Raincharm’s Weblog

Elephant and Castle

Followed by Fun Home.

Certainly one of the best we’ve seen this year. Again we arrived with only a bare idea of what the show was about. [Compare this to H.M.S. Pinafore over the weekend where I knew most of the words.]

In a nutshell it’s about a family and their functional dysfunctional life, that happens to own a FUNeral home. That aspect adds to the story,  but is not central. Although there’s a very funny scene where the 3 kids have concocted a commercial advertising the family business. The story is told through the family daughter, sharing her life and perspective as a kid, college age and adult. 

If you have a chance to see this musical,  do so. Last night I kept thinking of people I needed to encourage to go.

Definitely my theme at work recently. 

I was working later than most yesterday, and thought I was the lone survivor. I was also deep into reviewing 669 lots, and wondering how far I could get before I decided to go home.

Then a voice saying,  “I’m leaving,” brought me back to the surface. Apparently Mac had been somewhere about the building,  doing whatever Macs do. I suggested he make more noise when approaching me. He said he tried, but the jingling of keys had not been enough to break through my concentration. 

Now surely alone, I settled back into the 669. 

Until I heard a thump that sounded outside. I stood up and leaned forward to look out the window. Only to be thoroughly startled by a deer leaping in front of my window. 

He had been between the salal bushes and the building and decided to leap to a more open space. 

And then the second buck arrived, a bit more sedately.

And after finishing about 15% of the 669 before I went home, the remainder before noon today.

Parker and Nate’s team won both their Saturday and Sunday games after losing Friday.  But it was not quite enough to get to the 4th game this evening, or a potential 5th game on Sunday. 

But it was enough. Nice weather. Time with friends and meeting some new folks too. As they all departed south to Oregon, we headed over the lake and back to Seattle. 

A beer and nuts (food and otherwise) on the back deck made a fitting end to the social weekend. 
On a completely different note, the film noir this morning was Gun Crazy. It was really good. Had us speculating until the end when the femme fatale was going to meet her end. In the discussion after the movie they noted that even the film producers weren’t sure how to end the film, toying with at least four different endings. [Neither Carl or I came up with the chosen ending. ]

When it rains it pours. But not today. Except that we had more activities in one day than we often have in a week. 

First up was the 3 mile Refuse to Abuse walk at Safeco Field. Except we did not attend. Carl’s heel has been quite sore this week,  so we decided to spend some time hanging out with our weekend guests instead.

That is until we left them to watch Carl’s baseball team from last year in a game at the UW. Another old player (80-some years old) that has moved to AZ was also in attendance,  so there was a lot to talk about in addition to watching the game. 

From there it was on to our guest’s soccer tournament. Their team is a U16 team from Eugene, Oregon. Their first game was on Friday. Unfortunately, several players were delayed by traffic on the trip north, and had to jump out of their cars and start playing with no warm up. The coach arrived around half time. The other team scored 5 goals before they were able to come back with 2. The Saturday game was much better, a 3-0 win, and a more cohesive looking team. Their game today will decide whether they play any additional games. Also whether we get any more house guests beyond the two players  (and one dad, Dan). Apparently some of the parents have to be back to work in Eugene on Monday. 

Parker, our friend Dan’s son, is number 9 in the black uniform. 

The evening found another spectator event at a Gilbert and Sullivan show,  H.M.S. Pinafore. It was quite good. The Lord Admiral was especially funny. There’s a song between the Captain,  Lord Admiral and Josephine where the Captain and Admiral got into a bit of a one-ups-manship with the Captain first ringing a small bell, the Admiral then going to his triangle, the Captain winning a struggle to ring the ship’s bell, and the Admiral coming back with cymbals. No justice done by my explanation, but it was funny. 

It’s shaping up to be an interesting work week. The big boss is gone for the week. This is both a positive and a negative. 

The negative is that almost all of Monday was spent filling in for said missing person. The positive is that I spent almost half of Tuesday working on my big project. 

I hope to repeat Tuesday for the rest of the week. 

A little time out with an office buddy. 

Felix is on the mound and it’s a beautiful day. Keep the complaining at bay.

