Fun in the SoCal August Sun

The last few weeks have been busy ones for us with several trips to the beach in Carpinteria to escape the heat.

Besides our visits to the Pacific Ocean, we kept busy doing a variety of things . . .

EuroBall Recruiting

Recruiting a QB for the

Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons

I'm seen here with former Georgia State University QB Nick Arbuckle after a high budget recruiting lunch at the In-N-Out in Oxnard on behalf of Falcons' GM Julien Urgenti.

Nick was the 2015 Sun Belt Conference MVP and after going undrafted, signed on as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He played his high school football locally at Ventura's St. Bonaventure H.S. and then played for two years at Pierce College before transferring to Georgia State.

At Pierce, his Offensive Coordinator was Jason Sabolic who is now Pierce's Head Coach and the son of Paul Sabolic, a teammate of mine at the University of Washington.

The small world of American football strikes again!

Even though Nick was cut by the Steelers he was given the high marks by all of my trusted sources.  He would be a great fit with everyone's favorite French team. 

Museum Visit

Laurie and I joined Helen Fujita and Koreen and Brian FitzGerald for the drive to Simi Valley to see . . .

. . . an interesting exhibit of

religious artifacts like . . .

. . . a reliquary

Nice bust

 St. Peter taking one for the team

 St. Paul losing his head

A Cardinal

 For some reason they

did not allow us to sit here

Fancy Chalice

Vatican and Gold are synonyms

Most of my books are also

covered in silver and gold

The current Republican Party

is not nearly as optimistic

It was an excellent exhibit and we all had a good day seeing the Vatican treasures and enjoying a day together.

Birthday Trip to Las Vegas

Laurie and I were on the road for the five hour drive to enjoy a long weekend with son Andrew, his bride Jenn and grandson Kevin to celebrate the little man's fifth birthday. 

Interesting beverages on sale

in Baker, California

We tasted all three which were almost equally bad.

Predictably, the Havana Banana tasted a little bit better than the other two.

Kevin opening our present

Mutant Ninja Turtles toys

were a hit!

By the way, nice soccer jersey Kevin.

Star Wars memorabilia is

HUGE in Kevin's house!

BBQ is HUGE with all of us!

 The Wäsby Warriors season looms

I needed to start practicing my game face with my new coaching hat in place.

31 Flavors is always a good

idea to combat the desert heat

 Kevin imitating his favorite

Mutant Ninja Turtle, Leonardo

If not a Turtle or a Star Wars hero,

he can always just be the King

On Saturday, Kevin had his

birthday party

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

we are not

Birthday cupcakes for everyone

A Leonardo blue cupcake

On Sunday we finally cut

his small birthday cake . . .

. . . with help from Andrew

Being a Grandpa is GREAT!

UW football is coming up soon

Speaking of Football

The Rams are back in L.A.

And the Dallas Cowboys are still in Oxnard, about 15 minutes from our house, for their Summer Training Camp.

So, I joined Michael and Jacob to watch a practice.

 Jacob and the Cowboys'

Super Bowl Trophies

1960 was the year the Cowboys

were founded

Their GREAT defense of the early '70s

 Low pad wins, Jacob

Jacob admiring Cowboy legendary running back Emmitt Smith.

Smith had 18,355 yards rushing and 164 rushing TDs in his Hall of Fame career.

You name it, they sold it

Jacob in the Kid's Zone

before the practice

with Jacob and Michael

 Cowboys practicing their

Kickoff Return schemes

 Any day with Jacob and football

is a good day for me

A good day at Cowboys camp but we

are Ram fans again after all the years

Tonight the Rams played their first pre-season game against the Cowboys in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum before the largest crowd to ever see an NFL pre-season game.

A crowd of 89,140 was in attendance to see the Rams come from behind, last second win 28-24.

We did not go but Michael and I are taking Jacob to next week's game at the Coliseum.

The price is right

We bought three tickets on StubHub for $25 each for the Chiefs game. We will be sitting high up in seats in the Coliseum's closed end zone.

Tickets in that same section for tonight's game were going for $97 a piece.

For tickets in our same section for the first regular season home game next month, StubHub is asking $164 for each seat!

Legomania!!!

During today's visit to our home, Michael climbed into the attic to re-discover his childhood Legos.

After showing them to Jacob . . .

. . . Jacob staked a claim to

their ownership

Life continues to be GOOD!!!