FLIP + CHING

Brian’s Point of View

Posted on October 23, 2005 by Brian under Food and Drink, Reviews.

Now that you all have read my wife’s review on the restaurant, I will take a stab at the place. This way you have something that is a little more that just a one sided opinion. I found the toned down atmosphere to be very inviting. However, the T.V. that blasted sports in the bar portion of the building was a little distracting. If the place had been packed and the bar full it would have been expected, but their was no one in the bar (only a few couples in the entire place actually) this should have been a sign to turn down the volume till it was actually needed. The place was obviously new and still very sterile and clean. The decor was very subtle and not over done like PF Changs, and overall atmosphere was simple. Our hostess was new and still nervous and needing training (proper training) you could tell that the only reason she had the job was because she was the relative of one of the owners, or managers of the place, otherwise she would not have ever got the job. The food was actually very good. I liked the dumpling, I thought that they had a very good flavor and I was not thrown off by the amount of dough they used like my wife. I thought the filling was a little small but ample. Our main dish was not bad but I think they could have balanced it a little better. We ordered a triple meat meal that was supposed to have Beef, Chicken and Shrimp. Instead we were brought Chicken, Beef and 3 pieces of shrimp. Their could have been more here but I guess when everything is prepared in a somewhat large vat, you are left with little choice. Our server was very nice and very patient with us as far as our waiting for my parents to arrive. In the end our check was very good and not expensive at all (we did have to ask him to split the check, he did not ask nor offer) and the food was decent. The downplays were, We did not get any desert due to the fact that they ran out. This was very disconcerting, the waiter was not actually sure that they had anything and then checked. In my opinion, you should never run out of desert. As my wife stated, I wouldn’t go out of my way to avoid the place but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go to the place either.

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So Much for School Work

Posted on October 18, 2005 by Ching under Poker, School.

