Nineteen Years and Counting
Posted on August 19, 2021 by Ching under Relationship.
We didn’t have any major plans for our 19th wedding anniversary — just dinner and a ball game. We went to Carrabba’s, our “go to” place for celebratory dinners.
We ordered our usual meatball starter. It’s really good there.
Don’t mind the less than enthusiastic look on Brian’s face. He always looks this way no matter how thrilled he is on the inside.
I’m so glad they finally added the chicken piccata on the the menu. They offered it as a takeout entree during the pandemic but it wasn’t on the dine in menu so you couldn’t order it at the restaurant. Now I can finally get it there. Hurrah for that!
After dinner we went to catch a baseball game at Riverfront Stadium. It was our first time in the Evergy suite.
I’m glad we skipped dessert at the restaurant because they had these delicious brownies there. Actually, had I known there would be food in the suite, we could have skipped our dinner plans altogether.
The stadium is beautiful but I don’t think that many people are into baseball these days. Here are a few more pics that I snapped while there. It seemed pretty dead for a Saturday night.
The company in the suite was pretty good, though. (With the lovely Caroline and Chet Kelley in the pic below.)
This anniversary weekend was super uneventful, which is probably a good thing. It’s a far cry from our 9th wedding anniversary celebration ten years ago. That was a little nuts. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a fabulous year of traveling — now that Brian is finally fully vaccinated (best anniversary present ever) — starting with a trip to Jamaica in January. Details are listed below. Hope you all can join us!
P.S. When you book, tell Jay or Becca that Ching sent you so I can get referral credit. LOL. Until next time, GNG.
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Charity Tournament at Chicken N Pickle
Posted on August 17, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
The Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club held a super fun charity tournament at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday. It was a full day affair with competitive teams in the morning and social teams in the afternoon.
Erica and I reversed matched with our Electrum tanks.
Here are some pictures from that day. Above pic is with my partner Chris Wilson and Karen Fox. Karen played in the social but came early to hang out and watch.
Here’s another picture of the three of us with Lesli Toubassi.
Here are some action shots of one of my favorite pickleball couples, Tiffany and Donnie Lesperance.
Here are some action shots of Greta Siemens and Ramon Lozano.
Here are some action shots of Hanbeen You and Kim Knotts.
Here are some action shots of Lori and Dave Belew.
Lesli, Jenny Cole, Scott Wolford, and Tiffany.
Even after we were eliminated from the tournament, we hung around and watch all of the awesome matches. Here’s Chris with Dave Belew (and his wife Lori Belew in background, deeply concentrating on something).
Many of us stayed to watch the championship match.
Scott did a great job of recruiting teams. Lots of really good pickleball players came out to play in this charity tournament which is not usually the case. It’s pretty rare that benefit tournaments attract real pickleball players. You usually end up playing with mostly beginners and maybe a couple of teams who know how to play. I think that’s why the matches were so fun to watch.
I didn’t end up staying for the afternoon portion because Brian and I had plans that night (dinner and baseball) so I didn’t get to watch Karen and her partner Ian Carr take down the championship of the social (drink in hand) tournament. Janelle Lindeman and her partner Devin Hansen took second.
I think everyone had a great time overall. Kudos to the Downtown Wichita Y’s Men’s Club for putting on such a wonderful event. I would totally do this again. Until next time. GNG.
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Friday Night Fun
Posted on August 16, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
I know my definition of fun is probably way different than most. Brian likes to play video games for fun. Some people like to drink for fun. As for me, I just want to play pickleball. And so that’s exactly what I do on Friday nights every weekend.
I keep a pretty predictable schedule. Every Friday I try to hit the open play at Nahola before our 7 PM private group reservation that way I can get almost four solid hours of play on the weekends.
This past Friday, my friend Ramon was in town. There were also several others who don’t normally come who played. It was a busy night for open play.
I didn’t mind it too much because I knew that I would have my two hours after open play when it’s just our group of ten. I like this format because, even though we have two players waiting, the wait is never too long. And when I’m winning, I never have to wait because winners always stay and split. I’ve been playing pretty well the last few months to where I rarely ever lose. Most times I win and only lose when certain match ups happen. I can even win with Eric sometimes, which a year ago would never have happened.
I haven’t had any pickleball lessons in months but I have been playing a lot and since I’ve been playing with various people I’ve often found myself just standing around and not getting hit the ball. This used to frustrate the heck out of me before I knew how to help my partner. Over time I started to figure out what to do to ensure that I also get the ball sometimes.
It used to be I would just give up and hope that the game would end as quickly as possible, which was never any fun. With my new approach, I actually get to play some and even win some games too despite being on the weaker team.
So what am I doing differently? I’m sure you’re wondering. Amazingly enough, all I’ve changed is where I position myself on the court. If my partner is getting 80-90% of the balls, then I start putting myself smack dab in the middle at T. Believe it or not, this makes a huge difference because then it considerably shrinks the other team’s target. Now, instead of having half of the court as their target, their target has diminished to a third or a quarter of the court. This helps me and my team because then I get more of the court so balls will actually come my way sometimes and I can get be part of the rally. And, if they do force the issue and continue to target my partner, since their target is much smaller they are more likely to hit the ball out which earns my team either a point or a sideout.
