NSC Thank You Picnic on June 28, 2015
Alex Kami
Mission accomplished! I’ve been assigned this article since I won the “$3 Elimination Game.” Back to this topic in a moment.
On June 28th, NSC held a successful and extremely enjoyable picnic on the grounds of Las Palmas Park in my hometown of Sunnyvale with over 50 attendees. Because of my dormancy from skiing during the past few years, this is the one event I seem to attend on an annual basis, and I was overjoyed to see so many friends still active in the Club. In addition to catching-up on everyone’s great lives, I learned that polonium does wonders in eliminating invasive berry vines; sorry, you needed to be there to understand the point.
Of course, as with every NSC event, the food was abundant! We had BBQ ribs/burgers, pot stickers, salads, etc. – better than a post-game spread in the Warrior locker room. One of the ingenious contributions came from Greg, our membership chair, who provided a do-it-yourself tortilla wrap bar complete with guacamole, sour cream, veggies, and shredded pork.
The diversity of the attendees highlighted the success of the event. We had men, women, babies, and our four legged family members including Judy’s Captain Kirk with a distinct personality. Even Superman walked by, but he was going to our neighbor’s birthday party. The weather was perfect – not too hot, not too cold. NSC couldn’t have picked a better venue – Sunnyvale, a town with (in addition to good weather) lots of parking, open space and for you ladies, eligible, handsome men.
As I went around talking to different people and getting up to speed on the Club, I am thankful for the veteran members keeping NSC going strong. To Armand for continuing to lead the group and being our glue, to Judy for returning as our newsletter editor after we retired her jersey, to Sandy for returning to the Board and being an interface to the BAC, and of course to Karen for continuing to lead the ski trips even during this frustrating period of a California drought. Oh, and thanks Hoyt, our VP, for bringing the Tiki figurines since most of us didn’t read the “Hawaiian theme” for the picnic.
Okay, back to the mission being accomplished. As an annual tradition, the picnic culminated with the “$3 Game.” Not enough room here to explain, but in general, each participant starts with three Georges, stands in a circle with other competitors, throws dice, and at some point only one person remains with at least $1 in his or her hands. This person wins everyone else’s contributions, and that was me this year.
But, winning wasn’t the accomplishment. You see, in the past years, the husband-wife duo, Amy and David, have dominated this game. Prior to the picnic, I was approached by a dude in dark sunglasses, a hat and a trench coat who instructed me, “Whatever happens, you need to knock this duo out.” Mission accomplished.
Thanks to Bill Lee for the group shot
