…is listening to Hall of Famer Dave Niehaus call the first Mariners game of Spring Training. Life is good!
February 28, 2008
December 1, 2007
Meghan and I headed over to Bainbridge Island today to get our Christmas tree and, just like Christmas Tree Day last year, it started snowing! It’s supposed to hit the upper 40′s tomorrow, but this afternoon it was enough to get in some sledding, snowball fighting, and snowman building.
Meghan puts the finishing touches on a snowman.
The happy trio as the snow starts to turn to rain.
Neal builds himself a girlfriend.
or maybe he was building a snow boyfriend…
September 25, 2007
The blog comes in handy again. Second post of the month, don’t get too used to it…
The Big News is that Meghan and I have gotten engaged! I asked her last Friday, and after seven years of waiting she was very surprised (and maybe a little relieved). We couldn’t be happier and the timing feels right. The plans are for a wedding next summer; stay tuned…
The happy fiances on Friday night. It was our little secret for a while, we didn’t tell a soul until Tristan called on Saturday night, and then went over to Bainbridge to tell the folks on Sunday.
The blushing bride-to-be.
Looks good on her hand. Her freakishly small hand, that is. She claimed her ring size was seven, but it turns out it’s a wimpy five and a quarter. So she had to part with it today for resizing. It’s been rough, since we’ve been relying on its presence to confirm that it’s all really happened and wasn’t just a dream.
September 12, 2007
OK, OK, I know I’ve neglected the blog. That’s why it’s barely a blog, remember? Anyway, very blog-worthy, Meghan and I took off for two weeks at the end of August and beginning of September for a good old-fashioned road trip. We packed up my little old car with camping gear and hit the road on August 29th.
Day One: Drove to Florence, Oregon, and stayed at Honeyman State Park. Sand dunes on the coast.
Just a speck in the sand.
Eating in style the first night…basil burgers.
Day Two: Still at Honeyman. Kind of a cold place, as I guess was to be expected.
Brrrr…The coast in Florence, Oregon.
Day Three: We woke up at the crack of dawn and drove a hundred miles down the coast to Cape Blanco State Park and snagged a campsite for Labor Day weekend. It was our home for three days and turned out perfectly. We pretty much just relaxed the first day.
The gorgeous Cape Blanco, Oregon. Our home for Labor Day weekend.
We bought a cheap dish towel for drying dishes. Note how not only does it not absorb water, it vigorously repels it.
Putting the dish towel woes aside, we enjoyed the sunset over the Pacific from our campground.
Day Four: On our second day in Blanco we hit the beach!
Meghan contemplates the Pacific at Cape Blanco.
Day Five: Our history tour day. We checked out the lighthouse, toured an old Victorian homestead, and then hit the beach and saw some wayward gray whales that apparently forgot to migrate to the Arctic this summer.
The lighthouse at Cape Blanco, they even allow people to go to the top and look at the Fresnel Lens.
The luxurious waterfront estate we built. Note the lagoon in front and the moat surrounding the property. The boat house is under reconstruction after a catastrophic filling of the lagoon. Sadly, we built it a little too far from the water line and never got to experience the total destruction which occurred that night. Perfect sand castle sand, though!
Day Six: A day of road touring through Coastal Redwood country. We walked a lot of groves, we did. We ended the day on the California coast and had our only night of rain for the trip.
The aptly named Big Tree, a coastal redwood at Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Day Seven: We continued down the coast on the pulse-increasing Highway 1 to Point Reyes, just north of San Francisco.
The Pacific continued to impress along the California Coast
California State Highway 1, or, as we call it, the freakiest highway in the world. I’m happy to report the my brakes never gave out, plunging us into the ocean.
Coastal California meadows
Day Eight: Took a day trip from our campground to the Marin Headlands and then into San Francisco.
The Golden Gate and San Francisco as seen from the Marin Headlands.
When in Rome…a lunch of crab and shrimp at Fisherman’s Wharf.
Day Nine: Day nine…hmmm, no pictures. We drove all morning from Point Reyes through the ungodly central California valley and then powered my car up into the mountains and Yosemite (with the heater blasting to keep the engine cool). We found an excellent campsite in Yosemite, away from the crowds and squarely in bear-country. I woke up that night to a nervous shaking Meghan and the sounds of a bear checking the locks on all the bear boxes.
Day Ten: We drove down into Yosemite Valley and went on an amazing hike. Yosemite has got to be one of the most gorgeous places on earth. Incredible.
A shot of Vernal Falls in Yosemite, a measly 317 ft drop.
From the top of Vernal Falls, looking down into that pool in the last picture.
At the top of our hike, on the bench above Nevada Falls.
