Paisano’s Topeka
Posted on February 11, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Paisano’s Ristorante is a place I’d been to in forever! We went the night that several of us from Wichita were in town.
There were several of us so I got a bunch of food pictures. That’s one of my favorite things about dining with a group of people. I can add to my food picture collection!
According to Flickr, there are over 4,500 pictures in my food album. These are the latest additions.
SIDE NOTE: I’m pretty sure I have more than 5,000 food pictures. I just forget to put them in the food album sometimes. Why do I have a food album and why do I collect pictures of food? I’m sure you’re wondering. I’ve been asked this a few times. I don’t really have a good answer other than I love food and I enjoy going back and looking at pictures of all the food I’ve eaten. LOL. Until next time! GNG.
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Jeremiah Bullfrogs
Posted on February 10, 2019 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian said that he got a mandate from grandma to tell me to blog more. Apparently, I’m playing too much pickleball not blogging enough. LOL.
I will attempt to get y’all caught up over the next couple of weeks but no guarantees — because, you know, life happens. Every time I think I’m caught up, I get behind on the blog again.
Although, I don’t think I did too bad on the blogging front last month. There are five posts for the month of January. Grandma wants to read more stories though, so I guess I need to pump up the volume to more than one blog a week.
In the spirit of getting the blog caught up, I did get to try a new restaurant when I was in Topeka last month. I forgot to tell y’all about it.
It’s supposed to be the best bar in Topeka. I did check them out on Trip Advisor, my go-to website for restaurant reviews and other travel information, and the restaurant is pretty highly rated on there. It must be true!
FUN FACT: Jeremiah Bullfrogs was established in 1993, the same year I moved from the Philippines to the United States. When people ask me how long I’ve lived in the US, I usually say “over 20 years.” I guess I can now upgrade this statement to say “over 25 years.” How amazing is that?! I’ve lived somewhere for more than a quarter of a century!
It was a week night so the place wasn’t packed and relatively quiet.
Here are a few pictures of food, starting with the spinach dip…
Chicken tenders and sweet potato fries…
Jerk chicken sandwich and curly fries…
I can’t remember what Tom got but it was bun-less.
The place wasn’t bad. I’d like to go back with more people. It was just me, Chad and Tom on this visit. I think it will be more fun with a big group. Next time!
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Year-Round Aqua Zumba
Posted on February 7, 2019 by Ching under Zumba.
When I completed Aqua Zumba instructor training at the LA Zumba Instructor Conference five years ago, I didn’t start teaching it right away. I was somewhat reluctant to jump in. I guess I was the same way with teaching Zumba (I just wanted to get discounts on Zumba wear and go to ZINCON) and all the other formats. I complete all the trainings with no intention of teaching. I just like to collect the licenses. What can I say? The buttons look good on my ZIN profile page.
Anyway, I got my license to teach AZ in January 2014 and I didn’t teach it for months. Later in the year, I started shadowing Alexa at Andover YMCA. I taught some AZ songs in her class that summer but I don’t think I actually got my own AZ class until the following summer.
My early years of teaching AZ were just okay. I taught it because there was a time slot available on the schedule but, honestly, I really didn’t enjoy it as much as teaching regular Zumba. Probably partly because I had to teach it in 100+ degree weather, outside, in the middle of summer. It was so dreadful.
I taught it on Thursday nights at 7:00 pm and on Saturday mornings from June to September. The Thursday night classes used to wear me out so much because of the heat. I preferred the Saturday morning classes. In the beginning we started at 8:30 am (now we start at 8:45 am), which wasn’t the best earlier in the year because the water would still be kind of cold. It was great for me though, because it was as hot.
The teaching conditions weren’t the best but the students seemed to really love it so we plugged on. I did have to get rid of the Thursday night AZ class eventually. Not because I was a wuss who hated teaching in the heat (I was perfectly fine suffering for the sake of the students) but because I started working on a project that required me to practically live in Topeka. I couldn’t, in good conscience, take up a prime class time slot and have to sub it out week after week. So, for the last three years, I’ve only been teaching AZ once a week on Saturday mornings, and only during the summer months.
As convenient as that is (I don’t have to worry about times when I had to be out of town for work), it posed its own challenges. Since I’m not teaching AZ the rest of the year, it felt like I was starting over every year. Each year, I would tell myself that I’d work on my AZ songs a month before my first AZ class for the year. I would inevitably procrastinate (because life happens and you get busy with stuff) and then I’d be frantically working on my songs a week before. Sometimes it would be a couple of days or the day before. Anyway, that feeling of panic and lack of adequate preparation wasn’t fun.
It took a few years but I finally wised up. I figured the solution to my problem was to teach AZ year-round. Then I wouldn’t end up forgetting my songs and have to frantically try to recall them the following year before summer session. Amazingly enough, that’s actually improved my attitude towards AZ. I’m enjoying it so much, I’d venture to say I even prefer teaching it to Zumba at times.
