Archive for "Hobbies"
Fall 2021 Mixed Leagues
Posted on November 10, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.
I had the privilege of playing in two really awesome mixed leagues this past session. I got to play in the Tuesday night mixed competitive league at Chicken N Pickle with my friend Jamie Lynch and also the Monday night 4.0+ mixed league at Nahola with my friend Ian Carr.
My new friend Tony Mathews was supposed to play in the Chicken N Pickle league with me but his work schedule shifted before the league began. The most disappointing part of this was that we were really looking forward to playing together. I even invested in a couple of team shirts.
Tony is the first partner I’ve ever invited to play with me who’s been completely engaged from the beginning. He picked our team name — Wonton Typhoon — and helped design the shirt graphic, and yet he didn’t even get to play. None of my other partners have ever cared what we called our team or cared what the shirts looked like. I basically just gave them a shirt to wear and that was that.
I came up with a draft design of our shirts based on the team name that he came up with and, much to my surprise, he was like, “Do I get to see the design?”
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It was fine with me but unexpected because no one has ever cared before. After seeing the shirt graphic he wanted to add some Chinese to-go boxes with our names underneath them. Then he wanted the graphic on the back instead of the front. And he didn’t really want the to-go boxes as part of the graphic. So we took it out but left the one on the front left chest. He also wanted to use a specific font that was more like an Asian font instead of just a basic, regular font. There was a lot of back and forth and reworking of the design before he approved it. |
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This is the first draft of our team t-shirt design collaboration based on the feedback he provided.
This is the final result of our design collaboration.
Here’s a close up of the to-go box and name on the front. Mine says “Ching-a-Ling” and his says “Daniel-San” (his middle name).
But it didn’t end there. For the first version of the shirt, I forgot to confirm the size of the main image on the back so it ended up being too small. Tony wanted it as big as possible so then I asked Nicole to make another version with the design as big as she could possibly make it on the back.
So now I had two versions of this shirt which didn’t even work out because the shirts turned out to be too big. I ordered shirts based on the size he told me to get but the shirts run big so then I ordered a smaller shirt and got another made. While I’m waiting for the third shirt, I find out that his schedule has changed and he can’t even play. So now I had three extra men’s shirts that I couldn’t use.
As the league session is about to begin, I am now without a mixed partner but, as luck would have it, my friend Jamie agreed to play with me. Jamie is an amazing pickleball player and an excellent mixed doubles partner so this actually worked out great. I could not have gotten a better last minute mixed doubles partner.
The only downside is that Jamie has an aversion for matching outfits so I really didn’t know what to do with the shirts. I gave the correctly sized one to Tony and then I just had these other two shirts hanging around. I was still hopeful that one day I would get to play with someone who would not only fit in the shirts but also be willing to wear them.
I still wore my shirts every week that we played, even though my partner didn’t want to wear his. Anyway, I wasn’t too concerned about not having matching outfits because Jamie was an excellent mixed doubles partner in every sense which totally made up him not wanting to wear the shirts.
Jamie is so good that, for the first time in a long time, I was part of the #1 seed team going into league tournament night. We played two matches each week for six weeks and the league tournament was held on the seventh and final week. We only had two losses during the entire session — against Dropping L’s (Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance) and against Steve and Jen (Jen Tiano and Steve Vetter) — which was the best record of all the teams. The #2 seed team — Volley Llamas (Jen Reifschneider and Ian Carr) — had three losses. However, Jamie and I really only lost one match together that league session because the loss to Steve and Jen happened the week that Darren Snyder subbed for him.
Here are the team standings for our league leading up to tournament night.
