Archive for "Events"
Y Takeover at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on May 28, 2019 by Ching under Events, Zumba.
The YMCA had their first Y Takeover event and it was massively successful. It was held at Chicken N Pickle on May 19 and involved several Zumba and Sh’Bam (another type of dance fitness workout) instructors.
First of, most people are probably already familiar with Zumba but not quite sure what Sh’Bam is or how it differs. When people ask me what Sh’Bam is, I often tell them it’s just a different flavor of dance fitness much like Zumba. It’s basically the Les Mills branded version. There are other slight differences though.
Here are a few of them:
1) Here in Wichita our Sh’Bam classes typically last an hour like Zumba but as I’m doing research, it sounds like 45-minute Sh’Bam classes are more common. As for Zumba, classes are typically 55-60 minutes.
2) Zumba uses various genres of music from all over the world but has a lot of Latin music influence. Sh’Bam primarily uses more popular music. Brian has never set foot in a Sh’Bam class but, after the Y Takeover event, he confessed to me that he actually prefers the Sh’Bam music selection. If you listen to the radio a lot, then you’ll probably find Sh’Bam music more relatable. As for someone like me, who doesn’t really listen to the radio (except for NPR), I go for danceable tunes and there’s an abundance of them in both formats.
3) The Sh’Bam instructor certification process is much more rigorous than the Zumba Basic 1 training so you’re less likely to run into a Sh’Bam instructor who isn’t very good. The Zumba process isn’t a certification so pretty much anyone who completes the Basic 1 training is licensed to teach classes. That said, I never have to worry about the quality of the Zumba instructors in town because we have some of the best ones in Wichita. Plus, the market really takes care of this situation.
4) Zumba has better name recognition than Sh’Bam. Almost everyone know what Zumba is whereas people usually don’t know what Sh’Bam is. Zumba does a really good job marketing their brand by partnering with movie producers and artists to get the brand out there. Even people who don’t take Zumba classes know what it is or at least have heard of Zumba. Unless you’re a Les Mills person or have taken Sh’Bam at some point, you won’t know what it is.
5) Another big difference is the gym carries an additional expense to be able to offer Sh’Bam. With Zumba there is no additional cost to the gym because the instructors are paying monthly membership fees to Zumba for the license (right) to teach classes. With Sh’Bam not only are instructors paying fees but the gym also has to pay fees to Les Mills for the right to offer the format. It’s kind of a double hit.
Anyway, now that you know the difference between Zumba and Sh’Bam you can tell they’re very similar and as such it made a lot of sense to have a combo event. The event at Chicken N Pickle was basically just a massive dance party alternating between Zumba and Sh’Bam.
Here’s a clip of Sarah, backed by Rose and Jessie, kicking off the dance party with a fun warmup. The clips below are also from their set.
It was a beautiful day for a dance party and we had such a great turnout.
Here are a few more videos from the event. The video above is of Aimee with Amy and Francie as her backup instructors.
This next one features Melissa with Todd and Brynden backing her up.
Here’s a clip Brian got of Vi’s Sh’Bam set.
Lastly, here are some videos of our set led by Charis with me and Amanda as her backups. The video above features Peligrosa and the one below is Little More.
This next one is Firehousee, a class favorite. Brian a great video, making his way through the crowd. We had such a blast leading these songs!
Here are a few of my favorite pics from the event.
Amanda, Charis, and Me
With Sam, one of our devoted class regulars
With Melissa below
Brynden, Melissa, and Todd
Amanda, Rose, Charis, Jessie, and Me
Same group this time with Sarah in the middle
Brian and Brynden
The three of us this time
Hideki and Me
Charis, Hideki, and Me
And just a few more pics…
This was such a fun event. And, very well-attended. I hope that we get to do it again soon before Fall/Winter season.
If you’ve never been to Chicken N Pickle, I highly recommend it. It’s such a cool hangout spot. There’s plenty of stuff to do, including free yard games. The huge complex is also pet-friendly so you can bring the whole family!
I’m so grateful that we now have a Chicken N Pickle in Wichita and I’m grateful that I got to be part of such a wonderful community event. Until next time. GNG.
No Comments
2019 Memory Gala
Posted on May 26, 2019 by Ching under Events.
My friend Tammie invited us to attend a fancy party at Mark Arts last month for the Alzheimer’s Association. Brian knew Leo would be there and he refused to dress up. It worked out alright for me because I didn’t have time to buy an evening dress.
It would have been weird if he was in a tux and I was just in a regular dress so we were both somewhat relaxed in our attire that night.
Here are a few pics from that evening:
The Boot Hill Distillery tasting station offered tastes of their vodka, gin, and two kinds of whiskey.
Here’s a picture of dinner.
Since it was our first time attending, we didn’t know what to expect. It was a very nice event over all. It was a real shame we couldn’t stay for the dance party after. We had to go to Dillons to get some supplies for the lunch we were hosting at our house the next day. It worked out because Brian’s didn’t want to dance anyway.
That’s pretty much it for the Memory Gala. I wish we would have taken more pics. Until next time. GNG.
No Comments
Society of 1895 Luncheon
Posted on May 1, 2019 by Ching under Events.
I thought now that I’m not longer working in Kansas City, I’d finally be able to make it to one of these. No such luck.