When my AZ classes ended at the Andover YMCA, I started teaching it at VASA Fitness (a new gym that opened in Wichita in July) — on the exact same day and time. The only difference is I actually have to drive in between classes, whereas before both my 8:45 am AZ and 10:30 am Zumba classes were at the same location. I have 45 minutes in between the two classes so having to drive from VASA to Andover isn’t really an issue. I have more than enough time to get to class (and even stop at Scooter’s if I need to). I’m absolutely loving the back to back classes. I’m glad that I get to continue this cadence in fall and winter.
Since I’ve been enjoying the back to back classes on Saturdays, I’d been trying to figure out how to replicate this on Sundays. As luck would have it (or perhaps it’s the Secret — also known as the Law of Attraction — at work), an opportunity presented itself at North YMCA. I started teaching AZ there at 12:30 pm on Sundays at the beginning of this year. It’s perfect because it precedes my 2:00 pm Zumba class on Sundays at the Andover YMCA.
I feel like I now have the perfect teaching schedule on the weekends. The only thing that could make it even better is if my back to back classes were at the same place. In the meantime, I’m just grateful for the opportunity to teach these classes to a bunch of lovely people who fill my heart with joy.
Here’s a picture of my new friends at VASA.
Here’s the lovely North YMCA group.
I’m enjoying teaching AZ so much that I will even sub it on occasion. Here’s a picture from when I had to sub for Hideki at Northwest YMCA a couple of weeks ago. He and Amy were in Thailand. He always subs my classes when I’m at ZINCON so I figured I owed him. The roads were ridiculous that night because of the snowstorm. I actually asked Brian to drive me. Anyway, these two ladies came to class despite the horrible weather and we had a great time working out. They gave me some positive feedback that totally warmed my heart and made the 45-minute drive to the gym and 45-minute drive home so worth it.
I’m finding teaching AZ rewarding in so many ways. Besides the positive vibes I get from the class, I actually get tangible (and yummy) rewards from time to time. This very nice man gave me a chocolate bar on Super Bowl Sunday. It was such a nice and thoughtful (and sweet, pun intended) surprise!
I am loving every minute of my AZ classes and I’m so happy that I’m able to teach it year-round now. I hope I can keep it up.
If you’ve never tried AZ before, I encourage you to join us. It’s such an amazing workout and I promise you will have blast. Here’s where you can catch me:
- VASA Fitness – 8:45 am, every Saturday (non-members can get a free trial pass here to join the fun)
- North YMCA – 12:30 pm, every Sunday (there’s a $10 drop in fee for non-members but it’s good for the entire day for all Greater Wichita YMCA locations — just keep your receipt and show it when you visit another branch)
See you at the pool!
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The Best of 2018
Posted on January 24, 2019 by Ching under Life.
For the past ten years, I’ve been doing a “Best of” blog post highlighting the most memorable parts of the year. Here’s the post from last year.
I usually try to post this either toward the end of the year or around the beginning of the year. It’s a bit late this year but at least I’m beating last year’s post which wasn’t published until the 30th.
So, what happened last year? We attended a ton of parties for one.
- 24th Annual Wichita Heart Ball
- Shaker Full of Wishes
- YMCA Annual Celebration
- Symphony in the Flint Hills Volunteer Appreciation
- Society of 1895 Luncheon
- KANSEL Team Trivia, Kentucky Derby Party
- CASA-INO
- Celebrity & Chef Cookoff
- Zoobilee
- Wine Women and Shoes
- Biz Bang
- Haus of Brews
- Light Your Heart, Brew Ha Ha, Cattle Baron’s Ball
- Tallgrass Film Festival
This isn’t even counting all the Zumba parties that happened. LOL. My philosophy is — never miss a party if you can help it. I never turn down an invite as long as I’m available to attend. That said, I’m not the kind of person that you extend courtesy invites to. If you don’t want me to come, don’t invite me — because I will show up.
Speaking of Zumba parties, these are just a few of the events that I can think of off the top of my head…
- Member Appreciation Zumbathon
- Black Light Zumba Party
- Sweat in the City
- Fall Kick Off Party
- Andrea’s 32nd Birthday
I also got a new Zumba job teaching for VASA Fitness. I started at the end of July. I actually taught a class the same day that we arrived from ZINCON.
Speaking of ZINCON, here are some highlights from that trip…
We also got to go on the Zumba Cruise!
Another somewhat significant part of 2018 is, after being a ZIN member for over six years, I finally attended my first ZIN Jam. I know, isn’t that crazy?
I just love hanging out with my Zumba family. We even went to several group movies together.
