Friday, September 28, 2018

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of 100 Watt Light Bulbs

I am a big fan of local, community newspapers. They often cover the stories that larger papers do not. Living in Northern Virginia, I feel grateful to have access to The Washington Post, but I also regularly read the weekly Fairfax County Times. I find that the Fairfax County Times is extremely useful in covering Fairfax County news as well as sharing community events.

In the September 14th edition, someone at the paper was able to interview Ozzy Osbourne prior to his show at Jiffy Lube Live. The questions and responses were, um, interesting. This was my favorite:

How do you manage to understand darkness very well and stay out of it?

Huh? What kind of question is this? Is Ozzy a scientist who studies darkness or black holes?

The response is even better.

I like darkness when I sleep, and light during the day when I'm doing things. When I read at night, I like a nice 100 watt light bulb.


I now hope that Ozzy gets a sponsorship deal with a light bulb company!

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Steelers-Buccaneers Recap (E-I-E-I-O)

I'm going to pretend that I'm a sports blogger again! Here are my thoughts on Monday night's Pittsburgh Steelers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game in Florida:

The Steelers won 30-27. WOOO!

- If a sporting event is on that I want to watch, I’m going to watch it regardless of the announcers. ESPN's Monday Night Football crew of Joe Tessitore and Jason Witten just confirms this. They really make you appreciate professionals like Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth (who I think is insightful even if he seems anti-Steelers), and Doc Emrick.

Some of my personal highlights:

I don't have the exact quote, but Tessitore said that Tampa Bay fans have been saying and talking about FitzMagic all year long. You mean like during the first two weeks of the season?

After a Bucs WR fell on a second and goal play in the fourth quarter, Witten said, "You cannot slip there." Yes, like the WR was trying to slip.

Tessitore and Witten have only done a few games together, so there's plenty of room for improvement. And if there's a Monday night game that I want to see, I'm still going to tune in.

- Having tight ends that can make big plays over the middle will really open things up for the wide receivers. Every linebacker and safety in the NFL is now familiar with Vance McDonald after this stiff arm:



- I'm not a football coach, but I'll play one on the internet. To the Steelers players, you might want to have fewer penalties. Leading the league in penalties should not be a goal. Thank you.

- Since I'm on the topic of penalties, the NFL should really be flag football for quarterbacks. Look, I get that the NFL doesn't want its star players hurt. The quality of games with below average quarterbacks are generally not very good. So instead of having ridiculous "roughing the passer" penalties, just go all the way and stop the play when a defender grabs the QB's flag.

- The Steelers really miss Ryan Shazier on defense. I know Bud Dupree had a great game Monday and Bostic made some plays, but the defense would be so much better with Shazier out there.

You know, I don't really have much more to add about the game. I'm just want to watch the Vance McDonald video over and over!

Friday, September 21, 2018

Breaking News: Cereal with Milk Is Good

To the likely horror of at least one of my sister-in-laws, I do not know the difference between Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Look, I know who Kim, Khloe, and (crap, I have to look it up) Kourtney (I knew that!) are, so isn't that enough? Earlier this week, Kylie Jenner made major news (seriously) from this tweet:



Look, I get that Jenner probably never goes grocery shopping and wouldn't know the cost of a gallon of milk, but how could she never know about milk on cereal? Did she never see the Rice Krispies commercials with Snap, Crackle, and Pop? I know this is before her time, but her dad was on the cover of a Wheaties box. There were none of those hanging around the house? No one in her house with so many siblings and step-siblings never had cereal and milk for breakfast? What are they eating for breakfast?


Anyway, this single tweet will probably do wonders for the cereal and dairy industries. Everything a Kardashian/Jenner seems to discuss or promote turns to gold. (Well, milk isn’t going to turn into gold, but you know what I mean.)

Actually, maybe I'm the trend-setter here. I've had cereal and milk nearly every day for decades now!

Monday, September 17, 2018

Mac Miller 1992-2018

(Please note that the videos in this post are not suitable for work.)

As I’m sure that you know by now, rapper Mac Miller passed away last week, way too young at the age of 26. Miller was born and raised in Pittsburgh and represented the city proudly. Although I’m more than a decade older than Miller, we have some connections. He attended Allderdice High School where many of my friends went to school, we both went to the same camp, the founder of the company that produced Miller's first albums went to school with my brother, and we both loved the blue slide at Frick Park. (I just took my kids there when I visited Pittsburgh last month.)


I can’t say that I followed his music career all that closely after he initially hit it big. Calling his music “frat boy rap” seemed spot on at the time, and I enjoyed some of his break-out songs. However, he matured and it is reflected in his music. Miller performed a Tiny Desk concert in August and you can hear the retrospection.


It really seemed like Miller had so much going for him and ahead of him. Addiction is a terrible thing.

I recommend checking out the obituaries by the LA Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Vulture.



Friday, September 07, 2018

Happy Birthday Ziggy!

Our cat Ziggy turned 10 last month. He has been a major part of our lives (and this blog) since we adopted him in November 2008. Ziggy was there before kids. He started as the focus of our attention as a kitten, but now he's outnumbered significantly by our three kids. When we learned that we were expecting a third child, we bought a bunk bed for the older two. Ziggy may believe that this was a gift for him. The top bunk is one of his go to places, and he often sleeps next to The Moose or Pedro Tulo after they fall asleep. Ziggy is also extremely patient with a now one year old Luigi who absolutely adores him. Luigi will grab Ziggy's tail and fur, but Ziggy doesn't seem to mind. I think he likes the attention. He just tries to keep a respectable distance and prefers if I'm there to jump in if necessary.


I wrote about this a few years ago, but Ziggy still likes cuddling up with me at night. Not to brag, but I'm his favorite. Ziggy is a sweet cat, and I can't imagine our home without him. Happy Birthday Ziggy! To the pictures!


It really is his house. We just live there with him!

Wednesday, September 05, 2018

Play Survival Football

The headline makes it sounds like this is the Hunger Games! In reality, all you do is pick one NFL team who you think will win each week. If you choose correctly, you have chosen wisely!


You also get to advance to the next week. The catch is that you can't pick the same team twice. Get it wrong and you're out. In that case, you have chosen poorly.


The gold cup looks nice, but DON'T DRINK OUT OF IT!

Anyway, there might even be a prize for a winner. I don't know what the prize will be or even if there will be a prize, but there could be a prize. Let me just type prize again to let you think that you could win a prize. Which might happen. Prize!

To enter, follow this link and enter this information:

Group ID Number: 31101
Password: 123abc

Good luck!

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

National Capital Trolley Museum, 90s Advertisements, & Trivia Tuesday

Over the weekend, we took a trip to the National Capital Trolley Museum in Colesville, Maryland. It's a small venue with a room of about a dozen trolleys/streetcars, and then you can take a ride on one of the streetcars. The one trolley you could ride when we visited was built in the 1950s and was still operational in Toronto until the mid-90s. Maybe more interesting to me was the ads still on display in the trolley. While this isn't necessarily a Trivia Tuesday post, I'm giving you a challenge today. Can you name the albums from the following ad:


U2, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., and Eric Clapton immediately jumped out to me. It looks like there are also Hootie and the Blowfish, Melissa Etheridge, and Seal albums. Since this is a Canadian station, that's probably Barenaked Ladies on the top left. Please help fill in the ones I'm missing in the comments section below.

Here are a couple more pictures from the museum. (Not pictured is the one woman who yelled at us for having a loud 4 year old. You're in a trolley museum. There are going to be kids there!)



Now, I need to make sure I get to Toronto by 4:00 this afternoon to catch Ricki Lake!