New Year’s Eve Eve with My Pickleball Besties
Posted on January 6, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Pickleball.
My friend Ramon Lozano from Hays, Kansas was in town last weekend. You might remember me talking about him a few weeks ago in this post. Anyway, this past visit was the longest he had ever stayed with us. He usually only stays overnight. This time he stayed from Thursday all the way through Sunday.
I actually wasn’t expecting to see Ramon until Friday but he drove up a day early because he had a play date with Matt Nola and Jay Devilliers at Chicken N Pickle on Friday morning that he didn’t want to miss. I just happened to be off the entire week so I set up play for us on Thursday afternoon. Afterwards, I called Brian to see if he wanted to meet us for dinner on the way home from our pickleball session at the Pickle Club. Brian said he made dinner (porkchops and rice) that he had enough food for Ramon also. We decided to head home. We taught Ramon how to eat Filipino-style (with a fork and spoon) that night.
After dinner the three of us went to the basement to watch the Invitation on Netflix. I joked that the movie would be really romantic had I not already watched the movie trailer and know it was a horror flick. LOL.
The next day was cleaning day. I usually don’t like being home when the cleaners are cleaning because it makes me feel like such a lazy bum. Anyway, Brian left for work in the morning. Ramon and I had to make ourselves scarce. We decided to eat breakfast at HomeGrown before his 11 AM play date at CNP.
Even at 8:30 AM on a Friday morning they had a 30-minute wait for a table. Crazy, right? We decided to eat at the bar rather than wait.
I always like to try their seasonal drinks so I had the hot White Russian. I’ve only ever had this drink cold so this was different. It was so good!
Here are some pictures of our food:
Ramon remembered to order his toast with his meal this time. Unlike that time at Succotash when he forgot and he ordered his toast after and they brought it out when he was nearly finished eating.
I got the biscuits and gravy, which is what Brian normally gets and then I also asked for a full order of bacon on the side. You can never go wrong with bacon but they have Yoder bacon at HomeGrown and it’s really good.
Ramon ordered a Bloody Mary while we were killing time before we had to head to CNP. It was the most photogenic Bloody Mary I had ever laid my eyes on.
These next to plates were not ours. They were the meals of the ladies sitting next to us at the bar. One of them was Junetta Everett so not a total stranger. LOL.
After breakfast we headed to CNP where we hung out for almost the entire day. We got there around 10:30 AM and didn’t leave until 4-ish. Ramon played with his group from 11 AM to 1 PM. Brian and I got our cars washed next door at Tommy’s Express and then came back to have lunch while we watched them play.
Brian went home after lunch but I stayed because I was playing with a group (different group than Ramon) from 1 to 3 PM. Ramon hung around, drank some beers, and ate tostadas (his favorite thing to eat at CNP) while we played. We actually drove separate cars that morning because I didn’t think he would stick around. We could have totally carpooled!
Before heading home to pick up our friend Katie Merrill from our house so the three of us could carpool to the Pickle Club, Ramon and I stopped by Mochinut (Matt Nola’s place) so he could try mochi donuts, milk tea, and Korean corndog.
I think he had the half and half coated in hot Cheetos.
We worked up a pretty good appetite after our team practice session at the Pickle Club so then we hit Bubba’s 33 on the way home. Here are pictures of dinner…
I told Ramon I feel like all we did was eat all day. LOL.
The next day was New Year’s Eve and we played in the One Last Dink team tournament at the Pickle Club (it’s what we were practicing for on Friday night), which was so much fun. It really warrants its own entry.
I had such a great time with Ramon and Katie. I feel like we got some extra #teambonding time this past weekend. It was the most perfect Friday (and weekend, which I will tell you more about next time) ever. Until next time, GNG.
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