Fan Fest 2011

On a grey and rainy morning, we went to Safeco Field for the annual Fan Fest gathering for season ticket holders.  We got in and got a voucher for Felix Hernandez's autograph.  Anthony already has his autograph thanks to Nicky D and MRB but those were both with his old number that he was issued when he was a rookie.

Whole waiting in line, Amy saw this Asian dude with this on his M's hat.  Pretty funny that it said "Anthony B" on it.  What were the odds?

Felix was sporting a Fo-hawk, huge diamond earrings and a big smile.  It seems that the Cy Young Award winner was having fun even though it was early on a Saturday.  

Amy needed a quick break so while Anthony was looking at game used memorabilia, Amy took a load off on a leather chair that the Mariners were selling.  It happened to be Frankie G's chair and it retails at $500.  The guy earlier sold Ken Griffey Jr.'s chair for $1000.  

The M's put out some historical signs about Ichiro.  (you know, cuz there isn't much else to brag about...)

Anthony was ready to leave but Amy suggested hanging out for another 30 minutes to get more autographs.  So we got new vouchers and waited in line to get autographs by Mariners Minor League stars Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager.  

The Diamond Club was set up to commemorate the life of Dave Niehaus.  This picture shows what Dave's plaque looks like in Cooperstown.  

Dave will be severely missed.  The players will wear a patch on their jerseys this year that say My Oh My.  

Anthony also found a great deal on a Brandon Morrow autographed ball.  So in closing, we walked out of Safeco with 7 autograph balls.  Not a bad haul for 4 hours of work.

Hopefully the M's will win enough games to not be so pathetic this year... Go M's.... 

Flying Trapeze Groupon

So about 9 months ago, we bought a couple of Groupons for 4 people to attend Flying Trapeeze classes. At the time, Amy was not pregnant.  So she of course planned on being a part of the class.  Now that she is pregnant, she was the designated photographer for this event.  

This was a view of the ground level.  You can see the safety net suspended 10 feet high.  

We started off doing ground work.  Sommer, Samara, Jeremy and Anthony all got instructions.  

Anthony getting practice on the bar.  

Jeremy also got some practice on the low bar.

Here is Sommer (who has has gymnastics experience) upside down.  She was a natural at this whole thing.

Safety First!  We were all strapped in with safety lines so we could be caught in case we fell off the bar.

Jeremy got his legs up the first attempt.  

Anthony missed getting his legs up on the first swing but got his legs up on the 2nd pass.  Upon finishing the trick and getting back on the ground, his legs were wobbly.  

Sommer dressed in purple and gold....truly representing UW.  Which was a good thing since there was a girl dressed in Cougar gear in the class as well.

Samara was last to go in the first round.  She seemed nervous but as a rock climber we knew she would do awesome.

Between trips up and off the trapeze, Amy did some exploring.  Random Raffie Sighting!

Oh look, Amy changed view points.  Check out Jere.

Look at this movie of the trick Anthony completed at the end of the session!

Amy and Anthony babysit Remi

Lynnette had an appointment on MLK Jr Day and Amy volunteered to babysit Remi.  Since Anthony took the day off and worked at home, it was a no brainer that we could help out.  

When Remi was dropped off, she was tired and a bit upset.  Anthony didn't have much success in calming her down.  Anthony heard her say mama at one point, and tried distracting her.  Eventually, Amy volunteered to try calming her down since she and Remi have hung out a few times in the past.

Fortunately, Amy held her in the special way that Lynnette does and this put her into a relaxed sleep.  As long as Amy didn't move too much Remi stayed asleep.  She was very happy when Lynnette came home.  This was another good practice experience for us.   

Operation Get Rid of Hella Chemicals/Carcinogens

So Amy came home one night and told Anthony about some chemicals that are in lip balms.  Anthony did some research and then went off the deep end.  

We went thru the entire house and found carcinogens in shampoos, soaps, makeup, deodorants, toothpastes, lotions, etc.  Basically 80% of our personal care items were deemed potential carcinogens and that is ridiculous.  So we emptied them out in the sink....this process took close to an hour with 2 people dumping at the same time.

This was what was left in the bag after a while when we both needed a break.  

This bag is a gigantic amount of products that hopefully we can take back and turn into money to help pay for our new products that will be natural and surely more expensive.

Aises: Take Note

As you can see, your status on our blog has been downgraded.  You have been demoted from "PEOPLE WE KNOW... WITH BLOGS"  to "PEOPLE WE KNOW... WITH BLOGS... WHO NEVER POST ANYTHING!"

