Thursday, March 23, 2017

A Little of This, a Little of That . . .


It's been awhile and lots has happened so, let's catch up . . .

Andy and Mike in our back yard
ca. 1981

Andy was about seven years old which would make Mike about five years old.

Just throwing this picture on the blog because it is one of our favorites of the boys growing up.

An NBA Game

My former colleague at Rio Mesa High School is a die-hard Los Angeles Clippers fan.

She has two half-season tickets to the Clippers home games at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. Whenever her husband Tom can't go to a game, she invites a friend to go with her and last week I gladly accepted her offer to go to our second game of the 2016-17 season together.

Parking at the the FIDM
parking lot near the Staples Center

 Pre-game meal at one of
Los Angeles' iconic diners

 The grub at the Original Pantry Cafe
was both ample and good!

By the way Martha, who are the Clippers playing tonight?

Oh, the Milwaukee Bucks . . .
  
GAME ON!

The close, hard fought, entertaining game was won by the Bucks, 97-96.

THANK YOU MARTHA!

Jacob's Fifth Birthday

Our Grandson Jacob had a small,
family only birthday party
at our house

Jacob was pumped up about it

Yes, he is ALL boy!

Laurie made him a small
birthday cake, as well as
army men cupcakes

Blowing out the candles

 Jacob preferred the easier
to handle cupcakes

And some Cotton Candy
ice cream too

The Contreras kid turned FIVE

Of course, we celebrated further into the night with a sleepover.

Life is good!

The morning after a sleepover,
Jacob always helps me make
pancakes for breakfast

Michael Runs in His
Fourth Consecutive
Los Angeles Marathon


No one in our family can explain genetically why Michael runs.

But he LOVES it!

Using Jacob's signature
thumbs out, not up, gesture
near the finish line

He ran what he called
a "fun" paced run

 He was happy with his
time since he was not even thinking about qualifying for the Boston Marathon

 Nice Medal

Mike gave it to his daughter Mary

World Baseball Classic
Semi-Final Game

Mike and I headed to Dodger Stadium
to watch the first Semi-Final of the week

The Kingdom of the Netherlands
vs.
Puerto Rico
  
Mike, his mustache and I ate our
pre-game meal at the
Little Jewel of New Orleans

Eclectic menu on the wall behind Mike.

My Grilled Shrimp PoBoy
was AWESOME!

 So was Mike's Fried Shrimp PoBoy

Entering Dodger Stadium

I was rooting for Cuba
but they were already eliminated

We got there early for batting practice

Our original seats were in the Left Field Pavilion but with the sparse crowd we improved our seats before the start of the game.

Part of Dodger Stadium's great
Bobble-Head Doll collection

We were OK moving here

 Pre-game Introductions

Action started at 6:00 p.m.

But went well into the night

In 11 innings,
Puerto Rico 4
The Kingdom of the Netherlands 3

This event, thanks to the enthusiastic Puerto Rican fans, was more Salsa Festival than baseball game.

Puerto Ricans do not sit often during the course of a game, it turns out.

Good times and lots of fun!

The next night, the USA defeated Japan 2-1 in the other semi-final contest the next night.

The Championship game was a bit anticlimactic as the Americans roughed up Team Puerto Rica by a final tally of 8-0.

USA, USA, USA!

Babysitting Mary

She is a delight

Life's simple pleasures

Reading Is FUNdamental

 Tales of macabre deaths
from our Swedish friends

Action packed!

That's nineteen Jack Reacher novels down, three to go.

More really good Swedish Noir

And China has its fair
share of brutal murders too

Life continues to be enjoyable, I shall continue . . .

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