Archive for "Zumba"
My Pickleball Sabbatical aka 2024 Year-End Recap
Posted on January 1, 2025 by Ching under Life, Pickleball, Zumba.
Before we dive in to the 2024 year-end recap, let’s catch you all up first.
- 2002 — This is the year that Brian and I were married and the year that I started this blog.
- 2003 — I had originally dropped out of college in 2000 when my four-year scholarship money ran out. I decided I didn’t want to take out student loans. Anyway, I started working for my current employer in May 2002. After a year, I realized I was eligible for tuition reimbursement/assistance so this is the year that I went back to school. This is also the year that I discovered online poker. Brian also started our 24/7 live cam.
- 2004 — I officially became a naturalized US citizen, continued kicking butt at school, and after a couple of years as a customer service representative was promoted to supervise my team. This was a rough year for our marriage. Brian struggled with depression and was prescribed Zoloft which was super rough for our sex life. We pursued hobbies like poker (went from playing online to playing bar poker and playing in local tournaments), racquetball, chess, and blogging to get us through.
- 2005 — This year saw Brian through a couple of job changes. He first worked for Cox Communications and then later that year quit that job to start working for Engenio Technologies which later because LSI and then NetApp. We also got sugar gliders this year.
- 2006 — I graduated from Wichita State with my Business Administration degree (Management Information Systems major and minors in Accounting and Management). Rewarded myself with my first brand new car (a 2006 Toyota Corolla we named Bebot) and a puppy. However, since I went straight into grad school to pursue my MBA (still at WSU), I was never home and Molly bonded with Brian more so than me. I was super into poker around this time and even Brian was starting to get into it too.
- 2007 — Brian was super into World of Warcraft around this time. I played some but knew instantly I would get addicted so I tried my best to stay away from it. Plus, all my time was consumed by grad school and my poker addiction. LOL. This year was our first major travel vacation since our honeymoon. We went to Couples Tower Isle in Jamaica and had our first nude beach experience.
- 2008 — Brian started working for Viega. I completed my MBA from Wichita State University. And, we dealt cards on a cruise ship.
- 2009 — We had a lot of firsts this year. We attended Zoobilee for the first time. Brian had his first trip to Germany. He also visited the Philippines for the first time. I completed Leadership Westar. Tita Sol adopted Molly.
- 2010 — This is the year that we spent a lot of time with the Dills. It started out when we rang in the New Year at Kansas City Power & Light with Jay, Becca, and Mama Dill. A month later, we were traveling with them again. This time to San Francisco. Lots of travelling!
- 2011 — We started the year by getting stranded at McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas). That didn’t deter us from traveling, though. We traveled through the East Coast with the Dills that summer and had a lot of firsts. We also got to see James Taylor perform twice: once at Intrust Bank Arena and again at Tanglewood. I also had my first ER trip and my first biopsy.
- 2012 — We attended a few weddings, most notably Cousin Tracy and Jeff’s destination wedding at Coral Cove Resort in Jamaica. I attended the Gina & Tanya Rock the Stage Tour. I got my Zumba Basic 1 License and I took Brian to Nashville for his 38th birthday. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house and then I ended the year with a thyroidectomy.
- 2013 — There was Cards for the Cure, a visit from the Orbases, a few appearances on Splurge! Mag, his and hers handguns, first time back at the Filipino ball, Leadership Elite, Brian’s parent’s 40th wedding anniversary, Cards Against Humanity, my first Zumba Instructor Convention, first trip to Minneapolis and Davenport, completed group exercise instructor training and started teaching Zumba for the Greater Wichita YMCA.
- 2014 — This was the year that I attended, not one, but two Zumba instructor conferences was definitely a highlight of the year. I was glad I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Zumba Instructor Conference in LA because it was the very last one. Later that year I attended the 2014 Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando. Other highlights include my short stint as a Stella & Dot personal stylist, getting our landscape redone, returning to bowling, trips to San Diego (for work) and the Dominican Republic (for Brian’s 40th birthday), and having Molly rejoin our family. We were blessed with the opportunity to attend our favorite fundraising events: Labor Run, Zoobilee, Lights on the Lake, and Brew Ha-Ha. I completed Leadership Wichita (Class of 2014, baby!) and met some of the truly amazing people. I was also an Adventurous Babe for a year until I resumed my normal boring self.
