Wednesday-Monday, October 14-19, 2020
As is usually the case in these times, this post starts with some of my recent Food Fantasies.
After coaching American football
in Italy for five seasons why wouldn't
I constantly dream about pasta?
In that same vein, Saturday, October 17th
was National Pasta Day in the USA!
Our friend Julien Urgenti in Lyon, France
got me to thinking about wondrous desserts
AY, CARRAMBA!
Bobbi's is one of our favorite Mexican restaurants in Camarillo. Months ago I went there to buy takeout for dinner and was appalled to see that no one working at the counter or in their kitchen space was wearing a mask. So much for Mexican food for dinner that night.
Now, about four months later I walked by Bobbi's and saw both this sign outside their door and a full staff indoors all wearing masks.
I'm glad that they saw the light!
Mexican takeout a few nights later was fantastic!
I am George Contreras and I
approve this message
I'm a sucker for a good bakery
Sicilian pastries are simply
AMAZING!
This. of course, is the problem
with Sicilian pastries
I am George Contreras and I
approve this message too!
Why yes, yes I do
We opted to leave our bubble in Camarillo and travel into the Las Vegas bubble shared by our son Andy, his wife Jenn and our grandson Kevin.
In Yermo, California we made a
quick restroom stop at EddieWorld
A cup of coffee helped too.
We stayed in their home for five days. Laurie never left their home and I only left once to pick up more Mexican food, this time at Roberto's.
Roberto's is AMAZING too.
On Saturday, we lounged and
gorged on televised college football
Sunday had the specter of the Dodgers
playing a Game 7 for both the
National League Championship and
a spot in the 2020 World Series
Jacob, Michael and Mary were
rooting for the Boys in Blue
as we were
Back from the Dead
The Atlanta Braves at one point had a three games to one lead over the gritty Dodgers.
The Los Angeles team fought back to take the series to the limit and then won Game 7 by a 4-3 tally.
Next up, the World Series vs. the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays.
At the same time that the Dodgers were playing, the Rams were as well.
The 142nd game in this 71 year old
NFC West rivalry
They first played in 1950 when the San Francisco 49ers joined the NFL from the defunct rival All-America Football Conference.
While the Rams won both of the 1950 meetings with the 49ers by scores of 35-14 and 28-21, the 49ers led the all-time series 71-67-3 going into Sunday's contest.
Andy made his incredible,
Cuban style Ropa Vieja to nosh
on while alternately watched the
Dodgers and Rams
Andy then stuffed the
Ropa Vieja into flautas
OH, MY!
The flautas definitely made the
Rams effort easier to swallow
The 49ers extends their lead in the all-time series with the Rams to 72-67-3. They meet again in Los Angeles on November 29th.
Speaking of American football . . .
The Varese Skorpions hiring of
Nick Holt as the Head Coach in 2021
continues to be a media sensation
in Italy
The Varese Skorpions U17 team (0-0)
played their first game of the season on
Sunday against the Bergamo Lions (0-1)
Enzo, D.J., what is the problem here?
Oh, just a near forfeit by the home team Skorpions to start the year.
Italian Federation rules state that during a game, an ambulance must be posted at the game field at all times.
Just before kickoff, said ambulance was called away from the field for an emergency situation. If it did not return in 45 minutes, the Skorpions would be forced to forfeit the game.
It would have been normal in the insane year that is 2020.
There it is circled on the timer,
the ambulance arrived with a mere
6.6 seconds to spare!
LET THE GAME BEGIN!
The Skorpions in red have a new,
rookie Defensive Lineman
That's him, #62
According to Coach Enzo, he is 6'3" tall and weighs 340 lbs.!
For a young man that big and that young, he displayed good footwork for the first game of his life.
He is definitely a work in progress but who knows, someday he might become . . .
. . . this Bulldozer of American football
fame in Italian cinema
As for the game itself, the U17 Skorpions who played in the National Championship game in 2019 where we lost to the Milano Seamen . . .
. . . after leading only 6-0 at the half,
ROUTED the Lions
A great way to start the season!
My team in Barcelona
As for me, I continue to get my American football fixes by breaking down the Pioners practice videos, via the HUDL app, three times a week for our good coaching friend Bart Iaccarino in Barcelona
As for the overall weekend in Las Vegas, we just enjoyed hanging out with . . .
Kevin live and grandson Jacob
from California via the net
Don't let his sweet looks fool you,
he is relentless in his efforts to
beat all of us in a game of Sorry or Uno
Happy Grandparents!
Although we have already cast our ballots for the all important 2020 election, we are still bombarded by election rhetoric on-line daily.
Here are some of our favorites from the last few days.
How can you disagree with this
wonderful woman?
VOTE!
Be prepared, this election can
not come down to how many
people did not vote
One can only hope
Of course, the Coronavirus is still with us . . .
Truth
How can anyone possibly still
be undecided this year?
Do whatever you have to do to VOTE!
I shared this cartoon on Facebook which drew a comment from a former Thousand Oaks H.S. player who I coached back in 1970.
He is an avowed Trump supporter who took issue with it saying that he lives in Texas and has seen no sign of any sort of voter suppression.
I replied that the Texas Governor has famously called for only one drop-off box per county for early voting while Ventura County, where we live, has 34 such drop-off boxes servicing the 2,208 square miles that make up our county.
In comparison Texas has Brewster County (6,192 sq. mi.), Hudspeth County (4,572 sq. mi.) plus another 24 counties each encompassing at least 1,000 square miles. Yes, all of these Texas counties would only have one drop-off box per county if the Governor gets his way.
By comparison, the state of Rhode Island is only 1,212 square miles in size and yet has 41 drop-off boxes scattered throughout the state.
Isn't the Texas approach the absolute definition of voter suppression in 2020's Coronavirus affected election year?
As for the former player, it's been two days and he has yet to respond.
No matter what,
VOTE!
This was a classic based on one of
President Trump's recent interviews
Reading Is FUNdamental!
An interesting, fascinating read about
the Allied efforts in WWII in Italy
The author used first hand insights from Allied soldiers, Nazi soldiers, Italians who fought on both sides, partisans, die hard Italian Fascists of all ages and politicians from all of the warring nations.
I don't think that this important phase of WWII gets anywhere near the notice that it deserves.
Lots of crazy things were described
in Holland's book that happened
in the rugged, mountainous terrain
that makes up most of the Italian peninsula
The 29th Donna Leon book that I've
read was another good one
At the beginning of the book, our Venetian policeman hero, Commissario Guido Brunetti, is dealing with a woman who is dying because of Cancer.
Her husband moved her from a free public health care facility to a costly private facility who had her moved out when the husband could no longer afford to pay the private clinic's fees.
He then moves her into a public hospice facility where she would pass away.
This all led to Brunetti thinking . . .
The question that I've been asked the most in all of the time we've lived in France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland has been "Why don't you Americans believe in health coverage for all of your citizens?"
There is no good answer to that question in my shamed opinion.
AWESOME!
I just discovered that the Camarillo Public Library has four, two episode DVDs based Donna Leon's books!
Thus I checked out the first set, excited to finally put faces to our old friends in her writings.
The two episodes that we watched were true to her books and had incredible locations in Venice for our viewing pleasure.
We fully expected to have English subtitles to go along with the spoken Italian of the show which helps both of us practice our Italian language skills much like when we watch similar Detective Montalbano shows based in Sicily.
Well the English subtitles were there but the shows were made by a German production company so all of the actors are German and speak only German except for the occasional Ciao.
Expecting to hear the lovely lilt of Italian but being served the guttural cadence of German was a shock. Still, we liked the two episodes that viewed and have ordered two more.
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!