#1 – Wonton Typhoon (my team)
#2 – Volley Llamas (Jen Reifschneider and Ian Carr)
#3 – Steve and Jen (Jen Tiano and Steve Vetter)
#4 – J & S (Jenny Cole and Scott Wolford)
#5 – Conmans (Kim Blackmon and Matt Conrad)
#5 – Dropping L’s (Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance)
#6 – K & M (Kim Knotts and Michael Harris)
#7 – Chudley Cannons (Rachel McMahon and Kyle Long)
#8 – Watch Out (Erica Lopez and Zach Nguyen)
#9 – Shake and Bake (Amy Poynter and Ryan Kellenbarger)
#10 – Pickle Busters (Dawn Hazelwood and Caesar Naftzger)
I felt like Jamie and I had a really good shot at winning the league tournament this session but he was out of town on league tournament night. I got Matthew Rochat to sub for him. He was an excellent sub and as an added bonus the two shirts I had lying around actually fit him.
I wish there was a prize for best dressed team because we looked so legit in our matching outfits! Besides our dope team uniforms, we actually played really well together despite it being our first time ever playing together in a competitive setting. Maybe the matching outfits helped?
We didn’t win but Wonton Typhoon did pretty well.
Being the #1 seed, our team had a first round bye. We on our first match comfortably against Watch Out who defeated Chudley Cannons. Our next match was against Steve and Jen. They are one of the toughest teams in the league because Steve is probably hands down the best male player in the group but we Jamie and I can usually beat them. Even though Jamie isn’t the best male player, I think he understands how to play mixed better than any of the other guys in our league with the exception of Donnie. I really needed Jamie that night.
Matthew is a great player but mixed doubles is not his forte. I had to keep encouraging him to poach and also complimenting him on good poaches all night long so that he would continue to do it because he doesn’t like to poach and feels bad whenever he does. And, to win at mixed, it’s all about the poaching and put-aways. My super awesome setups are often wasted when I play with a partner who can’t capitalize on them.
That loss put us in the consolation bracket where we had to face off against Volley Llamas who had an amazing win against Conmans so they were still riding high from that. Jen and Ian are also a super tough team because they’ve been playing together a lot and have actually won some tournaments together but they’re also beatable when I am playing with Jamie. Perhaps he is really that good but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he knows what balls to give me and what balls to take. Not having as much experience playing with Matthew definitely put us at a disadvantage. We ended up losing that match which ended our tournament run.
Here’s a link to the tournament livestream. We didn’t get all of the matches because we could only stream one court but we did get five hours of tournament footage.
Not making the finals when you are the #1 seed is disappointing but I was very happy with how we played overall. I think Matthew and I gelled pretty well as a team. We had good communication and, although he could have been more aggressive with the poaching, I was satisfied with how much he took vs. how much he let me play. I told him not to feel bad about our losses because these teams have been playing together for a very long time. We actually performed quite well for not practicing and not having played together at all. If we had a little bit of practice together, I have no doubt that we could beat all of those teams without even breaking a sweat. I’m not one to exaggerate so you know I truly believe this. With a little bit of time investment, I think we could be a serious contender in the mixed competitive leagues.
The other mixed league I got to play in this session was the Monday night 4.0+ mixed league at Nahola. I signed up for that league not knowing that I needed a partner. Thankfully, I ran into Ian during Friday night open play two days before the start of league and he happened to be available. It was great playing with Ian because he is an excellent mixed partner but the downside of this is that he got be really familiar with my game (more specifically my weaknesses) which he then could turn around and use against me on the Tuesday night league when he is playing with his normal partner, Jen.
That league was also full of talented pickleball players. There were seven teams, listed below in no particular order.
Kayla Keuter and Gary Miller
Kim Knotts and Daniel Nguyen
Greta Siemens and Bryant Hart
Colby Fugit and Ben Meyer
Heather Griffin and Chris Wilson
Melissa and Brent Youngers
and then me and Ian Carr
The league at Nahola is fun but, since there are only two courts there, you only play one game to 11 instead of playing full matches. You do get to play several games in one night though but, if you lose the game, you don’t get a crack at them again until the following week. It is also only one game to 11 on tournament night so you don’t really have time to make adjustments. If you can’t adjust mid-game, you’re pretty much hosed. That’s typically me because I play like a cruise ship — slow and steady and unable to make a quick 180. It takes me several points and sometimes an entire game to course-correct.
