M's Beat Giants 5-4

Dad is here visiting Grandmother for the long weekend but I managed to steal him away from her for a few hours to take him to a Mariners game on Sunday.  It was a GORGEOUS day for a baseball game!  Dad and I watched the M's beat San Fransisco including a 2 run homer by Griffey that reminded me of the old days when Junior was everybody's kid brother on the team instead of one of the old-timers.

Our seats were right down the right field line, second row, behind the ball-girl.  Stepmonster's brother scored them for me - he's a sports ticket pimp - and they were KILLER seats!

Here's Dad grinning at the awesome view we had of the field.

Here I am with my boyfriend Frankie Gutierrez.  I've mentioned what a hot tamale he is, right?  Drool...

And here is Frankie's hot butt.  Obviously it's the butt on the left, the one on the right isn't hot at all - it's attached to Wlademir Balentien - but he is a damn good player.  Just not as hot as my Frankie.

There's nothing better than a sunny afternoon at the ballpark with my favorite baseball fan in the world.  I can't wait to do it again.

Drink, Dammit!

So Dad left yesterday afternoon and the second his plane was off the ground, it started to rain here.  And it rained and rained and rained.  It's still raining.  A school district in Snoqualmie is closed due to flooding, all the rivers are on flood warnings and the county we live in is distributing sandbags for those people who need them and haven't clued in to the fact that moving is easier and cheaper than digging out from a flood once or twice a year every year for TWENTY PLUS YEARS...jeeze, when they interview these people on the news EVERY TIME IT FLOODS, all I can think is why the fuck don't you move away from the river????

I'm blaming the rain on the fact that Dad left and took his good weather mojo with him.

(May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his armpits.)

It was great to hang out with him all weekend and let someone else fuss over Grandmother.  We very nearly had to take her to urgent care because she was dehydrated and getting woozy but when I whispered sweet nothings like "hospital" and "nursing home" into her ear she managed to get enough liquids down to keep herself at home.  Apparently elderly people do not get thirsty so it's common for them to become dehydrated very rapidly.  

Now I just holler DRINK, DAMMIT into her ear every hour or two.  You know, a friendly little reminder.

But while Dad was here he got Grandmother duty which is nice because it lets me off the hook a little bit and she is in a wonderful mood for at least two weeks before and two weeks after his visit so she'll be a ray of sunshine for a little while.  Hopefully.

After I dropped him at the airport I realized that I took zero pics while he was here so the pic I was going to post doesn't exist.  I'll try to do better next time.  I really wanted a pic of him and Grandmother but worrying about her health drove it right out of my head.  Next time for sure.

Now I have to get in the canoe and paddle to school, maybe I can catch a salmon swimming across the freeway...

My Stepmonster and Me (apologies to Shrek fans everywhere)

Friday night we got our party on with my Dad, Stepmonster and the rest of the family.  They were here all weekend for my, um, Step-Uncle's (?) wedding and festivities.  The family tree got pretty complicated when Dad married a woman 16 years younger than him who is also YOUNGER than my husband - her soninlaw - who is 12 years older than me.  Got that? 

 No?  Good.  I'm aiming for total confusion.  Stepmonster's little sister, my AUNT, is just 20.  And her mother, my kids GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, is younger than my father, their grandfather.  We have so much fun fucking with people when they ask about our family tree! 

As you can see, I hold Stepmonster in the highest regard and have nothing but respect for her wisdom and authority over me.

The other reason we get along so well is our shared love of and devotion to red wine.  (And margaritas - Stepmonster makes the best damn margaritas in the known universe - but we restrained ourselves to only one alcoholic beverage out of respect for motherinlaw who might have exploded with the scandal of her daughterinlaw drinking not one but TWO types of alcohol in a few short hours.  The things I do for my family, the sacrifices I make.  Sigh.)

Dogs sleep in the strangest places

Stepmonster with a dog in her lap, a dog next to her and a dog on her...boob?  Hey, Sancho the Chihuahua knows where the softest bed in the house is!

Now I have to go update my life insurance before she gets on a plane to flay my flesh from my body for posting this pic.

(It was Dad's idea, I swear!)

Goodbye Sonics

Sherman Alexie is my hero.

Basketball is not my MAIN sport with my Dad, baseball is. But the sentiment that Alexie shares is the same. In the article Alexie says, "In the days leading up to and following my testimony, my friends told me amazing and poetic basketball stories about their fathers, sons, and jump shots. These were love stories".  Sports, specifically basketball, were Alexie and his father's shared passion and obsession - it was their thing. And when they were together watching, playing or talking about basketball, they were sharing their love for each other. I learned to love baseball because I love my Dad and it was something we could share together.

I went to Mariners games in the now defunct Seattle Kingdome, sat in the cheap seats and ate peanuts with my Dad. Spike Owen was my absolute favorite player because he had my name - Dad's nickname for me was Spike. And Ken Griffey Jr. was a God until he broke my heart by leaving Seattle.

Little brother was born when I was nine and before long he too was a sports - especially baseball - aficionado. And when the parents divorced, it was Dad, brother and me every other weekend going to as many baseball games as Dad could afford, sitting in the cheap seats and eating peanuts.

We've been to baseball games at the shiny new Safeco field where the M's play now (they don't seem to be winning any more than when they were in the Kingdome but it's a much nicer stadium in which to watch them lose) and sometimes we bring my husband and daughter, both baseball fans.

When my brother moved to Berkeley to start grad school, Dad and I moved him down there and we all went to Oakland to watch the Mariners play the A's. And last year for Father's Day, brother and I flew Dad and Me to Berkeley and we went to Giant's stadium twice in one weekend to watch baseball. (We tried to get a Cal Bears football game in that weekend too but it wouldn't quite fit.)

I will miss the Sonics. Grandmother is a basketball fan and my Dad, Uncle, Brother and Cousin all played basketball in school. It's sad to see a team leave the city that they won the 1979 Championship in and the whole fiasco surrounding their move has been ridiculous.

But if Seattle loses baseball I will cry like a baby. Then I'll call my Dad and make arrangements for another baseball weekend, because baseball is our thing.