And Now For Something Completely Different

We like trying new things in life and recently we felt it was time for something new! Friends here at Sun Life told us about working at the concession stands at a local stadium during spring training. As baseball fans know Phoenix is the home of the "Cactus League" with over a dozen teams doing their spring training here. Our friends work at the Tempe Diablo Stadium where the LA Angels train so we applied for jobs there. We were accepted and went through the training. In order to work as "food handlers" we had to take a test and get licensed to work in food services in Maricopa County. We both studied the test material and passed the test on the first try. These are short term jobs as spring training only runs a little over one month. We have now worked at 3 of the games. Both of us were assigned to be cooks. We make hot dogs, french fries, corn dogs, pretzels and nachos. It's a hectic but fun job!

	Tempe Diablo Stadium.
	Karen in the kitchen at Concession Stand #3, our workplace at the stadium. We are 2 of the 3 cooks in the stand.
	Gary, the head cook in our concession stand. Besides being a great guy he taught us everything we know. Thanks Gary!
	Vicki, our stand leader. She and her husband Ed are the friends who told us about these jobs. Ed is in charge of several stands. Yes, we do have friends in high places.
	French fries cooking. Healthy? No. Tasty? You bet!

Tennis Tournament

Today was the Cal-Am tennis tournament. Unlike the poker tournament (see prior posting) there was no qualifying. Anyone who plays tennis was welcome to attend. This was a real low key event. The only scoring was on games (no sets) and they even said that you could switch partners if the teams weren't even. This was a just for fun tournament. Like the poker tournament Cal-Am provided a nice breakfast and lunch free for all players. We both had a lot of fun and we were successful in not embarrassing ourselves too much on the court.

Karen on the court at the Cal-Am tennis tournament.

Poker Tournament

We play Texas hold em poker twice a week here at Sun Life. A couple weeks ago they held a playoff to determine who would represent Sun Life in the Cal-Am tournament. Cal-Am owns several parks in the Phoenix area and each park got to send 8 players to the tournament. Luck was with us on the qualifying night and we both made the top 8. The tournament was held on February 20 at the Canyon Vista park. Cal-Am put on a nice tournament providing free breakfast and lunch to all the players. Ross went out early but Karen hung in there and made it to the final table. All 7 players at the final table got nice shirts. The top 3 players received prize money but unfortunately Karen went out 4th. She was the top player from Sun Life. Everyone had a great time!

The final table at the Cal-Am Texas hold em tournament. Karen is to the right of the lady in pink at the table wearing her winner's shirt.