{"id":21735,"date":"2019-11-30T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=21735"},"modified":"2019-11-27T13:16:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T19:16:28","slug":"second-holiday-ping-pong-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=21735","title":{"rendered":"Second Holiday Ping Pong Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49045949277\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49045949277_04f9552eb8.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"376\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Uncle Roy had another holiday ping pong tournament at the Downing&#8217;s recently. <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=18361\"  target=\"out\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The first one was in 2017<\/a>. They didn&#8217;t have one last year because everyone was traveling and otherwise busy but the stars aligned for having another tournament this year. As luck would have it, I was available to play. Jay, because he and Becca are always traveling, missed it again.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041386317\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041386317_7ff3b9d589.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is our lovely host Aaron who happened to eliminate me from the tournament. Ironically, he was the one who eliminated me from the last tournament too.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49040546118\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49040546118_cb17301bc3_c.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is a pic of Landon and Bonnie admiring the miniature cornhole game that Troy brought. It was the prank one. He actually brought a real miniature cornhole game that you can play.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041036916\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041036916_8a152c2e3c.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For a friendly tournament, these guys were pretty serious.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041036781\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041036781_bfa6522514.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was at a disadvantage because I hadn&#8217;t played ping pong in over a year. About the same time I started to get into pickleball, I quite playing ping pong.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49040532003\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49040532003_76d0133826.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is Wes. My first match was with him. I lost that match but it was really close. We went into overtime and finished 22-20 in his favor.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041247562\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041247562_df99a5907d.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After being eliminated from the main bracket, I went into the consolation\/losers\/opportunity bracket and played against Landon (pictured on the right). He was not bad but probably one of the less competitive players in the group. We played with a drink on one hand and a paddle on the other the entire time.<\/p>\n<p>I won the match with Landon but my next opponent was Aaron who has an impossible serve. I didn&#8217;t stand a chance.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49040531853\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49040531853_e58541bf09.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I had a great time despite my losses. It seemed like everyone was having a great time as well (even Brian &#8211; LOL).<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041036231\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041036231_eb2a529206.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"376\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brian and I got a selfie with Roy&#8217;s wife Bonnie.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49040531233\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49040531233_ac1d05b071.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"376\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Pic with Jennifer and Wes.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041247067\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041247067_d54241fecb.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\" height=\"376\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We also got one of just the two of us.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ching\/49041036681\/in\/datetaken\/\"  title=\"Untitled\"><img src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49041036681_51dee1f0f9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Untitled\" width=\"500\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the way, I had to take a pic of Brian and Landon together because Landon was our personal trainer at the Andover YMCA a long, long, long time ago &#8212; like ten years ago or so. He happens to be Bonnie&#8217;s trainer and they&#8217;ve been training together for years (since his Andover YMCA days). He owns his own gym now, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roguepersonaltraining.com\"  target=\"out\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rogue Personal Training<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I remember when he left the Y to strike out on his own, he took a bunch of clients with him. They actually started making personal trainers sign non-compete contracts after that. We didn&#8217;t end up going with him because I wasn&#8217;t particularly fond of punishment. I just wanted to Zumba. We ended up joining Genesis but then ended up doing some personal training later on with another trainer who was recommended by our friends Gina and Coley.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve joined, left, rejoined, and left again a bunch of gyms. Not much personal training these days. I mostly just like to have a good time so I&#8217;m teaching and taking Zumba classes and playing pickleball. My most intense workout is my friend Liz&#8217; STRONG by Zumba class on Monday nights which I love to take.<\/p>\n<p>We probably need to buckle down and take our health more seriously in 2020. Changes are coming. Until next time. GNG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Uncle Roy had another holiday ping pong tournament at the Downing&#8217;s recently. The first one was in 2017. They didn&#8217;t have one last year because everyone was traveling and otherwise busy but the stars aligned for having another tournament this year. As luck would have it, I was available to play. Jay, because he and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1340],"tags":[1426,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21735"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21752,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21735\/revisions\/21752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}