This new strategy has been super effective and I’m actually winning more on Friday nights. Whereas before, whenever I would get paired up with certain people then I would just rollover and take the loss and wait for the next game. Now, the games are way closer and sometimes my team even wins!
The only downside of getting used to playing this way is sometimes I forget to switch back to normal mode when I’m actually paired up with someone good and I’m taking up too much of the court when I should be. LOL. Now that I know what to do when playing with a weaker partner, I just need to learn to adjust when I’m with a strong partner. Rec is always hard because you’re constantly playing with different people. I like it when I get to play with the same people on a regular basis because then I can get used to how they play and they can get used to how I play and we begin to build that rapport and chemistry on the court. There are some people I just cannot play with, though. Like, that chemistry isn’t happening, no matter what. Thankfully, none of those people are in my regular play groups.
This past weekend was special because my friend Ramon came to visit. It’s kind of a bummer that he didn’t get to play in Rocky Mountain Championships but that was good news for me because then he got to spend time in Wichita. He played in the Nahola open play and then hung out and joined us for dinner after.
I don’t usually go out to dinner with the Friday night crew because I have to teach Aqua Zumba on Saturday mornings but I made an exception this time around. It’s okay to deviate from routines sometimes, specially when friends come to visit.
This is all for now but stay tuned for a few more posts from this weekend. GNG.
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Weekend Pickleball
Posted on August 13, 2021 by Ching under Community, Hobbies.
My friend Debbie Fanning sets up the best pickleball play groups. I still remember when she first invited me to play in her Friday night group. I was so excited! I also owe her for getting me connected with Tom Pham. I had never played with him before she and Dave started inviting us to play mixed doubles in the bubble at Riverside Tennis Center (RTC) a year ago. If it weren’t for these games, I never would have gotten the idea to team up with Tom last year.
We don’t do mixed during the week anymore because our schedules have diverged. Before I picked up additional classes at VASA, I was playing in multiple leagues so it was hard to play during the week nights. Nowadays the main hurdle with playing during the week is my Aqua Zumba schedule. I teach classes every single week night except for Friday. I have a 6:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Harry location on Mondays and Wednesdays and a 5:30 PM Aqua Zumba class at the Woodlawn location on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This makes it nearly impossible to get in any play groups. Even leagues are tricky. I can’t do a league that starts any earlier than 8 PM most of the time.
Anyway, in addition to our fabulous group on Friday night, Debbie has started organizing weekend play. They usually start at 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning, which is impossible for me to make because I have Aqua Zumba on Saturdays (Woodlawn location) and Sundays (Harry location) from 9-10 AM. There were a couple of Saturdays that I piggy-backed off the 10 AM Saturday group and started my group at 10:30 AM just so I could play with them. And then there were a couple of weeks when it was too hot to play outside and Debbie booked courts inside the bubble instead. On those times, the indoor courts at RTC weren’t available until later so I could actually join the fun.
The one day that has always eluded me is Sunday. They usually play from 9-11 AM at Rolling Hills so it’s impossible for me to join them. However, luck was on my side last weekend. The pools at VASA were closed for maintenance so my weekend classes were canceled. I didn’t find out until the weekend so I was on the waiting list but, luckily, there were a couple of cancellations and I managed to in.
I was so excited to finally be able to play with this group that I begged them to take a group picture at the end. I wanted to remember this forever because I wasn’t sure when the stars would align for me to be able to play with them again.
It’s so amazing that Debbie’s groups have grown so much. Our Friday night group is always a standard 10 players. Her weekend groups have gone from 12 players to an average of 16 players to now 24 players routinely playing a ladder format together. Even with that many players, she still ends up with a pretty deep waiting list.
I just love playing with this group. I wish I could play with them more.
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Tami’s 49th Birthday
Posted on August 11, 2021 by Ching under Events.
The ladies decided to have a pool party get together for Tami’s 49th birthday last Thursday. Karen and others started in the afternoon but, because I had work and also Aqua Zumba until 6:30 PM, I couldn’t make it until after. However, Tami had a jug ready for me to hold the sangria that I made onsite.
I made entirely too much but Tami reassured me that all of it got consumed during her actual party on Friday.
Karen was in charge of the cake this time and she got it from Dillons who did a great job on her cake design.
Had the candles not said 49, I wouldn’t believe Tami was that old either. These ladies look way younger than their actual age. Must be all the pickleball.
Here’s a fun group picture we took on top of Tami’s fabulous waterfall. Clockwise from top left: Parrish, Jenny, Melissa, Janelle, Debbie, Greta, birthday girl Tami, me, and Karen.
Tami has the most amazing backyard and pool set up. She even has several fake palm trees with lights. And one of them is an outdoor shower!
We had a fabulous time hanging out and visiting. We even got to meet Parrish’s boyfriend Chad who doesn’t live far from Tami’s place.
This was only my second time at Tami’s. The first time was a couple of weeks ago when we took the pictures below.
Tami has such an amazing house and backyard. Her pool is like a resort pool. If I lived there I would never want to leave. I hope I get invited back before summer is over! LOL. Until next time. GNG.
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