Another Week During the Pandemic

Monday - Sunday,

June 22-28, 2021

A few weeks ago I stated on this blog that I was going to continue to post daily as these were historic times.

Unfortunately, with our self-imposed continuing personal lockdown, it is also a time of repetitive boredom sitting at home watching TV, reading books and basically staying in our home.

The weekend updates about the newest spikes in the Coronavirus pandemic in the USA confirmed that we were doing the right thing. Wearing a face mask and social distancing really is not that hard to do people!

Thus, I submit to you the minimal doings of the past week not day.

Portugal joined the growing list of EuroBall countries

cancelling their 2020 season

Laurie incorporated the fresh vegetables

that our neighbor George grew in his garden

to a delicious risotto dish Wednesday night

On Thursday, I joined RB Coach

Cristian "Bumba" Bianchi and the rest of the Skorpions

staff for our final webinar meeting of the Spring

These Thursday morning meetings have been extremely enjoyable, at least to me, in having the opportunity to talk American football with a coaching staff that worked hard with me to make the Skorpions better the last three seasons.

Little Mary came over to the house and

boldly tried to befriend a lizard in our garden

A phone call with Mike D'Antuono led to his

getting us instantly hooked on this intense Netflix

series direct from Madrid with excellent dubbing

Our Leader

Saturday's trip to the supermarket

showed that the only shortage was still

found in the paper products aisle

At Lombardo's Italian Market, I decided

to cook pasta for dinner Saturday night

Some sweet wine while cooking helped

Ingredients are the keys to culinary success

First, sauté the vegetables

Then grill the sweet Italian sausage

Add the pasta sauce and a couple of SECRET

ingredients and let it simmer

Laurie set the table

mangia,

Mangia,

MANGIA!

Have I mentioned that Laurie loves

to work in the garden?

Headband?

I just had to don a headband to keep the hair out of my eyes on Sunday when Mary and Jacob came to play with me in our backyard.

Reading Is FUNdamental!

An in depth tome on the roots of

American football in Europe

If you are a EuroBall fan like I am, then this is a must read.

In my opinion, it does beg for a Volume 2 with a deeper look at the growth of the game all over Europe in the last 20 years.

One of my favorite crime writers

ruminating about several unrelated

but interesting topics

Father's Day Weekend

Friday-Sunday,

June 19-21, 2020

We enjoyed a good weekend, at home of course, in large part because of the grandkids.

It all started on Friday with our last Coaches Exchanging Zoom meeting of the Spring that started back on April 1st. At that time, we were a group of European and Mexican coaches whose seasons were in limbo and wanted to use our down time to improve ourselves.

After nearly 30 of these wondrous meetings, I think that it is safe to say that we all did learn a thing or two in these great meetings organized by Jesús Sanchez and Bart Iaccarino in Spain. 

Our final speaker was Alvaro Salazar . . .

. . . of Mexico's Tec de Monterey Borregos

talking on his RPO system

RPO stands for Run-Pass Option, the thing in American football today

He was organized and explained things . . .

. . . clearly and thoroughly

It was a good way to end our sessions together.

Speaking of American football and EuroBall . . .

The Huskies get a Verbal Commitment

from the Wonderful World of EuroBall!

On Friday it was announced that German native Maurice Heims, a Senior DE at California's Santa Margarita Catholic H.S., has verbally committed to play his college football at the University of Washington!

In 2019 he came to America from Germany to study and play for a year or two. That experience has led to a free college education, awesome.

He'll be a high school Senior in 2020 if we ever have a season.

On Saturday night, grandson Jacob had a sleepover with us.

A two day Monopoly game saw me as the

eventual two day winner!

Sunday was Father's Day in the USA

I had two presents to open, the box behind my head held a turntable to once again be able to play all sorts of vinyl 45s and LPs from our 1950s-80s collection.

As for the smaller present I'm opening here, it was . . . 

. . . a Rams Flag for the front yard!

Princess Mary joined us on Sunday

She started this video as a budding Paleontologist

but ended it as a Dancing Queen

I had a good day with Mike but missed Andy a lot

Our neighbor George has an overflow

vegetable garden and we are the thankful

recipients of his bounty

In news from the net . . .

C.

Spain finally cancelled their 2020 season

after first postponing it back in March

Still so TRUE!

Two Zoom Meetings in One Morning

Thursday, June 18, 2020

We had not one but two American football related Zoom meetings this morning.

A happy Jesús Sanchez who heads

up our Coaches Exchanging meetings

Today's speaker was Stanford Special Teams Coach Pete Alamar talking about "Kickoff Returns and Field Goal Block."

Coach Pete was a great pulling guard for us at Thousand Oaks H.S. back in 1976-77.

