Juniors Continues to Amaze Me

I hope he can stop the ball

Fall Ball Juniors game on Saturday, I had the plate.  Bases loaded, two outs, dropped 3rd strike.  Both defense and offense leave the field…..Out stands, next inning.  I mentioned to the offense coach that it was a dropped 3rd strike and he just looked at me in confusion.  I explained the rule and later he told his kids to run on all dropped third strikes and let the umpires figure it out later.  He was just trying to do good, not the kind of guy to cause trouble, but there are better ways to learn the rules…..Classic Juniors with fall ball thrown in to make it more interesting.  On the positive side, I got to do the game with my umpire partner Bob.  He has been doing games over 20 years and is not only a good umpire but a great person to know.  The coaches were great people with the right attitudes.  It spread down to the players who were a joy.  Catchers were friendly and talkative during the game, having fun with all the mistakes.  Great way to spend a Saturday morning.  Best memory of the game: was a breaking ball with two strikes that was way high and just at the end broke down through the strike zone.  Before I could signal anything, the batter looked up at me after following the ball through to the catcher’s glove (with the bat still on his shoulder) and said “oh s…”, and walked back to the dugout.  I almost fell over laughing.  It’s always good to give a little back.

A Day in a Family Portrait

After a day of shooting

This summer, my mother said she wanted a family portrait.  The whole family was in town and we had not taken any pictures with the children in years, so why not!  My sister’s family, our parents and my family all got together one morning at Eisenhower Park in Orange for a fun time.  It was not the sunniest day but we had two very nice cameras and went to work once everyone showed up.  Ok, my sister was a little late, but what the heck, it takes a long time to put on all that make-up.  We began the shoot with my mother’s encouraging direction.  As you can see from the pictures, The Family Shoot, there were many, many shots taken.  My mother was very helpful in suggesting the absolute best spots and positions.  Most are not posted but you can see from the ones on the link that the day seemed to go on and on and on and on.  The kids had a great time and had to be brought back to the shoot more than once.  Heck, even the photographers got distracted and seemed to be having more fun shooting the casual shots than the portraits.  By the end, as you could imagine, and see from the picture above, we were ready for the end.  We all got back together to review the pictures and ended up with a great family portrait that is currently hanging in my folk’s house, a fantastic bound book designed by my wife (also at my mom’s) and a few great photo albums for everybody.  And perhaps most important, were all the fun memories of trying to get all those people to focus on one thing long enough to take a picture.  It’s what being a family is all about!  Although I think we will wait until there are a bunch of great grandchildren before we do this again.

Dinner at the Clark’s

Watching the prep was as much fun as the meal

Last Sunday, the 21st, we were invited to Jeff and Annette’s for Dinner. Jeff and Annette are two very special friends whom we have known a long time. Jeff is a fantastic self taught amateur chef (I use amateur only because he does not do this for pay) who is known for his variety and absolutely delicious meals. If you want see what he can do, visit his website at Jefferyclark.net. Back to my story, we arrived at the Clark home around 5 PM and I brought a couple wines from my modest collection (that is another story). Jeff started the evening with a homemade minestrone soup that was as good as a minestrone can get. We all commented on not only the nicely balanced blend of flavors, but the great consistency of texture. It turns out he had recently adjusted the recipe to make all the cut portions of similar size just to address the texture. This is a secret to cooking that I find is too often underappreciated by chefs. We broke open a bottle of Michel-Schlumberger Pinot Blanc to complement this already wonderful soup. For the main course, Jeff produced a nice cut of meat and proceeded to custom cut our filet mignon steaks right in front of us. With our mouths watering, Jeff covered them in crushed black pepper and then pan seared the steaks. When cooked, Jeff removed the steaks and deglazed the pan with flaming brandy(another great show!) and created a sauce with garlic and cream. These perfectly cooked steaks were then plated and covered with the sauce. As sides, Jeff added a cauliflower mash seasoned with garlic while his daughter, Nicky, sauted asparagus in a garlic infused olive oil. We all rinsed it down with a mild but fruity Valley View Cabernet Sauvignon from Oregon. To top it all off, we enjoyed Jeff’s famous(to his friends and family) chocolate chip biscotti. We are talking a meal as good as found at any good restaurant. An absolutely great way to end a long week and get ready for the beginning of the next. As usual, I look forward to an invite to his next show!!!!

A Day in the past with a Terra Cotta Soldier

He is taller than I expected

On Saturday, we attended the Terra Cotta Soldier exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. The whole visit takes about 1.5 hours and is worth every penny. This is the largest collection of these soldiers ever shown outside of China and it is excellent. Not only is there a good variety of soldiers but there is also time taken to understand the history, how the emperor came into power, the way he ruled and how the memorial was made. It is well done and deserves the reputation as the 8th wonder of the world. They have still not recovered even a third of the soldiers and have yet to enter the tomb. The technology used around 200 BC rewrites history. Chromed weapons, chariots and building techniques for earthquake country. Well worth the effort. Do your homework before going to get most out of the visit. It is only here until October 16th so don’t wait. The lines will only get longer!