Looking back at Nevada Falls, a 594 ft fall. At least the trail up the side of this one wasn’t quite as vertical as Vernal Falls. Liberty Cap rises to the left.
Day Eleven: Today we packed up our campsite for the drive through northern Yosemite across Tioga Pass. Granite and pine trees, pine trees and granite. But first a stop in one of the three groves of Giant Sequoias in Yosemite.
Little Meghan and a big Giant Sequoia.
More Meghan and more granite!
A rugged tree on Pothole Dome…which is made of more granite!
We had two of these bags of Tim’s Cascade potato chips. The other exploded on 10,000 ft Tioga Pass. Disappointing for a product with such an alpine name.
After screaming down the other side of the mountains and dropping about 3,000 feet in a like 6 miles, we found an excellent campground above Mono Lake and set up our tent on the banks of Lee Vining Creek.
OK, we thought it was a nice campground until we got attacked by deer. Note Meghan’s hunched, defensive shoulder as a deer eyes her burrito. The one in the foreground followed me to the car and then started snorting and hissing at me when I wouldn’t give up my burrito. Generally, I would guess that a deer would not enjoy a steak burrito, but these ones seemed a little more savage than your average ruminant.
Day Twelve: We explored the Mono Basin and ventured as far south as Mammoth while seeing the sites. We attempted to get to a place I’ve been before, the Obsidian Dome, where you get to feel like superman and lift boulders that look like they should be much heavier, but the dirt road and my car’s axles did not agree.
A good-lookin’ tensile fault near Mammoth.
We did not eat here. Don’t be disgusting.
Tufa in Mono Lake. Meghan and I went swimming nearby. Mono Lake is twice as salty as seawater, which makes for some excellent buoyancy. It also makes for some nasty feeling slippery water, abundant black flies along the shoreline, and millions of brine shrimp dying at the end of the summer. Oh, and stinging cuts. and really crusty hair once it dries. It called for a jump in Lee Vining Creek once we got back to camp. Brrrr.
Day Thirteen: Heading towards home.
We were supposed to drive a lot this day. Instead we drove 12 miles from Mono Lake and then got distracted for 3 hours by Bodie, an excellent ghost town. This as a (dilapidated) sawmill. The town is amazingly preserved and served as an excellent alternative to driving.
Day Fifteen: We drove from an excellent campground near Mt. Shasta back to Seattle. and then unpacked. and then showered. our bodies rejected all the soap and deodorant we applied and became somewhat itchy, but now we’re assimilated.
And now it’s over….sad:
On another sad note, the Mariners apparently only have won twice since we left. There went our playoff dreams (and our $40 playoff ticket deposit). Oh well, I knew all along a major correction to their record was inevitable, I was just hoping they could hold out for another month. Meghan and I will go to the game and cheer them on tonight, anyway.
April 2, 2007
Yay for opening day! I couldn’t tune in until the 4th inning, but it was still 0-0 at that point and there were plenty more Felix strikeouts to come. Look at that beautiful line:
8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 12 K
When was the last time a Mariners pitcher had a game like that! I know, I know, it’s the first game and things are bound to balance out (a slight correction is inevitable after a day where Gil Meche dominates Red Sox hitting). But I love the first day back of listening to Dave and Rick, and a win to boot!
…and Bobby Crosby is my favorite Oakland Athletic…
I was thinking, I’ve been paying some attention to the NCAA basketball tournament (although there’s been a severe lack of exciting underdog wins this year) and was planning on watching the championship game this evening after the M’s game, but after a fresh dose of baseball-that-counts, basketball once again seems so boring. Yes, I know it goes against common opinion to say baseball is exciting and basketball is boring, but hear me out: In baseball, the pace is slow, but every play is so important to the game and, therefore, I’m on the edge of my seat for every methodical action. In basketball, yes the pace is quick, but you know it’ll likely be tied sometime in the last five minutes of the game and when it really comes down to it that’s the only part of the game that holds much importance. And if it’s not tied in the last 5 minutes then it’s a bad game.
So here I am, writing about how much I love baseball and waiting for the clock to run down to the final minutes in the NCAA basketball championship game before I give it any more attention.
Yay for baseball! Meghan and I will be at the game tomorrow, maybe Felix left some of his magic on the mound for Jarrod…
March 17, 2007
Getting Closer…little worried about the closer
Posted by Kevin under (K)random, I Love Baseball[3] Comments
Four crisp sheets of Mariners tickets came in the mail yesterday! Just over two weeks until opening day!
So Beautiful…
February 7, 2007
I caught the last half of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence” (click here to listen/read it) on NPR this evening. It was playing on a program called Alternative Radio.