Tournament night on Monday was a bit disappointing because two of the seven teams were missing. Melissa/Brent and Colby/Ben weren’t there. We basically just did a round robin followed by a single elimination bracket. It was kind of anti-climactic. I would have much rather skipped the round robin and did a best 2 out of 3 games to 11 single elimination (or double elimination, if time allowed). I couldn’t really get in the mood for it because it didn’t feel like a real tournament. It felt like just another day playing rec ball. Anyway, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
The next round of Monday night mixed league at Nahola is for 4.5+ so I’m not sure if I can get in it but we did start another session at Chicken N Pickle. Jamie is playing in men’s competitive on Wednesday night this session which left me without a partner for Tuesday night mixed. However, Colby reached out to me a few days ago about taking her spot and playing with Dustin. She will probably return next session when she’s feeling better.
This session at Chicken N Pickle is only five weeks long. Last night was our first night and Dustin and I, playing as Designated Dinkers, are off to a great start. We beat Ian and Jen (Volley Llamas) in 2 straight games and we also beat Steve and Jen in 2 straight games. It was a great league night overall.
I still have several things I need to work on but I have killer defense and, when my third shot drops are on, they’re good for some free points. We did get some free points on my serve too, which is unusual because there is absolutely nothing special about my serve. I think the other teams were probably having an off night. Off night or not, it’s good to get those matches out of the way and come out unscathed. I think I’m finally getting the hang of this pickleball thing!
Until next time. GNG.
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Picklepalooza 2021
Posted on September 30, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
Last week I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things while supporting a wonderful organization. Evergy sponsored Senior Services of Wichita’s Picklepalooza event and we put a team of six together.
Our team consisted of (from left) me, Paul Haas, Chris Wilson, Anita and Jeff Harris, and Sarah Pearson. Paul is former Evergy. He retired from Westar Energy a couple of years ago. Everyone else is an active Evergy employee except for Anita who is married to Jeff.
Despite our recent divorce, Chris and I reunited to play together for the advanced group. Our other team ups were Paul and Sarah, and Jeff and Anita (obviously). Our other two teams played in the recreational group.
Here are a few more pictures from the event: Paul and Sarah in action.
Anita and Jeff make a great team.
Selfie with MariAnn. She played for the Great Harvest Bread Co. team – Professional Loafers. I actually teased Lesli Toubassi (owner of Great Harvest) for stacking her team with the best players: MariAnn and Tim Heeren, Jenny Cole, Scott Wolford, Zach Loomis, Michael Harris, and Vickie Hancock. She had a perfectly good explanation, though. With only eight employees, she would have had to close her store for the day to have her employees play.
The advanced group consisted of Lesli’s four teams plus me and Chris (Evergy) and Mark and Hershel (Waste Connections).
Don’t let their serious faces fool you. The event was a blast!
A bunch of us stayed for the mingle party at the rooftop deck after the event. Pictured with me above are Jenny and Mark.
I’m glad I stayed for the party because I won one of the door prizes.
It contained a bottle of wine and a bunch of pickle-themed foods like this jar of Holmes Made sweet spicy garlic dill pickles. So fun!
I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in this event. To learn more about all of the services that Senior Services of Wichita provides to seniors in our community visit www.seniorservicesofwichita.org. I hope I get to play in this event again next year. Until next time. GNG.
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Noi, Ron, and Royce Visit Wichita
Posted on September 25, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Life.
Just a few pics from the Tennessee guys’ most recent trip to Wichita.
Noi was the first to arrive. He arrived late on Wednesday night. I usually play pickleball on Wednesday nights so Michael Cheung picked him up from the airport and brought him to the house.
I took Thursday and Friday off work so I could be available and also because Noi was originally going to arrive on Thursday instead of Wednesday night. It actually worked out that he arrived a day early because he was able to play with Chris Heck, Erik Rasmussen, and Tony Swantek at Seneca Park on Thursday morning.
I dropped him off before I went to run errands and attend my Rotary luncheon. After Rotary, I met up with Chris and Noi at Wichita Brewing Company. Chris was off to a lesson down the street and Noi and I went to meet Michael and Matt Nola at Edgemoor Park.
