Tacos & Tequila Cantina
Posted on May 8, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
This place has happy hour everyday from 12-6 PM. I would be here every single day if I lived in Naples. LOL.
Food pics.
I can’t believe I missed taking a picture of my elote. It was the best dang elote ever!
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Mom and Dad’s First US Open Trip
Posted on April 29, 2023 by Ching under Pickleball, Travel.
Mom and dad traveled with us to Florida this year to check out the Minto US Open. Here are a few pictures from our trip.
With Kevin Coccetella at the kick off event.
Mom had fun tracking down and getting pictures with some of her favorite pros that she enjoys watching on Facebook and YouTube.
With Brendon Long.
With Parris Todd.
With Susannah Barr.
With Tony Roig and CJ Johnson.
With Megan Fudge.
With Salome Devidze.
With Wes Gabrielsen and Joey Farias.
With Jenny Marcos, Filipino senior pro who lives in Oklahoma City.
Had to get pics of mom and dad with some iconic US Open signage.
Will share some more pictures (food pics, etc.) from our recent trip in future posts. Until then, GNG.
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Brunch with Grandma
Posted on April 28, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Decided to avoid the crowds at YaYa’s and go somewhere less busy for Easter brunch this year. Grandma had heard so much about Mokas Cafe and how much we love so it was high time we finally took her there to check it out for herself.
They have such good breakfast (and other) food. Check out these pics.
If you have never been, you must go!
It was actually slow enough that day that we were able to stick around and play Phase 10 after. The lighting is great at that table by the window. Grandma annihilated us that day. I think she won almost every round. Until next time, GNG.
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Ryan’s Birthday Weekend
Posted on April 26, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
I just love when friends come to visit. A few weeks ago we had a surprise visit from the Sagers. They were in town the same weekend as the It’s a Big Dill pickleball tournament at the Wichita Country Club. They were supposed to stay at the Egans but the Egans were in Tulsa for a concert so they weren’t in town. They made a game time decision to stay with us instead. It was quite spontaneous but everyone’s always welcome at our house.
They ended up meeting us at WCC and hanging out for a bit. We had early supper at Wichita Brewing Company, one of my most favorite pizza places. They also happen to have great craft beer so it’s a winning combination.
I love when the Sagers visit because they are so fun. After supper, we hung out at home and played cards. They taught us how to play Pitch. I love learning new things and I love card games so I can’t wait to play it again.
It was a pretty quick visit for the Sagers. They stayed over on Saturday night and left on Sunday. But then later that same week, Ramon Lozano came into town. He didn’t have any specific plans, other than I think he wanted to get some practice time with Kyle Starkel. They both played in a “Bring Your Own Partner” DUPR session I had at the Pickle Club that I organized at Zach Nguyen’s request.
While he was in town, he got invited to a bunch of pickleball games and also Ryan Kellenbarger’s birthday celebrations. Yes, celebrations with an S because they were celebrating all weekend long. Anyway, Ramon is probably one of the most spontaneous people I know. He doesn’t really plan too far ahead. So he arrived on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday — without any pre-planning. I think this was the longest length of time he had ever stayed with us. I was actually surprised he had enough clothes with him.
I love cake so I volunteered to bring the cake for the pickleball celebration.
Solo pic of Ryan with the cake above and a picture of our group below.
Later that night, we met up with the gang for more birthday festivities.
Here’s a pic of Ryan and Ramon with our friend Ty Richardson.
Ryan with Ian Carr and Austin Jones.
Group picture of those who stayed for dancing. Jared Smart and Kendra Wicks came for dinner but didn’t stick around. They left shortly after Brian and I arrived.
Dawn Hazlewood with Ramon and Ryan.
Last pic is an obligatory selfie of Brian and me. Cos, you know, we just have to do it. Until next time, GNG.
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It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament
Posted on April 24, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
The It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament at the Wichita Country Club which benefits the Wichita Children’s Home fell on April 1 this year. This was my third year helping with the tournament and every year it’s a little bit different and every year we encounter different challenges. Last year one of our biggest challenges was having so many teams (four divisions worth) and not having enough courts. The WCC team tapes up 8 temporary courts to supplement the 3 permanent ones so we always have just 11 courts.
The first year that I helped, we only budgeted half a day and the tournament ran until a little after 1 pm. I couldn’t stay that year because I had a Saturday morning Aqua Zumba class at the time that I couldn’t get out of (or it might have been some other commitment that I had later in the day). I remember I was only there to get it kicked off and then I had to leave.
Last year we factored in lunch and allowed for play until 2 pm. Despite having a limited number of courts, everything ran smoothly and on schedule. I remember looking at my watch as we were pulling out of the parking lot to leave and it read 2:01 pm. That meant we were able to award medals and start tear down in time for everything to wrap up by 2 pm as planned.
This year they wanted me to work an exhibition match into the tournament schedule. Two of our top pros Jay Devilliers and Patrick Smith were being auctioned off at the kick off party on Friday night and the winners of the live auction would get to play with them during the lunch intermission at the tournament on Saturday. Because of the exhibition match, we added an extra hour to the schedule and planned to wrap everything up by 3 pm.
But that wasn’t even the biggest challenge I had to face. I always like to print all my round robin schedules in Excel ahead of time so I’m not having to cross-reference team numbers against team names. Well, about 15 minutes before the start of the tournament, I found that we had an extra team in the men’s doubles division. One of the sponsors didn’t sign up to play in the tournament ahead of time but showed up that morning. The sponsors donate a lot of money so we couldn’t turn them away. I basically had to scrap my pre-printed worksheet for the men’s doubles and just used a generic team round robin from printyourbrackets.com for the men’s division. At least I only had to do that for one division and mixed and women’s didn’t have to be modified.
Amazingly enough, everything once again ran super smoothly and on schedule. Bryce and Michael from the WCC were fabulous at keeping things going and helping me put matches on as soon as courts became available. We were able to finish all the round robin play by noon and start the exhibition match as the players enjoyed their lunch.
The exhibition match was a nice addition to the tournament day. Not only did it raise $10,000 for the Wichita Children’s Home (both of the winning bidders paid $5,000 each to play with Jay and Pat) but it also gave the players a nice break for lunch so that they didn’t feel like they had to rush through their food.
Here’s a link to the exhibition match video for those who want to watch it. Below are pictures of the winners of this year’s tournament.
- Mixed Doubles
- First Place – Matt Nola and Jackie Hall
- Second Place – Dave and Lori Belew
- Third Place – Tanner and Britney Blaske
- Men’s Doubles
- First Place – Mitchell Born and Klee Watchous
- Second Place – Zach Nguyen and Noi Sourinthone
- Third Place – Ron McMahon and Daniel Ritchie
- Advanced Women’s Doubles
- First Place – Karen Fox and Vickie Hancock
- Second Place – Beth Fischer and Zoe Rohr
- Third Place – Chandi Bongers and Krista Crawford
- Intermediate Women’s Doubles
- First Place – Krista Onofrio and Kristin Conrad
- Second Place – Brenda Bishop and Margaret Dechant
- Third Place – Trish Mueller and Karen Taylor
So grateful to our wonderful pickleball community and generous players for supporting the Wichita Children’s Home pickleball tournament. We had a another successful event. I’m already looking forward to next year!
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