Other fun things that happened last year include…
- Kansas City Restaurant Week – It’s like the most wonderful time of the year! You get to have $100 dinners for $33. Most of the restaurants have lunch promotions too. And, almost every restaurant in the city participates. It’s pretty amazing.
- Boulevard – If I remember correctly, I think we got to do it twice last year.
- Salsa Lessons – I also got to participate in some salsa lessons at Viva Social dance studio in Shawnee Mission.
- Coffee Chat – Brian and I started our live video series on FLIP + CHING and actually kept it up the whole year!
- Stitch Fix – While I technically discovered Stitch Fix in 2017, last year was the year that Brian and I were both on it and getting boxes on the regular.
- Logan, Madison Graduation – We attended a couple of memorable graduations to make us both feel old.
- Water Bottle Project – Brian made us some awesome custom insulated water bottles.
- Ginger’s Retirement – We attended the retirement party of my boss of over thirteen years.
- Master Certificate in Project Management – I completed my Master Certificate in Project Management from Wichita State University’s Center for Management Development. My plan is to eventually take the PMP exam but just not at the moment.
- Grace Hill Winery – Brian, Jay, Becca, and I got to tour Grace Hill Winery with the Young Professionals of Wichita group.
- Corporate Challenge – I participated in the Wichita Corporate Challenge and actually got a bronze medal in one of my events (corn hole).
- The Dead South – Brian and I watched the Dead South perform at Nortons.
- Kansas State Capitol – I got to tour the Kansas State Capitol with my project teammates.
- Open Streets ICT – Brian and I finally got a chance to participate in Open Streets ICT. We rented a couple of Zagster bikes and cruised up and down Douglas. It was a ton of fun!
- Mural Scavenger Hunt – Brian and I did a mural scavenger hunt. We went on a mission to find all of the murals painted for Avenue Art Days.
Finally, I picked up a new hobby. Brian and I decided to take a break from bowling over the summer. We normally resume our bowling league for the fall but we decided to skip it this year because we started playing pickleball on Sunday nights. It’s around the same time as our Sunday night bowling league. Brian’s not really that into it but I’m completely addicted. I event bought myself a real paddle, which is an upgrade from the pickleball paddle set that Brian and I had been using.
Anyway, that’s pretty much 2018 in a nutshell. Now to see what fun things we will discover and experience in 2019!
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New Year’s Eve Festivities
Posted on January 18, 2019 by Ching under Events.
Brian and I got roped into throwing a New Year’s Eve party this year. Although, I did offer so it’s not like we were forced into it. I did it to myself. LOL.
Leading up to NYE, our friends were talking about going to this party that costs $75 per person. I don’t care if it’s all you can drink, I’d rather not pay to go to a party. It’s one thing if it’s a charity benefit. Plus, I don’t drink that much. And, if I’m drinking, I’d rather stay home and drink.
Other people were fine with the cost but the Phelpi weren’t so keen on the price either. I’m glad April said something. But then we were trying to figure out how to get together for NYE in the group chat. That’s when it came to me. If we just want to get together and we’re not really particular about where, then they should all just came over. And, that’s how the party started.
I usually don’t prefer to host on NYE because we have this superstition that whatever you’re doing on NYD is what you’re doing all year so if you’re hung over or you have a messy house or you’re stuck cleaning the house on NYD, that’s pretty much what your whole year will be like. Our typical MO is to hit other people’s parties (my parents’ for the food and Hideki’s for the booze — most of the time) and then be home by midnight so we can ring in the New Year by having sex. Yes, it’s been our long running tradition. We figured if we’re having sex on NYD, then we will be having sex all year long. And, yes, it’s important enough to us that this is a must. Our friend all know that we have to be home by midnight.
It was fun hanging out and ringing in the New Year with everyone but we obviously didn’t get our midnight sex this year. We had to wait until later on NYD. At least we got it done before the day was over otherwise we would have been cursed with lack of sex all year. And that just cannot be. LOL.
No midnight sex aside, we had a great time celebrating with everyone. Here are some of the pics we took…
I’m glad Jess and Marc took a photo in front of our gold fringe backdrop. At least it didn’t go to waste.
Me and Jess with our party tiaras.
Jay and Brian (with Becca and April in the background).
Me and the Massingills, my favorite Zumba family.
Jess and me and Madison and Brian.
I made a jug of Carlos O’Kelly’s margarita.
We laid out the party favors for everyone.
I may have overestimated how many people would show up.
We pulled out some of our favorite games and decided that’s what we would do to pass the time because I wasn’t allowed to have Zumba.
We played What Do You Meme? downstairs and Disturbed Friends upstairs.
I love having people over but I’m not a huge fan of hosting NYE parties because of our superstitions. All things aside though, it was a great night overall. But, I suspect we will resume our normal NYE tradition next year.
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