Matt and I unintentionally matched. Naturally, we had to take pic.
The four of us split up briefly but they were back at Edgemoor Park again later that day for even more pickleball. I had to go teach my 5:30 PM Aqua Zumba class so Matt picked Noi up from our house and took him to his house for snacks before meeting the rest of the gang at Edge. I went to play with them after class before taking Noi home. Michael came over and the four of us enjoyed a Filipino spaghetti dinner lovingly prepared by Brian.
Noi and I started the next day super early. We went and played pickleball at Edgemoor Park from 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM before heading to the airport to pick up Ron and Royce. We picked them up and after a quick stop at home met Trung Ho and Mark Narongvate for “Lunch and Bowl” at West Acres.
“Lunch and Bowl” is the best deal ever. For only $12, you got two hours of bowling, shoes (if you need them), food, and a drink. I’m so glad that Mark suggested it.
We tried to get two lanes so we could bowl cross lanes like in league play but they were too busy that day so the six of us had to settle for playing on one lane. It worked out okay and we still had a great time.
The reason why the bowling alley was so busy was because they had senior travel league that day. It only occurs every five weeks and that day just happened to be the week they were there so the only had the one lane available.
After bowling, we went to Chicken N Pickle to play pickleball and then Edgemoor Park again once it was cool enough. I did have to leave the guys because Friday night is my Nahola night but I left them in great hands.
After pickleball, they had dinner at Thai Tradition followed by games at Round One. The guys came home super late and then, on Saturday morning, we were back at it at Edgemoor Park for 7 AM play. Edgemoor was definitely our headquarters that weekend because we were there so much during the guys’ visit.
I played with them until about 8:30 AM when I had to go to teach my Aqua Zumba class down the street at VASA Woodlawn. I ran some errands (picked up our team shirts for Picklepalooza and stopped by the kick off event at Seneca Park to drop off some pickleball over grips and stickers for Patti to hand out) and then met up with the guys for lunch at Twin Peaks sponsored by our high roller friend Zach Nguyen.
Pictured from left: Zach, Michale, Trung, and Mark. Mark is always hiding from photos. Below, back to front: Noi, Royce, and Ron.
After lunch I dropped the guys off at Zach’s house to watch football and then they came back around 4 PM to get ready for Ron’s birthday celebration.
Here are some pictures of us hanging out on Saturday night.
I love birthdays because we get to have cake! Chocolate is our fave.
Zach and Lisa came by after the wedding. Michael attended the same wedding and came by after as well.
That was the night I learned how to play Vietnamese 13. Anyway, we didn’t stay up too late because we all had 7 AM pickleball play the next day, once again at Edgemoor. And once again, I had to leave to teach my morning Aqua Zumba class. This time at the VASA Harry/Georgetown location.
After my class and running some errands, I came back to Edgemoor just in time for everyone to wrap up. A few of us went to lunch around the corner at Yokohama Ramen Izakaya.
After lunch, a quick shower, and a nap it was time for Ron and Royce to fly out. Noi couldn’t get a flight out until the next day but he packed up anyway because he wanted to spend some more time with Mark on his last day in Wichita. Also, Mark offered to take him to the airport for his flight the next day. Since Mark lives on the West side of town, closer to the airport, it actually worked out better.
We went back to Edgemoor on Sunday night for one last play with Noi and that pretty much wraps up this most recent visit to Wichita. It was a fun filled weekend, loaded with lots of eating and playing and not much sleep. I can’t wait until these guys visit us again. Until next time, GNG.
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Road Trip Weekend
Posted on September 24, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
My friend Ramon Lozano invited me to play with him in a tournament in Lenexa on Saturday, September 11. It was the same weekend as the Kansas Senior Games so I decided to take that Friday off work and make a pit stop in Topeka to check on how my friends were doing.
While at the park, I bumped into a former coworker, Denise Fundis, who retired from Westar Energy a few years ago. I was surprised to hear someone call out for “Cherrie” because everyone I know from pickleball knows me as “Ching” and when I turned around it was Denise.
