FLIP + CHING

Picklemania MMXXII

Posted on June 11, 2022 by Ching under Community, Pickleball.

Our second annual pickleball tournament for the Rotary Club of Andover was a huge success. We engaged several sponsors this year that allowed us to provide shirts for our players and volunteers and just make the tournament 100x better. We decided to go with a team-style tournament this year, which meant fewer teams/players, but turned out to be way more fun because then the tournament wasn’t too serious.

Lesli Toubassi provided some breakfast power bars and cinnamon rolls from Great Harvest Bread Co. Nick Gerstner (owner of Tea Taze) provided tea. Bryce Lob provided three bottles of Una Vida Tequila. Gamma Sports gave us some overgrips.

Besides in-kind sponsors, we received monetary support from the following generous people/companies:

PRESENTING SPONSOR — Palomino Petroleum
T-SHIRT SPONSORS
— Chicken N Pickle
— CoreNorth Capital Planning
— Expert Auto Center
— Royal Caribbean/Sunflower Travel
NET SPONSOR — Verity Jet

We also had a couple of teams travel from out of town to play in the tournament. One was a team that fellow Rotarian Kumar Krishnan put together. Kumar, along with Brent and Karen Taylor and Deana Holman, traveled from Bartlesville, Oklahoma to complete. They went by the team name Cucumbers.

The other team that traveled a good distance to play was Did Someone Say Unlimited Drinks? From left: David Gleason, Karly Gleason (formerly Williams), Liz Sharp, and Ian Wright.

I actually didn’t think these guys were going to make it. I got a text late on Friday night that they had a flat tire in Emporia. As it turns out, the key for the lugs weren’t in the car so they couldn’t replace the tire. They ended up towing the car back to Kansas City and changing vehicles. They made it to Wichita around 1 AM.

They are such troopers! I’m glad they made it. Otherwise, we would have missed seeing their awesome team shirts that Liz made.

I think everyone had a great time, except maybe Krystal Fosnight, who rolled her ankle in the first round of bracket play. Their team, The Experts, consisting of Tom Pham, Huyen Nguyen, and Tommy Chau had a really good shot at winning their pool also. I think they were just behind Klee Watchous and Chris Heck’s team in pool play.

Don’t worry, Krystal’s ankle is pretty much all better. She even won gold in 4.5 Mixed Doubles with her partner Hanbeen You in the ICT Classic pickleball tournament this past weekend.

As far as the tournament went, Patti Mackey made us eight medals so we could have two sets of winners. After the pool play, we divided the 16 teams into 2 pools of 8 teams each. There was an upper pool and a lower pool.

Dinkers and Bongers (from left: Ryan Kellenbarger, Krista Crawford, Chandi Bongers, and Bo Tolbert) defeated the CoreNorth team consisting of Ryan and Renae DeSantis and Dave and Lori Belew to win their division.

There were lots of upsets in the upper division. First, with the Blazing Paddles team (consisting of Heather Griffin, Mike Ellison, Noi Sourinthone, and Amy Jaramillo pictured below) eliminating Palomino Petroleum (Chris Heck, Klee Watchous, Melissa Youngers, and Lacy Waugh – not pictured) but then falling to 1 Small 3 Mediums (next picture).

The upper division champions (from left): Ian Carr, Fong Witte, Jen Reifschneider, and Ev Kim. Honestly, the tournament was stacked with amazing players and teams this year, anyone could have won but I think Palomino Petroleum was the favorite going in.

For a fun, charity tournament, this one was full of talented players which made the matches very competitive, which I think, made it even more fun for everyone. Of course, the unlimited drinks was a great draw as well. The players and spectators got breakfast treats, lunch, and pretty much all the mimosas, margaritas, and beer they could drink. Maybe that’s why Chris’ team didn’t win. LOL.

Anyway, I am so grateful to everyone who came to support our event (by playing, spectating, or volunteering), most specially these two: Brian and Jody Vinson. For someone who doesn’t enjoy pickleball and isn’t even a Rotarian, Brian was there from 6:30 AM all the way to the tear down at the end. And, Jody just makes tournaments run super smoothly. I’m so glad she was there to help me.

The event helped us raise over $6,000 toward our club service projects. Last year, we didn’t have any sponsors so we only raised $1,200. The sponsors really came through for us this year. The event was a huge success and I’m looking forward to having it again next year. Until next time, GNG.

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Spread HopeICT Event

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Ching under Community, Health.

Here are some pictures from HopeNet’s Spread HopeICT event at Chicken N Pickle last month. The purpose of the panel is to promote positive youth mental health and support for suicide awareness and prevention.

