Lunch at Oak & Pie
Posted on January 15, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I enjoyed a nice lunch at Oak & Pie after the group fitness event at VASA. The drink of the week was called “Adios 2020” and it was refreshingly delicious.
The meatballs starter is our most favorite thing to get there. It doesn’t matter what we’re having. We always start with their meatballs.
I was feeling adventurous that day so I talked Brian into getting the Cuban pie special on their feature board instead of the usual pizza that we get.
Here’s what the pizza looks like. I thought it was good but I honestly like it better as a sandwich. LOL. I don’t think Brian cared for it but was a good sport.
The “Adios 2020” was so yummy, I had another, which I probably shouldn’t have because it made me forget all my obligations for the day.
I had totally forgotten that I agreed to play with Janelle and her group from 1:30 to 4:30 PM at Nahola that day. Brian and I were on our way to running some errands after lunch when I got a text from Janelle asking where I was. That was around 1:49 PM. I decided it would take way too much time to go home and grab my gear so I had Brian drop me off at Nahola with nothing but a $10 bill. I didn’t have my bag so no paddle, no water bottle, nothing. Thankfully, they let me borrow one of the demo paddles so I played with their Selkirk Epic that day.
I felt really bad because this is the second time I’ve done this to Janelle. The last time I went to Chicken N Pickle instead of Nahola because I didn’t read my text carefully so I ended up being fifteen minutes late. She must think I’m super flaky.
Play that day was super fun, despite not having my own paddle. Janelle and I played against Bill and Lonnie and we won against them twice. Lonnie was so shocked! It was hilarious! I was laughing the entire time.
I liked the “Adios 2020” drink so much that I talked Brian into going back to Oak & Pie again over the weekend. It wasn’t their featured drink any more but they were nice enough to make it for me.
Here’s a couple of pictures of food from that visit.
I didn’t get the featured drink that week which was called the “Electric Smurf” because I really wanted the other drink but I did get the recipe so I can at least try to make it at home (I haven’t yet).
If you’ve never been to Oak & Pie, I highly recommend it. I’m thinking of going each week now just to see what drink they come up with next! Until then. GNG.
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Group Fitness Kickoff Event at VASA
Posted on January 15, 2021 by Ching under Community, Events, Health, Zumba.
I did very little Zumba last year because of the pandemic and other things. By the end of 2019, my addiction to pickleball had reached new heights and I decided that I need to cut back on my Zumba and Aqua Zumba classes to free up more time to play pickleball. I had already given up my Sunday morning Aqua Zumba class at South YMCA (Brynden took it over) and so I started 2020 with only seven classes. I wasn’t going to stop there, though. I had already plans to get rid of other classes, the first one being my Saturday morning Aqua Zumba at VASA Harry. Liz had actually hired someone to take it over for me starting in March.
I started 2020 with seven classes but I was gradually and systematically getting rid of classes one at a time to make room for pickleball. And then COVID hit. All the gyms closed (along with other local businesses) at the start of the pandemic. So I went from teaching seven classes to none. I guess I didn’t need someone to take over that Aqua Zumba class in March after all because, when March rolled around, there were no classes happening at all. Anywhere.
When the gyms reopened, I brought back only one class — my Monday night Zumba class at VASA Harry. I wanted to be available for pickleball in the evenings and weekends, and play a lot of pickleball is exactly what I did. Over the summer, in addition to playing in the evenings, I was even playing at 5 AM on most weekdays. Pickleball completely ruled my life last year.
But then as fall approached and the sun began to rise later and later, I couldn’t play before work anymore. We were mostly playing at Seneca Park, and we couldn’t play without the sun because there are no lights there (except for the one security light, which isn’t really enough). That’s when I decided to look for other options — enter my Wednesday morning (5:30 AM) Zumba class at VASA Woodlawn. This actually gave me the idea to add more classes. If I know exactly what days of the week I’m devoting to pickleball then I can teach classes on the other days. Seven classes was clearly too much but I could add a few more classes and maintain a good balance. This leads us to where we are today.
Last year I turned down a lot of Zumba events because I fully committed myself to pickleball. I decided this year my time would be split between the two so when the VASA team decided to have a group fitness sampler extravaganza on the first Saturday of the year, January 2, I volunteered to help. I’m really glad I did because it reminded me of how much I enjoy these Zumbathon events.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day…
We had 30-minute sampler sessions of STRONG and the other formats in the studio and held two hours of Zumba in the gym.
I got to lead a few songs along with my fellow Zumba instructors.
And I got to see Jessie (above) and Charis (below). I hadn’t seen them in forever.
