FLIP + CHING

Lunch at Saigon

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Ching under Food and Drink.

I was super hungry after pickleball one day and decided to meet up with my friend Brooke at Saigon. I hadn’t been there in a very long time because Brian usually doesn’t gravitate toward Vietnamese food when we are out together. Brooke, on the other hand, loves Vietnamese and other Oriental foods, which works out perfect for me. Here are some pictures of our lunch that day.

This is what Brooke usually gets. I love this pork stuff. It reminds me of tocino but better because I don’t have to mess up a frying pan to enjoy it.

She also got some spring rolls. I love spring rolls and theirs are so good!

I got the appetizer platter so I could try all of the different starters they have. I was not a fan of the shrimp rice cake thing but everything else was good. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy their food. I will have to go back soon.

Here’s their address and phone number in case you want to go or order takeout. Until next time. GNG.

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Monthly Pedicure Date

Posted on September 22, 2020 by Ching under Date Ideas, Things to Do.

We had our monthly pedicure date with our friends Teresa and Ross a couple of weeks ago. I love that the four of us go to the same place and that Kathy can accommodate our group. It’s definitely something that I’ve come to look forward to each month. These guys are so fun!

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League Finals

Posted on September 21, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies.

I’ve been totally slacking on the blog because I’ve been consumed with pickleball. We had our league finals this week at Chicken N Pickle. While I didn’t make my goal of winning all three of my leagues this session, I actually didn’t do too shabby.

So I wrote about how Jimmy H and I won our Nahola league a few weeks ago. I wanted to also win my Wednesday night competitive women’s doubles and Thursday night competitive mixed doubles leagues at Chicken N Pickle. Unlike the Nahola league, you have a permanent partner for the CNP leagues so I actually got team shirts made for us. I found this lady who does amazing customizations through a mutual friend. Her business is called Simply Charming Designs and her work is awesome!

I got matching “Asian Invasion” shirts for me and my mixed partner Tom. I picked this team name since we are both Asian. We’re actually going to continue playing together this next session. Since it’s a Halloween league, we had to modify our team name a bit. Our official team name for this session is “Asian Invasion of the Pickle Snatchers” — so we can get more mileage out of our existing team shirts.

I don’t really like playing in t-shirts so I always turn my shirts into tank tops or muscle shirts. Here’s a pic of me and my partner Tom.

Our team name for women’s doubles is “Backhanded Compliments” so I got matching shirts for Renae and me from the same lady. Both shirts turned out fabulous! Anyway, before our maroon team shirts, we were wearing our tie dye CNP shirts that I’d gotten for us at the beginning of league.

I just love matching outfits! This is a group photo of us after the competitive women’s doubles league tournament championship match. Karen and Jenny (in the pink tanks) won our league. Renae and I came in second.

Even though we didn’t win, I still had a ton of fun.

Karen and Jenny lost their first match so they came out of the opportunity bracket (it was a double elimination tournament format). Since Renae and I were undefeated in the winner’s bracket, even though we lost the best 2 out of 3 championship match, we had to play again. Karen and Jenny had to beat us in a game to 15 to win it all.

The championship match was a bloodbath. Karen and Jenny played amazing and we couldn’t do anything. Here’s a video of that brutal championship match, in case you want to watch it.

The competitive men had their league finals that same night. Patrick Smith and Jamie Lynch won (again). This is their fifth consecutive time winning. The only thing that ever changes is who comes in second. Matt Conrad (aka Dr. Conrad) and Dave Belew took second this time.

There were more men’s teams so their bracket is bigger and messier.

The following night, Tom and I played in the competitive mixed league tournament final and won it. Huyen Nguyen and Michael Harris came in second, defeating lots of higher seeded teams including Undercover Secret Weapon (Jimmy and Fong) and Dropping L’s (Donnie and Tiffany).

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Here’s a picture of our bracket on Thursday night.

We actually ended up playing only three matches total that night because we had a bye for being the top seeded team out of the seven teams. There were originally eight teams but Michael Cheung and Jen Reifschneider had to move to Tuesday evenings because of her work schedule.

