Weekend recap and other recent thoughts

A bunch of us bid farewell to Esther this past weekend, who's heading down to LA to getready for the wedding and marriage to Dr. Andy. Had a nice time reminiscing about various memories from the last couple of years. I was already missing Andy from my primary weekly community (even though his frequent visits the last few months mitigated that some), and now it'll be even more apparent that they're not around anymore. I'm still excited to see how God shapes their new life together in SoCal.

Also, I'll be spending a week with them (and Mike P) in Tokyo in about a week and a half. Looking forward to getting a glimpse of a new culture! I have an awful lot of background reading to do before then (hello, Wikipedia!) so I have some idea of what to look at. Can't rely just on the Simpsons for my education:


Remarkable happening: I ran my streak in Bang! games of dying first to 6 straight, complete with the unlikely hat trick of dying first 3 times in 2 games on Sunday (I got resurrected by a special card and promptly died again). Man, I stink.

Saturday night, Shally and I were generously given some tickets by Phoebe to a neighborhood concert at 1st Presbyterian Church in downtown San Jose, called "Downtown Sounds: Faith With a Beat." We got to hear some piano-based Gospel, some rap/hip-hop, and Stanfurd's a capella group Testimony. The latter was actually quite good - they took some well-known CCM songs such as "Shackles" by Mary Mary, "Liquid" by Jars, and even "The Papaya Song" and jazzed them up with the vocal arrangements and harmonies (including a beatbox rhythm performed by a girl - usually I've seen guys do the beatboxing). I actually ended up picking up their album - yes, yes, I gave money to Stanfurd. No big deal, right? S and I then hit up Cluck U's (University Chicken) afterward for a late night hot wing dinner. Tasty.

Speaking of Stanfurd, saw this written on ESPN this morning... harsh, but kinda funny:

Stanford upset No. 3 UCLA 75-68 last night in a victory that saw Cardinal fans rush out of the stands after the final buzzer as though Carrie Fisher suddenly appeared at midcourt in her Princess Leia costume. Then there was a lot of awkward nerd jumping and high-fiving. And then I presume the excited few who didn't succumb to asthma attacks or have their frail bodies trampled headed off to storm a comic book shop en masse.

Star Wars fan? Must-read article here on how some of the events in Episodes 4-6 need to be reinterpreted based on what we now know from the prequels. For example, the writer asserts that R2-D2 and Chewbacca are the Rebellion's top field agents and real "stars".