Archive for the year 2023
Busy Christmas Party Weekend
Posted on December 18, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events.
Kicked off the weekend with Cindy Egan’s annual Christmas party and gift exchange for the pickleball ladies. She is an amazing host and always comes up with the most fun games!
Here are some snaps from that night…
The next night, Brian and I went Chad and Laura Smith’s annual beer and wine gift exchange. I think we decided this was the eighth one.
Here are some snaps from that event…
Brian and I always love going because then we get to try new beers that we’d never even heard of before, and we ultimately find new favorites. For instance, I had no idea that there was such a thing as slushie beers and they are yummy!
Finally, Sunday night (last night) was Katelyn and Susie’s game night at Grant and Susie’s house. I played a couple of games I’d never played before and it was so fun!
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Magnolia Cafe
Posted on December 15, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I finally had the opportunity to check out Magnolia Cafe. About 20+ years ago, we used to live at the 21st and Woodlawn area in Northeast Wichita. Had we been living there still, we would have checked this place out sooner because it would be practically across the street. It’s a bit of a jaunt for us since we live in Southeast Wichita now. Still, I’m glad we went to check it out.
The place is super cute and the food is quite good.
Brian and I went to eat brunch there after I finished running the iPickle Nation Nation Builder at the Sandbox last Sunday. Here are some pics of our food.
We started with the deviled eggs, which was a tad too mustardy in taste for me.
I can’t remember what Brian’s dish was called but it was pretty much your run of the mill breakfast sampler. Other than the good bacon and the homemade strawberry rhubarb jam, I thought the rest of it was pretty basic.
My crab cakes benedict was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe the crab cakes were a tad salty but, much like my personality, it’s just the way I like it.
I actually ordered a side of toast so I could try the homemade jam. I’m glad I did. If you go, you gotta try the homemade strawberry rhubarb jam because it’s not to be missed. I think it was my favorite part of the whole meal.
The location isn’t close to where we live so I’m not sure that we will be going on the regular but this place is pretty good and definitely worth checking out.
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Celebrating Alice
Posted on December 14, 2023 by Ching under Events, Pickleball.
I think I’ve mentioned before that Wichita has turned into everyone’s favorite place to celebrate their pickleball birthdays. This past weekend we celebrated Alice Tunks-Jones, my friend from Emporia’s, 30th birthday.
Our friend Susie Ternes did a fabulous job of organizing and bringing everyone together. She even got this delicious cake.
Here’s a pic of the three of us:
Some of Alice’s friends from all over converged in Wichita as well. It was wonderful meeting everyone.
This weekend will prove to be another exciting one as it is Molly Sager’s turn to celebrate. The Sagers live in Great Bend but will be celebrating in Wichita as well. If you’re having a birthday, and pickleball is part of the festivities, you need to come to Wichita. This is where it’s at – LOL!
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Jeff Bally’s Holiday Hoedown
Posted on December 14, 2023 by Ching under Pickleball.
Some friends helped me test the team tournament function of Swish a couple of weeks ago. Swish is an app that another friend turned me on to a couple of months ago. I’d been testing it out for round robins for a few weeks but I wanted to try the team event feature. Thankfully, another friend (Jeff Bally) let us use his place to hold the team tournament. We called it Jeff Bally’s Holiday Hoedown.
- We had four teams compete:
- Picklebally’s – Jeff Bally, Casey Compton, Olivia Banks, and Bobby Weisbrodt
- Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins – Cindy and Ed Egan, Brandi Richardson, and Ramon Lozano
- The Picklers – Seth Mountain, Greta Siemens, and Sydney and Jon Duvall
- Phamily – Tom Pham, Sarah Berry, Fernando Martinez, and Natalie Lubbers
After five rounds of round robin pool play, one team emerged supreme. The Phamily went completely undefeated that day.
It was a successful test run of the Swish team tournament function. We started around 9 AM and wrapped shortly after 2 PM. I just followed the prompts on the app and everything ran pretty smoothly.
Next up, I’ll be testing the new DUPR X Swish integration. So far I’ve been really impressed with what this free app can do and I’m excited to run future events on their platform.
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Lunch with a Stranger? Sure, Why Not?
Posted on December 13, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
My friend Chris Townley suggested we try this new Indian restaurant that he read about a few weeks ago, Rajwadi Pointe. I’d never even heard of it. When he told me it was inside the Windham, I was like, “They have a restaurant?” It didn’t seem like a hotel that would have its own restaurant. I mean, it’s not a hotel I would stay it. Granted, it’s right off Kellogg so it’s more downtown than South Wichita but it is on Broadway and that, in itself, is pretty sketchy.
Here are some food pics from our visit:
When we went there, you would never know there was a restaurant in there. There’s absolutely no signage outside or even inside the restaurant. So we walked in and when went to what looked like the restaurant area and there was no one in there. We sat and waited for a while and I actually got concerned that they weren’t even open. After a long wait, we started to leave but then, as we were walking out, I asked the front desk guy, “Is the restaurant not open today?” And he was like, “I will be right there to take your order.” So apparently, the concierge is also the server. It was a very weird setup.
Obviously, we stayed and ate and thus the food pics. I did learn one thing though, my definition of “mild” and Indian food “mild” are two totally different things. I actually ordered a mango lassi (basically their version of a mango shake) just to keep the burning I was feeling in my mouth.
Anyway, I shared pictures from lunch on our FLiP + CHiNG Facebook and page, and posed a challenge to followers that I would buy lunch for the first person to guess the name of the restaurant where we ate. Sure as shit, someone actually got it. Who would have thought?
Here’s a picture of me and Trisha Vogt, the lady who won the challenge, when we had lunch there a few weeks ago. And then here are the pics of the food we ate:
Going back to the whole spice factor, I feel like no matter how I explain that I want my food mild, it never is quite mild enough for me. I’ve come to the conclusion that, no matter how good the food is, maybe Indian cuisine is not for me because it’s just too darn spicy. These days, when I get a hankering for curry, I go Thai instead. It’s definitely a lot milder and more my style.
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