Picnic Double Header

Yesterday was a fun day as I had two picnic scheduled.  

The first was a work-related picnic.  I belong to a great organization at the company I work for; all great people to work and party with.  We get together at picnic or other social gatherings several times a year, and this is our annual summer picnic.   We had a good time grilling chicken, ribs, and salmon and after eating all that great food, we headed up to the ball-field and played a fun and competitive game of softball.  

I hadn't played softball since my knee and elbow replacement, but the workout must be helping cause I was able to hit, throw and even run the bases with some degree of confidence and very little, if any,pain in the joints.  Granted, today, the day after, I am a bit sore in places, but overall I was happy with being able to participate in a sport I used to enjoy.  BTW, our team won with a clutch  pitching save by yours truly.   

After the fun of that picnic, I headed to a great park on the western shores of the Puget Sound to meet up with some old friends for a birthday bash picnic.  These are friends I had in Seattle before moving to NYC and it was nice to catch up with them and their lives (and their kids!).  Three of the folks ll have birthdays in close proximity, so we had a big cake for them and celebrated with more good food, great conversation, and a beautiful view of the sun setting behind the Olympic Mountains.  

I was tuckered when I got home, but it was a fun way to spend a beautiful sunny summer day here in Seattle.  Plus I managed to do both picnics without gaining any weight.... YAY!

Two Notes

First, up..... a little earth movement here in Tokyo.

I thought I just had a dizzy spell at lunch the other day. Turns out, it was a mild earthquake. No one in the lunchroom even blinked an eye.

Moderate earthquake shakes eastern Japan
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 12:31:00 03/24/2008

TOKYO -- A moderate earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 shook eastern Japan on Monday, the meteorological agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

The earthquake was 40 kilometers (25 miles) deep with an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima prefecture, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Tokyo.

The tremor was lightly felt in the capital, rattling buildings in the heart of the metropolis.

Japan experiences 20 percent of the world's major earthquakes.

Second.... The Red Sox won their opening season game last night here in Tokyo in the 10th inning. The good news was that Japanese TV showed the entire regular game. Unfortunately, I don't think Japanese TV accounted for possible extra innings and they went back to regular programming after the 9th inning. So, I didn't get to see the end of the game. Bummer! But YAY for Win #1 of the new season!!!

ボストン・レッドソックス

Heh. That Japanese text up there says... "Boston Red Sox" (I think?!). Yup, baseball's opening day is here.

Sunday, I was able to watch the last spring training game for the Red Sox.... here in Japan. The Sox were playing an exhibition game against one of the Japanese teams. Very fun!

On Tuesday evening, the Red Sox will open the season versus the Oakland A's here in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I could not get tickets for these two games as baseball, especially American baseball, is very popular here.

So, I will watch the game on TV. The good thing about that will be that I don't have to get up at 6am to watch the game like those poor soles in Boston. The bad, TV here in Japan pretty much sucks and they only block out 2 hours for the game. If the game is not over, they just switch programming to whatever inane Japanese variety program is scheduled to be on. It is bizzare to be watching JD Drew hit a grand slam at one moment and then the very next minute, there is a bunch of Japanese people screaming on some game game show. No more baseball unless you are watching the pay TV channels.