Archive for "Life"
Grandma’s Flowers
Posted on May 23, 2020 by Ching under Life.
Late post from Mother’s Day weekend. Brian and I went in on a big bouquet of flowers for grandma for Mother’s Day.
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Karen’s Homemade Lasagna
Posted on April 25, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
Life is pretty dull these days. There’s not much for me to really look forward to besides #ZumbaVirtual classes (basically Zumba classes held on the ZOOM platform) and some ZOOM happy hour socials.
The one positive thing that’s come out of this pandemic is I finally made one of the Women of Rotary Wichita socials. I’ve been missing them for several months because I was teaching Aqua Zumba at South YMCA on Wednesday nights last summer and then, after that was over, I joined a Wednesday night pickleball league at Chicken N Pickle. There was always something going on each Wednesday that they’d have the social that prevented me from attending. Now that we’re pretty much on lock down, I have nothing to do so I was actually able to attend.
Besides ZOOM happy hours and ZOOMba, I really had nothing going so I was super excited when my friend Karen invited Brian and I over for homemade lasagna night. She makes amazing lasagna!
Here are some pics of our dinner that night.
Dinner was amazing and Karen was a fabulous host. I really enjoyed our visit that night. I’d been really depressed because of the whole stay at home thing so I really needed it. Thank you so much for the delicious dinner and wonderful conversation, Karen! Until next time. GNG.
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Did You Know?
Posted on April 18, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life.
Did you know that several local restaurants are serving customers via delivery and carry out during the extended stay-at-home mandate? There’s actually a Facebook group specifically for connecting local consumers with restaurants that are currently open for business. Wichita FOOD TO GO During COVID-19 has several local restaurant owners posting menus and promos. It’s a great way for them to reach people and keep business going during this crazy time.
Last weekend Brian and I decided to take advantage of the Easter special at Carrabba’s. For $50 we got fresh bread with herbs and oil, Caesar salad, penne pomodoro, sautéed broccoli, chicken piccata, and two slices of the sogno di cioccolata dessert. And then for an extra $18, I got a blackberry sangria kit with a giant bottle of wine. It made so much that I drank sangria for at least three days. We also had enough food for four people so we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. It was an awesome deal.
I didn’t get pics of our food because we were so hungry we just scarfed it right up. However, I did get a pic of the bottle of wine they gave me and the sangria kit instructions. It was just as good as what they serve at the restaurant and way cheaper. This is one thing about the whole pandemic that I hope doesn’t change. I would totally buy this every weekend.
I did switch it up this weekend and decided to try the margarita kit from Felipe’s Jr. It’s also a great deal. You have to supply the tequila (which is no problem because I have plenty at home) but their $5 kit makes four margaritas. It’s also another great deal. The whole booze-to-go situation is probably my most favorite part of this pandemic. Restaurants would never have been able to do this stuff had the world not been in crisis.
Anyway, you just have to find the silver lining in things because times are pretty crazy right now and if you don’t laugh or drink it off then you’ll really be depressed. Until next time. GNG.
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Life During COVID-19
Posted on April 5, 2020 by Ching under Life.
I feel like I’m in the middle of a horror film. Never in my entire life did I imagine we would be living like this — fearing for our lives, unable to leave our homes. It feels like the zombie apocalypse minus the zombies.
Since I’ve been working from home the last two weeks and we’re not supposed to go out for non-essential activities, I’ve pretty much been stuck at home 24/7. It’s been driving me crazy. I’m so glad that Kirk and Alicia organized a ZOOM night for us. We’ve had two of these virtual get togethers since the start of the stay-at-home order and they’ve been my lifeline.
Brian set ours up in the basement so we could connect the computer to the big TV and see everyone’s video better than we would on our tiny computer screen. He was so excited that we were actually the first ones on. Actually, we were both looking forward to it all week. We even got a special bottle of wine just for the occasion.
In all seriousness, it’s actually a bottle of Sequoia Grove (one of our favorite wines). Brian just printed a funny label to put over it.
It was a nice evening so Jay and Becca set up on their back deck.
Clockwise from top left in the below pic: Alicia and Kirk, me and Brian, Jay and Becca, Jared and Hazel, Justin and Tina, and Marc and Reniece.
On the first night, we were joined by our #CostaRica2019 #VacayWithJayJay pals plus a couple of friends of the Shorts – Jarred and Hazel. It was like a mini reunion.
We played virtual Cards Against Humanity with the group and it was super fun. I usually get crappy cards but I actually got the perfect card to play for this round.
Here’s another round that I won.
We had another get together the other night. We were supposed to dress up like where we wanted to go after we are all set free from the travel ban and stay-at-home mandate. Only Alicia and I really participated though.
I wore one of my Sofibella pickleball outfits because going to play pickleball as soon as we regain our freedom to be around other people is first of my list of things to do. Alicia wore her “Corona Beach Party” shirt because the beach is her first stop. Having Corona on the shirt was perfect though, because Coronavirus is the reason we are all in this mess.
Brian considered wearing his Star Trek shirt because he said he wanted to be off-world, but he was lazy and just stayed in his robe. He rationalized it by saying that’s what one of the characters wore in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Here’s the group from the other night. We were minus Tina and Justin and Jarred and Hazel but still have enough people for games.
