Things to Do

Archive for "Things to Do"

Pickleball League at Chicken N Pickle

Posted on October 5, 2019 by Ching under Hobbies, Things to Do.

While at competing in the pickleball event at the Wichita Corporate Challenge, I made a new friend and signed up for my first ever pickleball league. I met Renee at the WCC and she told me how she joined the women’s doubles pickleball league on Wednesday nights but she didn’t have a partner. We got to talking and I found out that the first night of play was September 11 and it just so happened that I wouldn’t have my Wednesday night Aqua Zumba class at South YMCA anymore after Labor Day so I had Wednesday nights free. I ended up signing up for the league and officially becoming her pickleball league partner for the season that same afternoon. It was quite spontaneous but I’m really glad I did it.

We are now four weeks in to the league — though we’ve only played three times because Koch decided to shut down CNP on one of our league nights so league play was canceled — and I’m really enjoying it. I think the universe brought us together for a reason. If it weren’t for her needing a partner, I probably wouldn’t have joined a league ever because I was pretty indifferent about it. Now I realize how much I’ve been missing out. It’s so much fun!

Here are some pictures from our first night of league…

My teammate/partner Renee is on the left. The other two women are one of the opponents we had that first night, Laurie and Haley (team Haylo). Our team name is Heavy Dinkers. Renee’s coworker Mason suggested it when we were at the WCC that same afternoon at that I signed up.

Here’s another pic of me with Laurie. She is very good.

Brian came out the first night for moral support and took some action shots.

Next time I think I will try to talk him into getting some video because I really want to be able to see what I’m doing.

This league has been super fun. The only downside is Renee has missed a couple of sessions. One was due to a Carrie Underwood concert and the other due to travel. So I’ve had different partners the last couple of times due to subs. I’m really looking forward to this Wednesday because she’s back and we will finally have another opportunity to play together. I’m so excited!

Until then, have a fabulous week. GNG.

No Comments

Crawl for Cancer 2019

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Ching under Events, Things to Do.

This is the story of how we got roped into participating in our first cancer crawl, ever. Brian and I don’t typically participate in these for several reasons: (1) Brian is very picky about his beer, (2) I’m always too busy, and (3) he won’t do something unless I make us. So what happened this year?

Two Words: PEER PRESSURE

We have several people at work who always participate in the cancer crawl every year. For the last few years, they’ve had two teams. I’ve never really felt the desire to do it because I don’t particularly like drinking beer and I usually have my Zumba classes that keep me tied up all weekend.

This year my friend Tom from Topeka wanted to do it, so he started a team. He needed four more people so he asked if Brian and I could join and invite two of our friends. Well, when I started asking around, everyone wanted to do it. Tom didn’t have room on his team for all of us, so we ended up forming a whole other team.

Tom eventually filled his four vacancies so, in the end, we ended up with four teams consisting of 12 crawlers each. We had a total of 48 people signed up to crawl with our mega group.

I originally still had my Zumba classes so I was just going to join the group late after my last Saturday class; however, as luck would have it, my classes in Andover ended up getting canceled that weekend because the floors were being refinished. I didn’t know this at the time we signed up. It was just a lucky coincidence. It was the same weekend I went from four classes to just one class (my Aqua Zumba class at North YMCA) to none — because my Aqua Zumba class ended up being canceled because of bad weather.

It was a gift from the universe, which decided that I really need to slow down. It was welcome break from my usual Zumba-filled weekends.

On the eve of the cancer crawl, a bunch of us met up at the Pumphouse (across from the shirt pick ups at the Courtyard Marriott). Our team captain Reniece picked up our shirts and distributed them to us when we met up that Friday night. I really wanted my shirt the night before because I wanted to be able to customize it. Nothing too fancy. I just wanted to turn it into a tank.

In keeping with our #VacayWithJayJay theme, I busted out my Jamaica bag and straw hat. I also got some leis and floral hair clips for everyone. I looked so legit in my white sarong, bag, and hat getup that, as we were leaving the house that morning, our neighbor Tommy asked if we were going on another vacation.

But the pièce de résistance was my picture frame prop. Brian and I assembled it just a few days prior. We ran out of As though, so #VacayWithJayJay turned into #VacayWitJJ. Regardless, no one really cared. Most people probably didn’t even know the reference.

Brian couldn’t believe I was willing to lug this thing around with me. It was made of foam board so it was pretty light and we got a bunch of great pics like these so it was totally worth it.

Here’s a couple of pics of our small cancer crawl team within the mega group.

Here are a couple of selfies of me and Brian.

