$1 = 7.6549 SEK
On Wednesday we went down to Kansas City to watch the Mariners play the Royals. It was a beautiful day and made for a nice night at the ballpark. The fountains (pictured above) are pretty cool. We were going to buy tickets ahead of time at the Hy-Vee (Midwestern grocery chain) in St. Joe but their computer was down so we figured we would buy tickets at the gate.
We arrived at game time and crossed the giant parking lot full of drunk college kids tailgating (it was College Happy Hour Night at the K -for Kaufman Stadium). There were still some long lines at the main ticket window and there was ushers urging people to walk down to the ticket window in right field. We were walking that way when this guy walked buy and said he had two free tickets. We didn't think much of it and kept walking, then thought free tickets would be nice so we tracked him down and asked if they were really free. He said that he had bought four tickets and couldn't use two of them and offered them to us instead of letting them go to waste. They were really good seats so we asked if he was sure we couldn't give him anything and he said we could buy him a beer since we would be sitting together.
You can kind of tell from the above picture that we were about 15 rows behind the Royals dugout along the first base line. It was pretty sweet. Much like babies wearing noise cancelling headphones. They had recently completed (or maybe half completed) major renovation of the stadium. It's pretty nice. We'll try to go back for some other games later this summer. There are new seats near the fountains in left field that run $7 and you get a free hat. An ugly hat but a free hat. Good times.
The new/updated video board in center field is absolutely huge and is definitely the focal point. Like I said before it was a beautiful night for a game. It was in the high 70's that day and stayed warm during the game (which didn't take that long because the Mariners swung at everything and got it over quickly - 9-1 Royals, UGH). There was some rain that morning but it burned off which was nice. Better than some of the other weather we've had in the last couple weeks. We've had the tornado sirens go off about a week and a half ago and we hung out in our basement until the sirens turned off. Now we have to figure out what room in the house will be good for hanging out during the storm and to pack an emergency kit. We had another tornado watch issued last night but luckily the storm missed us by a couple counties to the east where a couple tornadoes touched down. We did have a big thunderstorm during the night and woke up to some BIG THUNDER around 6:00 this morning. Always something I guess.
It was great to see this guy back in Seattle. He is definitely not as fast as he was and he's a bit heavier (like the rest of us) but he still has the sweetest swing in baseball (doubled and a couple walks).
In other sporting news the 86ers played their first game of the new season last Sunday in Göteborg on the west coast of Sweden. The guys had to leave Uppsala at 5 am to get there to play a team that moved down from the upper division during the offseason. My guys won 61-12 in dominating game. A good way to get the year started.
Now for what everyone has been waiting for, pictures of the house now that the previous owners have everything out. You'll notice the painting we've done in the dining and living rooms. Really the only rooms we have set up yet. Enjoy.
