Archive for "Hobbies"
World Pickleball Day 2020
Posted on October 10, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies, Things to Do.
World Pickleball Day is an initiative that was conceived by the World Pickleball Federation for the purpose of introducing the sport to new players and spreading the love for pickleball on a global scale. October 10, 2020 is the first ever World Pickleball Day. I celebrated the day by spending my entire morning playing pickleball at Chicken N Pickle.
We started the morning with our usual Queen of Courts. We have eight players on two courts play one game and then winners and losers play against each other the next game. Partners split each time, which gives everyone a chance to play with everyone else. We just repeat this over and over until we reach the end of our time. It’s super fun and always really competitive since winners and losers are always playing against each other.
We made time for a few fun pics this morning. On this one, Brooke was pretending to feel left out because there were a couple of times that the four of us played together and she was the only one who was not playing with an Electrum paddle.
Chicken N Pickle celebrated World Pickleball Day by hosting an “Addict + Newbie” tournament. It immediately followed the King and Queen of Courts (the guys have King of Courts the same time as the ladies’ QOC and they usually even have more players/courts; except for today when both groups only had two courts because the Sons of Pitches took over all of CNP’s indoor courts for their cornhole tournament).
I managed to talk Brian into playing in the tournament as my designated “newbie” partner by bribing him with a beer and a burrito. The burrito is so good. I’m actually looking forward to having it again for brunch tomorrow.
We didn’t do great on the tournament. In fact, we didn’t win a single match today, but that didn’t keep us from having fun. I really appreciated Brian playing with me this morning. I also love that World Pickleball Day falls during my birthday month so, if all else fails, I can play the “birthday card” to force him to play pickleball with me. I didn’t have to twist his arm too much today. I think he was actually pretty “into” it. He even picked out our matching shirts.
I love my forever newbie partner. Until World Pickleball Day 2021! GNG.
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2020 Bob Jackson Friendship Tournament
Posted on October 2, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies.
I played in the 4th annual Bob Jackson Friendship Tournament a couple of weeks ago. I played in this tournament for the first time last year and did pretty decent but didn’t make the podium. This year I made the podium in both events that I played in. My mixed partner Tom Pham and I took gold in our pool and my women’s doubles partner Renae DeSantis and I took bronze in our pool. It would have been great to take first place in both events but I’m pretty happy with my performance over all considering I didn’t even place last year.
Here are some fun podium pics from our pool.
And a more serious picture below.
Second place went to Robert Bell and Amy Jaramillo. Third place went to Chris Wilson and Kimberly Howe.
Here’s the podium pic from our women’s doubles pool. First place went to Amy Jaramillo and Jody Vinson. Second place went to Krystal Fosnight and Huyen Nguyen. And then Renae and I took third.
Here’s the podium pic from the other mixed pool. Doug Mitchell and Brooke Ayala took first place. Mark Smith and my women’s doubles partner Renae took second. Cameron and Mikayla Tucker took third.
In the other women’s doubles pool, Fong Witte and Sarah Johnico took first. Mikayla Tucker and Amy Poynter took second. Vi Dang and Janelle Lindeman took third. This pool, though not quite as tough as our pool, also had some really amazing pickleball players in it.
The guys had several pools. This were the winners of the medium pool. Mason McCanless and Cameron Tucker for first. Monty Ayala and Chris Wilson in second. Brandon Tran and Tommy Chau in third.
In the more advanced (higher level) pool, the winners were: Chase Prewett and Evgeniy Kim in first, Steve Vetter and Kyle Starkel in second, and Dave Belew and Donnie Lesperance in third.
There was also lower level men’s pool and, for the first time ever, a juniors pool.
The event had a great turnout. There were even more people this year than last year, despite the whole COVID pandemic situation. I love that this tournament just keeps getting bigger and better each year.
Here are some action shots that Brian got of me and Tom playing.
The tournament was so much fun and the weather was perfect for it. I look forward to playing in this event again next year. Until next time. GNG.
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Labor Day Fun
Posted on September 24, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies, Things to Do.
We had 12 people and 3 courts at Riverside Tennis Center (RTC) on Labor Day. We did a mixed doubles “keeper of courts” format where winners move up and losers move down and pairs split each time. It was so much fun!
I started on the bottom court for the first game but then pretty much bounced back and forth between the top two courts after that. Pretty much the only times I lost was when I played against Jamie. He didn’t lose any games at all that day. Basically I would win in middle court and move up. I’d play with Jamie and we would win so I’d stay. Then the next game I’d play against Jamie with the guy from the team moving up and then we would lose. I’d play on middle court with a new partner, win and move up, and the cycle basically repeated over again.
The highlight of the day for me were my two ATPs (Around the Post). Jamie had a good in between the legs one too when we were playing together. It was a great pickleball day for me.
Oh, I took a selfie with Gary Miller because we rarely ever get to play together. He wasn’t even originally playing with us but Ryan Wolfe, who Jen T organized the pickleball play for, backed out last minute. We were scrambling to get a 12th and, thankfully, Gary was able to fill in.
