Barbara was full. This was Monday so I had my fingers crossed their computer rsvp systems were crazy, I called every hotel on the list this morning including Bacara, Inn at Spanish Bay, Doubletree and even Four Seasons they are all at full capacity or require a 2 minimum 2 night stay. At $495/night I have better things to do then donate a night to charity. Crystal showed me the Best Western in Carpetenteria, and Luis confirmed that it is in fact a pretty nice hotel. Ok, I give up it’s a bit further south but we’re not homeless anymore. Crisis solved, however upon filling out the online reservation I noticed they had more then the usual; Dr, Mr, and Mrs for the surname, one of those was ‘Lord,’ I could not resist and can’t wait to see how I am addressed in a few weeks.

This week has been crawling by, not because I’m lacking in items to do but because we’re all going to Hume Lake for the weekend. I’m stoked, I’m excited, I’m soooooooooooo ready! I only have an hour left for today and I have a feeling tomorrow will fly. Not only looking forward to Hume Lake, but the G37 reception, and Crystal comes back from her off-site. This being said I’d like to wish Sia, Michelle, and Jenny a Happy Birthday. Milestones for Sia who turns 25, and Jenny (Mom) a full three decades. Congrats you two, can’t wait to celebrate this weekend.

-Wallace

PS. LOL I just found out I’m quasi-published, or quoted at the very least. Click Here

Usually Crystal’s the one sleeping, if sleeping was a sport she claims she would certainly win. I think otherwise, as I know quite a few talented sleepers. However it’s I that am tired lately, I haven’t been at 100%, my battery has only been partially charged for awhile now. Writing this I am tired. It’s something of an annoyance. My alarm woke me up at 7:30am this morning and I conveniently snoozed until 8:20am, my first thought was ‘CRAP!!!’ then I got ready and bolted out the door in 20 minutes. Funny what deadlines make you do huh?

I also finally got around to mocking up the vintage Nervex lugged Raleigh, I have decided that I really don’t have the time I need to build it but it is in fact too big for me. It’s about a 56/57 which is perfect for Brandon. I’m actually in the process of boxing it up and shipping it to Venice Beach, so he can build it up as a single speed. I’ll come across a lugged 50/52 some day.

Mortgage Meltdown…

The world otherwise looks as if it has lost its mind. Many of you have asked what’s going with the mortgage rates and if the Fed will be lowering rates anytime soon. Although the European banks have injected about $200 billion, and the United States about $30 Billion to help banks keep their liquidity it’s only a band-aid for the problems we’re facing. We expect the Fed’s to lower the rate within 30 days, however everything is up in the air and nothing is certain. What is certain is that 5.25% rate you thought was expensive 6 months ago is today’s unobtainable rate. George Friedman of Stratfor had a few words to say on our current Sub-Prime market, “The subprime crisis is worth analysis in its own right, though it also gives us the opportunity to discuss our own approach to economic issues. Stratfor views the world through the prism of geopolitics. In geopolitics, there is no such thing as separating a country’s economy from its national security or its political interests. A nation is a nation. Academic departments divide themselves nicely into areas of study. In the real world, things are much too intertwined and sloppy for that. Geopolitics views the international system and nations as consisting of a single fabric of relationships, with economics being one of the elements. Not all events have geopolitical significance. To rise to a level of significance, an event — economic, political or military — must result in a decisive change in the international system, or at least a fundamental change in the behavior of a nation.

The Japanese banking crisis of the early 1990s was a geopolitically significant event. Japan, the second-largest economy in the world, changed its behavior in important ways, leaving room for another power — China — to move into the niche Japan had previously owned as the world’s export dynamo. The dot-com meltdown was not geopolitically significant. The U.S. economy had been expanding for about nine years — a remarkably long time — and was due for a recession. Inefficiencies had become rampant in the system, nowhere more so than in the dot-com bubble. The sector was demolished and life went on. Lives might have been shattered, but geopolitics is unsentimental about such matters.

