The Weekend Recap
Posted on September 14, 2026 by Ching under Hobbies.
We kicked off the weekend at a Friday night Wind Surge game, and let’s just say the scoreboard wasn’t exactly on our side. The Wind Surge got blown out, but honestly, nobody seemed to care. We spent the evening hanging out on the Coors Light Party Porch with the Terneses and Warwicks, enjoying great company, and the night ended with an incredible 9/11 tribute drone show and fireworks display. Even with the lopsided loss, it was a fantastic way to start the weekend.
On Saturday morning, I played pickleball and (American) mah jongg with Carrie Soto and her ladies. I ate lunch at TapNPaddles because we didn’t finish mah jongg until almost one o’clock and I didn’t want to drink on an empty stomach.
Then we met some friends for drinks at the Hopping Gnome before heading to Zoobilee. Their new midnight margaritas, created in honor of Practical Magic 2, are deliciously refreshing.
We didn’t want to drive home and then drive back out to the zoo, so we decided to just go straight to Zoobilee from Hopping Gnome (since were already halfway there). I’m always grateful for the free tickets from work because Zoobilee just seems to go downhill every year and I would be really disappointed had I actually paid for tickets. It seems like there are fewer food and beverage vendors participating and more and more people attending. And the ticket price just continues going up.
Brian and I usually go early and high tail it out of there as soon as the food vendors start packing up, which seems to be earlier and earlier every year. I’m not sure if they’re just unprepared for the number of people who attend or what.
Brian and I did run into a few people though, most notably Chelsea Hawthorne who I hadn’t seen in nearly ten years. We used to part of the same close-knit Zumba crew back in the day.
We took one other selfie earlier in the evening just to show we were there (because pictures or it didn’t happen – lol) but we really haven’t been as crazy about Zoobilee as we were in our 20s. I think the Autumn & Art party at Bradley Fair was on the same night and I kinda wish that we went to that instead because it was probably far less crowded.
I didn’t get to take pics on Sunday but we were quite productive. After I got home from playing pickleball, Brian and I worked on our deck. We removed the old roller sunshade, which mostly just serves as a spot for random birds to nest (don’t worry, the birds were long gone for the season so no birds were harmed in our deck makeover project), and then hung some outdoor curtains in their place. We’re getting the deck ready for the new deck furniture we ordered from Ashley Furniture last weekend. We’ve only received the ottomans so far but we have four chairs and a couple of little tables coming. We will share pictures as soon as we get all of the furniture assembled. Check back soon!
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