A Favorite Day

EVER CLOSER: Today is a day I look forward to every year - the day single game tickets for the Seattle Mariners' upcoming season went on sale.

Going to the opening day game is a tradition. It's usually cold as heck, weather wise, but it always warms the heart being back at the ballpark.

Fortunately, we had no trouble hopping on Ticketmaster and getting (rather ridiculously expensive) tickets. 

Sure, they're row 1 - but row 1 of the third level, but they seem to cost twice as much as last year's tickets. Hope that's not true of every game this year.

We also bought tickets for the August game when Edgar Martinez' jersey will be retired. That will be fun

I'm sure we'll catch other games - when we can get super cheap tickets.

Speaking of baseball, I've been receiving daily email with baseball haiku from my dad for a few days running. The poems he shares are from a book Baseball Haiku, published in 2007 by W. B. Norton . 

Today, I asked CJ and Annabelle to write a baseball haiku. They made short work of it.

Go run to all the bases,race against the ball.Congratulations! Home run!- CJ

Spring is almost hereBaseball season will be soonReady for the game- Annabelle

STELLAR: I haven't said any or enough nice things about Seattle Public Libraries lately, so let me correct that.

First off, thanks to SPL, I was able to score a free pass for our family to go to MoPOP (formerly EMP or Experience Music Project) in April by being on the library's website tonight right at 9 p.m., when new tickets are populated in their system for a number of area attractions. The program allows one pass per week, per library card (we have four in the family!) and one pass every 30 days for the same museum. Awesome!

Just today, Annabelle was noticing a MoPOP billboard about a new to MoPOP exhibit featuring the art of cartoonist Rube Goldberg.

Goldberg's distinctive drawings were full of fantastical inventive technology and political commentary. The Pulitzer Prizing-winning artist is best known for his invention drawings, many of which show complex chain-reaction machines designed to perform simple tasks. We're looking forward to seeing them in early April!

Here's a short video bio about Goldberg.


Rube Goldberg from Eric Haines on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/21590227

Another thing that I've been meaning to share about the library is a neat new service called "Your Next Skill." Basically, it involved users filling out an online form sharing what they want to learn and how they want to learn it (for instance, the 'how' might be by reading, watching, downloading or attending something).

Per the SPL site, "For Seattleites, we can also recommend in-person classes or workshops (and let you know if there are any associated costs to participate.) A librarian will contact you via email within four days with your personalized lesson plan. There is no limit to what we can help you learn so use this service as often as you like!"

How 'bout that?!
The service is offered thanks to a Knight Foundation Prototype Grant and with the support of The Seattle Public Library Foundation.

It starts with hopping to the Your Next Skill site: http://yournextskill.spl.org/

• 
  

 We can't wait to try it out ... as soon as we figure out what we want our next skill to be!