Holy Shit – Literally
Posted on February 9, 2024 by Ching under Life.
First trip to the Anchor since they reopened. I really like the new open space now. The bar is no longer in the middle, dividing the two sides of the restaurant. The new bar is also much bigger than the original bar.
Anyway, if you’re looking for pictures of food. I’m sorry. I forgot. Service was super slow that day and it took forever to get our food – I think over 30 minutes! We were all starving so as soon as the food arrived at the table we scarfed it up like a pack of hungry vultures over a carcass. By the time I remembered to take a photo, all of our food was gone. It was really sad.
That’s not even the worst part of this day. The worst part was finding Brian’s car completely covered in rotten fruit and bird poop when we came out of the restaurant. Brian literally just washed his car the day before.
He was like, “I thought I scored with the really good parking. No wonder no one was parked here!” They knew something he didn’t.
The tree next to this spot is filled with overripe fruit so the birds have been having a heyday. They’ve been camping out at the tree, eating and shitting the fruit. Most of it landed on Brian’s car. That shit has staying power too. Brian washed his car later that day but the automated car wash brushes really couldn’t rub the stuff off so Brian still had to manually wash his car to clean up the mess after.
If you go to the Anchor, be warned. Do not park in this spot. LOL.
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Brian’s Work Dinner at Firebirds
Posted on February 8, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
It’s been a while since we were last at Firebirds. Has it really been 10 years? There’s no way! Grandma’s 92nd birthday was the most recent blog I could find that mentions the restaurant and she’s turning 102 this year. It’s crazy how quickly time flies. Anyway, Brian and I met his work team there last weekend for dinner because their boss Rune Larneng wanted to take the team out for a celebration.
Since it has been quite literally a long time, I guess I owe you all some pics.
Right as you enter the restaurant, you are greeted by the fully stocked bar with a really cool pineapple light fixture. I don’t remember this from before so it must be something they added within the last few years.
I thought it was neat and worthy of a pic. I feel like it distinguishes the Firebirds bar from all the other bars in town. I like when restaurants have unique elements like this. Anyway, I kinda want a pineapple lamp for myself now. It will go fantastically well with my Sand Cloud pineapple blanket!
Brian and I were the first ones to arrive so we took a selfie while we were waiting. I don’t know how Brian managed to talk the group into going to Firebirds because everyone on their team lives on the West side of town but I am grateful they picked an East-side restaurant because Firebirds is just a few minutes from our house.
While we were waiting, we also took a moment to peruse the extensive drink menu.
I didn’t get pics of everyone’s drinks but these were some of the cocktails we tried.
The ladies (April and Debbie) had martinis. They had a good selection of them. Mike had some old fashioneds (not pictured). I think Cory had rum and cokes. Brian just had the red wine we had with dinner.
I pretty much stuck to my “go to” drink – sangria. The white sangria at Firebirds is made with moscato and it fruity and refreshing.
Rune picked a Cab off the menu called Two Hands Sexy Beast that none of us had ever heard of or tried before and he ordered two bottles. I’m pretty sure he went through the list and just picked the one with the most fun name. Anyway, it was a risky move considering we didn’t know what we were getting but I guess, as red wines go, Cabernet Sauvignon wines are a pretty safe bet.
Everyone enjoyed it. Brian liked it so much he said he would look for it at Groves next time we go. I looked online and I think you can get it for $30-40 a bottle, depending on the vintage. The restaurant charged almost $90 for each.
Dinner was fantastic. April and I started with the spinach side salad that our server recommended. It’s not on the menu so you just have to ask for it. It was really good.
April didn’t want hers doused in dressing so she asked for her dressing on the side. That’s the picture above. Below is what the salad looks like tossed in dressing (mine). Not being much of a vegetable eater, I always cover my salads in dressing. I joked to April that I only ask for dressing on the side when I want extra. LOL.
This was easily the best side salad I’d had in a long time. Below are pictures of our entrees. Everything was fabulous. I did not hear a single complaint about the food the entire evening.
At the end of the meal, we ordered three kinds of desserts.
Cory and April shared a five layer lemon cake and Rune had a slice of it for himself.
Mike and Debbie shared a carrot cake.
Brian and I shared the big daddy chocolate cake. Our server told us they only had one slice left when she last checked and so our alternative was going to be the brownie. I am sure the brownie would have been good too (everything we had was great that night), but I am so glad we got the last slice of the chocolate cake because it was amazing. I am seriously still dreaming of it.
I don’t know why we ever quit going to Firebirds. The place is fabulous. Brian and I decided it was time to put this restaurant back on the regular weekend dinner rotation. Thank you for the fabulous dinner, Rune!
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Local Flavor with My Baby
Posted on February 2, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Pictures at Local Flavor last week. I took Brian there to try it as he had never been. I think this was only my second time there.
If you enjoy food with lots of flavor, you must check this place out. Not only do they have a wall of various hot sauces from all over, but they also have a wide array of homemade salsa and homemade BBQ sauces.
I had the smoked mac and cheese. I still like the one at Station 8 better but this was pretty good. Specially topped with chopped brisket.
I got to try both of the sauces and they were excellent. The brown one is more of a traditional, sweet BBQ sauce and the white one has a great ranch flavor. We will be putting Local Flavor in our regular dinner rotation. Whenever we aren’t making Hello Fresh food at home, that is.
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Solly & Jude’s
Posted on February 1, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Last week my friend Chris Townley and I went to check out the new sandwich shop across from Intrust Bank Arena.
Here are some exterior and interior pics.