Yuvina and me.

Becca and me.

Kishon and Alex.

Tina and Justin.

Brian and Jay.

Darcy and Jeff were part of the big group from work.

With Chris.

Reniece behind bars.

More pics of our group…

Brian wore his straw baseball cap from Costa Rica and his favorite Hawaiian shirt.

These three crack me up.

My lovely props that I carried with me from bar to bar. No joke.

This was at Fever Night Club — midday party. LOL.

When we got to Lucky’s, which was a long walk, we got to have the back patio all to ourselves. There was just enough room for all four teams back there.

Here’s our big group at Lucky’s.

Not everyone could make it but we had over 40 people between the four teams.

Jay tried to get everyone in an ultimate selfie.

We had a ton of fun but it was also a lot of walking for pitchers of Coors Light. I’m looking forward to Haus of Brews on the 21st, which is a much better event overall. We will have good beer (no Coors Light) from seven Kansas breweries (Aero Plains Brewing, Norsemen Brewing, Nortons, River City Brewery, Third Place, Walnut River, and Wichita Brewing), two wineries (Grace Hill Winery and Mabel’s Homestead Vineyard), and delicious food… Oh, and no “crawling” because everyone will be at Treescapes.

Anyway, I’m grateful that we had an opportunity to participate and help raise money for some great causes but our #VacayWithJayJay team actually ended up skipping the whole after party. We’d had enough Coors Light and we were all hungry so we all opted to go to River City Brewery instead. We held our own after party there.

I hope you enjoyed the pics. Until next time. GNG.

No Comments

We Found Sunflowers

Posted on September 4, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.

We didn’t get to see sunflowers on the day of our anniversary but we did manage to find some a couple of weeks later. When you’re in Kansas, taking pics in the middle of sunflower fields is the thing to do around this time of year.

Here are some of our favorite pics…

These blooms are much smaller than the ones we found a few years ago. We heard this hasn’t been the best year for sunflowers (because of all the rain) so we are grateful that we even got to see any.

We did find some little ones at the entrance of our neighborhood so we had a mini photo session on our way out to dinner on Friday night.

Our pics didn’t turn out too bad, don’t you think?

No Comments

Electric Scooters are Here

Posted on July 27, 2019 by Ching under Free Stuff, Things to Do.

Remember when Brian and I rode the heck out of the electric scooters in Austin back in April? Well, they’ve finally arrived in Wichita!

I saw them on my way in to work a couple of weeks ago and then Chris and I checked them out when we went for a walk later that day.

Brian and I loved using the scooters when we were in Austin so we are happy they are now available in Wichita. As with anything though, people need to understand the rules and obey them so we don’t have the same problems they’ve had in the cities that have implemented these.

You can learn more about the rules here.

The electric scooters seem a bit intimidating at first but once you’ve tried them you’ll never go back. Seriously. I would much prefer to walk or take a scooter to go somewhere than have to get in my car.

If you’re ready to give them a try, I have some promo codes you can use so you can get $10 FREE to spend on SPIN rides:

CHINGBRUBAKER
FREEFIVE

These codes are each good for $5 in free ride credits and can be stacked so, if you use both of them, then you’ll have $10 to spend on rides before you have to start paying with your own money. Enjoy!

PRO TIP: Download the app now so you don’t have to spend a few minutes setting everything up on your first ride. If you’ve already got the app installed on your phone, you can just scan and go.

No Comments

Music Theatre Wichita Tour

Posted on July 25, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.

It’s probably been a good year or so since I was last able to attend a Women of Rotary Wichita social. Either I’m working late or I’m teaching a class or I’m playing pickleball. Something is usually going on that prevents me from attending.

When Gayle sent an email about this last one, I knew I had to go even though I had to teach Aqua Zumba and Water Walk that night at South YMCA. I had to make it happen because our social consisted of getting a tour of Music Theatre Wichita from Wayne Bryan. I had to leave work right at five o’clock and I had to leave the social right at six thirty so I basically only had a 1 – 1.5 hour window. However, I was bound and determined to make it work because I love MTW so much and I’d never gotten a tour before.

Here are some of the pics that I took during our tour last week.

We toured the bowels of Century II and saw the inner workings of MTW from costumes to props to storage. It was so cool. My favorite part was being able to watch the actors rehearse one of the numbers for Chicago. Both Brian and I really wanted to see it but it just so happened to be showing the same weekend that we are in Orlando. We are so bummed. I guess we will just have to catch it on the next round. At least I got so one of the numbers during rehearsal.