Fun Weekend and with Friends
Posted on October 18, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It was great catching up with everyone this weekend. Between everyone’s busy schedules and traveling, it’s been difficult to get together. However, the stars magically aligned this weekend and we were able to catch up with our #vacaywithjayjay travel pals.
We started out at Oak & Pie on Saturday night. We all met up for dinner in honor of Reniece’s birthday.
I know I look sloppy compared to my posh pals but I pretty much live in pickleball gear these days. Exhibit A – oversized Chicken N Pickle sweatshirt, which I probably should have gotten in a size small. I got the large one in a Chicken N Pickle auction basket that I won on World Pickleball Day. The large was entirely too big so I exchanged it for a medium, thinking that would fit correctly, but it’s still a tad too big. Unfortunately, there’s no exchanging it now that I’ve worn it.
I like things baggy on me but, looking at this pic, I’m thinking a small or extra small would look so much better on me. Oh, well.
I just love these ladies. I can’t wait to travel with them again. Speaking of travel, they’re all going to Jamaica in December, which we will miss because we are going in January with pickleball peeps.
Reniece and Alicia are too cute. They make me miss my long hair.
Here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed on Saturday night.
These nachos don’t look all that appetizing but they were actually really good. I’m not much of a nacho eater, but I really liked this plate of nachos.
These wings were also quite good. They’re the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. I’m sure the dressing that it came with was good but I didn’t need it.
You can never go wrong with cheese balls.
The calamari was excellent. I’m so glad we went with a group of people don’t have an aversion for seafood. Honestly, every time we’ve gone to Oak & Pie, I’ve wanted to get a plate of the calamari starter but, since Brian doesn’t eat it, and I can’t eat an entire plate by myself, I never can get it without it going to waste. I’m so glad that Marc ordered it to share with everyone.
Brian and I ordered our usual pie baby pizza and some pepperoni rolls for the two of us to split. However, because I gorged myself with all the appetizers that Marc ordered, after a couple of pepperoni rolls, I had no room for any pizza. Brian ate half of it there and took the other half to go. He ate the rest for lunch on Sunday. Safe to say, Brian ate an entire pizza by himself. LOL.
I love the pie baby pizza but I couldn’t help him eat it this time. I guess I didn’t really have to because he was able to consume it all himself quite effortlessly.
Possibly my favorite pepperoni rolls in town. I wish they would also make a cinnamon sugar one like they make at AJ’s in Topeka. It would be so good.
Here are some pics of everyone else’s food.
I think this is the gangster panini.
I didn’t see a Hawaiian pizza on the menu but apparently it’s a thing. I’m determined to get it next time. I love ham (or, in this case, Canadian bacon) and pineapple on a pizza.
When you can’t decide between two pizzas, ordering half and half is always a great idea. Smart move by Cory and April.
I honestly don’t know what all the dishes are called but everything looked delicious.
Reniece shared her strawberry shortcake dessert with everyone. It was amazing!
I would seriously go back for one of the specialty drinks, pepperoni rolls, and the strawberry shortcake dessert. That would be good enough for me.
On Sunday night we got back together with gang for s’mores by the fire at the Short’s. They have created such a great space in the city where they have space for their chickens, a vegetable and herb garden, and the best hangout spot.
They are so smart to buy all that land behind their house. Brian and I are not huge campers because we’re not really rugged people so we joked about just camping in their backyard. LOL.
It was great to catch up with April and Cory because we hadn’t seen them in forever. It’s been entirely too long.
I brought a bottle of my new favorite wine, Langman Estate Winery’s muscat canelli, to share but, besides the glass I poured for Becca, I drank pretty much of all it. It had been a while since we hung out with these guys and I had no idea that people weren’t really drinking anymore. Well, Kirk is still drinking except he wasn’t last night because he’s on antibiotics. Alicia did a dry January that’s somehow extended all the way to October because she found it agreed with her. In a couple of months, she’ll have achieved a completely dry 2021.
