Times are a changin'

{Huge billboards all over the city in anticipation of the play-offs which has prompted calls and texts from our non-basketball friends at all hours of the day when they see it with comments like, 'look at his guns', 'his hair is messed up' and my personal favorite 'he has a Godly like glow'.}

     Shall I re-introduce myself...? April was a weird month for us, kind of a tweener if you will. We moaned and groaned about the weather in March leaving us with big expectations for April. Well, April was O.K., some great days but still no extended time with sunshine and no rain. It is considerably warmer but still very unpredictable so we took as much advantage of the sun and went to the beach when possible. The Antibes Yacht show also rolled into town and since we have a few friends in the 'bis', we decided to check it out. As I have wrote before here, Antibes is the playground for the rich and famous, most of those being yacht owners (as if there are non rich yacht owners out there) so we have seen all sorts of yachts roll in through out the year, some small, 80-100ft, and some larger, 300 ft. Shaun and I laughed because we would be happy with just 1 of the tender boats, the little(er) boats that shuttle the guests back and forth from port if they dock at sea, that sit underneath the big boy yachts. Can't wait for next week and the Cannes Film Festival, that is when the serious players come out and play, so I promise I will take my 'good' camera out and snag a few pics.

{Shaun's grumpy face because I wasn't on board with his fake story that he was a NBA agent looking to charter a yacht for one of his big name clients just so we could get on board and look at the inside}

     Also, April was the month that Shaun was given the 'all-clear' to get back to practicing. It was a long 5 months for me and I wasn't the one going through physical therapy so I can only imagine how happy he was to be back on the court in a 'semi-normal' capacity. Now as anyone who has had a major injury knows, there are stages in recovery, beginning with simply healing and ending with getting back to 'game shape' and 'game quickness'. Shaun healed relatively fast and strength trained all through-out the 5 months leaving him looking like he is in the best shape of his life. If it weren't for the fact that I have become acutely aware of Achilles injuries, I would of joined him in his rigorous rehab but since I am Achilles-shy, I run at a slow pace, prefer to take the ramp over the stairs and can not imagine jumping for any reason other than to avoid being hit by a car. (Although, I have found you can't run from an Achilles injury, just ask Kobe Bryant and the player who ran into Shaun when he tore his Achilles in November who just tore his own Achilles 2 weeks ago...true story). So with all that being said, you can imagine our faces when we are at the beach and people begin to play volleyball on the sand with no warm up what so ever. Back to Shaun and his practicing..I say 'semi-normal' since the first few days back his coach gave him strict instructions.."I don't want you to defend, to dribble, or to pass. Just shoot the ball every time you touch it." Shaun's response was an obvious, " Sure, and can I get that added to my contract for next year?" With 2 weeks of practice under his belt, he sees improvement everyday and hopes to be ready for the play-offs that start in a week. He has his good days, where he seems to flutter into the house, and his bad days, where I can hear him walking on the street dragging his bag and ice cooler all the way up to our place. And while he is defending now, however we are talking about someone who is shooting 57% from 3 so defending is not listed high on his bio, I am happy to report that he does dribble and pass now...and obviously, still shoots.