Archive for "Hobbies"
Women’s Doubles Day
Posted on February 27, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
Friday was women’s doubles day. Karen and I didn’t do so hot in the tournament but we had a lot of fun watching Jocelyn Devilliers (aka Jay, the French half of #TeamModel) play singles and cheering from the sidelines.
Here are some pics from that day.
Ben Johns is always all smiles because he is the undisputed #1 pickleball player in the world. We were lucky enough to be courtside for some epic matches.
Our pal Jocelyn took bronze and Ben and Zane (Navratil) battled it out for first and second, with Ben victorious in the end.
As for the women, Simone Jardim and Michelle Esquivel played for first and second. Simone came out on top. Michelle took second and Vivienne David took third. The level of play was out of this world and it was so much fun to watch.
Win or lose, Jocelyn always has a lot of fun and I like that about him.
Here are some of my favorite photos of Jocelyn from pro singles day.
Later that day, Karen and I hit Roy’s for happy hour.
And then it was off to the pool.
We had a great time hanging out at the pool but we couldn’t stay long because once the sun was gone it quickly got cold. That’s the crazy thing about Arizona weather. The weather is wonderful during the day but early in the morning and late at night, it still feels like winter. I’d been to Arizona before and should have known this but it had been over ten years and I’d forgotten how drastic the temperature difference is between midday and night. I was completely unprepared for it.
That’s pretty much all for now. More on the trip next time. GNG.
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Singles Tournament Results
Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Travel.
We had a pretty small field for 3.0 singles, as you can see from the above bracket. Since there were so few of us (4 players in 35+ and 2 players in 19+) they decided to combine both of our divisions. As it turns out, the older women actually prevailed. Gold (Jimena) and silver (me) went to women over 40 years old. I thought Christina (she took bronze) was actually under 35 so I assumed everyone would get a medal because there were only six of us total. But since Christina was part of the 35+ group, one of the ladies didn’t medal. However, both of the 19+ girls got medals — yes, even the one who had to withdraw.
Here’s a pic of me and my new friend Jimena from Gilbert, AZ. We both play with Electrum Pro paddles. I thought that was neat.
Here’s our podium pic:
– Jimena got gold.
– I got silver.
– Christina got bronze.
I was super nerdy and brought my Wichita flag to the podium with me.
Even though they combined our divisions, they awarded medals for both age groups. They basically just gave you a medal based on your performance so my new friend Marla also received a gold medal.
I think the best part of playing singles was having my Wichita pickleball friends there to cheer for me. At one point, Patrick Smith even came over. It made me feel super nervous but also special — because how many people can say they have Pat in their corner? Although, he just poked fun at us for our five-minute long timeouts. Without a ref there to enforce the 60-second limit, we weren’t really timing ourselves so we were basically having a good ol’ time during timeouts chatting about random things like what we’re having for dinner that night, plans for the evening, and what we’re wearing tomorrow. There was some talk of pickleball strategy but not much. LOL.
Speaking of refs, I did get my first experience with reffed matches when I got to the medal round. I learned that refs don’t watch the lines for you. You’re responsible for calling those yourself. If they see it, they’ll chime in but it’s not their responsibility. Mainly the ref is responsible for calling the score, making sure that you’re serving from the correct spot, and they watch for foot faults.
In the bronze match against Christina, I hit an overhead winner and had to steady myself to make sure I didn’t fall in the kitchen (I didn’t) but ref Andy was ready to pounce and call a foot fault. He had this look of “I’m going to get you!” on his face. We had a good laugh about it.
The ref for the gold match Diahann was super animated. She would call the score like it was baseball. Here’s a video of that match. This is the match where I learned the refs really don’t help you on the line calls. They’re not really watching for this and so you’re pretty much on your own. With me not being confrontational, I didn’t fight for some bad calls that I really should have and missed some opportunities (because every single point matters, specially in singles). Oh, well. It was a learning moment for me. At least I’ll know how to handle these things for the next tournament. And, I’m happy with my silver medal.
More from the PPA tournament next time. Until then, GNG.
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Traveling to Arizona
Posted on February 24, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies, Travel.
