By Amy Tsuhako
Saturday June 22 was picnic perfect weather at Sunnyvale’s Las Palmas Park. As we circled the parking lot looking for an empty stall, kids were running around tossing water balloons; and adults were stringing up piñatas and firing up grills. We spotted NSC’ers already noshing on food and knew we were at the right spot! As with NSC tradition, food was plentiful as the four picnic tables were covered with buckets of fried chicken, chili, BBQ ribs, chicken wings, maki sushi, California rolls, dumplings, egg rolls, lettuce wraps, sausage and peppers, somen salad, cabbage salad, quinoa salad, fruit salads, chocolate strawberries, an assortment of cookies, brownies, homemade toffee brittles and cheese cakes.
It was so hard to decide what to load up on my plate, as the creativity of some of the dishes rivaled those of Master/ Iron Chef creations. David and I sampled Karen’s roasted beet quinoa salad, Hoyt’s homemade chili, Greg’s pork and green bean lettuce wrap, David Tom’s “not your grandma’s BBQ’ed ribs”, and Liz’s cabbage salad. Even though we were stuffed, we could not resist Haruko’s berry cobbler and Wes’s homemade toffee. Absolutely scrumptious! And no picnic is complete without a slice of watermelon –seedless, super-sweet and handpicked by Debbie. YUM just about sums up the food coma I was in at the end of the picnic.
As we ate and chatted, we felt really grateful that the NSC board of volunteers took the time to organize this picnic so that we could catch up with our friends old and new. We met up with people that we had not seen in a while such as Frank and Wendy, Jackie, Liz (and her mom, a former NSC member!), Melissa, Desmond, and Brian. And it was really heartwarming to see that NSC friendships span not just years, but decades.
We also learned a few tips that afternoon. It was amusing to learn from Carol that being a sushi chef is not that easy. And we discovered from David M. that discounted, usable postal stamps are available online. And from, Frank, we learned that you can make money off of interest free credit card loans—whoa… I usually throw away those mailers—that’s why he’s our treasurer! But most importantly, we learned that our resident ski instructor, Randy, will be sporting a new orange “easy-to-follow” Arcteryx jacket! –Although whether I will really follow him down the hill is still debatable…
And to round off the entertainment for the event, Karen organized the now NSC traditional dice game of Left, Center, Right. I really didn’t want to win, I swear!!! But, as the dice rolled, and excitement ramped up, screams of “Left, Left, Left”, or “Right, Right, Right” could be heard clear across the park. In the end, it came down to Bill and me with a single dollar each left in our hands. With just a flick of the wrist, Bill rolled the die, and we held our breaths as we watched the outcome—Center. And just like that, the pot of dollar bills ended in my hands—all 66 of ‘em. One couple winning two years in a row is I believe grounds for exclusion from the game next year…
