Mr. Behrendt Goes To Washington: National's Game

Last week I mentioned that I would get my 1st FOAM done this week. Unfortunately it was reviewed and I had to completely rewrite it. The rewriting took longer than I thought and I had to do more patent searching. So hopefully next week after I rewrite it again I will be able to submit it and move on to the next case. Also the patent system has been in the news a lot recently please check out these stories:

Apple and Samsung Verdict
Possible Effect
Monsanto and DuPont

Last Sunday I went to a National's game with Thrivent Financial for Lutheran's Alexandria chapter. I picked up the ticket from the Thrivent office, which is really close to the USPTO. I decided to take the Metro instead of the bus to the park. That gave me more freedom on when I could arrive or leave from the ballpark. The leaving was part would be hectic. We would have to wait for everybody to get back to the bus. If someone was not present we would have to wait until they got there.

I wasn't really sure how to get to the park, but I knew what Metro stop it was. However I have never made the transfers in the station that was required. When I got into the King St. Metro (the metro stop close to my place), I saw almost everyone wearing National's gear. (I don't have any yet, but I wore red and white) Then I thought this will be easy I will just follow the wave of red and white to the park because that is the only place that many people wearing National's gear would go. While I was taking the Metro, it started pouring outside. Before walking in the street to the park, I put on my emergency poncho. My shorts still got soaked.

Eventually I got to the park and had some time to walk around the entire park, since there was definitely going to be a rain delay. It is a new stadium. I think Nationals Park was completed in 2008 or 2009. It is nice. It has plenty of space, everything looks good and in order, all of the seats are good seats, there is a wide variety of food offerings, but of course extremely expensive because of the monopoly they have on food and drink in the stadium.

Eventually I got to my seat on the second level (Sec. 203). It was one of the last sections down the left field line. Luckily it was under a overhang and I did not get wet while waiting for the game to start. Also during the rain delay, they showed the Braves on the big screen in centerfield. While waiting for the game to start during a 2 hour 30 minute rain delay, I got to know the people around me in my seat very well because what else are you going to do for that long?

Finally at 4:00 PM, the game started against the Mets with Gio Gonzalez throwing for the best team in baseball (record-wise at the time). It was an exciting game: home runs (Harper and Espinosa), hits (16 at least between both teams), no stoppages (not many pitching changes during the inning), and Teddy didn't win again (almost 1000 straight). Eventually I got home about 8 hours after I set out to leave for the game. I was exhausted. I am glad I went and when I go next time I will know exactly where to go and what to do.