Archive for the year 2025
Chicken N Pickle has the BEST Pop-ups
Posted on December 1, 2025 by Ching under Things to Do.
This year Chicken N Pickle debuted its Glampground experience. They set up tents, chairs, cozy decor and blankets, and basically the whole camping aesthetic. They packaged all the best parts of camping (e.g. s’mores) into an experience that you can engage in without actually going camping.
Mom booked a Glampground reservation for her birthday a couple of months ago, which actually inspired me to do the same.
Except mom was a little overzealous and invited way too many people to her event.
ME: You realize that the tents have a max capacity of 8, right?
MOM: It’s okay, we are just using the tent for photo ops anyway.
When it was my turn, I kept my attendees to the 8-person limit. I told Colby the conversation I had with my mom about the tent capacity and her she was like, “You guys ARE related!” I guess everyone knows I’m all about the pictures too, so we do have that in common. However, by contrast, I actually follow instructions.
Anyway, the s’mores and festive drinks were super fun.
I made a little video of the experience which you can watch here. Glamping season is over at CNP. They have now shifted to the Holiday Hideaway and Christmas igloos season but if they bring back the Glampgrounds next summer, I highly recommend it. It’s definitely a unique experience worth trying at least once.
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Sip and Support for Victory in the Valley
Posted on November 14, 2025 by Ching under Events.
Victory in the Valley had their annual wine walk event at Chicken N Pickle last month. It was on a Thursday night which was my team league night at TapNPaddles at the time so I could not go. I still wanted to support the event though, because Victory in the Valley was just so great while Brian was going through his cancer treatments. So, I got tickets for mom and dad and Brian to go. I signed mom and dad up for both the pickleball clinic and the wine walk. Brian was coming from his work and couldn’t do the clinic, which started at 4 pm, so I only got him tickets for the wine walk portion only.
Mom and dad really enjoyed the pickleball clinic. Dad even texted me what he learned that day after the fact. They’re not really big drinkers so they only stayed briefly for the wine walk portion of the festivities. Each attendee got a ticket for a full pour of their favorite wine and they both gave their tickets to Brian.
I had a feeling this would happen so, earlier that day, I asked Brian if he wanted me to drop him off at Chicken N Pickle on my way to my league and just come back to pick him up after. He was like, “No. I don’t want to be waiting around for you if you’re running late. I will drive myself.” I was not thrilled about this idea but I figured, I would go to CNP after league and, if he was in bad shape, then we’d leave his car there and he could just ride home with me.
So, he’s at the party having a great time (as you can see from the photos). Besides mom and dad, we had a bunch of our friends there also. I finish my league and give him a call. “Are you still at CNP?” I ask. He’s like, “No. I’m already home.”
“Okay. I won’t bother going to CNP then since you’ve already left. I’ll just head straight home. What are you doing right now?”
“I’m sitting in the chair,” he says. The “chair” is our loveseat recliner in front of the fireplace. It’s our favorite spot in the house (including the dog).
“How did it go tonight? Who all did you see there?” I asked him. Listen. This guy was so drunk he couldn’t even talk to me. I don’t know how he managed to get himself home. He was obviously gone so I asked him, “How did you get home?” He’s like, “Rex drove me home. Rex kept me safe.” Rex is the name of his car. Then he adds, “I’m sleepy. I think I’m going to bed.”
He tasted all of the wines (multiple times) and then he drank his full pour, mom’s full pour, and dad’s full pour. I am amazed that he didn’t (a) get pulled over on the way home, (b) get into a car crash, or (c) run over someone, or (d) all of the above. I am so grateful we don’t live that far from Chicken N Pickle because he was a mess.
When I get home, he was already laying in bed naked. He managed to move from the chair to the bedroom and undress himself. I also undress and get in the bed with him. I guess it’s bedtime now. He’s laying next to me trying to sleep off his drunkenness while I’m laying in bed, playing on my phone (doom scrolling as they call it – I just call it catching up). Then it his him. Thankfully, he still had the wastebasket next to his side of the bed from when he was feeling sick during his treatments. Off the bed he goes and he’s kneeling over the trash can vomiting. I’m thinking I should probably go help him. So I get over to his side and start rubbing his back and ask him if there’s anything I can do to help. He just shakes his head and tells me, “You’re already doing it.”
He’s on the floor puking into the wastebasket. I’m next to him. This goes on for a while before he stops and goes, “I think I’m done.”
“Okay. Should we leave the can here in case you get sick again?” He’s like, “No. I’m done.” I know what he’s thinking. He doesn’t want the putrid smell of vomit next to him all night.
We get him in bed and I grab the plastic sacks, double-bagged, careful to make sure there are no leaks. I walk it straight out to our trash bin in the garage. I didn’t want to smell it in the house either so I wasn’t going to throw it in our trash bin in the kitchen. It was going all the way outside. By the time I get back to the bedroom, he’s already puking again – over the bathroom sink this time. In my mind I’m thinking, “I told you so” as I’m looking around in the bedroom to see if there’s any puke on the floor because his side of the bed is furthest from our bathroom. Amazingly, he managed to make it to the sink without dripping puke anywhere.
Again, I stroke his back and console him, and make sure he is okay. When he’s done, we clean him up and also clean up the sink and try for bed again. We were successful the second time around. He was feeling much better when we woke up the next morning and he could finally tell me how the night went. Suddenly, he was Mr. Chatty Cathy. I was glad to hear that he had a great time (other than drinking so much that he got sick) but man, what a night!
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April’s Birthday at Napoli
Posted on November 14, 2025 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
We had such a wonderful time celebrating April’s birthday at Napoli. This was actually a couple of months ago but I’m super behind on posting here.
We enjoyed some fabulous food and drinks in addition to the wonderful company. It’s always great to see these guys because I don’t feel like we get to spend enough time together. Everyone is just so busy.
Food pics…
And the drinks… I only got a couple of pics, though.
Our friends are huge fans of Napoli. We love Napoli too but I think our go to for Italian right now is FioRito. The food is fantastic and it’s more centrally located. What about you all? Which Italian restaurant is your favorite?
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4K Members Celebration
Posted on November 7, 2025 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.
Guess what. The Wichita Pickleball Facebook group finally surpassed 4,000 members. We held an event at TapNPaddles to celebrate. Thanks to Cameron Ventling for the idea!
I brought a cake from Costco as my contribution because no celebration is complete without cake.
A few players stayed for drinks that night.
Congrats to Julie Pauly and Matt Dutton for winning Friday Night Fiesta that week.
Anyway, here’s to 4K and looking forward to celebrating the next milestone!
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Crispy & Co HaneBe
Posted on October 20, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I found a new fried chicken place we love on the West side of town. And, no, it isn’t Raising Cane’s — although we do love us some Raising Cane’s as well.
This place is called Crispy & Co HaneBe and it went in the old Planet Sub space on Central and Maize. One of the best things about this place is you can get chicken, tacos, rice, and boba — all under one roof. We’ve been a few times now and we’ve enjoyed our food every time.
Food pics…
Here’s their current weekly special schedule (NOTE: Current as of October 2025. Depending on when you’re reading this, it might change so please don’t be mad at me.)
- Manic Monday – All drinks are 50% OFF from 2 PM to 5 PM.
- Taco Tuesday – Buy 1 order of chicken tacos and get the 2nd order at 50% OFF.
- Wild Bowl Wednesday – $2 OFF all rice bowls.
- Thirsty Thursday – All fruit teas and lemonades are 50% OFF.
- Fry-Day – Any side of fries (includes sweet potato fries), tater tots, and onion rings are 50% OFF.
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