Mariners vs. Tampa Bay

Alrighty.... coffee has been brewed, I'm still in my PJ's, and lot's of stuff to blog about so let's get started.

Hotness & I were invited to go see a Mariners game on Thursday night.

Neither of us are sports fans, but what helped to seal the deal on us going was that our seats were not just ordinary seats. We got to watch the game from the All-Star Club Suite.

I've been to Safeco Field a few times to watch the Mariners play, but always in the regular seats.
(Again, I'm not a sports fan, but I do enjoy watching the game in person. Eating a hot dog and peanuts and cheering with the crowd is part of the Great American Pastime.)

Holy freaking cow, was it awesome! These seats were incredible.

When you get to the suite, they punch your ticket and give you a hand stamp. You have to have BOTH in order to leave and come back in again. (You can't just show your ticket or your stamp. If you don't have have both, you aren't getting in again.) This prevents a lot of people from "finding a ticket" and making their way into the suite uninvited.

Once you're inside it's like Fantasy Island. Women wave palm fronds at you to keep you cool, while others feed you peeled grapes.... well, okay no. Not really.
But EVERYTHING inside is gratis (except for alcohol).


There was a buffet (see picture above) that had:
4 kinds of salad
Tortilla chips with 3 kinds of salsa
A fresh fruit and vegetable tray
Salmon patties
Chimichangas and taquitos
Pizza
Stir-fried vegetables and Jasmine rice
...and a "chef" who was carving up BBQ'd pork w/ a hoisin sauce
Not to mention the ubiquitous hot dogs that any self-respecting ball park would offer along with WARMED peanuts and fresh popcorn and all-you-can-drink soda.
There was also a seperate dessert buffet with;
Cheesecake
Chocolate pie
Cookies
and soft-serve ice-cream with your choice of Hot Fudge sauce, caramel sauce, or glazed walnut topping. (And you could eat the ice-cream out of a little Mariners batting hat bowl!)

Then, after you get your food, you can either sit inside at a table or go out to your seat which has a table in front of it.


That first picture is my seat (before I sat my big butt in it). It was leather and oh-so comfy!
The other picture is who we went to the game with. (l-r; Hotness's boss, his wife, and of course... Hotness)
You can also sort of see the table that was in front of our seats.

Here is our view of the game:


(#1 - pre-game) (#2 - during the game)

We also got a nice view of the Seattle skyline above the top of the stadium.


Here I am enjoying my FREE, Official Mariner Stadium dog, and a goofy picture of Hotness & I enjoying ourselves.


Anyway, we stayed and watched as the Mariners got spanked for 7 innings and thought "Well, maybe we should leave to get out before it's gets a lot later and so we don't have to fight traffic getting home". And then we scored a run, so then we thought "Hmmm, let's see what happens in the first half of the next inning".

We ended up staying for all 9 innings as the Mariners managed to come up from behind and win the game 8-7.

So not only did we have awesome seats, great food, and a terrific view of the game, but we also got to see the Mariners win at home.

I DEFINITELY plan on doing this again!
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On Friday after work, I drove over to Lynnwood and payed a visit to Aaron to introduce him to the wonder that is "Guitar Hero".

We kicked around for a bit while the kids ate dinner and he showed me his new boat and stuff, then we plugged in the PS2 and started playing the game.

It was a big hit, especially with the young 'uns.
Here's Aaron playing with his son (who wanted to play with the 'Spidah-man 'tar').

And the other two joining in on the fun.

Everyone had a blast. The kids got to stay up past their bedtime (I'm such a bad influence when I'm around).

Aaron and I played until about 10:00 p. m. and then I had to finally call it quits. It had been a long week of late nights and I couldn't stay awake to drive home if I'd played for much longer.
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You'll probably have noticed that I didn't mention anything about Wednesday yet.
Well, there was plenty a'happening that day for sure!

Hotness and & joined a couple of friends and went to the Puyallup Fair to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert.

We had an absolute blast, but unfortunately NONE of my pictures came out. So I'm waiting until I get get the pics our friends took (because they got some incredible pictures) before I post my review about the show.

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of my ticket:

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I sort of felt like I was living the life of Technogreek this week!

Be good until I get back!