Thursday, October 24 -
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
"The world needs a blog post."
Julien Urgenti, Lyon, France, November 4, 2019
The pressure that the reading public puts on me can, at times, be a bit oppressive.
Still, Julien is correct, I have been much too Bohemian in terms of my work ethic the past couple of weeks, so here goes.
Taking Jacob to lunch after
school at the Soup Plantation
is always interesting
In the evening after that lunch
Jacob, on the left, has his final
soccer practice of the 2019 season
Apparently, the food and soccer
knocked him out that night
The next day, after my as always fun Italian Conversation class, I picked up an astonishing gift from a local, purposely unnamed high school of . . .
. . . 28 white Riddell helmets . . .
. . . and one black one!
Two clubs in Europe had asked for help in securing used helmets such as these, so Laurie did her usual, masterful boxing job and voilà off they went to a renewed life in EuroBall.
We sent a dozen helmets to our beloved Varese Skorpions in Italy and another dozen to that wonderful, grassroots group of Guadalajara Stings in Spain that I worked with back in Fall of 2016.
As for the other five helmets that we did not ship, more on that at the end of this blogpost.
On the weekend, we were off to
the beach at Carpinteria with our friends
Koreen and Brian FitzGerald
It was a beautiful and peaceful few
days by the Pacific Ocean in the off-season
at their family beach house
On Friday night, Brian and I left
Carpinteria to watch the Rio Mesa H.S.
Homecoming game vs. Oxnard H.S.
It was an Oxnard romp as the now
8-1 Yellowjackets ruined the
5-4 Spartans' Homecoming
by a final score of 38-7
At the game, I had the chance to chat
with one of our former Rio Mesa players,
Justin Schmidt, who is now
an excellent referee
PROSECCO TIME!
The main purpose for our Carpinteria weekend was to attend a wedding reception in Goleta for one of the legendary characters in Rio Mesa H.S. teaching/coaching history!
Paul Petrich, 80 years old, kneeling
with his bride Tara Brown with
the Rio Mesa crew 100% behind them
We thought that it would never happen as this was finally Paul's first trip up the aisle.
No word yet on if they plan to have children.
Exchanging first bites of
the wedding cupcakes
With Fred Stahl a former Spartan
who also played at Stanford
With John Reardon, Rio Mesa's long
time Head American Football Coach
who upon retiring was Ventura County's
all-time winningest coach
We all had a grand time seeing friends that we really should see more often.
Congratulations Paul and Tara!
A new Italian Deli in Ventura was a
MUST on our drive home on Sunday
It's called Peirano's Market and Delicatessen. It had just opened a few days ago and was excellent!
Peirano's useful guide to the
tasty things that they have to offer
Of course, I visited both Fillmore H.S.
and Santa Paula H.S. this week in
preparation for Friday night's
Ventura County Star's podcast
The two schools were gearing up for their 109th meeting in Southern California's oldest high school American football rivalry that started way back in 1924.
Then fate stepped in . . .
The Maria Fire broke out in Santa Paula
This was the newest of several wild fires that broke out this week due to the Santa Ana winds.
In the photo above, one of those fires rages near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Because many of the Santa Paula players' families were forced to evacuate their homes and due to the poor air quality, the game was eventually cancelled.
While in a few seasons these two schools played each other twice, it marked only the third time since 1924 that the two schools did not play each other at all in a season.
On to Halloween . . .
Would Mary go as a Linebacker?
On the night before Halloween, we had Jacob and Mary over to our house to carve pumpkins.
First Mary painted a face on
a white mini-pumpkin
Then we got into some serious,
dangerous pumpkin carving
Jacob liked scooping out
the "pumpkin guts"
So did Mary but in a more
gentile fashion
ALL HANDS ON DECK!
Now Mary REALLY got into it
But only after decorating me with Halloween themed stickers.
How could I say "NO" to that face?
Pumpkins finished,
it was snuggle time . . .
. . . and reading time too
Carving these two pumpkins
with the kids was a lot of fun!
Finally, it was Halloween night . . .
Having Laurie prepare me as a pumpkin
on Halloween has become a family tradition
Jacob and Mary were coming over to our home to go Trick or Treating in our neighborhood.