The Russian default of 1998 was a geopolitically significant event. It marked the end of the post-Cold War period and the beginning of the new geopolitical regime that is increasingly showing itself in Russia. The global depression of the 1920s and 1930s was enormously significant, transforming the internal political and social processes of countries such as the United States and Germany, and setting the stage for political and military processes that transformed the world. The savings and loan (S&L) crisis of the 1980s had no real geopolitical effect, and the collapse of Enron meant nothing. However, the consolidation of Russian natural gas exports under Gazprom’s control is certainly a major change.

The measure of geopolitical significance is whether an event changes the global balance of power or the behavior of a major international power. Looking at the subprime crisis from a geopolitical perspective, this is the fundamental question. That a great many people are losing a great deal of money is obvious. Whether this matters in the long run — which is what geopolitics is all about — is another matter entirely.

The origins of the crisis seem fairly clear. Traditionally, when banks look at mortgages on homes, they carefully study the likelihood that the loan will be repaid, as well as the underlying collateral. Their revenue and profits come from the repayment of the loan or the ability to realize the value of the loan through the forced sale of the house. Two things changed this simple model. The first started a long time ago. Encouraged by the federal government, banks that issued mortgage loans began selling those loans to other entities. This, then, created a large secondary market in bundled mortgages — huge numbers of mortgages grouped together and sold and traded as if they were simply financial instruments, which, of course, they are.

As a result, banks began to view mortgages less as long-term investments than as transactions. They made their money on closing costs, rapidly selling the mortgages to aggregators, which in turn passed them on to others. The banks then loaned the money again. The more mortgages banks racked up, the more money they made. The risk was transferred to others. In the past few years, two new groups of players entered the scene, one on either end of the spectrum. The first group comprised mortgage companies and brokers, nonbanking institutions whose business model was built primarily around the transaction. The brokers in particular had no skin in the game. Every time they executed a mortgage, they made money. If they didn’t execute one, they didn’t make money. The role of evaluating the borrower increasingly fell to these entities, neither of which was going to hold on to the debt instrument for more than a moment.

The second group was the final buyers of bundled mortgages — increasingly,
hedge funds. Hedge funds are monies gathered from various “qualified” investors — otherwise known as rich people and institutions. They are private partnerships, so what they do with their money is between the managers and partners. No federal agency is responsible for protecting the private placement of money by the wealthy.

In a world of relatively low interest rates, wealth-seeking investors flocked to these hedge funds. Some of the older ones were superbly managed. The newer ones frequently were not. With a great deal of money in the system, there was a restless search for things to invest in — and the secondary market in subprime mortgages appeared to be extremely attractive. Carrying relatively high rates of return, and theoretically collateralized by fairly liquid private homes, the risks of these deals appeared low and the returns on the mortgages — particularly when you looked at the contracted increases — seemed extremely attractive.

The fact is that no one really worried about defaults. The mortgage originators that prepared the documentation for these riskier loans certainly didn’t care. They just wanted the mortgages to go through. The primary lenders didn’t worry because they were going to resell them in hours or days anyway. The mortgage aggregators didn’t care because they were going to resell them, too. And the final holders didn’t worry because they assumed the system would permit easy refinancing of loans at sustainable interest rates, and that — in a worst-case scenario — they at least owned a portfolio of houses that they could bundle and sell to real estate companies, perhaps even at a profit. The final owner of the mortgage, of course, is the loser. The assumption that subprimes could be refinanced if need be failed to take into account that higher interest rates priced these people out of the market. But the worst part is this: Many hedge funds leveraged their purchase of mortgages by using them as collateral to borrow money from the banks.

That was the tipping point. When the subprime defaults started to hit, the banks that had loaned money against the mortgage portfolios re-evaluated the loans. They called some, they stopped rollovers of others and they raised interest rates. Basically, the banks started reducing the valuation of the underlying assets — subprime mortgages — and the internal financial positions of some hedge funds started to unravel. In some cases, the hedge funds could not repay the loans because they were unable to resell their subprime mortgages. This started causing a liquidity crisis in the global banking system, and the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank began pumping money into the system.

