Happy first day of spring, one day early. Friday, March 20 is the official spring equinox, which in Seattle means we're trading a flood watch for a drizzle watch. The NWS atmospheric river that soaked us this week is moving out by Friday evening - the weekend forecast is "slight chance pops," meaning overcast, mid-50s, and the particular kind of Seattle weather that technically isn't raining but kind of is. Progress!

Mariners Opening Day is March 26. That's exactly one week from today. T-Mobile Park, Guardians in town. Start thinking about it!

One more thing worth mentioning before we get into the weekend: we got a reader submission we want to share, and it's a good one. KnotBadBritt's Craft Night at Reuben's Brews is tonight in Ballard. Details in Free & Cheap Stuff below.

Start there, then… the rest is for the rest of the weekend.

Taste Washington: The Grand Tasting
Lumen Field Event Center, SoDo - Saturday and Sunday, 2-5:30pm (VIP at 1pm)
The PNW's biggest wine and food weekend is here. Over 200 Washington wineries pouring alongside 75+ restaurants, all indoors at Lumen Field Event Center. Saturday is already sold out. Sunday tickets are still available, starting around $178 for general admission. If you're going Sunday, VIP early entry at 1pm gets you an extra hour and access to pours from Quilceda Creek. Worth it.

Band of Horses at The Showbox
The Showbox, Downtown - Saturday and Sunday, 8pm
Ben Bridwell's band formed here, and Seattle still claims them. This weekend is the 20th anniversary tour of "Everything All The Time" - they're playing the album in full, plus a second set of hits. Both nights are sold out, but resale exists if you're motivated. The Vera Project all-ages show on Thursday was sold out too, for what it's worth. The city showed up.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at The Paramount
Paramount Theatre, Downtown - Friday 7:30pm, Saturday 7:30pm, Sunday 2pm
New artistic director Alicia Graf Mack is taking the company into its next era, but they're closing every show with "Revelations" - the 60-year-old signature piece that still lands like a gut punch every single time. Three chances this weekend. Tickets still available across all three nights.

Bassem Youssef: The Belly of the Beast Tour
The Moore Theatre, Belltown - Saturday, 7:30pm
You probably know him from that Piers Morgan interview in 2023 - the one that racked up more views than anything Piers Morgan has done since. The "Jon Stewart of the Arab World" brings his live set to the Moore. Political satire, diaspora humor, sharp delivery. Tickets from $69. Eating & Drinking

Paran 3424 Fremont Ave N, Fremont
Korean restaurant on Fremont Ave doing bold grills, noodles, and what The Infatuation calls some of the best mandu in Seattle right now - pork-filled, pan-seared, with a crust that gets almost lacey on the bottom. The menu is tight and the kitchen is fast. Good spot to start a Friday night before something else, or to end it. Open until 9pm weeknights, 10pm on weekends, closed Tuesdays.

Tacos Cometa 1620 Broadway, Capitol Hill
Brothers Rey and Osiel Gastelum spent a year running their Sinaloan taco cart on the corner of Nagle and Pine, getting rained on and cited by the health department, and building a devoted following anyway. This week, they moved inside. The new Broadway taqueria keeps the charcoal-grilled tacos that made the stand famous and stays open until 2am on weekends - which is exactly when this neighborhood needs a plate of excellent tacos most. Community-backed, Michelin-kitchen trained, and genuinely exciting.

KnotBadBritt Craft Night at Reuben's Brews
Reuben's Brews, Ballard - TONIGHT, 6-8pm Local crochet designer @KnotBadBritt hosts a monthly craft night at Reuben's in Ballard every third Thursday. Bring whatever you're working on - knitting, crochet, watercolor, needlepoint, circuit boards, a coloring book, whatever fits on a table. No cover, just buy drinks. Reuben's has excellent beer and non-alcoholic options. RSVP encouraged so Britt can give the venue a heads-up. If tonight doesn't work: next one looks like it is April 16.

Moisture Festival
Broadway Performance Hall, Capitol Hill - Running through April 12
The world's largest comedy and variety festival, running for four weeks in our own backyard. Aerialists, jugglers, comedians, magicians, a live show band, adults-only "Frisky Fridays." Pay-what-you-can tickets start at $10. Late-night Friday shows (10:30pm) are half price with no promo code needed. New lineup every week.

Coravin Wine Preservation System Taste Washington is this weekend. You're going to come home with a bottle you don't want to finish in one sitting. The Coravin pours through the cork without removing it - argon gas fills the space, the cork reseals, and the wine stays good for months. It's genuinely one of those things where you wonder how you lived without it. Every person you've ever handed a glass to will ask what the gadget is. Entry-level models are around $100 on Amazon; worth every bit of it if you ever buy wine over $20.

Band of Horses - "Everything All The Time" (Vinyl) If you couldn't get Showbox tickets, here's the next best thing. The debut album turns 20 this year and it holds up. "The Funeral" still sounds like driving south on I-5 on a gray afternoon. Which is to say: perfect for this weekend.

So to wrap this all up…. Tomorrow is the official first day of spring. You will not be able to tell. The sun is not coming. The clouds have no plans. The NWS describes the weekend forecast as "slight chance pops," which is meteorologist for "probably fine but bring something anyway," and at this point we're fluent in that language.

What we do have: the biggest wine event in the state, two sold-out nights of a band Seattle basically raised, a taco spot that survived a year of open-air Seattle nights to finally have four walls, and one reader who brought us a craft night at a brewery and we are grateful for her. This city runs on that kind of energy - the person who just does a thing and invites people along.

Mariners Opening Day is in eight days. Winter's not dead yet but it's been told it needs to leave.

As always, If you know someone who needs a little extra info to get their weekend going, send this along! Everyone should be prepared to not sit at home…

We'll be back Monday with whatever Seattle did while you weren't looking.

-- The Drizzle