FLIP + CHING

Have You Tried BOGAFIT Yet?

Posted on August 28, 2017 by Ching under Health, Things to Do.

Brian and I got to try BOGAFIT for the first time last week and neither of us fell in the water! Granted, I played it pretty conservatively. I didn’t do any jumping jacks or squat jacks on the board. Actually, I kept my feet firmly planted for the most part. Balancing on the board takes a bit of getting used to and I suspect I won’t be doing any crazy moves for a while.

Unfortunately, BOGAFIT isn’t included in your YMCA membership and requires a $35 monthly fee. However, they’ve got some free demos coming up at the Downtown YMCA. If you’ve been wanting to try it, this is your chance.

It is a fantastic workout and I’m actually considering signing up. I just need to check the schedule to make sure that it’s offered at a time that we can consistently make since you do have to pay for it. I don’t want to sign up and then have to miss.

If you have tried BOGAFIT before, let us know how long you’ve been doing it and what you think of the class/workout in the comments below.

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Fifteen Years of Marital Bliss

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink, Life, Relationship.

We had a few trips planned this year (Alaska in May, ZINCON in July, and my 40th birthday celebration at Sandals Emerald Bay in October) so we decided to keep it pretty low key for our 15th wedding anniversary.

We started things off with a bang (pun intended) by having dinner at Bonefish Grill on Thursday, August 10, which is our actual anniversary day.

We had a fabulous dinner. Here are a couple of pics.

We continued our celebration that weekend with a quick Kansas City getaway.

We ended up taking Molly with us because of the whole fiasco at the pet boarding place during ZINCON where she got attacked by another dog at daycare, which she wasn’t even supposed to be in. Anyway, we ended up still boarding Saki because the hotel only allowed one pet and Saki loves being around other dogs. Molly, who ended up with staples on her head after the incident, had just gotten her staples removed the day before so we didn’t want to chance it.

This is what her head looked like when we arrived home from ZINCON.

This is what her head looked like when the staples were removed, right before our KC trip. It was still healing, as evidenced by the bump and scab on her head, so we didn’t want to chance her getting in another fight and making it worse.

Brian dropped Saki off at the pet boarding place while I taught my early morning Aqua Zumba class. Amy was nice enough to sub my 10:30 AM Zumba class on Saturday and Mandy covered my 2:00 PM class on Sunday so we were able to get an early start on our drive.

We stopped by Leawood to visit our friend Chad and check out his new place. His apartment is in a really posh, newly developed residential area near the Corbin Park and Prairiefire shopping centers in Overland Park. It’s a really classy apartment complex befitting the fancy neighborhood setting. It kind of reminded us of a more upscale version of Quarters at Cambridge because of the granite in the kitchen and restrooms and other nice finishes.

Anyway, we had a very nice visit but didn’t stay very long because we wanted to check in to our hotel, feed Molly dinner, and also freshen up before our own dinner plans. Speaking of which, we couldn’t get into the Melting Pot for dinner because I didn’t plan ahead and make reservations. By the time I called the restaurant on Saturday morning, the earliest we could get was nine o’clock. I called the hotel to see if the concierge could use their magic. No such luck.

We did have this super nice surprise delivered to our room that afternoon, though.

By the way, remember how we got the exact same room that we had last year at the Hyatt Regency Orlando? Well, it happened again. We ended up staying in the exact same room I was in when I stayed at the Ambassador Hotel back in April. I’m not sure if they did that intentionally but it was a very nice surprise.

After feeding Molly her dinner, I took her and Brian to the rooftop park above Cosentino’s. It’s a really nice confined space for pets; however, your dogs still can’t be off-leash. It would have been nice to be able to let Molly loose to run around but I guess it’s okay that we kept her leashed because the green space is more expansive than it looks. We probably would have had a tough time getting her to come back.

The rooftop park isn’t that far from the hotel but I think Brian and Molly were both pooped from the drive so we decided to rest a bit before dinner.

Molly felt right at home.

Since we couldn’t get into the Melting Pot for dinner, we had to improvise. Brian had been asking to try Nara, one of my favorite restaurants when I was working in Kansas City, so we ended up having dinner there instead.

Here are some pictures of our food.

They serve Tank 7 so Brian was quite happy. Literally. He drank two glasses and it doesn’t take much. LOL.

It worked out great because we took advantage of the hotel shuttle to go to Nara so neither of us were driving.

After dinner the hotel picked us up from Nara and drove us to the Melting Pot. We decided to keep our nine o’clock reservations and had chocolate fondue for dessert.

While not having the full Melting Pot experience was a bit disappointing, I think it actually saved us money. LOL. Having dinner there would have cost us at least $120. The cost of the chocolate fondue wasn’t too bad.

Dessert was about $20 (before tip) for both of us.

