The Battle of the Brubakers

For those of you following our progress, here’s an update:

It looks like Brian is winning so far, unfortunately. =P

January 31, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Games, Health, Life

Significant Moments of 2009

This is the obligatory end of year recap. I apologize for posting it so late in the month. Last year I posted it right away.

This year I was procrastinating because 2009 was very depressing. We lost a few family members and spent quite a bit last year. It was a sad, sad year.

Looking back though, I realize that there were a lot of positives as well like our trip to the Philippines and meeting new people. Here are some highlights:

Found a new home for Molly. We love Molly so much that we could no longer bear to see her neglected. Now she lives with Tita Sol who gives her the attention and pampering that she deserves. It was a match made in heaven.
Whole house re-pipe. We had to abandon our underground plumbing because of a leak. The plumping for the entire house was redone to the tune of $7500 approximately. Now everything is above ground so if something goes wrong it’s easier to find.
We had to buy a new washer and dryer. The ones we had were the ones we had when we were living in the townhouse so they were quite old. They finally gave out and had to be replaced. We tried to put it off as long as we could by doing laundry at our parents’ and one of the local laundromats, but we finally caved and bought the replacements. We just got the inexpensive, old-fashioned kind with no bells and whistles though.
I attended the Women’s Fair for the first time. I’d never been to one before. It was quite an experience.
Quit being quitters. We canceled our gym membership in February but actually had to pay through June. We stopped going, though. About 30 pounds later, we re-started our gym membership again. This was around November. Brian and I finally got fed up and said enough is enough. We both needed to lose weight – desperately.
Battle of the Bangers. This was one of the craziest events I’d ever witnessed at Highlands. We spent a lot of time at Highlands in 2009 – just about every Friday. They ran into some trouble with the Attorney General, though. The KANDU challenge was challenged. The restaurant closed later in the year.
Brian made it to Germany and back in one piece. It was quite an emotional trip, though. Partly because it was the longest that we’d been apart since we’d gotten together, but also partly because Brian went through a lot of stuff. He wanted to come home the very next day. He toughed it out though and managed to make it through the two weeks without killing himself. He was definitely outside his comfort zone.
My first flea market experience was quite interesting.
Eagle Valley Raptor Center. I’d never been there before. What an amazing experience!
I learned how to make some jewelry, and then decided to start a fashion jewelry store web site. It really didn’t do well. File this under yet another failed 2009 project.
Attended my first photo walk. There were a lot of firsts in 2009. This is yet another. The photo walk along Delano was a lot of fun. I haven’t been able to attend another since, though.
I experienced Wingnuts baseball. We went to a lot of baseball games last year.
Got a laptop for myself finally. I was too cheap to buy one before but I finally gave in. I retired the Dell Mini and got an actual, honest-to-goodness laptop. Of course, Brian got himself a new laptop too.
Star Trek movie marathon. Yes, Brian felt that I needed to watch them all. Most of them were pretty good actually. I’ve been assimilated. I’m officially a Trekker.
I embraced my inner rock star at Kurt-a-palooza. Brian and I played Rock Band for the very first time and had a blast. We were completely hooked.
Brian and I got to see Miss Saigon. I’d never seen it performed before and neither had Brian. I was familiar with the story, though. Jimbo did great.
I made it through Leadership Westar. I’m now an LW alumnus, class of 2009. Go me!
We met Jennifer and Armando for the first time. Our family just keeps on growing and we like it that way.
Speaking of family… as our family grows, it also shrinks. We lost three in 2009. Mama Priscilla (dad’s mother) in March, followed by Papa Osing (dad’s father) in August, and then Auntie Neneng (dad’s sister) in December. My dad has had a rough year.
I survived paintball and managed to take some decent pictures.
We got to experience Zoobilee for the first time. Even though we were volunteers, we still had a good time.
Brian’s first trip to the Philippines started out a lot like his Germany trip, with him wanting to come home after the very first day. He quickly adapted though and the rest of the trip went smoothly. We (mom, dad, Brian and I) got to visit Bohol, Cebu and Negros on this trip. We all had a wonderful time.
Pacquiao squashes Cotto. Just had to squeeze this in here. This is definitely one of the highlights of 2009 for me. I hope I can write about how Pacquiao beats Mayweather in 2010.
We introduced Dill to racquetball and never looked back. Now racquetball is an important part of our weekly workout routine.
New Year’s Eve at Kansas City Power & Light. I wasn’t sure whether to tack this on here because it is a 2009 event or 2010 one, depending on how you look at it. We spent that evening with Jay, Becca and Mama Dill and had a blast.
All of the eating out and pigging out caught up with me. I peaked at my heaviest at 143 lbs and weighed the heaviest I’d ever been. To think that I was barely 100 lbs when Brian and I first met. Brian and I had an epiphany and agreed that we both needed to do something. He wanted to be at 160 lbs and I wanted to be at 110 lbs, so we both needed to lose about 30 lbs. I needed to lose 3 lbs more than he did because he was actually at 190 at this time, but since I always win against Brian I figured that the 3-lb handicap won’t hurt me. We restarted our gym membership and “The Battle of the Brubakers” was born. (Landon was actually the one who came up with a name for our contest.) We restarted our gym membership in November but we didn’t want to officially start the contest until January so we did our first contest weigh-in on the last Saturday of the year, December 26. By then Brian and I had already lost some weight. I ended the year at 131 lbs, while Brian ended at 181.

