CYBA Basketball Season Begins With a WIN!

Tues.-Thurs., January 3-12, 2023

Most of these past days have continued to be comprised of the near daily, 2 1/2 hours round trip drives to Pasadena to visit with my Mother in her skilled care facility. She continues to have good days and some bad moments but is resting comfortably overall.

A late Christmas present from

Lyon, France

We received a Care Package from Olivier and his Father Georges, the former owner and chef, respectively, at our favorite old dining spot in Lyon, Sophie's.

Delicious French chocolates and a jar of as to be unnamed and forbidden foodstuff were both AWESOME!

MERCI!

If you've ever been to Lisbon

then you MUST have had the traditional

Portuguese pastry called natas

I discovered on-line that this bakery specializing in natas exists in Sherman Oaks near my daily route on the Ventura Freeway to Pasadena.

I decided to stop off on the way home one day to pick up a few delicious natas to share with Laurie for breakfast the next day.

It was a Wednesday afternoon and I found the spot closed with a note in the window stating that they are only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Nuts!

Interesting yellow barked

tree in Pasadena

Jacob reading the morning

Ventura County Star

On Saturday, his Wildcats opened the

2023 Camarillo Youth Basketball Association

(CYBA) season against the Buckeyes

at Camarillo H.S.

Jacob is #5, third from the left.

He seemed to have a fun time

Setting a pick

Contesting a Buckeye's shot

Full court basketball involves

LOTS of running!

DEFENSE!

Breakaway

Driving to the hoop

A clutch free throw with four seconds

left in the game by one of the Wildcats

led to a thrilling, come from behind

20-19 victory

1-0!

 

The DI IFL is getting closer

to its 2023 season openers

The DII Champion Varese Skorpions will

start the season with a tough one

against the defending DI Champion

Firenze Guelfi on the road on March 5th

The 2023 IFL will be comprised of nine teams with each club playing the other eight teams once in the regular season.

The nine IFL teams this year are:

Ancona Dolphins

Bologna Stainless Steel Warriors

Firenze Guelfi

Lazio Ducks

Legnano Frogs

Milano Rhinos

Parma Panthers

Varese Skorpions

Verona Mastini

All of these clubs will be working to get into the FL Championship game . . .

. . . the 42nd Italian Bowl to be

played in Toledo, Ohio on July 1st

Bologna Stainless Steel Warriors, GREAT name!

The Rams last game of the

season . . .

. . . ended with another loss,

this time in Seattle

The Rams went from 16-5 Super Bowl LVI Champions to 5-12 NFC West Third Place with no post season bid.

Not to worry . . .

. . . there is always Next Year!

In case you want to go to the upcoming Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona on February 12th, here are the current ticket prices for ONE seat found on StubHub:

The cheapest is going for a mere

$5,257 and has an unrestricted view

of the field

For that price, I would expect nothing less!

On the other end of the spectrum

Really? Will someone actually pay $450,000 for a game ticket?

At least the view would be unrestricted again.

The College Championship Game . . .

. . . was a huge dud to say the least,

Georgia (15-0) 65

TCU (13-2) 7

It wasn't as close as the score might indicate.

The Washington Huskies (11-2)

finished 8th in the Final AP Poll

The Complete Final AP Poll

The PAC-12 was represented by six schools:

#8 Washington 11-3

#10 Utah 10-4

#12 USC 11-3

#15 Oregon 10-3

#17 Oregon State 10-3

#21 UCLA 9-4

AMEN TO THAT!

I resemble this remark!

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Another great read in the

Commissaire Adamsberg series

Especially if you like rival Serbian vampire clans at war with each other and, really, who doesn't.

A new author for me that

was recommended by a librarian

at the Camarillo Public Library

Not earth shaking but a solid read if you like Canadian protagonists fighting the Russian Mafia on their home turf.

Again, who doesn't?

Welcoming in the New Year, 2023

Sun.-Mon., January 1-2, 2023

The first two days of 2023 were action packed American football game days to be sure.

Thankfully, my Mother rested comfortably these two days in Pasadena as I was not able to visit her. The original plan was to be with her on Sunday and stay home on Monday due to the insane driving and parking issues due to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game.

On Saturday I had received my second shingles vaccination and was warned that most people's reactions to this shot were worse that to the first dose which I received two months ago. Since I had not had any negative reaction to that first shot, I felt confidant that I would be just fine.

WRONG.

I spent most of Sunday in bed with severe flu like symptoms. By Monday I was much closer to my normal, physically fit self.

Monday was also a special day in the Contreras family as . . .

. . . former Rio Mesa H.S. QB/FS . . .

