September Activities Round Up
Posted on October 6, 2025 by Ching under Events, Life, Travel.
I met another one of the guys from the chess club, Austin. He was a good sport and tried pickleball after we played chess. Their regular weekly meetups, which I have yet to attend since I joined the chess group several years ago, are at the Delano Braums on Wednesday evenings, and the Advanced Learning Library on Sunday afternoons. A few of them have come out to check out TapNPaddles, though. I hope they can add Friday nights at Tap to the regular rotation.
I participated in a super exciting team-building activity with my workmates. Our afternoon began with volunteering at the Kansas Food Bank, happy hour at the Monarch, and we were to wrap up with a baseball game, which ended up getting canceled due to a hailstorm.
We ended up just hanging out in the suite until it was save to walk to our cars and head home. There were two storms that night. The others stayed but a few of us decided to take off during the intermission, aka the break between the two storms. Tom Grace came down from to Topeka and he walked from his hotel to the meet us at the Monarch so I ended up giving him a ride back to his hotel. Literally, no sooner than I dropped him off, it started hailing again. I could hear the hail hit the roof of my car as I was driving down Kellogg. I kept looking around me to see if there were holes because the hits were so loud. I was afraid (because it sounded like the hail could punch a hole through thick steel and could really hurt you if you got hit with it) but also secretly hoping I had some hail damage because I have a crack on my windshield that’s getting bigger by the day. I was hoping to get hail damage money and use it to replace the windshield. Brian checked my car after. Alas, no such luck. I guess I’m going to have to pay for my new windshield out of my own pocket. Currently a low priority so I’m putting it off.
Brian and I had tickets to the ballpark for the next day. It turned into a double header. They played both the game from the previous night and that night’s game back to back but reduced it to seven innings. We couldn’t take off work so we only went for the second part. The Dills (Becca and Jay) and the Huntees (Tina and Justin Huntington) met us there. It was great seeing Tina and Justin as we hadn’t seen them in ages.
Speaking of things we hadn’t seen or done in a while, we went to Zoobilee for the first time in a long time. Free tickets are kind of hard to pass up.
We went to Allen, Texas (DFW area) for a quick weekend getaway so I could participate in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event. More on that later.
We went back to Chama Gaucha, which has quickly become one of our favorite places to eat down there.
Checked out a new restaurant in town that we had never been to yet. More on this later too.
Got a plant for work.
We celebrated the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group reaching the 4K members milestone with a special Friday night open play and a huge Friday Night Fiesta, one of the biggest ever!
We met up with some of our pals at Napoli to celebrate April Phelps’ birthday.
And, we completed some home projects. It was a productive month overall.
I’ll do a deep dive into some of the things that we did in September next so be sure to check back. Until next time!
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Brian’s First Time at Kyuramen
Posted on October 3, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I just tried to search the blog for Kyuramen and didn’t find anything. My friend Chris Townley and I had been there at least a couple of times. I can’t believe I never wrote about it. So weird. Anyway, I wanted to document this last visit because it was Brian’s first time there.
Brian has been on a ramen kick lately and often going to Yokohama Ramen Izakaya, sometimes even without me. Chris and I decided to drag him to Kyuramen because he’d never been there and we wanted to expand his ramen horizons.
The interior decor of Kyuramen is quite unique with the honeycomb booths and the curtained booths. The vibe is just really neat. I also like the details like how they have their seasonings in these cute little containers at your table.
Here are some pictures of the food we enjoyed on this visit…
The interesting thing about the ramen bowls at Kyuramen is they have this little game. If you get to the bottom of the bowl, you might see a sign for a free drink, appetizer, or ramen. It’s always fun to try to eat all your ramen and drink all the soup; although, I honestly have never been able to finish mine. I usually just have to ask for a to go container and that’s the only time I’ve ever seen the bottom. But out of all these times, we never seen a winner. Our server that day said she never has seen a winning bowl either. So much for that game, I guess. LOL.
Another fun thing at Kyuramen is the craft station. If you have a bit of time, you can create a work of art and hang it. Chris and I have made ours. Brian didn’t want to make one on this visit but I’m hoping that he’ll make one next time we go because he’s really great at drawing. If you go, you definitely have to leave your mark just as many others have.