Michael came as Dopey and Jacob
as Captain America
Why Dopey?
Ah, Mary came as Snow White
Dopey loves Snow White
and vice versa it appears
DON'T EAT THAT APPLE!
Of course, Laurie set out a
Halloween spread for us to enjoy
Scott Borchart as the
Addams Family's butler Lurch
Mike, besides being Dopey to Mary's Snow White, was also Thing to Scott's Lurch.
Jacob and Mary with the
Borchart kids, Maverick and Luke
Angie Borchart, as Wednesday Addams,
joins her family
Captain America and Snow White
had another good Halloween Night
collecting LOTS of goodies!
The aforementioned Maria Fire broke out at about 6:30 p.m. on Halloween Night relatively close to our home. Fortunately the Santa Ana winds were not as strong as they were a few days ago and they were thankfully not blowing the fire towards us.
Still, for the first time in our 48 years of marriage, Laurie and I opted to load up our car with our more valuable possessions just in case we were forced to evacuate.
By late Friday afternoon, the Fillmore-Santa Paula game had been cancelled and the Maria Fire was no longer a threat to our home, we decided to head out to Las Vegas to visit grandson Kevin and his parents Jenn and Andrew.
Kevin, in orange about to kick the ball,
was playing in a 9:00 a.m. playoff game
Kevin again attacking the ball
His Mighty Tigers won this exciting, highly competitive game 1-0. Their next playoff game is on Wednesday.
Go Mighty Tigers GO!
The Mighty Tigers game field is located only a few blocks from the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights practice facility.
After the big win, we headed over to their practice rinks/souvenir shop to check out the Golden Knights morning skate before their game that night against the Winnipeg Jets.
Go Golden Knights GO!
It was just a short workout to get
the kinks out before the game tonight
Part of the free entertainment
Kevin with Chance,
the Vegas Knights' mascot
The view of the Vegas Strip
from our Mexican restaurant
on Sunday night
Remember those five helmets that we did not send overseas at the start of this lengthy blogpost?
We got them a new home on Monday.
A light lunch at Hash House A Go Go
in Las Vegas on Monday
Andrew and I are on the right with Alejandro Altisent, a player for and the President of Spain's Guadalajara Stings!
He was in Miami first and now was in Las Vegas on business. Before lunch, we gave him those last five helmets that he will transport back to Miami where another friend donated three more helmets to the EuroBall cause in Guadalajara.
Alejandro is a great guy, one of the many that I have been fortunate to meet during my many EuroBall experiences.
We had a great time chatting at lunch and I'm so happy to have been able to help the Stings again.
Kevin looked haggard as we dropped
him off at school after an intense
weekend of general roughhousing
and mayhem in Las Vegas
To be honest, I looked way worse!
When we got home from Las Vegas on Tuesday night, we found that the grandkid's pumpkins had gotten . . .
. . . a LOT scarier looking!
Meanwhile, back in EuroBall action . . .
Our Scorpion U19 and U16
9-man tackle teams were in action
against the Torino Giaguari
The U 16s rolled . . .
. . . but the U19s did not which
surprised me
Our Europe Warriors Men's game
in Mexico City in December was cancelled
We started planning this game way too late and after several key Warriors players backed out due to work and other issues, I think we made the right decision.
On the other hand, the Women's game in Mexico City in December that has been in the works for a long time is still a GO.
In order to free up the weekend of the Europe Warriors U18 game in Vienna later this month for the several Skorpions playing in that game, the Giaguari and Skorpions moved their second games of the U19 and U16 season up to this past scheduled bye weekend.
Our 3-0 U16s won again but it was
MUCH closer
Our U19s continue to struggle which
really puzzles me
Reading Is FUNdamental!
Donna Leon never, ever disappoints
Finally . . .
Only ten more days until our newest Europe Warriors experience begins with three days in London before heading to Vienna for two-a-day practices and a game against a tough Austrian National U18 squad.
Which reminds me . . .
The 2020 Varese Skorpions Italian DII season is now just around the corner.
Go Skorpions GO!
2 comments:
Inquiring minds want to know: Which team got the one black helmet?
David,
The Skorpions Varese got the black helmet.
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