tingilinde

happy birthday bjarne!

 

 

Happy Birthday Bjarne!

 

serious celebrating is in order!

 

sarah shows some of her intensity

a flash of victory

When a friend finds victory - the end of a very tough match.  The moment when Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes became world champions. 

a true gentleman and scholar

Greg Blonder gets a bit of well-deserved recognition.

He's an inventor and much more.  

 

 

 

happy birthday sukie!

 

 

Happy Birthday Sukie!!  

 

I'm so lucky to be married to you!

 

 

happy birthday steve!

 

 

Happy Birthday Steve!

 

I hear German chocolate cake pairs well with homemade ice cream.

and, of course Bach!  

 

 

happy birthday shel!

 

Happy Birthday Shel!

 

All day and you can eat anything you want!

 

 

 

status of a friend

Sarah Pavan and teammate Melissa Humana-Paredes are doing very well in pool play.  They took both their first match against the Netherlands  and their second against Germany in straight sets.  If you're interested and have an NBC feed (cable tv, YouTube, or...) here's a link to the German match.  It was only 90°F with high humidity.  The earlier match was under more severe conditions.

Sarah is blocking here.  Her blocking is "best in the world" class.

 

 

 

my team

A friend is in Tokyo representing Canada in beach volleyball.  The team was doing extremely well before covid hit and have been in the process of regrouping   CBC conducted an interview a few days ago.  (Sarah's the one I know.. )

 

The Olympics are a mess.  I have a lot of respect for the athletes who are dealing with it.

beach volleyball in the mountains

Gstaad, Switzerland is one of the favorite stops on the professional beach volleyball tour.  It's also the last of only a few (thanks to Covid) tournaments before the Olympics and a time for tuning up.  I''m a fan of the Canadian team of Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes (Sarah is a friend and one cheers for their friends).  They're the current world champions, but only took bronze here in a very competitive field.   The video starts at the eight minute mark.  The first few minutes give a brief tour of Gstaad and a sense of what a beach volleyball court in the Swiss Alps is like.  The teams traded defeating each other for the first two sets.  The deciding set was very tightly fought and starts at about the fifty minute mark.  Both teams will be playing in the Olympics in a few weeks.

Here's the link to the video - it won't embed.

A feature of Gstaad is the trophy.  The medal trophies are real cow bells complete with collar.