Archive for "Things to Do"
Drink Up
Posted on July 22, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
I love summer because it’s always a fun time for pub crawls and drink tours. Summer is when the #WickedBrew and the Carlos O’Kelly’s ladies drink tours happen. Those are my two favorite to do and I look forward to them every year.
This year I managed to complete both tours twice before #ZINCON. It’s a feat that even I am impressed by. Who knew I could drink so much? LOL. It helped that we had a lot of opportunities to drink with friends over the last few weeks.
The #WickedBrew is actually not too difficult to complete because both coffee and beer count. And, you only have to get eight stamps. Brian and I completed ours about two weeks after it officially started last month. Although, when we were at Wichita Brewing with our friends, the bartender said that he had some people come in for their final stamp on June 15, the day the tour launched.
Brian and I probably could have done that too, if we really tried, but I’ve been burned by finishing too soon before so I try to finish about a week or two out. One year we finished early and they didn’t have the shirts in yet so we had to wait. The downside of that is we might lose track of our cards (or accidentally wash them – true story, this actually happened to Brian one year – he was almost done and had to start over) in the meantime.
The Carlos O’Kelly’s ladies summer drink tour runs through Labor Day. They usually have different prizes you win each year but it always consists of hand-blown glassware from Mexico. Last year we got two very nice hand-blown margarita glasses and a bottle of their margarita mix. This year it’s three hand-blown shotglasses a bottle of the margarita mix.
Last year I completed most of my drink tour with my Zumba besties. This year I convinced some friends that we bonded with in Costa Rica earlier this year to do it with me. Since you only need five punches this year, it didn’t take much to complete the tour. I’ve actually completed it twice already.
Here’s my two sets of shotglasses. I didn’t need them but I did the tour anyway. I don’t know. I guess it’s just something fun to do.
Speaking of fun, it’s a lot of fun to do the tours with friends. In years past, Brian and I usually do the #WickedBrew tour on our own. This year everyone was into it.
The night we were all supposed to hang out at Chicken N Pickle with our doggos, a storm came so we had to regroup and switch to Plan B. We didn’t really have a Plan B actually but we needed to be indoors. Brian and I took our girls home and the six of us agreed to meet up at Wichita Brewing for dinner and drinks instead.
Jay and Becca had been out of town and needed to catch up and get their cards stamped so we ended up doing an impromptu pub crawl. We didn’t really need more stamps because we already got our shirts. In fact, Brian wore his that night.
Anyway, since I was going to be buying drinks, I figured I might as well get credit for them so I started a new card. However, since it’s only one shirt per person, I decided to use my second tour to get my friend Tom a shirt. (He’s supposed to be working on earning me a free shirt from the Wheel Barrel in Topeka.)
After WBC the six of us went to Central Standard (also known as CSB). If you see some random faces you don’t recognize in these pics, it’s because we picked up some stragglers along the way. LOL.
CSB is so fun. They have all sorts of board games and card games you can play. They also have coloring pages.
Here are a few more fun pics from CSB.
After CSB we went to Hopping Gnome around the corner.
The storm had already passed by then and it turned out to be a beautiful evening.
Next stop: Churn & Burn.
Churn & Burn was the final stop for me and Brian that night because it was late and I had an early workout the next morning. I’m not sure if the rest of the group continued on to Aero Plains as they had talked about. I think we got Jay and Becca pretty much caught up in one evening.
The summer drink tours are so fun. Brian and I really enjoy it. We enjoy it even more when our friends do it with us. Can’t wait to do this all again. Oh, wait. We will. A bunch of us are doing the Crawl for Cancer next month! Stay tuned!
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Leslie Coffee in Delano
Posted on July 10, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Had the opportunity to try a new coffee shop thanks to the Wicked Brew tour. Leslie Coffee has been open for a while. I just haven’t had a reason to venture out there because it’s in Delano and we usually prefer places that are walkable.
Alicia drove so I bought the coffee. Seemed like a fair trade. Here are some pictures from our visit…
The place is super cute. The kind of coffee that I get was just okay over there though. I still prefer it at Reverie. Anyway, I’m grateful for the Wicked Brew tour or I wouldn’t have had any reason to check it out.
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Riverside Park Fun
Posted on June 30, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
Brian and I had some fun at Riverside Park while waiting for my friend Hannah (HN Photography). We took some fun photos together as we waited.
These pics didn’t turn out too bad despite having been taken simply with a phone. But, when you see the pics that Hannah took, you’ll definitely see that she’s PRO!
On the next post I will share some of my favorite shots from the ones she took that morning. Stay tuned!
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Making New Friends
Posted on May 24, 2019 by Ching under Things to Do.
I read an article on the New York Post recently that said the average American hasn’t made a new friend in five years. That seems so wild to me because I’m constantly meeting new people. Here’s the high level infographic that came with the article. All I can say is, these people need Zumba and pickleball in their lives!
Speaking of new friends, we got to celebrate Matt’s birthday with him and his family last month at Chicken N Pickle. Matt is one of my newest friends. I met him through a staff intramural ping pong tournament at the Y last year.
Since then we’ve played some ping pong, pickleball, and even poker together. When I first started getting into pickleball late last year, he told me about pickleball at West YMCA where he works. And then he played in a poker tournament with us a few weeks ago where he and Brian chopped first and second place.
Anyway, here’s a pic from Chicken N Pickle on Matt’s birthday.
I met Katie McKee, a local pickleball pro, that same night. I get so excited about meeting new people, I usually say “I made a new friend today!” Brian has this weird thing about friends vs. acquaintances. He would probably classify Katie as an acquaintance and he would be correct, I suppose if we get really technical about it. I my silly brain though acquaintances are just friends I haven’t had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with yet. I think everyone I meet is my friend. LOL.
Katie is so hilarious. We had just barely met and she tried to set me up not once — but twice — that same night. Michael (another friend I met through pickleball) and I were standing there waiting for our turn at the challenge courts when Katie came by and started signing Michael praises and telling me how great a guy he is and how he helped her move into her place and she wasn’t sure what was going on with us but Michael is a super sweet, great guy. I didn’t want to make it awkward for Michael so I just laughed it off and told her Michael and I just know each other through pickleball — basically nothing going on there.
When Brian came up a bit later, I made it a point to introduce him to Katie as “my husband” and she took my hand to look at my fingers because she didn’t think I was wearing a wedding ring and she was like, “Oh, it’s one of those silicone ones.” I guess that’s why she didn’t notice or so she says anyhow.
Later on, while Brian was still right there in our midst, we got to talking about Jack Oxler another pickleball pro who grew up in Wichita who now lives in Kansas City. She says he’s like a big brother to her and one of her best friends and I mentioned that I’d like to meet him next time he’s back in town. And she’s like, “Good because he needs a good girlfriend.” And I’m thinking, I think she’s trying to set me up again so I just go, “That’s great but I’m not trading my husband” and we all just laughed at the silliness of it. Anyway, I think she’s funny and would be fun to hang out with. I’ll still claim to have made a new friend that night.
Justin and Tina are two more new friends I made this year. I don’t care what Brian says. They met and played Uno with grandma for crying out loud. I think that makes them officially our friends. And, we spent a whole week with them in Costa Rica last month. And, I really like their house and their yard and I want to have move nights in their basement. For me, I consider people I enjoy spending time with my friends. Justin and Tina are, therefore, my friends.
Their dog Peg is apparently now my friend too. LOL.
Here are a few people I spend time with playing pickleball on a semi-regular basis (from left): Michael, Bill, Kathy, and Collin. I have a lot of fun playing with them. I consider them my friends.
We’re not even halfway through the year yet and I’ve already lost track of how many new friends I’ve made. If you’re someone who struggles to make friends, please find me. I’ll be your friend and I’ll introduce you to some people.
More on the topic of friends in our Facebook Live video below.
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Outings With Friends
Posted on May 19, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
Less than a week after we returned from our Costa Rica trip where we spent a whole week with the Dills celebrating Jay’s birthday, Jay and Brian were hanging out again. I guess they just couldn’t spend enough time with one another.
They spent the morning at shooting guns Range 54 and then had lunch at the ICT Pop Up Park. Brian was super thoughtful and brought me Uno Mas to work.
It was funny because I was in the middle of a meeting at the time and couldn’t come out to meet him but he apparently could hear me from the elevator lobby so he just gave me food to one of my coworkers who delivered it to the conference room I was in. I didn’t realize I was so loud. Yikes!
My friend Tom was visiting from Topeka so later than night we went on an outing with some of my work friends. We went to “Night at the Fountains,” a Friday night food truck rally downtown for food and drinks and then went to throw axes at Blade & Timber in the Delano District.
Our group consisted of (from bottom left) Tom, Alex, Alex’ friend Kishan, Chris, and his fiance Zacch.
We were assigned to lane 5.
Here’s a pic of me learning to throw.
Here’s a better pic of Chris and Zacch.
Tom and Alex goofing around with Brian in the background.
Another group selfie.
Here’s Brian throwing.
Here’s Chris with his bullseye throw.
Here’s Tom with his bullseye.
Brian with his bullseye.
And me with me (barely).
The concept is a lot like darts but with an ax instead. They have several different games you can play. I took pics of the instructions.
First to 50
Cricket
Axes (last player standing wins)
Blade (you call the shots)
League Match
We played First to 50 first and that took forever. You can tell from the scores who the better ax throwers are.
Tom was pretty proud of himself for winning.
After our first game took forever, we didn’t think we would have time for another full game so we just decided to each take turns throwing until we ran out of time. The person with the highest score wins.
Guess who won again.
Another group selfie.
We actually managed to convince everyone to come over to the house for a night cap after Blade & Timber. It was a great idea until the next morning when I had to get up early to teach my classes.
I thought Tom would bail on me because we were all up late the night before but he was a trooper. He did both Aqua Zumba and Zumba.
After my Zumba class at the Andover YMCA, he and I met Brian at Redrock Canyon Grill at Bradley Fair for brunch. It was going to be Doo-Dah Diner, which now has a location close to our house, but Brian said the wait was ridiculous.
We had a very nice lunch at Redrock, though.
Here are some food pics.
After lunch, I had a waxing appointment that I needed to get to so Tom went with Brian back to the house get his stuff and went on to drive back to Topeka.
That was the weekend immediately after we got back from Costa Rica. Life is pretty crazy over here. Something’s always brewing.
Until next time. GNG.
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