I had my first s’mores experience that night which made me realize that, while I like s’mores-flavored things, I really don’t like s’mores all that much. LOL. What I do like are shrimps on the barbie. Kirk had cocktail shrimps that were still slightly frozen so we decided to warm them up in the fire. It worked out great because it gave the shrimps some really good smoky flavor. You didn’t even need the cocktail sauce at that point. Although, we all agreed we wished we had some butter.
It was such a great weekend. Brian and I had a such a wonderful time catching up with our pals. Until next time. GNG.
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Birthday Dinner for a Pretty Lady
Posted on October 23, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We joined our #VacayWithJayJay pals last weekend at Abuelo’s. We had dinner in honor of Reniece’s 42nd birthday.
Here are some pictures of our food.
I think we had 24 or so people that night. They already had another 20 top in the patio so we had to sit inside. We couldn’t all sit together but they put us in the same section, just in separate tables. It worked out just fine. It was great catching up with our vacation buddies. Also great to enjoy Abuelo’s food again. It’s been a while.
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Life During COVID-19
Posted on April 5, 2020 by Ching under Life.
I feel like I’m in the middle of a horror film. Never in my entire life did I imagine we would be living like this — fearing for our lives, unable to leave our homes. It feels like the zombie apocalypse minus the zombies.
Since I’ve been working from home the last two weeks and we’re not supposed to go out for non-essential activities, I’ve pretty much been stuck at home 24/7. It’s been driving me crazy. I’m so glad that Kirk and Alicia organized a ZOOM night for us. We’ve had two of these virtual get togethers since the start of the stay-at-home order and they’ve been my lifeline.
Brian set ours up in the basement so we could connect the computer to the big TV and see everyone’s video better than we would on our tiny computer screen. He was so excited that we were actually the first ones on. Actually, we were both looking forward to it all week. We even got a special bottle of wine just for the occasion.
In all seriousness, it’s actually a bottle of Sequoia Grove (one of our favorite wines). Brian just printed a funny label to put over it.
It was a nice evening so Jay and Becca set up on their back deck.
Clockwise from top left in the below pic: Alicia and Kirk, me and Brian, Jay and Becca, Jared and Hazel, Justin and Tina, and Marc and Reniece.
On the first night, we were joined by our #CostaRica2019 #VacayWithJayJay pals plus a couple of friends of the Shorts – Jarred and Hazel. It was like a mini reunion.
We played virtual Cards Against Humanity with the group and it was super fun. I usually get crappy cards but I actually got the perfect card to play for this round.
Here’s another round that I won.
We had another get together the other night. We were supposed to dress up like where we wanted to go after we are all set free from the travel ban and stay-at-home mandate. Only Alicia and I really participated though.
I wore one of my Sofibella pickleball outfits because going to play pickleball as soon as we regain our freedom to be around other people is first of my list of things to do. Alicia wore her “Corona Beach Party” shirt because the beach is her first stop. Having Corona on the shirt was perfect though, because Coronavirus is the reason we are all in this mess.
Brian considered wearing his Star Trek shirt because he said he wanted to be off-world, but he was lazy and just stayed in his robe. He rationalized it by saying that’s what one of the characters wore in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Here’s the group from the other night. We were minus Tina and Justin and Jarred and Hazel but still have enough people for games.
We played Cards Against Humanity again, which Brian won, and then also some Pictionary. Pictionary was really challenging but a lot of fun.
Oh, I forgot to mention Alicia’s sister AJ joined us both times too. Her husband who is currently stationed in Las Vegas got off work too late for us to meet him the first time but he was able to join this time around. He seems like a nice guy. Hopefully we can meet him in real life when we all get through this.
For our next ZOOM social we’re celebrating a bunch of birthdays — virtually of course. So we’re moving the event from Friday night to Saturday night. I may not have Zumba and pickleball anymore but at least I have one thing to look forward to each week. Alright, everyone hang in there. Stay heathy and safe. GNG.
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Shock ‘N Clause at the New Neighbors
Posted on January 25, 2020 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink, Things to Do.
I can’t believe I completely forgot to blog about the one of the best things that I was part of in 2019. Our friend Marc discovered the Shock ‘N Clause movement and organized one for our group.
