Valentine's Day Weekend

My Valentine's Day weekend began on Friday.  Ben could not do it on Saturday or Sunday due to work.  We decided to do it on Friday instead because it was his only day off but he had to wait until I got done with work.  We bought each other non-traditional Valentine's Day gifts, because we really aren't into the hype of it, ate dinner at The Rock and watched the highly anticipated Deadpool movie and then came back to my house to watch How I Met Your Mother and snuggle.

Our pizza was delicious, we ordered buckets and a lava lamp.  We engaged in weird conversation, because we always do, and stayed about an hour and a half.  There were a lot of people.  It was nice that he got there before I did to grab a table since it was the dinner rush.  Many people probably had the same idea as we did, dinner and a movie. 

Deadpool was a movie Ben has wanted to see in a long time.  I never heard of it because I am not really a comic book fan.  Ben was really hoping the movie lived up to the high standard he was giving it.  I told him I'm sure it will.

That movie was freaking awesome!  I loved the humor but then again Ryan Reynolds is hilarious anyway and Ben has a huge man crush on him.

We got into our vehicles and headed towards my house.  We got there around 10, got comfortable and spent a few hours snuggling and watching our show.  It was nice.  Sadly, he had to go back to Rochester because he was on shift the next day at the Littlerock Fire Station.

The next day I got up, it felt so good to sleep in, however I woke up with a scratchy throat.  I was hoping I wasn't getting sick.  Nobody's got time for that!  I ate some lunch and then mom wanted to go to town to do some shopping.  We drove the Escape.  We drove to the West Side first and went to Total Wine and More.  We have not been here before.  SO. MUCH. ALCOHOL!!  It was awesome.  Mom wanted some of the KZOK beer, I picked up some Drop Top, Honey Whiskey, tiny shots of SoCo and SoCo Cherry, some Jameson and a tall bottle of Irish Death.  I wanted to get more but because of our "intelligent voters who voted yes" they made our liquor here in Washington more expensive.

We went over to JoAnn's to get mom some fabric.  I wandered around and found some more acrylic paint for my signs I was making along with some sealant with UV protection.  I also picked up some St. Patrick's Day stuff mostly because it was half off the original price which a lot of the stuff I picked up was under a dollar anyway.

We then stopped by Hobby Lobby so mom could see their selection of fabric and I used the restroom.  We went to Winco for some groceries, Walmart for some distilled water for the office and then stopped by Cabela's to pick up a gift card for dad for Valentine's Day.  It was way past dinner time so we stopped at Meconi's Subs for some sandwiches.  We went home and put everything away.

I did a few things, put the chickens and ducks away then decided to get ready for bed.  I talked to Ben via Skype and passed out.

The next day Kathy and Jim came over to get some chicken poop for their garden.  I found it hilarious they chose Valentine's Day to come over and get it.  It took us about an hour to dig it up, wheelbarrow it to the trailer and drive off.  I told them to have a crappy Valentine's Day.  HAHAHA!  I filled up all of the duck pools, fixed some of the chicken pen and went inside and ate some soup.  We watched some TV and I took a nap for a few hours.  It felt great!  Mom and dad went to dinner and I was invited to dinner and a movie next door with Lacey, Sally and Carol.  There, we had tostadas and watched 13 Going on 30, a movie I haven't seen in years.

Ben came over after work around 10, fed him some food and we snuggled and watched How I Met Your Mother until it was time for him to go.  He had to work the next day while I had it off due to it being President's Day.  I went to bed and slept in until Lacey called me the next day.

She wanted to go for a walk down our road.  I got ready, dad wanted to go and we met her up at the top of the culd-e-sac.  We walked past Dorris, the giant pig, past the fight club of turkeys, past Megan's house where her geese screamed at us, saw her aunt's cows and even got to wave at Megan and Matt as they drove away.  We turned around at Leo's and walked back towards our houses.

I made dad some lunch, I watched some Hulu shows, worked on my blog and ate my lunch.  I talked to Ben a few times, washed three loads of laundry, fixed my cache on Waldrick Road and went over to grandma's house to dump off some Christmas stuff, grab my St. Patrick's Day stuff and go over her new laptop with her.  I came home, started getting dinner ready, helped mom when she came home, finished laundry, ate dinner, took a shower, watched some Bones, talked to Ben one more time and then went to bed.  It was a nice 3-day weekend and I am glad I got to spend some of it with Ben.

Next Adventure:  Ben's Birthday Weekend and Geocaching

Mardi Gras

My friends and I try to meet up for a game night, a holiday or a birthday every month.  This month Mardi Gras fell within our parameters of the days we could use.  Plus, I don't think we've had a Mardi Gras celebration together.  This should be awesome!

A month ago I got a couple of masks and some beads at the dollar store.  It was the only place that sold Mardi Gras gear...which was sad.  I know we live no where near New Orleans but still, share the wealth.

Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll!)

We always make food potluck style and try to let everyone know what we're bringing so we don't end up with 17 dips, or 59 cupcakes.  Lance made some jambalaya, which was delicious, Ben and I made some Cajun deviled eggs, Kathy made King cake, in which Justin got the baby, Celeste and Nicole made some dips, Lindsay made a corn like salsa salad thing and Megan made some dirty rice.  The food was awesome.

We played games, Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards Duel at Skullzfyre, Exploding Kittens and Heads Up, laughed a lot and got to meet Lance's new friend who was from Louisiana, which was very ironic.  He had to leave early because he worked the next day.

We all stayed 'til about midnight, gathered our things and went home.  Our next gathering will be a St. Patrick's Day/Easter combo.  That should be interesting.

