IT'S A BLOCK PARTY WITH STAN AND SALLY

March 09 –Sally and Stan invited a group of their friends from Peace River and Torrey Oaks for hot dogs and brauts to celebrate their “new home site” at Torrey Oaks. They had the brilliant idea to make it a Block Party! So, on Tuesday, March 09, they closed off a section of the road, put tables in the streets and the friends poured in. What a great idea that turned out to be!!

Here we have just arrived at the Party!

Stan got the brauts ready, with a little supervision!!

After all that cooking, Stan just had to wipe his hands! (He had borrowed Ken's apron!! HA HA)

Here are some pictures of the group that was there!

Tables out in the street!

The four handsome musketeers!!

Cis and Joe with Renate.

Ken is enjoying the party!

Heinz with Rich who is staying at Torrey Oaks. Earlier in the day, Rich tripped over a box and had to go to the Emergency Room. Seems he dislocated his shoulder (or maybe worse).

Here I am standing in line for some of that delicious food! (By the way, I've been looking for a peach cobbler recipe. Does anyone know Who brought that delicious Peach Cobbler?? )






Ken was further back in the line.

After everyone had eaten, Sally announced that it was Joke Time. We gathered together and took turns telling Jokes!! Now, that was a riot!!!

Sally got off the table and got the ball rolling by telling one of her two jokes that we have heard a million times!! I think this one is about the Nun and the Taxi Driver. We laughed anyway!





I volunteered to go next to keep the ball rolling! I told a really bad joke about a dog that died and the vet passed an aggressive cat above the dog, back and forth, and declared that the dog was dead. He told the master that his fee was $25, but the Cat Scan was $75!! To make it worse, I used Travis and Baxter as the Master and the Dog!!!



Don had a joke to tell; and another, and another!!!


Cis stood up to tell her joke!



Heinz told a joke that involved birds flying over. I think he turned to look up at the birds just as I snapped the picture!

Karen was next with her joke.

Diane attracted a lot of attention with her joke!


Wally told a joke, but nobody got it. Guess we aren't smart enough!!



Joy told a joke about how some men think, and some men are good, and men who are partially bald just think they are good (or something like that)!


Stan is not telling a joke here. He was joking around all day with Ken's apron!!
(Don't look too closely!)

At the end of the joke session, Sally presented Don with the Blue Ribbon for Best Joke. I question that he had the BEST Joke (Ha Ha), but he certainly had the MOST!!!


Thanks Sally and Stan for another fun afternoon!!!

TORREY OAKS AND PEACE RIVER PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT (SUPPLEMENT)

SUPPLEMENT TO ORIGINAL POSTING

The two collages at the beginning of the original article may not have printed properly. Hopefully they will be OK in this reprint of the first section of the article. For the rest of the article, please refer to the original posting. SORRY!

March 13 – Stan organized a fun tournament for players from both Torrey Oaks and Peace River. There were about 23 players – 11 women and 12 men; and there seemed to be about an equal number of players from each park.

With so many players, we decided we would use Rally Scoring where a point is scored by one team or the other on every serve. (Normally, in Pickleball, you only score when your team is serving.) Rally Scoring makes the games go much more quickly.

We all had a great time, even if we were not one of the winners shown below!!

Here are some of the participants and spectators.

Continued in Original Posting of

TORREY OAKS AND PEACE RIVER PICKLEBALL

TORREY OAKS AND PEACE RIVER PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT

March 13 – Stan organized a fun tournament for players from both Torrey Oaks and Peace River. . .

For the first section of this article, please see TORREY OAKS AND PEACE RIVER PICKLEBALL (SUPPLEMENT).


Stan, with Sally's help, kept the tournament running smoothly and kept the scores.



Some of the action, action, action!! I hope I got every player at least one time.

THE TOURNAMENT WINNERS!!

Winners for the Women: Renate, 3rd; The Other Sally 2nd; and playing in her first tournament Diane won 1st Place. Congratulations, Ladies!!

Winners for the Men: Tom, 2nd; Dean took 1st Place; and Joe 3rd. Congratulations, Guys!!

Thank you, Stan, for a great, fun tournament!!

Note: If anyone has some neat tournament pictures they would like for me to post on this Blog, send them to me at fewbank@juno.com and I will include them on an Addendum to this article.

RV FIRE AT TT PEACE RIVER

March 11 – Some excitement today at Peace River. We were surprised to see a fire engine pass by our site heading right down our road. Soon it was followed by another and another and a fourth!! They all stopped down at the other end of our road where our friends, Tom and Marge, were camped. We decided to walk down to be certain they were OK.

