Ernie's First Soccer Match

We were still entertaining Zoe and her boyfriend who was in town visiting.

I recently booked a cheap business class flight to Japan. Like most of the rare good airline miles redemptions still in existence, this one took some work. For one thing, I was monitoring availability on and off for a friggin' year. Finally I did some more research and learned that the airline only releases the good seats like a year in advance and 2 weeks in advance. Well thanks to my favorite baby Ernie we had a ton of wiggle room to book flights at the last minute. Even better we actually already had an Alaska trip booked, which was supposed to serve as a stepping stone for Ern so he could learn with longer and longer trips. Well we said the hell with that, canceled Alaska, and booked a flight to the land of the rising sun. "Ernie the rising son" has a ring to it actually. Anyway one of the other tricky parts of this was that to get the best deal I needed to transfer Chase points to Virgin Atlantic and then book the ANA flight through them. When I called in to Virgin and told the nice British lady what I was up to her I could hear her eyes audibly rolling back in her head so hard she might hurt herself. I'm sure losers who don't know what they are doing call in all the time and get butthurt when there's no availability. Well I have a separate online tool that I subscribe to now and again that shows the actual availability, not the phantom crap you can get when you try to use the airlines. Anyway once she saw the flights were actually there we were right as rain. I'm super excited to show my boy my favorite places in Japan.

Aunt Jennifer bought Ernie Dog this outfit so we popped it on him and sent her a few pictures. Not a moment too soon either, he won't fit into this much longer.

The olive with the yellow epaulets are giving me a African military dictator vibe. Son, you can be anything when you grow up.

We took the crew to what must be one of the few professional Seattle sport teams that I have yet to see: the OL Reign women's soccer team.

They soccered and soccered.

I was hoping to see Megan Rapinoe but I think she was gone playing in the women's World Cup.

The airshow was in town so there were a lot of fun flyovers during the game.

We made a stop at Old Stove Brewing Co — Pike Place.

Ernie checked out the gum wall.

I was getting close to the end of Hollow Knight. It's a fun one.

Car Seat Safety and Green Hell

Today we went to a car seat instructional course in the parking lot at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.

It turns out that car seats are pretty complicated and there are about 8 different ways of installing one in a car. It was overwhelming at times.

Our carseat instructor lady told us a couple of times that we were going to have a large baby. That was a little bit strange and I'm not sure what that prediction was based on.

Some of the practice babies were having better childhoods than others.

I guess some European seat belts don't lock when you pull them, so there's an additional metal piece that you are supposed to use to secure the belt. Sitting down has never been so much work.

Once we had mastered the art of putting a child in a car we headed to the big city to watch some Major League Soccer.

The entire state of Washington is processing some major alcohol related trauma. It's going to be ok.

I was attending my very first US professional soccer match for a special occasion: St. Louis CITY SC was in town facing off against the Seattle Sounders FC! I like the pretension of calling Seattle's a "football club". We get it, you did a semester in Ireland. That's very cool.

It was fun seeing the quirky culture of the Sounders. I suppose it's possible that every soccer game does the same thing. I would not know.

I like "Welcome to Green Hell" because it's both threatening and environmentally responsible.

Ramadan break!

Lydia and I had a rare sports difference of opinion on this match. Usually we both support whatever team is from St. Louis if they are playing, and then whatever team is from Seattle if they are not. Pretty simple rule, no? Well in this instance there was a bit of a situation. You see, I'm a deal boy. I smell a deal, I pursue the deal, I obtain the deal. 

Kellogg's had a promotion where if you bought a few products then you would get a gift card that you could use at the MLS store. Well I figured out that Pringles was the cheapest product on the approved list, I waited until I found them on sale and then... I bought numerous cans of them. Enough cans to get a personalized authentic team jersey. Success was in reach. Well St. Louis' team is brand new and they didn't release the official jersey yet, so I had to wait. Well I waited and waited. Almost an entire year, until my points were about to expire. Still no jersey was available. So I had to make an executive decision to switch my allegiances and go with a Sounders jersey. St. Louis had their chance and they blew it.

There was some Din Tai Fung in attendance.

Betrayal brought to you by Pringles worked out in this instance because the Sounders were doing some damage today. Plus this situation gave me the added benefit of being able to talk trash to everyone back home.

A lot of butts were hurt and I earned a teardrop emoji or two from my former friends. It sucks to suck I guess.

This was Lydia's chance to paint her belly like a soccer ball, but she blew it.

CitySport at the CityPlace

We only had a little time left in St. Louis before our flight home to Seattle so we mopped up a few little odds and ends before heading to the airport.

We checked out the light show in the Grand Hall of Union Station. It's so fun and really reminds me of the amazing light show above Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

The several shows I've seen have been random but this one was a full on Queen rock performance. These people are getting fancy.

We checked out the new stadium for the confusingly named new professional soccer team St. Louis City SC. I hate that name so much, it is so stupid. I pretty much refer to them as "the St. Louis soccer team". They doubled down on the stupid and named the stadium CityPark. Please get a sponsor quickly, these names are terrible. I didn't have much time to linger as I would soon be taking StateHighway to CityAirport.

You can find me in the lounge

bottle full of bub'. Look, mami, I got the brownie bites if you into takin' drugs

We unfortunately did not have a direct flight home and had to stop at Chicago Midway International Airport.