We played Cards Against Humanity again, which Brian won, and then also some Pictionary. Pictionary was really challenging but a lot of fun.
Oh, I forgot to mention Alicia’s sister AJ joined us both times too. Her husband who is currently stationed in Las Vegas got off work too late for us to meet him the first time but he was able to join this time around. He seems like a nice guy. Hopefully we can meet him in real life when we all get through this.
For our next ZOOM social we’re celebrating a bunch of birthdays — virtually of course. So we’re moving the event from Friday night to Saturday night. I may not have Zumba and pickleball anymore but at least I have one thing to look forward to each week. Alright, everyone hang in there. Stay heathy and safe. GNG.
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Meeting the Legendary Jack Oxler
Posted on March 20, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies, Life.
Jack Oxler is a name that comes up quite frequently in our little pickleball community because the Wichita people are so very proud of Jack and legendary achievements. When I first started playing and had the opportunity to meet and play with some of the more seasoned pickleball players they would always ask, “Do you know Jack Oxler?” Immediately followed by, “You need to meet him.”
I’ve actually wrote about Jack before without even meeting him. It was about a year go at Chicken N Pickle when I met one of his friends. So many people know Jack because he used to live in Wichita before moving to Kansas City. Even though he doesn’t even live here, his name comes up a lot. Matt Wright, one of the biggest names in pickleball, even mentioned him during a Q&A at Chicken N Pickle a few months ago. Currently Jack is the Director of Pickleball and one of the teaching professionals at the Kansas City Chicken N Pickle. I didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to meet him unless I made a trip to KC for a pickleball lesson.
But then fate intervened. A few weeks ago Aaron Trost, the former head of pickleball at the Wichita Chicken N Pickle, moved to San Antonio to run the pickleball program at that new location. They hired Michael Harris to replace him and brought Jack Oxler down to Wichita to train the new guy and show him the ropes. Jack offered some lessons while he was in town. Of course, they were all during the day from Tuesday through Thursday and, when Michael first posted the info in our Facebook group, none of the times worked.
On Tuesday I found out that my lunch meeting on Wednesday got canceled so I actually would have time to squeeze in a lesson but all of the appointment times were taken at that point. I still wanted to meet this guy in the flesh because tales of his pickleball and tennis prowess are legendary so I thought, even though I couldn’t book a lesson, I could still have lunch at Chicken N Pickle, meet him, and have him sign my special pickleball paddles. I didn’t want to go up there unannounced and unexpected, though. People already think I’m a weirdo. I didn’t want to provide yet another example of me being weird by going up to a total stranger and asking for his autograph. But then I recalled that, in his how we got started with pickleball story, Matt Wright also mentioned Chris Heck. Chis Heck is another local pickleball pro who is magnificent and happens to be my friend. I’ve been taking lessons from Chris since January and we have now officially moved into friend status and with him being my friend I asked for my first friend favor — to give Jack a heads up that I will stop by Chicken N Pickle at lunch because I’m dying to meet him.
And so that’s how it happened. I finally got to meet the great and legendary Jack Oxler. And, I got his autograph on my paddles.
He is much shorter in real life than I expected, even though I’d watched enough YouTube videos. I just assumed it’s because all the other players are super tall. I always had it in my brain that I would never be any good at pickleball because I’m not tall enough. Meeting Jack gave me hope. I can be amazing even with the height disadvantage. Of course, Jack is very talented and skilled so he’s in a special category but now I’m thinking maybe it’s not so bad being short. If I continue to learn from Chris (and Kayla and Lucy and others I’m taking pickleball lessons from) and work hard, I can compete with players at my level and maybe even beat them despite the height disadvantage.
I’m hoping that Jack will return to Wichita and offer some lessons again. If not, I’m hoping to make a trip out to Kansas City at some point to schedule a session with him. I just want to get his perspective — short person to short person. LOL.
Jokes aside, some of my friends (Jenny, Amy, Beth, and Debbie) got to learn from Jack while he was here. I took some pics of their session when I was at Chicken N Pickle for lunch that day.
A bunch of us got together for a group photo with Jack before I went back to work. From left: Beth, Jenny, Debbie, Jack, Tammy, Amy, Jack’s mom, and me.
After their lesson, they all stayed and played some more pickleball. Of course, I had to go back to work before returning that night for the Intermediate Women’s Doubles League Tournament. I usually stay to watch the Competitive Men’s Doubles League. This was actually a record day for my friend Debbie because she stayed to watch the men play too. Their tournament lasted past 11 o’clock that night. She spent over 14 hours at Chicken N Pickle without ever leaving that day.
Brian came out to livestream the league tournament that night. Debbie got this picture of us. I later realized that she got Jack Oxler in the background looking very James Bond (Daniel Craig without the tux).
Here’s a better pic of us with Brian looking at the camera this time.
It’s always great when Brian can come out to capture videos and do a livestream. You can watch some of the videos we captured that night in this post. But I digress, it was so great to finally meet Jack Oxler. I’m hoping it won’t be our last encounter. Until next time. GNG.
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