Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
All in Hobbies
Once I saw that Comet NEOWISE was going to not only be visible but also somewhat bright, I figured it would be worth a look. And after seeing people’s photos, I knew I would try to find it. It took a couple of tries, but I finally saw it.
Monday was Opening Day for the Seattle Mariners, but even though they were playing in Oakland, Safeco Field held an Open House where people could get into the stadium for free to wander around and watch the game on the new video screen. Great idea, well executed.
Yesterday marked the end of the Seattle Mariners' 2009 season, and even though they finished third in the AL West, this year was an unqualified success. New management made quite a few changes over last winter (and even more during the year) with the end result a team going from 61 wins in 2008 to 85 in 2009. All indications point to the clubhouse environment improving a lot and everyone (players, fans, media) enjoyed the season as it unfolded.
This must be the month for notable anniversaries. Ten years ago today the first pitch was thrown at Safeco Field, the new home for the Seattle Mariners. I had only attended one Mariners game in the Kingdome, but it definitely didn't fell like a ballpark. Most years I've been to at least one game at Safeco, and it feels right, with the open air and great views all around. Even when high against the upper railing behind home plate (nose bleed territory) we could still see everything that was going on.
I needed some small gifts for this month so I went to an old standby, cutting boards. They're relatively quick to make, offer lots of possibilities for variation, and usually end up looking pretty nice.
Mariners fans are used to Ichiro Suzuki getting hits, and it seems he does so every game. Of course he doesn't, but one doesn't get 200 hits every season without putting together some impressive streaks. Ichiro just ended a 27 game hitting streak last night, the second-longest streak in the Major leagues this season.
A couple years ago we had some flagstone installed for paths in our front yard. That fall we planted groundcover, each smaller than the size of a quarter and about a foot apart. We weren't sure how well they'd do, but it was a relatively small investment.
Part of the purchase and sale agreement when we sold part of our land to our neighbor (so he could split his lot into two) was that he would replace the existing fence. I was home from work today and heard (de)construction sounds which seemed close enough to be in our yard. Took a peek out the window and the fence was being torn down.
Sam Maloof passed away last week, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. To those who appreciated his furniture, he was best known for his rocking chairs. To those who were further interested in his methods for building furniture, he was famous for his freehand technique on the bandsaw, sculpting with the tool. Fine Woodworking also set up a tribute page.
We're at the time of year when the first cherry blossoms have come and gone, and the rhododendrons, dogwoods, magnolias, and lilacs are blooming all around the area. Our rhodie in the back yard and lilacs are very showy now. Some of our annuals are blossoming now, too (red flowering currant, columbine, blue star creeper) and our osmantus are at the tail end.
Every now and then the planets align and we end up doing lots of stuff over a weekend; this past weekend was one of those. We had dinner with some of my cousins on Friday night, did lots of stuff in the yard on Saturday, hung out with some friends on Sunday, and had dinner with another cousin of mine on Monday.
Woodworking is a solitary hobby for me, as I suspect it is for most people. However, a group of woodworkers have recently joined up to work on a project together, the Sawmill Creek Collaborative Keepsake Box.
As part of our multi-year landscaping project, Melody and I cover up a lot of weeds and sod. Our landscape designer recommended starting with a layer of compost, a double layer of cardboard, then a thick layer of wood chips. This has worked really well for us; the old weeds and sod are pretty well suppressed, and all we need to do is pile on more chips every now and then. Sometimes the hard part is making sure we have all the parts necessary to proceed.
We don't get snow too often in Seattle, but it looks really pretty when we do. I suppose that's true almost anywhere, but it doesn't reduce our appreciation for the white stuff. It's not unusual for us to accumulate a few inches once or twice a year, but some years we don't get any and others we get a lot. We'll see how this year pans out - we apparently missed getting snow a couple days ago because of a low pressure system which ended up going to the north instead of through Seattle.
Like my dad and my kids, I enjoy doing Sudoku puzzles. You could even say I'm a big fan of them. It's OK to interpret that as being a Sudoku nerd.
It's tough being a sports fan in Seattle. As I'm writing this, he UW and Washington State football teams, the Seahawks, and the Oklahoma City Thunder (nee Seattle Sonics) have three wins - combined. That's out of 25 games. Needless to say, they're all at the bottom of their respective divisions. (In full disclosure, right now the scoreboard shows the Seahawks are way up at halftime.)