Here are some pictures of some of my favorite picklers. Can you believe these guys are seniors? Pictured above: Matt Conrad, Kim Blackmon, Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance. Below: Chris Wilson and Janelle Lindeman.
After watching a few matches at the Kansas Senior Games, it was time for me to head to Mary Ann’s house in Shawnee to drop off my stuff before we met some of our friends for dinner at KC Daiquiri Shop.
The tournament I played in was held at Bois D’Arc Park in Lenexa. It’s a great park with eight spacious, dedicated, and lighted pickleball courts.
The tournament had a great turnout and was very organized. Jeremy Reimer and his team of volunteers did a fabulous job.
Devon Fuller and I unintentionally reverse matched in the morning.
Ran into Aaron Trost at the tournament. That was such a nice surprise.
Mary Ann took her mother Judy for a walk and they came by the park and watched a few games. I think I might have convinced them to try it. Hoping to see them play at the next tournament.
It was Michelle Dreilling’s birthday that day so we took a birthday selfie.
Ramon found me an awesome women’s doubles partner, Karly Williams, for the 4.0+ women’s doubles division in the morning. After being nearly flawless in the round robin pool play (losing only to Rachel Chai-Wise and Suparna Garinger), we ended up not performing as well in the single elimination bracket and took fourth place. Not bad for our first time playing together, though.
Ramon and I struggled a bit in pool play (we were 4 and 3) but managed to take second place in 4.0+ mixed. The joke was that we were saving everything for the single elimination bracket which, in the end, is what really matters.
I’m glad we medaled because I didn’t want to let Ramon down. I felt like this was my audition and I had to perform well to be invited to team up again.
Of all my medals, this is my favorite one. First, because it actually says what event it’s for on the back and none of my other medals do. And secondly, because it is my first one with my friend Ramon. I’m hoping there will be others.
Anyway, the tournament was super fun. I’m definitely going to try and play in it again next year (or whenever they have another). I’ll try to bring some more people from Wichita next time too. Until then, GNG.
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Happy Hour with Pickleball Pals
Posted on September 20, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies.
We managed to talk Jody into coming out for drinks on her birthday weekend. We had happy hour at the Belmont, my absolute favorite place to drink pretty drinks.
They also make very photogenic and delicious bruschetta.
I didn’t get pictures of drinks this time because I already have several pictures of all of their fancy cocktails from previous visits. I did get pictures of some of our food.
After happy hour, Jen and I had the brilliant idea to go to Seneca Park for singles. Janelle apparently had the same idea because she was playing when I arrived. It was a nice night so the park was full of players. There wasn’t an empty court for singles so we ended up playing doubles with Dan Kautz and Erik Rasmussen.
I was very confused why Erik was there but, as I had already consumed a few drinks, I didn’t let the thought occupy my brain too long. Erik did manage to rattle my brain fog when he hit me with his serve. I’ve unintentionally hit people with my serve before but I’ve never been a victim of a Nasty Nelson myself until now. What hurt more than the impact of the ball on my belly was that he did this to me on purpose. What the heck?
Anyway, people started to leave and a couple of courts opened up so Jen and I were eventually able to play our singles as we planned. However, I caught Erik about to hit me again from the next court over. I gave him the evil eye and, much to my surprise, it was an effective deterrent.
A couple of days later, in a quest to figure out how I became a victim of a Nasty Nelson, I asked Dan what the heck Erik was doing at open play. I guess the two of them had the same idea as Jen and me. They went to the park hoping to find an open court for singles. I would say great minds think alike but I refuse to elevate Dan and Erik’s brains in that way. This was pure coincidence.
By the way, for someone who doesn’t play much singles, Jen is really good at it. Either that or, since singles leagues have ended, I’ve started to really suck at it. I refuse to believe that I’m awful at singles (because I enjoy it so much) so let’s just say Jen is a natural and leave it at that.
Random visits to Seneca Park are fun but that day reminded me of why I don’t drink and play pickleball (or why I shouldn’t). Until next time, GNG.
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