Our first match was against C&K (Chris Wilson and Kim Knotts) after they won against Barbie & Ken (Amy Jaramillo with Robert Bell subbing for Amy’s husband Todd). After that, we played against Dropping L’s (Donnie and Tiffany) who won against Undercover Secret Weapon (Jimmy and Fong).

Then we had to wait for all of the opportunity bracket matches (one game to 15) to finish to play the championship match. It ended up being Dink, Dink, Goose (Michael Harris and Huyen Nguyen) with us in the finals. They did the hard work of eliminating our toughest competitors so they actually saved us a lot of effort.

In the end, I fell short of my goal of winning all three of my Fall leagues but first in two leagues and second in one is nothing to shake a stick at — I’m actually quite happy with how I did this time around.

The next session is only five weeks long and I’m playing in both mixed and women’s again. Tom and I are going to try to defend our league title in competitive mixed and then I’m playing with my friend Brooke Ayala this time for women’s because my previous partner Renae DeSantis can’t play.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to another fun, succession league session. I hope I have great results to share next month. Until next then. GNG.

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Fun Monday Off

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies.

Last week I took Monday off to hang out with our out of town guests, Noi and Antonio, and happened to get a bonus Doug Oxler sighting at the park. For those unaware, Doug is the father of local pickleball and tennis legend Jack Oxler.

I got a video of Doug playing with the guys.

After a few games, we decided to have lunch at TJ’s and then after lunched I played some more at someone’s house. They have a pickleball court in their backyard.

It seems pickleball courts are the new swimming pools. Everyone I know seems to be building one these days. Anyway, that’s all for now. GNG.

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Meeting Pickleball Friends In Person

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Ching under Hobbies.

I had the opportunity to meet some Facebook pickleball friends in person for the first time this past weekend when we had some top level pickleball players converge into Wichita. Dylan Frazier, Quinton Birkeness, Noi Sourinthone, and Antonio Cummings were all in town.

Dylan Frazier is from Columbia, MO. I met him for the first time when the Jonny Pickleball Show was at Chicken N Pickle last month. Quinton Birkeness is from the Kansas City, MO area. I’ve been friends with Quinton on Facebook for some time (at least since March when Chris Heck and Jon Maugans played in the SEMO Chemo Smash tournament in Missouri and I was trying to follow their progress). I had to send Quinton a Facebook friend request because he was really good about posting pictures and videos from the tournament and it was the only way I could keep up with the tournament results. Despite being friends on Facebook for a few months, we’d never actually met in real life until last weekend. Of course, we had to take a picture together (below).

Dylan and Quinton both played in the Saturday morning big boys’ game at Chicken N Pickle. It was a huge pickleball morning. Even Chris Heck, who never comes out for the Saturday morning game, played with Cody’s group that day.

Later that day, Michael Cheung’s friend Noi Sourinthone and his doubles partner Antonio Cummings arrived in town. They are both top level pickleball players from Tennessee. I wanted them to have some challenging games so I hooked them up with Cody. Cody managed to talk Quinton into playing with him against Noi and Antonio. Quinton is such a trooper. He played for ten hours straight that day.

Here is a picture of me with Noi. I became friends with Noi through Michael. They went to church camp together and have known each other for many years. Last year they realized that they’re both into pickleball. Michael and I have actually sent Noi videos of our games to critique and he’s given us really good feedback. It was so nice to finally meet him in person.

Antonio is Noi’s friend and doubles partner. They traveled together to Wichita. I didn’t really become friends with Antonio until this past weekend. I’m so glad that he came. Noi and Antonio are ridiculously good and it was fun to watch them play together against Cody and Quinton.

Here’s a video of one of their games. Mind you, this was around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and Quinton and Cody had been playing since 7:30 am that morning and then Noi and Antonio had been up since like 5 o’clock in the morning for their early flight that day. They basically landed in Wichita and then went to play right away.

Here are a couple more videos.

Here’s a video of a game between Jimmy and Antonio vs. Tom and Noi at Edgemoor Park on Sunday morning.

On Sunday evening, Fong hosted a get together at her house.

It was so fun! I didn’t stay too late because I had a 7 o’clock am lesson with Chris Heck in the morning. After my lesson I went to Seneca Park to check on everyone. Noi and Antonio were holding a clinic. Afterwards I managed to talk the guys into taking a “jumping” picture.