Two days back from my trip and already my schedule is swamped as anything. I'm trying to get a handle on things, but it might take a few more additional days before I can finish things up. Hopefully I won't have to work excessively over Thanksgiving holiday, but I'll probably have to do some stuff though.

Anyways, enough about that, onto the awesomeness of the past weekend that is Jimmy's bachelor party. Though the party itself was really great, the weekend itself really meant a lot to me. It was the first time in a long time that I was able to see a lot of the Hopkins crew all together. I've been able to visit everyone off and on, but something always came up that prevented all of us from getting together at the same time. Suffice it to say, being able to laugh and fellowship together once again was quite a blessing. I said before that these visits up to the East coast are like small mini-retreats for me is so true; being able to not just hang out together but also have some great conversations with one another.

On saturday, Jimmy and I had lunch after his worship practice at some korean restaurant. It's been a long time since I've had some good korean food, so I wasn't prepared for the spicyness of it. Jimmy must have commented on how much I was sweating at least FIVE times during our meal. Afterwards, we went into the city to hang out with Mindy. Since she had just moved to DC last week from Texas, we thought it might be good to show her around the city. Although, I've never seen much of DC anyways, so I was sorta on the tour as well. It's cool that the Hopkins folk are very open about helping her get settled in DC. Anyways, we just went to some of the surrounding areas in NW DC and walked around. Though we were in the city, the streets had almost an odd suburbial feel to them. Think of it as the best of both worlds. Anyways, we walked around for a few hours and then headed back to Jimmy's place in VA. Later that evening we got together with a couple people and had dinner at Buca di Beppo.

At Buca, both Mindy and James had the privilege of seeing a "Team Kang" moment unfold before their very eyes. Jimmy and Hyejung were talking about where they would be going for their honeymoon. They told us that they'll be going to Maui, Korea and then Japan. At which point, Tim goes, "Wow, Korea? Isn't it hard for Americans to get in there? I mean, don't you have to be concerned about safety?"

Jimmy answers, "Well, as long as you have your passport and visa you should be okay."

Tim: "But why would they let you guys in? I thought their borders were very heavily guarded"

This confusion goes on for a few more moments, and then finally Tim just up and says, "Yeah, but why would you want to go to NORTH KOREA for your honeymoon?????" The table then simply just erupted in laughter:)

So Sunday we went to Jimmy's church for service. I picked Mindy up in the morning and brought her to the church. The service was really great, as you could see quite a love amongst the people for each other as well as for the Word. Afterwards, we congregated in the fellowship hall downstairs and met more people from the church. It was cool to see many people find out that Mindy was new to the area and then want to help her out in one way or another. We headed off to lunch at another korean restaurant for more sweating on my part.

That afternoon, the party began. Upon arriving at the race track, our eyes just opened wide like kids on Christmas day. The place was really decked out in racing paraphanalia. For those in Austin, this place looked a million times better than R.P.M. raceway. We got suited up and headed out on the track. Driving these karts was a lot harder than it looks. I mean, these are not the little cheapy slow karts from Austin Park & Pizza or Celebration Station. These things were fast, and it took a lot of work to get them to slide through turns just right. I may have exerted myself too much during the first race, because by the second race, I was so fatigued that I couldn't race as effectively anymore. I got 1st during the qualifying race, and then 4th place for the main event. But man, it was a whole lotta fun.

I must say, both Jimmy and I were surprised that Tim took the winners circle. We were expecting Nakazato to be in full effect and to see some really emotional driving from Tim, but he held his own and totally owned up on everyone finishing a whole 4 seconds over 2nd place.

It's been three days since the race and my arms are still completely sore from turning that stiff steering rack. 65 laps of trying to initiate drift at each turn, and then counter-steering do maintain direction will do that to you.