It’s fairly remarkable to listen to Dr. King talk about Vietnam. While listening, it’s impossible not to think about Afghanistan and Iraq and why in the world the United States hasn’t learned that forced nation-building is a messy, unpredictable business. I felt like his comments about the U.S.’s actions, the world’s reactions, and the people caught in the crossfire in Vietnam could be applied directly to today’s situation.
I’d encourage you to listen to it or read it, he eloquently cuts right through the rhetoric of the Vietnam war, the same that is currently being used by politicians to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to demean people who question them.
Also, this thought crossed my mind: Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. I never learned about Vietnam in school; truthfully, I know very little about it. Indeed, virtually everything I learned in History class was a high point of American history, perhaps along with some stories of courageously enduring the low points. How can we be expected to avoid the mistakes of the past if our past mistakes are ignored and covered up to avoid embarrassment and shame?
February 4, 2007
I’ve been trying to get out on my bicycle more lately, although it’s still a bit cold. I figured trying to do the Chilly Hilly at the end of the month would be a good motivation. Last weekend Meghan and I went for a very cold and very sunny bike ride around Ballard. Yesterday I did an extended loop around Ballard and Magnolia, 14.5 miles in the rain. Today was warmer and drier, but nice and cloudy and cool, so I rode to Mercer Island and back. 28 miles via Greenlake, Ravenna, UW, Montlake, the Washington Arboretum, Lake Washington Blvd., back and forth over the floating I-90 bridge, and then back home through Interlaken Park and Fremont. It’s fun trying to figure out good bike routes in the city. The challenge is always figuring out roads that aren’t full of cars but are in good enough shape so that they don’t destroy my tires. Plus, a good view makes it that much more worthwhile.
Whew, I’m beat. I did feel like I earned a lazy afternoon in front of a very boring Super Bowl game. Unfortunately, now I’m extremely ready for bed and I’ve got differential equations to study.
January 28, 2007
It’s late January, and that means that subtle reminders of baseball are beginning to pop up: Daily baseball articles start appearing in the newspaper, teams are getting ready for spring training, and the Mariners hold their annual fanfest; a chance for deprived baseball fans to dust off their caps and head down to the ballpark.
Meghan and I were lucky enough to get in to the private Fanfest specially scheduled for full season ticket holders (Meghan’s coworker gave us two of his tickets), so went down to Safeco Field Saturday evening. The event itself wasn’t that terribly interesting, I think mainly because it was no different than last year (the first year we went). They do give fans the option to go down onto the field, wander freely through the Mariners clubhouse, or catch pop-flies in the outfield, but I think the thing I really like best about it is just being back at a baseball field after months of deprivation.
The nerve-wracking part of the night came when both Meghan and I got called up on stage to compete in a trivia game called Last Fan Standing, a game that I actually got into the championship round of last year. There’s five contestants and they give you a category (example: Mariner players with 20+ at bats in 2006) and each contestant thinks of a player in that category. If you can’t think of one, you’re out, and the last contestant left wins. Meghan and I got our raffle tickets drawn for the same game, so we were pitted against each other in trying to name players who played catcher for the Mariners for at least one game since 1996…ugh. We were abismal, Meghan named Kenji Johjima and I pulled Chris Widger out of somewhere, and then we were both knocked out on the second round. On the plus side, since we got knocked out of the game so early, we had a chance to go get our newly won hats signed by J.J. Putz and Yuniesky Betancourt.
So cool…I love baseball. And I love the Mariners, although they haven’t been too loveable lately. In all their (mostly sad) history, they had never had two last place finishes in a row until 2005…now they’ve had three in a row. Oh well, the next year is always the year.
Pitchers and catchers report to spring training February 14th, position players on February 19th, first spring training game is March 1st, and then opening day on April 2nd. Then it’s baseball through October! Hot dog!
The Place to Ourselves…Almost
Professional Infield Dirt is Oddly Squishy
Sunset from the Mezzanine
January 27, 2007
Well, after quite a long stretch of resistance against the wave of personal web space, I’ve decided to create a blog. It is created with no particular theme, and I have no ideas as of yet for particular posts, I just wanted to have a space to say whatever I might want to say. Creating this space first and figuring out what to fill it with later strikes me as slightly backwards, but I’m just going to trust that it will all work itself out. Hopefully it won’t end up in a forgotten and wasted corner of cyberspace.
Anyway, here it is, as it is presently: A blog, but barely…but verily, a blog.
I’ve spent some time fiddling with WordPress, and I might as well make this post slightly interesting by leaving one result of my experimenting. So here’s a picture of a snowed-over forest service road along Gold Creek, near Snoqualmie Pass, where Meghan and I went snowshoeing and broke in our fancy new snowshoes:
Looking Down the Forest Service Road
The picture at the top of the page is an iced over pond, also at Gold Creek.
OK, that’s enough for now; more to come, eventually.
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