World Pickleball Day 2020
Posted on October 10, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies, Things to Do.
World Pickleball Day is an initiative that was conceived by the World Pickleball Federation for the purpose of introducing the sport to new players and spreading the love for pickleball on a global scale. October 10, 2020 is the first ever World Pickleball Day. I celebrated the day by spending my entire morning playing pickleball at Chicken N Pickle.
We started the morning with our usual Queen of Courts. We have eight players on two courts play one game and then winners and losers play against each other the next game. Partners split each time, which gives everyone a chance to play with everyone else. We just repeat this over and over until we reach the end of our time. It’s super fun and always really competitive since winners and losers are always playing against each other.
We made time for a few fun pics this morning. On this one, Brooke was pretending to feel left out because there were a couple of times that the four of us played together and she was the only one who was not playing with an Electrum paddle.
Chicken N Pickle celebrated World Pickleball Day by hosting an “Addict + Newbie” tournament. It immediately followed the King and Queen of Courts (the guys have King of Courts the same time as the ladies’ QOC and they usually even have more players/courts; except for today when both groups only had two courts because the Sons of Pitches took over all of CNP’s indoor courts for their cornhole tournament).
I managed to talk Brian into playing in the tournament as my designated “newbie” partner by bribing him with a beer and a burrito. The burrito is so good. I’m actually looking forward to having it again for brunch tomorrow.
We didn’t do great on the tournament. In fact, we didn’t win a single match today, but that didn’t keep us from having fun. I really appreciated Brian playing with me this morning. I also love that World Pickleball Day falls during my birthday month so, if all else fails, I can play the “birthday card” to force him to play pickleball with me. I didn’t have to twist his arm too much today. I think he was actually pretty “into” it. He even picked out our matching shirts.
I love my forever newbie partner. Until World Pickleball Day 2021! GNG.
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Dinner at Woodfire Grille
Posted on October 3, 2020 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink.
We had about 20+ pickleball players and spouses converge at Woodfire Grille at the Kansas Star Casino for a delicious dinner last weekend. The restaurant’s executive chef Jen Reifschneider is a friend and fellow pickleball player and we wanted to support her restaurant. When we first learned that the restaurant had reopened, the ladies and I talked about going to have a girls’ night out. However, the guys wanted to go too so we just opened it up to everyone. We had an amazing turnout!
Here’s a picture of all the ladies. Karen really wanted to be here too so she made a cutout of her head which I brought to dinner so she could be with us.
This is a photo of me with Huyen and Debbie.
Here’s Brian’s attempt at an ultimate selfie. The lighting inside the restaurant was just too dark for this picture to turn out well.
Here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed that night…
A few more pictures of our fun group…
And, of course, we can’t forget Karen.
Several people stayed to do some gambling after dinner. Brian and I don’t really gamble so I stayed to finish my drink after everyone left and then we just went home after. It was great to finally be out for a nice dinner after being cooped up for so long. We had fabulous company also. Looking forward to doing this again soon. Until then, GNG.
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Brunch and Bingo
Posted on October 3, 2020 by Ching under Things to Do.
If you’re looking for something fun to do on a Sunday, check out Brunch and Bingo at Chicken N Pickle. They’ve been doing it for a while but I didn’t get a chance to check it out until a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m hooked!
The best part of Brunch and Bingo is that it’s absolutely free to play. You only pay for any food or drinks you enjoy while you’re there so it’s good, cheap fun. Also, bloody marys and mimosas are just $5 during brunch.
Here are some pics from the two times I’ve been.
Two weeks ago Rick won an Engage Encore MX 6.0 paddle. It’s worth $150!
I’ve gotten close several times and then finally on Sunday I got a bingo and won this awesome shirt. It’s actually my second black skyline shirt. I also have it in the gray and white colors because I love it so much.
Several players from the Sunday morning open play stayed to play bingo this time. Here’s the huge stack of bingo cards they amassed at their table.
Brenda and Rick are regulars. This is an every Sunday thing for them.
Christian and his family also came to check things out.
Anyway, if you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, I highly recommend going to Chicken N Pickle for Brunch and Bingo. I’m filling in for someone in the Wichita Fall-Out tournament at Riverside Tennis Center (more on this later); otherwise, I’d be there tomorrow. I’ll be back next weekend, though.
