2016

Archive for the year 2016

Cutie at Food Trucks at the Fountain

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.

Brian and I ran into a cutie at the Food Trucks at the Fountain event last month. No, I’m not talking about the Flying Stove dude. I’m talking about the puppy.

She is such a cutie. She’s like the unofficial Kamayan Truck mascot and has been visible at many of their recent events, including the ones at the Pop-Up Urban Park.

I don’t know what it is about a guy holding a puppy but Brian looks even more handsome in this photo. Facebook even thought he was Chef Jason and insisted on tagging the photos as such. LOL.

Aren’t they both adorable?

We had food from the Kamayan Truck that day. Here are some food pics.

You must try the porchetta. It’s delicious.

My favorite part is the crispy, crunchy pork skin.

Brian loves their ribs.

The papaya salad is very good but too spicy for me. It almost needs its own chaser. Then again, I don’t really eat spicy foods so it could be I’m just not used to it.

If you missed Food Trucks at the Fountain last month, don’t worry. It’s happening again on Sunday, May 22. Brian and I will probably be there hunting down some yummy eats.

I remember when the only food truck we had was the Flying Stove. They’ve really started a revolution. Now there’s like 35 or so trucks that participate in Food Trucks at the Fountain. How amazing is that?

See you on Sunday, May 22!

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Scooter’s Downtown

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Did you know that there is now a full-fledge Scooter’s location downtown? We’ve had a drive-up Scooter’s for a while but never a sit-down location (complete with wifi) until recently. Brian and I found it last month when we were headed to Food Trucks at the Fountain. Brian, because he is pessimistic about everything, actually didn’t expect them to be open on a Sunday.

We were pleasantly surprised. Not only were they open, but there were no lines.

The space is nice and cozy. I usually end up at Mead’s just because it’s so close to my office but I’ve always liked Scooter’s because of their candy bar coffee flavors. I’m glad there’s one down the street now.

It’s conveniently located across the street from Emerson Biggins on Douglas if you want to check it out. You’re welcome.

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Nickira’s First Time at the Circus

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Ching under Things to Do.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon so we decided to take my convertible. Also, Brian got to go with us so I didn’t have to drive. We also got to park in the Lexus VIP parking lot in front of the Intrust Bank Arena so we didn’t have to walk very far. We just had to cross the street. That was nice.

I didn’t get to take many photos because Nickira wanted me to take videos. The one above is of Nickira with a couple of the Chicago Boys (of America’s Got Talent fame). Nickira was really impressed with their tumbling skills.

Below is a photo of the high-wire act.

Here they are in action.

We also got to see some elephants do tricks.

Here’s one of the acrobats. She made beautiful figures while spinning around.

Here’s an interesting spin on an acrobatic show. I’ve never seen it done with a motorcycle swing before.

Here are few videos of the Chicago Boys.

And then there was this crazy sphere of death.

And the tigers, because it’s not a circus without tigers.

Here’s Nickira explaining where cotton candy comes from.

I’m actually glad that I talked her down to only getting one bag of cotton candy. She wanted 25 bags at first. The circus is quite expensive. And to think we only bought pretzels and popcorn and drinks. We didn’t even buy one of those light up swords.

Oh, and Nickira was all into the cotton candy until Brian explained how it’s truly made. After she found out it was completely made of sugar, she didn’t want anything to do with it. She decided to just save the rest and give them to her brothers.

Nickira said this was actually her first time at the circus. I forgot that that when I was supposed to take her last year, her dad came into town and so they spent some time together instead. Brian and I went by ourselves. That was my first circus experience. The second time around I knew what to expect a little bit better. Brian and I had fun the first time, but I have to say, it was definitely more fun watching the show with Nickira. When Brian and I went last year, we only watched the first half. We actually stayed for the entire show this time around.

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KANSEL Team Trivia

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Ching under Events.