We ran into Judy and Malachi Nola.

And also Jo Lynn Bright, HopeNet’s Director of Community Impact.

I felt overwhelming emotion upon seeing Jo Lynn. She was my most favorite EMPAC counselor and helped me work through some issues 12 years ago. It was so great to see her again and to know that she continues to make a difference for so many through the HopeNet organization.

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Pickleball Kickoff Party at Crestview

Posted on June 6, 2022 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.

Crestview Country Club is going all-in with pickleball. Last month they hosted a super fun kickoff party to (re)introduce pickleball to members and unveil their newly painted courts.

They did such a great job of decorating for the party.

Here are a few pictures from the event…

Shout out to Jeff Kenworthy (DJ/KJ Entertainment) for providing awesome tunes at the party. If you have an event, be sure to hire him!

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LowBrow in Naples

Posted on June 2, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

While we were in Naples for the Minto US Open, Brian and I found this awesome pizza place called LowBrow Pizza and Beer. Their mantra is “DON’T EAT SHITTY PIZZA” and “DON’T DRINK SHITTY BEER” — these sayings are printed on the t-shirts that they sell at the restaurant. Here’s a picture of one of the servers wearing said shirt…

I’m actually surprised that Brian didn’t buy one. I thought they were pretty funny.

They’re pretty proud of their pizza, which is understandable because their pizzas are excellent (as evidenced by the rave reviews online and also based on how busy the place was the entire time that we were there). And, though we only tried one kind of pizza on that visit, it was damn good pizza.

Obviously, anything that is not their pizza is considered “shitty pizza” but you might be wondering what beers constitute the “shitty beer” category. Their website provides an extensive list (see right). If one of these beers happens to be your favorite, I guess they will still serve it to you (it is on the menu, after all) but accept the fact that you may get made fun of for having terrible taste.

Speaking of the menu, I took a couple of pictures because (a) I don’t like green peppers on my pizza either — actually, who am I kidding, I don’t like much of anything on my pizza besides all the meats — and (b) whoever wrote their menu is creative, clever, and funny.

I love that the restaurant doesn’t take itself too seriously and they have a great sense of humor. I circled the Basic AF pizza because that’s what we ordered. It doesn’t have a lot of stuff on it so I guess it’s kind of “basic” in that sense but the pizza itself was excellent. (See the picture that follows.)

You can’t go wrong with prosciutto!

Besides the great food and drinks, the restaurant had live music during the visit which contributed to the ultra cool vibe.

They were super busy despite the horrible weather outside (it was raining the entire time) so we had to wait a long time for a table but at least we got to listen to fun, live music as we waited.

The place seemed to be very popular with both tourists and locals. They were busy the entire time that we were there.

We like this place so much that we’ll probably be back again next year. Anyway, next time you’re in Naples, remember 2 things: (1) Don’t eat shitty pizza and (2) don’t drink shitty beer. Go visit LowBrow for the good stuff. Until next time, GNG.

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Bistro La Baguette

Posted on May 31, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.

I’m not sure that we are what some would consider French cuisine aficionados but we wanted to try something different and this place had rave reviews.

The exterior of the place doesn’t look like much but their patio is super cute!

The way they’ve decorated makes the place look so comfortable and cozy. And, though I’ve never been to France, I imagine this is what a French bistro might look like. It could be completely off but I guess I’ll never know until I actually make it out there. (Adding France to list of places to visit before I die.)

Here are pictures of the interior. There are no guests in the pic because we arrived right as they opened and were the first ones there. By the time we left, the place was buzzing with diners both inside and out on the patio where we chose to sit.

Here are some pics of the menu. Everything sounded so fancy.

Here’s a picture of Brian. I can only offer a guess as to what he is thinking. The coffee at our hotel was completely horrid. He might be contemplating if the coffee at the restaurant is worth the price he paid for it. The free coffee at the hotel was nasty and, as they say, you get what you pay for. But I’m not quite sure if he felt this coffee was worth its price either.

He was definitely pleased with the bread selection. The bread was fabulous.

We started with a charcuterie board, which was exactly that — just meat. There is an option to get a cheese board but they didn’t have a combo one, which is what I was hoping. This board had a wide selection of meats and pates. I even got to try a slice of cured duck meat.

Here’s a picture of us and our mostly finished meat board.

Here is a picture of Brian’s croque monsieur sandwich.

I opted for a crepe, which was not quite what I expected — perhaps because I’m used to the Americanized IHOP version. LOL.

We had a wonderful lunch and enjoyed our dining experience overall. If you enjoy French food, this might be a place to check out on your next visit to Naples.