Yeah, you read that right. It was 103 degrees in Seattle yesterday according to the national weather service. The old ALL TIME record high for Seattle since records have been kept starting in 1891 was 100, in 1941 and 1994.
In the past year we have the hottest day on record, the hottest week on record and the most snow in a day, week and month in Seattle history. Who said global warming isn't real?
The main problem is that we, like everyone else, do not have AC. Normally when it gets hot I can play the open house at night and run fans then close house up during day game and deal with it. But the problem here is that the night time temperature didn't drop below 70 degrees (also record low temp in Seattle history) rendering my system relatively useless. Plus my office doesn't have AC either, so the only time I am cool is in the Camry.
Paty and I have moved to the basement until the heat passes and that helped immensely last night. It is strange to sleep on a hide a bed in your own home, but worth it.
I have some pics from the races to put up. I've just been busy devising new systems to stay cool to get around to it. Plus I don't have as many good ones as I thought I did, except the flip which will end up being it's own post.
All for now. Stay Cool!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Sounders FC v Chelsea
Saturday was the Sounders friendly (read exhibition) game versus Chelsea of the English Premier League at Qwest field. Kickoff was at Noon, so we had to start the pre-game activities earlier than normal. We had a 10 AM rendezvous at the Pyramid Beer Garden. This was also Heather's (Reid's wife, refer to a post about three months ago for details) first ever beer before Noon. I felt so proud! Of course in the picture here she has already switched to water. One beer before Noon was enough for Mrs Jonasson.
As a curious side note, this is the third Saturday out of the last four where I have shared beers with the Klisch's before Noon. Unlike Heather I have no reservations of starting the day early.
This is the first game of the pre-season training for Chelsea. But it was being broadcast live back to London, which most likely explains the Noon kickoff. ESPN was carrying the game. They couldn't have asked for a better day in terms of weather. It is safe to say that Seattle continued to turn heads for how nice of a venue we have for big time footy matches. Here is a picture I found on the web, I wish I took it, that best shows the 65,289 fans in sold out Qwest field:
The crazy's before the game in their traditional South stands seats (photo by Reid):
The Sounders have gotten into the habit of spraying massive amounts of glitter into the air before the game and after every goal. It's kind of hard to get the full effect in a picture but here are a few shots from right before kick off.
Paty and I at halftime:
The final score was Chelsea 2 Sounders 0. But I can safely say that the real winners were the Sounders organization, the city of Seattle and the 65 thousand plus fans lucky enough to have a ticket. According to some friends of mine that watched the game on ESPN, the fans and field showed extremely well on TV.
After the game, we encountered this guy:
For a $5 donation to charity you could throw three water balloons at the police man on the roof of Krispy Kreme. Seeing as we had Natalie and Aaron with us and Aaron is the big baseball star of years gone by, I expected this to produce some excellent photos.
$10 and six balloons later we did get a glancing hip shot. Apparently it is harder than you think to hit a cop with a water balloon, who knew?
After the Chelsea game we went home and then took Natalie's dog Nikko to the dog friendly bar about 2 miles from our house. The USA Men's National soccer team was taking on Panama in the Quarterfinals of the Gold Cup. This is the same tournament we went to on 4th of July from two posts ago.
US 2 Panama 1 in extra time. The summer of soccer rolls on!
Sunday was another chamber of commerce day in Seattle. Natalie and Aaron decided to stay an extra night. So we took the Mercedes down to Alki to check out the scene. We ended up spending about 5 hours at a coffee shop/bar with outside seating called Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company just drinking beers and playing cards in the sun.
Next weekend it's off to the Tri-Cities for the Boat Races. I imagine there will be more TGC (Tobin Generated Content) to post about. The current forecast for Richland over the weekend is highs in the 102-107 degree range. I am already pre-hydrating in anticipation. If the camera doesn't melt I will have some pictures.
As a curious side note, this is the third Saturday out of the last four where I have shared beers with the Klisch's before Noon. Unlike Heather I have no reservations of starting the day early.
