Since I spent a good bit of time this morning trying to catch up for the last week on the blog, I thought I would take care of today – today.

The weather was spectacular today. It was cool in the morning, but the sun never left the sky (until it set). The morning was spent doing house-centric chores.

A bit after noon we walked a few houses down for a 1st-grader’s birthday party. A bit of fun, a bit of food, and a bit of chatting with neighbors and other folks.

Finally it was time to leave for the soccer game. Given the weather, we decided to walk. Our total today was 8.25 miles.

Since we had gone over Capital Hill the last two times, we decided to head through Fremont, up and over Queen Anne hill, and down to the waterfront.

We have been on higher hills than Queen Anne, but none are steeper (at least by the route that we took). We stopped at a greek restaurant on lower Queen Anne. This was after the first 5 miles. Good food. Enough to power us through the next 3.25 miles.

The game was rough, and in the end Real Salt Lake prevailed (1-0).
Off to the bus, for a crowded ride home.

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Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer than today.
The bluest skies you ever see are in Seattle

Happy Mother’s Day to Gene and Doris (and to all of you other mothers as well).

I am going to catch up the work week of May 7-11 in one post.
I really need to move on to other things, and it was a quick, long week.

Monday May 7th

Jay and Carl = regular work day.
Mariners = Tigers in town.

Work was work.
The Mariner game was a bit chilly, and it was slogging along.
They kept it close, but the Tigers were up 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th.
The Tigers brought in Dotel to pitch the 9th.
Problem for the Tigers was that Dotel could not seem to throw a strike.

• Walked Ackley, man on 1st
• Walked Ichiro, men on 1st and 2nd
• Wild pitch, men on 2nd and 3rd
• Passed Ball, Ackley scores, Ichiro to 3rd
• Montero (Jesus – not Freddy) hits a double, Ichiro scores
• Seager sacrifice bunt, Montero to 3rd
• Jaso hits a sacrifice fly to shallow right field. Montero tags at 3rd and races home, barely avoiding the tag.
• MARINERS WIN!

Fans go home happy.

Tuesday May 8th

Work and a Mariner game.
Verlander started for the Tigers, but the Mariners were able to stay close. Down by 2 again as they entered the bottom of the 9th.

• Carp walks, man on 1st.
• Saunders walks, men on 1st and 2nd. (Pinch run Figgens for Carp)
• Ackley strikes out. 1 out.
• Ryan hits into a fielder’s choice 6-4. Men on 1st and 3rd. 2 out.
• With Ichiro up, Ryan steals 2nd. Men on 2nd and 3rd. 2 out.
• Ichiro is intentionally walked. Bases loaded, 2 out.
• Montero hits a foul pop-up, caught by the 1st baseman.

Mariners are not able to pull off the 9th inning heroics 2 days in a row.
Fans leave to find the warmth of their cars and homes.

Wednesday May 9th

Work and Mariners.
Only this time Jay goes home after work, and Carl shares the game with a friend.

As it turns out, this was the shortest game of the bunch. Just over 2 hours long, and a Mariner’s win 2-1.

Thursday May 10th

Work, no Mariners.
And an evening home to try to catch up on all of the things that have not been getting done.
And the architect and contractor spent a bit of time (during the daytime) trying to get an estimate put together for our consideration. This will be provided to us next Friday, so we can better scope the project design.

Friday May 11th.

Work and sunshine.
Jay finally saw the reported Osprey nest on the top of the cell tower located next to our office. There is an adult (or two) and a few juveniles. Could see the nest, and one bird on board, and hear them talking to one another.

Considered an early evening walk, but Carl had been on his feet most of the day, so instead tried to catch up on even more things left hanging.

I should note that this blog post has not noted all of the yard work that Carl has been doing. Weeding, mowing, cleaning, and he is out edging as I write. 

Weeding around the driveway – which does not show the relatively good shape of the lawn.

And it is probably a good time for me to stop now that I have reported on the last 8 days. I just wrote “wright” and “right” trying to get to “write.”

Sunday dawned early and bright. For Carl that is.
I decided to skip the first event of the day in favor of some additional shut-eye.

Carl launched for his old-man baseball game well before 8 AM.
I snored on.

I eventually rose about 9, and went about making myself feel human.
Surprisingly, this did not include coffee.
I did not feel I should make a full pot, and just did not do the one-cup maker.

A little work-out, a shower, a little breakfast, a few e-mails, and it was time to hit the road. On foot again, but this time heading for the bus.

The bus was not the express, and was also stopped by the University Bridge opening for boats to pass. [This should be expected as the Opening Day boat crowd was on the log-boom just the day before. I don’t think they were all able to pilot their boats back to their berths after a day of celebration on the water.]

I eventually arrived at the International District tunnel station near the stadiums. Carl arrived a bit before me and was waiting outside the Starbucks that is adjacent to and above the station. Finally obtained a cup of coffee, and a sandwich and yogurt parfait to boot. We sat in the sun for a few, and then departed for the baseball stadium once again.

The baseball game was enjoyed in the sun. The Mariners were playing the Twins, and despite Doumit’s 2 home runs for the Twins, the Mariners won 5-2.

Home again, and ready for the work week.

After Friday’s celebration, Saturday dawned late. Not too late, but not time to go to work early.

It may have been a late start, but it quickly picked up speed.

After Friday night’s rains, Saturday was clear and dry. So we took off walking.

The first stop on the walk was the Montlake Cut.
You see, the first Saturday in May is the opening day of boating season in Seattle. The Seattle Yacht Club puts on a boat parade through the Montlake Cut. This is the waterway that connects Lake Washington to Lake Union (which then goes through the locks, and out to Puget Sound).