- 2015 — We hosted a Super Pi Day party. Brian and I completed Citizen Policy Academy. I got to visit New York for the first time. And we added a couple of new family members: Rex and Saki.
- 2016 — Brian and I went on the first ever Zumba cruise where I met J. Perry (he sings many of my favorite Zumba songs) in person for the first time. I also got to meet Max Pizzolante at #ZINCON. I had the opportunity to tour Zumba Home Office. And I finally made 40 Under 40.
- 2017 — I hosted my first Zumbathon and raised money for Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Brian and I were inducted into the Society of 1865 at WSU. We attended a crap ton of parties and fundraising events. Brian helped design a Keeper of the Plains statue (that still exists today). We visited a couple of places that we’d never been — Alaska and Great Exuma.
- 2018 — There was a lot of Zumba this year. Not only did I attend the Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando but Brian and I also went on another Zumba cruise. I also picked up a side job teach Zumba classes at VASA Fitness. Brian and I did “Coffee Chats” on our FLIP + CHING page.
- 2019 — Probably the most significant thing to happen this year is that I went all-in with my pickleball obsession — started the Facebook group and even signed up for a lifetime membership to USA Pickleball. We also got to travel internationally twice — Costa Rica in April for Jay’s 40th birthday and Mexico in November for me and Becca’s birthdays.
- 2020 — COVID-19 happened. This was a super strange year. All the gyms were closed and we couldn’t leave our homes for nearly two months. I had a really rough time. Jenni also got married this year. And we managed to survive all year without getting sick until December when we both got COVID.
- 2021 — I started traveling to pickleball tournaments and earned my first ever PPA tournament medal. I played in a bunch of tournaments including APP Delray Beach, Middle States Regional, Great Plains Regional, and some tournaments in Oklahoma City, Lenexa, and Great Bend. I also organized my first pickleball tournament.
- 2022 — Continued to play in pickleball tournaments all over the nation. I traveled to Florida a couple of times — played in my very first US Open in April and then played in the Diamond Amateur Championship in December. I also went to the opposite coast and played in USAP Newport Beach. This was the first year I won money at a pickleball tournament (WPT Kansas City Classic). Brian’s grandmother turned 100 and we attended Erica and Phillip Case’s wedding in Mexico. This was quite a year and my most expensive tournament year.
- 2023 — I continued to play in pickleball tournaments but decided to focus more on local and regional ones. Aside from US Open, USA Pickleball Nationals, one PPA tournament, and one APP tournament, most of my tournaments were local and within driving distance. It was an eventful year and I got to meet a ton of people from all over the world. Brian and I also had our first colonoscopies that year. He doesn’t have to go again for 10 years but I’m due back in 2028.
Now that we are all caught up, let’s talk about 2024. At the end of 2023, after doing the math, and after enduring several blind dates at tournaments, and after having some health issues that I needed to sort out, I decided to take a tournament sabbatical. That didn’t mean I wasn’t playing. I still played recreationally but just took a break from playing in tournaments this year.
I was having some major abdominal cramping in 2023 so toward the end of the year we decided to put me on birth control pills to help regulate my menstrual cycle. That seemed to help but that wasn’t the end of my problems.
At the beginning of the year I decided to switch to monovision. For a couple of years my eyesight had started to deteriorate. I guess that’s what happens when you turn 40. Basically, my brain can’t process the correction from my lenses like it used to. When I have my contact lenses on (which is what I use to correct my nearsightedness), I struggle with reading small print up close including my phone. It got to the point where I actually had to enlarge my phone’s font size. However, when I don’t have my contacts in, I can see up close perfectly fine. My optometrist had suggested monovision the year before when I first started having problems but I thought it was weird so I hesitated to try it but it had gotten so bad earlier this year that I was finally willing to give it a shot. So now, I just wear a contact in one eye (my right eye) and I use that eye to see things far away and my left eye is what I use to see things up close. It’s amazing that it actually works. Although, it did take a bit of an adjustment at first because my brain couldn’t figure out if my computer monitor is up close or far away at first. I’m used to it now for regular day to day activities like driving and such but I do still struggle with pickleball because sometimes the ball is far away and then it’s coming right at you and I just don’t think I’m processing it fast enough. I feel like I would play better with both contact lenses in, at least for playing pickleball. When I start playing in tournaments again, that will be something I’ll have to consider.