Wolcott threw out the first pitch. He’s a player many fans don’t recognize in the 1995 photo of Griffey scoring to get the Mariners into the post-season. [I probably have this a bit wrong. I remember 1995, but I am not a historian. )

Felix made it through 6 innings, with a 3-0 lead. At 100 pitches, he is probably done. The A’s are on pitcher number 3. Actually number 62.

Game over. Both teams used 5 pitchers, and the Mariners prevailed, 4-0.

Time for the all-star break. 

And what’s left of the afternoon doing “family arithmetic.”

We’re in the midst of our double header.

It started with a walk to Capital Hill, around 3.6 miles, and a quick light rail ride downtown. Our first venture into the Capital Hill station. 

The Sounders played Eintracht Frankfurt in a friendly. It’s the first game for us this year. I enjoyed the game,  partly because it was not quite as intense as regular games.  

Then it was over to Safeco for the baseball half. It was Season Ticket Holder day, with early entrance. We were on the early end, simply based on the soccer game timing, but not the first.

That’s Carl in the Waits jersey. I am hanging out in the shade.

And the Mariners decided to not take batting practice. So the Mariners tried to pull something together for their early arriving STHers. A picture hitting?

I wish I had one of Carl,  but the person that had my phone didn’t realize we were together.

Carl did get a brief moment with Frances. She’s always been nice to Carl. (Used to be his ticket person,  but has moved up the ladder.)

About time for the game. 

And the concluding act of our day out and about.

Happy 4th of July. Happy Anniversary. And Happy getting to face another day. 

We went to the Mariners game. But that’s not unusual. 

Wayne Drop did have a Fourth of July engagement, but it was before he got the hat.

For our anniversary we skipped the baseball game and went out to dinner instead. We got a window seat at Ivar’s Salmon House and were entertained by boats coming and going. And the food was so good. 

This weekend looks to be busy. We have a double-header on Saturday with both a Sounders and Mariner game. Our first Sounders game this year.

And trying to keep up with the raspberries and not letting our fledgling plants dry out.  I think we have done more yard care this year than the last several combined. 

Carl even made a heart shape out of the blackberry vines he trimmed after they came over, under and through our neighbors fence.

Of course the most important history of yesterday was the birthday of Mariner Nelson Cruz and Carl Harms.  And Cletus Elwood (Boots) Poffenberger. And 150 years of Canada.

It was also the day of this year’s Backyard Baseball Film Festival. It was well attended for this gathering  (24), with many arriving early enough to grill a dog or burger. 

The venue.

In addition to the baseball education films and baseball news items from the 1930s to the 1950s, there was a silent home movie from 1928 of an extended family gathering,  including a ball game. It was interesting to see period clothing that was obviously authentic. The funniest was a 1927 film called College,  featuring Buster Keaton as a freshman playing on the baseball team, who doesn’t really understand the game. Hilarious. 

This screen shot is from Magic Moments in Baseball I think.

And, of course,  desert.

Earlier in the day Carl and I walked to Mohai for a presentation called, “A Bite Sized History of the Pike Place Market.” Very informative and tasty as they provided samples from some of the current vendors. 

Today we went out to breakfast with Dennis, film archivist, and Anne, Oregon film historian. It was nice to just spend some time hanging out. After they departed for points south we spent some time cleaning tarps. They have been shoved in the garage for a few months now, and today’s sun provided an opportunity to rinse and dry before folding. (And then back to the garage.)

And finally, the fushia is blooming. 

This was April 16th, early in the Mariner season. Paxton, the Mariner pitcher, is Canadian. Instead of “Ks” for his strikeouts, we chanted “Eh, Eh, Eh, Eh.” And hung an Eh sign in a maple leaf on the railing for each strikeout. 

Paxton pitching again at today’s game. We were back with our Ehs. 

And the Mariners must’ve liked the idea, and incorporated it into their scoreboard. 

Counting his Ehs in the upper right. 

By the way,  the Mariners won after the Tiger’s Verlander pitched 5 innings of perfect baseball. Paxton had 8 strikeouts, but Verlander had 11. A bunt single started the rally, and the door opened. A fun game, especially after having my head firmly implanted in databases all day. I do enjoy the analysis,  but after several hours my neck is soar and my head is spinning.