Christmas 2009

What a wonderful day.
The Ratza's had a very good Christmas. Which to me, means We were all healthy, Happy, and safe. The weather was perfect ( about 64 deg.) and sunny. I have had a problem with a skunk around the house, but I am battling that as best I can, with mixed results. Never the less, I am staying prepared.















The girls were on a break from Softball, and school.

Christmas morning was an explosion of wrapping paper that saw the girls get only a little spoiled, but not too much. They both got some clothes, a purse, a few games, a wii., 'S' got a camera, Dad got a barstool with backrest for the garage, and some Oakley's.































Every year the girls get a tool to add to there tool box. When they are out on there own, they will have the means, and hopefully the knowledge, and confidence to try and fix things themselves.

















For those of you who sent us well wishes, I hope I got back to you, but If I didn't , Merry Christmas!

16's finish in 2nd at TCS

The Triple Crown event came to town, and the 16's brought the heat.
Or should I say the Tsunami brought the wave.
The finished 2, coming up a little short in the final.
'A' had a great showing on the mound, and she also hit a triple.
This qualifies them to go to the World Series in Utah in the Summer.

Las Vegas trip/Tournament

As we do every year, we made our annual trek out to Las Vegas, for a softball tournament. We won it in 2007, but not since then.
This year like last we took 2 teams. 'A' was with the 16u team, and 'S' was with me on the 14u team,
The 16's went 2-1 in pool play, and made it to the final on Sunday, and Won it all!!!
Way to go girls.














The 14s, had been undefeated going into the final, where they met a familier team (Magic, our former team) they took it all the way to a tie breaker, and lost 8-6. Excellent job girls!!

Glamis trip Nov 21/22

The first big trip of the year, is in the books. The Ratza Family loaded up what we had, and met up with our friends in Glamis. GLamis is a huge Sand Dune area. We had the quad (Honda TRX400ex) and Two bikes (the Crf250) and ( Crf450) I talked Kim into going, and The stipulation was that we don't actually camp, but that we go to a nearby(25 miles) Hotel. The riding was good, 'A' got a chance to learn her new bike. 'S' was familier with the quad, but hadn't rode it ina a while. She picked up where she left off, riding great. Kim stayed a camp a lot, but Went out on 2 rides, one in Dennys Buggy, and one on Carey's Razor. Nobody got hurt, and a few glitches here and there with the bikes. I will post some pictures, and some vidseo:
Hali got into the act:

Stick shift

We did our first dry run out to the desert. Included making sure all the bikes ran, checking new camping spots, making sure the trailer works ( which it showed a problem).
The trailer hitch lost the keeper pin, and the cotter pin that holds it in.
thank goodness for the safety chains.
The bikes ran great. So, 'S' tried her hand at driving a dune buggy. I had to ride in the passenger seat, so I could not get a good picture. This is a picture of 'S' driving the stick shift buggy. The buggy has the standard 4 speed 'H' shift pattern.
She learned to operate the clutch, and went through all the gears.

Photography.

I am still learning all the darn settings on the camera, and shutter speed, and finally how to properly frame a shot. Anyway, here is a picture of a neat tower I took.

Golf

The last 3 matches 'A' has been the medalist. She shot a 50 at Torrey South, a 47 at Torrey North, and a 36 at Balboa 9( she had two birdies). One of her birdies came on the par 4 last hole, and the par 3 first hole.

I hope when she gets a taste of victory, and a good score, it willl inspire her, or at least teach her what mindset she needs to be in.

Welding with entertainment

My buddy
Dave came over this weekend, so we could finish welding on his trailer.
Tha idea is that he needs a little more length on his trailer to accomodate his Ryno/buggy. We welded on some hitch receiver tubes, and built a 1.5ft, by 2.5 ft plateform that fits inside the receiver, and will support the wheels of the Ryno. When he gets to his destination, the extensions can be removed for ease of storage.
It was fun day of welding, there is a certain amount of satisfaction in connecting steal, and building something usefull out of it. Here Dave is learning how to perfect his welds, and that without gloves it does not take long to examine a hot piece of steal that has just been welded. ( hope the Aloe helped, Dave).

















The Canopy worked to shade our work, ( with the helmet on it is hard to see your work when you have light shining in from behind you) it also kept our project secret from the prying eyes in the sky, "The Blue Angels" claim they were in town for an airshow, but you can never be too sure when you are working on cutting edge inventions.

fabricating out of boredom

Been working on getting 'A's bike going. It was bought for a very low price, but had some issues with it.
The first being that it had a hard time starting, and the valves needed to be adjusted. I adjusted the valves with help from Kelly (it was a learning expirence for him as well). Got those adjusted, and the bike starts better now. The next thing was cleaning up the bikes appearence, Using some mothers polish, and some diesel fuel and a brush, I cleaned up all the corrosion, and polished the frame.
Brushed and polished the shift lever, cleaned the carb, new air filter, new fuel, new oil, new trans oil.
I decided (out of boredom) that it was time to fabricate my own parts. A lot of bikes have skid plates which is a thin guage sheet of aluminum, that is shaped along the bottom/front of the frame, in order to reduce damge to the frame and engine when clearence is compromised.
I first made a template with cardboard that replicated the area I needed to cover.