This is the first game of the pre-season training for Chelsea. But it was being broadcast live back to London, which most likely explains the Noon kickoff. ESPN was carrying the game. They couldn't have asked for a better day in terms of weather. It is safe to say that Seattle continued to turn heads for how nice of a venue we have for big time footy matches. Here is a picture I found on the web, I wish I took it, that best shows the 65,289 fans in sold out Qwest field:
The crazy's before the game in their traditional South stands seats (photo by Reid):
The Sounders have gotten into the habit of spraying massive amounts of glitter into the air before the game and after every goal. It's kind of hard to get the full effect in a picture but here are a few shots from right before kick off.
Paty and I at halftime:
The final score was Chelsea 2 Sounders 0. But I can safely say that the real winners were the Sounders organization, the city of Seattle and the 65 thousand plus fans lucky enough to have a ticket. According to some friends of mine that watched the game on ESPN, the fans and field showed extremely well on TV.
After the game, we encountered this guy:
For a $5 donation to charity you could throw three water balloons at the police man on the roof of Krispy Kreme. Seeing as we had Natalie and Aaron with us and Aaron is the big baseball star of years gone by, I expected this to produce some excellent photos.
$10 and six balloons later we did get a glancing hip shot. Apparently it is harder than you think to hit a cop with a water balloon, who knew?
After the Chelsea game we went home and then took Natalie's dog Nikko to the dog friendly bar about 2 miles from our house. The USA Men's National soccer team was taking on Panama in the Quarterfinals of the Gold Cup. This is the same tournament we went to on 4th of July from two posts ago.
US 2 Panama 1 in extra time. The summer of soccer rolls on!Sunday was another chamber of commerce day in Seattle. Natalie and Aaron decided to stay an extra night. So we took the Mercedes down to Alki to check out the scene. We ended up spending about 5 hours at a coffee shop/bar with outside seating called Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company just drinking beers and playing cards in the sun.
Next weekend it's off to the Tri-Cities for the Boat Races. I imagine there will be more TGC (Tobin Generated Content) to post about. The current forecast for Richland over the weekend is highs in the 102-107 degree range. I am already pre-hydrating in anticipation. If the camera doesn't melt I will have some pictures.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Cold Play at the Gorge
Time for our annual trip to the Gorge.
2006 Pearl Jam
2007 Pearl Jam
2008 Police
2009 Cold Play
97 degrees in the desert for a huge concert in one of the, if not the, most scenic concert venues in the world. What could be better than a Saturday in July at the Gorge?
This marks our fourth year in a row on or about this weekend heading to a concert in the Gorge. This year, same as last year, we went with the Klisch's and the Fosnick's:
Sorry about the quality of the above pictue, the canopy's shade ruined the contrast. Which is okay as the shade provided by the canopy is the only thing that allows us to survive for seven hours or pre-func in the blazing heat. A fair trade off for a bad picture if I ever heard of one.
Again, we stayed at the Wild Horse Campground and not the Gorge campground. While it is approximately 1.5 miles from the Gorge, I can't recommend it enough in comparison to the normal campground. The Wild Horse has real grass, clean (well as clean as port-a-pottys can get) bathrooms and running water. Plus it is a more normal atmosphere instead of the distilled craziness of the Gorge campground. The campground was sold out this year, thus they really packed us in there compared to last year:
This year we even had a little grill:
We left for the concert around 7 PM. Coldplay were scheduled to start at 9 with some random acts at 7. To our suprise, at 8 o'clock the Gorge was absolutely packed. Not kind of full where you could squish in the middle by just some creative blanket placement, but super packed where there were not any spots to sit. So we ended up over on the side:
This picture does not do justice to how crowded it really was, but it gives you an idea.
Have I mentioned yet how nice and scenic a venue the Gorge is:
That, my friends, is what $27 worth of beer looks like:
Paty was in rare form all night. Apparently she is a big Coldplay fan, or more accurately she is a big Chris Martin fan.
The view from our 'seats':
Overall it was a great show. I can see why Coldplay is such a large draw in concert. They really put it all out there in the performance. If I heard them correctly during the dialogue, this is their 130th show on this tour. And to be that good and add bit specifically for the Gorge after that many shows is something to be applauded.
