Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Won't You Be My Neighbor

On Monday, I went to the post office to mail something, and when that transaction was complete, I asked for a book of stamps. The post office employee then responding by asking what kind of stamps I wanted, and specifically mentioned the flag stamps next to the scale. When I asked if they had the Mister Rogers stamps, the post office employee lit up. It seemed like she wasn't having a good day, but she was genuinely excited about me requesting the Mister Rogers stamps.


She proceeded to tell me that the Mister Rogers stamps are currently the best sellers and told me a story about her daughter. Apparently, PBS had some fundraising drive where they were giving away the Mister Rogers "It's You I Like" special along with 30 episodes, all for a $72 donation. The daughter now wants this as an early Christmas gift.

This is simply another example of just mentioning Mister Rogers' name making people happy!

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Sidney Crosby Is Good At Hockey

There was a time when I considered Sean's Ramblings to be a Pittsburgh sports blog where I also wrote about other stuff. If you go back about 10 years, particularly during football season, my guess is probably half of the posts were related to Pittsburgh sports. Now, it seems rare to have a post about Pittsburgh sports.

Thankfully, Sidney Crosby did this on Wednesday which deserves it's own post.




(It took SportsNet some time to realize how insane Crosby's goal is/was.)




Washington's NBC affiliate (WRC) showed this goal multiple times during the 11:00 PM news on Wednesday night, and I found it amusing hearing them say something to the extent that we know you hate Sidney Crosby, but he's really, really good.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Sean Reviews Song Lyrics

It's been over a year since my last post where I analyze lyrics from current pop songs, so I hope that you haven't been sitting in front of your computers or phones continuously hitting refresh in the hope that I would share my thoughts about song lyrics. If you have, then your patience has been vindicated. Please note that I'm including videos of the songs to this post, so there may be some NSFW lyrics in them. Here we go:

"Meant to Be" by Bebe Rexha, featuring Florida Georgia Line



I don't mean to be so uptight, but my heart's been hurt a couple times
By a couple guys that didn't treat me right
I ain't gon' lie, ain't gonna lie
'Cause I'm tired of the fake love, show me what you're made of
Boy, make me believe
But hold up, girl, don't you know you're beautiful?
And it's easy to see


This makes absolutely no sense. Ms. Rexha sings about awful past relationships and how she wasn't treated right. One of the members of Florida-Georgia Line (we'll say Florida) then responds with the "But hold up, girl" line basically dismissing her by saying that you're beautiful, so you'll be fine. What a jerk!


"Finesse" by Bruno Mars featuring Cardi B



We out here drippin' in finesse
It don't make no sense


"Don't make no sense" is a double negative, so I guess it makes sense. It doesn't make any sense might be what Mr. Mars wanted to say.


"No Roots" by Alice Merton



I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots oo oo oo oo


Three ways to go here. The first is that Ms. Merton does not have any clothing or gear from the Canadian company, Roots. Perhaps she doesn't own a copy of Alex Haley's book or have a DVD of the epic mini-series meaning that she has no Roots. The final alternative is that she can't get tickets to The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon or is unable to see the band on tour, so again, she has no Roots.


"Havana" by Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (I highly recommend the video.)



Havana, ooh na-na
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na


Do people take other people back to East Atlanta? I know that Buckhead is a popular place to go but I've never heard that about East Atlanta (na-na-na). Do any of the Real Housewives live in East Atlanta?


That concludes today's edition of Sean's take on current song lyrics. Please click here to see past editions of Sean analyzing song lyrics. This feature will probably return in 2019, or sooner, or later.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

The Adventures of Pedro Tulo

Let me preface this by stating that no kids were injured in the writing of this blog post.

If I told you that I needed to call poison control for one of my kids, even if you don't know my kids, which one would you think it would be?

A. The Moose who is almost 7.
B. Pedro Tulo who is almost 4.
C. Luigi who is 6 months.

Even though the title of the post gives the answer away, here's a hint. The answer is also the same child who had to go to the ER due to burning his hand on a Sterno and who I was holding when I dislocated my wrist. (I'm not blaming him for my wrist injury but it wouldn't have happened if he would have walked down the stairs after we asked him to at least five times.)

The answer is clearly B.

Pedro Tulo was playing with a glow stick earlier this week and somehow managed to crack it open. Seeing the red liquid, he decided to see how it tasted. Not very good. All of a sudden, I heard a cry and saw some fluorescent drops on the floor. After I was able to determine that he did actually swallow the glow stick "juice," I called poison control. The woman at poison control was extremely nice and let me know that glow stick juice is non-toxic but tastes awful. (Has she tried some before as part of a training?) I got the impression that she takes glow stick related calls regularly.



Anyway, she said to give Pedro Tulo some water and if that didn't get the taste out of his mouth, juice. I thanked her profusely, and Pedro Tulo was fine after drinking a glass of water.

As a bit of a tangent, do they still have Mr. Yuk stickers? If so, I may need about 5,000 to put on everything in the house.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Kids Say The Darndest Things

This blog post features actual quotes from actual kids, generally my kids.

While watching a basketball game featuring Washington's professional basketball team:

The Moose (almost 7) - I like the Wizards.
Pedro Tulo (almost 4) - I like the Lizards.

Pedro Tulo while using the restroom: I like going potty.


Pedro Tulo standing naked in front of the bathroom mirror with his hands and hair all wet: I'm going to make my head beautiful.

The Moose: Can you teach me how to drive?
Me: Yes. (Long pause) In 9 years.

Siting with Pedro Tulo at his school, a girl said this to me: You don't have much hair.

No I do not.

Wednesday, March 07, 2018

My Life In Pictures

Here are some of the things going on in my life captured in pictures. Please note that I am not a photographer and do not play one on the internet, and these pictures were all taken using my phone.

As a result of the massive windstorm that hit much of the northern East Coast on Friday, there were trees down everywhere. This is from the parking lot of Pedro Tulo's school. While we were fortunate not to lose power, I know several people who did not have power for three days or more.


After nearly six weeks I got my cast off! My arm looks so weird.


Oh, the doctor also removed these pins.


Although I was told that it may take up to six months before my wrist is back to normal and I have plenty of physical therapy ahead, my wrist right now feels the same as it did before surgery since it is so stiff. I'm also now going to wear a splint for at least a month though it's nice to take a shower without covering my right arm and I'm able to bite my fingernails again. (What an awful habit.)

The doctor's office had several magazines including Arthritis Today. I was surprised that someone so young and healthy was on the cover, but I guess that's the point that arthritis doesn't only occur for the social security crowd.


Luigi is now six months old and although he often wears sleepers, he sometimes wears these booties to keep his socks on and feet warm. What color would you call these?


Lucky Charms lip balm? I'm intrigued though are they supposed to be magically delicious?


Ziggy has no need for the Directv receiver.


Finally, I watched the first two episodes of NBC's new show Good Girls about three suburban moms that rob a grocery store because they need the money for their families. It kind of seems like it's going to be a network version of Weeds. I'm not sold yet, but I'll give the show a few more episodes. Anyway, in the second episode, the daughter of the character played by Retta participates in a soccer game. If you notice the picture, the referee is wearing a yellow uniform which is a no-no when one of the teams are wearing yellow jerseys. (And yes, I really want to get back on the field to ref some games but I don't have the go-ahead to do that yet.)