It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament
Posted on April 24, 2023 by Ching under Community, Events, Pickleball.
The It’s a Big Dill Pickleball Tournament at the Wichita Country Club which benefits the Wichita Children’s Home fell on April 1 this year. This was my third year helping with the tournament and every year it’s a little bit different and every year we encounter different challenges. Last year one of our biggest challenges was having so many teams (four divisions worth) and not having enough courts. The WCC team tapes up 8 temporary courts to supplement the 3 permanent ones so we always have just 11 courts.
The first year that I helped, we only budgeted half a day and the tournament ran until a little after 1 pm. I couldn’t stay that year because I had a Saturday morning Aqua Zumba class at the time that I couldn’t get out of (or it might have been some other commitment that I had later in the day). I remember I was only there to get it kicked off and then I had to leave.
Last year we factored in lunch and allowed for play until 2 pm. Despite having a limited number of courts, everything ran smoothly and on schedule. I remember looking at my watch as we were pulling out of the parking lot to leave and it read 2:01 pm. That meant we were able to award medals and start tear down in time for everything to wrap up by 2 pm as planned.
This year they wanted me to work an exhibition match into the tournament schedule. Two of our top pros Jay Devilliers and Patrick Smith were being auctioned off at the kick off party on Friday night and the winners of the live auction would get to play with them during the lunch intermission at the tournament on Saturday. Because of the exhibition match, we added an extra hour to the schedule and planned to wrap everything up by 3 pm.
But that wasn’t even the biggest challenge I had to face. I always like to print all my round robin schedules in Excel ahead of time so I’m not having to cross-reference team numbers against team names. Well, about 15 minutes before the start of the tournament, I found that we had an extra team in the men’s doubles division. One of the sponsors didn’t sign up to play in the tournament ahead of time but showed up that morning. The sponsors donate a lot of money so we couldn’t turn them away. I basically had to scrap my pre-printed worksheet for the men’s doubles and just used a generic team round robin from printyourbrackets.com for the men’s division. At least I only had to do that for one division and mixed and women’s didn’t have to be modified.
Amazingly enough, everything once again ran super smoothly and on schedule. Bryce and Michael from the WCC were fabulous at keeping things going and helping me put matches on as soon as courts became available. We were able to finish all the round robin play by noon and start the exhibition match as the players enjoyed their lunch.
The exhibition match was a nice addition to the tournament day. Not only did it raise $10,000 for the Wichita Children’s Home (both of the winning bidders paid $5,000 each to play with Jay and Pat) but it also gave the players a nice break for lunch so that they didn’t feel like they had to rush through their food.
Here’s a link to the exhibition match video for those who want to watch it. Below are pictures of the winners of this year’s tournament.
- Mixed Doubles
- First Place – Matt Nola and Jackie Hall
- Second Place – Dave and Lori Belew
- Third Place – Tanner and Britney Blaske
- Men’s Doubles
- First Place – Mitchell Born and Klee Watchous
- Second Place – Zach Nguyen and Noi Sourinthone
- Third Place – Ron McMahon and Daniel Ritchie
- Advanced Women’s Doubles
- First Place – Karen Fox and Vickie Hancock
- Second Place – Beth Fischer and Zoe Rohr
- Third Place – Chandi Bongers and Krista Crawford
- Intermediate Women’s Doubles
- First Place – Krista Onofrio and Kristin Conrad
- Second Place – Brenda Bishop and Margaret Dechant
- Third Place – Trish Mueller and Karen Taylor
So grateful to our wonderful pickleball community and generous players for supporting the Wichita Children’s Home pickleball tournament. We had a another successful event. I’m already looking forward to next year!
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Lunch at Wine Dive
Posted on April 23, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
I remember when Wine Dive was Mike’s Wine Dive, before they rebranded several years ago. I actually try not to go to these sorts of places at lunch because it makes me want to drink but Chris chose the lunch spot.
It’s a nice quiet spot for lunch.
Here’s what Chris had.
I had the exact same breaded chicken but on a salad. Honestly, I was kind of jealous of Chris’ sandwich. I mean, my salad was very good but I am partial to things that are totally unhealthy for me.
Until next time, GNG.
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Chimi’s Food Pics
Posted on April 13, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
This blog is so behind!
Chimi’s is where we had dinner on Saturday night after the women’s DUPR event at La Fortune. I feel like no trip to Tulsa is complete without eating at Chimi’s. We ate at another Chimi’s location when I was down there for my DUPR #doubledip back in November, so why should this visit be any different?
Anyway, I didn’t have to drive home that night so I was able to drink and the drinks we had came in these cute clay cups with bee printed on them. Not sure what that means but I thought it was neat so I took a picture of it.
I’ll be leaving for the US Open tomorrow and will be gone for a week so I doubt that we will ever get this blog caught up but I’ll certainly do my best.
Until next time, GNG.
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Roosevelt’s in Tulsa
Posted on April 5, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
In case you are curious, this is what Roosevelt’s looks like outside the holiday season. Finally got a chance to eat there. You might recall, I was there with friends over the Thanksgiving holiday but they were too busy (two-hour wait for a table) so we ended up eating elsewhere. They are far less busy and much less festive outside the holiday season but the place is still super cute. It’s kind of a nice place to meet friends and eat brunch.
We met Katie’s friends James and Liz for brunch there while I was in Tulsa a couple of weeks ago. We were super late though, because I busted my left big toenail when I got to Katie’s house and my toe was bleeding profusely. We had to deal with that first before we could go. By the time we got to the restaurant, they were just about finished with their food. We at least got to hang out and visit for a bit, though. That was nice. I met James and Liz at Picklemania in Oklahoma City back in January so it was great to see them again. They are a lovely couple and we had a nice visit.
Katie had the breakfast burger without the egg. So I guess it turned into a regular burger – LOL. I had the Cherry Street hash, which is probably one of their signature dishes. I saw several walk by. I think someone at each table ordered it while we were there.
I was worried about the red sauce at first, thinking it might be Sriracha. I don’t really like spicy foods all that much. As it turns out, it’s their own special red sauce and it wasn’t spicy so I survived. I should really pay more attention to the descriptions when I order food.
Anyway, super great brunch and even better company. I always have a wonderful time in Tulsa. Who knew the day would come when I’d be fond of going to Oklahoma? Until next time, GNG.
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Las Adelitas Cafe
Posted on April 4, 2023 by Ching under Food and Drink.
New coffee shop alert! Someone has finally taken over the space at the Lux vacated by Placeholder (and Espresso To Go Go before that). This place is unique in that they offer coffee with a Latin American twist. They have flavors like Chata (made with horchata, the rice drink) and La Rosa (tastes like marzipan).
The place is super cute. We always take our coffee to go because we have to go back to work but I think it would be fun to just hang out and drink coffee there. Brian just likes his coffee black with nothing added; otherwise, I’d ask him to go on a weekend. Frou frou coffee is not his thing.
They do serve Mexican pastries there so maybe I can get him to go for that. I’m not feeling very optimistic, though.
One of the things I liked, besides the unique flavors that you can’t get anywhere else, is that they put sleeves on the iced coffee. It’s perfect because then your hands don’t have to freeze while holding your coffee on the way back to work. Anyway, it’s really just to put their branding on the plain plastic cups but I think it’s functional and I appreciate it. Until next time, GNG.
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