There are many variations of this random act of kindness but our group agreed upon $50 per person (or $100 per couple). It basically works this way: All the participants pool their cash, use the funds to pay the meal, and the remaining cash goes to the server as their tip.
Our group consisted of the #VacayWithJayJay #CostaRica2019 gang plus Mama Dill and two other couples. One of the non #CostaRica2019 couples was friends with the Huntees and the other couple was friends with the Shooks. Here’s a group photo of the most generous bunch of people I know…
We ended up taking our Shock ‘N Clause to the New Neighbors because none of the other diners could accommodate our large group (we had 15 people total) for brunch. Neighbors holds a special place in my heart because we used to play “bar” poker there back in the day. This was back in our Amateur Poker League (APL) days about fifteen years ago. I actually thought we were going to that same restaurant where we used to play but Brian and I hadn’t been there in years and we didn’t realize they moved. The restaurant is in a new spot and now called the New Neighbors Bar & Grill, instead of simply just Neighbors Bar & Grill.
I think the move to the new location happened a few years prior but the name change happened only a few months ago. After the owner was murdered back in July, the restaurant was closed for some time. The restaurant reopened in October under new ownership and that’s when the name change to the New Neighbors Bar & Grill happened.
Anyway, we were lucky to have a great server who seemed truly deserving of the gift. The restaurant isn’t a fancy place and the menu items are quite reasonably priced. Our group’s entire meal cost under $200. Since we brought $750 with us, our server ended up with just slightly over $550 as her tip. It felt really heartwarming to be able to pay it forward and bless someone’s life in this way specially around the holidays. I’d have to say this was the most gratifying meal I’ve had ever in my entire lifetime.
Speaking of meal, I’d be remiss if I didn’t share pictures of our food. That’s kind of my thing and I’m not about to let you down.
I had their corned beef hash which was refreshingly very different than any other corned beef hash I’d ever had. I think it’s the best ever compared to all the other ones I’ve had in town, and I’m not just saying that because my heart was full.
I couldn’t take pics of everyone’s food, because there were two other couples in attendance who I didn’t know very well and I didn’t want to seem weird, but I took as many as I could.
At least our #VacayWithJayJay pals knew better than to start eating before I could take a photo of their meals. LOL. Seriously though, we have the most amazing and generous bunch of friends. I hope that Brian and I are able to participate when we do this again later this year. Until then, keep paying it forward and GNG.
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The Best of 2019
Posted on January 19, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies, Life, Travel.
This past year has been memorable in different ways than previous years. We started the year by celebrating New Year’s Eve at our house. And, true to our superstition, we spent a lot of time with the Dills last year because we rang in the new year together. We actually traveled with the Dills a couple of times last year.
Our #VacayWithJayJay crew traveled to Costa Rica for Jay’s 40th birthday and then we had another trip (this time to Mexico) later in the year with the Dills and the Huntees. The Costa Rica trip was in April and the Mexico (Cancun, Riviera Maya) trip was in November. Brian and I try not to take too many trips in the same year but, as work as been a little cray-cray lately, the breaks were actually helpful in keeping me balanced. Plus, even though we went a little overboard on trips (we also spent a weekend in Austin, Texas following one of my work conferences and, of course, my annual pilgrimage to Orlando, Florida for #ZINCON), I considered the Mexico trip as my birthday present this year. I had fun continuing my second 21st birthday celebration with the Dills and Huntees in Mexico. I enjoyed it so much I think, instead of just having a birthday month, I’m going to have a birthday “quarter” every year. LOL.
Just kidding. I know my birthday does not trump Jesus’ birthday in December, which Jay was nice enough to remind me.
Speaking of birthdays, I really milked it this year. In addition to all of the birthday dinners Brian and I typically have the entire month of October, my friend Matt organized a birthday-slash-Halloween pickleball party at West YMCA. Never in my entire life had I ever thought that I would have a birthday party at the YMCA. Mainly the Y does kids’ birthday parties but I guess adults who are young at heart can have them there too. It might be the most underrated thing at the Y. Granted, you cannot have any alcoholic beverages at the YMCA (duh?) but grown up birthday parties at the Y can be a lot of fun. Specially if you are part of our ever-expanding Wichita pickleball community.
