Yep, this post is about the Mariners. However, after being in attendance at that abysmal game last night (lowest attendance in history mind you), the theme is going to take a different track than I had previously planned.

You see, I love the Mariners, and most sports for that matter. I wasn’t able to go to Opening Day on Monday, but I was stoked to go to Day Two last night. I anticipated gushing on here about how excited I am for the season and I’m a fan to the end… blah blah you get the picture. But I woke up this morning feeling very UGH about last night, and just can’t bring myself to exude the excitement I want to.

Don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely keep cheering for the Mariners. I know I will. One game doesn’t necessarily preview how the whole season is going to go. I just wish I hadn’t witnessed that one personally.

SO, in order to take our minds off of a 20 hit game… I would like to draw your attention to this blog post by Seattlepi.com blogger, David Nelson. Like him, I was pretty disappointed in the Mariners’ stance about the proposed new Sonics Arena. I don’t want to get into my reasons here, but David does a great job of pointing out why Mariners fans like me, who also want to see the Sonics return, can still in good conscience root for the Mariners. Worth a few minutes of your time if you’ve been torn on the issue! Thanks David.

Look at all the beanie-clad kids. Photo via theskichannel.

Do you ski or snowboard? If so, boy oh boy, do I have the deal for you. The World Ski and Snowboard Festival is April 12 – April 21 in Whistler, and Whistler is offering some killer stay-and-ski packages. Usually, a standard one-day lift ticket will cost you roughly $100. But during the festival you can score (like my friends and I did)  a suite for three nights, and a two-day lift ticket for every person in the room for approximately $250. That’s right, the room AND tickets cost $250 total.* Such an amazing deal considering two standard tickets alone would normally cost you $200.

The prices aren’t the only thing that is awesome about this event. Besides sunny Spring skiing, the World Ski and Snowboard Festival also offers concerts, competitions and the shopping/eating/drinking treats Whistler is known for. My friends and I have attended before and it’s such a blast. If you’ve been wanting to go to Whistler, now is the time to do it.

*Price based on six person suite

Shred for Stevens Day

I’m a little late to the posting party, but if you’re up for some Tuesday night skiing I highly recommend heading up to Stevens Pass for the Shred for Stevens Day event taking place today. Half of the lift ticket proceeds will benefit the Ski Hill Memorial Project, a fundraising program commemorating avalanche victims Johnny Brennan, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and Daniel Zimmerman. The 24-month campaign aims to raise $500,000, which will be used to enhance The Leavenworth Ski Hill and forever immortalize the lost Leavenworth locals. A pretty neat project, if you ask me.

As goes along with working in public relations, I read A TON. And, this reading isn’t limited to the Wall Street Journal and NY Times. I devour books (part of two book clubs) and typically at least peruse every article that appears in our local papers and news sites. Today, an article in the Seattle Times caught my eye (well to be fair it published yesterday), and I just wanted to share it with you.

Image courtesy of Fred Hutch website (fhcrc.org)

Those of you who read me with any regularity know I’m an avid sports fan. College basketball being my first drug of choice, but pro football and baseball fall in closely behind it. Seattle Times’ Larry Stone wrote a wonderful article about everyone’s favorite MLB manager to love/hate, Lou Piniella. Seriously, it’s a must read. Apparently Lou is in town speaking at the Hutch Award luncheon today at Safeco Field. Larry got to follow Lou to another speaking event at Seattle’s Hutch school, the only full-time school in the nation for children and siblings of cancer victims.

Taking a step back, most people know Lou as the manager of the Mariners during some of the greatest years the franchise has experience. Many more know Lou as a hot-headed manager who frequently argued his point to whatever umpire happened to be in his sights.

Now, back to the school. Larry notes that Lou was amazing with the kids. He was honest and engaging, and that just warms my heart. He also reportedly took a silly photo with the kids where he’s sticking his tongue out. How fun is that? You always assume people are different in “real life” but you never really hear about the normal aspects of a celebrity. I know that competition sometimes brings out the outrageous in all of us (exhibit A: My blood pressure goes through the roof during Gonzaga basketball games. I just can’t help it.), and it can also bring out the best.

