Mariners and More

MARINERS AND MORE: Monday we had the pleasure of attending the Seattle Mariners game on a sunny summer evening. We had great seats (just 13 rows from the field) for a great price (thanks to a season ticketholder trying to unload them as he was unexpectedly stuck back East due to Irene).

One of the reasons I wanted to go to last night's game is because the festivities included a tribute to Japanese culture. As part of the program, before the game a large Japanese drumming group took the field and performed. I like the photo below. It looks like Joel Piñero is challenging the dragon to come fight him!
Out on the center field concourse, there were a couple of tables - one was a display about Japanese baseball. The other was hosted by some local Japanese library. There were women helping people fold origami hats out of Japanese newspapers, which thrilled Annabelle.Here she is modeling it today.

Meanwhile, CJ chatted up a Japanese woman who had some old VHS tapes the library was giving away for a donation. CJ was enthralled by them - they were Japanese versions of cartoons he's familiar with. He finally selected a Pokemon video, but was very concerned that it might not work in his VHS. He started quizzing the woman about the potential differences between the circuitry of the US and Japanese VHS players. You should have seen the look on her face. Priceless.
At one point late in the game, the Angels pitcher gave an intentional walk to a Mariners batter. Annabelle drew this - a chicken pitching! Too funny! Here are a couple of action shots from the game ... AND ANOTHER: I found another big ugly scary spider in our sink today. Where the hell are these things coming from and why won't they leave me alone?

I captured it in a glass and Christian led the research team trying to figure out what kind of spider it is. Naturally, a fear is it might be a hobo spider, and while it certainly has some of the hobo characteristics, we can't say definitively that it is or isn't one. It seems more likely to be a giant house spider.LAST CLASS: Today marked a sad milestone - it was Annabelle's last ballet class with her beloved instructor, who is retiring. Bee made the teacher a card today. And she thoroughly enjoyed the class, of course.
Tomorrow Annabelle has a 90 minute dance camp with the teacher and then it's over. We're very happy for the woman who is retiring, but we're very sad to lose her. She is a fantastic teacher.