Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Baseball for beginners

Instead of suffering from aftereffects of the previous night's spontaneous partying, Ralph and I woke up early and walked across the street from my apartment to the Barrel Thief for a decadent Sunday waffle breakfast. Well, to be honest they didn't open until 10 am, so I went out in the morning sun to fill yet another bucket with blackberries while Ralph slumbered a little longer. (Side note: I might have a bit of a problem with my compulsory blackberry picking, but the season is approaching its end so I'll hopefully be able to stay out of the brambles soon - until next year, that is...).

The main event of the day was a première for both of us: baseball! This all-American game really hasn't been on my radar until now, but as a Fred Hutch employee I was offered discounted tickets and thought that Ralph's visit might be the perfect excuse to give it a go. We quickly browsed through the main rules and extensive terminology whilst nomming on our waffle sandwiches, concluding that this was slightly (just slightly) more complicated than Swedish brännboll.


That Sunday, Seattle Mariners were taking on the The Chicago White Sox at Safeco Field; a game that they ended up winning, quite easily it seemed, with 4 points against 2. Coincidentally, Scott and Shani had also bought tickets to the game and happened to be sitting more or less directly behind us (!) with little Cian. This turned out to be extremely fortunate for Ralph and me, as we would have been scratching our heads wondering what in the world was going on quite a few times otherwise. The Frayos explained what was happening on the field, what the stats meant, when we should yell ”Charge!”, the reason behind people's apparent obsession with peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and why everyone seemed so excited when the closing pitcher entered the field. The game itself was fairly slow, allowing plenty of time for grade A people watching and general chitchatting.

Our verdict: a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon with good friends!


After that, we hopped on a bus to Ballard to engage in one of my favorite Sunday activities: fika and board gaming. We got a table at Café Mox and stayed until Ralph was tired of getting his butt kicked. A lovely day to be me.

9 comments:

  1. Det var tuffa tag i kortspelandet må jag säga - Men jag fick en redig skål med ÄPPLEMOS att trösta med! :)

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  2. Baseboll är rediga grejer det. Fast ännu bättre är Softboll :)

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    1. Såndär mjukboll har inte utforskats ännu - får kolla upp det, enbart för din skull. ;)

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  3. Låter som en trevlig söndag, verkligen! Och den där frukosten såg rätt smarrig ut alltså. Och bra bild också! Det där med baseball har jag försökt få en amerikansk kollega att förklara för mig, men jag vet inte om jag förstod så himla mycket egentligen. Ser ut som att ni satt en bit bort. Såg man bollen bra?

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    1. Bilden luras lite - det kändes som att vi satt rätt bra ändå, och det var inga större problem att se bollen.

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  4. Låter hur bra som helst! Våffelmacka ska jag baske mig göra någon dag snart. :)

    Jag har fö ägnat en del tid av senaste veckan åt att titta på The Killing. Tänker på dig varje avsnitt när de visar helikoptervyer av ett regnigt Seattle.

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    1. Åhå! Det kanske är en serie jag borde kolla in. Bra grejer? Och ja: go for the våffelmacka! :)

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  5. Tja, mitt omdöme är den är en ganska trevlig, klassisk polisserie. Sen finns det en hel del lustigheter, t.ex. Joel Kinnamans street-dialekt. Vi har nyss skaffat Netflix så helt plötsligt har man ett smörgåsbord av serier. Favoriten just nu är annars Orange is the new black.

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