So, I’ll end by saying, well done Lou! I wish I was in Seattle to enjoy your amazing tenure with the Mariners. Hopefully we’ll go win the pennant for you one of these years. Until then, enjoy those grandbabies and get plenty of golfing in.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

It’s December 13 and word was delivered today that more mountains will be opening for the 2012/2013 ski and snowboard season this weekend. The winter season is shaping up pretty nicely with feet and feet of snow being dumped on resorts at Crystal Mountain, Alpental and the rest of the Summit at Snoqualmie ski locations, Stevens, Mt. Baker and White Pass with many more to come over the next four-five months.

Basically I’m super excited to get up to the mountain (this is only my third season skiing so I still get the “kid-in-the-candy-store” feeling … oh wait, doesn’t everyone?) and make some turns and as many falls – I call them snow angels – with the rest of my snow bunny friends.

Me and my Wolf Pack, April 1, 2012

Check out the details below for the Pacific Northwest’s greatest hills.

Crystal Mountain
49 Degrees North
Hurricane Ridge
Leavenworth Ski Hill
Loup Loup Ski Bowl 
Mission Ridge
Mt. Baker
Mt. Spokane
North Cascade Heli-Skiing
Ski Bluewood
Stevens Pass
The Summit at Snoqualmie
White Pass

See you on the slopes!

So this happened last night…

Photo via ESPN

And we won.  The initial touchdown call and consequent confirmation after review was the craziest of many, many crazy calls to occur during the Seahawks-Packers game last night. I watched it in real time. I watched it in replay. And I’ve listened to multiple discussions about it, held by people much more educated about football than I. And here’s the thing: I still can’t make up my mind if I’m happy with the result. Here’s some of my musings. Please comment with your own. Maybe combined we can make sense of this thing.

1. A win is a win is a win. Go Hawks! We could not control the outcome of that call, no more than we could control all the terrible calls preceding it that worked against us. Does it suck for Green Bay? Yes. Whamp whaaamp. Anybody remember Super Bowl XL? Maybe this win is the referee gods trying to make past officiating wrongs right.

2. It was a pick. Jennings had control of the ball when he went down. But Tate had an arm in there and managed to have the ball on the ground. I listened to a retired NFL, two-time SuperBowl ref speak on some sports show after the game, and he said it was a pick. But he also said that once the touchdown was called, the ruling essentially had to stand because a replay cannot determine possession. Or something like that. So does that mean the call was good? Also, having watched the play in real time, it looked to me like Tate had it. Can we really blame an official — a replacement official — for seeing the same?

3. Everyone keeps talking about some simultaneous possession rule where the offense always wins. If so, why are the Packers so angry? It definitely looked like simultaneous possession when the referees arrived to the pile.

4. We need to stop blaming the replacement officials and start blaming the NFL. The replacement officials are doing their best, but are obviously drowning. Remember these aren’t the NCAA refs. These guys are from the minor-est of minor leagues. We can’t hold them to the same standards as NFL refs. However, we can hold the NFL to do what’s right to preserve the integrity of the game. You know, like cough up the money the NFL refs are requesting. It’s effing chump change in the grand scheme! What is the commissioner trying to prove?

5. The Seahawks defense kept the all-star Packers offense to 12 points. I repeat. The Seahawks defense kept the all-star Packers offense to 12 points. Aaron Rodgers was sacked eight times. EIGHT TIMES. Let’s not let this controversy over shadow the amazing football played by our defense. GO HAWKS!

And… discuss.

Yay! Free T-Shirts!

This season of Mariners Baseball has been a study in contradictions.  It has given us soaring highs and dismal lows all occurring within the same week sometimes.  It definitely has not been a show of consistency.  Back on July 23rd we lost Ichiro (who had become a Seattle institution) to the Yankees.  Grrr… (I’m not mad at Ichiro for leaving.  I’m just mad at the Yankees for existing).  At that point it seemed as if the Mariners were destined to live out the rest of the season as the first part had been.  They would likely continue to eek out the occasional good win while more frequently letting games slip away.  And then as the fans were ready to resign themselves to a less than mediocre season, we were reminded of why we watch this damn game in the first place.  Our King reminded us of his greatness.