I traced the template on to a sheet of Aluminum, and started cutting.
















I drilled holes for ventilation, and punched them out larger with a greenly hole punch:















I needed to bend the sheet to confoprm to the shape of the frame, so i used the tanks of my welder, and a rubber mallet, and finalized the shape:















I used a 3m pad on my pnumatic die grinder, to take off the edges, and give the plate a brushed look:















I cut a piece of aluminum bar stock, drilled and tapped holes with threads. this is on the top side of the frame, and allowed me to clamp it to thew frame. I drilled two holes in the plate, and recessed tthe holes for the tapered flat screws:

LPGA

'A' and her golf team went to the LPGA event at Torrey pines on Sunday. She got to rub shoulders with some great players: Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Julie Inkster. Shin, Choi.
The organizers do not want people clicking off pictures with noisey cameras, especially if the player is about to swing. So, I was lucky to snap this picture with my phone camera while Paula Creamer walked by 'A' to go to the 6th tee.















It was a little boring, but a day out on a course with the sun shinning, and the ocean, and cliffs at close range, while you watch women in short skirts play a sport, is not such a bad day. Anytime I can spend time with one of my daughters is a bonus.

Golf has started again

The last time I reported to you 'A' had gotten a score 55. Last week was her first round in many months. she dropped her score to a 50 on Tuesday, and then an all time low of 42 on Thursday at Torrey Pines. TP is a very tough course. Fast greens, and thick roughs, make it a challange for the pros who play the course in January for the Buick Open, and the US Open was played there last year too.

For those of you who feel strongly enough about it, and would like to sponsor her, she needs a new stand up bag, and she would like an Odyssey white hot two ball putter. For later in the season she is going to get a lightweight golf jacket, and we just ordered her Letterman jacket.

I am hoping the 42 is not a fluke, and she can repeat it, or even better it. If she gets in the 30's, ( which equates to 70's for 18 holes) colleges will look at her if she can do that consistantly.

Motocross in August

It was time to get the girls to focus on something other then softball. 'A' got a new set of riding pants and jersey, and we needed to take it out for a spin. We went to a local track that just opened up. It is on the Pala Indian reservation. There is 7 tracks for all levels and bike type. 'S' got things started on her TTR125l. she likes it because it is electric start. She jumped right out on to the 80/ women's track, and kept a steady pace, and even got some air! we are going to push her to go faster next time. 'A' also got started on the same track, on a borrowed CRF150. it is a pretty fast bike, but she is getting too big for it she also had a nice pace going where she was keeping up with everyone, and getting some air. It was apparent that she was ready to move up to a bigger bike, and a bigger more advanced track. We took 'A' to an Amateur track that should have been perfect for her, but some advanced riders could not keep themselves from riding on it. Bullies! We borrowed a yz250f from the family we were pitting with, and she handled it quite well. She kept a good pace, got some air, and eventually fell, and she was bombarded by riders who weren't looking ahead to see her down. and the volume of riders made it to busy to get an unmolested laps in. The both had fun, and would do it again even though they are just getting used to being on a track.

16u World Series USSSA west

'A' had a week long tournament in West Covina, CA. This was the World Series for the USSSA west 16u B.
They faced strong competition that was similar to their own level. The girls played 3 pool games and went 2-1. When they played there first braket game, they lost, and were put in to the losers bracket. ( which means you can still advance to the finals, but you have to play a lot more games, and not lose. )
They won 5 games in a row, and put themselves in contention, as there was only 2 other teams left. they played hard, but ran out fo energy, and lost to claim 3rd place in the tournament. They recieved medals. Dad was a Coach on this team, just for the week. I am very proud of the girls. 'A' pitched 3 complete games, and played 2nd, and SS. She started off the tournament with some great at bats, leveled off during the week, and came back strong on the last day.
In the picture 'A' is in the back row, and is the 2nd player from the right. Dad is the tall guy.

reunion time

Virgie, Mary Lou, Kim













Lynn and Kim














Kim and Diana













Kim and Eric before the party.













John and Eric













Diana and Eric















Class of 1979

Tsunami

'A' had her first tournament with her new team. The team consists of JV and a few Varsity players. This are girls we want to keep playing together, and they ave played together in the past. Saturdays pool play saw Tsunami 16u go 3-0 scoring 20 runs, and only giving up 2. Sunday started the girls in the quarter finals, and we won that game 5-1. Amber hit a 3 run triple out to the center field fence.
The semi-final game we played against the San Diego Legacy, Amber started pitching, and had a great first inning, striking out 3 out of 4. Amber struggled after that, and had to be pulled. we were down 6-1, but came back close scoring 4 more. We also had bases loaded in the last inning, but could not convert. This looks good for their future. i will try to upload some video of Amber pitching, and hitting:

Trip to the East for 'S'

She flew to NC. by herself. She did great. The Airline did give her an escort. She visit the Young family. They were great hosts, and showed her some great sites. They went to Washington DC. and watched the Marine drill team. (sorry, no pictures)
the saw some of the monuments The Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam memorial wall. She got a chance to see, and play on the Beach. Her first time on an Atlantic Coast beach.