On top of all of that, I felt my tennis elbow returning and it actually caused me to have serving yips. I am still kind of yippy although my arm pain is pretty much gone. I had to switch to a drop serve because the yips made my volley serve completely unreliable. While I was nursing my tennis elbow and arm issues, I had to cut back on playing and decided to do more Zumba. Well, then I did too much Zumba and my right knee started bothering me. It got to the point where I had to cut back on that activity as well. Getting old really sucks.
Brian had his own share of issues as well. He actually had three root canals which didn’t really resolve the massive infection issue (which looked like a cyst) in his mouth so then he had to schedule oral surgery but then the week of the oral surgery they couldn’t do it because he had some kind of tonsil infection. The oral surgeon wanted him to take care of his tonsil infection first before doing the oral surgery so that the surgery spot wouldn’t get infected. So then Brian goes to an ear, nose, and throat doctor who decides the best course of action is a tonsillectomy. Leading up to his tonsillectomy, his lymph note was swollen so the ENT doc decided they should biopsy his lymph node. He gets this done on the Monday before the Thursday surgery. Biopsy results in finding cancer in the lymph node. ENT doc thinks cancer in lymph node came from his tonsil so then the tonsillectomy turned into a laryngoscopy and tonsil biopsy. I posted about Brian’s cancer journey here, which isn’t actually over. Brian has his final chemo treatment tomorrow and radiation treatments continue through next week.
Anyway, despite this being my “tournament free” year there were a lot of pickleball events that happened — mostly things I either organized or ran like the mixed doubles tournament at Picklebally’s, InPickle Nation’s (IPN) Wichita Winterfest, the Epic Pickleball Tournament at Wichita Country Club benefiting the Wichita Children’s Home, St. Patty’s Day team tournament at the Pickle Club, IPN 3v3 team tournament, Picklemania MMXXIV benefiting the Rotary Club of Andover, Picklepalooza benefiting Senior Services of Wichita, the Dink Minor League team tournament at Crestview Country Club, and a whole bunch of mini tournaments at the Pickle Club along with the weekly IPN round robin mini tournaments.
I introduced some friends to pickleball and invited them to one of the Newbie Nights at Chicken N Pickle, tried to participate in as many CNP ambassador plays as I could throughout the year, and took advantage of other CNP events. My most favorite one being the CNP Wichita vs Kansas City Ambassador Showdown at the Overland Park location. My friend Christ Pink from St. Louis came to Wichita for work and it was a lot of fun entertaining her on both trips. In addition to rec play or facilitating pickleball, I played in a couple of leagues — a team league with Susie Ternes, Matt Von Feldt, and Austin Winter at the beginning of the year and women’s doubles with Julie Egy at the end of the year.
I think the highlight of the year for me was finally getting to visit Tres Palapas. Brian was supposed to go with us but due to his cancer diagnosis he ended up having to sit out. Though he totally could have gone because his treatments didn’t start until after I returned from Mexico due to delays with getting insurance approvals. Brian also had some trips that I skipped including trips to Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Nebraska. The Nebraska trip he did with his dad to bury his grandmother who passed away earlier this year, a couple of months before her 102nd birthday.
Brian is not so keen on international travel so for his 50th birthday we went to Omaha and for our 22nd wedding anniversary we went to Colorado Springs. That’s actually really funny because we totally forgot that we had already been there.
Lastly, not pickleball or travel related, I had my first jury duty experience. It was quite interesting. Anyway, that pretty much sums up 2024. Can’t wait to see what 2025 has in store. Happy New Year, everyone!
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Back in the Zumba Groove
Posted on April 4, 2024 by Ching under Zumba.
