Madness

We scored a couple of free tickets to see British ska band Madness at WaMu Theatre. I like their singles "Our House" and "House of Fun".

I think may have also been my first opportunity to check out the venue, which was fun.

Madness like to wear fez caps and other distinctive things on their noggins.

A nice feature of this venue is that there were Seattle dog technicians waiting for me right outside the door.

Karaoke Master Returns

I managed to make a couple of friends from my kickball team who like to do things other than play kickball.

We had some apps at Life on Mars. This was like a normal food 6 but a vegan food 15 on a ten point scale. I think always referring to vegan food as Martian cuisine would help prepare me for the weird textures and tastes that I'm about to endure.

We did some karaoke at Rock Box. Girls really like singing these violent country songs, I've noticed. 

We closed the place down, which I was pretty proud of. It's not that hard to out party Seattle, though. The place is essentially a retirement home for young tech professionals.

Seattle dogs, off the leash. I believe this was the time that Vik's car was in a parking garage that closed for the night, and he was freaking out about it. He called the company which I believe then sends a tow truck or something to key him in... I got very lucky by parking someplace else and this did not end up being my problem.

Electric Cars and Fireworks for Ichiro

My parents are in town visiting. This puts me in an interesting position because I've already given them the grand tour last time. So... now what the heck are we supposed to do?

Check out the Lucid dealership at University Village I guess?

Next we headed over to check out a Mariners game but first I had to grab a Seattle dog outside the ballpark.

This guy was a professional. He had a friggin caulk gun full of cream cheese.

Winners gonna win.

Fireworks Night was officially part of Ichiro Mariners Hall of Fame Weekend. I don't think I ever got to see him play because he was sort of a big deal. He was ten-time All-Star & Gold Glove winner, three-time Silver Slugger, and 2001 Rookie of the Year & MVP award winner.

Zeke, my friend and Phi Alpha Literary Society pledge dad was in Seattle for a work thing so we brought him along for the fun as well.

The Very Confused Angels from California

We took Evan to see the Museum of Pop Culture. I think by this time Sam went home separately.

Luckily there was a warning sign in the Jimi Hendrix exhibit or he could have been irretrievably triggered.

We then sat in hotdog-infused witness to a face off between the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Angels. I vaguely recalled this team being called the Anaheim Angels and I made the mistake of researching... and four hours later I now have the whole very stupid story.

These people have some long running identity issues.

Unexpectedly the whole kerfuffle began with the departure of the LA Rams to St. Louis. The Angels shared Anaheim Stadium with them and apparently wanted their lonely stadium to be refurbished and downsized. Part of the team's agreement with the city was that the team would have "Anaheim" in the team's name. So they became the Anaheim Angels. Then, driven by douchiness and thirst for money, they greasily changed the team name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This way they were technically not breaking their agreement but could capitalize on the larger city's name. There were then a bunch of lawsuits. Quite the sportsmanlike conduct. 

We showed Evan the magnificent view of the city and the sound from the ballpark. What a great place.

Interesting airshow planes kept flying overhead.

I had a delicious Seattle dog once we were out on the street.

Our friend Miriam apparently missed having a quinceañera when she turned 15, so she got her revenge with a double whammy when she turned 30. I was hoping to show up and see her wearing some gaudy pastel dress looking like a cupcake but I was disappointed. Forum Social House was a fun venue though, and had a couple of those virtual golf driving range screens with various fun games to play.

I don't know what these slugs were doing on the path to the grocery store but they probably need to being doing it at home.

A Meaty New Friend and a School of Witchcraft

I don't usually go to Costco seeking vengeance but today I found it in a family size container.

I don't mean to gloat that I'm in a better place now that I'm out of St. Louis, but man there's never a shortage of news that makes me amazed I survived that place.

Meanwhile, at Costco, Seattle has its own hot dogs stuffed with cream cheese and jalepeños. It's like a dream. 

Then I saw her. She was thick and exotic and beautiful. Spanish ham! During my travels in Spain I saw a bunch of reasonably priced hams at the supermarket. I was excited about having one of these fancy pig legs for my very own. The villain of the story who will remain nameless poopooed my dreams and then murdered the rental car. Well now I've gone through a lot of personal growth and I'm no longer scared of achieving self actualization. I bought the ham. 

With the ham incident now behind us, I could focus on the future. Our friend Viry invited us to her brother's wedding in Monterrey, Mexico and we have a handshake agreement to attend. When I noticed that this case of Topo Chico was made there I decided it was fate and brought it home with me.

We had past and future taken care of, so in honor of my nearish to present recent trip to Detroit I bought some of these delicious deep dish Motor City pizzas.

It's amazing how much healing of one's soul can happen at Costco.

Earlier this month we did a hike at Saint Edward State Park and checked out the cool monastery that had been converted into a hotel. Well that holy school had been ambitious and actually had built another cluster of school buildings not far from the ones we visited.

While I think that fancy hotel was a happy ending for the other buildings, this wing took a dark turn. In addition to Bastyr University being some fake Harry Potter type school, they've done a pretty bad job of protecting their image on their own Wikipedia page:

"Bastyr University is a private alternative medicine university with campuses in Kenmore, Washington, and San Diego, California. Programs include naturopathy, acupuncture, Traditional Asian medicine, nutrition, herbal medicine, ayurvedic medicine, psychology, and midwifery.

Bastyr's programs teach and research topics that are considered pseudoscience, quackery, and fake by the scientific and medical communities. Quackwatch, a group against health fraud, put Bastyr University on its list of "questionable organizations" as a school which is "accredited but not recommended"."

The signs on this campus were amusing because I had to look some of them up. "Ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make use of indigenous (native) plants." Fun fact is that one of the sponsors listed of this wild plant area is none other than Missouri Botanical Garden. I wonder if they're aware that the plants are being used for spooky potions.