Seat Geeks

BOYS AND GIRLS OF SUMMER: Baseball is back. Well, sort of.

The season usually starts in March, but it's late July - post all-star break in the pre-COVID world - and the 'spring training' games are just getting underway. We watched an intra-squad game tonight. It was played at an empty T-Mobile Park, with fan noise piped in. 

And fake fans is the way it's going to go for the rest of the season, as long as it lasts before COVID shuts it all down.

But in the meantime, the only way we will be able to get into the park is via a printed picture on recyclable material. ...

Enter Major League Baseball's Seat Fleet program. For just $30 (I hear it's lots more in some parks, like Dodger Stadium), you can have your likeness fill a seat during home games this shortened 60-game season. And so, it seemed like we needed to get in on the Mariners Seat Fleet. (The Mariners are donating a portion of every purchase to non-profit organizations supporting COVID-related relief efforts in the community.) 

Fun fact: If your cutout "catches" a foul ball during a game, they say they'll mail the cutout fan  the baseball!

So, we just had to get in on the fun. But it wasn't easy. I wanted to use existing favorite Ms'-related photos.
Like this one of Rick and Ken, circa 1995, in their Halloween costumes. I 'made' their jerseys, in that I bought
blank grey ones, stitched the blue on, and made the Seattle on the front and their names on the back.

Their names being Buhner (Rick) and Charleton (Ken), two favorites from that team.   

The tricky part was separating the kids enough to fit the parameters of the cutouts.

I had to invent arms, fill in trees, erase people and more. Then look like a hot mess below, but they seemed to fit OK on the Seat Fleet website. 

Time will tell. ... 

Something Fishy

FISH ON: In a pre-COVID world, Christian and the kids would be camping this week. That likely would have involved some fishing. 

Given that, I recalled that we once drove by a trout farm a few miles from here, and thought a quick trip there might be a better-than-nothing substitute.

I had to work, but Christian and the kids (including Kennedy) enjoyed an hour or so at Springbrook Trout Farm.

It looks like a quaint place, per their photos. They tell me there were three ponds - small, medium, and large. They fished the medium pond.  

There, with their borrowed poles and 'free' bait, they caught a trio of fish.

There is complimentary cleaning on site. (Tips encouraged.)

Here is their bounty. The fishies are just slightly larger than the one in our fish tank at home. ;)

But they were pretty and they were tasty! Christian put them in foil packets with some onion and lemon. 

They were tasty, and oh so fresh.

AGGRAVATING: A couple of days ago, we broke out an old classic board game. 

Part Trouble, part Sorry and very much aggravating, this game is long and frustrating. 

It is definitely *not* America's favorite family game!