Pickleball really exploded in Wichita last year. I think Chicken N Pickle had a lot to do with it. I didn’t know this at the time but even before CNP, pickleball already had a huge following in Wichita in the senior circles. CNP made it more mainstream and accessible to everyone. And then we got new outdoor courts at Seneca Park and we brought everyone together — new players and veteran pickleball junkies — on Facebook.
The Wichita Pickleball Connection started last year with just a handful of people and today (exactly a year later) were at about 850 members strong. It’s insane! Yes, today is actually the first anniversary of our little Facebook group.
In terms of pickleball, the biggest event to ever happen in Wichita is the Franklin Pickleball Masters. Sure, there were tournaments that happened throughout the year but the Franklin event brought the nation’s top players to Wichita (a few of them live here, actually — at the time, I just new of Matt Wright and Lucy Kovalova but we have some up and coming players like Jocelyn Devilliers and Patrick Smith who live here also) and we got to see pros play the game in real life. It was amazing!
That weekend was HUGE! I ended up hosting Regina Franco (one of the pros playing in the tournament) and her friend Belinda Dettman completely by accident and sheer luck. They even came to the pre-tournament cookout that Matt hosted at Seneca Park. Regina and Belinda were great house guests and Regina became my first ever professional pickleball player friend.
I really enjoyed watching Regina and her women’s doubles partner Sarah Ansboury play at the big tournament. Of course, we cheered for our hometown favorites, Matt and Lucy, but it was fun cheering for Regina and Sarah in the women’s division too.
Lots of things happened with pickleball last year. The event was added to the Wichita Corporate Challenge. At the time, it wasn’t that big at work yet so I got to play in it (being an early adopter) by default with my friend Chris Wilson. We were the only two people who volunteered for the pickleball event. I suspect that will change this year with pickleball being so popular and highly addictive.
I also played in the Bob Jackson Friendship Tournament, my first “Light Up Edgemoor” event. There’s a big group that’s organized behind raising money to get lights installed at Edgemoor Park where we already have six outdoor pickleball courts thanks to the efforts of Becky Middleton and others. We are trying to raise money for lights for the pickleball courts so that we can play later in the evening in the summer time when the weather is nice.
Besides pickleball the year was also filled with fun parties. We didn’t attend as many as we did in previous years (as I don’t think I’m on that list anymore at work) but at least we had the opportunity to attend some of our faves:
In addition, we had the opportunity to attend some events we’d never been to before like the Blues & Brews Festival in Andover, the Gatsby Gala (for United Way Young Leaders), and the Crawl for Cancer, which we actually had a dozens of others who participated in the event with us. We had a mega-team of almost 50 people. Anyway, I know the Cancer Crawl has been going on for years because I have coworkers who do it every year but I think the other two events are one offs.
Uncle Roy also had a fun birthday ping pong tournament that was a ton of fun. He had one a couple of years ago during the holidays but everyone was busy with travels and other life events that there wasn’t one last year. It’s always a blast but my ping pong skills haven’t really improved much so I didn’t advance in the bracket. I’m not so worried about my ping pong game these days, though.
Another fun thing that happened is my friends from Kansas City came down to Wichita for a weekend and actually took my Zumba class. Brian and I had fun hosting them. They even got to meet grandma when we all had brunch together at Carrabba’s on Sunday. That’s one of the most memorable weekends of the year.
The one thing that sets this year apart from other years is the number of new friends I made, all thanks to pickleball. I usually make a few new friends each year just through my Zumba classes and at the various events we attend, but this year was unlike any other. I made hundreds of new friends through our Facebook group.
Anyway, I always have fun looking back at the wonderful memories from the year. Recalling all of the great things that happened, interesting places we visited, fun parties we had the opportunity to attend, delicious food we got to eat, new friendships, etc. makes me realize how truly blessed I am and for that I am beyond grateful. This exercise really gets me excited for the current year. I can’t wait to document all of this year’s memorable moments and experiences and then to look back on them with you at the end of 2020. Here’s to a wonderful year ahead!
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