This is a serious penalty, but you can have your previous status reinstated if you simply begin posting again... it's all up to you.

Much Nub,
The Beneezees

Celebrate Life

It's hard to follow up a post like our last one with anything else.  Losing a loved one, a friend or a beloved coworker is perhaps the hardest thing in life we have to endure.  At her funeral, Triny's family made it very clear that she was a positive person, and that in this time of grief we should all focus on the positive things in our lives.

And so, it brings us great pleasure to officially announce that later this year there will be more life to celebrate.  We are expecting our first child this June!  He or She should arrive around June 3rd, and we are very excited.  Soon, we will learn the sex of the little one and start planning out the nursery.  (If you have any advice on things to register for, we are all ears.)

Stay tuned for more baby updates!

 

Sad day

On January 4th as the work day was coming to a close, Buffalo Export/Industries endured a tragic accident.  We lost a long time (30+ year) employee.  Maria Trinidad "Triny" Ruiz, the lead supervisor of our used shoe department, passed away.  The funeral service to remember her was held on January 9th.  She will be missed dearly.  May she rest in peace.

This loss will be felt by everyone who knew her.

Please remember how sudden life can be taken from us... enjoy each day... hug and tell loved ones how much you care.  You just never know...

Wild Card weekend vs Saints

How scary is this sign that is hanging at Qwest?  Ok, not too scary... but cool, yes!

This old cop car was parked out front before the game and stupid people kept posing and taking pictures in front of it.  Oy, why so exciting?  "Oh please, can you use the siren"  ugg, really?

Anthony's beard is 1 week thicker and today wasn't as cold as last week's game was.  Thank you, day game, for gracing us with a bit of sunshine!

The Hawks were extra pumped up before the game.  And Taima didn't refuse to fly out this time.  He doesn't like night games or something... or he just REALLY protests being on the field with the Rams...

Walter Jones raised the 12th man Flag!

So, it started off pretty horribly... yeah, the pressure was on, but Olindo booted the opening kickoff out of bounds... no bueno, and NOTHING like Olindo!!  The Hawks got down 10-0 and then Matt (yes, he was back as our starting QB this week) threw a TD pass to John Carlson (yes, it's nice him back in the game, and playing for real too).  

The Saints rallied again to score and the Hawks came back and scored again too.  After a fumble recovery and a field goal we tied the game up.  Then Brandon "The Vein" Stokley caught a 45 yard TD pass.  (Amy has dubbed him "The Vein" because he is rail thin and always has bare arms so you can see his thick ass veins popping out of his ripped arms... the veins... the vein...)  Matt threw another long 38 yard td pass to Mike Williams. (or as Amy calls him Mike "Complete Pass" Williams... but she also puts "Complete Pass" in the middle of everyone's name that actually completes a pass, cuz it's so few of the hawks... but most often, it's our buddy Mike!)  

The Saints made it very exciting at the end.  Finally, Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch ripped off an amazing 67 yard touchdown run and made 7 people miss him en route to one of the best runs in Seahawks history.  For your chance to see the Beast Mode action, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQULIUXZst8.  You can hear the roar of the crowd, which isn't even done justice in the clip.  The crowd, including us, went so out of control, people were jumping, screaming, high fiving, hugging strangers, fist pumping, it was insane.  It was so loud that it registered as a seismic event in Seattle, we tell no lies (check it and be sure to click on the seismic photo to enlarge the view)!  Our seat mates in front of us got super pumped, and one of them started fist pumping and accidentally punched Amy in the arm... hard... but due to the celebration, she didn't mind.  Also, check out this version of the action dubbed to the mario brother's music (you know when you get the star, go invisible and kill things you touch?) is pretty hilarious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueR1TFFEt3g.

Final score 41-36.  Perhaps the most awesome game Amy has ever seen... what an experience!  Hawks survive again and head off to Chicago next week for a chance to play in the NFC Championship.

Fireworks capped off another great home game!

Taima was very happy that we won as well.

Oh, and of course, here are a couple of videos from the start of the game...

This week white rally flags were handed out and it was like a storm when everyone waved them.  This was a video of the pregame introductions.

There was a funny warning sign telling people that an Air Force flyover would happen after the National Anthem.  Pretty awesome way to get amped up for the game, no?