I’m pretty sure I missed a whole bunch of stuff, but these are the things I could think of off the top of my head. And to think Brian thought not much happened last year. LOL.

January 31, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Life

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I’m an Optimist

These crime maps from the City of Wichita are a little outdated but I think it’s a pretty accurate depiction of where crime is heaviest in this city. It sure doesn’t make me want to live downtown. LOL.

Brian found a dungeon at The Flats 324 that he really likes, though. He’s pretty sold on it. Hopefully it looks worse than it really is. From the looks of it, Old Town itself is pretty okay. It’s the areas adjacent to it that you have to worry about.

January 30, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Life

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We are Such Knuckleheads

We tried to shanghai someone’s court tonight. Unintentionally, of course. We had reserved our racquetball courts yesterday morning. You have to call first thing in the morning when you wake up because they’re in such high demand. Anyway, I called and reserved Court A from 6p to 7p. Brian reserved Court B from 7p to 8p.

Tonight, after work, we decided to check out Flats 324. This is the old Wichita High School on 3rd and Emporia that got converted into apartments. We ended up spending an hour touring the place. It is so neat in there, I can’t describe it. All of the units have their own unique charm and they kept some of the school’s original features (clocks in the hallways, doors, shelving, lockers, etc) because it is a historic downtown building. That’s a whole other blog post, though.

Anyway, it was well after 6p by the time we got out of there and we still needed to run home and change. We weren’t concerned though, because we figured that even if we missed my court reservation we still had Brian’s. So we get, change quickly and arrive at the North branch YMCA at around quarter ’til seven. There was someone in Court B, but Court A was empty so we decided to start playing in there.

Around 8p these three guys showed up. We figured they had Court A reserved from 7p to 8p and we had Court B reserved at the same time so we could just do a switcheroo (pardon my technical term). So we continue playing and then a few minutes later, another guy shows up. He’s stretching and prepping as he patiently waits for us to finish our game. The problem is, we’d just gotten started with our second game.

ME: What is that guy doing?
BRIAN: I don’t know but he’s going to be waiting a while.

The guy is really bugging me. I mean, I feel kind of bad that he’s just waiting out there and we’ve got a ways to go before 8p. So a little bit later I go..

ME: You should go ask him what’s up.
BRIAN: You should do it. You’re nicer than I am.

We continued to play on, while urging each other to do the asking and neither of us doing anything. I guess the guy finally got tired of waiting because he eventually caught our attention. He explained that he had Court A reserved from 7p to 8p. We were like, the guys in Court B have this court reserved from 7p to 8p and we have their court reserved from 7p to 8p so we just switched. So we tapped on the other court and confirmed that the other guys had Court A reserved and sure enough they said yes. It looked like the courts had gotten overbooked somehow. What a mess!

Anyway, we go to the front desk and try to sort this out. Sure enough, the three guys had their court and the other guy had his court. Brian and I were the odd ones out. Neither of our names were on the list. We searched and searched and even checked the morning and nothing. Uh-oh. Sounds like a service breakdown. The guy at the front desk was like, “Do you remember who you talked to?” We were like, “No. This has never happened before.” I’m not the type of person who throws a fit and starts getting ugly at other people so I’m trying to logically work through the situation in my head. In the meantime, the other guys are satisfied after being proven right.

As we walk back to get our stuff, feeling defeated, I’m thinking that the people at the Y are usually really good. I must’ve called a different YMCA. It’s not an unlikely scenario. We do rotate between three different branches after all. Brian felt sure that they messed up and we called the correct Y. I’m not so sure though, so I start checking my phone records.

There it was. January 28. I called North branch and then, immediately after that, I called the Andover branch. Just then a light bulb came on above my head. North Y told me they were completely booked so I reserved my court at Andover. Brian called the same number. We were at the wrong branch! LOL. Our courts probably sat empty for two hours at Andover. What knuckleheads we are…

Anyway, I’m glad that we didn’t know any better because we at least got one game in. Brian and I agreed that if we would have remembered that our court was in Andover that we might have decided not to go tonight because of the weather.

Brian won the first game 15-11 and we were tied in the second game 2-2 when we were interrupted. We agreed not to count tonight’s messed up session, though. I felt like we both lost tonight because we got kicked out of our court, which was not really our court.

