Archive for the year 2008
More About the Festival of Speed
Posted on October 12, 2008 by Ching under Family, Life, Travel.
The volunteers controlling the flow of traffic were a little bit confused about where people belonged so we got to drive around the parking lot inside the race track. I guess that worked to our advantage. It was really cool seeing all of the race cars on display. After driving around once, we proceeded to ask where the handicapped parking was. David and Donna remembered to bring their tag and it worked out great. Instead of making us go back out to the disabled parking section with shuttle pick up and drop off, we got park in the special reserved section just by turn 10 and next to the beer garden. We were right there where everything was and didn’t have to walk far at all.
What I found funny was that the beer garden was located right next to the family fair area. They also had a gigantic display screen that showed the races as they went on. I suppose this way dad can enjoy a beer while watching the races, as mom and the kids play in the amusement rides nearby. LOL. I wanted to do some rides, but I was denied. Brian said they are for kids only. I bet if I had a kid I’d be able to do it. =P They always let mommies and daddies ride with their little children. Mental note: rent a child next time. [I’m kidding!]
We had a lot of fun walking around the lot, checking out parked race cars, taking pictures, and talking to various racing teams. We also drooled over the Ferrari tent. It was more like a palace, actually, because they had large tent rooms extending from either side of the rig. It looked to me like they had an open bar and expensive catering with real china, utensils, and glassware. Only VIPs were allowed in so we just looked from a distance.
It was funny because these four scantily clad girls dressed in “Booble” camisoles drove by in their golf cart a couple of times as we were walking by the Ferrari section. We were thinking that they were probably trying to figure out how to get invited in. LOL. By the way, I didn’t know this until today (but I promised Brian and David that I would find out), “Booble” is a porn search engine. I guess you could say it’s like Google except for adult web sites. Pretty catchy, huh? I bet they’re making a killing.
While we were there we got to watch several races: F500 (which was in progress when we arrive), T1 (this was probably the most exciting one; it had two Ferrari entries), HP, and FF. I’m not sure what of these mean, but it was sure fun watching the cars go round and round the race track. I told Brian I would look them up because it helps to know what you’re watching. I did find a really good informational page about the various car classifications on the SCCA web site. Feel free to check it out if you’d like to learn more about these cars.
We got to watch the races from a couple of vantage points. Work had a tent by turn 12 and it was a great place to watch the cars go by while remaining in the shade. The flyer they handed out at Heartland Park mentioned berms, but I’m not sure what those are. Supposedly, they’re right by the grandstand. Speaking of the grandstand, watching from the top-most level is the best. You get to see almost the entire race track that way. It was awesome. The only downside is that you’re in the sun the entire time, so be sure to wear sunblock. I would have liked to have walked over to turn 8 and watched from there. According to the article in the flyer, that’s probably the most exciting place to watch because you are closest to the cars. It was a long walk, though, so we didn’t get a chance to check it out. I guess we could have driven the car down there. We didn’t think of that, though.
Anyway, we left right as the FF race was winding down. I think Brian wanted to stay for the last two races of the day, the GTL and the S2, but Donna was pooped so we all agreed to head back home. It worked out, though, because then we didn’t have to drive home in the dark.
When we got back into town, we stopped by The Diner. David and Donna bought us dinner. Thank you, guys! That was the perfect end to a fun-filled day at the races.
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2008 Festival of Speed
Posted on October 11, 2008 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Life, Travel.
We had a great time at the Festival of Speed, watching the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, today. It was the first time I had ever been to Heartland Park in Topeka. It was Brian’s first time there, too. We had been to nearby Forbes Field a few years ago, but never in Heartland Park.
Here are some photos we took today…
While we had a blast watching the cars race, our adventure today was somewhat bittersweet. Our first time watching the SCCA National Championship Runoffs might very well be our last.
I found out that this year is the final year that the event will be held at Heartland Park. The SCCA’s Board of Directors have chosen Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin as host for the event in 2009-2011. I doubt we will ever go to Wisconsin just to watch the races, but Brian could see himself occasionally driving up to Topeka. It’s sad that the SCCA National Championship Runoffs won’t be back next year.
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Local WiFi 411
Posted on October 8, 2008 by Ching under Blog, Web.
Brian and I have a new web site! We started working on it last Sunday. It’s a community project, so please be sure to register and share any information you have. So far we only have a map of Wichita, but we should have more soon. Stay tuned!
