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.

I did my part for science tonight.
And they are asking for more.

This is part of a study that is as old as I am.
I have only been participating for over 20 years – if I remember correctly.

Every 7 years I get invited to take a test. It includes math (basic), word play, spatial recognition and comprehension. Kind of like an SAT lite. The fascinating thing (to me) is that they use the same booklets for the test that they have used since the testing started in 1956. Trying to keep everything the same. Their goal is to follow the same people over long periods of time. I think I have done this test 3 times.

To bolster the study, they have added a mid-life component that occurs every 2 years.
I think today was my third time on this as well.
This has a lot of memory testing.
They read you a list of numbers and you have to repeat them back. I think I got up to 9 digit numbers. Then they ask you to repeat the numbers backwards. And there are lists of words, and they go back to them a few times over the course of the evening. But my favorite is the blocks. Kind of like tanagrams, but different. They show you a picture and ask you to make it with the two color blocks. A couple of questionnaires, and the tester was on her way.

The last request they made was to consider offering them a piece of your mind after you have passed on. (That is a small bit of brain matter.)

I know how they try to track your whereabouts for these widely spaced tests. I get a birthday card every year.
But they need to get my grey fluff within 12 hours of me not needing it any longer. I am not sure how they would know when that happens.

We just got to spend a while chatting with our daughter.
It is so nice to be able to connect, at least for a bit.
She appears to be doing well, and making her way in the big city.

It is also her birthday, and from her description, probably about the quietest birthday she has spent. Being a working girl will do that to you sometimes.

It doesn’t seem possible that this was only one year ago. And in others it seems that this was so long ago.

1 Long/Short Year Ago

And it really doesn’t seem possible that this was her over 2 decades ago. Two decades?!? Time is flying.

Happy Birthday Ashlan.

Notice that you can’t see her shoes in either picture. But I’m sure they were perfect for the outfit.

Sunday was a relatively fun day, if you can ignore all of the coughing.
Carl had his team’s season opener.
He got to pitch.

He thought he was going to pitch the entire game when we arrived.
Then learned probably just 6 innings, and was then pulled after 5.
I think the manager was having trouble trying to figure out how to fit everyone in, except of course there were several that did play the entire game.

When Carl left the game, his team was ahead 10-2. When the game ended they were tied, 10-10. (Time limits – after 10 innings of play)

Not to say it was not a fun game, it really was.
Much better than last year’s start, and just overall fun.
Carl’s top play, in my estimation, was spearing a (s0ft) line drive, and then picking the runner off of second. The weather was cooperative, I got to walk a few miles before the game started, and the crowd was congenial.

After the game we came home, Carl changed, and we headed out to watch one of his former charges play soccer. Had the chance to catch up with the parents, and after the real game was over, Carl got to play with a few of the siblings and players hanging around.

He was a bit tired by the end of the day.

So was I, but I think we did a reasonable job of sleeping through the night.
(This is a cough related topic. Who is coughing. Who is waking up to cough. Who is waking up the adjacent sleeper by coughing. …)

Monday, Monday. Can’t trust that day.
Finally woke up about 6:45. Only a bit late, and proceeded to get dressed for work.

It wasn’t until a few hours after arriving that I glanced at my feet, and realized I had two different shoes on.

Not quite two left feet

I shared this with a workmate. It was her birthday, and I hadn’t anything to give, except a laugh. And so the story spread. I guess I am there for comic relief. As I was leaving at the end of the day, my boss said the first thing he was going to do in the morning was check my shoes. (I don’t think this qualifies as a foot fetish.)

I consider both of my parents to be linguists.
Dad was a foreign language teacher for many years (spanish).
Mom was a librarian, and an indexer, and who knows what else.

I also spent some time on the telephone with them this morning.
We all have our pet peeves when it comes to language, or more importantly, the misuses of language.

My pet peeve is “Realtor.” In my case it is not so much misuse of the word as mispronunciation. “ReLaTor.” The word is RealTor.” For gosh sakes, just look at the spelling. (I actually saw a business card with the word misspelled.)

One of my mother’s pet peeves is the lie/lay confusion. And of course I managed to get it wrong during our conversation. And I admit to being confused at times. Because the tenses (past in particular) come in to play, there is no clear “ONLY USE IS WHEN” criteria that I might be able to master. My ears betray me. But it is not only me. My poor mother had a yoga instructor that would misuse the word. How can you relax, when your ears are tensed up in defense.

My father shared that a well-known author he was reading was having problems with the use of spanish, er mexican, words in the book. (Well known to some. Elmore Leonard. I was not familiar, but as soon as I recounted the story, Carl perked up at the name he knew.) The book in question takes place on the tex-mex border I believe. Some spanish words in used the singular form were not correct. Example: Tamales = plural. Tamal = singular. Tamale = wrong.

I suggested my father should write to the author and offer to edit his books that used spanish. He laughed off my suggestion, but then recounted that when he took a post army service test to identify the type of work he should look for, the proctor told him he should go to the Denver Post and offer to be their editor. Apparently a natural talent.

