EPIC Pickleball Tournament 2025
Posted on May 23, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
We had another successful pickleball tournament for the Wichita Children’s Home at the Wichita Country Club again this year. It was EPIC!
Here are highlights from the event last year and highlights from the 2023 event. This was my fifth year helping with the event (my first year was 2021).
I usually team up with my friend Jody Vinson but she was busy with other commitments this year so our team consisted of Michael Bond, and Bryce and Lindsey McClung. They really are the backbone of this event. They help year after year, I think even before I started helping. Sometimes they even get roped into playing like when Harvey Self had to leave in the middle of the tournament last year. This year Bryce actually signed up to play – intentionally.
There are a couple of Spring (early Summer) tournaments that I help with annually. EPIC (formerly It’s a Big Dill) and the Rotary Club of Andover’s Picklemania event. EPIC happens in April and then Picklemania in May. Here are highlights from a past Picklemania tournament:
Recently people have been asking me if Picklemania is happening — because it is that time of year. Unfortunately, I had to step away from it this year and there really wasn’t anyone in our Rotary club who had the interest or capacity to take it over. I normally start planning for the May event around November/December but, as many of you know, that was during Brian’s cancer treatments so I didn’t really feel like doing anything. I didn’t want to think of anything.
It was a tournament that I’ve been really passionate about. However, since my friend Ryan DeSantis and Chris McGill, the two members who were very passionate about hosting the pickleball tournament fundraiser for our club, have left the club, much of the responsibility for planning and organizing and facilitating the event ended up falling to me. Honestly, I was feeling burnt out. I didn’t even feel like doing it last year except Chris Heck (another friend who had helped with our tournament in the past) said it wasn’t happening so I took it as a challenge. LOL. If people don’t want to help me, fine. But, if I want something to happen, I can make it happen. I truly believed that. Of course, that’s because I have Brian and he is equivalent to having 10 volunteers. I realize now that I can do and achieve all the things because I have him by my side.
When Brian got sick and I no longer had my one person I could truly count on for anything and everything, it made me realize just how challenging it is do all the things without his help. I didn’t even want to think doing Picklemania without him. I think I was burnt out.
I’m still happy to help with pickleball tournaments and fundraising events, just not to the extent I was doing. It was too much. Anyway, the next pickleball fundraising event is Picklepalooza which benefits both Senior Services of Wichita and Wichita Cancer Foundation this year. It’s on Friday, June 6, at Chicken N Pickle. You can learn more about and register for the event here. Hope to see you all there.
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FioRito Lunch
Posted on May 16, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Posting pictures of our last lunch at FioRito in honor of Chef Jason Rickard’s new Mediterranean restaurant that will be opening soon at TapNPaddles.
I highly recommend checking out Fio Rito if you’ve never been because the food is just fabulous. We are super excited for Raha Mediterranean to open. We’ve tried some of the food at TapNPaddles and it’s fantastic so looking forward trying the rest of the dishes that Jason comes up with. They’ll be opening in a couple of weeks so check back soon for a post immediately following our first visit to the restaurant. Until then, have a fabulous weekend friends!
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Tacos TJ 664
Posted on May 16, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Brian and I found a new favorite taco place!
This mangoneada is as delicious as it is pretty.
Tacos galore!
I think next time we go, we are going to have to order something else from the menu besides tacos because they actually have a bunch of other tasty things. It’s just hard to deviate from the normal. Might have to hit Tacos TJ this weekend. Until then, let us know your favorite things to get there in the comments. Would love some ideas. Thanks!
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National Pickleball Month Recap
Posted on May 14, 2025 by Ching under Pickleball.
I got to play quite a bit of pickleball last month in honor of National Pickleball Month. I organized several open play and ladder events at Chicken N Pickle, Tap N Paddles, and at Seneca Park.
I also got this giant cardboard paddle and used it as a guestbook.
Here are some pics from the kickoff event at Chicken N Pickle.
Jenni participated in a leadership program at Wichita State University and invited her cohorts for beginner pickleball at West YMCA.
Here’s a picture from our April Chicken N Pickle ambassador open play.
Laurie Hagen from Overland Park and her friend Jenn came to visit.
We tried to have all day open play at Seneca Park on April 26 to wrap up National Pickleball Month but Mother Nature was having none of it. The rain started about an hour into the event. Anyway, we’ve decided to have a do-over (a literal rain-check) on Sunday, May 18. Incidentally, May 23 is the 3rd anniversary of the Wichita Pickleball DUPR club so there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. I hope you can join us!
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Trading Points for Gift Cards
Posted on May 12, 2025 by Ching under Food and Drink, Free Stuff.
Those who know me are fully aware that I am neurotic about rewards points. Lately I have been so obsessed with Fetch that I’m actually letting it dictate where I eat lunch. It also helps that I’ve had some pretty good restaurant offers recently.
I had this offer from McAlister’s Deli which led Brian and I to try all the McAlister’s locations in the Wichita area. We even went to the one in Derby, which was our least favorite. Not only was it the smallest location but the service was horrendous. But either way, we got what I came for, which was Fetch points.
The one positive thing that came out of the adventure was that it allowed Brian to rediscover that he actually really likes the ham and cheese sandwich at McAlister’s. He had written McAlister’s off due to his own set of bad experiences but now we’re actually open to eating there again. We’re just not going to go to the Derby location.
Amazingly, out of the three locations we visited — Maple and Ridge (West Wichita), Greenwich (East Wichita), and Derbt (South of Wichita) — the location that impressed me the most with their efficiency and attentive service was the West location which is the location that was responsible for making Brian hate McAlister’s to begin with; however, that was back when he worked for Edward Jones so it had been a few years. Maybe they have new managers and new employees there and that has made all the difference. They were the best out of the three locations. The only thing I don’t like about the West location is that parking in that strip mall is a complete mess. Brian said he used to watch cars crash into one another all the time in that parking lot when he worked for EJ and they had their office in that same strip mall. So I guess that part hasn’t changed. LOL.
The latest Fetch promotion I’m chasing is the Il Vicino 30 points per $1 spent offer. It didn’t take much to convince us to go though because we really like Il Vicino and we would eat there anyway. With or without getting bribed with Fetch points.
It was beautiful yesterday so we ate outside on their patio. This was at the Bradley Fair location. Brian and I split a caesar salad and a pizza this time instead of our usual vespa (our most favorite thing to get there).
I like it when we can agree on food to split because, not only does it save us money, but it also saves us from having to take home a bunch of leftovers.
Here’s what the vespa looks like. We had gotten it just a few days prior when we had lunch with our friend (my coworker and coffee/lunch buddy) Chris Townley at the College Hill location.
This is half because we always split the vespa when we order it.
As per usual, we also split a caesar salad on that visit. If I were there by myself and couldn’t split with anyone, I would have gotten the lunch special which gets you a small salad of your choice (probably caesar for me), small pizza, and drink for about $16. It’s an excellent deal. You can’t beat it.
However, the best deal is that all of these points I’m earning from my Fetch receipts get turned into Amazon gift cards once I have enough of them. You can choose gift cards from a variety of stores or restaurants but I always just get Amazon because Brian and I order almost everything from there. If you’re not already a Fetch user, I highly recommend it. You can turn basically anything you do into gift cards with Fetch. Download Fetch with this link or use code BKNPBF to get a bonus when you submit your first receipt. Happy Fetching!
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