After the show, back at the campsite a little post concert cool down:
It was another ultra successful trip to the Gorge. This weekend is the Sounders FC versus Chelsea of the English Premier League. I have seats in row 11 for all the Sounders games, including this one, so look for another post commemorating the Sounders first game against a huge international opponent. I can only think of one or two teams (Barcelona & Real Madrid) with more star power than Chelsea has right now so this should be a great event.
2006 Pearl Jam
2007 Pearl Jam
2008 Police
2009 Cold Play
97 degrees in the desert for a huge concert in one of the, if not the, most scenic concert venues in the world. What could be better than a Saturday in July at the Gorge?
This marks our fourth year in a row on or about this weekend heading to a concert in the Gorge. This year, same as last year, we went with the Klisch's and the Fosnick's:
Sorry about the quality of the above pictue, the canopy's shade ruined the contrast. Which is okay as the shade provided by the canopy is the only thing that allows us to survive for seven hours or pre-func in the blazing heat. A fair trade off for a bad picture if I ever heard of one.Again, we stayed at the Wild Horse Campground and not the Gorge campground. While it is approximately 1.5 miles from the Gorge, I can't recommend it enough in comparison to the normal campground. The Wild Horse has real grass, clean (well as clean as port-a-pottys can get) bathrooms and running water. Plus it is a more normal atmosphere instead of the distilled craziness of the Gorge campground. The campground was sold out this year, thus they really packed us in there compared to last year:
This year we even had a little grill:
We left for the concert around 7 PM. Coldplay were scheduled to start at 9 with some random acts at 7. To our suprise, at 8 o'clock the Gorge was absolutely packed. Not kind of full where you could squish in the middle by just some creative blanket placement, but super packed where there were not any spots to sit. So we ended up over on the side:
This picture does not do justice to how crowded it really was, but it gives you an idea.
Have I mentioned yet how nice and scenic a venue the Gorge is:
That, my friends, is what $27 worth of beer looks like:
Paty was in rare form all night. Apparently she is a big Coldplay fan, or more accurately she is a big Chris Martin fan.
The view from our 'seats':
Overall it was a great show. I can see why Coldplay is such a large draw in concert. They really put it all out there in the performance. If I heard them correctly during the dialogue, this is their 130th show on this tour. And to be that good and add bit specifically for the Gorge after that many shows is something to be applauded.
After the show, back at the campsite a little post concert cool down:
It was another ultra successful trip to the Gorge. This weekend is the Sounders FC versus Chelsea of the English Premier League. I have seats in row 11 for all the Sounders games, including this one, so look for another post commemorating the Sounders first game against a huge international opponent. I can only think of one or two teams (Barcelona & Real Madrid) with more star power than Chelsea has right now so this should be a great event.
Pat's 21st Birthday
Well it finally happened. My baby brother, Patrick, turned 21 on Monday. Being the wonderful older brother that I am, I drove down to Vancouver to help with the festivities.
Nothing like a little Beer Pong to get the evening started after they saw The Hangover followed by a late lunch at Red Robin:
After the Beer Pong marathon, we went to McMenamins on the Columbia River for dinner and some brews. It was good to get some food and water into Patrick so he would have the fortitude to make it through the night unlike a couple of my previous siblings 21 runs.
After McMenamins we headed to downtown Portland and Kell's. Pat is a big fan of the Guinness, so what better place to go on a Monday night than Kell's?
By the end of the night I was not 100% sure who was celebrating Pat's birthday more:
All in all, it was a good night. This was my third, and thankfully last, younger sibling to turn 21 and now that I am in my mid-30s I am not sure if I could take any more.
Nothing like a little Beer Pong to get the evening started after they saw The Hangover followed by a late lunch at Red Robin:
After the Beer Pong marathon, we went to McMenamins on the Columbia River for dinner and some brews. It was good to get some food and water into Patrick so he would have the fortitude to make it through the night unlike a couple of my previous siblings 21 runs.
After McMenamins we headed to downtown Portland and Kell's. Pat is a big fan of the Guinness, so what better place to go on a Monday night than Kell's?
By the end of the night I was not 100% sure who was celebrating Pat's birthday more:
All in all, it was a good night. This was my third, and thankfully last, younger sibling to turn 21 and now that I am in my mid-30s I am not sure if I could take any more.