Told this way, this is a story of how excess emerges in a business cycle. But it is not really a very interesting story because the business cycle always ends in excess. As economic conditions improve, more people with more money chase fewer investment opportunities. They crowd into investments that seem to guarantee vast or sure returns — and they get hammered. The economy contracts into a recession, as it tends to do twice every decade, and then life goes on. There currently are three possibilities. One is that the subprime crisis is an overblown event that will not even represent the culmination of a business cycle. The second is that we are about to enter a normal cyclical recession. The third, and the one that interests us, is that this crisis could result in a fundamental shift in how the U.S. or the international system works.

We need to benchmark the subprime crisis against other economic crises, and the one that most readily comes to mind is the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. The two are not identical, but each involved careless lending practices that affected the economy while devastating individuals. But looking at it in a geopolitical sense, the S&L crisis was a nonevent. It affected nothing. Bearing in mind the difficulty of quantifying such things because of definitions, let’s look for an order of magnitude comparison to see whether the subprime crisis is smaller or larger than the S&L crisis before it.

Not knowing the size of the ultimate loss after workout, we try to measure the magnitude of the problem from the size of the asset class at risk. But we work from the assumption that proved true in the S&L crisis: Financial instruments collateralized against real estate, in the long run, limit losses dramatically, although the impact on individual investors and homeowners can be devastating. We have no idea of the final workout numbers on subprime. That will depend on the final total of defaults, the ability to refinance, the ability to sell the houses and the price received. The final rectification of the subprime will be a small fraction of the total size of the pool.

Therefore, we look at the size of the at-risk pool, compared to the size of the economy as a whole, to get a sense of the order of magnitude we are dealing with. In looking at the assets involved and comparing them to the gross domestic product (GDP), the overall size of the economy, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates that the total amount of assets involved in that crisis was $519 billion. Note that these are assets in the at-risk class, not failed loans. The size of the economy from 1986 to 1989 (the period of greatest turmoil) was between $4.5 trillion and $5.5 trillion. So the S&L crisis involved assets of between 8 percent and 10 percent of GDP.

The final losses incurred amounted to about 3 percent of GDP, incurred over time.

The size of the total subprime market is estimated by Reuters to be about $500 billion. Again, this is the total asset pool, not nonperforming loans.

The GDP of the United States today is about $14 trillion. That means this crisis represents about 3.5 percent of GDP, compared to between 9 percent and 10 percent of GDP in the S&L crisis. If history repeats itself — which it won’t precisely — for the subprime crisis to equal the S&L crisis, the entire asset base would have to be written off, and that is unlikely. That would require a collapse in the private home market substantially greater than the collapse in the commercial real estate market in the 1980s — and that was quite a terrific collapse.

Now, many arguments could be made that the estimates here are faulty or that different concepts should be used. We will concede that there are several ways of looking at this crisis. But in trying to get a handle on it strictly from a geopolitical perspective, this gives us a benchmark with which to analyze the mess.

Can it balloon into something greater? The big risk is that the weak hands in the game, the hedge funds, are suddenly coming into possession of a great number of houses that they will have to put on the market simultaneously in fire sales. That could force home prices down. At the same time, most homes are not at risk, and their owners are not hedge funds. Moreover, it is not clear whether most of the hedge funds that own subprime mortgages will be forced to try to monetize the underlying assets.

It is far from clear whether the crisis will affect home prices decisively. If home prices were to collapse at the rate that commercial real estate collapsed in the 1980s, we would revisit the issue. But, unlike commercial real estate, in which price declines force more properties on the market, home real estate has the opposite tendency when prices decline — inventory contracts. So, unless this crisis can pyramid to forced sales in excess of the subprime market, we do not see this rising to geopolitical significance.

From this, two conclusions emerge: First, this is far from being a geopolitically significant event. Second, it is not clear whether this is large enough to represent the culminating event in this business cycle. It could advance to that, but it is not there yet. We cannot preclude the possibility, though it seems more likely to be a stress point in an ongoing business cycle.

Apart from discussing the subprime issue, this crisis offers us an opportunity to explain how we view economic activity. First, we try to understand, at a fairly high level, what exactly happened, much as we would approach a war or a coup. Then we try to compare this event to other events whose outcomes we know. And, finally, we try to place it on a continuum ranging from fundamental geopolitical change to normal background noise. This is more than normal background noise, but it has not yet risen even to the level of a routine, cyclical shift in the business cycle.”

