Things to Do

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Mom and Dad’s First Pickleball Lesson

Posted on May 31, 2020 by Ching under Family, Things to Do.

A couple of weeks ago, mom and dad posted a video of the two of them hitting a pickleball back and forth over a dining room chair in their living room. It seemed to me that they were interested in playing so I invited them to come to the park and play with other people. However, they seemed a bit apprehensive so I booked them a lesson with my friend Chris Heck at Nahola Fitness.

They didn’t feel like they were ready to play with other people so I was hoping the lesson would give them confidence and help them to feel more comfortable with going to the park and playing with others. I watched part of their lesson with Chris last week and took some photos. I think he did a great job of teaching them the basics and making them feel more comfortable with playing. He covered a lot of information during their 90 minute session. They even had a short section on scoring that I got to participate in.

Here are a few pictures from their lesson last week.

As you know, I am completely addicted to pickleball and so I’m super excited that mom and dad have shown an interest in it. I want to encourage them and help them along their pickleball journey.

They seemed to enjoy their first lesson and wanted to do another lesson so tomorrow they’re doing a lesson with Kayla Keuter (one of owners of Nahola). Tita Esper will be joining them. I wish I was still off work so I could be a fly on the wall for this next lesson. I happened to be on vacation last week so I was able to be there for their lesson with Chris. My time off work is unfortunately over so I go back to work tomorrow. Anyway, I’m sure I will hear all about it.

I can’t wait until mom and dad are comfortable enough to come to the park and play with other people. I can’t wait to introduce them to everyone. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on their progress. Until next time. GNG.

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First Post-Lockdown Outing

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Ching under Things to Do.

If I don’t count pickleball, then our Chicken N Pickle outing on Memorial Day was our first since the pandemic. It was certainly our first non-ZOOM social with this group. When we made plans to meet up at Chicken N Pickle a couple of weeks prior, the weather was supposed to be nice. Unfortunately, the weather changed and it turned out rainy. As a result, we couldn’t reserve a pickleball court because all the courts were busy. Many of the pickleball players who would have normally played outside ended up playing inside at CNP.

At least there was a ping pong table that we could use. I ended up playing four times and won every single game. I would have rather been playing pickleball but ping pong is the next best thing. I hadn’t played in over a year and I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. Here are some of our pictures from our outing.

We had such a great time catching up. Though not renting a court was a bit of a disappointment at first, it turned out okay. Anyway, I can’t wait until we are free to have more of these outings.

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Shock ‘N Clause at the New Neighbors

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink, Things to Do.

I can’t believe I completely forgot to blog about the one of the best things that I was part of in 2019. Our friend Marc discovered the Shock ‘N Clause movement and organized one for our group.

There are many variations of this random act of kindness but our group agreed upon $50 per person (or $100 per couple). It basically works this way: All the participants pool their cash, use the funds to pay the meal, and the remaining cash goes to the server as their tip.

Our group consisted of the #VacayWithJayJay #CostaRica2019 gang plus Mama Dill and two other couples. One of the non #CostaRica2019 couples was friends with the Huntees and the other couple was friends with the Shooks. Here’s a group photo of the most generous bunch of people I know…

We ended up taking our Shock ‘N Clause to the New Neighbors because none of the other diners could accommodate our large group (we had 15 people total) for brunch. Neighbors holds a special place in my heart because we used to play “bar” poker there back in the day. This was back in our Amateur Poker League (APL) days about fifteen years ago. I actually thought we were going to that same restaurant where we used to play but Brian and I hadn’t been there in years and we didn’t realize they moved. The restaurant is in a new spot and now called the New Neighbors Bar & Grill, instead of simply just Neighbors Bar & Grill.

I think the move to the new location happened a few years prior but the name change happened only a few months ago. After the owner was murdered back in July, the restaurant was closed for some time. The restaurant reopened in October under new ownership and that’s when the name change to the New Neighbors Bar & Grill happened.

Anyway, we were lucky to have a great server who seemed truly deserving of the gift. The restaurant isn’t a fancy place and the menu items are quite reasonably priced. Our group’s entire meal cost under $200. Since we brought $750 with us, our server ended up with just slightly over $550 as her tip. It felt really heartwarming to be able to pay it forward and bless someone’s life in this way specially around the holidays. I’d have to say this was the most gratifying meal I’ve had ever in my entire lifetime.

Speaking of meal, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share pictures of our food. That’s kind of my thing and I’m not about to let you down.

I had their corned beef hash which was refreshingly very different than any other corned beef hash I’d ever had. I think it’s the best ever compared to all the other ones I’ve had in town, and I’m not just saying that because my heart was full.

I couldn’t take pics of everyone’s food, because there were two other couples in attendance who I didn’t know very well and I didn’t want to seem weird, but I took as many as I could.

At least our #VacayWithJayJay pals knew better than to start eating before I could take a photo of their meals. LOL. Seriously though, we have the most amazing and generous bunch of friends. I hope that Brian and I are able to participate when we do this again later this year. Until then, keep paying it forward and GNG.

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Wichita Flag Pics

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do, Travel.

We took some fun pictures with the Wichita flag on our final day at the resort. Here are some of my favorites.

This pretty much takes us to the end of our 2019 Cancun adventure. I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip and looking at pictures as much I did recalling all of the details. It was very memorable trip and the best extended birthday celebration ever. #VacayWithJayJay #ChingTurns21X2

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Fall Team Building

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.

Last month we had a team building activity at work that involved carving pumpkins. I’d never done that before and it was actually kind of fun. Now I’m thinking that Brian and I should do this next year.

Here are some of the pictures that I took from that day.

We had a great turnout!

This, by far, is my favorite pic.

This one is my second favorite. It’s a very close second.

Here are the awesome carvings that people created.

After a long deliberation, the judges announced that Vicki, Robin and Michael carved the winning pumpkin.

Group photos.

Not everyone could stay for the activity so this wasn’t everyone. We had more people who joined us for lunch but then had to leave. These are just the people who stayed to do the activity with us.