2016

Archive for the year 2016

Laundry Day

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Ching under Confessions, Life.

This is what laundry day looks like at our house.

And yes, for someone who doesn’t even take Zumba classes, Brian has a lot of Zumba sweats. He absolutely loves wearing them!

We practically live in our Zumba sweats all weekend long. He just happens to not be wearing them in this photo because this picture was taken after our busy Saturday morning of volunteering. And, I think most of them were in the laundry. Yeah, this isn’t all of them. I think he had a couple still stashed in the dresser.

Anyway, I thought I would share this with you all. I’m so thankful to have Brian and the girls in my life. I just love my babies. All three of them!

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Sakana Japanese Grill & Sushi

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian and I discovered a new sushi joint last weekend. It’s in the space that formerly housed the Pink Boa in the strip by the Dillons Marketplace in Andover.

The interior of the space, which sat empty for a long time after the store closed, has been completely remodeled. It definitely no longer looks like the Pink Boa.

They have a pretty extensive menu.

They also have really good lunch specials.

I thought their miso soup was good but Brian didn’t think it had enough flavor.

I only had a taste of it though because I ordered the seafood soup for myself.

Here’s a picture of their delicious seafood soup. I thought it was an excellent value with lots of yummy shrimp, crab, scallops, and pieces of squid all for less than $7.

Of course, Brian and I had to try the sushi.

We ordered the specialty roll called the Lion King.

Brian had the chicken teriyaki box, which was also an excellent deal.

All of their prices are actually pretty reasonable and the food is fabulous. Brian and I have already talked about returning to try some other things on the menu. We may even take grandma on our next trip there.

And, in the event you’re looking for something different to do on Thanksgiving, they’re open. If we weren’t already hosting Thanksgiving at our house, this is probably where we would be. LOL. It’s definitely nontraditional.

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Team Building and Community Service

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Events, Projects, Things to Do.

Here are some pictures from the team building volunteer service activity that I organized a couple of weeks ago. I’m so grateful for my amazing coworkers who gave up part of their holiday weekend to help out.

The project? We helped set up the North Pole Winter Carnival at Child Start‘s Polar Express Literacy Event.

The trickiest part was building the train display with no instructions.

Mike was super proud of the fake wood wall that he and Mel built.

He’s showing it off in this photo with Faith’s husband (left).

They didn’t need our help with the main event area. Our group’s focus was setting up and decorating the game room, which I actually thought was the fun part.

I really wish we could have attended the event and seen the kids enjoy the carnival games. Brian and I had another party to attend that evening, otherwise I would have totally dragged him with me. Had I planned the weekend better, I could have taken Nickira to the event. I think she would have enjoyed it.

I hope Child Start holds the event again next year. Nickira is getting to close to that age where she might think it’s a little bit childish but I really think she would enjoy it. I hope I can take her next year because it will be the final one before she’s officially a teenager. I saw some pictures of the event on the Child Start Facebook page and it looked like a blast. I’m really bummed that I missed it.

At least we got to help set up. I just love volunteering for stuff like this. It warms my heart. The best part is the $1000 donation from the Westar Energy Foundation to match our team building volunteer service hours.

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That Time I Ordered Room Service

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Confessions, Food and Drink.

This is a blog about that time I ordered room service and it was actually good. I thought it’s worthy of writing about because it doesn’t happen often. Most of the time when I order room service it’s overpriced and pretty mediocre. This time proved otherwise so I thought I’d share the experience along with pictures.

There’s so much good food to be had in downtown Kansas City that I really prefer to go out and about and take advantage of all the city has to offer. This time however, I couldn’t put shoes on so I was stuck in my hotel room.

Kelsey and I had our nails done at Polished (my new favorite nail salon), after work that day. Kelsey who just had a polish change finished sooner than I did. She left to go take care of some errands at Cosentino’s as I put my feet under the lamp.

When she returned, I felt my toenails and the polish felt dry. I sprayed it with the quick dry spray, felt it again, and figured I was good to go. My feet had been under the lamp a while after all.

I put my shoes on and we walked back to the office to grab our stuff. When we arrived at the office, I immediately took my shoes off and inspected my nails. Both of the big toes were ruined!

Kelsey suggested that I return to the nail salon and have them fix it. I originally thought against it, thinking no one will really see my feet and the main reason I get pedicures is for the callous removal bit and not so much for the polish. However, she said I paid so much and it would be worth it to get them fixed.

I thought about it and realized that I really had nothing else going on that evening so I might as well go back and so I did.

When I came back, they knew exactly what I needed. The nail tech who did my pedicure did not look pleased. LOL. The reception girl was like, “We normally don’t recommend you put shoes on for three hours.”

Three hours! That’s a long time! That would be well after their closing time. After the nail guy repainted both of my big toes, I decided to stay for 30 minutes with my feel under the drying lamp. After that I was still worried about ruining my pedicure again so I walked back to my hotel in the disposable flip flops.

I knew I looked pretty ridiculous in my flimsy throwaway flip flops and Converse sneakers in my hand so I cut through our office building to return to my hotel room across the street. That was convenient but I still had to figure out what to do about dinner. I’m not that fond of pizza so I called every Oriental food restaurant I could find close to downtown to see if any of them would deliver to my hotel. No such luck. I was stuck with room service.

As I mentioned earlier, I generally try to avoid room service because my experiences in the past have been pretty lackluster. Anyway, I figured it would be the same this time so I ordered dessert also to make up for what I was already expecting to be a crappy dinner.

I ordered the chicken sandwich and, much to my amazement, it was actually really good. This had all of my favorite things — bacon and avocado — and none of the things I don’t like so I didn’t have to modify it at all.

Here’s another view of my delicious sandwich. The chips, which I think were homemade, were very good as well.

Here are a couple of pictures of my delicious dessert that, in hindsight, I really didn’t need to order after all because my sandwich was satisfying enough.

This dessert, fittingly called the Bermuda Triangle because of its shape and also because you get lost with the first bite, was so delicious that it took a lot for me not to eat all of it. I was good and only ate one corner, though.

I was dreaming about that cake for days.

This meal totally changed my perspective about room service. I totally don’t mind ordering this sandwich and cake combo again. I won’t be dreading the next time I end up cooped up in my hotel room all evening because I know I will have this meal to look forward to. I may even purposely stay in one evening.