I rejoined the YMCA team back in December and since then I’ve been trying to grow my Wednesday night class attendance by providing prizes on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Right now class consists mainly of Zumba enthusiasts most of which are women. Occasionally, I will see Efrain or another guy in class but it’s almost all women 100% of the time. I am trying to get more of my pickleball friends into Zumba but right now it’s just mostly Zumba people so my giveaways are mostly Zumba swag and goodies.
This water bottle is what the winner got last month. I do have more pickleball-oriented prizes because I tend to host a bunch of pickleball events so I’ve amassed some prizes for that. I think as I have more pickleball people come and try class, I might give away some pickleball swag too. Our special prize day this month is on Wednesday, April 24.
April is a big month for me. Initially, I started with only one Zumba class a week on Wednesdays at West YMCA. However, my friend Jessie Silva who is the coordinator at the Downtown Wichita YMCA recently reached out to me about helping her cover some of her classes while she recovers from foot surgery this month. While we were chatting about covering her classes, she mentioned that she would like to add an Aqua Zumba class in the evenings. Voila! Just like that I picked up my second class — Aqua Zumba at the Downtown YMCA on Tuesday evenings. My first class was just the other day, April 2.
You’re probably wondering what possessed me to pick up another class. Well, a couple of months ago, I volunteered to host a Zumba party as one of the silent auction items at West YMCA (to raise money for the Greater Wichita YMCA’s annual strong community campaign). The winner wanted an Aqua Zumba party instead of party in the studio.
Rather than having to scramble a few days before the party (which is on April 20), I figured having a weekly class would help me prepare by refreshing my Aqua Zumba choreography ahead of time. Plus, I’ll get weekly practice. Besides that, I have an abundance of free time right now because I am unable to play pickleball everyday.
Although, my free time will considerably be restricted once Jessie has her surgery because I’m picking up her Sunday afternoon and Monday evening Zumba classes so, starting next week, I’ll be teaching Sunday through Wednesday.
Here’s my new schedule effective April 14:
- Sunday 1:00 PM – Zumba at Downtown YMCA
- Monday 6:30 PM – Zumba at Downtown YMCA
- Tuesday 5:30 PM – Aqua Zumba at Downtown YMCA
- Wednesday 6:30 PM – Zumba at West YMCA
The Sundays and Mondays are temporary. I’m only covering them until Jessie returns. The Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my own permanent classes. I hope to see you soon at one of these!
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Zumba Is and Will Always Be
Posted on January 29, 2024 by Ching under Hobbies, Zumba.
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed but, now that I’m less focused on pickleball (I don’t plan to play any tournaments this year – so far so good), I’ve had a bit more time for self-reflection. Today, I thought about reflecting on my Zumba journey. I’ve had many hobbies come and go over the years but Zumba is the one passion of mine that’s always been a constant.
Now that I’m back to teaching at the Y (will expound on this later), someone in class recently asked me how long I’ve been doing Zumba. Well, I’ve been teaching classes for about 12 years but I’ve been “doing” Zumba since the beginning of time. I first discovered Zumba through an infomercial (back when those were a thing) over 20 years ago. I bought the VHS tapes and started doing Zumba at home. A few years later, in-person classes became available. Much like my pickleball addiction, shortly after attending my first class, I found myself driving all over town to various gyms just to get my Zumba fix. There was a period of two years when I was a member of both Genesis Health Clubs and the YMCA and I was going to Zumba classes at independent studios and rec centers.
As with most of my hobbies, I tend to go all in so I was completely obsessed and was spending a lot of money on Zumba wear. In 2012, my friend and Zumba mentor Gina Ann encouraged me to join the Zumba Instructor Network. I didn’t necessarily want to teach classes. The biggest selling point was the 20% OFF discount on Zumba merch. I completed my training in April 2012 and joined the network but had absolutely no intention of teaching. However, in June of that year, my friend Patricia told me they needed someone to teach Zumba at Evergreen Recreation Center. I didn’t really want to teach classes but, because I was trying to learn Spanish at the time and the rec center is in a predominantly Hispanic area of town, I figured why not? That was my introduction to teaching Zumba and I haven’t looked back since. Nowadays, I get input from class participants on what songs I should add to the playlist but, at the time when I was first starting out, I didn’t really know any of that mattered so I just built my class playlist around all of my favorite songs. When I was a student, I used to take a water break or go to the restroom whenever the instructor would play a song that wasn’t really my cup of tea. Now that I was in full control of the playlist, I found it totally liberating. I thought, “This is awesome! I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.” I only used my favorite songs. It was great.
