Happy Hoopin' Holidays!!

Happy Holidays everyone!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

One of the Landscape Architects in the office brought this lovely tree into our office for all to enjoy. Thanks to this brilliant picture by fellow architect Tony Lee, I thought I'd share this tree with those of you that patronize the WBA blogsite and hopefully participate in the weekly hoop chasing at the Chaparral. Next to the tree is the winner, albeit collapsed, of our City of LA, Architectural Division Gingerbread Competition. The competition was one of the many highlights of our annual Holiday (Christmas) luncheon. Following a sumptuous luncheon at the tented outdoor courtyard at the J Lounge Restaurant & Lounge (only a few yards from the Staple Center). It is a very nice setting, in fact, are Holiday (Christmas) luncheon was also located there last year. Years ago, this was the location of Little J's - for the young, that was a hub for urban types to socialize, dance and enjoy a bite to eat for dinner.

Okay, back to the luncheon; during the eating there was a drawing for various prizes, such as: custom designed jewelry, electronic devices and sundry other things. The drawings were based on tickets given to those entering the hall of the event. Unfortunately my number never came up. Then, following the eating, a pile of goodies were brought to the various tables at the luncheon. There were about 10 tables with about Graham crackers, a can of icing (for cakes), candy canes, rice crispy paddies, miscellaneous candy and etc. Then it was announced that there would be a ginger bread house competition. This is the type of things that brightens the eyes of architects and engineers. So, given about 15 minutes to complete the competition, the bell rang to start and everyone immediately came up with a ton of ideas. However, the tight schedule required a quick and clever solution. My table was up to the task and literally slapped something together. Ala those Food Channel cake competitions, we then had to lift the creations from our table to the judging table.

My table's entry is on the far right hand corner of the table.

As soon I lifted the cardboard platform on which we had built the house, the structure we built collapsed. So, we didn't even make it to be judged by the panel. Oh well...

Here I am with a couple of friends from the office.

I will be out for a while from the Saturday morning bliss. My wife took a temporary job up in Northern California, so I will be driving up there every other Saturday. The other Saturdays I will be allowing my knee to heal. I actually hurt it earlier in the year. So, there is no time like the present for healing ones body. I am not totally out of the mix though. I should return in a few weeks. It's a day-to-day thing, for the healing. I will probably come by to take a few pictures occasionally, so I would suggest that you be on your best behavior - just in case I show up. There could be fines and penalties otherwise.

I know that with the start of the NBA season, the WBA season will be enriched by watching all those millionaires run around in their shorts. Enjoy the Lakers and the newly re-born Clippers - it should be a great season in LA. Hopefully, the Lakers will have some Christmas gifts for us in their roster. Hopefully, it will be something "super". (You know what I mean, right?) We can only hope!!

Have a very,very Happy Holiday season!!!!

Good Weather with Early Clouds, Late Sun

When I left my home in Chino Hills this morning, it was overcast and cool. About 15 to 20 minutes later when I arrived at the Chaparral it was sunny and warm. What a difference a few minutes and about 12 miles can make. Of course, I was pretty late arriving there. I didn't leave the house until it was about 9:00 am. However, I did get there in time to see Kent, Danny, Rich, Luis, Randy (Kobe), Larry, Eric, Ike, Victor and others involved in a game. You can catch a few videos of the game below.

Kent and Ike talk after Kent's last game.

Here are the videos:

Randy was visiting today from his home Las Vegas. Apparently, he is visiting his sister in Malibu and drove for 2 hours to come and play ball with the WB this morning. We were all very honored and pleased to see him today. Especially after knowing about the effort he put into coming. He had to leave his sister's place in Malibu at around 5 am to make it to the games this morning. It was good to see Randy (aka Kobe), he hasn't aged a day. He has switched jobs and is currently working at the airport out there.

I have a side bar dedicated to our good friend Zachary Delarosa, Victor's son. Unfortunately, he was involved in a pretty major accident. His car was hit and flipped over the median strip on Temple Street. His car was totaled but he was not. He is in relative good health following the accident. However, he did sustain an injury to his left arm. There was a pretty significant laceration on the arm that required stitches and skin grafting. He has also been hooked up to a small, portable pump to remove excess fluid from the site of the wound. Fortunately, he can continue his studies at Cal Poly Pomona while he recovers from the injury.

Check out an article in the Mountaineer regarding this event at the following location:

http://mountiewire.com/police-on-mt-sac-campus/

Let us all send Zach our well wishes and include him in our prayers for a speedy recovery.

Get well real soon Zach because you still have work to do here at the Chaparral on Saturday mornings!!

October Day - 10-08-2011

Great Autumn day, cool and sunny. Who could ask for more? I got to the courts pretty late. I was pleasantly surprised to see 2 courts active. Although, one court had a four-on-four game underway, it still counts. I was actually seeking a three-on-three game because I wanted to take it easy on my leg. But, I ended up playing a few full court five-on-five, fully loaded games. However, I had to take it somewhat easy, knee is still recovering.

Here are a few pictures from Robert "Wei-Jin" Lee:

Saturday, September 17th, 2011 - That's Hoop-e-cating not Hallucinating

Here are a few pictures from the September 17th get together. I love the overcast days. They tend to be cooler and therefore more fun than the super sunny, hot days.....

Here are the pictures:

I didn't play this day. Still recovering from a knee injury that won't seem to heal. But it continues to get better. Old bones heal slowly though....

Take care everybody....

September 10th 2011- In and Out

Out.......

It was a great day this Saturday morning. Partly cloudy and cool, it was a welcomed break to the oppressive heat wave that dominated the week with temperatures peaking into the triple digits. Finally -relief from work, relief from the heat wave, relief from you fill in the blank. Weekends are the best time of the week. So, who could ask for much more than that? Certainly not me, although I might be guilty of looking forward to the looming holiday season, too.

Plenty of action in the WBA this Saturday, September 10, 2011. First, for the morning there was the action outdoors at the Chaparral. Then later in the day the indoor shift in Fullerton at the YMCA. A full day for all the participants with theduel activity; once again, there were the iron men that managed to make both stages:

DeAndre, Andre, Junior, Jerry……

Okay, so if I had gotten this blog posting done quickly,would that make me a fastidious person. Clue: I hope not…. Check out the answer at one of my favoritewebsites:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fastidious

In.....

I didn't get a lot of indoor pictures. But I did get a few. There were fewer people so I ended up playing more. Truthfully, I didn't sufficiently charge my camera's battery and it ran out of power. There were a few new faces there, but among the regulars there was Rich, Roy, Matt, Jerry, Junior, Richard, Tony and of course Mike.....

Here are the pictures:

Take care......