The Cut is a cut. Manmade.
When the cut was made, it lowered the level of Lake Washington about 10 feet, and the Black River (the prior outlet for Lake Washington) ceased to flow. At least a good part of it ceased.

The bridge over the Montlake Cut is a drawbridge.
The days events start with the bridge down, but closed to car traffic.
It is instead home to folks that line the edges to watch the Windermere Cup.

The Windermere Cup is a series of crew races.
The University of Washington is always represented, and there are frequently invitees from distant ports. I am not sure who was in town this year, but we stopped by to see the set-up for the races. We did not stay, as our schedule did not allow for that and a walk.

So we continued on. Our next goal was to get up onto Capital Hill.
Capital Hill is a hill, and we were at water level at the Cut, so the question was which route to take up to the top.
In looking at maps I noted a trail through a green space that looked inviting, so we aimed in that general direction.

For those that know a bit about Seattle, our path took us past the Greek church on Boyer. (Home to the Greek Festival in September) We did not pass it on Boyer, but along its east side, and then crossed Boyer to follow 19th Ave, which is flat for about one house, and then goes straight up. (It seemed straight up, anyway.) We intersected with Interlaken Blvd for a bit, and then after a hairpin turn saw our trail to the south.

The boulder at the trail entrance proclaims it to be established in honor of Louisa Boren. The Boren family is one of the founding families of Seattle. Louisa passed in 1912. This trail is a path, rather than a wide trail, and winds through the woods and up the hill. There are indications of past attempts at definition of the trail and holding the hill. Pieces of concrete, logs, etc.

If you read the post for Friday, you might recall that there were record rains on Friday night. Saturday was sunny, but the runoff from the rains was still very evident along the trail. In a few places the trail could have been termed a drainage. Finding foot falls that did not sink in the mud was occasionally challenging.

In the end, we declared this a fine route choice. Good views, quiet, and very private (no other walkers). It also warmed us up in the morning chill.

Capital Hill provides many opportunities.
We started through Volunteer Park. As it happens, there was a Cinco de Mayo based 5K race on this morning. We picked up a free drink (Fuze) as we walked through. We enjoyed the views as we traversed this high point on our way towards the commercial center of the Hill.

Our two stops today included a Starbucks (first cup of the day), and Panera (home of loaves of bread – and a bathroom).

From Panera’s we started to descend towards downtown. We took Madison Ave this day. The previous week we went through Yesler Terrace.

Our first big destination was CenturyLink Field, home of the Sounders.
The game started with our seats in the sun, but by the end of the first half we were in the shade. The Panera loaf (Asiago Cheese Foccacia) provided sustenance. The second half included the Sounder’s scoring their goal for the day, and holding the Philadelphia Union scoreless. One game – one win. A good start. 

After the games (baseball, football, soccer), the vendors outside of the stadiums usually offer 2 for 1 dogs and sausage. It is interesting to me that they do this even when the post-game for one venue is the pre-game for the adjacent venue. But they do, so we grabbed a sausage on our short walk to Safeco Field. After about 15 minutes, we were inside Safeco, watching batting practice.

Since it was the “late game” (at 6 PM), our seats were already in the sun. Felix Hernandez was the pitcher for the game, so there was a buzz in the air, and yellow shirts in the left-field corner. The temperature dropped with the sunset, but Felix was hot – pitching 8 scoreless innings. The Mariners won 7-0.

We managed a ride home with Kevin.

Pictures from our day in the sun. A very happy, relaxing day.

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I know I have been absent for the past week.
Two words – Mariners and Work.

It has been a very busy week with little time spent at home.
And the evening I had at home, free to do as I please, I spent trying to get some basic paperwork wrestled into place.

So I am going to blog about the past week – a day or two at a time.
Some days may blend together, so forgive any inaccuracies.

Friday – May 4th.

I went with orange, because that is the color of the Giants (SF).
The highlight of the day was the Mariner’s game.

Well, not really the Mariner’s game.
They lost in a miserable fashion.
The M’s were up 2-0, and then with based loaded and one out, Wilhelmsen (pitching in relief), got a ground ball back to the mound which he fielded with his bare hand. But instead of throwing home for the force at home, he wheeled around and threw wildly toward 2nd base (missing). That started a 3 run inning, and ended up losing 3-2.

Additionally, it was pouring rain outside – a record rainfall for the day, as it turned out. Our right-field seats were getting wet, even with the roof closed. So wet, that some moved, and others raised umbrellas.

Luckily, we were not sitting in our seats that night. We were in the dry attic of the upper deck – row 11, even with 1st base.

The reason we were in the rafters is that we were with several other members of the PSSBL (Puget Sound Senior Baseball League) celebrating the induction of 6 new members to their Hall of Fame.

One of those 6 was Carl!

His reason for being there was not just for longevity, he has skipped some years, but for being a Manager for several, his basic fanaticism, and a few outstanding statistics. In one season (2000) he pitched 90 innings, and only gave up one walk. He is also more recently recognized as the “Pitcher in Hiking Boots.” (They support his feet better than regular athletic shoes.)

The pre-game ceremony took place in the centerfield (not-yet) drunk tank. Or party deck, or singles bar. During the pre-game this area was cordoned off, and they had barbecue and other food available for the attendees. We hung out there until about the 2nd inning, after which we climbed to our seats for the night. It really is a “scene”. A place to be seen, and not necessarily to pay full attention to the game.

The game was a hard loss, but the evening was a success.