We were ridiculously stuffed after eating all of that sushi and chocolate fondue. Thankfully, neither of us had to drive. The hotel shuttle picked us up from the restaurant and took us back to the hotel.

Dinner and dessert were delicious but being chauffeured around town was priceless. I don’t enjoy driving so I really appreciated it. I know Brian appreciated the break because he would have had to drive us otherwise.

As for taking Molly out before bed and first thing in the morning, it wasn’t too bad because Oppenstein Brothers Memorial Park is just a block over on Walnut (about halfway between our hotel and the rooftop park above the grocery store).

Speaking of morning, this was us the next day. Molly was such a good girl.

We took advantage of a late checkout and asked the hotel to take us to Succotash for breakfast before driving back to Wichita.

We’d only been there once before and that was over five years ago. I still remember how much I love it, though. I love that they have the freshest juice. Ever.

These are the all the options. I got the best lemonade.

This amazing lemonade lives up to its name for sure. If only they offered free refills!

The restaurant isn’t very big. The décor is cute and kitschy and the ambiance is pretty relaxed. We were there early enough that we got seated right away but they were quite busy. There was a steady flow of people the entire time we were there. It’s obvious that this place is popular with the locals.

Here are some pictures of our food, in case you are wondering. Brian got his usual: biscuits and gravy, fried eggs, and bacon.

I originally thought about getting the burrito of love (scrambled eggs, cheddar, and bacon wrapped burrito-style in a big, fluffy buttermilk pancake) but when I saw that the #3 omelet had bacon, feta, spinach, and artichoke hearts, I was sold.

Here’s what the inside of my omelet looked like since I added ham.

Breakfast was delicious. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

After breakfast, we called the hotel to pick us up and then it was time to drive back home. So that’s pretty much how our overnight trip to Kansas City went. It was a nice way to celebrate 15 years of marriage. Here’s to many more!

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2017 Wichita Corporate Challenge

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this year’s Wichita Corporate Challenge.

This is our second year participating in the Wichita Corporate Challenge. We took third place in our division yet again this year, behind Cargill (second place), and Koch (first place and overall winner). Last year we were only half a point from second place but Cargill brought their A-game this year. It wasn’t close. We had a ton of fun competing though; and we learn and grow every year.

You can view all of the results on the Wichita Corporate Challenge web site but here’s a summary of our best events.

Events that we earned Gold:
Golf
5k Bike – Women
Table Tennis

Events that we earned Silver:
Briefcase Shuttle
Tug of War
Tennis

Events that we earned Bronze:
5k Run – Women 31-45
100m Dash – Women 45+
3 on 3 Basketball – Women
Volleyball
Softball

Anyway, you can draw a few conclusions based on these results. The one I immediately jumped to is that our female employees kick major butt!

Also, it should come as no surprise that Isaac medaled in all of his events. His teams earned Gold for Golf (he played with Dante, Sherii, and Kelly) and Table Tennis (he played doubles with Amy), and Silver for Tennis (he played doubles with Lindsay). He is both athletic and super competitive, which is great for our team.

I suggested that he play in every single event next year. LOL.

I’m pretty competitive but lacking in talent so I’m not much help. I do love participating though, so I always just volunteer to compete in any events that need participants whenever I can. I’m just grateful to be included. I hope they let me play again next year.

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Our Final Night in Orlando

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Ching under Food and Drink.

Brian and I decided to have a nice dinner at RA before the #ZINCON after party at Cuba Libre so after seeing Missy and Todd off, we went back to our hotel room to get cleaned up. We normally don’t venture off too far from the hotel during convention. Well, I don’t because I just don’t have that much time. Brian usually just eats at the Pub next door. We will have to remember Ra for next time because they have really great happy hour specials and, on Sundays, the specials run from 3 PM to close which makes it an all-around happy day!

Here are some pictures of the restaurant’s interior.

The ambiance is quite nice. It’s sufficiently dark so as to make the person across from look even more attractive than they do in broad daylight. Brian did not need any help in that department because, you know, he is really, really ridiculously good looking. And, before you ask, no I haven’t been drinking.

Here’s a picture of my good looking husband perusing the menu.

Here are some pictures of food.

After dinner, it was time for the after party.

Here’s a picture of us with ZES Marcie early in the evening.

Brian and I found ourselves in this private area by the dance floor, opposite the stairs and entrance.

When we looked at the bottle prices we had to scram. LOL. We were definitely NOT planning on spending that kind of money on booze. I guess we unintentionally ended up in the “high roller” section. Oops!

I’m not sure what was going on with my phone that night but all the pictures turned out dark and grainy.

Here’s what the dance floor looked like.

We took a few selfies and danced a bunch.

We took this one in front of the restaurant as we were leaving.

I wish we could have stayed longer. We left the after party early because (a) we are old and aren’t used to staying up late, and (b) we had a super early flight the next day. So early, in fact, that it was almost not worth going to sleep.