Next Adventure:  Valentine's Day Weekend

Seattle Mariners Fanfest and the Crab Pot

For a long time now I've always wanted to go to Mariners Fanfest.  For the past couple years when we remembered that it was going on it just did not work out in our favor and left me bummed out when I couldn't go.

On January 6, 2016, Griffey was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 99.32% of the vote, breaking the record previously held by Tom Seaver's 98.84% in 1992.  A flag bearing Griffey's number 24 was flown from the Space Needle following the announcement.  I was so excited to hear that and I thought maybe he would show up at the fanfest this year.  He didn't.

We still wanted to go to fanfest anyway.  I asked Ben about a month ago if this would be something he would like to do.  We were both huge Mariner fans as kids, cheering on Dan Wilson, Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Randy Johnson and Edgar Martinez.  Ben said it would be awesome so we called his mom to see if she and Amy wanted to go.  Then it got bigger and bigger by adding on Brad, his kids and then my mom and dad.  That escalated quickly!

I saw the night before which Mariners and support staff would be there.  My only interest was getting Dan Wilson's autograph but we had to get there somewhat early to get a voucher.

The morning of the event was chaos.  Ben was on shift the night before and was screwed over by one of his co-workers the next morning which made him late getting over to my house.  We left late and we arrived in Kent late but Trish and her car load was late meeting up with us at the junction.  For some reason our communication was bad and they ended up in front of us by about 10 minutes.  We just told her we would meet her at Safeco.  The morning already fell apart.

We all got there and parked roughly at the same time.  We parked on the northeast side of the field and she parked near the southwest.  We were suppose to meet at the left field entrance but met up at home plate to get our autograph voucher.

I handed out our tickets and was disappointed Brad's other kid didn't come (now a ticket was going to go to waste) and I gave it the ticket guy who checked our tickets to get in.  I said give it to someone who doesn't have a ticket...sorta like a pay it forward.  He said he would do his best.  We went in and looked at the banners and got ourselves a fanfest booklet of things that were happening inside the stadium.  It looked like the Dan Wilson autograph vouchers were gone.  Dang it!

I was then asked by one of the guys handing out vouchers for autographs.  He asked me if I was looking for something in particular.  I said, we were old school Mariner fans and was looking forward to meeting Dan Wilson.  He looked at me and smiled, "I still have 7 vouchers left for Dan Wilson if you want them."  "Are you serious?" I asked.  He handed them over to me and I thanked him over and over again.  He made our day.

We walked up the stairs and decided what to do first.  We had about an hour to kill before we had to get in line to see Dan Wilson.  We all split up and Ben and I wanted to be on the field so we walked the bases and went into the dugout, something I've wanted to do since the place opened in 1999.  It was awesome.  We took some pictures of us on second base and inside the dugouts.  We thought this was a great place to start our fanfest adventure plus it ate away some of the time before we got in line for our autograph.

By the time we walked up the stairs it was time to go meet at the stairwell to the second level to get in line to go see Dan Wilson.  I actually found everyone and we got up the stairs in one piece.  We got to see him and got his autograph within a half hour.  It was awesome actually getting to meet a Mariner in real life.

From there, we split up into little groups again and walked to the activities we wanted to do.  Ben and I waited in line to go and throw in the outfield.  That one took some time but it was fun to throw again.  I had forgotten what it felt like to throw a baseball.  I have been conditioned to throw softballs throughout most of my lifetime.  I over threw Ben a few times.  This was the first time I've played catch with him.

We walked over to the bullpen line and got to throw pitches.  Ben's hardest throw was in the 30's and mine were in the 50's.  Haha!

Then he wanted to go his balls off of a tee.  The line wasn't too bad but first we guessed how many whiffle balls were inside this container in right center field.  I guessed over 7,000 and Ben guessed between 1,500-2,000.  I wonder if we will find out how many were really in there.  We were given our cage assignment and I had Ben hit first.  He almost hit one over the fence.  Then mom called me and told me where they were.  They were standing right around left center field watching us bat.  I told them we would meet up when we were done batting.

I wanted to do one more event before it was time to go.  This was the longest line we had to stand in the entire day.  I wanted a picture of us standing at home plate with bats and helmets.  While we waited, we got to listen to Dan Wilson talk to the crowd...and we had some rambunctious kids in front of us being silly.  When it was our turn we took three pictures, one of us together and one of us by ourselves.  It was an awesome experience and I am so glad it didn't rain.

We gathered up everyone and took a group picture before we all left.  We had called Doug and Jenn to see if they wanted to meet up at the pier and eat some seafood at the Crab Pot. 

Unfortunately Trish, Amy, Brad and Grace didn't make it down to the pier.  Trish got frustrated with the directions and traffic and ended up going home.  I was sad they didn't get to come.  I was excited to eat dinner with everyone.

We walked back to the Escape and headed down towards the pier.  I wasn't aware that the entire pier/viaduct was under construction.  I haven't been down here in a while.  Luckily there were still some parking spots available.  Mom and dad wandered while we talked to Trish.  We had to waste some time so Doug and Jenn could get there. Luckily we didn't have to wait that long.

We were seated quickly and our drinks and food came really fast as well.  I was impressed.  Dad, Doug and Ben ate the pile of seafood dinner, mom and I had fish and chips and Jenn had the crab mac n cheese.  It was all delicious and fun that dad got to join us this time around.

We paid, said our goodbyes and walked back to the Escape.  Traffic wasn't that bad and we got home before 8.  Ben and I watched some of our shows and he had to be back home so he could go to work the next day.  

Next Adventure:  Mardi Gras