. . . and current Las Vegas soccer referee,

coach, husband, father and our son

turned 49 years old on Monday!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Normally, Laurie and I go out to Las Vegas for a few days to celebrate Andrew's birthday with him, Jenn and Kevin but with my Mother's health issues we all agreed that we would stay home and celebrate his birthday sometime in the near future.

Instead, we spent Monday putting away most of the Christmas decorations.

Our Christmas tree left an

interesting pattern of needles

The mushrooms continued to

flourish in our front yard

New Year's Day offered another

chance for the Rams to also flourish

Nope

Good news from Stanford football

Stanford's long time Head Coach David Shaw resigned at the end of the 2022 season and was succeeded by Sacramento State Head Coach Troy Taylor.

When a college changes head coaches there is usually also wholesale changes in the assistant coaching staff.

Pete Alamar will remain on the Stanford staff as their Senior Special Teams Analyst. He has been at Stanford since 2012 and is considered to be one of the best Special Teams coaches in the country.

This was great to hear as Pete was a great Offensive Guard for us at Thousand Oaks H.S. in 1976-77. After graduating from California Lutheran University he started his college football coaching career as a Graduate Assistant at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1983.

As with most college coaches, he has led a somewhat nomadic career with stops at Cal Poly-SLO, Louisiana-Lafayette, Cal Lutheran, James Madison, Arizona, Mexico's Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Eastern Michigan, California, Fresno State and Stanford.

His niche is as a Special Teams Coach. He coordinated these teams at Arizona, California, Fresno State and Stanford with tremendous success.

I have taken many of his great Special Teams concepts and drills to heart and have been able to experience lots of success with what I learned from him.

It's great to see that the old T.O.H.S. Lancer is still in the game. 

The hype has begun BIG TIME!

It would be wonderful if this National Championship game between #1 Georgia (14-0) and #3 Texas Christin (13-1) was anywhere close to as exciting as the two Semifinal games were last Saturday.

We watched two Monday bowl games with PAC-12 teams vying for improved national prestige.

Another GREAT game to watch

The American Athletic Conference Champion Tulane Green Wave (12-2) scored 16 points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to stun the PAC-12's representative Southern California (11-3) in a barn burner of a Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, Texas.

The Rose Bowl was not as exciting

but an interesting game nonetheless

Monday was not a good day for the PAC-12 as Conference Champion Utah Utes (10-4) lost to the BIG-10's #3 team, the Penn State Nittany Lions (11-2).

The PAC-12's bowl season was again not a great one as the "Conference of Champions" only managed a 3-4 record.

Here are the PAC-12 Bowl results with PAC-12 teams in italics:

Las Vegas Bowl

Oregon State (10-3) 30 - Florida (6-7) 3

Los Angeles Bowl

Fresno State (10-4) 29 - Washington State (7-6) 6

Holiday Bowl

Oregon (10-3) 28 - North Carolina (9-5) 27

Alamo Bowl

Washington (11-2) 27 - Texas (8-5) 20

Sun Bowl

Pittsburgh (9-4) 37 - UCLA (9-4) 35

Cotton Bowl

Tulane (12-2) 46 - Southern California (11-3) 45

Rose Bowl

Penn State (11-2) 35 - Utah (10-4) 21

Damar Hamlin

The frightening experience that this young man, a DB with the Buffalo Bills, had to go through during the Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals was simply chilling to watch.

After making what I would say was a routine tackle with no excessive force or head contact, he got to his feet and then passed out seconds later. Apparently both his breathing and heart had stopped and the medics on hand started CPR immediately. According to reports, he was defibrillated twice on the field before being sent to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

The game was eventually suspended for, perhaps, a future date.

It was unquestionably the right decision as no one wanted to continue on this night after what they had witnessed.

It was all incredibly disturbing.

On a much brighter note . . .

. . . I came to my senses

Reading Is FUNdamental!

The "Classics" are always good to read

As is usually the case, the book story line was quite different than one from one of my favorite movies, 1934's The Thin Man starring Myrna Loy and William Powell as that fun loving, crime solving couple, Nick and Nora Charles.

Both the book and the movie are well worth your time in my opinion.

Christmas 2022

 

Sat.-Sat., December 24-31, 2022

Christmas was a little different this year than what was expected.

Linda, myself and Marilyn

with our Mother Chuny

a few years ago at Christmas

Our normal routine is to gather all of my side of the family at our house on Christmas day to open presents and share one of Laurie's wonderful home cooked meals.

With our Mother still in a skilled nursing facility in Pasadena and my sister Marilyn, still recovering from the open heart surgery that she underwent threw about three months ago, things just had to be different this year.

This week would be another one filled with daily drives to Pasadena to visit my Mother.

I took a few minutes to drop by

Pasadena's venerable Vroman's Bookstore

As a youngster my Father, an avid reader, would take me to this wondrous bookstore on Thursday nights to find another book for each of us to read in the coming week.

