Remotigue.net

When I was a kid, sledding was something that I’d do in my backyard. Or maybe walk to the neighborhood park. And I’d do it pretty much everyday.

In California, sledding is an event. Last weekend we went to Pinecrest, on the way to Yosemite, to go sledding. We spent Friday night at my brother-in-law’s place in Tracy, about 45 minutes a way, and then in the morning we all piled into his SUV and drove 2+ hours. We brought Sammie and his 2 older girls. The night before we had to make a Target run to buy some snow boots – back in Ohio, people just had that sort of stuff. It was kind of expected.

Anyway, we played in the snow for a few hours on this big slope with a couple dozen other families (it was crowded, in typical California fashion), and we all had a pretty good time. The weather was nice too – a balmy 45 degrees. Sammie was pretty freaked out when we went sledding, but she loved throwing snowballs. Apparently kids nowadays don’t make snowballs the old fashioned way, they use snowball makers. I wish they had those 20 years ago. Aside from nearly knocking myself out trying to take a small jump on the sled, I had a blast.

All in all, it was fun but somewhat of an ordeal. Not that I’m complaining – I don’t like playing in the snow enough to have to live with it.

So I spent this past Tues. night through Friday in Seattle / Kirkland for business. But during the evenings I was able to meeting up with friends and family for dinner, and it was great. Wednesday night I met up with Stephen and Karen, Eva (sans Adam), Nathan “Dickie” Cosgray, and Stephen’s friend, John – it was great seeing all you guys! I met them at this German pub Feierabend, which was a pretty cool place although I didn’t get to try the food (I’d already eaten at that point).

It’s amazing how much things can change and how little they actually do. Duckie looked..the same, although he was a sporting a Caesar-style haircut instead of the buzz. Stephen and Karen — still not married. Eva — still married and her bio-diesel car does smell like french fries. John, well I never met him before so it was all new . But it would have been nice to spend a little more time together. We spent most of the time catching up and not as much just hanging out as I would have liked.

Later on I met up with Trang and the kids and Quoc at their house and we headed out for dinner in downtown Bellevue. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), Bellevue is a city in it’s own right. It looked more urban and bigger than Cincinnati, which is a bit of a shock for a city that many people probably never heard of.

But it was great seeing everyone; the kids seem to have assimilated just fine into their new schools, Trang spent most of the time trying to convince me how Huong and I should move up to the area. It’s definitely a nice place, but I don’t do well with foul weather — that’s one of the reasons I wanted to move to California in the first place (before I met Huong, of course). Maybe one of these days…

We’ve been in LA this weekend for a wedding, staying at our friends Thien and Jose’s house downtown. Pictures of the wedding coming, but like any good trip, some of the highlights for me were the food. We stopped at Dots on the way in, a cupcake shop that one of Thien’s friends owns in Pasadena. A tiny place that only makes cupcakes, they are very good. They mix up the flavors (check the website for when they make what) and the presentation is great.

And for lunch yesterday we dropped by Oinkster. Started by a well-known local Filipino chef, “slow fast food” is the tagline and it’s the best barbecue I’ve had since spending the summer in Mississippi.

If you’re in the LA area, check ‘em both out.