Local WiFi 411
Things to do:
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Saturday Night Bowling Challenge
Posted on October 4, 2008 by Ching under Games, Life.
Brian, in a desperate attempt to cheer me up, took me to Thai Tradition for dinner tonight and challenged me to bowling. I have been extra crabby lately, and I didn’t even realize it until he pointed it out. Since I’m miserable and crabby, then he is too.
He said he was tired of me moping around so he wanted to take to dinner to a place we haven’t been in a really long time. We haven’t been to Thai Tradition in a really long time because he’s not really fond of the place, but he wanted to take me there because he figured it would make me happy. I will save the Thai Tradition comments for the Foodies blog, though. Let’s talk about bowling…
I’m hyper-competitive so everything is a contest. Naturally, we bowled to see who could score the highest. I am a better bowler than Brian so I knew I would come out on top. Brian has his moments though, and has beaten me in the past. I had gotten into a good groove in the first round so I was thinking that I would beat him in such a way that even my lowest score would be higher than his highest score. It didn’t quite turn out that way, but I did beat him two out of three games.
| ROUND 1: | GAME 1 | GAME 2 | GAME 3 | SERIES | AVERAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRIAN | 132 | 134 | 141 | 407 | 136 |
| CHING | 133 | 193 | 134 | 460 | 153 |
Back when I used to bowl regularly, ten years ago or so, I used to bowl a 150 average so that was pretty much expected. The 193 was a surprise, though. Halfway through, it looked like I was about to bowl a 200 game. I would have broken 200, too, had I picked up my spare on the tenth frame. There were two pins and I clipped one and missed the other completely. It was an uncharacteristic miss. I felt robbed.
The next round started out rough, but then I started marking all over the place. Strikes and spares. There were hardly any open frames. At one point, I thought I would have three 200 games going. I fell short, but check out the results.
| ROUND 2: | GAME 1 | GAME 2 | GAME 3 | SERIES | AVERAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRIAN | 136 | 125 | 116 | 377 | 126 |
| CHING | 170 | 190 | 173 | 533 | 178 |
Brian started to get tired halfway through our second round. He’s not really used to bowling more than three games. I was really excited about my 500+ series. When I used to bowl, I didn’t get a lot of 500 series games. I’d get pretty close, but it was hard to get three really good games. My main weakness was that I didn’t ever get enough strikes to score higher. I was really good at picking up spares and hardly ever missed so I would consistently mark on each frame. However, unless you have strikes to connect the marks, you don’t really end up with great scores. I had a pretty good night tonight, getting more strikes than I ever have.
I’m really rusty, though, so I missed several easy spares and had more open frames than I would have liked. My ball was like a guided missile that never missed so it’s a bummer when the ball misses its target. I was pretty inconsistent, too. There were several times that I threw the ball and halfway down the lane I knew that it would be a strike; at the same time, there were also several times that I threw the ball and missed my arrow completely and immediately I knew it would be horrible. I got lucky, though, because on these occasions they were easy spares to pick up. Although, I did have a few splits. I didn’t convert any of them at all.
Anyway, bowling tonight made me realize just how much I enjoy it. Maybe one of these days I can talk Brian into joining a mixed league with me. I would really love to start bowling regularly again so that I can get even better at it.
By the way, our little contest continues with racquetball tomorrow. Brian seems to think that he is going to beat me at racquetball. He won the last time we played, but with my recent bowling victory I think I’ve got momentum on my side. He thinks he will come out on top. For all we know Brian might forfeit tomorrow because he is all achy from bowling six games. We shall see.
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2008 Walk for Unity
Posted on October 3, 2008 by Ching under News.
Diversity Kansas is about people working together to build inclusive communities that are respectful of all races, religions and cultures. The future of Kansas depends upon how we work together, how we see each other and how we lift each other up.
Their mission is to assist in building inclusive communities, businesses and institutions through diversity training, advocacy, conflict resolution, interfaith collaboration, youth leadership training and community dialogue.
I am participating in the 2008 Walk for Unity fundraising event for Diversity Kansas on October 12, Sunday, at Central Riverside Park. This event generates funding for youth and community development initiatives, awareness and understanding of different cultures, and helps to build a more inclusive community. Please show your support for this wonderful cause by sponsoring me!
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