Forget It, Jake; It's Chinatown

The Labor Day weekend was quite nice, though the weather has been hot and muggy. It's not intolerable; I'm just getting tired of summer. I'm more of a misty-mornings, gentle-cloudy-afternoons, listening-to-rain-on-the-roof kind of guy.

Steve and I took the Gold Line down to Chinatown on Sunday and had dimsum. It was kind of overwhelming: two of us and about six servers with carts full of dishes, all trying to get us to pick theirs. We ended up with a plate of fried whole shrimp, their crispy little eyes staring up at us. I ate a couple, but had trouble with the shells. I did locate some sweet pork dumplings, so Steve got to try those. We ended with a really pretty gelatin thing that tasted like tapioca.

After brunch we wandered through the various shops (Steve's favorite thing, I'm learning). We got a ho-toi statue (a nod to dad), a cloissone egg Xmas ornament and a set of jade chopsticks. It was supposed to be cooler yesterday, but I'd say it was well into the low 90s at the peak of the day.

Today's cooler than all week. Everyone's waiting for Gustav to do its thing, hoping that all it disrupts is the nasty gusto of the Republican Convention. The downside: The Democrats have decided not to have a "war room" as the Republicans did in Denver. So Gustav is kind of forcing the Democrats to turn the other cheek, which might end up working in their favor.

All I want this November is Obama elected president and Proposition 8 voted down; all the rest is negotiable for me. I found this image on a Republican Web site and just had to put it on my Election TV because it's so cool. It kind of sums up the ridiculous process of politics.

On the creative front, Cousin Robin and I are working on a project together. We're spending Wednesday evenings on this. I'd give more information, but I'm not sure how much she wants me to talk about it. Let's just leave it at we're both really excited about it.

This coming week the weather promises to heat up once again. Even though we're only three weeks away from the beginning of autumn, California is in store for eight or nine more weeks of summer heat before the cool weather and, hopefully, rain come our way. Until then, we chill out and stay hopeful.