I was enjoying it so much that I started to add more classes. At one point, I was working for Genesis, the Y, and the city of Wichita just teaching classes all over the place. Once I was more established, I quit teaching for the city (they paid the least), and mostly just taught at the Y. My regular full-time job was also a contributing factor to giving up some of my classes. There was a period from 2015 to 2018 when I was mostly working in Topeka and Kansas city so I could only teach classes on the weekends. By 2018, that project had wrapped so then I was back to mostly working from Wichita and not having to travel anywhere for work so then I could get back into a regular routine. When VASA opened in Wichita in August 2018, I joined their team. From then until 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit, I was teaching classes for the Y, Genesis, and VASA on evenings and weekends. I peaked at 9 classes a week at various locations — a class each night on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; two classes on Saturdays; and three classes on Sundays.
I was also so obsessed with Zumba that I attended all the conventions, went on Zumba cruises, and completed training for nearly every form of Zumba imaginable. I even got licensed to teach Strong.
When I got into pickleball in 2019, I gradually started giving up classes so I would have more time to play. I got to play pickleball quite a bit before the gyms reopened in 2020 (after the “stay at home” mandate was lifted). When the gyms reopened, I decided to only return to VASA because I wanted more free time for pickleball and they paid the most out of all the gyms. For the last few years, I had been mostly teaching Aqua Zumba because we couldn’t find anyone else available who was licensed to teach that format besides me but there were many other Zumba instructors on the roster. I enjoyed teaching Aqua so I didn’t mind but, I have to admit, when I decided I wanted to pursue opportunities to teach Zumba again it was rough. I had forgotten all the land routines so I basically had to relearn and memorize choreography again. Thankfully, it’s a lot like riding a bike and it just comes back to you naturally.
I am currently teaching one class a week. I’m teaching Zumba at West YMCA on Wednesday nights from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. I’ve been back for two months and I have enjoyed every minute of it. My friend Andrea Burk who was a regular at my Andover YMCA classes and also a former Zumba instructor has been coming to class and it’s been great reuniting with her. I also got a couple of my pickleball pals (Colby Fugit and Susie Ternes) to come and try class a couple of weeks ago.
Words simply cannot express how grateful I am to have Zumba as an outlet. I’ve had many hobbies over the years — hobbies that I’ve enjoyed for a time but no longer pursue (racquetball, crocheting, bowling, sword-fighting – just to name a few) — but there’s only one thing that has remained constant in my life over the last couple of decades and that is Zumba. Maybe years from now I can look back and add pickleball to my list of life-long hobbies. Check back in with me in 2030 but, for now, Zumba is and will always be my #1 passion.
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Making My Zumba Comeback
Posted on November 13, 2023 by Ching under Community, Zumba.
Guess what, friends. I’m gearing up for my Zumba comeback. As you know, I started teaching Zumba over ten years ago and, at one point pre-COVID, was teaching nine (9) classes a week. I started dialing it back after I discovered my passion for pickleball in 2019 and then really cut it back after COVID to the point where, for the majority of this year, I’ve only had one regular class – my Wednesday night Aqua Zumba at the East Harry Genesis Health Clubs location.
We eventually canceled that class as of October 1, 2023 due to low numbers (I could never get my 21st and Woodlawn regulars to come over, so I would have people between both locations but not enough at either location to warrant keeping the classes going). So as of the beginning of October, I have had zero (0) regular classes each week, which has never ever happened since I started teaching in 2012.
Anyway, the universe knows how much I like to keep busy so I was presented with an opportunity to sub a couple of Missy and Todd’s classes while they were on their two-week Panama Canal cruise a few weeks ago. I ended up subbing a class for each of them. I hadn’t taught land in nearly four years. I’ve been stuck teaching Aqua Zumba because they could never find anyone licensed to teach water but we had a plethora of regular Zumba instructors who could teach land so I ended up giving up my Monday night Zumba class to help cover Monday night Aqua Zumba and it ended up eventually becoming my regular class, which I eventually gave up to make more time for pickleball. But I digress, getting my playlist ready for subbing (pretty much starting from scratch because I hadn’t had a regular Zumba class for years) rejuvenated my passion for Zumba and so now I’m ready and actually kind of excited to get back at it.
