A Good Weekend

We had plenty going on this last weekend, but some good down time too.

Friday morning we rejoined our breakfast friends after three weeks absence.  There was lots of good conversation and catching up.  In the afternoon we went house hunting with Jill and the kids.  We may have found them a home.  Jill's offer is pending, but there is competition.  We went out to dinner and then came home and watched the second half of the Seahawks pre-season football game against the Green Bay Packers.  Seattle won.

On Saturday morning we met with some of our garden club members to get a lesson on how to make hyper tufa.  It's a mixture of peat moss, perlite, and Portland cement.  Masks and gloves are important in the mixing process.

These are examples of what a finished product might look like.  It is simulated stone, but much lighter.  Ours are curing.  I should have a finished product in three weeks of so to show.

We were quite lazy the rest of Saturday, but got in an evening walk, as our fair weather continued.

Sunday was Match Day, but that was later.  We actually slept in Sunday morning, a rare thing for me especially   It was about 11:00 before we got outside to get a few things done.  

I picked and arranged new bouquets for the house.

Tom repaired mole and raccoon damage and set more mole traps.  We are not kind when it comes to moles, and if we can eliminate a few for good, we will, but they are very clever at evading the traps.

We still have zucchini and cucumbers to pick, but the garden is slowly shutting down.  Here's Sunday's harvest.

The tomatoes are in their prime.

At 2:45 we were on our way to the light rail station, and then downtown to the stadium for early entrance to set up our North End Supporters display.  We are a small group but do what we can for big, important matches, and this was the biggest - a rivalry match with Portland.

We got our instructions.

And set out about 1200 plastic sheeting "cards" , plus flags and banners.

When we were finished Tom and I walked over to the south end to see what the big Emerald City Supporters were up to.  We had heard that the tifo would be epic.  It looks that way.  There was a well coordinated effort to organize, carry and install huge rolls of overhead banners.

We looked back on our end from afar and it looked good.  

 I have no idea how it looked when deployed.  It's harder to get people to participate on our end.  I hope someone got a photo.

Then it was time to head uptown, find a coffee shop near Occidental Park, and hang out and people watch until we joined the March to the Match.

The March was huge.  Did I mention that over 67,000 fans were expected for the match?  Many participants were first timers, and the whole march stretched about two blocks.  We started near the front, but were probably just rounding the far corner when Jake took this photo from the Stadium.

The stadium filled up, the National Anthem was played, and tifo was deployed.

Wow!  Epic is right!

All of this for a display that lasts only about three or four minutes.

Then as smoothly as it went up, it goes away, and it's time for Scarves Up and first kick.

It was a fast and furious struggle out on the field, and a lot of cheering and singing and chanting throughout the stadium. The official attendance was 67,380.  Portland Timbers Army were there in force, having come on about 15 buses.

But they had a long, disappointing ride back home, as the Sounders went on to victory.

And slowly the crowd dissipated into the city.

We had to take time to settle down when we got home, so we did not get to bed very early.  But we had to rise early enough this morning.  Jill has gone back to work and it's Gramma Camp time at the Reeder homestead.  The kids arrived at 7:30.  They are watching cartoons.  It's time to go feed them breakfast.