KANSEL Team Trivia was on the same day as the Kansas YP Summit. It’s one of our favorite fundraising events so I didn’t want to miss it. Brian was worried that I wouldn’t be able to attend both events at first because, even though the Kansas YP Summit was during the day and the KANSEL Team Trivia event was in the evening, I might be too tired. I was like, “Watch me!”

I have this thing about wanting to attend every event and do everything. I wish I could be at multiple places at once. If I could, I’d probably be even more involved and attending more stuff. Plus, my coworker/friend Karen Smith invited us and we love her and don’t want to let down.

Pardon the crappy photos and raccoon eyes. It had been a long day.

Here’s a picture of me with Bonnie Bing (above), she co-emceed the event with Sierra Scott (below).

Here’s a picture of our team. We didn’t win but at least we weren’t dead last. Thanks to Karen’s friends Nancy and Marv, and Marv’s awesome trivia skills.

We may not have won at trivia but we won a bunch of silent auction items. LOL.

Brian got this goofy hat from the Cowtown silent auction basket.

We got a couple of new tumblers from the Westar silent auction basket.

Shane actually ribbed us for bidding on the Westar basket because we probably could have gotten a bunch of that stuff for free if I were to ask the “right” people nicely at work. But it’s for a great cause so what they hey. We bid on the stuff anyway.

We got a wheeled cooler bag, a Westar umbrella, and a folding blanket that we already had one of, so now we have two of them. LOL. The cooler is cool, though. (See what I didn’t there?) And, you can never have too many umbrellas. We like to leave one in each car and at home, so we always have an umbrella no matter where we are.

The Cocoa Dolce basket is pretty much all gone. We did share the truffles with grandma when she was over for breakfast and cards on Saturday, though.

We ate the truffles while the three of us played Uno one Saturday.

April 22 was a full day with two major events: the Kansas YP Summit all day and then KANSEL Team Trivia in the evening. I was exhausted but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to attend both.

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Kansas YP Summit

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Ching under Events, Leadership.

Every time I feel like I’m almost caught up with the blog, stuff happens and I’m behind again. So, we’re almost caught up but we were busy this weekend so there’s still a lot of stuff to catch you guys up on.

Here are some pictures from the Kansas YP Summit last week.

I’m so glad work approved me to attend because they had some fantastic speakers lined up: Stephanie Sharp, Armando Minjares, Heather Morgan, my friend Aaron Wirtz, Richard Rierson, Christina Long, Ted Kriwiel, Mark McCormick, and keynote speaker Jon Acuff, author of Do Over, Start, and Quitter. Some friends of mine had breakout sessions in the afternoon as well.

I wanted to go to the pre-summit social at the ICT Pop-Up Urban Park but I didn’t end up leaving Topeka until 6 PM. The mingle was only scheduled to run until 8 PM so I was too late. At least I got to go to the actual summit.

Retired educator, Jan Davis, did an ice breaker activity in her opening remarks.

She asked us to form groups for three. This was my first group. That’s Kat on the left and Amy in the middle. Amy is with the Kansas Leadership Center and actually had a breakout session in the afternoon on storytelling.

This is my second group.

My friend Ebony did a wonderful job as the event emcee.

I also got selfies with a couple of the speakers — Stephanie, pictured above, and Aaron, pictured below. You might recognize Aaron from his TV commercials. He’s brilliant.

I remember meeting him when he first started working for the car dealership. Four years later, he’s an icon. I’m not surprised because he is a marketing genius. And, he’s super talented to boot.

I also some selfies with my coworkers.

Here’s a photo of Amy at her breakout session.

I paired up with Chelsea from our Topeka office for the activity. This is a picture of her “leaning” into her story.

Here’s a picture of our keynote speaker, Jon Acuff, who was both insightful and funny.

Here’s a selfie with my friend Ryan and his daughter, who was a wonderful breakout session assistant. I walked into the session a little bit late and she walked over and gave me a handout. She was on top of it.