Pickle Cake Anyone?
It's the latest fad in birthday cakes. And it's a filling snack after a rousing game of PickleBall.
Mmmmmm pickles.
For Birthday Girl Alayna, there’s no better way better way to celebrate yet another year chalked up
on the battered old blackboard of life than by trying new things, searching out new challenges, stretching her
capabilities to the breaking point. In short, this means playing the aforementioned PickleBall.
JP offers up this brief explanation for the uninitiated:
The game involves 2 paddles and 1 pickle. Naturally, not just any pickle will do. It has to be a large
dill pickle, preferably Polish, very sour and soaked in brine for exactly 139 days, so as to create just the
right degree of firmness. The paddles are also unique to the game. Ping pong paddles are too small and
racquetball paddles are too large. Choose graphite if you have the option. Most people seem to like
the mustard colored ones, but this could be no more than a fad, though pickles do go with
mustard in certain sandwiches.
Two teams of two pickleballers (aka, players) each, tools of the trade firmly in hand, lob a
pickle back and forth over a small net, volleying much like in ping pong, badminton, and tennis.
The first team to reach 11 pickles wins (though you must win by 2 pickles).
In tennis, you have ground strokes. In pickleball, you have dill chips. A great shot is called a relish,
while a net serve is referred to as a ‘strainer.’ In tennis, you occasionally rush the net. In pickleball,
you stay near the net, but must remain back three feet or you are ‘in the kitchen.’
Crazy bounces are the norm, and when all is said and done, a coin is flipped to see who gets to eat the pickle,
usually dipped in hollandaise type sauce. Recently, one player had a severe reaction to the sauce because of
his partial plate, which had been fashioned from steel. His dentist later recommended replacing it with a chrome
upper since there is no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.
**********
So far, Alayna has proven to be quite adept at her new sport, and the experience has
proven to be quite rejuvenating as well, making it just the thing to recapture that lost youth.
All the Best on your Big Day Alayna and Happy Pickleballing!
JP and your HackFester Editorial Staff.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAYNA!
*******************************
Sponsored Links: