French and Saunders

We've discovered over the past 6 months or so that we love British comedy! It started when Julie brought home an episode of "Ab Fab" from the library. It was hilarious. So she checked out the entire series and we started watching them (and couldn't stop). Then we looked up the actresses to see what else they were in and that's when we discovered "French and Saunders".

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders......well known British comedy duo who had their own TV series for several years. Their work is incredible. Spoofs of movies, bands, original skits....it was one of their original skits that was the beginnings of "Absolutely Fabulous". (the aforementioned Ab Fab) Check out some of their stuff on YouTube or rent a video.

Here are a few links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ4A0aaaOAw An Original Skit "Computer Trouble"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onI92OxBHY Harry Potter Spoof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOM-_PYgQPY Very early skit "School Girls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD0rbiePhBc Madonna, Missy Elliott, & Britney Spoof

Their most current spoof is of the Meryl Streep film "Mamma Mia".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq-FX1ced8g

From there we were led to the comedy "The Vicar of Dibley" starring Dawn French. There are 5 series of it (similar to our seasons of shows) and we've only seen the first 3. I'm dying to see the rest of the show. It's just started showing on PBS here in Seattle, so we're glued to the telly every Saturday night at 7pm.

We've also discovered "The Catherine Tate Show" and all the great characters she played for 4 series. You'll just love "Nan". Other series we are watching: "Gavin & Stacey" and "Jam & Jerusalem" (known as Clatterford here in the USA).

Believe me, you'll be dying when you check out these British Comedies!

Autograph Ramblings

I was just thinking tonight about how many baseball player and coach autographs Julie and I have obtained over the past 8 years. It's a bunch, but I wanted to know exactly how many. So I've started my list here. All were obtained in person either at a game or at the Mariners FanFest held every January. Players team (other than Mariners) are listed in parentheses and an asterisk by a players name means they played for the M's at one time.



It's amazing to me that we have so many. It has been a blast obtaining them, and occasionally having a story to go along with it. Case in point is our John Wetteland autograph. We obtained it at the M's bullpen. The card is his ONLY game-used card and he had never seen it till Julie and I showed it to him. He didn't even know he had one. He made a huge deal about it, having the entire bullpen come over to see it before he signed. David Aardsma took the card, flipped it over and said "You have obtained a game-used jersey card of the greatest pitcher ever." It doesn't say that on the back, but it sure was funny hearing the guys tell their coach how cool the card was.