This season will be his 38th campaign as a college coach with 22 of those seasons working in the PAC-12 Conference at Arizona, California and Stanford.

Coach Alamar has GREAT drills

for all of the needed skills

on Special Teams

Zoom meeting #2 with the

Varese Skorpions Coaching Staff

Today we explored the wonderful world of the use of HUDL in breaking down video and how to use the data collected in setting up game plans.

In news from the net . . .

I agree fully

I'm thinking that

this is correct as well

Two More Quiet Days in California's Semi-Lockdown

Tuesday-Wednesday, June 16-17, 2020

Two more days of minimizing our movements as the Coronavirus cases in California are starting to rise again.

The highlight was Jacob and Mike

coming over today to romp in our

backyard sprinklers again

That's a good photo of Laurie's new, colorful birdbath that was made in Mexico.

In news from the net . . .

Tuesday was

National Cannoli Day

in America

GRAZIE to avid blog fan Michael D'Antuono, of Sicilian heritage, for pointing this out to me.

This is why we are staying close

to Casa Contreras again

I agree 100%

I wonder what this

is in reference to?

Again, 100% TRUE!

Good thing to remember

as you go through life

Listen to Gomez Addams' sage advice.

Life Goes on Slowly in Camarillo

Monday, June 15, 2020

Today we started getting back into a somewhat normal life style as we went out of the house twice to go someplace other than to shop at our local Ralphs Supermarket.

It was time for a haircut

The haircut was the easy part, the much needed beard trim was OUT OF THE QUESTION!

Under our current Coronavirus rules both the person cutting the hair and the person in the chair must wear a face cover at all times.

Thus, my quest towards earning a spot as a department store Santa Claus in December continues.

In the evening we went out to dinner on the patio at our local Wood Ranch BBQ where we met friends Mike and Starr Moon for a delightful, socially distanced meal.

I must report that there were few people in the restaurant when we arrived. When we left at about 9:00 p.m., after our two and a half hours of food and friendship, we were the only people still in the place.

How times have changed . . .

History Sunday

Sunday, June 14, 2020

It was a beautiful day to binge watch a TV series, so we did!

We opted for this GREAT

documentary on the Union's

best American Civil War General,

Ulysses S. Grant

We watched the first two interesting episodes and plan to see the final one on Monday.

It was EXCELLENT!

The Coronavirus scare still has us staying at home most of the time, better safe than sorry.

Another Good Day at Home as the Contreras Bowl Keeps Moving Along

Saturday, June 13, 2020

A sunny day could only mean one thing with grandson Jacob in the house.

We were in the backyard playing with water coming g from the garden hose.

As always, when water and dirt combine, you get mud.

This led, for some unspecified heinous offense, to the execution of Mike via a mud ball firing squad of one.

Ready, aim . . .

. . . FIRE!

Note that there are three more mud balls on the ground in front of the blue pool, just in case Mike was still alive after the first "shot."

In a cruel twist, Mike made the mud balls by hand that could lead to his own demise.

Mud Ball in mid flight

about six inches in front of Mike

It was a flesh wound to Mike's left bicep.

More ammo would be required.

YES, we are 100% starved for things to do in these socially distanced times.

NEWS FROM THE

CONTRERAS BOWL

This update is from the organizers, Julien Urgenti and Bart Iaccarino. It's good to have friends. I hope that you can make it to Barcelona.

We are proud to announce that the Contreras Bowl will be played on November the 28th of 2020 in Barcelona, Spain! 

The purpose of this friendly game is to celebrate the career of Coach George Contreras in Europe as he recently decided to retired from coaching this side of the pond. 

Former George’s players & coaches, please share this news and join us! 

It’s gonna be A Beautiful Day For American Football!

More informations coming soon...

A Pleasant Friday at Home as Usual

Friday, June 12, 2020

The day started with another Zoom meeting with our Coaches Exchanging group, the 26th such gathering since the group was formed back on April 1st.

Today we would have a bit of a twist though.

Our Speaker was Alvaro Salazar

of the Tec de Monterey Borregos

He would be talking on the Borregos'

Inside, Middle and Outside Zone schemes

Tec de Monterey is one of the blue-blood programs of Mexican college football.

Monterey is the original campus of Mexico's Tec University system. Interestingly, almost all of their sister university's in the system are also called the Borregos.

Borregos is the Spanish word for Rams. 

Confusing at times.

Oh, about that twist in today's presentation, it would be in Spanish only.

I was OK with that

Despite what many right-wing Americans think, being at least bi-lingual is a good thing.

Borregos vs. Borregos

News from the net . . .

Sadly poignant

Sadly believable

Sadly true

EVER SO TRUE!