Archive for the year 2020
Angler’s Restaurant in Eureka Springs
Posted on June 28, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I found a great little restaurant in Eureka Springs while we were there celebrating his birthday there a couple of weeks ago. He liked it so much that we actually ate there twice. Here are some pics.
While we were there, I discovered a new beer I liked. It’s a grapefruit radler by Stiegl and it’s absolutely refreshing.
They had stringent rules at the restaurant. You had to wear a mask unless you were eating. Lucky for us, Brian and I came prepared and brought several of our Sofibella masks on the trip with us.
On our first visit, Brian got a chicken sandwich with French fries while I got a shrimp basket with sweet potato fries.
Brian liked the chicken sandwich so much that he ordered it again on our second visit. And we both like the fries so we got an entire basket of it to share.
I got a fish sandwich this time. It was delicious!
Since we were in a celebratory mood, we decided to get a fried pie for dessert.
More pictures from our Eureka Springs getaway next post. Until then. GNG.
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Pickleball with #TeamModel
Posted on June 21, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies.
A few weeks ago, Karen had this idea to ask Jocelyn Devilliers and Patrick Smith to play with us. I didn’t think they would be open to it because they are way, way, way out of our league but I guess Karen is friends with Jocelyn and so, while I wouldn’t even dream of asking, she wasn’t afraid to ask. At the time, Jocelyn was only playing singles (because of social distancing) but both he and Patrick seemed open to playing with us. Patrick said the four of us could play once Jocelyn is ready to play doubles again. But even after he was ready, it still took some doing to get our schedules to line up. We finally got to play together a couple of weeks ago.
Here are some pics from that night. (Jocelyn is on the left. Patrick is on the right.)
Mom and dad came out to watch and also had dinner at Chicken N Pickle.
Karen, Brandon, Brian and I ended up hitting the reverse happy hour on the rooftop after our matches. Here are some pics of our food.
The guys were so gracious and nice. I had the best time playing with them. Until next time. GNG.
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Atypical Pickleball Weekend
Posted on June 20, 2020 by Ching under Life.
Instead of spending all weekend at Seneca Park, I found myself at the Wichita Country Club on Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t have a mixed doubles match lined up on Saturday so I accepted my friend Sharmin’s invitation to join her at WCC. It worked out because we wanted to do some shirt cutting after. Followed by a delicious poolside lunch.
Here are a couple of pics of our food.
While there, I got a glimpse of their new outdoor pickleball courts. They were beautiful and empty. It made me wonder how often these courts are actually used.
The following day (Sunday), Karen and I had mixed doubles matches with Rick Thompson and Chris Wilson. We agreed to meet at Seneca Park at eight o’clock in the morning. I usually get there early to secure a court but, when I got there at 7:30 AM, all six courts were already taken. I’m always prepared so I had my portable net in the car. Rather than not playing at all, I managed to convince the other three to meet me at Aley Park just a couple of minutes South so we could still play.
Aley Park has six lined pickleball courts but no nets. It’s a great overflow option for days when Seneca Park is super busy. The only downside is you have to bring your own net. I think this is why Aley Park rarely gets used. People don’t want to lug around nets and hassle with assembly and tear down. However, desperate times call for desperate measures. Had I not had my portable net with me that day, I think we might have had to raincheck.
After we played our mixed matches for a couple of hours, Karen and I returned to Seneca Park to join Jimmy and the rest of the Asian pickleball posse for a cookout. The funny thing is, they didn’t even have a grill. Instead they had a burner and a wok. I called Brian to bring our portable propane grill over to help them out.
That night, I got to use my portable net again when I met mom and dad at Styx Creek Park in Mulvane. It was a full weekend of pickleball. Until next time. GNG.
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Lunch Dates with My Foxy Friend
Posted on June 18, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I don’t know why “Karens” get such a bad rap. All of the “Karens” I have ever known have been warm and kind and generous. This is why I wasn’t surprised when Karen Fox and I easily struck up a friendship. Then again, Brian will counter that I shouldn’t be surprised because I think everyone is my friend even if they’re a complete stranger who smiles or winks at me one time.
I’d seen Karen before at various pickleball events. She even attended the pickleball-birthday-slash-Halloween-party that Matt Mayfield hosted for me last year. She actually wanted to have a Halloween party but Matt was throwing a pickleball birthday party for me at the West YMCA so they agreed to combine the two parties and just have one party. We knew each other then and I would have considered her a friend then but the pandemic has really brought us closer together.