It’s almost 6:00 pm on a Tuesday. Normally I would be getting ready for Accounting but we don’t have class tonight because of fall break. I had thought about going to the gym to workout last week, but decided against it this morning because the Tuesday fitness class is usually always full. I usually don’t enjoy working out when it’s elbow to elbow, so I was left with no plans. I sat in front of the computer and pondered my options. I could stay home and work on my take home exam for Accounting which I have been procrastinating on since the first day I got it. Or I could just nap. Lord knows I need to catch up on some sleep. Or I could play poker. There’s Heroes or Side Pockets. Actually, there’s a plethora of other options according to the Wichita Poker Review website but those are the two places that I am familiar with and I’m not really one to try the unfamiliar when I am by myself. Poker sounded good. I settled on Side Pockets and because I’m contemplating on boycotting APL for a while. The reason for the boycott? I mourning the loss of Brian Day, my all-time favorite APL dude. He is no longer with the organization. I’m not quite sure what is doing now, but I hope he knows that he is missed. At least, Brian and I miss him dearly. I sent a text message to Dill to find out if he wants to go to Side Pockets for poker. No sooner than I had sent it, my phone starts ringing. It’s Dill. We exchange greetings and then he goes, “You gotta bail me out.” “You’re in jail?!” He started laughing. He then explained that he needed someone to sub for Saif on their poker league. Naturally he tries to butter me up. He tells me how they are in first place and they want to keep their lead because there is only one more week left after tonight. He goes, “I’d much rather have you play because I know you can play. When you use one of their alternates you never know what you’re going to get.” I didn’t need much convincing, though. I was just glad I had something to do. The catch? I had to be at Sharky’s by 6:30 pm. I hurriedly got off the phone because it’s was like two minutes until 6:00 pm and I was almost a half an hour away from the joint. That, and I needed to change. I wasn’t going to go play poker in the dress I had worn to work that day. I ran to the bedroom to change clothes. Just my luck, my zipper gets stuck. Don’t you hate that? When you are in a hurry, something inveitably goes wrong. I struggled with it for a while (cussing and griping and wishing Brian were home to help me undress) until I finally got my dress unzipped. I just put on the same short denim skirt that I wore to Neighbors on Saturday. I had no time to pick something else to wear. The skirt was right there next to the bed. I just needed to grab it, wear it and go. By five after I was out of the house and on my way. I sped like a bullet train which is amazing because I don’t ever speed (ask Brian; I’m the safest driver in the world). I arrived at Sharky’s with ten minutes to spare. When I got there I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I called Dill and he instructed me to find the table labeled “But It Was Suited,” their team name. I found the other members of the team there and got assigned to table ten. All the other teams were short one or two people also (they didn’t have the foresight Dill had to call in their own substitute; that or maybe they didn’t really care anymore because they had no hope of winning) so they ended up disbanding table ten and I ended up sitting at the same table as Dill. This didn’t make him happy. Each team member was supposed to be assigned to a different table. The goal was to try to win at your table and earn points: two points for taking out the bounty (there is one designated at each table), one point for third place, two points for second and three for first. The first place finishers get to play against each other at the final table where they have an opportunity to earn even more points. The points are tallied at the end of the evening and added to the total points for each team. The team with the most points at the end of the league period (next Tuesday is their last day) wins $3000. I wasn’t too happy about having to sit at the same table as Dill either. I actually drove all the way from the East side, where I live, to the West side, where Sharky’s is located, to supposedly fill in for their missing team member, Saif, so that they have their ten people but since the other teams were short one or two members anyway, they didn’t really need me to fill in. I felt totally worthless… But whatever. I was there. Might as well play and have a good time. At least I didn’t feel any pressure to do well because there were two of us on the same team at our table. I decided to order food and just hang out, hang in there for as long as I can and enjoy the game. Although, when Dill’s stack began to dwindle I had to start playing more seriously. I had a job to do. My job is to earn points for the team. By the time I finished eating and started playing seriously we were down to about five people. I think I did a pretty good job of hanging in there considering that it was slow going at first. I was short stacked from the get go because I had flopped top pair and ran into pocket aces. That was within the first few hands. I had no idea what I was up against because there were no aces on the board until the river. That hurt. But I play a pretty tight game so I hung on to the rest of my chips until there were only two of us left. It helped that I got some good cards and won a few hands too. The pots I’d won were pretty small compared to others that were won at our table, but enough to keep me going after a horrible start. Incidentally, the player who I went up against on that momentous hand was the one who eventually won our table. I placed second and earned two points for our team. I think Dill had high hopes for me because I was the last person in our team still playing but I knew there was no way that I could win. The dude had systematically knocked out the last few people at our table, thus further contributing to his chip stack. Dill tried to encourage me by saying that he’s won from the same position I was at (a severe underdog in terms of chips). He even said that the guy only had a three-to-one chip stack against me. He really had like four or five times the chips I had, but that was Dill trying to be optimistic. In the end his chip stack prevailed. The guy earned three points for taking first and an additional two points for taking out the bounty earlier in the game. I don’t think his team was anywhere close to Dill’s team in the rankings, though. Dill said they had 19 more points than the second place team. I don’t know what rank his team is, but they weren’t in second place so I don’t think the five points are going to harm Dill’s team any. I think Dill’s team will hold their first place rank and win the $3000 that they’ve been working for all these weeks. Dill said that Saif won’t be back by next Tuesday and asked if I could sub again but I had to decline. I would have Accounting then and I can’t miss school. Not for poker, anyway. Dill said he has school next Tuesday also, but he has decided to miss because he has his eye on the prize. Talk about dedication. Overall, I had a fun time. My total expenditures for the evening were less than $20, $10 of it went toward my food bill ($6.99 for the club and I gave the rest to the server because she was nice) and then $5 to the dealer. I had tipped him when we first started playing (in hopes that it would change my luck and I’d start getting better cards) and then I gave another $3 to counteract another player’s mojo. I’m not sure how much he tipped the dealer but after he did I tipped the dealer right behind him and joked that was to counteract whatever luck he hoped to have by tipping. I think it worked because he got knocked out soon after. I hope he is not mad at me for trying some poker voodoo. You gotta do what you gotta do to win, you know? I was tempted to drink but I was driving. That, and I was on a tight budg
et. We are going out to lunch on Friday to celebrate Rush’s belated birthday and I needed to save some money for that. I’m really glad that I didn’t drink, though. I got so lost going home. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I found my way eventually. It’s challenging to find your way in the dark when you are practically blind like I am. Specially since I’m not used to driving by myself. Brian is usually the one who drives so I never have any idea where I am when I’m on my own. It’s hard enough in the daylight. You all should’ve seen me tonight. It’s embarrassing. I really should wear my glasses when I drive. Anyway, I’m too tired to work on my Accounting take home exam. Brian will be home soon and I think I will just chill with him and watch TV for the rest of the evening until it’s time for bed. So much for school work. =P

