Dan Armijo Tournament Report

The third annual Dan Armijo Tournament was held in Deming, New Mexico March 24 and 25. We had a great turn out with players from Albuquerque, El Paso, Santa Fe, and Silver City. Carl White brought 2 students from University of New Mexico. He mentioned that they wanted to play as many different people as possible, so we added a bonus round. If you lost your first match you moved to consolation. If you lost your second round (consolation or regular bracket) you played a bonus match. This was a very popular feature with the other players as well as the students. We played 2 games to 15 and a 7 point tie breaker, allowing a 45 minute schedule for each court.

Danny Armijo gave an instructional session, that benefited all. He then played every player in the tournament up to eleven points. Several people scored a point or two this year! The higher and lower level players enjoyed this rare opportunity to play a pro.

Four players from El Paso attended. Before they began one of them mentioned they play with the big blue ball at the University of Texas courts in El Paso. I was worried they would hurt their hands and be discouraged by the faster handball. As it turned out, they play with four different balls and are very adaptable players. Oscar Meza has an L shaped court at his house that is 120 feet long (nick named the "Eagle's Nest"). The El Paso players prevailed with Manuel Talamentes defeating Oscar Meza, both from El Paso for the B division. Frank Hernandez (El Paso) defeated Dave Couley (Albuquerque) in a tie breaker for the A division.

Chocolate Fantasia at Stinar Realty

Chocolate Fantasia was fun at Stinar Realty, with over 300 visitors to my little office! The chocolate was a recipe I invented, chocolate covered cherry brownies. Rob of the Curious Kumquat graciously shared his frosting recipe. Two groups came back for seconds, in their opinion my chocolate was the best! There were several groups from El Paso, one from Las Cruces, two from Phoenix, and one group from Tucson, that I discovered when talking to the crowd. It was a fun event, and a good time was had by all. This event is a fund raiser for the Mimbres Arts Council. A ticket is $20 and you get 20 pieces of chocolate at various galleries, stores, and offices.

SOAPWARE

Well, we have been using the new SOAPWARE for 90 days and have solved many problems. The remote hosting is functioning fairly well. The printing is slow, but the convenience of not having a server may be worth it.

I am unsure if the scheduler will be able to be functional. You are unable to print the patient's name on a superbill. For users that do not use the SOAPWARE billing this is not good. Tech support at EHR suggested we hand write the patients information on the billing slip. Not really a viable option if you have an active practice. I will request an enhancement and see what happens.

Tournament results, 2011

The second annual Dan the hand Armijo tournament was held in Deming, New Mexico March 12 and 13 , 2011. Everyone had a great time and played lots of handball. Having attended several tournaments recently that indicated a consolation bracket on the entry form, but failed to have one, we wanted to avoid that mistake. The C division had a true round robin format. With four players, each played three matches. The winner was Colleen Stinar. Novice players Bobbi Hall, Brian Pottratz, and Jeramy Brewster participated.

In the AB division there were eight players. A modified round robin format was used, and each player played four matches (two games to 15 with an 11 point tie breaker). A player earned one point for each game won and a point for winning the match. Luckily there were four players from other areas to play the four players from Silver City. Cary Hamilton (Las Cruces, New Mexico) was undefeated for first place. He was an all around good player, and his serves that hugged the left wall were very effective. Brian Stinar (Albuquerque, New Mexico) was second, and Don Stinar (Silver City, New Mexico) took third.
Alan Gast and RFC, also known as “the destroyer” both from Silver City, have moved up from novice players to solid B players. Ryan Ashley of Las Cruces was a welcome addition to the mix. Ron Todd of Anchorage, Alaska (he winters in Las Cruces) added the novelty of far away places to the tournament. Wayne Abraham, a recent transplant to Silver City from Colorado Springs was a big addition to the draw.

On Saturday afternoon instead of having an exhibition match (which we did last year with Dan Armijo vs Louis Cordova Jr) we had a competition between Danny Armijo and everyone in the tournament. He played each player to eleven points. After 3 serves he relinquished the serve to his opponent. At 10 points he also let his opponent serve. The tournament organizers (Don and Colleen Stinar) foolishly thought each player might be able to score two or three points and reach 21, thus beating Armijo. This was not the case. Colleen Stinar pointed out how well Armijo was doing at keeping track of when to change serves, and Jeramy Brewster answered that it is not hard to keep track of 3,6,9. Armijo was perfect at his task. He did not kill the ball immediately, but ran his opponents around. In between matches he would give brief instructional pointers without humiliating anyone. He was humorous and encouraging. All the participants found it a very enjoyable and interesting experience. As A, B, and C players most of us never get the opportunity to play a nationally ranked player. There were four points scored, one by Don Stinar, Brian Stinar, RFC , and Jeramy Brewster.

Abstraction opening by Autumn Stinar

An exhibit of paintings by Autumn Stinar recently opened at the Anima Gallery in Silver City. The title of the show is Abstraction, and is composed of colorful abstract oil paintings. One painting sold prior to the show, and two sold on opening night.

Autumn studied painting at the Battle Creek Art Center in Michigan, at Fountain Valley High School in Colorado Springs (where one of her paintings won an award at a show of work by students in the Colorado Springs area), and with Christin Forman Brown in Silver City. While a student at Chapman University, she was the graphic artist on a team project that won the Cecil Award for best advertising campaign of the year. She worked for a year in Hollywood at an advertising agency under a gifted and encouraging art director.

Autumn is currently focusing on painting and replacing her works as they sell. Her work may be viewed at Anima gallery at 215 Yankee, Silver City, New Mexico.

Every time I drive to Phoenix I have to stop and take a photo of an expansive view.

Yorkie Bliss

Two little yorkies have joined my family. It's a bit chilly in the morning, so a sweater is needed.