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2020 Bob Jackson Friendship Tournament
Posted on October 2, 2020 by Ching under Events, Hobbies.
I played in the 4th annual Bob Jackson Friendship Tournament a couple of weeks ago. I played in this tournament for the first time last year and did pretty decent but didn’t make the podium. This year I made the podium in both events that I played in. My mixed partner Tom Pham and I took gold in our pool and my women’s doubles partner Renae DeSantis and I took bronze in our pool. It would have been great to take first place in both events but I’m pretty happy with my performance over all considering I didn’t even place last year.
Here are some fun podium pics from our pool.
And a more serious picture below.
Second place went to Robert Bell and Amy Jaramillo. Third place went to Chris Wilson and Kimberly Howe.
Here’s the podium pic from our women’s doubles pool. First place went to Amy Jaramillo and Jody Vinson. Second place went to Krystal Fosnight and Huyen Nguyen. And then Renae and I took third.
Here’s the podium pic from the other mixed pool. Doug Mitchell and Brooke Ayala took first place. Mark Smith and my women’s doubles partner Renae took second. Cameron and Mikayla Tucker took third.
In the other women’s doubles pool, Fong Witte and Sarah Johnico took first. Mikayla Tucker and Amy Poynter took second. Vi Dang and Janelle Lindeman took third. This pool, though not quite as tough as our pool, also had some really amazing pickleball players in it.
The guys had several pools. This were the winners of the medium pool. Mason McCanless and Cameron Tucker for first. Monty Ayala and Chris Wilson in second. Brandon Tran and Tommy Chau in third.
In the more advanced (higher level) pool, the winners were: Chase Prewett and Evgeniy Kim in first, Steve Vetter and Kyle Starkel in second, and Dave Belew and Donnie Lesperance in third.
There was also lower level men’s pool and, for the first time ever, a juniors pool.
The event had a great turnout. There were even more people this year than last year, despite the whole COVID pandemic situation. I love that this tournament just keeps getting bigger and better each year.
Here are some action shots that Brian got of me and Tom playing.
The tournament was so much fun and the weather was perfect for it. I look forward to playing in this event again next year. Until next time. GNG.
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Autumn & Art 2020
Posted on October 1, 2020 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
The Autumn & Art Patron Party in a Box was cool but it was no substitute for the real deal. Also, our food was delivered around 4:30 pm so by the time I got off work and Brian got home and we were both ready to enjoy it, the food was cold and that was kind of a bummer. The goodies they sent were cool, though.
They gave us a couple of the “beer and spirits” boxes with all sorts of goodies inside.
Brian was excited about the Stella goblets because he broke his Stella pilsner glass a while ago and these were an even better replacement.
We each got an Autumn & Art face covering, which we were both excited about even though we have dozens of face masks now (Brian just keeps buying them for some reason) because these were limited edition ones with the Autumn & Art print on them. Thanks, Evergy!
We also got two sacks full of food from Bradley Fair restaurants.
The fresh roses were a nice touch.
YaYa’s sent caprese salad, a chicken salad taco kit, a small piece of carrot cake and a chocolate chip cookie.
We also got some delicious hummus from Bella Luna.
Delicious pasta dish from Bella Luna.
Although cold by the time I got to it, this chicken and rice dish form Bella Luna was my favorite. Brian heated his in the microwave.
I did not get a picture of the coq au vin from Newport Grill. It didn’t present or photograph well after being transported in a plastic to go container. The South Carolina she-crab soup they sent was delicious, though. Brian didn’t care for it so I ate his portion too.
Homegrown sent a couple of bottles of their bloody mary mix. I didn’t get a photo of those either. I don’t really drink bloody marys so I gave the two bottles to my friend Brooke.
Besides the food and the bloody mary mix, we also got some little bottles of Tito’s and four bottles of Stella but they weren’t cold so we couldn’t drink them that night. Or maybe they were cold when they were first delivered? They weren’t cold when we sat down though so we just drank our own stuff.
Brian and I tried to get on the website to participate in the virtual party but we couldn’t figure it out. We think there was something wrong with the sight. I was a little disappointed that I skipped pickleball, actually. I totally could have played and just ate the cold food when I got home later that night. LOL. I wanted to see what this virtual party thing was all about, though. It was definitely no substitute for the real deal. Stupid COVID ruins everything. Hopefully things will be somewhat back to normal next year. Until then, GNG.
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