Team Building and Community Service
Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Events, Projects, Things to Do.
Here are some pictures from the team building volunteer service activity that I organized a couple of weeks ago. I’m so grateful for my amazing coworkers who gave up part of their holiday weekend to help out.
The project? We helped set up the North Pole Winter Carnival at Child Start‘s Polar Express Literacy Event.
The trickiest part was building the train display with no instructions.
Mike was super proud of the fake wood wall that he and Mel built.
He’s showing it off in this photo with Faith’s husband (left).
They didn’t need our help with the main event area. Our group’s focus was setting up and decorating the game room, which I actually thought was the fun part.
I really wish we could have attended the event and seen the kids enjoy the carnival games. Brian and I had another party to attend that evening, otherwise I would have totally dragged him with me. Had I planned the weekend better, I could have taken Nickira to the event. I think she would have enjoyed it.
I hope Child Start holds the event again next year. Nickira is getting to close to that age where she might think it’s a little bit childish but I really think she would enjoy it. I hope I can take her next year because it will be the final one before she’s officially a teenager. I saw some pictures of the event on the Child Start Facebook page and it looked like a blast. I’m really bummed that I missed it.
At least we got to help set up. I just love volunteering for stuff like this. It warms my heart. The best part is the $1000 donation from the Westar Energy Foundation to match our team building volunteer service hours.
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That Time I Ordered Room Service
Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Confessions, Food and Drink.
This is a blog about that time I ordered room service and it was actually good. I thought it’s worthy of writing about because it doesn’t happen often. Most of the time when I order room service it’s overpriced and pretty mediocre. This time proved otherwise so I thought I’d share the experience along with pictures.
There’s so much good food to be had in downtown Kansas City that I really prefer to go out and about and take advantage of all the city has to offer. This time however, I couldn’t put shoes on so I was stuck in my hotel room.
Kelsey and I had our nails done at Polished (my new favorite nail salon), after work that day. Kelsey who just had a polish change finished sooner than I did. She left to go take care of some errands at Cosentino’s as I put my feet under the lamp.
When she returned, I felt my toenails and the polish felt dry. I sprayed it with the quick dry spray, felt it again, and figured I was good to go. My feet had been under the lamp a while after all.
I put my shoes on and we walked back to the office to grab our stuff. When we arrived at the office, I immediately took my shoes off and inspected my nails. Both of the big toes were ruined!
Kelsey suggested that I return to the nail salon and have them fix it. I originally thought against it, thinking no one will really see my feet and the main reason I get pedicures is for the callous removal bit and not so much for the polish. However, she said I paid so much and it would be worth it to get them fixed.
I thought about it and realized that I really had nothing else going on that evening so I might as well go back and so I did.
When I came back, they knew exactly what I needed. The nail tech who did my pedicure did not look pleased. LOL. The reception girl was like, “We normally don’t recommend you put shoes on for three hours.”
Three hours! That’s a long time! That would be well after their closing time. After the nail guy repainted both of my big toes, I decided to stay for 30 minutes with my feel under the drying lamp. After that I was still worried about ruining my pedicure again so I walked back to my hotel in the disposable flip flops.
I knew I looked pretty ridiculous in my flimsy throwaway flip flops and Converse sneakers in my hand so I cut through our office building to return to my hotel room across the street. That was convenient but I still had to figure out what to do about dinner. I’m not that fond of pizza so I called every Oriental food restaurant I could find close to downtown to see if any of them would deliver to my hotel. No such luck. I was stuck with room service.
As I mentioned earlier, I generally try to avoid room service because my experiences in the past have been pretty lackluster. Anyway, I figured it would be the same this time so I ordered dessert also to make up for what I was already expecting to be a crappy dinner.
I ordered the chicken sandwich and, much to my amazement, it was actually really good. This had all of my favorite things — bacon and avocado — and none of the things I don’t like so I didn’t have to modify it at all.
Here’s another view of my delicious sandwich. The chips, which I think were homemade, were very good as well.
Here are a couple of pictures of my delicious dessert that, in hindsight, I really didn’t need to order after all because my sandwich was satisfying enough.
This dessert, fittingly called the Bermuda Triangle because of its shape and also because you get lost with the first bite, was so delicious that it took a lot for me not to eat all of it. I was good and only ate one corner, though.
I was dreaming about that cake for days.
This meal totally changed my perspective about room service. I totally don’t mind ordering this sandwich and cake combo again. I won’t be dreading the next time I end up cooped up in my hotel room all evening because I know I will have this meal to look forward to. I may even purposely stay in one evening.
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Sponsored Post: Our Holiday Cards This Year
Posted on November 20, 2016 by Ching under Sponsored Post.