Here’s a group pic of some of our Zumba instructors at VASA. Of course, it’s hard to tell who is who because of the masks. Not ideal but necessary given the current situation with COVID. I really can’t get infected right now because I’m still within my 90 days of immunity (some say you could even been immune for up to eight months) but I still wear my mask any time I’m around a group of people mostly for everyone else’s benefit and comfort.
We didn’t wear our masks while exercising just when we were standing around together. Masks or no masks, social distancing or not, it was a great time. It made me realize how much I love group exercise and participating in these events. I’m glad I decided to devote more time to teaching my group fitness classes in 2021.
Here’s current group fitness schedule:
VASA Harry
Monday – Zumba at 6:30 PM
Wednesday – Aqua Zumba at 6:30 PM
Sunday – Aqua Zumba at 9:00 AMVASA Woodlawn
Wednesday – Zumba at 5:30 AM
Saturday – Aqua Zumba at 9:00 AM
Seven classes was clearly too many and one was not enough so we’ll see how this balance thing works out with five classes a week this year. Until next time. GNG.
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New Year’s Eve at the Huntees
Posted on January 14, 2021 by Ching under Events, Games, Life.
Since large gatherings are kind of frowned upon right now, Brian and I didn’t really have any New Year’s Eve plans. We were prepared to spend the evening at home in our pajamas but got invited to join the Dills and the Huntees which, me being the social animal that I am, I gladly invited on our behalf.
Their son Cody and his wife Molly were there too. Mama Dill and Gronk joined the fun as well. Below is a picture of group playing Pick Your Poison, which is a cross between Cards Against Humanity and Would You Rather?
The game was a bit more complex than Cards Against Humanity and you had to keep score using pen and paper because it wasn’t just one point per round. You could score a different number of points based on certain scenarios and each person would get their own score. Anyway, there are nuances of the game that can be a bit much specially after you’ve had a few drinks.
Speaking of drinks, I decided to get the December Shaker and Spoon box (Rums of Origin 3) for our friends this year so I brought my drink kit to the Huntees that night and we made some more drinks.
This is a picture of the Abukado Colada drink, which would have turned out much better had we read the instructions on how to properly use the can of coconut milk that was provided. It still tasted fine to me but everyone else was weird about it.
Each Shaker and Spoon box comes with recipe cards like this one. We should have read the one for Abukado Colada thoroughly before making it. LOL. Kiss of the Oceans is the other drink that we made that night. When you follow the directions and measurements, it doesn’t make very much. That’s probably a good thing because it’s quite strong. Of the three recipes they sent, this one was the strongest.
We didn’t stay at the Huntees very late. After a couple of drinks and a round of Pick Your Poison, we pretty much had to go — because, you know, we have that thing that we do at midnight on NYE every year.
Thank you so much to the Dills and Huntees for including us in their NYE festivities, and to the Huntees for being such wonderful hosts. I really enjoyed hanging out (which I’ve really missed doing since this pandemic started). It was tons better than just sitting at home and staring at Brian. LOL.
Until next time. GNG.
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Changes at Home
Posted on January 8, 2021 by Ching under Home Ownership, Life.
We rearranged some furniture over Christmas break. Brian has been trying to talk me into doing this forever but I’ve always refused because it leaves the rest of our main floor living room quite barren. We used to have just the one chair here with the ottoman. We always either fight over who gets to sit in the chair (it’s a coveted spot in the winter because it’s right in front of the fireplace and literally the warmest spot in our entire house) or both uncomfortably squeeze in it.
I’d thought about buying a chair and a half specifically for this spot so we wouldn’t have to use our loveseat but our furniture is so old that they don’t make it anymore. And, I didn’t want to buy something that didn’t match because we all know how that goes — you end up replacing everything to match that one thing that you just got and it ends up costing you a fortune.
Brian and I are getting too fat to squeeze in the chair together so I finally caved and agreed to relocate the loveseat to the hearth and the chair to the living room. That’s all we swapped. We did have to reorient the furniture, though. Instead of placing the loveseat at an angle like the chair was before, we placed it parallel to the fireplace. We’ve spent so much time in this part of the house since we rearranged and it’s been so much nice that we both wondered why we waited so long to do this.
Brian, the girls, and I are totally loving it. I think we will keep the house this way until the day we move, remodel, or replace all of our furniture — whichever comes first. Until next time. GNG.
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Christmas Break
Posted on January 6, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Things to Do.
I took time off work after Christmas and didn’t resume working again until the Monday after New Year’s Day. I was still checking emails and working on stuff, of course, but at least I wasn’t tethered to my desk like on a normal workday. Christmas break was a nice respite from my normal routine and I took advantage of the time off to play daytime pickleball, a luxury I don’t usually have.