Anyway, despite the fun, unique ambiance, Brian still prefers Yokohama Ramen Izakaya ramen flavors to Kyuramen. I kind of do too. What about you? Have you tried both of these places? If so, which do you like better?
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Other August Highlights
Posted on September 26, 2025 by Ching under Community, Hobbies, Things to Do.
August was a full month. Besides our trip to Grapevine for our 23rd wedding anniversary, I got to play a lot of pickleball and participate in several fun things. While I never get to play in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador open play anymore (because it’s on Wednesdays this year and I teach Zumba on Wednesdays at West YMCA), I always manage to stop by for the group photo. August was no different.
I also enjoyed a great month of team league with my awesome KC^2 teammates.
I played some chess at TapNPaddles.
I helped with the Dink Minor Leagues MiLP v3 presented by InPickle Nation at TapNPaddles.
We hung out with Chris Townley and Jay and Becca Dill at family fun day.
We celebrated Zach’s 40th birthday at Flight Club.
We ate lunch at Plentibloom (inside the Ruffin Building).
Brian got to try a new ramen place. I will make a separate, dedicated post about this. Stay tuned!
I played pickleball with some fun ladies.
We had our weekly InPickle Nation mini tournaments at TapNPaddles.
Lots of trips to the ballpark.
September is pretty much over so I’ll be recapping what happened this month soon. Eventually we will be completely caught up. Have a fantastic weekend!
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Brian Got Me Flowers
Posted on September 19, 2025 by Ching under Date Ideas, Hobbies, Things to Do.
A few weeks ago, Brian surprised me with this:
As you know, I’m not a huge fan of flowers. First, they’re expensive; and secondly, they don’t last. They’re a nice thoughtful gift but I honestly thing they are a waste of money. So I was super thrilled when Brian surprised me Lego flowers instead.
He thought it would be fun for us to build it together. We started on it before pickleball one night but it was more involved that we thought so we didn’t finish. Not being a very patient person, looking for all the various pieces and parts was a bit cumbersome at times.
Brian was like, “I thought about just building it at work and bringing it home to you already done.” My immediate, unfiltered reaction was, “OMG. That would have been so much better!”
He did complete building the rest of it himself and suprised me with the finished product when I came home from pickleball.
I love it so much that I decided to take it to work and display it next to my other fake orchid. Speaking of Legos, if you enjoy building Lego sets and drinking wine, Exploration Place has super fun Sip & Build events the next couple of months.
I really wanted to do it in September but none of the dates worked for us. I hope they do it again because none of the October kits were that appealing to me. I wanted to do either the typewrite or the camera kit. But who am I kidding? I probably would have just supervised and watched Brian build both things. LOL. Until next time!
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Hazel Fugit
Posted on September 17, 2025 by Ching under Babies.
We watched Colby’s puppy Hazel last month while she attended a wedding in St. Louis with family. I’d have to say, besides our weekend getaway to Texas for our wedding anniversary, this was an August highlight. Hazel is soo cute.
We enjoyed having her over the weekend but, I must say, I had forgotten how much attention puppies require. She had so much energy! Also, Saki did not like having another dog in the house. Brian was smart to take Saki to work with him on Friday morning so I didn’t have to contend with watching both dogs while I was trying to work. It was tough enough keeping Hazel occupied and making sure she wasn’t chewing on anything important.
When Saki and Brian arrived home from work, Saki was not thrilled. Brian and I made sure that either one or both of us were to keep the dogs apart. Hazel wanted to play and be friends but Saki wanted nothing to do with her, often snarling whenever she got too close. Saki is now about the same age that Molly was when we first brought Saki home and I remember Molly reacting much the same way. Saki wanted to play and Molly was having none of it. It brought back memories. Thankfully, Brian and I were super attentive to both dogs and there were no altercations over the weekend. There were a few snarls but we managed to keep them apart and prevent any fights from happening.
Another thing I enjoyed was cuddling with Hazel at night. She’s a very cuddly dog and actually slept on my head a few times. My allergies were so bad all weekend but I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted to hug and cuddle her every chance I got.
Anyway, the weekend was a good reminder to us that we cannot get another dog. Saki doesn’t like sharing so, unless we want every single moment of our day consumed by watching the dogs and making sure they don’t fight, it’s really not an option at the moment. We will just have to settle for occasional visits with Hazel (and other friends’ dogs).
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