FTC Disclaimer: I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
I hope you guys took advantage of the the Tiny Prints specials that I posted a few weeks ago. I did and my 10 FREE cards have already arrived!
As you know Brian and I (well, probably mostly me) love creating and sending personalized cards around the holidays. We usually send Christmas cards to our friends and family but the last few years I’ve made them too late so I’ve had to make “Happy New Year” cards instead.
Here are examples of cards we’ve made and sent in the past.
I like highlighting some of the year’s most memorable moments.
Last year we went with a “newsletter” style.
This year we went back to the traditional card style.
The cards are a simple “Happy New Year” variety but we splurged on a few personalized envelopes for key people because I also took advantage of that offer for 20 FREE custom envelopes.
If you haven’t ordered your holiday cards for this year yet, not to worry. Regular shipping is super quick and you can also expedite the shipping for a nominal fee. And, there are actually some even better deals going on right now. You can save 40% OFF your entire order during Thanksgiving and Black Friday (the special discount offer starts on Monday, November 21)!
Use this link when you order to activate the discount. This deal is my early Christmas present to you.
I can’t wait to see what cards and other projects you create!
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Opera House Coffee and Food Emporium
Posted on November 19, 2016 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I found a new place to eat while I was in Kansas City a couple of weeks ago. It’s called Opera House Coffee and Food Emporium. I’d seen it a few times while riding the KC Streetcar but I hadn’t bothered to stop and check it out until this last time. But then I liked it so much that I ate there twice that same week.
I love that they are right next to a streetcar stop (City Market), which makes it super convenient. I also love that there’s both indoor and outdoor seating so when the weather is nice, such as we’ve had the last few weeks, then you can dine outside.
I also like that the food menu is posted on the window so then you can decide what you want to eat (or even whether you want to eat there at all) before going inside.
Here are some pictures of the restaurant’s cozy interior.
I love the ambiance and can’t wait to take Brian there.
They have a pretty good menu and the food is good.
Here’s what I had on my first visit.
I was by myself that day and decided to eat somewhat healthy. I had the strawberry spinach salad with berries and I added salmon.
On my second trip I brought reinforcements. I met Michelle, Selena, and Kelsey there for dinner the evening of the election. I ordered a the grilled chicken panini, which was delicious. I would totally order it again.
I was pretty happy with the food I had both times. The service is pretty iffy, though. It took forever to get my panini and I probably would never have gotten it if not for Michelle noticing that the cook was just hanging out with a couple of the other workers watching the election updates on TV.
The three of them, Michelle, Selena, and Kelsey, had gotten there ahead of me and they all got their food pretty quickly. Michelle was like, “Isn’t that the cook? How do you not have your food yet when he’s out here hanging out?” Which prompted me to ask about my food. Turns out the guy who took my order completely forgot about it. The cook had it done a long time ago and set it on the counter to be delivered and it just sat there because the other guy forgot to bring it to me. He didn’t remember at all until I asked for it.
Anyway, the food is fabulous. The service not so much.
I still want to bring Brian there, though. Hopefully, the service will be better this next go around.
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Trolls Movie with Nickira
Posted on November 13, 2016 by Ching under Movies.
I took Nickira to see Trolls (Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Zooey Deschanel) on Friday night and it was awesome. I heard about the movie but hadn’t seen any of the previews. I didn’t have any specific plans for hanging out with Nickira so I asked her what she wanted to do. She didn’t really have any specific suggestions so I made an executive decision to go to the movies. We hadn’t done that in a while.
We decided to stop by Brian’s office since he was still at work and, on the way there, I asked Nickira to read the list of movies at the Palace. None of the movies there appealed to her. Brian suggested Trolls so we drove to Warren West down the street to see it. They had a 4:45 PM showing which was perfect. It allowed us enough time to get there, park, buy our movie tickets, get concessions, and secure the best seats.
I’m so glad we decided to see it. The movie was super awesome. I loved the message (about finding happiness and all that) and all of the singing and dancing was just fabulous. Check out the star-studded cast on IMDB.
I was thoroughly entertained.
I loved all the songs so much I’m actually contemplating buying the soundtrack. They did a great job of blending new and old songs.
There wasn’t a song at all I didn’t like. Even Nickira enjoyed the older songs, which I’m pretty sure she wasn’t familiar with before the movie. And, of course she knew all of the words to “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” She was singing along to it at the end of the movie.
It’s such a feel-good, fun, happy movie. I highly recommend it even if you don’t have any children in your life. I actually thought of taking Brian to see it but he has some other movies that he wants to see first (i.e. Doctor Strange). He says he will watch the movie with me when it comes out on either DVD or streaming. In the meantime, this movie and soundtrack is going on my wish list.
Let me know if any of you guys have seen the movie and what you thought in the comments down below.
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