I attended Missy’s Halloween weekend class a couple of weeks ago and cameo’d three songs. I’ve been so obsessed with pickleball the last few years that I had forgotten how fun and exhilarating it is to let go and just dance like no one is watching. I think it’s the jolt I need to find a new regular Zumba gig.
I’ve been talking to the leadership at West YMCA and it seems like they will have a spot for me there so I am now going through the process of getting rehired. I’ll share updates as things progress and, of course, I’ll be sharing my schedule and promoting my classes here and everywhere. Until next time, GNG.
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Other Stuff Besides Food
Posted on May 7, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Zumba.
I know it seems like all I do is eat these days. I’m definitely feeling it. I’m currently at 135 lbs, up from my immediate post-COVID weight of 127 lbs from back in December. I’m not really doing anything to get fit beyond just teaching my group fitness classes and playing pickleball and I’m finding that I really need to do something because I can see and feel the additional weight on me.
I took a short 4-week hiatus from teaching Zumba in April so I could play in a Monday night league with my friend Chris Wilson. I was supposed to resume my Zumba classes this week but we are short an aquatics instructor so I’m teaching the Monday night aqua class instead. It’s easier to find instructors who can teach Zumba because we have several on the VASA bench. Aquatics instructor are in short supply unfortunately. Or, I guess, fortunately for me because I actually enjoying teaching Aqua Zumba.
I’m currently teaching Aqua Zumba four times a week: Monday and Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings at the Harry location, and then Saturday mornings at the Woodlawn location. Once we Ivette returns or once we find another aquatics instructor, I’ll probably go back to teaching my Monday night Zumba class unless someone else wants to take it over. Then I would be free to participate in pickleball leagues on Monday nights. It can be quite tricky juggling multiple hobbies.
Speaking of Aqua Zumba, it can be pretty hit-and-miss. I’ve had classes that range from 0-14 at VASA. Of course, when I was teaching at the YMCA, we had a much bigger pool and so many more members so some of my Aqua Zumba classes would average 30 students, specially in the summer time when we are outdoors. At VASA, I normally average 3-5. I would see 6-7 people on a good day and zero on bad days.
Having only a handful of participants is fine because our three-lane lap pool is quite small and can’t really accommodate that many people. Plus, it’s easier for me to learn names and connect with the members on a more personal level when there’s only a few of them.
I’m not quite sure what was going on this past Wednesday, though. At one point we had 14 people exercising with us in the pool. I think it’s the most I’d ever seen since I started teaching Aqua Zumba at VASA and it was quite refreshing. The more people we have in class, the more festive and party-like it is so I absolutely loved it.
This weekend I am teaching back to back classes on Saturday because I am filling in for Brynden’s Zumba class at Woodlawn. It works great because I’ll already be there to teach Aqua Zumba. I just need to end Aqua Zumba a few minutes early so I can put the portable stereo away and get ready for the next class. It’s a bit hectic but it’s the least I can do since Brynden is covering my Aqua Zumba class the following weekend so I can be at Picklemania. It’s the pickleball tournament fundraiser for my Rotary club. Plus, I have missed teaching Zumba. The month and a half of not teaching it feels like forever.
Besides teaching back to back classes on Saturday, I also agreed to play in the Kaycee Mac Pickleball Tournament at Chicken N Pickle from 11 o’clock in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. It seems like a lot but I’m pretty used to it. Before the pandemic I would teach three classes and play 2-3 hours of pickleball in the same day. That was usually on Sundays — my most favorite day of the week back then. Anyway, I thought I should write about something else besides food so you wouldn’t think I’m a complete slug. I have been pretty lazy lately but still quite active compared to the average Joe. I’m only lazy by Ching standards.
I guess that’s all the news I have for now. Have a wonderful weekend and will check in again next time. GNG.
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