So with this being said, yes it’s just business and in the end life goes on. It’s like firefighters doing controlled burns in national forests, although the destruction looks and smells bad, new life will spring from the turmoil. The market re-adjusts, most people will be fine, and this is why I am so firmly against neg-am programs or other forms of predatory loans as well as predatory lenders. Only work with good people, only work with trusted individuals with trusted backing.

-Wallace

PS. If this wasn’t long enough, going along with the crazy world theme; Michael Vick is being sued for $63 Billion by a Jonathan Lee Riches, a inmate in the dirty south. Check out this hand written suit here (pdf doc). He claims that Vick is associated with Al Queda and sold his fighting pit-bulls on ebay to raise money for missiles? LOL…I guess all you have in jail is time.

I meant to take pictures this weekend, however things became hectic (what a surprise) and I wasn’t able to take my camera anywhere. Which worked out in the end as I got to photograph Sarge earlier tonight. I did quite a bit of catching up this weekend, it all started off on Friday night. Crystal and I caught up with Alan and Zhanna which I haven’t heard from since their wedding last year. I found out that Alan’s ever the more so phone whore, Zhanna got a yorkie and her six series is for sale. I also found out that married life is a complete bliss, and I was actually willing to pay for Mayflower after the many dinners there with BayCal. We retreated after then spent the rest of the night playing tic tac toe.

Saturday was an interesting progression of events which involved a crescendo of random individual events such as hair appointments, shopping, bicycle maintenance, you name it, one of us did it type of days which ultimately climaxed into Rasim and Edisa’s wedding in Campbell. I’ve never been to an Bosnian wedding, the following progression of events were rather interesting to me. Instead of a separate ceremony and reception, the actual ceremony happens at the reception. The groom walks the bride down the asile, there is no wedding progression and no handing off of the daughter, there is also no seating chart just reserved tables and a live band singing Serbian songs. There was much line dancing going on, although Zagi and Crystal did fine you could definitely tell where I was in the line at any given time. Yes…I happened to be that weakest link. Following the wedding our night dwindled down at Thea at Santana Row, we left the wedding early to join Crystal’s roommate Laurie and her out of town friend Sheena. It was lights out after that. What a day.

If you thought Saturday was full of adventure just wait till you read what happened on Sunday. My day started out with a quick ride through the Stevens Creek Foothills and then we went off to brunch, as soon as brunch ended we were on our way to the city to meet up with Jonathan and Alycia. It was a bit chaotic, we were on the hunt for a bathroom as soon as we parked. For some reason your bladders are usually fine when you’re in motion. The moment your body realizes that you’re standing still it becomes extra painful to stand still; going down elevators, waiting in line, sitting by a water fountain. All methods of cruel and unusual punishment for overfilling bladders everywhere. We finally successfully locate the restrooms, or I should say ‘lounges’ within the new Bloomingdale’s complex. As we navigate past emergency number one our shopping woes began. Store after store and fitting room after fitting room our journey finally ended inside Anthropologie where we meet up with the Laufers and Janice. Watched Borne Ultimatum at the Metreon then proceeded to dinner at Amici’s on the Embarcadero. Dinner was done well, but I had to say Amici’s is not my favorite restaurant; I’d neither recommend it or deny it. It’s just one of those ‘meh’ places. Anyways we end up back at the Metropolitan and Jonathan reveals his gifts to Crystal and myself. Crystal gets this little jelly filled doughnut thing and I get Sarge. I have to say I’m still a bit shocked but extremely happy. He gets along with Smorkin just fine.

So that’s my weekend. Nothing TOO exciting, but never a dull moment. I’m happy it’s Monday night. It’s time to sleep.

-Wallace

PS. Yes, I was supposed to take off for Vietnam this past Saturday. Stuff happened. End of Story. If I did go I would of missed not only Rasim’s wedding but also our Hume Lake trip this week. I’m excited!