Fun fact: This is also the day I met Alex Silcock in real life for the first time ever. She’s a local fitness and lifestyle guru that I follow on Facebook. Naturally, I had to get a photo with her. I totally felt like a midget.
After pickleball, Brooke, Karen, and I met Brian at the downtown Meddy’s for lunch. I’m familiar with their food but it was my first time at that location. Here are some pictures of our food.
They have a super cute patio with a fireplace (which wasn’t on that day because it was a nice day) and a wooden Wichita flag hanging above it. We thought the flag decor was cool so we had to get a picture with it. We are so silly!
Anyway, it was the perfect start to the week! Until next time. GNG.
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League Finals
Posted on September 21, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies.
I’ve been totally slacking on the blog because I’ve been consumed with pickleball. We had our league finals this week at Chicken N Pickle. While I didn’t make my goal of winning all three of my leagues this session, I actually didn’t do too shabby.
So I wrote about how Jimmy H and I won our Nahola league a few weeks ago. I wanted to also win my Wednesday night competitive women’s doubles and Thursday night competitive mixed doubles leagues at Chicken N Pickle. Unlike the Nahola league, you have a permanent partner for the CNP leagues so I actually got team shirts made for us. I found this lady who does amazing customizations through a mutual friend. Her business is called Simply Charming Designs and her work is awesome!
I got matching “Asian Invasion” shirts for me and my mixed partner Tom. I picked this team name since we are both Asian. We’re actually going to continue playing together this next session. Since it’s a Halloween league, we had to modify our team name a bit. Our official team name for this session is “Asian Invasion of the Pickle Snatchers” — so we can get more mileage out of our existing team shirts.
I don’t really like playing in t-shirts so I always turn my shirts into tank tops or muscle shirts. Here’s a pic of me and my partner Tom.
Our team name for women’s doubles is “Backhanded Compliments” so I got matching shirts for Renae and me from the same lady. Both shirts turned out fabulous! Anyway, before our maroon team shirts, we were wearing our tie dye CNP shirts that I’d gotten for us at the beginning of league.
I just love matching outfits! This is a group photo of us after the competitive women’s doubles league tournament championship match. Karen and Jenny (in the pink tanks) won our league. Renae and I came in second.
Even though we didn’t win, I still had a ton of fun.
Karen and Jenny lost their first match so they came out of the opportunity bracket (it was a double elimination tournament format). Since Renae and I were undefeated in the winner’s bracket, even though we lost the best 2 out of 3 championship match, we had to play again. Karen and Jenny had to beat us in a game to 15 to win it all.
The championship match was a bloodbath. Karen and Jenny played amazing and we couldn’t do anything. Here’s a video of that brutal championship match, in case you want to watch it.
The competitive men had their league finals that same night. Patrick Smith and Jamie Lynch won (again). This is their fifth consecutive time winning. The only thing that ever changes is who comes in second. Matt Conrad (aka Dr. Conrad) and Dave Belew took second this time.
There were more men’s teams so their bracket is bigger and messier.
The following night, Tom and I played in the competitive mixed league tournament final and won it. Huyen Nguyen and Michael Harris came in second, defeating lots of higher seeded teams including Undercover Secret Weapon (Jimmy and Fong) and Dropping L’s (Donnie and Tiffany).
Here’s a picture of our bracket on Thursday night.
We actually ended up playing only three matches total that night because we had a bye for being the top seeded team out of the seven teams. There were originally eight teams but Michael Cheung and Jen Reifschneider had to move to Tuesday evenings because of her work schedule.
Our first match was against C&K (Chris Wilson and Kim Knotts) after they won against Barbie & Ken (Amy Jaramillo with Robert Bell subbing for Amy’s husband Todd). After that, we played against Dropping L’s (Donnie and Tiffany) who won against Undercover Secret Weapon (Jimmy and Fong).
Then we had to wait for all of the opportunity bracket matches (one game to 15) to finish to play the championship match. It ended up being Dink, Dink, Goose (Michael Harris and Huyen Nguyen) with us in the finals. They did the hard work of eliminating our toughest competitors so they actually saved us a lot of effort.
In the end, I fell short of my goal of winning all three of my Fall leagues but first in two leagues and second in one is nothing to shake a stick at — I’m actually quite happy with how I did this time around.
The next session is only five weeks long and I’m playing in both mixed and women’s again. Tom and I are going to try to defend our league title in competitive mixed and then I’m playing with my friend Brooke Ayala this time for women’s because my previous partner Renae DeSantis can’t play.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to another fun, succession league session. I hope I have great results to share next month. Until next then. GNG.
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Fun Monday Off
Posted on September 6, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies.
Last week I took Monday off to hang out with our out of town guests, Noi and Antonio, and happened to get a bonus Doug Oxler sighting at the park. For those unaware, Doug is the father of local pickleball and tennis legend Jack Oxler.
I got a video of Doug playing with the guys.
After a few games, we decided to have lunch at TJ’s and then after lunched I played some more at someone’s house. They have a pickleball court in their backyard.
It seems pickleball courts are the new swimming pools. Everyone I know seems to be building one these days. Anyway, that’s all for now. GNG.
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