putting the knit in shizknitz

You could be full of shit and become a weatherman here in SoCal. Its either sunny or rainy here and right now the rain is coming down so hard that if I were to take Mia out for a walk, I’m afraid I’ll be swept away by the down currents in the gutter as we attempt to cross the street. Not that I relied on the stupid Doppler 7000 crap by ABC7 but we had planned yesterday’s snow trip for over a week now, perfectly, right before the storm. I snowboarded for the second time, which has resulted in my current state of soreness in many parts of my body that typically goes unused. It was raining when we left LA but by the time we arrived at Mt. High, it was amazingly gorgeous. Freakin’ cold, but gorgeous.

We went with two groups of people - Guy and Hiroko from Hawaii and Jakobi and Cassandra from Chicago - two different climates of America and neither had really snow*’ed before. J&C decided to take ski lessons and G&H did snowboarding lessons with T&I.

By the afternoon the storm had begun rolling in, and with it lots of cold blasts of air. By the time we were leaving, I was still on my ass a lot but Jakobi was blasting by on his skiis - my legs were so gimpy I was having a difficult time controlling them in order to move me in specific directions. I hate that feeling, especially because I was the driver and I drive stick shift.

Overall, it was great wet fun followed up by some hella good dumplings at the Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. They don’t take reservations, and they don’t seat without your entire party being present. They opened at 5 PM and by the time we arrived at 5:20 PM, the place was hoppin. There is a glass window where can watch the mostly Mexican staff wrapping the dumplings and the steamers fully stocked (oh my, that sounded like a fobby sentence). The dumplings are sold in trays of 10, so go with a bigger party so you can taste a bigger variety. The prices ranged, but every 10 dumplings were about $6.50 or so. They came out piping hot off the steamer and were extremely juicy inside, but especially with the vinegar, soy sauce and baby ginger slices were absolutely a delectable dish. It was perfect for that horribly cold, rainy weather. Overall it was Good, but I would only return again if I were in a party of 4+ people.