Monday, July 06, 2009
4th of July US Soccer Gold Cup
What could be better than seeing your country play on Independence day? This wasn't exactly the legendary 4th of July game between Brazil and the USA in the round of 16 of World Cup 1994 at Standford Stadium where Brazil, en route to their 4th World Cup title, narrowly knocked out the US 1-0. But it was still US Soccer on a US holiday in my hometown.
The US was taking on Grenada. Considering that Grenada has a total population of 90,000 people I was confident in our chances. They did have to qualify for this tournament, finishing in the top four of the twenty nation Caribbean zone.
The view from our seats, the announced attendance was 15,837. Not exactly a Sounders game, but not as bad as I expected.
This was part of a double header in the Gold Cup. Before the US game Honduras played Haiti, the US's next two opponents in pool play.
Here is Paty and I in our seats. They were in the sun for the finish of the Honduras game and the first 15 minutes or so of the US game. We were super close to the field being in row two by the corner flag. Not exactly the best view, but it gives a vastly different perspective from my uber-excellent Sounders tickets.
Sam's Army made a tentative appearance. Actually this was as much of the entertainment as the game itself, with notable appearances by such famous fans as Mr Mohawk (front right, notice the not so excited girlfriend) and Mount Rushmore shirt with no sleeves guy (dead center front row with headband),
After the 4-0 drubbing, Paty and I headed home to celebrate on the deck. You really couldn't ask for a better day weather wise.
We had a little Bar-B-Q on the Tobin Deck for the 4th. You can see quite a few fireworks from our house. We normally do this same routine every 4th, I'm not a huge fan of wading through the riff raff of people that show up for some of the standard 4th of July shows. So this lets us avoid the traffic and still enjoy the shows from the comfort of our deck.
That was our 4th, I hope the few readers I still have left all had a good holiday as well. I've been posting a lot more lately and I have a sneaky suspicion (plus I have a website tradker) that no one is really reading. This is through all fault of my own as I went quite some time with no posts and fell out of the 'rotation'. Lately I've had a lot more to post about since I have had a lot of TGC (Tobin Generated Content).
I'll continue to post whenever the TGC gives me something mildly entertaining. In the near future you might (or might not if I go back to my lazy ways) see posts on Pat's 21st Birthday, Cold Play at the Gorge, Sounders versus hated Chelsea of the English Premier League and the Boat Races.
And that's just July. It's going to be a busy summer!
The US was taking on Grenada. Considering that Grenada has a total population of 90,000 people I was confident in our chances. They did have to qualify for this tournament, finishing in the top four of the twenty nation Caribbean zone.
The view from our seats, the announced attendance was 15,837. Not exactly a Sounders game, but not as bad as I expected.
This was part of a double header in the Gold Cup. Before the US game Honduras played Haiti, the US's next two opponents in pool play.
Here is Paty and I in our seats. They were in the sun for the finish of the Honduras game and the first 15 minutes or so of the US game. We were super close to the field being in row two by the corner flag. Not exactly the best view, but it gives a vastly different perspective from my uber-excellent Sounders tickets.
Sam's Army made a tentative appearance. Actually this was as much of the entertainment as the game itself, with notable appearances by such famous fans as Mr Mohawk (front right, notice the not so excited girlfriend) and Mount Rushmore shirt with no sleeves guy (dead center front row with headband),
After the 4-0 drubbing, Paty and I headed home to celebrate on the deck. You really couldn't ask for a better day weather wise.
We had a little Bar-B-Q on the Tobin Deck for the 4th. You can see quite a few fireworks from our house. We normally do this same routine every 4th, I'm not a huge fan of wading through the riff raff of people that show up for some of the standard 4th of July shows. So this lets us avoid the traffic and still enjoy the shows from the comfort of our deck.
That was our 4th, I hope the few readers I still have left all had a good holiday as well. I've been posting a lot more lately and I have a sneaky suspicion (plus I have a website tradker) that no one is really reading. This is through all fault of my own as I went quite some time with no posts and fell out of the 'rotation'. Lately I've had a lot more to post about since I have had a lot of TGC (Tobin Generated Content).