You know how Jumanji and detention (The Breakfast Club?) have this weird way of bringing people together who probably wouldn’t normally hang out? I think that’s what COVID-19 did. I started doing the #BruceLeeAbsChallenge during the stay-at-home mandate because the lack of social connection (and lack of anything to do period) was taking a huge mental toll on me. I asked if others wanted to do it with me and she volunteered. We created a group text for accountability and we texted everyday. Sometimes the conversations weren’t even about our abs workouts. They would just be random (absolutely hilarious) conversations. I was also doing ZOOMba during this time and Karen couldn’t figure out the ZOOM thing (or just didn’t like how the technology worked) so she came over to my house to do Zumba in my garage with me. I totally thought she was joking until she sent me a text that morning asking for my address. Karen holds the record as my first pickleball friend to have ever set foot inside my house. Matt, my first ever pickleball friend, has never even been to my house (despite having known him the longest). I guess disasters have a weird way of bringing people together. And because she was there for me during the lockdown we got really close. She even invited me and Brian over for a delicious lasagna dinner at her house one evening. (SIDE NOTE: They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well, it works the same for me. The best way to become my favorite person is to feed me.)
Besides meeting up for pickleball dates (we’ve arranged mixed doubles matches and womens double matches with other friends), we’ve also met up for lunch dates. Most of the time it was just sharing a burger at TJ’s which is conveniently next to our favorite park but the other day (when I say the other day, it usually means any time between yesterday and a few weeks ago – LOL) we both finished with our appointments at the exact same time so it worked out that we could meet for lunch. We decided to meet at Homegrown.
Here are a couple of pictures of our food.
Most of the time I just see pickleball friends while playing pickleball and there’s not really much time to visit and get to know each other on a deeper level. Lunch was nice that way. While we still mostly talked about our favorite sport, we visited and chatted about all sorts of other things too. It was great!
Here’s a picture of my Fox-y friend at TJ’s one day while we had lunch and rootbeer floats. We typically grab our lunches to go when we’re playing at Seneca Park but that day, while we were waiting to order our food, I was a rootbeer float go by and it called my name. So I talked Karen into dining in so we could enjoy some rootbeer floats with our lunch. Plus, it’s a lot easier to eat when you have a table. I don’t even have a chair sometimes when we’re at the park. My folding chair is always in the car but I only bring it out occasionally (when I expect to sit around a lot like on #SangriaSundays but most of the time I’m playing the whole time so it’s kind of pointless). I’ve learned not to pull it out all the time because I don’t even get to sit in it most of the time. And there’s always plenty of other chairs to rest your butt on because we’re rotating in and out and most people are willing to share.
Anyway, it’s been really nice getting to know Karen better over these last few months. As someone who has been playing pickleball a lot longer than me, I really appreciate her guidance and all the knowledge that she’s willing to share. I feel like she’s kind of taken me under her wing and has been almost like a “pickleball mentor” of sorts. As someone who is hungry to learn anything and everything, I have really enjoyed this time immensely. I suppose that is the one silver lining that has come out of the pandemic.
I guess that’s all for now. Big day today as it’s the day I get to spend all day learning from Ben Johns. Gotta start getting ready. Until next time. GNG.
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Rio Grill & Cantina
Posted on June 13, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink, Reviews.
Finally had the opportunity to check out Rio Grill & Cantina in Andover. They took over the old Las Palmas space in the strip at Central and Andover Road. I can’t believe I’ve never been here before. The food is great!
I went for an Andover Rotary Club board meeting. It was our first in person board meeting since the pandemic began. We’ve been holding the board meetings via ZOOM until this one. The funny thing is, I’ve been on the board for a year now and I could never make the meetings. I think I’ve only attended one meeting during my first year as PR chair because something would always come up. That is, until the pandemic began and then we had a state-wide stay-at-home order. The ZOOM meetings were a lot easier to attend because then I didn’t have to budget in the drive time, which always seemed to be the challenge on days that meetings were back to back. For instance, if I had a meeting from 11 o’clock to 12 noon, there was no way I could drive to Andover to attend attend a meeting so I would just have to miss it. With the ZOOM meetings, I could quickly go from one meeting to the next without having to worry about driving.
Anyway, I’m still working from home so, even though this last one was in person, I was able to attend. Rather than having to drive from my office in downtown Wichita, I came from my house which is only about 5-10 minutes from almost anywhere in Andover.
I’m so glad I was able to attend this one because, not only is the food good, but it also happened to be Alison’s birthday. Huge thanks to Stephanie for picking up birthday cake on her way to the meeting.
Besides celebrating her birthday with us, Alison also celebrated her final board meeting. After ten years of being on the Andover Rotary Club board (in one role or another), she finally gets a much-needed break. We are sad to see her leave the board because the club wouldn’t be what it is today without her service. She’ll still be part of the club so I’m pretty sure she’s still be helping us with lots of things but at least she won’t be required to attend the board meetings. At least for the time being. We are a very small club so who knows how long this break will last? She might be back again before too long. LOL.
I always try to take pictures of food whenever I eat out and most specially if I’m eating somewhere for the first time but I didn’t want to be too nerdy so I only got a couple of pictures this time. I got a picture of Norm’s nachos (above) and my California burrito (below).
My burrito was amazing. Easily the best burrito I have ever had. It’s got pork inside (which we all know how much I love pork), smothered in delicious green sauce, and topped with some avocado slices. It was so good, I can’t wait to have it again.
Once grandma is finally able to venture out of Victoria Falls, we’re going to have to eat lunch here because I think she’ll really like it.
Until next time. GNG.
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