The day after Christmas, I played mixed doubles with Steve Vetter, Jon Maugans and Karen Fox. I had originally asked Tom Pham and Jimmy Cho but Tom was quarantining due to being exposed to COVID and Jimmy didn’t want to accept my invitation because he was holding out for the guys’ normal Saturday morning play at Chicken N Pickle. I should have told him not to get his hopes up because the girls couldn’t get courts and that’s actually why I arranged for a mixed game. That, and I prefer to play mixed anyway, so no having any courts available at CNP actually worked in my favor.
Jimmy eventually found out there was no King of Courts that weekend and I got a text from him late on Christmas Day asking if I’d found players. Shortly after he declined my original invite, I started working on locking in Steve and Jon and so at that point we already had our group set. I’m glad Steve and Jon were available to play that day. They are so fun and I had a great time.
Karen, Brian and I had lunch at Carrabba’s after and while at lunch I had the foresight to check Playtime Scheduler. I actually got in to the Brunch & Bingo open play at Chicken N Pickle for once. All the spots usually fill up less than five minutes after the play time is posted. It is very hard to get in because you have to time it just right. I think I experienced a Christmas miracle.
After open play on Sunday morning, a bunch of us hung around for Brunch & Bingo. I never really win but it’s a fun way to pass the time.
The week following Christmas, I had the opportunity to play pickleball with lots of people. Karen set up several play times for us to practice women’s doubles. On Monday we played with Chandi Bongers and Lori Belew. On Thursday, we played with Chandi and Kristen Conrad. On Friday, we played with Brooke Ayala and Krista Crawford. We were trying to set up games with Chandi and Kristen because they were originally going to play in our division in the Arizona tournament in February. However, now that the tournament has been extended, Chandi is playing with Krista in the 50+ division instead.
We also had some mixed games. On Tuesday, I arranged for us to play with Tony Swantek and Logan Schrag. That was another Christmas miracle. I’d only ever played four games in total with Tony – ever. I fully expected him say no and I was ready to on move down the list but he accepted. Getting two hours of play with Tony was definitely one of the highlights of the week. On Wednesday, Karen set up a game for her friend Lucas who was in town from Utah. I’m never one to turn down games so, even though I was already playing later that day with Debbie and Dave Fanning and Tom, I couldn’t decline. So on Wednesday, I played with Karen, Lucas and Andy Bloyer from about 11 in the morning to shortly after 1 in the afternoon, and then with Deb, Dave, and Tom from 2-4 pm. And then since our court was still open Tom talked me into a partial game of full court singles. And, despite my feet killing me from playing all day, I couldn’t say no.
Besides the games that Karen set up, I also had other games set up. On Tuesday evening, I played with Janelle Lindeman’s group. And on Thursday morning (New Year’s Eve), I played with Brooke and Monty Ayala and Kim Knotts first thing in the morning before my play time with Karen, Chandi, and Kristen.
Coincidentally, we all had our Chicken N Pickle skyline shirts that day. Naturally, we had to get a group pic.
Here’s our group pic from New Year’s Day. (From left: Karen, Krista, Ching and Brooke.) I couldn’t believe how many people were CNP that morning despite the weather. The roads were so bad that I was amazed I made it to CNP without getting stuck. When I arrived, I expected the four of us to be the only ones there but no – all the courts were actually full.
After pickleball, Brooke, Karen and I stayed for the special New Year’s Day bingo event. Brooke and Karen both won stuff but I did not, which is probably how this entire year is going to go. I went home briefly after bingo and then came back to CNP again later that afternoon for my 5-7 pm game with Debbie’s group. We relocated our normal Friday night mixed to CNP because Nahola was closed for the holiday, and in doing so we also moved the time up a couple of hours.
No pickleball for me on Saturday morning because I committed to helping with the VASA group exercise sampler event at the Harry location. Did that, and then went to lunch and run errands with Brian and completely forgot about the Saturday afternoon play with Janelle’s group that I had agreed to over holiday break. Had she not texted me, I would have missed it altogether.
On Sunday, I started my Aqua Zumba class at VASA (Harry), played pickleball at the open play at Nahola, and had a pickleball lesson with Chris Heck. In the evening, I attended the pickleball farewell party for Jimmy at CNP (more on this later). And then it was back to work on Monday.
I got to do lots of pickleball and also some Zumba (my normal classes and the New Year event – more on this later too) during my time off work. It was wonderful! The only thing that would have made it even better is if I didn’t have to work at all.
I guess that’s all for now. Until next time. GNG.
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