I'll continue to post whenever the TGC gives me something mildly entertaining. In the near future you might (or might not if I go back to my lazy ways) see posts on Pat's 21st Birthday, Cold Play at the Gorge, Sounders versus hated Chelsea of the English Premier League and the Boat Races.
And that's just July. It's going to be a busy summer!
Friday, July 03, 2009
US Open Cup: Road Trip to Portland
To start off the month of July I decided to follow my team, the Seattle Sounders FC, down to Portland for my first away match supporting the Sounders.
Before I get into the standard post with my slightly pithy comments and some pictures, I wanted to explain how this game actually falls into the Sounders schedule.
This is the US Open Cup. The Sounders play in the Major League Soccer or MLS. The Portland Timbers play in the United Soccer League or USL. In US Soccer hierarchy MLS > USL. But this game today was outside of the league, it was the US Open Cup.
This is a straight knock out competition; win and you move on, lose and you are out. The closest analogy would be the NCAA basketball tournament. But instead of playing all at once, the games are spread throughout all the teams regular league seasons. The US Open cup has been around since 1914, it is the oldest soccer competition in the United States.
Now that we attempted to clear that up, on with the post. Required pre-game beverages with Natalie:
The game was held at PGE park in Portland. The Sounders had Six full buses of traveling supporters organized by the various groups that follow the team. It was a really impressive showing of away support. We had three entire sections of the stadium.
Self portrait to try to capture the atmosphere in the stands. We stood through the entire match and I was told that you could hear our chanting on the TV broadcast.
Halftime photo with Natalie, her friend Jamie and myself:
Yes, I am now one of 'those guys with the scarves'.
In the end, the Sounders won 2-1. As you can see from the pictures it was a packed house. I really don't think there is a better environment in the US right now for soccer.
The city of Portland have taken to calling themselves 'Soccer City USA'. Where they get this idea is anyone's guess. But the offshoot is they have this big chip on their shoulder when it comes to Seattle's soccer squad. It is very much a little brother/short man complex that Timbers fans are sporting. Thus there was a bit of fan violence, but it was what you would expect of any event with 17,000 people, beer, sun and a competitive sporting evironment. As you can see I sported my Rave Green Sounders jersey all night long. And besides the occasional 'accidental' jostle getting to my seats and then leaving the stadium in glorious victory, I was just fine.
Before I get into the standard post with my slightly pithy comments and some pictures, I wanted to explain how this game actually falls into the Sounders schedule.
This is the US Open Cup. The Sounders play in the Major League Soccer or MLS. The Portland Timbers play in the United Soccer League or USL. In US Soccer hierarchy MLS > USL. But this game today was outside of the league, it was the US Open Cup.
This is a straight knock out competition; win and you move on, lose and you are out. The closest analogy would be the NCAA basketball tournament. But instead of playing all at once, the games are spread throughout all the teams regular league seasons. The US Open cup has been around since 1914, it is the oldest soccer competition in the United States.
Now that we attempted to clear that up, on with the post. Required pre-game beverages with Natalie:
The game was held at PGE park in Portland. The Sounders had Six full buses of traveling supporters organized by the various groups that follow the team. It was a really impressive showing of away support. We had three entire sections of the stadium.
Self portrait to try to capture the atmosphere in the stands. We stood through the entire match and I was told that you could hear our chanting on the TV broadcast.
Halftime photo with Natalie, her friend Jamie and myself:
Yes, I am now one of 'those guys with the scarves'.
In the end, the Sounders won 2-1. As you can see from the pictures it was a packed house. I really don't think there is a better environment in the US right now for soccer.
The city of Portland have taken to calling themselves 'Soccer City USA'. Where they get this idea is anyone's guess. But the offshoot is they have this big chip on their shoulder when it comes to Seattle's soccer squad. It is very much a little brother/short man complex that Timbers fans are sporting. Thus there was a bit of fan violence, but it was what you would expect of any event with 17,000 people, beer, sun and a competitive sporting evironment. As you can see I sported my Rave Green Sounders jersey all night long. And besides the occasional 'accidental' jostle getting to my seats and then leaving the stadium in glorious victory, I was just fine.
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