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The Weekend So Far

Posted on October 15, 2005 by Ching under Life, Movies, Poker.

With the semester being as stressful as it has been, I can’t believe I made it to fall break in one piece (if at all). You all know how I’ve thought about jumping off a bridge a few times. Anyway, I have another take home exam in accounting to work on but since there are no classes on Monday or Tuesday I figured I would take this opportunity to relax a bit. Last night relaxing involved dinner and movie. Brian got out of work around ten-ish. We were going to play poker with Rush and his friends, but they play their cash games a little differently. I like the buy-in, tournament style format. I was going to go over there around nine thirty to hang out, but then I realized I still didn’t have a pin number to my debit card. There was no way for me to get cash out and I didn’t want to go and just hang out until Brian showed up with the cash. I just ended up calling Rush and canceling. Brian picked me up and we went to PF Chang’s for dinner. I love how late they are open. At least you can always count on getting good food after ten o’clock and not having to settle for Denny’s or something. Over dinner we discussed my debit card woes. As long as I can use my debit card as a credit card I am fine, but I am otherwise pretty helpless. I can’t get cash out. Isn’t that nuts? I have no access to money without Brian. We’ve talked about going to the bank to set up my pin number in case of emergency. That way I’m less of a damsel in distress and will actually be able to take care of myself. Then we never get around to doing it because my schedule is super tight and I guess we both don’t think it’s that much of a priority. I don’t even think of it really, until I need to get cash out. I typically only use my debit card for lunches and stuff and most places will allow me to use it as a credit card except for places like El Patio who are stuck in the middle ages. They only take cash or check. Is that dumb, or what? Brian actually doesn’t mind my inability to get cash so much. I mean, he worries about emergencies and stuff but he looks at it as a form of job security. He says this guarantees that I will always need him. He joked about fearing the day that I gain my independence because that will be the day that I leave him. That’s a pretty funny way of looking at things I guess. To date, Brian’s job is pretty secure.

After dinner we went home and popped one of our Netflix movies, Kingdom of Heaven. It was pretty good. Of course it helps that Orlando Bloom plays the lead character. I also recognized that one of the guys in the HBO series Rome (Vorenus) is in it. These days Rome is on top of our DVR list. That show is addictive. Anyway, we stayed up until almost three so I couldn’t get up early enough for my usual Saturday morning workout routine. I’ll be at the gym tomorrow, though, because when I saw Pam on Thursday I promised her I would come to try her new Sunday fitness class. They’re trying out a brand new class format. Before it was an our of pump and then an hour of step. Now it’s an hour of pump and then an hour and a half cardio medley consisting of hi/low, step and kick boxing.