The guys were really nice, though. After waiting patiently for us jerks to pay attention to him, the guy’s buddy actually offered to let us stay and play doubles with them. He was like, “You drove out in the snow to come play so you obviously want to.. You’re welcome to come play doubles with us.”

BRIAN: I think you guys are way beyond our league.
OTHER GUY: We can split up.
ME: It’s okay. Thank you for the offer, though.
BRIAN: Yes. Thank you.

“We’re just going to go drive home now,” I said as I fake-smiled and waved goodbye to both of them. Deep down I was extremely disappointment at having the opportunity to kick Brian’s butt at racquetball yanked away from me. It must be his lucky day.

January 29, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Health, Life

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Free Zumba Classes

What are you doing on Wednesdays? Come Zumba with us!

January 28, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Health

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Happy Birthday, Darcy

Brian and I actually ate lunch together separately today. See, we can be apart after all. Most of the time we’re attached at the hip, though.

Brian’s boss took him and a couple of coworkers to lunch at Nancy’s today. He asked me if I wanted to go with them, but I didn’t want to intrude. Besides I had a speech analytics webinar at noon, so it wasn’t like I could anyway.

BRIAN: Boss paid for lunch today.

ME: Good, cause I paid for lunch today.

I had brought soup to eat for lunch, but it was Darcy birthday today. When she asked if I wanted to go to lunch, I couldn’t very well say no. We had to wait to go at 1 pm though, because of the webinar thing.

We ended up going to Sabor because it’s so close to work and neither of us had been there in a while. We had the fried plantains and then Darcy had the slow roasted pork adobo (what I normally order) and I had the tilapia. I was trying to be good. I had a little piece of Darcy’s pork, though. That stuff is so good.

I didn’t get anything for Darcy’s birthday so I went ahead and picked up the lunch tab. Happy birthday, Darcy!

I’m glad that Brian’s boss bought him lunch. At least we’re not so over-budget for eating out this month. I am such a cheapskate. LOL.

January 28, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Life

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The Port of Wichita

We went to The Port of Wichita on Friday to watch the Fabulous Fleshtones perform. We had dinner at Felipe’s Jr. before hand. Not a very good idea. I fell of the Stop-Rest-and-Assess wagon that night. Booo.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with Jan, Cindy and Joe. Although, I should have resisted the urge to over-eat. LOL.

January 26, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Ching is a Whiny Wuss

Landon (personal trainer) tried to get us to work hard this morning at the gym, but we are way too stubborn and he is way too nice. He probably thinks I’m a whiny wuss because I didn’t want to do a lot of the things he wanted us to do (jumping jacks, push ups, etc) and gave up on most everything else within a few reps. In my defense, our appointment with Landon was at noon and we’d been working out since 9 am. I did an hour of advanced step from 9 to 10 am and then played two hours of racquetball from 10 am to noon. As far as energy went, I was “all tapped out” (which, incidentally is the name of the step class that I do on Saturday mornings – LOL).

I’m hoping that all of our energy was just expended and that’s why everything was so painful and exhausting. We’ll have to try everything that he made us do today again, when we haven’t been working ourselves ragged. If we still can’t do it, then we’re in trouble. Maybe 2010 isn’t the year that we achieve our weight-loss goal after all. =P

I worked so hard today (Landon might not have thought so) that it made me want to go on a diet. I figured I would work out more so I wouldn’t have to give up all the foods I love to eat. However, if I need to work out that hard all the time, the foods I love to eat might not be worth it. LOL.

At this rate, we might be 60 before we get in shape. I told Brian that my mission is for him to wake up one day and not recognize me, kind of like in The Biggest Loser. The people look completely different at the end of the season than the way they look at the beginning. When he wakes up next to me one morning and goes, “Who the heck are you?” I would have achieved my goal.

Brian then goes, “You better hope that when I say that it’s because you’ve really changed and not because I’m senile!” LOL.

I hope we achieve our goals well before we’re in our 60s. Not that I think he will be senile at that point but, if I get to my goal weight this year, at least it’ll be less likely that it’s the latter.

January 23, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Health, Life

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Dad’s Toys

I finally got to check out dad’s hobby room. My dad has more toys than anyone I know. It was funny watching him fly his new plane out on the golf course this afternoon. He is just like a little kid. I wish I could have captured it on video. It just goes to show you, inside every grown up is a five-year-old child dying to get out. LOL.

January 23, 2010 | Posted by Ching under Family

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Bebot is a Rock Star

Toyota just issued another recall. Over 2 million vehicles are affected. The models are listed below:

-RAV4 2009-2010 models
-Corolla 2009-2010 models
-Matrix 2009-2010 models
-Avalon 2005-2010 models
-Camry 2007-2010 models
-Highlander 2010 model
-Tundra 2007-2010 models
-Sequoia 2008-2010 models

Looks like Bebot dodged another recall. We bought Bebot in June 2006. Brian says we picked a good year.