Archive for "Life"
Life Happens
Posted on October 13, 2021 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Travel.
The other day I got an email from one of my hotel rewards accounts. I asked Brian about it because I wasn’t sure if it was a phishing scam. Something happened to my account but I hadn’t logged in and done anything. After Brian did some investigation, he found out that someone had hacked into my rewards account and redeemed some of my hotel points. They used my hard-earned points to book a room in China. This naturally pissed me off. I mean, I would like to visit China (not right now — but at some point) and I would like to be able to use my points. Scammers just make my blood boil.
Thankfully, Brian got it all sorted and they are giving me my points back. I haven’t checked yet but I’m hoping that my points will be there for me to use on a future stay. These points really do help to keep your travel costs down.
For instance, when I traveled to Arizona for a PPA tournament back in February, we stayed at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa which is easily $500 a night. Our hotel costs would have been nearly $3000 if I didn’t have enough hotel points to cover most of it. Anyway, points are very important.
Speaking of shitty things happening… My websites also broke this week. First, www.ictpickleball.com broke. Then when that finally got fixed, this site broke. My host restored this site from backup but, in the meantime, I lost two blog posts that didn’t make the last backup. So much crap happens.
But there are good things that happened too… On Sunday, World Pickleball Day of all days, I finally beat my friend Karen Fox at singles. I have never ever beaten her, in the history of us playing singles against each other, ever. I usually get a handful of points at best. We played one game on Sunday and I beat her 13-11.
It reminded of the time that I played singles against my friend Donnie Lesperance a couple of months ago and almost beat him. He ended up beating me 12-10 because I couldn’t close the game. If I ever beat Donnie in a game of singles, I am throwing a huge party!
Here’s a group photo of those of us who played in the World Pickleball Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle in the afternoon. Not many teams competed but we had a ton of fun. We got food and drinks and even got goodie bags. Oh, and I won some silent auction items. So, while we didn’t win at pickleball, at least I won some things. LOL.
On Tuesday I received compliments about my pickleball game from a couple of pickleball players that I admire and respect. Melissa Youngers paid me a compliment on how I played in Monday night league and then later that evening Steve Vetter said I played “incredible” in our Tuesday night league in a group text with a couple of other friends. Two compliments from a couple of amazing pickleball players in the same day is pretty darn awesome.
There are some other crappy things that have happened to me of late that I don’t really want to talk about. It’s nice that there’s these occasional, little rays of sunshine to keep my mind off the negative stuff. Anytime I go through a rough patch, I always remind myself to count my blessings.
I have actually gotten out of practice but I think I’m going to start this again just to preserve my sanity. Every morning start my day with three key things I wish to accomplish and then, at the end of the day, think of three positive things that happened or three things I’m grateful for right before bed. I’m absolutely certain that if I commit to doing these things consistently each day things will start to change for the better and even more good things will come my way.
That’s all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful day. GNG.
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Reuniting with Old Friends/Coworkers
Posted on October 12, 2021 by Ching under Life.
Since my lunch with Alicia and Amie a couple of weeks ago, I’ve since bumped into some more current and former coworkers.
I saw Tammie Rhea at Haus of Brews. Tammie and I were on a work trip in Florida around this time five years ago when Hurricane Matthew struck and we ended up fleeing to Tampa together.
Then Brian and I ran into Cristie Rodriguez at the Society of 1895 luncheon. Cristie retired from Westar Energy several years ago. She actually hired me when I first started with the company in 2002.
Last weekend we went to dinner at Carrabba’s with Jan McGovern. Jan, who is also another Westar Energy retiree, was one of mentors and was like a work mom to me. It’s great to reunite and catch up with old friends. I feel like we sometimes allow too much time to pass between visits and we really should change that.
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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Nicole, aka My T-Shirt Lady
Posted on August 25, 2021 by Ching under Life.
It was around this time last year when I first got connected with Nicole. She owns Simply Charming Designs. I would not have known about her had it not been for the amazing work that she did on Ben Meyer and Traci Grandfield’s league uniforms. They had Ben’s company logo put on their tops and bottoms. As someone who is obsessed with being “matchy matchy,” I immediately had outfit envy. I asked Ben who did it for him and asked for their contact information.
That was the start of my relationship with Nicole. Over the past year she’s completed several shirt projects for me. I’ve even referred several people her way including my friends Karen, Tiffany, and Kimberly (and probably a few others). I know Seth has gotten a few shirts from her also. Every time someone asks me about customizing shirts or adding prints or logos on them, I send them to Nicole.
The funny thing is, as I’m referring all of these people her way, we’d never actually met in person — that is, until recently. My friends always asked, how are you getting your stuff? I told them we usually just leave my shirts on her porch and then I pick them up the same way when they’re finished. Payment is through Venmo, so we’ve never seen each other. She’s usually not home when I’m dropping off or picking up (actually, it’s usually Brian dropping off or picking up because he works on that side of town), but she doesn’t have to be. I’ve never felt it necessary to meet her to do business together. All I know is that she does excellent work and she is quick and that is good enough for me.
Anyway, Kimberly had some shirts done a few months ago and actually got to meet Nicole. Of course I felt FOMO. I’m thinking, I’ve given this lady so much business and yet I’ve never met her in person. I think it’s time we met.
Fast forward to a year and nearly $500 in projects later, we actually had the opportunity to meet. Brian and I were on our way to dinner. I needed to drop a couple of shirts off to be printed and she just happened to be home.
Meet Nicole, the most awesome t-shirt lady ever. Over a dozen shirts later, we finally met! I was like, we have to take a pictures to commemorate this!
I dug up our transaction history on Venmo and my very first payment to her was on September 3. We would have been working on those designs and chatting back and forth over Facebook Messenger around this time last year.
T-shirts are mostly what I need but Nicole can do more than just shirts. She can do mugs, tumblers, notebooks — she can print on just about anything. If you have a project that you need completed, please be sure reach out to Simply Charming Designs on Facebook. She is super awesome to work with. I highly recommend her. Anyway, I am just one of many happy customers. Hire her for your next personalized or custom project and join the club!
Until next time. GNG.
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I am Officially Fully Vaccinated
Posted on April 21, 2021 by Ching under Health, Life.
I received the second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine yesterday so I am officially fully vaccinated. Here’s a picture I took when I got my first dose of the vaccine at the old library a few weeks ago. The whole operation was super efficient. Having printed my form ahead of time, I was in and out in less than 30 minutes counting my mandatory observation time.
I was going to go back to the library for my second dose but the vaccine is now widely available. Rather than going downtown again, I scheduled my second vaccine at the Walgreens in Andover just down the street from our house. That part was no difficult but it took some doing for me to cancel my original appointment at the library because I couldn’t figure out where to cancel my appointment on the website. I had to actually find the email they sent me about the appointment and cancel it from there.
It was nice to be able to get it at Walgreens because (a) I didn’t have to contend with downtown and (b) I actually got to walk around the store during my mandatory observation period so I wasn’t stuck just playing on my phone. I used the time productively to pick out a card for a friend who is having a birthday celebration this weekend.
I have heard of people having issues after getting vaccinated and Brian, who is borderline anti-vaxxer (I say this because he has never gotten the flu shot ever and completely against the idea of getting vaccinated), never hesitates to tell me these horror stories of people getting sick. Other than my vaccination arm being sore, I’ve experienced no complications whatsoever.
Anyway, I’m hoping that this will encourage him to get vaccinated. I hate that he’s dragging his feet and won’t do it. Can you guys help me convince him please?
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