Carl and I were exploring these topics as we wandered the neighborhood in search of toothpaste and a haircut. Three of our four parents had professions that involved language. (The fourth involved numbers.) Our kids both have an ability to string several words together in their own style. Carl has a quick way with words (in my estimation), and I am a mean red-penciler of technical works at work. [I can take it as well as I dish it out.]

In the end we decided that editors have a job to do. But in the end the editor could be viewed as just a professional complainer. With that, let us lay this matter to rest.

Over the last few days I have seen references to the “Costco Craze”.
I am not sure what it means. Costco appears to be a local Puget Sound thing. Their headquarters are now located in Issaquah, but I think it may have been in Kirkland for a while. (Kirkland brand name and all.)

And Carl went to Costco today.
Sunscreen, TP, peanuts, ….., and butternut squash ravioli.

Pretty good going down this evening.
Because there are only two of us, this pretty much makes the meal. (And dessert.)

Now to settle in to our plans for the evening.

• Carl is listening to some baseball game on the radio. (Not the Mariners. They beat Detroit earlier today. And yesterday. And the day before that.)
• I am, well, blogging.
• Later I intend to add some numbers in the checkbook. (whoopee)
  Then add some other numbers into our expense listing.
• Then, (drumroll please), I am going to FILE!

OK – now I doubt that many out there can match that level of excitement!

It’s OK. I am just trying to calm myself down from a stirring day at work.
I went in because I had a meeting. But then the meeting was cancelled.
But I did manage to provide a solution for an agitated customer, that worked for us, and solved his most immediate problem. In truth though, I did dodge calling another mad-at-the-world customer.  

I am only a so-so patient.
So it was just as well I spent the day pretty much by myself.
Carl was around, and then gone, and then around, and then …

I worked from home today, and by being silent could keep the coughing minimized.

What I don’t understand is why I can sort of manage the coughing during the day, but the minute I put my head on the pillow, there is no way to stop.

I am hoping for quick z’s tonight. I really should show up at the office tomorrow, or I will have to cancel a few meetings.

The cold that was stalking me through the warm weekend has settled in.
And worse yet, I think I gave it to Carl.

I did manage to get through a public hearing last night with just some coughing (into my shoulder). Now the kleenex boxes are going to be my companion.

On the other hand. It is only a cold. An annoyance.
I may get sent home from work today (policy to not be at work when you are sick).
That would be just fine with me. (I am going in because my car is there. Oh, and we might need to debrief from the meeting last night.) If I come home, I should be able to get some work done … without exposing everybody else.

Hopefully it will not hit Carl hard.
This will be one of the few times the colds have gone from me to him. Usually it is the other way around. Or most of the time, he gets a cold, and I don’t. 

OK – I guess I know what is on my mind this morning.
If I had blogged last night you would have heard the post meeting mortem.

Today started the third nice weekend in Seattle in a row.
That should have given us an inkling that the day would be different.

And I am trying to stop a cold from taking hold.
I don’t get sick, so it was the second sign.

Took Carl to his baseball practice, went to work for the 2 hours he would be involved, finished the three small tasks I had assigned to myself, and left work at the appointed time to fetch Carl. The third sign. (I am not always prompt for picking him up.)

So off to the Mariner game. There was also a moto-cross in the adjacent stadium, so parking was at a premium. And yet, we found a free place. The fourth sign.

Once inside we found a seat at the bullpen in the sun. Carl got four White Sox pitchers to sign a baseball for him. One was Juan Nieves. He threw a no-hitter on April 15, 1987. Nice guy. Chatted up a young kid getting an autograph who did not even know who he was. The fifth sign.

The sun was inching toward our seats, so I took a scorecard and pencil (and two compost bins) and headed to right field. Carl eventually showed up and hung out a few rows back, chatting with friends.

So here is the set-up. A nice weekend, sun to heal a sickness brought on by too many cold nights out in a row, on time, parking found, good people, and the  perfect temperature.

THE GAME.
The Mariners lost to the White Sox 4-0. The game went relatively quickly, 2-1/2 hours. A good part of this was due to White Sox pitcher Philip Humber, throwing a no-hitter. My first in-person no-hitter.

Chicago

Chicago Batting (and scoring) 4 Runs

Seattle

4/21/2012 - 27 Mariners up, 27 Mariners down.

Did you notice it was a PERFECT GAME?
All those zeros, and steps in the scorecard. Three up, three down, x 9.

It is a rarity. 21 perfect games in the modern era. The 21st on the 21st.

Perfect.

Not much to talk about today.

In a word – WORK.

I don’t even remember everything I did, because very little of it was what I planned to do.

The last bit of work that I did was to attend a Public Hearing on a vision for the redevelopment of a nearby city center. I did not provide comment, and actually worked on reviewing some other information as I listened to others talk. (I had provided my comments in writing – very bland.)

And then I glanced under the chair in front of me.
I could not figure out what type of adornment was on the shoe/boot of the person in the row in front of me. A circle of sorts. Finally I discerned that what I was seeing were the holes in their socks, with their heels lifted just out of their shoes.

Well, I found it mildly amusing.