Of course I am talking about the Perfect Game thrown by Felix Hernandez last week.   It was a reminder to everyone in Seattle who may have stopped watching that there can still be amazing moments even in a lackluster season.  Since then things have been looking pretty good too.  As of today, the Mariners have won five games in a row including a sweep of the Minnesota Twins.  It has been a very good week.  There is no guarantee that this will keep up, but it’s nice to dream.  At this point the team is actually in spitting distance of a .500 record and even that would be an accomplishment.

Anyway, in celebration of King Felix’s awesomeness the Mariners are upgrading the usual King’s Court section dedicated to Felix to the Supreme Court for tomorrow night’s game.  The first 34,000 fans (In honor of number 34) will receive commemorative t-shirts and hopefully the whole place will be a impressive shade of yellow.  They have even lowered ticket prices.  It looks like it will be quite the party.  I have my tickets and hopefully I’ll be seeing you guys at the ballpark so that we may bow to our King.

Who doesn’t get excited about the Olympics? As someone lacking home access to any of the money-grubbing cable providers here in Seattle, I have to get pretty creative about how I’m going to view my top-picked events over the next glorious days (America!).

Fortunately, as I’ve panicked for most this week about watching just the Opening Ceremonies alone, I came across a helpful guide from the SeattlePI Blog to assist avid watchers out there. Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you’ll have to make actual viewing party plans for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, but all other events will be broadcast online on NBC live-streaming.

The ceremony will take place Friday, July 27, at 9 p.m. London time (or 4 p.m. ET) and will be broadcast live on BBC.

In the U.S., the event will be played on tape delay, so it will be broadcast on Friday, July 27, at:

Eastern Time: 7:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. on NBC

Pacific Time: 7:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m. on NBC

Central Time: 6:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. on NBC

Ichiro acknowledges Mariners fans before first at-bat as a Yankee. Photo by Robert Sorbo/Reuters

In sports news, the Seattle Mariners traded Ichiro Suzuki to the New York Yankees yesterday. I personally have neutral feelings about the trade, not being much of a baseball fan, but many of my friends are staunch Mariners fans (including the lovely Seattle Belle, Jeanine) and everyone seems to have a very different and very strong, opinion. My boyfriend literally said “Good riddance!” (I was unaware he was hiding a 70-year-old man inside of him. I’m now very excited for his next outburst. I hoping it will be either “Gee willikers” or “Dang nabbet.”) He thinks Ichiro has been under performing for quite a while, and that the team will be better off with some new talent. Another friend of mine thinks losing Ichiro is a huge blow to the Mariners because he was one of our only players who consistently performed well. I, again, have no opinion given that I don’t know the difference between an RBI and a double play, and continually refer to ‘runs’ as ‘points,’ but I do listen. And my listening has given me one thought. One thought that I will share with you and allow you to rip apart or commend. According to my sources, the Mariners are in a rebuilding phase, which I assume means bringing in lots of young talent to give us a fresh, less terrible team. But from the way people are yelling at the TV screen, our new talent (Smoak, Ackley) is really sucking. Given this current state of affairs, why would we trade one of our more experienced, consistent performers for two more new, young, potentially sucky players? Riddle me that, Batman!!

And… discuss.

You may have noticed some colorful runners through downtown a few weeks ago.

You witnessed the result of a new running fad called COLOR RUNS. I want to spread the love about both organizations (The Color Run hosted the event in Seattle on May 13) but CMY5K is hosting another run 5,000-runner event on August 12, 2012 in Magnuson Park.

There’s not much more to say about it. Where white, run a 5K and get coated with (non-harmful) clouds of colorful powdery goodness. Through each color zone, you’ll get covered in a different color:

• 1K-cyan
• 2K-magenta
• 3K-yellow
• 4K-green
• 5K-a combination of all colors

According to the website, “CMY5K  is the running equivalent of Dorothy’s house landing on the Wicked Witch. Waves of virginal white runners and walkers will start every 3-5 minutes. Then, at each kilometer, CMY5K staff and volunteers will powder participants in Color Splash Zones.” Basically you end up looking like this:

Photo courtesy of CMY5K

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