We got up around eleven-ish today. Brian did dishes, I had some of my leftovers from dinner last night, and I started working on the laundry. We also watched Jet Li’s Unleashed. It was better than I expected. It had some pretty moving scenes (Brian actually caught me crying a couple of times; but I’m a cry baby, you all know that) and of course the obligatory fight scenes. Naturally. I don’t think I’ll ever see Jet Li in a movie without any kind of fighting. After the movie Brian went to the bank to deposit my reimbursement checks. He picked up some food and got the mail. Nothing interesting. Just catalogs and you all know I’m too broke to shop. Although, my birthday is coming up. I hope my mom gets me like a Visa gift card or something (hint, hint). I could use some extra shopping money to go towards a much-needed therapeutic shopping spree. It’s been like a year since I’ve bought something significant clothes-wise. Brian said he’s going to give me the $50 Visa gift card that he won at work since the memory stick duo that I bought a couple of weeks ago isn’t compatible with my phone. I thought it was going to be a plain memory stick duo but instead I got a memory stick duo PRO. I can’t use those with my phone, but it works with Brian’s PSP so he is the one using it now. We figured he could just have it instead of sending it back. I hate returning stuff. Anyway, I need a little bit more than $50 to get the stuff I want. I need to learn how to bargain shop, but sometimes I just see something I really want and I can’t find anything else that will suffice. For example there is this wide jeweled belt that I’ve been eyeing at Victoria’s Secret, but it’s $68. Back in the old days (when I had no qualms about spending $150 in just makeup), I wouldn’t even flinch. I would have ordered it as soon as I set eyes on it in the catalog. Ever since the epiphany of Thanksgiving 2004, however, I have changed. Now I have to save up in order to buy the things that I want. It’s been working out pretty well, though. I like the responsible version of me. We were going to play racquetball this afternoon, but I think I’m going to use the afternoon to work on my accounting exam (which is really what I should be doing right now). For tonight, we don’t really have anything major planned. I do know I want to hit Neighbors to try to win a seat in their current mini poker tourney. It started last week and it’s going to be a six-week event, if I’m not mistaken. You try to win a seat in the finals and what you ultimately play for is a $400 cash prize to first place and $200 for second. Not bad. I think it works because Brian hates Sharky’s anyway. I figured this way, we’ll still get to play poker and it’s going to be for pretty substantial prize and it won’t be at Sharky’s. So Brian is happy and I’m happy. It’s all about compromise. Wish us luck.

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Kill Me, Kill Me Now

Posted on October 13, 2005 by Ching under School.

Nothing has ever made me want to commit suicide more than my current accounting class. This guy has no consideration for those of us who happen to work fulltime. Every single week, tons of homework problems are assigned. As in, why don’t you just forget about your life because you will need to eat, sleep and breathe accounting the entire semester in order to pass the class. I pray that I will manage to somehow pull a C. I hate getting bad grades, just as I hate doing poorly at anything, but accounting is one of those things that I know I will never be good at.. The first step is acceptance, right? Just last night I was whining to Jen about how I can’t play poker any more and I can’t workout and I can’t do anything I want to do because of my current load at school. I think I bit off more than I can chew this time. I am so freakin’ stressed out. I think I’m due for a nervous breakdown. I’m not sure how much good that will do, though. Anyway, I think accounting is to blame. I’ve always hated accounting. But I came up with this brilliant plan to minor in it – a stupid decision that I am now regretting. I thought it was brilliant at the time, though. But you all know that hindsight is always 20/20. Isn’t that how the saying goes? Of course, Jen’s response is pretty much of the I-told-you-so variety. Her favorite thing to say to me is, “Accounting eats away your soul.” I really should have heeded her warning. She has been saying that since our ACCT 560 class with Yu Cong. Back then she planned to minor in accounting also. However, she was smart and nixed the idea. I was dumb and persevered with my brilliant-but-stupid plan. She still has her soul. Mine, on the other hand, is pretty much all gone. By the time the semester is over, there will be nothing left of it. There will be nothing left of me! So anyway, can some accounting genius out there please email me before I actually off myself?