Archive for "Events"
Second Holiday Ping Pong Tournament
Posted on November 30, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Uncle Roy had another holiday ping pong tournament at the Downing’s recently. The first one was in 2017. They didn’t have one last year because everyone was traveling and otherwise busy but the stars aligned for having another tournament this year. As luck would have it, I was available to play. Jay, because he and Becca are always traveling, missed it again.
This is our lovely host Aaron who happened to eliminate me from the tournament. Ironically, he was the one who eliminated me from the last tournament too.
This is a pic of Landon and Bonnie admiring the miniature cornhole game that Troy brought. It was the prank one. He actually brought a real miniature cornhole game that you can play.
For a friendly tournament, these guys were pretty serious.
I was at a disadvantage because I hadn’t played ping pong in over a year. About the same time I started to get into pickleball, I quite playing ping pong.
This is Wes. My first match was with him. I lost that match but it was really close. We went into overtime and finished 22-20 in his favor.
After being eliminated from the main bracket, I went into the consolation/losers/opportunity bracket and played against Landon (pictured on the right). He was not bad but probably one of the less competitive players in the group. We played with a drink on one hand and a paddle on the other the entire time.
I won the match with Landon but my next opponent was Aaron who has an impossible serve. I didn’t stand a chance.
I had a great time despite my losses. It seemed like everyone was having a great time as well (even Brian – LOL).
Brian and I got a selfie with Roy’s wife Bonnie.
Pic with Jennifer and Wes.
We also got one of just the two of us.
By the way, I had to take a pic of Brian and Landon together because Landon was our personal trainer at the Andover YMCA a long, long, long time ago — like ten years ago or so. He happens to be Bonnie’s trainer and they’ve been training together for years (since his Andover YMCA days). He owns his own gym now, Rogue Personal Training.
I remember when he left the Y to strike out on his own, he took a bunch of clients with him. They actually started making personal trainers sign non-compete contracts after that. We didn’t end up going with him because I wasn’t particularly fond of punishment. I just wanted to Zumba. We ended up joining Genesis but then ended up doing some personal training later on with another trainer who was recommended by our friends Gina and Coley.
I’ve joined, left, rejoined, and left again a bunch of gyms. Not much personal training these days. I mostly just like to have a good time so I’m teaching and taking Zumba classes and playing pickleball. My most intense workout is my friend Liz’ STRONG by Zumba class on Monday nights which I love to take.
We probably need to buckle down and take our health more seriously in 2020. Changes are coming. Until next time. GNG.
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2019 Cattle Baron’s Ball
Posted on November 26, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Here are some pictures from the Cattle Baron’s Ball earlier this month.
Brian and I bumped into some of my former coworkers who are now retired: Doug and Suzanne Coin and Glen and Bridget Bowman.
Here’s a pic of me with the ladies — Suzanne and Bridget.
DJ Carbon, the most iconic DJ in all of Wichita was there as well.
Obligatory selfie with the hubs.
The new dress I got from Southern Fried Chics was perfect.
Wu Shock was at the event too!
Here are some pics of the delicious dinner and dessert we enjoyed.
You can’t have too many selfies. LOL.
I guess people felt bad for us because they offered to take our pics.
Brian with Glen and Doug.
Suzanne got me a bear. It’s super soft!
Fun photo booth pics!
As benefit dinners go, this is one of our favorites. For one, the attire is pretty casual. As much as I like seeing Brian in a tux, he doesn’t enjoy it much because he finds it too stuffy. This one is Western-themed so, even though it’s a fancy event, you can be cowboy-like and fit right in. People can be as dressed up or as casual as they want to be. Also, the atmosphere is super relaxed and fun.
It was even more fun this year because the Bowmans and the Coins were there. Usually, Brian and I attend these events by ourselves. It’s always more fun when there are familiar faces or friends to hang out with.
Huge thanks to our friend Joe Parten for hooking us up with VIP tickets! I hope we get to go again next year. Definitely something to look forward to in 2020.
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VASA2 Grand Opening
Posted on November 25, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Did you know that VASA2 (located at the old Extreme Racing, also formerly a Hobby Lobby in a past life) at Brittany Center on 21st and Woodlawn is now open? I had a great time on grand opening day with these guys.
VASA2 opened the weekend before Halloween (soft opening) and then grand opening was November 2. Since we signed up for special classes on that day, not only did we get to take a highly coveted Studio class for free, we also got bonus swag — PUSH BEYOND t-shirts!
Three of my awesome coworkers — Amir, Alex, and Shanda — took the VASA Zone Studio Cycle class with me, Brian, and our friend Jeff.
It was an amazing class but I think Brian felt like he was going to die. LOL.
Right now is a great time to check out VASA Fitness. All group fitness classes (excludes Studio and TEAM classes) are FREE through the end of the month for members and non-members. This is your open invitation to join us!
