Mon.-Sun., July 31-August 6, 2023
Life continues to give us many things for which to be thankful.
On Monday, Mary proudly arrived
at our home with less teeth than
the last time we saw her
Having Mary spend a day with us continues to be the highlight of any day.
In the evening, it was back to Freedom Park to watch Michael and Jacob's Camarillo Stingers' team go through their paces.
Jacob, on the left, working on his
tackling techniques
Bend your knees Jacob,
low pad still wind
Coach Michael getting into
the excitement of angle tackling
Jacob with better pad level
on this rep
Jacob as an edge rusher
Throw a chop NOW!
Thumbs Up, he was having fun
The Pit is not for the
faint of heart!
I like Jacob's stance
Jacob running the Jet Sweep
Later in the practice, Jacob moved
to WR where solid Stalk Blocking
was what was needed
Jacob continues working towards becoming a better player, one practice at a time.
On Wednesday, Jacob and Michael joined me on my visit to see my Mother.
We opted to try a new place for lunch before our visit at a Mexican restaurant in Montrose that was new for all of us and came highly recommended.
The ceramic decor looked authentic
So did these murals of Mexico City scenes
like the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco
The last time I was at Xochimilco was with our Europe Warriors coaching staff after our game against the UNAM Pumas in August of 2017.
We enjoyed some great food aboard our Mexican gondola and probably too much of the local beverage known as pulque.
This mural depicts the famed
Juan O'Gorman murals on UNAM's
Central Library building
This final mural is of Mexico City's
Palacio de Bellas Artes and the
Angel of Independence statue
The Mexican food at La Cabañita, 3445 N. Verdugo Rd., officially in Glendale, was quite good.
We all three agreed that a return here was in order some day soon.
Great-Grandma Chuny was
happy to see Jacob and Michael
She also enjoyed Jacob's
impromptu piano concert
She did NOT enjoy our three way
Dominoes tournament
The final scores of this mini tournament were
Jacob: 4 Games Won, 118 Points
George: 1 Game Won, 28 Points
Mom: 1 Game Won, 24 Points
As for our 1-on-1 Dominoes Tournament, we have now been playing for 13 weeks since May 10th. That is a total of 34 days of competition that have seen us go at each other hammer and tongs style for 1,170 games and counting.
The current standings of this tournament are
Mom: 595 Games Won, 9,782 Points
George: 575 Games Won, 9,304 Points
On Thursday, Laurie and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary of becoming Grandparents for the first time.
This is also known as . . .
Kevin Contreras' Birthday
Kevin doing his famous burrito impression the first time we met him.
Kevin at about five years old
Kevin, our now 12 year old
soccer player and excellent student
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KEVIN!
If it's Friday, it must be another day of Stingers football practice.
Jacob with solid pad level
on this tackle
Still a happy-go-lucky kid
Still needing more knee bending for
better power in his blocking
Jacob is the Stingers' Long Snapper too
It got there with solid speed
NOW he is bending his knees!
The fear of getting hit in the back of the head by a punt played into his coiled stance I'm sure.
Jacob running a route as a WR
I think that Jacob had a good week of practice but he still has lots to improve upon.
No European League of Football
games this week
I still think that the Enthroners and Lions are ranked too high.
I'm looking at a 7 win season
for our Los Angeles Rams
How many regular season wins do you see on their schedule?
On Saturday, the Los Angeles Rams QB
of my youth, Roman Gabriel, turned 83
His son Rory was one of our players at Westlake H.S. in the 1980s.
Happy Birthday, Roman!
Team Austria defeated Team Italy
on Sunday
This win qualifies Team Austria for the European Championship Game vs. Team Finland in October. The winner gets an automatic bid to the IFAF World Championships in Germany in the Summer of 2024.
That is the same IFAF World Championships that our Team Brazil hopes to qualify for in December in our South American tournament in Brasilia against national teams from Chile, Colombia and Panama.
Speaking of international American football . . .
Mark your calendar for a 7:00 pm
Kickoff on May 4, 2024
That's night that the NAIA's Southern Oregon University Raiders will host Japan's Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters in an American football game in Ashland, Oregon.
The Fighters have won a total of 27 Japanese DI National Championships, including ten since the year 2000.
This will be the fourth meeting between these two universities.
S.O.U. won the first game in Japan in 1985 by a score of 49-24.
The 1986 game was played in Ashland with the Raiders prevailing again in a much closer battle, 21-17.
The teams last played in Japan in 1987 with the Fighters winning, 27-9.
I might just take a road trip to the Pacific Northwest next Spring to watch this unusual matchup.