Brian had to attend by himself again (for the third year in a row).
On the plus side, he ran into one of my Rotary friends there. Here he is with Tony Durano (above pic). Brian is always really good about taking pics at the event to make me feel like I’m there.
The food looked good.
I hope to make it to one of these luncheons one of these days. GNG.
No Comments
PourHouse ICT
Posted on March 22, 2019 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
Brian and I finally got a chance to check out Walnut River Brewing’s new taproom in downtown Wichita. We were there last month for my Rotary club’s final Thursday social. It happens on the final Thursday of each month and we usually support local businesses in the Andover area. Lately we’ve been making our rounds to support all of the breweries that participated in last year’s Haus of Brews (our club’s annual fundraising event).
Here are a few pictures from that evening.
This is a selfie of me and Alison, our current club president.
Alison with her husband and one of her boys, Josh and his son, and Mark digging into a chicken wing.
The socials are a great opportunity for our club members and their families to get together while supporting local businesses.
As an added bonus, we also got to watch our local college basketball team, the Wichita State Shockers, play.
The PourHouse took over the old space that Mumbai Rail (also known as The Rail) used to occupy. I’d never been upstairs before then but it’s really neat. They have a cool stairwell in the middle connecting the two levels.
Not only do they serve great beer, they also have delicious cocktails.
Walnut River makes Warbeard, Brian’s favorite beer. As you can tell, he is very happy in this photo. Cheers!
Here’s picture with our friend Darrin Hackney, who manages PourHouse ICT for Walnut River Brewing.
Anyway, Brian and I liked the PourHouse so much that we decided to return the following week. Here are some pictures from our follow up visit.
I liked the Scotch Eggs but Brian didn’t like them as much. Granted, they aren’t as good as the deep-fried deviled eggs that they used to serve at BRGR in Kansas City, but I thought they were pretty good.
Brian really liked the pretzels with the Warbeard queso. It’s interesting because he likes the pretzels at Wichita Brewing Company better but he likes the queso at the PourHouse better. Out of everything we ate on our second visit to the PourHouse, this is what he enjoyed most.
I liked that they split our burger in half for us. Because we had a couple of starters, neither of us really wanted to eat that much. Splitting a burger was perfect.
You can’t go to the PourHouse and not drink some drinks! So, of course, I had a couple. This one is called Jen’s 87.
The blue one you saw pictured above that I tried on our first visit, when we were there with the Andover Rotary Club, is called Float Trip.
They do “table sharing” at the PourHouse and it didn’t take long before we made friends with our table mates. By the way, the green shirt I’m wearing in the photo is a special St. Patrick’s Day shirt they were selling for $5 which is a pretty good deal if you ask me. They only had mediums left so Brian and I both got the same size. We only got one for me at first because I didn’t think the medium size would fit Brian. It was disappointing because the shirts were such a good deal. Anyway, he thought could manage squeezing into a medium so he tried mine on then and there just to prove me wrong. Amazingly, the shirt fit so we got him one too.
Here’s Brian with the shirt on and a look of “I told you so” on his face. LOL.
We didn’t actually get to wear our fun Warbeard St. Patrick’s Day shirts on St. Patty’s Day together because I was flying to Austin on March 17. I made us wear them the day before when we went to see Captain Marvel, though. I think most people celebrated on Saturday anyway so it worked out.
Anyway, be sure to go check out the PourHouse! It’s a really neat place with great beer and great drinks!
No Comments
Palette to Palate
Posted on March 20, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I got to experience a super fun party thanks to tickets from work and my coworker/friend Ebony. I’d always been curious about Palette to Palate but we’d never been able to go. With tickets at $300 per person, it’s definitely one of the more exclusive charity benefits in town. As you can imagine when I email came through about tickets being available, I jumped at the chance.
Here are a few pictures from the event.
This is my coworker Yuvina and her sister Daisy.
Us with Sierra Scott.
Bonnie Bing and me.
With Brandy (left) and her friend. I worked with Brandy at Spiegel 20 years ago. She and Brian also worked together at T-Mobile almost 20 years ago also.
With Rachel and Joe at our table.
Here’s a picture of the beautifully decorated hall (click on the pic to enlarge).
Here’s a pic of one of the table centerpieces. The tables looked very elegant. They really did a great job.
Our dinner menu for the evening.
The salad course.
Main course.
Dessert!
Here are just a few of the wines we got to try that night.
There were so many wines to sample. I completely lost track!
I should have gotten a better picture of this one (above) because it was Brian’s favorite. The one below was my favorite out of the wines we tasted.
Besides all the wines during the tasting, we also had several full sized bottles of wine at our table. These were the selections:
Out of this group, the Caymus was the one that Brian and I liked the best.
We looked for our favorites at Groves and found them to be way out of our price range! They’re even more expensive than our favorite “expensive” wine. LOL.
Besides the wine, we were also treated to some performance art by child prodigy Elisabeth Anisimow and Le Petit Cirque.
Here are some fun photo booth pics from the event.
This was such a fun event! I’m so glad Brian and I got to go. By the way, there are way more pictures than what you see here. Hop on over to Flickr to see the rest of our fun pictures from that evening!
No Comments
