Saturday, May 24, 2008

Elephants Turn 40!


The Saturday before the big game vs. the Parma Panthers on Sunday started off with news about how bad the weather is in Southern California right now with overcast skies, rain and even a tornado in Riverside! Here at Malibu the weather is a bit nicer today.

New record today, 62 euros (that equals $97.73) to fill up the Nissan Micra! Given today's rate of exchange between the U.S. dollar and the Euro, that means that I paid $8.88 per gallon!! By the way, I was lucky, gas in downtown Catania was 3 cents a liter (3.785 liters = a gallon) more than in Aci Castello.

Stop your bitching and moaning back home about your "outrageous" gas prices!!!

Clear and Sunny on the Ionian Coast

Pre-Game Walk-Through

RB Enrico and WR Jacopo warm up for our typical low key walk-through. Parma has a very good squad with a 3-2 record coming into our game with their losses coming to Bolzano and Bergamo, two of the best teams in the IFL.

Their WR Corey Mazza is from Thousand Oaks H.S./Harvard University and is having a GREAT season! We will have to slow him down somehow to be able to compete with them.

They also have a very good running game, probably the best we've seen since playing Bergamo in our second game.

WR Gregorio Looking SHARP!

If nothing else, our walk-throughs are indeed colorful! 

After the walk-through, Enrico practices dog auto safety techniques with his Pit Bull.

40th Birthdays Party

After practice, the team celebrated the 40th birthdays of Strong safety "Tony Call Me Pony", on the left and WR Salvo. Two GREAT guys who are the life blood of the Elephant family.

That's Tony's daughter Alicia on the far left.

The party was held at Tony's brother-in-laws house where we had the #1 ranked Sicilian BBQ this past Easter Monday. Their home is even more beautiful at night!

Brandon and My Pre-Game Good Luck Hug, Roberta

Claudio explaining to Christie what makes him such a great receiver.

Matt and Lucky, The Heart and Soul of the Elephants WR Corps!

Daniella protecting Alessandro from the Crazy Man 

Georgia and her father Marco Raino, our veteran Defensive Lineman/Warrior

Gustavo and Roberta

Is it possible to take too many pictures of this bella ragazza?

Dinner was WONDERFUL!

Claudio, on the left wondering why Roberta never takes pictures with him anymore.

Ika and her birthday boy husband Tony Call Me Pony

Ika and a MUCH older man

Antonio and his lovely bride Franchesca who is Ika's sister

Who let these hooligans into the party?

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