Speaking of Pacific Northwest football . . .
I got a phone call on Thursday from
Jacob that I really appreciated
He was having fun at Dave and Buster's food and game emporium but had to stop and use his Mother's phone to call me with the shocking news.
On a Dave and Buster's TV tuned into ESPN, he saw the crawl at the bottom of the screen declaring that Washington and Oregon had both decided to bolt the PAC-12 for the BIG-10.
His concern for me was touching but the news itself was not.
This move and a few other PAC-12 defections had been strongly rumored for some time.
Of course, UCLA and USC both declared their moves to the BIG-10 last Summer.
Thus, UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington will all be in the BIG-10 starting in 2024.
The BIG-XII Conference announced that they were adding PAC-12 members Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah in 2024.
For some perspective on these moves, here is a historical look at West Coast football history.
From 1915 until the Spring of 1959, major college sports out West were under the aegis of the old Pacific Coast Conference.
The PCC included teams from ten universities, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State.
At the end of the 1958-59 school year, the PCC disbanded over massive cheating scandals at Washington, USC, UCLA and California.
The 1959 football season began with a new five school West Coast Conference, the Athletic Association of Western Universities or AAWU.
The AAWU's charter members were California, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Washington.
By 1968 the AAWU had become the PAC-8 with the gradual additions of Oregon, Oregon State and Washington State.
The 1978 expansion of the conference that added Arizona and Arizona State created the PAC-10.
The first year of PAC-12 play was 2011, when Colorado and Utah were added.
The PAC-12's nickname is "The Conference of Champions."
This is because the 12 universities have a combined 553 NCAA team sports National Championships in 31 different Mens and Womens sports. That is over 200 more NCAA Team Championships than any other conference.
Forget history and tradition, SHOW ME THE MONEY!
The bottom line on all of these conference realignments is the bottom line. It was just too much BIG-10 and BIG-XII TV money to turn down.
Poor leadership from the PAC-12 Commissioner's Office also played a huge roll in the demise of the conference.
So this is what it currently looks
like for the former PAC-12 schools
starting with the 2024-25 school year
There is no word yet on what the final four PAC-12 universities will do in 2024 which is depressing.
These schools all have had success in sports over the many, many years.
If you look at their NCAA Team Championship history, you would find full trophy cases, here are their totals:
Stanford 134 NCAA Championships in 20 sports
California 113 NCAA Championships in 16 sports
Oregon St. 4 NCAA Championships in 2 sports
Washington St. 2 NCAA Championships in 2 sports
But where do they go now?
What about the Apple Cup and the Civil War?
In 2024, the BIG-10 will now
have 18 schools
From Left to Right,
TOP ROW: UCLA, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Northwestern and Rutgers
MIDDLE ROW: Michigan State, Maryland, Minnesota and Nebraska
BOTTOM ROW: Wisconsin, Southern California, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon and Washington
The new BIG-XII in 2024
From Left to Right,
TOP ROW: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor and Brigham Young
SECOND ROW: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Colorado, and Houston
THIRD ROW: Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State
BOTTOM ROW: Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Utah and West Virginia
Somewhat humorous but
still SO SAD
This moment of tongue in cheek
honor from a DIII Coach
I guess that we'll all just have to
get used to it but I'm still looking
forward for what shapes up to be
a good, final PAC-12 football campaign
Laurie and I showed up at the
Conejo Players Theater in Thousand
Oaks on Sunday afternoon
Why you ask?
For a really well acted
mystery play, of course!
This play has been running continuously in London's West End since November 25, 1952!
Well, almost continuously. Like everything else, the pandemic got in the way as the London theater showing this fun Agatha Christie play shut down after their March 16, 2020 showing.
The Mousetrap resumed its London run on May 17, 2021 and has now been performed nearly 30,000 times in the English capital.
As for the Conejo Players, this is their 65th year performing with local, volunteer actors, directors and aides. They are giving their all for just the simple love of the acting and the theater.
Again, the play was really delightful today!
Which reminds me . . .
On April 20th, I made a leap of faith and started a program of intermittent fasting, i.e., eating only one meal a day. I wanted to both change my grazing habits and slowly lose weight to boot.
As of today, approximately three and a half months later, I have gotten quite comfortable with only dining once daily and have now lost a total of 13.3 kilos which equals 29.26 pounds.
I weigh in daily with my scale set to kilos as I like the visual/psychological look of kilos. Remember, one kilo equals 2.2 pounds.
I still have a long way to go but I'm feeling good about what I'm doing.
Wish me luck!
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