Trying the Waffle Bus
Posted on February 6, 2026 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I recently switched to a new work bag so I gave mom my old Betabrand kaleidoscope bag. We went to drop the bag off one night and had dinner at the Waffle Bus while we were in the area.
It was not bad, but it wasn’t great either. We probably wouldn’t go out of our way to eat there but it was worth crossing off the list.
The place itself isn’t very big inside. The food is just ho-hum. It is a good option for when we are in Derby, visiting mom and dad though.
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Deck Rails Repaired, Finally
Posted on January 26, 2026 by Ching under Home Ownership.
So our deck railing that’s been barely hanging on for most 2025 finally fell off and we did also get it repaired, finally.
As you all know, it gets super windy here in Kansas. One morning the rails were there and then they were gone when I got home. I found them on the ground next to the stair. Yes, it was super windy that day.
We got rid of all our deck furniture. They were over ten years old and Brian and I were tired of them anyway. Also, he said they could use them on their patio at work so that’s where the furniture went.
Besides replacing the deck railings, we also replaced the steps which had been falling apart as well. We kept the main deck floors to save money, though. They still felt sturdy and secure.
I took a few pics when the contractors first started working.
Here’s are a few more progress pictures.
Apparently I didn’t get pictures of the finished product. The railings and steps are done but they do still need to be stained and treated. I guess the $12K that we paid didn’t cover that part. Ugh. We have to pay another contractor another $900 some to get that done. I’ll get pictures of the fully finished work then. Stay tuned!
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A Pickleball Christmas Movie Night
Posted on January 22, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.
I joined the some fun pickleball ladies for a movie night a couple of weeks ago. We watched A Pickleball Christmas. The movie itself wasn’t too bad the pickleball was completely atrocious. LOL.
We made a drinking game out of it.
Here are a couple of pictures from that night.
Even though this was after Christmas, we decided to wear our Christmas jammies since we were watching a Christmas movie.
The movie isn’t great and the pickleball is awful but I still highly recommend this movie. Grab your pickleball pals and make a night of it.
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Welcome Rue
Posted on January 16, 2026 by Ching under Family, Toys.
We kicked off the new year by making a quick up and back trip to Olathe to pick up a new car for Brian. He’s been dreaming of getting a 2025 Subaru Outback Wilderness Edition for months now and we agreed that he would get at the beginning of the year, once we got past the holidays. We literally did just that.
Welcome to the family, Rue. BTW, Rue is short for Rueben (and it is also a play on Subaru – Suba-RUE, get it?) so Brian’s car is actually male. Anyway, I don’t want to steal his thunder so I’ll leave the blogging about it up to him. I have to say though, I’m kind of envious. New cars these days have so many fancy features. Driving a 15-year-old vehicle, I feel like I’m really missing out. As nice as it is to have a new car though, I still don’t want to have a car payment – which Brian does right now because we couldn’t pay the full amount of the car at once. He did get 0% financing for 36 months, though. So there is that.
As for me, I’m hoping to get at least 5 more years or another 50K miles out of my little Alex – whichever comes first. Wish me luck!
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Bonus Pickleball to End the Year
Posted on January 15, 2026 by Ching under Pickleball.
This year Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fell on a Wednesday. The YMCA usually closes early on these days to give staff time to celebrate with loved-ones. That meant I didn’t have my regular Wednesday night Zumba class the final two weeks of the year. Naturally, I wanted to take advantage of this freedom.
On Christmas Eve, I teamed up with fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassadors Lena Quach, Huyen Nguyen, and Fong Witte to use our free court time one last time in 2025. We played from 3 PM to 5 PM using mine and Fong’s codes. We were supposed to be at mom and dad’s by 5 PM on Christmas Eve and we ended up not getting there until 5:45-ish but it was totally worth it. I don’t ever get to play much pickleball anymore, let alone a great group such as this one. It was the best gift I could have given myself for Christmas.
I decided to double dip on NYE and played at both TapNPaddles (with Carrie Soto’s group) and also Chicken N Pickle. Carrie runs a ladies only point play at Tap on Wednesday, which I can never attend because of my Zumba class. I was so happy that I was finally able to join one to close out the year.
After that, I was off to Chicken N Pickle to meet fellow ambassadors Ryan Kellenbarger, Fong Witte, Kendra Wicks, and Colby Fugit. We had some fun play but mostly just wanted to keep Kendra company because she had to work that night. I honestly could not have asked for a better way to end the year. Here’s to even more fun pickleball with friends in 2026!
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