Life Happens
Posted on October 13, 2021 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Travel.
The other day I got an email from one of my hotel rewards accounts. I asked Brian about it because I wasn’t sure if it was a phishing scam. Something happened to my account but I hadn’t logged in and done anything. After Brian did some investigation, he found out that someone had hacked into my rewards account and redeemed some of my hotel points. They used my hard-earned points to book a room in China. This naturally pissed me off. I mean, I would like to visit China (not right now — but at some point) and I would like to be able to use my points. Scammers just make my blood boil.
Thankfully, Brian got it all sorted and they are giving me my points back. I haven’t checked yet but I’m hoping that my points will be there for me to use on a future stay. These points really do help to keep your travel costs down.
For instance, when I traveled to Arizona for a PPA tournament back in February, we stayed at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa which is easily $500 a night. Our hotel costs would have been nearly $3000 if I didn’t have enough hotel points to cover most of it. Anyway, points are very important.
Speaking of shitty things happening… My websites also broke this week. First, www.ictpickleball.com broke. Then when that finally got fixed, this site broke. My host restored this site from backup but, in the meantime, I lost two blog posts that didn’t make the last backup. So much crap happens.
But there are good things that happened too… On Sunday, World Pickleball Day of all days, I finally beat my friend Karen Fox at singles. I have never ever beaten her, in the history of us playing singles against each other, ever. I usually get a handful of points at best. We played one game on Sunday and I beat her 13-11.
It reminded of the time that I played singles against my friend Donnie Lesperance a couple of months ago and almost beat him. He ended up beating me 12-10 because I couldn’t close the game. If I ever beat Donnie in a game of singles, I am throwing a huge party!
Here’s a group photo of those of us who played in the World Pickleball Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle in the afternoon. Not many teams competed but we had a ton of fun. We got food and drinks and even got goodie bags. Oh, and I won some silent auction items. So, while we didn’t win at pickleball, at least I won some things. LOL.
On Tuesday I received compliments about my pickleball game from a couple of pickleball players that I admire and respect. Melissa Youngers paid me a compliment on how I played in Monday night league and then later that evening Steve Vetter said I played “incredible” in our Tuesday night league in a group text with a couple of other friends. Two compliments from a couple of amazing pickleball players in the same day is pretty darn awesome.
There are some other crappy things that have happened to me of late that I don’t really want to talk about. It’s nice that there’s these occasional, little rays of sunshine to keep my mind off the negative stuff. Anytime I go through a rough patch, I always remind myself to count my blessings.
I have actually gotten out of practice but I think I’m going to start this again just to preserve my sanity. Every morning start my day with three key things I wish to accomplish and then, at the end of the day, think of three positive things that happened or three things I’m grateful for right before bed. I’m absolutely certain that if I commit to doing these things consistently each day things will start to change for the better and even more good things will come my way.
That’s all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful day. GNG.
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National Pizza Month
Posted on October 13, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
In honor of national pizza month, I’m posting a couple of pictures of pizzas from one of our favorite pizza joints – Piatto’s Neaopolitan Pizzeria.
Their pizza is so good. Piatto is definitely my favorite place to eat pizza. Also, they have sangria on tap, which is always a winner in my book. Anyway, I hope you get to enjoy some delicious pizza this month for national pizza month! GNG.
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Reuniting with Old Friends/Coworkers
Posted on October 12, 2021 by Ching under Life.
Since my lunch with Alicia and Amie a couple of weeks ago, I’ve since bumped into some more current and former coworkers.
I saw Tammie Rhea at Haus of Brews. Tammie and I were on a work trip in Florida around this time five years ago when Hurricane Matthew struck and we ended up fleeing to Tampa together.
Then Brian and I ran into Cristie Rodriguez at the Society of 1895 luncheon. Cristie retired from Westar Energy several years ago. She actually hired me when I first started with the company in 2002.
Last weekend we went to dinner at Carrabba’s with Jan McGovern. Jan, who is also another Westar Energy retiree, was one of mentors and was like a work mom to me. It’s great to reunite and catch up with old friends. I feel like we sometimes allow too much time to pass between visits and we really should change that.
Until next time. GNG.
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12th Annual Haus of Brews
Posted on October 4, 2021 by Ching under Events.
We had the best weather for Haus of Brews this year. Despite some minor setbacks, the event was a huge success. We had members from other clubs come out to support and even volunteer at our event. It was a great time.
Isaac McNary, president of the El Dorado club, took some amazing photos at the event. You can find them here.
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Picklepalooza 2021
Posted on September 30, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
Last week I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things while supporting a wonderful organization. Evergy sponsored Senior Services of Wichita’s Picklepalooza event and we put a team of six together.
Our team consisted of (from left) me, Paul Haas, Chris Wilson, Anita and Jeff Harris, and Sarah Pearson. Paul is former Evergy. He retired from Westar Energy a couple of years ago. Everyone else is an active Evergy employee except for Anita who is married to Jeff.
Despite our recent divorce, Chris and I reunited to play together for the advanced group. Our other team ups were Paul and Sarah, and Jeff and Anita (obviously). Our other two teams played in the recreational group.
Here are a few more pictures from the event: Paul and Sarah in action.
Anita and Jeff make a great team.
Selfie with MariAnn. She played for the Great Harvest Bread Co. team – Professional Loafers. I actually teased Lesli Toubassi (owner of Great Harvest) for stacking her team with the best players: MariAnn and Tim Heeren, Jenny Cole, Scott Wolford, Zach Loomis, Michael Harris, and Vickie Hancock. She had a perfectly good explanation, though. With only eight employees, she would have had to close her store for the day to have her employees play.
The advanced group consisted of Lesli’s four teams plus me and Chris (Evergy) and Mark and Hershel (Waste Connections).
Don’t let their serious faces fool you. The event was a blast!
A bunch of us stayed for the mingle party at the rooftop deck after the event. Pictured with me above are Jenny and Mark.
I’m glad I stayed for the party because I won one of the door prizes.
It contained a bottle of wine and a bunch of pickle-themed foods like this jar of Holmes Made sweet spicy garlic dill pickles. So fun!
I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in this event. To learn more about all of the services that Senior Services of Wichita provides to seniors in our community visit www.seniorservicesofwichita.org. I hope I get to play in this event again next year. Until next time. GNG.
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