The reason for all the commotion was a refrigerator fire in a recent model Monaco Diplomat. It appeared the owners were not at home and the front door window had to be broken to allow access by the firemen.

Ken, Tom and Marge joined the crowd of spectators. We wish the owners good luck. Thank goodness no one was injured.

TACOS AT EL TACORIENDO

March 10 – One of our favorite places for quick, easy Mexican is El Tacoriendo – a small authentic Mexican joint in Zolfo Springs, about 2 miles from TT Peace River. The Tacos are really good and the price is right!! Today we invited a group of Pickleball friends to join us for Tacos.

Owners of El Tacoriendo. They have been at this locations (from San Antionio) for many years. They serve breakfast and lunch only, closing at 2 PM so we have to get there before that!!

Our group today: Diane, Carol, Sam, Renate, Heinz, Tom, Marge, Ken, Faye and Cal.

Here's the group from the other end of the table.

GIOVANNI'S AGAIN!!

March 05 – We returned for two weeks at TT Peace River on March 04. Sally called on Friday and invited us to Giovanni’s with a group from Torrey Oaks. We of course said OK!! The restaurant had a special “Choice of Two” where you could sample two items from the menu for one low price. Most of us ordered that. Ken and I had Eggplant Parmesan and Spinach Ravioli with Soup and Salad Bar. UUMMMMM!! Actually, we shared the entre and bought an extra salad bar.

Here’s our group:

Around the table Left to Right: Gene, Nell, Cis, Sally, Stan, Joe, Ken, Faye, Carol, Lou.

The Odd Couple - Stan and Joe!!

I was talking across and down the table to Sally and Cis and told them about Ella and how she had approached me because of the Pickleball name pin I had on my hat; and how she had met Diane and Jack in Texas, and they had told her to look for us, and how Diane was the Happy Hour Queen, etc. etc. Anyway, Nell jumped in and said “I know her!! We met them in Texas. The Happy Hour Queen!!” You see – it IS a small world!!

I had heard a story about the wood burning brick pizza oven at Giovanni’s and I was fascinated. Later I asked the Giavonni son (red shirt) about it. He explained to me that the oven had been shipped from a restaurant they had owned in South America through Texas to Wauchula. His father is Italian and his mother is South American (or vis-a-versa); that is why they were in South America.

He said the frame of the oven is steel. It was so large that a hole had to be made in the east wall so it could be brought into the building. Then the outer layer of brick was reinstalled. Large glass windows and doors were put in place of the hole in the wall (see behind Carol and Lou).

I think that’s a neat story. Dumb me, I never thought to ask how they ended up in the small town of Wauchula, FL.

IT'S A SMALL WORLD!!

March 05 – This morning we were sitting at the Pickleball court at TT Peace River, waiting to play. A nice, friendly lady approached me and said “Well, Faye, I’m glad to see you.” I asked if I knew her, she looked familiar. She said “No, I don’t think you know me, but I met a friend of yours in Texas, at TT Lake Conroe. I don’t remember her name, but she said she is the Happy Hour Queen. “Oh” I said. “That would be Diane and Jack!” “Yes! That’s who it was.”

Ella who introduced herself to me, and her husband, Will.

Now, how did she know me?? She saw my name of the Pickleball Paddle Name Pin I had on my hat!

Our friends, Tracy and Jim have been making name pins and selling them to any players who want them ($5). We find they are sooooo helpful. We get ready to play with someone we know but can’t quite come up with a name. We glance quickly at the name pin and we’re home free!!

It’s a small world – this combination of Thousand Trails and Pickleball!!!

AVATAR

March 03 – The weather has been so cold, and windy and rainy that we decided to go to the movies this afternoon. We had heard so much about Avatar and the technology that we had to see it.

We both thought it was really good and thoroughly enjoyed it; although I didn’t like seeing the “good guys” turning bad because of greed. After the movie I was a little disappointed in the 3D, because the movie seemed more like greatly enhanced HD to me. I mentioned to Ken that in the old-time 3D movies things seemed to come off the screen at you; did he see any of that? He said yes, he did. He told me things seemed to come right at him; the little floating things were right in front of him so he felt he could touch them.

I didn’t think any more about it because I was more interested in how they created the Avatar than the 3D. However, on CBS Sunday Morning they mentioned Avatar, something about the funny glasses you had to wear that directed some of the images to the left eye and other images to the right eye, thereby causing the 3D effect!!!!! No wonder I did not get the full effect – I don’t have a right eye to see those images!!! I didn't know that!!

Anyway, go to see the movie – it’s good.