NFC West Champs

It has become a Seahawks Home Game Day Tradition (yes, all of that was worthy of capitalization) that Amy and Anthony stop at Subway, get to the game early (to score a good parking spot), get free nachos, and return to the car to people watch until it's time to go inside.  It's balls cold out, people, that's why cars are so cool!  So as we people watch, we watch dudes tossing the pigskin, skanks in way too few ounces of clothing for the weather, grown men in shorts, scary people dressed up in strange get ups... oh and this guy...

Yeah, this dude is crazy, no doubt.  Don't be mad that you can't read his whole sign... it doesn't make any sense even with all the words... in the words of Brad Pitt, "He's a nutbag."

Matt came out to do the coin toss and then Charlie Whitehurst started the game as QB.  (No, he didn't injure himself in the coin toss as he did jogging into the end zone last week...) This was a must win game, and since this was our last regular season game, and our only chance to move onto the playoffs, we really had no choice.  And it paid off in the first few minutes of the game when we scored a touchdown, thanks in no small part to Charlie "Jesus" Whitehurst.  See, the guy really LOOKS like Jesus when he takes the helmet off... hence the nickname.  Some morons around us kept calling him "White Jesus" and Amy really wanted to bring them physical pain in an effort to get them to shut up, but she restrained herself.  Jesus was/is white, you idiots.  This from the same people who spilled so much beer that it came down two rows to us and got our stuff wet.  Morons, idiots and total bastards.  Some fans are just THAT cool.

Decked out in all of our gear.  Gloves, scarves, hats, multiple layers, double socks.....and we were still cold... but cute :)

Pretty cool to see this on the big screen after the game... closeups of players probably would have been cooler... 

This was the beginning of the celebration.

Final score: 16-6.  Yeah, ok, most of the scoring was from field goals... but it feels good to win, to go to the playoffs, and of course to beat the dirty effing RAMS!  Suck on that, Josh Brown!!

We believe Pete....we believe!

Next week... bring on the SAINTS!!!

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas in 2010 was pretty awesome.  The day started with a chance for everyone to sleep in before it was time to get ready, have breakfast and get down with the present opening festivities!  

We went up to the bonus room and turned on the Yule Log before starting to open our loot.

The kitties joined us, and eventually Mute went into Anthony's sweatshirt (not by choice of course) like a baby kangaroo.  The kitties were permitted to stay near the tree so long as they were on good behavior... needless to say that didn't last long!

Sark was causing a ruckus by gnawing on the lights.

And, not to be left out of course, Mute took her turn chewing on the tree.  Later, Amy opened one of her stocking stuffers from Anthony - a wonderful item called "PetZoom"  It's a small battery operated blue box with a button you push when the kitties are acting up.  Say no, push the button, and a sound that only kitties can hear comes from the box.  It works!  It keeps the kitties in line and Amy WAY more sane as she ultimately does a little more of kitty discipline since she is home more often.  It's a life saving device, we swear.  It's gotten to a point where you can merely show the kitty the "blue box" or the "bad box" and they squint/run away.  AWESOME!

Here is a picture where Sark was not getting into trouble.  Way to go, buddy.

The same could not be said about Muters.  No one is surprised...  Later she tried to eat Remi's present... oh come on, Lady, really!

The kitties got some new scratching posts this year, but they also got some toys in their stockings too.  The catnip infused fishes on a ring seem to be the big hit this year.  

Amy really surprised Anthony with an Amazon Kindle.  There are already games and some books downloaded and there will be tons more soon enough.  Amy was also surprised by Anthony when he bought her a beautiful pair of nice earrings to match her favorite necklace.  At times we are both hard to buy for, but we do a good job of keeping each other surprised and pleased with our gift giving traditions :)

Mom and Dad Brelsford came over later in the day.  Amy (with Anthony's help) had worked for hours on Christmas Eve to start Christmas dinner and dessert.  A fresh salmon dip on crackers started out the evening along with another cheesy app.  The dinner menu was mostly organic and included a fresh garden salad, butternut squash soup, scalloped potatoes, sweet potato casserole (one of Mom's favorites), sweet hawaiian rolls and fish.  For dessert there were plenty of cookies (made by Mom, Amy and Anthony) and of course the latest Christmas tradition, lemon pizzelle.  

After catching up, shooting the ish, dinner, dessert and a movie, it was time for Mom and Dad to go home and take care of Mickey.  Christmas 2011 will surely be more chaotic and interesting.  But this year, it was nice and quiet.