It's a Sweep!

My birthday was back in October, but I just got my present this weekend. The Cleveland Indians came to town to play a 3-game series against the Mariners, and my present was tickets to all three games. It was awesome.

Friday night, Shawn and I had great seats...we were in the second row of the upper deck, right in line with the 3rd base line (draw a line from 3rd through home plate and just keep going up to the seats...that's where we were). The game didn't start until 10:10 EST, so unless the fans in Ohio stayed up pretty late, they missed a good game. The Indians beat the Mariners, 9-0!

Saturday was a day game, and our seats were in left field, about 10 feet inside the foul pole. For some stupid reason, this game was blacked out nationwide, so the only ones who could see it were those of us who were there! My brother even tried to watch it online and couldn't. We were in the sun the entire time, and it was really hot out, but it was still another great game. The Indians beat the Mariners, 10-3!

Finally, on Sunday, we went to another day game. It was hot again, but our seats were in the shade for the entire game (well, we were in the sun for the first half of the first inning or so). We were back in the upper deck, a bit higher up than Friday, and we were on the 3rd base side. A group of our friends from church were at the game, too, but I'm not sure where they were sitting. (We already had bought our tickets before we knew that friends would be going.) Once again...it was an awesome game! This time, the Mariners took a 2-1 lead after the first inning, but reigning Cy Young winner, Cliff Lee, settled down pretty quickly after the first, and the Indians beat the Mariners, 12-3! We swept Seattle!!!

Safeco Field is a really pretty park. It was actually designed by the same guy who designed both Jacobs Field in Cleveland (I refuse to call it Progressive Field) and Coors Field in Denver. Here are a couple shots of the park.
So this weekend, I had the privilege of watching some great baseball with my wonderful husband, who cheered for the Indians with me. My team swept the Mariners by scoring 31 runs in 3 games, and we enjoyed a lot of good food. (I'll admit that the hot dogs at Safeco are the best I've ever had, and they also make some darn good garlic fries there!) It was a wonderful birthday present!! So what if I got it 9 months late? :-) Thanks, love!

Happy Birthday to Shawn!

Yesterday was Shawn's 31st birthday!!! Happy birthday to Shawn! :) This weekend, we started celebrating Shawn's birthday a little bit early...dinner and a movie on Saturday was his choice. We went to a restaurant called Shawn O'Donnell's, which isn't far from here. It's one of the places that Shawn would occasionally go with a guy from work before I moved out here, and they've got good Irish-American food. We also saw Body of Lies, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. It was okay. It seemed to drag on (I checked my watch after an hour, hoping that the movie was almost over), and the storyline seemed unnecessarily complicated. By the end, it also went too far into the "political message" that Shawn and I didn't really agree with.

Since Sunday was actually Shawn's birthday, he chose what we did all day long. I was shocked when he decided not to do anything outdoors and tiring! Instead, what he really wanted to do was just stay home and relax. So after we slept in and then went to church, that's what we did. We got McDonald's for lunch because it was easy (and we both got chocolate dipped cones in honor of his birthday). Then Shawn got his birthday presents.

I bought him two guidebooks. One is Hiking in Snohomish County (which is where we live). Apparently, our county stretches from the Puget Sound in the west to some of the mountains in the east, so there is actually some good hiking not too far from here. The other guidebook is a Falcon guide to Mountainbiking in the Puget Sound Area. One of the things that Shawn misses about where we lived in Colorado is the open space park we lived next to, where he loved to go biking. So hopefully this book will give him some good places to go biking without having to drive an hour or two to get there!

I then also bought him a game for his Xbox 360...Bioshock. He put this in to play for "30 minutes." I think it turned into more like an hour and a half. I think he likes it. :)

The rest of the day, we just hung around the house together. I made a pizza at his request; we played a little MarioKart; we watched a little TV. That's really about it. Shawn, I hope you had a wonderful birthday!! I love you very much! :-)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday, October 27th, was my birthday. Yes, it's true...I am thirty. Although it's safe to say that I don't really feel "old," I do feel a bit more grown up. I realize that I've legally been an adult for the last 12 years, but I often haven't felt like an adult. The last day or two, I've been feeling like an adult. It's kinda nice, actually.

Since we don't really know many people in this area yet, a party for me was not in the cards. But my day was very nice anyway. I actually got up earlier than normal because Shawn made me breakfast of pancakes and eggs before he went to work. Then I stayed at home in my pajamas until about 2:00 and didn't feel guilty about it. When Shawn came home from work, he gave me my present. Or actually, he gave me a promise about my present. :) Once they go on sale, he's going to buy us tickets to see all 3 games when the Indians are here to play the Mariners next July. But he's also promised to "sing the praises of baseball as the best sport ever," and he's also agreed to do some research ahead of time so that he'll know who the starting pitchers will be and "will be able to chat like a 'real fan'." I think that's a wonderful, thoughtful gift! :)

Shawn then took me out to dinner. I had asked him to choose a place, so he did. He didn't tell me ahead of time where we were going, but I could tell that he had done some research online to find something good. We ended up in Greenlake, which is a neighborhood north of Seattle. He planned on taking me to a place called The Stumbling Goat Bistro (which we realized later was funny in light of the "special" goat we saw on Sunday!). However, when we got there, we noticed that the restaurant was awfully dark. We walked up to the door and noticed that the place is closed on Mondays. Oops. The menu looked good, though, so we'll have to try it some other time.So as Plan B, we headed to Ballard, which is a fun part of town. We decided to try Lombardi's. It was really good! When they brought us our meals, both Shawn and I immediately were drawn to the other person's dish. :) But we ate what we ordered and then each took a few bites of the other person's meal. When we were finished, we walked a couple doors down to a coffee shop/cupcake bakery. We found ourselves at Cupcake Royale, which I have actually heard of. We each got a cupcake for my birthday. They were really good! This is the one that I had, but after perusing their website, I think we'll have to go back so I can try more flavors!All in all, it was a great way to celebrate my 30th birthday. :)