Lunch at Merle’s Place
Posted on October 17, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Met Teresa and Jason for lunch at Merle’s place the other day. Teresa suggested Merle’s because it’s close to the Wichita Art Museum and it’s one of her usual lunch spots. Here are some pictures of our food.
I just love these two. I’m so glad we got to have lunch.
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World Pickleball Day Weekend
Posted on October 16, 2021 by Ching under Life.
October 10 is World Pickleball Day so naturally I spent the entire weekend playing pickleball. We started with a fun cookout at Rolling Hills on Saturday night, the eve of World Pickleball Day.
Brian took one for the team and served as our grill-master that night. Here are a few pictures from our cookout that night.
The next day we hung out at Chicken N Pickle to celebrate World Pickleball Day and raise money to build courts for the Boys & Girls Club.
Queen of the APP Tour, Lauren Stratman, happened to be in town.
I introduced Lauren to my friend Erica Lopez. I shared some of the Electrum shirts that Lauren gave me with Erica so I figured the two of them should meet.
The four of us got a group picture together. From left: Erica Lopez, Karen Fox, Lauren Stratman and me.
Patrick Smith was there too.
We had a great time celebrating World Pickleball Day.
Can’t wait to do it all again next year. Until then. GNG.
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Saturdate with the Hubs
Posted on October 15, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Had a wonderful lunch with Brian on the Il Vicino patio last Saturday.
We started with our usual Caesar salads followed by the Vespa.
We always split a Vespa. Except Brian’s half is minus tomatoes and spinach which I don’t mind having in mine.
It was a nice day for an outdoor lunch and so, to extend our experience, we decided to share a flourless chocolate cake for dessert. It was so nice to have a leisurely lunch with Brian and just enjoy the day. We were in my car that day so we decide to take the long way home and rode around top down. I love days like these. I wish we could have more of them.
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Lunch at Albero Bistro
Posted on October 14, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink.
After running into Tammie at Haus of Brews where we only got to visit briefly, we decided to meet for lunch and catch up. Brian happened to be off work that day so he joined us and the three of us got together at Albero Bistro. I’d never been there but since Tammie suggested it, I knew it would be good. Tammie has good taste in food. Or, at least, her tastes are similar to mine so I know if she likes their food then we would enjoy it as well.
We arrived before the lunch rush. I think we were their first customers that day. We decided to sit outside because it was a nice day but I took advantage of the opportunity to take pictures of the restaurant’s interior.
Their patio is a decent size and is nice and shaded.
We started with the arancini balls, which were delicious! Definitely getting those again on our next visit.
Tammie had chicken nachos — their version of it anyway.
Brian had a pork sandwich. It was an odd choice for him but he seemed to enjoy it.
Although he kept eyeballing my meatball sub. He said it’s what he’s getting next time. It was messy but very good.
The three of us shared a tiramisu for dessert. Though, admittedly, I think I ate most of it. It was completely drenched in awesomeness.
I’m so glad Tammie recommended this place. Brian and I really liked it. The food was good, as was the service. I think we’re going to add it to our permanent dining rotation. Maybe we will take grandma here next time.
Until the next post. GNG.
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Life Happens
Posted on October 13, 2021 by Ching under Confessions, Life, Travel.
The other day I got an email from one of my hotel rewards accounts. I asked Brian about it because I wasn’t sure if it was a phishing scam. Something happened to my account but I hadn’t logged in and done anything. After Brian did some investigation, he found out that someone had hacked into my rewards account and redeemed some of my hotel points. They used my hard-earned points to book a room in China. This naturally pissed me off. I mean, I would like to visit China (not right now — but at some point) and I would like to be able to use my points. Scammers just make my blood boil.
Thankfully, Brian got it all sorted and they are giving me my points back. I haven’t checked yet but I’m hoping that my points will be there for me to use on a future stay. These points really do help to keep your travel costs down.
For instance, when I traveled to Arizona for a PPA tournament back in February, we stayed at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa which is easily $500 a night. Our hotel costs would have been nearly $3000 if I didn’t have enough hotel points to cover most of it. Anyway, points are very important.
Speaking of shitty things happening… My websites also broke this week. First, www.ictpickleball.com broke. Then when that finally got fixed, this site broke. My host restored this site from backup but, in the meantime, I lost two blog posts that didn’t make the last backup. So much crap happens.
But there are good things that happened too… On Sunday, World Pickleball Day of all days, I finally beat my friend Karen Fox at singles. I have never ever beaten her, in the history of us playing singles against each other, ever. I usually get a handful of points at best. We played one game on Sunday and I beat her 13-11.
It reminded of the time that I played singles against my friend Donnie Lesperance a couple of months ago and almost beat him. He ended up beating me 12-10 because I couldn’t close the game. If I ever beat Donnie in a game of singles, I am throwing a huge party!
Here’s a group photo of those of us who played in the World Pickleball Day pickleball tournament at Chicken N Pickle in the afternoon. Not many teams competed but we had a ton of fun. We got food and drinks and even got goodie bags. Oh, and I won some silent auction items. So, while we didn’t win at pickleball, at least I won some things. LOL.
On Tuesday I received compliments about my pickleball game from a couple of pickleball players that I admire and respect. Melissa Youngers paid me a compliment on how I played in Monday night league and then later that evening Steve Vetter said I played “incredible” in our Tuesday night league in a group text with a couple of other friends. Two compliments from a couple of amazing pickleball players in the same day is pretty darn awesome.
There are some other crappy things that have happened to me of late that I don’t really want to talk about. It’s nice that there’s these occasional, little rays of sunshine to keep my mind off the negative stuff. Anytime I go through a rough patch, I always remind myself to count my blessings.
I have actually gotten out of practice but I think I’m going to start this again just to preserve my sanity. Every morning start my day with three key things I wish to accomplish and then, at the end of the day, think of three positive things that happened or three things I’m grateful for right before bed. I’m absolutely certain that if I commit to doing these things consistently each day things will start to change for the better and even more good things will come my way.
That’s all for now. I hope you all have a wonderful day. GNG.
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