They don’t really offer anything fancy. The sandwiches are pretty basic so I think the prices are a bit on the expensive end. I had the traditional corned beef which they sell for $15 but you can really get at most places for $10-12.
You do get chips and a cookie but both were just okay. I think I’m spoiled because I’m used to getting my delicious pork belly banh mi at the Belmont for just $3 more and I get house-made chips instead of bag chips.
The sandwich I had was good but I think you could probably get a better value for something similar elsewhere. I can think of going to Watermark Books & Cafe instead for one. But yeah, there are so many good sandwich shops in town.
Probably the one edge that Solly & Jude’s has over the others are the beer offerings, which I can’t really enjoy during my lunch hour. I took a picture of their list of radlers and hope to try these sometime when I return with Brian.
I didn’t hate it so I’ll return and have Brian try it and form his own opinion but this place didn’t quite make my top ten. Until next time!
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Zumba Is and Will Always Be
Posted on January 29, 2024 by Ching under Hobbies, Zumba.
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed but, now that I’m less focused on pickleball (I don’t plan to play any tournaments this year – so far so good), I’ve had a bit more time for self-reflection. Today, I thought about reflecting on my Zumba journey. I’ve had many hobbies come and go over the years but Zumba is the one passion of mine that’s always been a constant.
Now that I’m back to teaching at the Y (will expound on this later), someone in class recently asked me how long I’ve been doing Zumba. Well, I’ve been teaching classes for about 12 years but I’ve been “doing” Zumba since the beginning of time. I first discovered Zumba through an infomercial (back when those were a thing) over 20 years ago. I bought the VHS tapes and started doing Zumba at home. A few years later, in-person classes became available. Much like my pickleball addiction, shortly after attending my first class, I found myself driving all over town to various gyms just to get my Zumba fix. There was a period of two years when I was a member of both Genesis Health Clubs and the YMCA and I was going to Zumba classes at independent studios and rec centers.
As with most of my hobbies, I tend to go all in so I was completely obsessed and was spending a lot of money on Zumba wear. In 2012, my friend and Zumba mentor Gina Ann encouraged me to join the Zumba Instructor Network. I didn’t necessarily want to teach classes. The biggest selling point was the 20% OFF discount on Zumba merch. I completed my training in April 2012 and joined the network but had absolutely no intention of teaching. However, in June of that year, my friend Patricia told me they needed someone to teach Zumba at Evergreen Recreation Center. I didn’t really want to teach classes but, because I was trying to learn Spanish at the time and the rec center is in a predominantly Hispanic area of town, I figured why not? That was my introduction to teaching Zumba and I haven’t looked back since. Nowadays, I get input from class participants on what songs I should add to the playlist but, at the time when I was first starting out, I didn’t really know any of that mattered so I just built my class playlist around all of my favorite songs. When I was a student, I used to take a water break or go to the restroom whenever the instructor would play a song that wasn’t really my cup of tea. Now that I was in full control of the playlist, I found it totally liberating. I thought, “This is awesome! I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner.” I only used my favorite songs. It was great.
I was enjoying it so much that I started to add more classes. At one point, I was working for Genesis, the Y, and the city of Wichita just teaching classes all over the place. Once I was more established, I quit teaching for the city (they paid the least), and mostly just taught at the Y. My regular full-time job was also a contributing factor to giving up some of my classes. There was a period from 2015 to 2018 when I was mostly working in Topeka and Kansas city so I could only teach classes on the weekends. By 2018, that project had wrapped so then I was back to mostly working from Wichita and not having to travel anywhere for work so then I could get back into a regular routine. When VASA opened in Wichita in August 2018, I joined their team. From then until 2020, when the COVID pandemic hit, I was teaching classes for the Y, Genesis, and VASA on evenings and weekends. I peaked at 9 classes a week at various locations — a class each night on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; two classes on Saturdays; and three classes on Sundays.
I was also so obsessed with Zumba that I attended all the conventions, went on Zumba cruises, and completed training for nearly every form of Zumba imaginable. I even got licensed to teach Strong.
When I got into pickleball in 2019, I gradually started giving up classes so I would have more time to play. I got to play pickleball quite a bit before the gyms reopened in 2020 (after the “stay at home” mandate was lifted). When the gyms reopened, I decided to only return to VASA because I wanted more free time for pickleball and they paid the most out of all the gyms. For the last few years, I had been mostly teaching Aqua Zumba because we couldn’t find anyone else available who was licensed to teach that format besides me but there were many other Zumba instructors on the roster. I enjoyed teaching Aqua so I didn’t mind but, I have to admit, when I decided I wanted to pursue opportunities to teach Zumba again it was rough. I had forgotten all the land routines so I basically had to relearn and memorize choreography again. Thankfully, it’s a lot like riding a bike and it just comes back to you naturally.
I am currently teaching one class a week. I’m teaching Zumba at West YMCA on Wednesday nights from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. I’ve been back for two months and I have enjoyed every minute of it. My friend Andrea Burk who was a regular at my Andover YMCA classes and also a former Zumba instructor has been coming to class and it’s been great reuniting with her. I also got a couple of my pickleball pals (Colby Fugit and Susie Ternes) to come and try class a couple of weeks ago.
Words simply cannot express how grateful I am to have Zumba as an outlet. I’ve had many hobbies over the years — hobbies that I’ve enjoyed for a time but no longer pursue (racquetball, crocheting, bowling, sword-fighting – just to name a few) — but there’s only one thing that has remained constant in my life over the last couple of decades and that is Zumba. Maybe years from now I can look back and add pickleball to my list of life-long hobbies. Check back in with me in 2030 but, for now, Zumba is and will always be my #1 passion.
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