Here’s my schedule for the week:
Monday, 6:30 PM – Zumba at VASA1 (Harry location)
Tuesday, 6:00 PM – Aqua Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)
Friday, 10:00 AM – Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)
Saturday, 9:00 AM – Aqua Zumba at VASA2 (Woodlawn location)
I normally would teach an Aqua Zumba class at 6 PM on Thursday nights also but this Thursday happens to be Thanksgiving so the gym closes early. We have a special group fitness schedule in the morning.
Also, I normally do not teach any classes during the day on Fridays because I work but, since I’m off work for the holiday and Jessie needed a sub for her class, I offered to cover it. Since classes are free right now, there is no reason not to check out VASA. I hope to see you sometime this week!
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Pickleball Birthday
Posted on November 20, 2019 by Ching under Events.
You know how 2016 was my big Zumba year? Well, this year is shaping up to be the “Year of Pickleball” for me. Granted, it was last year that I discovered pickleball; however, this is the year that huge things happened.
I made a ton of new friends. Played in my first tournament. We had a couple of fun cookouts. Met a bunch of pros at the Franklin Pickleball Masters. I even had a pickleball birthday party at Y thanks to my friend Matt.
Zumba birthdays are fun but I’d never been to a pickleball birthday party before — and, it was mine to boot — so that was HUGE. Hopefully, this is just the first of many more celebrations like it.
Brian and I got to the party late because we first had to pick up the cake.
Oh, since my birthday is so close to Halloween, I forgot to mention that it was a costume party. LOL. The pickleball group was planning a Halloween cookout that same weekend that Matt planned the pickleball birthday party so we ended up combining the two events.
Here’s a better picture of the very chocolate-y cake.
This is my friend Tom’s wife Lani. She is also Filipino.
Do you like the photo frame? It’s the same one from the Cancer Crawl a few months ago. I just repurposed it.
This is my friend Karen in her very clever pickleball paddle costume which she designed after her own paddle.
Becci and Greg.
Trixie.
Mary.
Debbie and Bill. Debbie hurt her ankle several days before this so she couldn’t play but she came out anyway. She had an awesome Ghostbusters costume too!
This is Mr. Clean who also sometimes goes by Bruce.
Debbie, Bruce, and me with Matt (in green on the left). Matt did all of the legwork to make the event possible.
Bruce, Debbie, and me with Tiffany and Donnie (on the right).
Even in full out Halloween costumes, they still had no problem kicking everyone’s butt. There’s another pic of Karen, Debbie, and Tiffany below.
These ladies are so much fun!
Debbie sandwiched between Donnie and Tiffany.
Debbie with Gregg. Gregg is THE pickleball guy. He’s our official pickleball ambassador in Wichita.
Matt and Debbie. This party could not have happened if it weren’t for Matt’s persistence. He made it so that all of our non YMCA friends could come out and play also. We had such a great turnout!
The picture below is only about half of the people who were there. We took the group pic after several people had already left. Some people were there for just the normal open play. Some people came out because they saw the event posted in our Facebook group. I had a great time and it seemed like everyone else did too!
The pickleball party was the Sunday before my birthday so, not one to waste a really good picture frame, I brought it again with me to our league tournament on Wednesday night (the day of my actual birthday). Because of an overbooking issue, we skipped a week and the final night of league actually fell on my birthday.
It worked out perfect because I got a few more pics with the picture frame and got lots of mileage out of it.
My partner Renee and I didn’t win the tournament but I felt like we had great chemistry and played really well together. I really think we held our own with some of the better intermediate teams. It was a very positive first league experience for me. Anyway, here are some action shots…
Overall it has been a fabulous birthday month! And, we continued to celebrate during our trip to Mexico. More on that next time. Until then, GNG.
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Dance ‘Til You’re Dead
Posted on November 15, 2019 by Ching under Community, Events, Zumba.
This event is by far one of the best Zumba events I’ve been part of this year. Earlier this year, during the Spring, we had a Y Takeover event at Chicken N Pickle. The event is similar to this one but it was Zumba and Sh’bam combo. That event was a lot of fun too, I found the event last month even more fun because it was all Zumba. If you can’t already tell, I am not a huge fan of Sh’bam so as much as possible have been staying away from those events. I know my mantra is “Never miss a party if you can help it” but if I have to do Sh’bam then I usual somehow magically have other better, more fun things to do. LOL.
I think I was open-minded about Sh’bam before I actually tried it. They say always give something a few tries before coming to a conclusion. Now that I’ve tried it a few times, I can safely say I do not enjoy it as much as I enjoy Zumba.
The event a few weeks ago at Chicken N Pickle was just all Zumba so it was perfect. It was a collaboration between North and South YMCA instructors. There were eight of us altogether.
From left: Joel, Todd, Jessie, Aisha, Bryden, Missy, Rose and me.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the event.
I love these events at Chicken N Pickle. The setup over there is just awesome and perfect for outdoor events like this one. I can’t wait until winter is over and we can start having these events again.
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