Great memories at this spot . . .

Laurie found this HUGE mushroom

growing in our front yard this week

And these as well

Michael and Jacob built this

gingerbread football stadium

during their shared vacation time

Typical Christmas day weather

in Southern California

This Christmas it would just be Laurie and me, joined by Michael, Vanessa, Jacob and Mary to celebrate the day at our home.

Laurie likes to be creative

Just another delicious example

Princess Mary being dramatic

Jacob and Mary alternated

handing out the presents

A Los Angeles Rams pillow

was the perfect gift for Jacob

It's ALWAYS Happy Hour

for my bride

NFL TeenyMates was another

on the spot gift this Christmas

How did Santa know?

After opening a beauty salon gift,

I was Mary's first customer

She decided that I needed a new shade of lipstick.

How could I say no to her?

Michael and Laurie watching

my makeover in progress

I just had to have some purple eye

shadow as the UW Husky Alamo Bowl

game was fast approaching

Happily looking like a new man, it was now . . .

. . . Laurie's turn in the salon chair

Admiring an autographed baseball

that Micheal found hidden on a shelf

Our smaller than normal gathering was still a good one punctuated by . . .

. . . a much needed Rams win

of a rare Christmas Day game

On other fronts . . .

Laurie now has a favorite dwarf

that Snow White rarely talks about

So true . . .

If you are either a scientist or a

Big Bang Theory TV show fan,

you got this one

My take on any New Year's Diet plans

The Italian DI season will soon

get underway for our beloved

Varese Skorpions

On Thursday night the #12 ranked,

10-2 Washington Huskies were in San

Antonio, Texas to play the #20 ranked,

8-4 Texas Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl

Before driving home from Pasadena, I called Laurie to see if she needed anything for the game as Michael, Vanessa and Jacob would be joining us to watch the bowl game. Mary was with her other grandparents on this night.

Laurie said to bring home some munchies.

So I stopped at Porto's Bakery

in Northridge to get some of their

famous meat pastries and empanadas

Saying no to these churro croissants may earned me a chapter in a new Profiles in Courage book due out next Summer.

The Alamo Bowl was topsy-turvy

In the Second Half, the Huskies

rose to the proverbial occasion

A solid win to finish the season

with an 11-2 record and a possible

Top Ten finish in the final polls

The University of Washington started playing football in 1889. This is only the fifth time in program history that a Husky team has won 11 or more games in a season.

Here is the list of those five great Husky seasons:

1925, 11-0-1 led by Head Coach Enoch Bagshaw

1991, 12-0-0 led by Head Coach Don James

2000, 11-1-0 led by Head Coach Rick Neuheisel

2016, 12-2-0 led by Head Coach Chris Petersen

2022, 11-2-0 led by Head Coach Kalen DeBoer

What a great accomplishment for first year UW Head Coach Kalen DeBoer, his staff and the players!

Still, to put this all in perspective, #5 Alabama improved to 11-2 on the 2022 season with their 45-20 Sugar Bowl victory over #11 Kansas State.

This was the Crimson Tide's 25th 11+ win season since first accomplishing that feat under legendary Head Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in 1961.

With this year's Sugar Bowl win, Alabama has now won 11 or more games in 13 of the last 14 seasons. The only non 11+ win season in that stretch was the "totally forgettable" 2010 campaign when the Crimson Tide went an unacceptable 10-3.

Hopefully this will be a huge

springboard to the 2023 season

Even though next Monday's 109th edition

of the Rose Bowl game is not part of

the College Football Playoff (CFP), I still

think that the traditions of this bowl game 

make it the best game of EVERY year

PAC-12 vs. Big Ten, the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, usually picture perfect weather, it just doesn't get any better than that.

Of course with the CFP expanding from four to twelve teams in 2024 as well as USC and UCLA jumping from the PAC-12 to the Big Ten the same year, the Rose Bowl may never be the same again.

Sad.

As for those two CFP games played on the last day of 2022 . . .

The Fiesta Bowl was a WILD ONE!

#3 TCU Horned Frogs (13-1) 51

#2 Michigan Wolverines (13-1) 45

And so was the Peach Bowl . . .

#1 Georgia Bulldogs (14-0) 42

#4 Ohio State Buckeyes (11-2) 41

The CFP National Championship Game will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Monday January 9, 2023, between #3 TCU (13-1) and #1 Georgia (14-0).

It should be a great one too, I suspect.

Reading Is FUNdamental!

Fred Vargas strikes again!

Her Paris police detective character, Commissaire Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg, is interesting to say the least. Her plots make you do some serious thinking about crime of course but also about your own personal life and relationships.

I can't wait to read the next book in this series.