Last week I traveled to Arizona for my first out of town pickleball tournament. It was one of the big ones too — the first Pro Pickleball Association (PPA) tournament of the year — with over 1200 registered players. It was a bit stressful trying to get out of Wichita with so many flight cancellations due to the winter storms. My 7 AM flight on Wednesday actually got canceled but luckily Brian was able to rebook me on an noon flight. The only downside is, instead of arriving in Arizona around noon, I wouldn’t arrive until 6 PM but I was grateful to be able to get there at all.
Obligatory airport pic. (Photo credit: Brian)
This is what Wichita looked like when I left.
Massive construction at the Denver airport.
Quickie airport lunch — hotdog and fries.
The first order of business upon my arrival at the resort — dinner and drinks at Roy’s. The drinks were delicious and pretty but expensive.
Karen was completely hooked on these lobster potstickers.
I got us some calamari to share.
My katsu chicken dinner.
Special bread pudding dessert.
Chocolate souffle.
Lauren Stratman joined us for that first dinner.
We had a nice time visiting over delicious food. I was so grateful I made it to the resort without any issues. I heard about the problems everyone was having with their car rentals and Ubers and I’m glad that Brian and I prearranged a car service pickup for me. Anyway, more about the trip next time. GNG.
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Doubles and Bubbles at CNP
Posted on February 23, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.
Chicken N Pickle had a fun little tournament on Galantines Day. It was the Doubles and Bubbles women’s doubles pickleball tournament. There were 20 teams that participated — 10 in the intermediate bracket and 10 in the competitive bracket. The format was round robin games to 7, followed by a single elimination tournament. Games to 7 are not ideal because it goes by really quick but with so many teams playing, there was no other way to get all of those games in.
What a great turnout!
Heart Killers – Kim Blackmon and Karen Fox – won the competitive bracket after battling it out with Shot to the Heart – Michelle Pease and Jenny Cole.
In the intermediate bracket, 2 Cooks in the Kitchen (Melissa and Amy) prevailed over Come On One More (Wanda and her partner).
The best part of this tournament was that your entry fee included a glass of mimosa which, I think, everyone enjoyed.
Anyway, be on the lookout for more of these fun little tournaments at Chicken N Pickle. Michael does such a great job of running these events. I was bummed I didn’t get to play this time but can’t wait until the next one.
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National Girls and Women in Sports Day
Posted on February 11, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Things to Do.
I had to work on MLK day so I ended up with a comp day which I later used on February 3, National Girls and Women in Sports Day. I’m not sure why this isn’t already a national holiday but, either way, I took the day off work as my own personal holiday anyway. As with most of my days off, I planned a full day of playing pickleball.
The day started with women’s doubles with Karen and the Jens at 7:30 AM and then a special NGWSD edition of Queen of Courts at 11:00 AM. I didn’t play stellar but I played decent. I was on the top court with my pseudo-daughter Huyen as my partner. We payed against Jenny and Michelle for the title and they came out on top. We had 16 women on 4 courts and I got to play with various people throughout the event. Some of the women I played with, I’d never met before until then. I got to play on every court but the bottom one and it just worked out that I was on a winning streak at the end and finished on the top court.
After QOC Janelle, Tiffany, Debbie, and I had lunch and drinks at Jose Pepper’s. Not really the best idea since I had singles with Kayla at Nahola immediately after.
I never get to have lunch with these ladies though, so I took advantage of the opportunity. It’s rare that I get a weekday off and I get to do some day drinking.
Here are some pictures of food. It had been a while since I’d been to Jose Peppers so I didn’t really know what to get. I told our server I just wanted meat and rice and he made it happen so that plate pictured above is mine.
The other ladies ordered off the menu, except for Debbie’s drink. She likes to make up her own drinks. Luckily, most bartenders are happy to oblige.
Kayla killed me at singles, which was no surprise. I’m just happy that I didn’t vomit. I finished the day by teaching my Wednesday night Aqua Zumba class at the Harry (Georgetown) VASA location. I got to enjoy doing my favorite things with the best people. It was the perfect day off. ‘Til next time. GNG.
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