THE AUTOGRAPH LIST

1. Adrian Beltre
2. Bruce Chen (Royals)
3. John Wetteland (Mariner's coach)
4. Sean Casey (Red Sox)
5. Ian Snell
6. Shawn Kelley
7. *Carlos Guillen (Tigers)
8. Felix Hernandez
9. Dave Niehaus (Mariners broadcaster)
10. Ozzie Guillen (White Sox Manager)
11. Miguel Tejada (Orioles)
12. Larry Bigbie (Orioles)
13. Melvin Mora (Orioles)
14. Bret Boone
15. Bucky Jacobsen
16. *Dave Valle (Mariners broadcaster)
17. Dan Wilson
18.* Chris Shelton (Rangers)
19. Bengie Molina (Angels)
20. *Norm Charleton (Mariners coach)
21. *Jared Washburn (Angels)
22. Miguel Olivo
23. Barry Zito (A's)
24. Mark McLemore
25. Ryan Franklin
26. JJ Putz
27. Phil Niekro (Silver Bullets coach) *HOF pitcher*
28. Bob Feller (Indians HOF pitcher)
29. Willie Bloomquist
30. Andy Hawkins (MLB coach)
31. Jamey Wright (Rangers)
32. Josh Hamilton (Rangers)
33. *Joey Cora (White Sox coach)
34. *Eddie Guardado (Rangers)
35. Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez (Tigers)
36. David DeJesus (Royals)
37. David Murphy (Rangers)
38. Todd Greene (MLB coach)
39. Joey Gathwright (Royals)
40. Richie Sexson
41. Yuniesky Betancourt
42. Sidney Ponson (Orioles)
43. John McLaren (Mariners Manager)
44. Mark Hendrickson (Marlins)
45. Rich Harden (A's)
46. George Sherrill
47. Sean White
48. Kevin Correia (Padres)
49. Chad Gaudin (Padres)
50. Julio Cruz (Mariners broadcaster)
51. Heath Bell (Padres)
52. Darrel Akerfelds (MLB coach)
53. Ben McDonald (Orioles)
54. Mike Scioscia (Angels)
55. Brandon Wood (Angels)
56. Rick Dempsey (Orioles)
57. Milton Bradley (Rangers)
58. *Mickey Brantley (Rangers coach)
59. Juan Uribe (White Sox)
60. Roberto Kelly (MLB coach)
61. Gerald Perry (MLB coach)
62. *Ron Roenicke (MLB coach)
63. Joe Mauer (Twins)
64. Mike Gallo (Astros)
65. Carl Sadler (Indians)
66. Josh Womack
67. Matthew Brown (Angels)
68. Ryan Christiansen
69. Rene Rivera
70. Rick Rizzs (Mariners broadcaster)
71. Ron Washington (Rangers coach)
72. Scott Downs (Blue Jays)
73. Timo Perez (White Sox)
74. Mike Adams (Padres)
75. Greg Burke (Padres)
76 Josh Greer (Padres)
77. Jeremy Reed
78. Joe Thatcher (Padres)
79. Edward Mujica (Padres)
80. *Jim Presley (MLB coach)
81. Tommy Hunter (Rangers)
82. Nick Swisher (A's)

Guess who was in the bullpen?

On Friday, Julie and I went to the Seattle Mariners game vs the Kansas City Royals. It was another stadium give away night, with the evenings first 20,000 fans receiving the Mariners Classic Commercials DVD Volume 2. We arrived early and got our DVD and then headed down to the field level to watch batting practice. I almost got 2 foul balls, managing to get my glove on them, but not able to capture one entirely. The guy next to me (with slightly longer arms) managed to get both of them. Did he share? No. Oh well, better luck next time.

My luck improved when I went over to the bullpen to watch Felix Hernandez warm up before the game. I was on the bullpen market side and trying to get David Aardsma's auto when guess who shows up in the bullpen? Adrian Beltre was entering the bullpen and came over to where I was standing. I quickly found this card, and asked him to sign it which he did. He signed for about 5 minutes, so I consider myself very lucky to be in the right spot (with the right card) at the right moment. Certainly made my night. Felix and the Mariners went on to beat the Royals 6-3 with Aardsma getting his 31st save of the year and Felix getting his 13th win of the season.

Seattle Sounders FC game vs New England

We just got back from the Seattle Sounders FC match vs the New England Revolution. Seattle is the newest franchise in MLS (Major League Soccer). They play their games at Qwest Field, which is also home to the Seattle Seahawks NFL team.

The crowd was huge, and quite boisterous. Louder than just about any Mariners game I've ever been to. We had great seats with great views. Here are some of the photos I took during the match.

Our Sounders lost 1-0 in the worst officiated MLS game I have ever seen. Our team still should have been able to score, but for some reason seemed perfectly happy playing "hacky sack" in front of the net rather than taking an actual shot on goal. The Revolution's goal keeper didn't have to stop one shot tonight.

All in all though it was a great night, celebrating Julie's birthday with a game of footie.

Cheddar Cheese!

Meet the newest member of the family, Cheddar Cheese!

Julie and I adopted Cheddar Cheese from the Everett Animal Shelter today. He is a very large cat, almost twice the size of Kiwi, our 14 year old black kitty. He is very, very affectionate, and has already claimed the washer as his own! Kiwi isn't exactly thrilled about her baby brother (who is approximately 7 years old) but I know in time she will come to love her new playmate. Or at least tolerate him.

