FLIP + CHING

Traveling to Arizona

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Hobbies, Travel.

Last week I traveled to Arizona for my first out of town pickleball tournament. It was one of the big ones too — the first Pro Pickleball Association (PPA) tournament of the year — with over 1200 registered players. It was a bit stressful trying to get out of Wichita with so many flight cancellations due to the winter storms. My 7 AM flight on Wednesday actually got canceled but luckily Brian was able to rebook me on an noon flight. The only downside is, instead of arriving in Arizona around noon, I wouldn’t arrive until 6 PM but I was grateful to be able to get there at all.

Obligatory airport pic. (Photo credit: Brian)

This is what Wichita looked like when I left.

Massive construction at the Denver airport.

Quickie airport lunch — hotdog and fries.

The first order of business upon my arrival at the resort — dinner and drinks at Roy’s. The drinks were delicious and pretty but expensive.

Karen was completely hooked on these lobster potstickers.

I got us some calamari to share.

My katsu chicken dinner.

Special bread pudding dessert.

Chocolate souffle.

Lauren Stratman joined us for that first dinner.

We had a nice time visiting over delicious food. I was so grateful I made it to the resort without any issues. I heard about the problems everyone was having with their car rentals and Ubers and I’m glad that Brian and I prearranged a car service pickup for me. Anyway, more about the trip next time. GNG.

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Doubles and Bubbles at CNP

Posted on February 23, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies.

Chicken N Pickle had a fun little tournament on Galantines Day. It was the Doubles and Bubbles women’s doubles pickleball tournament. There were 20 teams that participated — 10 in the intermediate bracket and 10 in the competitive bracket. The format was round robin games to 7, followed by a single elimination tournament. Games to 7 are not ideal because it goes by really quick but with so many teams playing, there was no other way to get all of those games in.

What a great turnout!

Heart Killers – Kim Blackmon and Karen Fox – won the competitive bracket after battling it out with Shot to the Heart – Michelle Pease and Jenny Cole.

In the intermediate bracket, 2 Cooks in the Kitchen (Melissa and Amy) prevailed over Come On One More (Wanda and her partner).

The best part of this tournament was that your entry fee included a glass of mimosa which, I think, everyone enjoyed.

Anyway, be on the lookout for more of these fun little tournaments at Chicken N Pickle. Michael does such a great job of running these events. I was bummed I didn’t get to play this time but can’t wait until the next one.

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National Girls and Women in Sports Day

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Ching under Hobbies, Things to Do.

I had to work on MLK day so I ended up with a comp day which I later used on February 3, National Girls and Women in Sports Day. I’m not sure why this isn’t already a national holiday but, either way, I took the day off work as my own personal holiday anyway. As with most of my days off, I planned a full day of playing pickleball.

The day started with women’s doubles with Karen and the Jens at 7:30 AM and then a special NGWSD edition of Queen of Courts at 11:00 AM. I didn’t play stellar but I played decent. I was on the top court with my pseudo-daughter Huyen as my partner. We payed against Jenny and Michelle for the title and they came out on top. We had 16 women on 4 courts and I got to play with various people throughout the event. Some of the women I played with, I’d never met before until then. I got to play on every court but the bottom one and it just worked out that I was on a winning streak at the end and finished on the top court.

After QOC Janelle, Tiffany, Debbie, and I had lunch and drinks at Jose Pepper’s. Not really the best idea since I had singles with Kayla at Nahola immediately after.

I never get to have lunch with these ladies though, so I took advantage of the opportunity. It’s rare that I get a weekday off and I get to do some day drinking.

Here are some pictures of food. It had been a while since I’d been to Jose Peppers so I didn’t really know what to get. I told our server I just wanted meat and rice and he made it happen so that plate pictured above is mine.

The other ladies ordered off the menu, except for Debbie’s drink. She likes to make up her own drinks. Luckily, most bartenders are happy to oblige.

Kayla killed me at singles, which was no surprise. I’m just happy that I didn’t vomit. I finished the day by teaching my Wednesday night Aqua Zumba class at the Harry (Georgetown) VASA location. I got to enjoy doing my favorite things with the best people. It was the perfect day off. ‘Til next time. GNG.

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Tom Visits Wichita

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.

My friend Tom who lives in Topeka came down for a visit a couple of weeks ago. He went to get manis and pedis with me and Brian and then the three of us met some coworkers for dinner at Oak & Pie.

I’m thinking Tom enjoyed his pedicure.

He got his fingernails done too.

Here we are at dinner with Alex and Kishan, and Chris and Zacch.

Here are some pictures of our dinner.

And yummy drinks!

The next morning, Tom and I had brunch at Chicken N Pickle on his way out of town. He had the junkyard dog burrito and I had the chicken n’ waffles.

It was a nice visit and fun weekend overall.

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Margarita Flights at Rio

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Ching under Life.

I’ve never really looked closely at the menu at Rio (because I always get the same thing every time I’m there) until our last visit a couple of weeks ago. That’s when I noticed the margarita flights. For under $10, you get to pick three different flavors of margarita. It’s awesome for times when you can’t decide which one you want to have. The flavors I tried were (from left) strawberry, mango, and pomegranate.

I usually order mango whenever I have a flavored margarita so it was nice to try the other two kinds. They have more flavors than just these three by the way, so I’m thinking I’ll be ordering another flight (with the other flavors) next time we go. Also, I liked all three flavors equally so now I’m even more confused about which one is my favorite. I may be ordering a margarita flight every time we are at Rio from now on just so I don’t have to decide.