You Can Pull All The Cards But I Won't Back Down

Eat Tootsie Rolls
Play Tetris
Take Standardized Tests
Predict Baseball Seasons

Those are four things that I do really well.  With the announcement of Ryan Braun getting the NL MVP award (yes, Matt Kemp was most certainly robbed, especially when you factor in the protection Ryan Braun had batting in front of Prince Fielder), the 2011 Baseball Season has finally come to a close.  Accompanying this is the close of the 3rd Annual Rick Russell Knows More About Baseball Than I Do contest.  And in case you were wondering, yours truly was once more victorious over all-comers.

This was closer than most, as I relied on my MVP picks to carry the day for me, but a 6 point victory over the next nearest competitor is still a win.  For those of you playing, please prepare a $1 bill with the following script:
"Rick Russell knows more about baseball than I do - 2011"
(Signature)

If I have not received these by Christmas Day, expect a phone call.  I have a wall to fill.

Word

What I Don't Know, I Catch On Real Quick

I have to admit, I've wasted titles twice in a row now.  Both of the previous two titles could have been better used on the subsequent post, as opposed to the ones that they currently head.

Either way, I just got back from a trip to Seattle this past weekend.  I've been fortunate to spend roughly 2 weeks in the Seattle/Northwestern Washington area in my life, and out of that time, it has rained only a day and a half.  For all this talk about being a rainy city, I'm throwing out my BS flag.  The Girlfriend and I flew in on Friday, and it was drizzling a bit that afternoon and early evening.  However, all Saturday and Sunday it was clear and sunny skies.  Monday morning had a slight drizzle before we boarded the plan back to SLC, but that was it.  For that, Seattle, I thank you.

Now you're asking yourself, why did I go to Seattle.  Because I can.  Well, that and The Girlfriend's friend went and moved there a couple months ago and has been asking The Girlfriend to make a visit ever since.  I came along because, well, I can, and because I had met the friend and her husband and found them both to be enjoyable.  To give things a more tangible impression, here's a picture of the four of us.  If you can tell me where that photo was taken, I will award you five tootsie rolls.  Note: none of the four people in the picture qualify for the tootsie roll reward.

These people are some fun people.  They found this thing called CityPass which got us into the major area attractions for a little less than half the retail price.  Science Center, Aquarium, Zoo, Space Needle, EMP, Harbor Tour.  Yep, did all of them for less than what we spent on hot chocolate the weekend. (Got to the point that we just decided to buy a gallon milk, a box of mix and just load canteens before we left for the day.  Have I told you that I hate being cold, as does The Girlfriend.  I brought two jackets and three sweaters for a three and half day trip.  And a hoodie.)

Everything was great except for the Ye Olde Curiosity shop after the Harbor Tour.  They're going to make a comment about it because it's right on the pier.  For future reference, you can skip this place.  It's a souvenir shop with a wall of not-so-curious things.  In their cabinet, they have an Ichiro baseball card.  Not even a rookie card, just and Ichiro card.  Now, you can make the argument that while the card itself is not curious, its inclusion certainly is, but you should not have to go to that level to qualify a Curiosity shop.  Boo on the Ye Olde Curiosity shop.  Boo.

Ok, now I need to preface this.  Growing up in coastal Florida, I was always near the water and the wild-life that it had.  However, I never saw a fish, or a stingray, or even a manatee and thought, "I want to touch that."  Nope.  I figured they were doing their thing, I'm going to just do mine.  And then when I found out about things like stinging coral or anenomees during scuba certification, well that just reinforced my bias.  So, when we stroll into the aquarium and they have this large exhibit where you can touch starfish or anenomees or urchins, I wanted no part in it.  The other three comrades thought this was an opportunity not to be missed, so they kept petting them and letting the tentacles attach to or close around their fingers.  Me?  I petted the immobile starfish that looked/felt like a football.  That's good enough for me.  Thanks.  Next exhibit please.  Oh, and a dry towel would be great as well.

I remember when the Experience Music Project (EMP) opened back in 2000 because I was in Seattle when it happened.  I was there for EFY (Why Seattle?  Florida didn't have one that year.  The closest was in Atlanta.  I figured if I had to fly anyway, might as well go as far as I can.) and arriving a day early, had the chance to read a newspaper that told me about it's opening.  I thought it was amazing and wanted to go ever since.  Hearing that it was on the CityPass, well that sealed it for me.  For a museum, it is unlike any other museum I have been to.  A lot of the exhibits are interactive or video-screen based, and I can only watch so many of those before I get bored.  Give me a cool piece and then an even better story behind it and I'm enthralled for hours.  It's a little embarrassing, but I can't help not read the plaques accompanying stuff that I generally don't care about.   I now know the back-story of Battlestar Galactica.  Not that I've ever seen an episode, or even want to, but because there was a large description of it on a wall.  Because of this, the Nirvana exhibit was great.  I like Nirvana, but I don't thing I've ever owned an album of theirs, and I'm almost certain I've never paid money for a song of theirs. (Notice how I left a loophole regarding napster-esque downloading.  Intentional.)  However, their exhibit was great.  I had no clue that Dave Grohl didn't join the band until 1990, or that Kurt would collect the pickups and other parts of the recently smashed guitars to reuse for repairs.  Now, I do.

Oh, and an inverted tree of guitars and other instruments is always cool.

We ended the trip by first heading out to Snoqualmie Falls.  Want to know the best part about these falls, aside from the view?  The lack of hiking required to see them.  Big fan right there.  Just park, stroll over a skybridge and there you are.  Very pitcturesque setting.  From there we trekked over to the Freemont Troll.  No, it did not have neon hair that stuck straight up.  No, it was not actually a goblin, despite the name.  And no, it slowly move across water while we fished.  It was however a large sculpture of a troll that resides under a bridge.  It's a city monument and is well respected and taken care of.  How well respected, you ask? They are currently doing work on the bridge, renovating it and bolstering it against the ever increasing load it bears.  Instead of blocking off everything under the bridge, they have left a path leading up the troll, as well as the troll itself, accessible.  Now, if you step one yard left of the troll, you are in a hard-hat required area.  However, feel free to climb up the troll without any protection, because the workers are all off to one side.  

All in all, I love hot chocolate, and thoroughly enjoyed the vacation.  Big thanks go out to The Girlfriend's friend and her husband for putting us up/ chauffeuring us around for the weekend.  And a bigger thanks go out to The Girlfriend for letting me tag along.

Word.