Meet the little squirrels

Several people have asked me to post a picture of Scrappy's baby squirrels, so here they are.

This picture shows both babies, who at this point are probably about 2 months old. This photo was taken the first day we saw them. According to online references, Scrappy (a north american red squirrel) was pregnant for 35 days. After the babies were born, they stayed in the nest for about 40 days. Around day 60, the babies are taught to forage for food by their mother. Scrappy was up on our deck also, but we never were able to get a picture of all 3 together. We have a short video, but I don't have enough band width to load it sucessfully. You'll just have to come visit us to see it!

Speaking of Scrappy, the little slut is pregnant again. Her next litter is due in about 2 to 3 weeks. Again, according to online references, north american red squirrels have 1 or 2 litters per summer, usually one, but two if there is an ample food supply. Considering she gets handouts from all the neighbors on at least 3 floors, it's not surprising that she is having a 2nd litter.

Other places we visited along the Coast

This last post about our trip includes some of the stops we made that really don't need long explanations.

Julie loves lighthouses (even more than I do), so we made sure to visit some while we were here. Yaquina Head Lighthouse was the tallest lighthouse in Oregon at 93 feet. A picture of it was shown on my last blog. The shortest is Cape Meares Lighthouse, which is only 35 feet high. We visited it on the way back from Tillamook, OR , home of the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

While there, we were able to tour the factory and see how they make the fabulous cheeses and ice cream that we are always eating. Each block of cheese on the conveyor line weighs 40 pounds. It makes it way along the track where it is cut into smaller blocks and slices and then put in it's packaging. Finally, the cheese is put in boxes for shipping to your favorite grocery store for purchase.

At the end of the tour, you could sample some of the cheeses and ice cream was sold too. They had a great gift shop, too.




This was the first lighthouse we saw in Oregon, Heceta Head Lighthouse. Somehow, it missed being included in Day One blogs. It was here that we saw Anchovies washed up on the beach while the tide was going out. The sea gulls were feasting on the little fishes while we were here.

Well, that's some of the highlights from our trip and I hope you have enjoyed the pictures.

OSU Hatfield Science Center

Day Four was spent in Newport, Oregon.

The Oregon State Univ Hatfield Science Center was free to the public. They do accept donations.

The biggest draw is their Octopus exhibit. Each octopus they have is "rescued" from local fishermen nets and lives at the science center for approximately 6 months before being released close to where it was found. The octopus is a Giant Pacific Octopus, and it is still only a toddler. Octopus live, on average, 4 years. Shortly before they die, they will mate and lay 50,000 eggs to continue the species. This is similar to spawning Salmon. Usually only 2 eggs will live to reproduce again. Not great odds.

The octopus at the Hatfield science center is fed one crab three times a week. We were lucky enough to be there at 1pm for it's feeding.

The current octopus is set to be released this fall. There has been an octopus in residence since 1965 when the facility opened.

While the Octopus is the main draw, the entire facility was unbelieveable. They had huge "touch tanks" where you could touch starfish, sea anenome, small fishes, and the like. We saw a cool film about Cocos Island and it's habitat of sharks. We attended a lecture that showed new video from the Mariannas Trench. Included was video of an underwater volcanic eruption. The crew was there doing research when it erupted in May, 2009. They had to actually "rescue" the unmanned robot to recover the data. We learned that there is an underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon also.

Interactive exhibits were everywhere. You could be a commercial fisherman and buy a boat, go out for a 5 day fishing trip, make decisions on where and what to fish for, and find out how you did. I made a $14,800 profit on my trip and was told I could buy my family that new car they wanted. We were there for nearly 3 hours and still didn't see everything we wanted to see.

The science center opened at 11am and we arrived in Newport about 9am, so we went to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse just a few miles away beforehand. Here we saw common murres, cormorrant babies on the rocks, a group of seals, and of course the lighthouse. It was foggy most of the time, but that's ok. Here are a few pictures from the morning.