Saturday was the first round of golf of the year for me… in fuggin 40 degree weather. It was a charity event organized by Gar and Henry for their Korean church mission. So even though I’m neither Korean nor do I go to church, I froze my nuts off since the event was planned weeks in advance and we couldn’t postpone it even though we actually saw snow just two days earlier. It turned out to be a fun day anyway. I didn’t shoot well, but not bad considering the temperature and that it was my first round of the season. I even carded a birdie! Afterwards we had dinner at Triple which was included with the golf. The food kicked ass, with two full platters of crazy fried Korean food including some killer french fries. Awesome.

Sunday we hit Chinatown for some dim-sum and then went shopping in Soho at UNIQLO. Still full from dim sum but needing to kill an hour while Rick waited for his jeans to get altered, we stopped into a pub for a few drinks and ended up ordering some cheesecake and french fries. Afterwards Lisa, Rick and Kat all went home, but Esther convinced me to head out to Fort Lee for more food. We hit a Korean BBQ place called Madangsui. It rocked. Actual charcoal for the grill and top quality meat made all the difference. We pigged out even though I wasn’t even hungry, and we finished with this cold noodle soup dish that we self-seasoned with vinegar and hot mustard. Sounds strange I know, but it was actually excellent. From now on when I head into Jersey, it will be a really tough call between wanting to go for Korean BBQ at Madangsui or going for my favorite tofu soup at So Kong Dong. It’s *that* good.

As if that weren’t enough Korean for one stretch, tonight we went to Annie Choi’s reading/book signing event at Barnes and Noble Astor Place. She read one of the most restrained chapters of her book I thought, but the standing room only audience reacted well to it. I was impressed at how composed she was even during the q&a session. I never figured writers would be that naturally adept at public speaking since they spend so much time in their own head. I got my copy of her book autographed (woo hoo!) and then we all got to hang out with her a bit at the Crocodile Lounge where Rick went to town on the free pizza. She’s a real talent and a real cool person to boot. She hung out and rapped with us a bit, but shockingly, she wasn’t drinking! But she was super friendly, easy going and really seemed to be just one of the guys. Totally the kind of chick you would pound beers and shoot the shit with, or talk smack with over a poker table. You can tell the girl can hang. In any case, it was really cool to meet her, and Rick enjoyed his THREE free pizzas, so a good time was had by all. A fun start to the week… More to come, baby!