This weekend was actually productive, not quite what I expected but I got quite a lot done. The weekend kicked off at St. John’s with the fresh rebirth of the NorCal Audi Club, that dovetailed into an absolutely hectic night at Santana Row. We planned to dine at Pizza Antica, but apparently everyone in the bay area decided to convene within Santana Row like flies to fresh, um…you get the picture. We ended up dining at Village Cafe with Crystal’s roommate Laurie, her friend Olivia and the random guest of the night Zagi.

On Saturday morning I decided to test my legs with a quick ride, in fact you can read all about it in the post below. I also had time to finally figure out the odds and ends of my Yakima rack, the thing took forever to put on but it’s finally on. Gone are the days of stuffing bicycles into my backseat and trunk.

Finally Sunday arrives, I’m the first in my group to arrive at Sequoia followed by Dave, then Dawn, Eugene and Jenny, Nico and Bernadette, Chris, and finally Jason. The ride itself was great, about 33 miles and many distanced climbs. Jason and I found ourselves in the front of the pack each trading pulls, although I don’t think I provided much of a draft for him. At one section I see a pathfinder coming up behind me so I move over, next thing I know Jason is actually drafting the Pathfinder at about 40mph. It was hilarious, he would only catch me if he could draft something or if it’s a descent. His mass carried him down much faster then I could. The rest of Team Bacio Cafe held up fairly well, Eugene pulling up the rear and coming to an epiphany, “We bike as fast as the cars we drive, I ride as fast as my 12v Audi, Jenny as fast as her TT, and the rest of you are like 997 Porsche turbos.”

Given the circumstances, I’d have to say Eugene just as tenacious as his 12v Audi. Us 997 Porsche turbos, although shiny, require quite a bit of maintenance. Us taking full advantage of every rest stop is testament to this. It was also funny running into Calvin at one of the stoplights, totally random. Although I led my group for 25 miles, I finished 8th due to a flat at Pulgas Water Temple. Getting that changed was a bummer, however all said and done I had a great time. Looking forward to riding with all of you again in the near future.

A few of you have asked how Crystal and I are doing. I must admit we do have our differences; she doesn’t wake up till about 2pm on weekends, as I like to be up before 9am. She is not a fan of Indian food and I crave it at times. She also uses, ‘miss me?’ as a greeting rather then ‘hello,’ and has this strange habit of speaking as if she is Sniffy, her rabbit. This being said, who doesn’t have their quirks? I know I have some quirks, but we’re all human and apparently this is what makes each of us interesting. I’ve learned to accept her quirks, for they make me smile. She’s also been willing to try the things I enjoy; she rode around the neighborhood on a bike, we had Indian food for dinner on Sunday, and we’re going camping this following week. It’s been somewhat of a struggle as we realized we’re very similar in many ways, yet completely different in others. We both have our own lives, and are a bit blunt headed, myself more then her. So it’s been give and take; she sleeps in on weekends, I go out and cycle with friends, however we’ll go out and grab brunch or a picnic every now and then. She even bought me my first MANicure Sunday afternoon, she felt like a manicure along with a pedicure, I agreed to just the manicure (which deserves a post all its own). So I have no valid reason to whine, she’s been awesome, and I really, really, really do appreciate her.

-Wallace

It’s been exactly two weeks since my last ride and since I realized something was wrong with my abdomen. I’m happy to report that I am recovering not only rapidly but very well. I have also started to consume meat again, although my diet is much healthier now then before. Gone are the rich complex flavors, and in their place fresher, healthier, identifiable flavors. Anyways, I’m glad that’s nearly coming to an end. I got on the bike for the first time in two weeks and decided to go for a brisk ride, just to give me an idea of how I’d perform at tomorrow’s Tour de Peninsula. I’m happy to report that I did fairly well, not superman well, but well for a recovering pancreatitis patient. I’m also thrilled with the new capabilities of motionbased, they have developed an online uploader so I don’t need another pesky icon on my desktop, but they have also incorporated an export feature into Google Earth. Thus allowing you to view the picture above, and if you click on it, a player will appear that tracks my path, distance, elevation and speed. Nifty.

A couple new shoes for you shoe whores. Puma Driftcat II in brown suede, check out the carbon heel, and Nike Air Hayward. Extra points for anyone (except Leslie) who can tell me the significance of the Air Hayward, the colors are a clue.

-Wallace