Dad Camp 2023

I wrote about Dad Camp last year, so I wanted to share what we did this year along with some pictures.

Monday: Costco, Library, Swimming Pool

Not the most exciting start to Dad Camp, but there was a purpose to these activities. A local library has a summer reading program where you can earn Washington Nationals tickets. We visited the library specifically to pick up the voucher and then went to Costco where the kids were super excited that I bought a case of Prime, a new hydration drink. 

I had big plans to take the kids to a Nats game on Tuesday or Wednesday, but the tickets were only available for September games.

Tuesday: Renwick Gallery, White House

I wrote last year that I try to expose my kids to art and culture when I can, so we visited the Renwick Gallery, part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Unlike most Smithsonian museums, this one isn't on the Mall and is smaller and more intimate than its contemporaries. The kids' favorite was Janet Echelman's 1.8 Renwick, and they also really enjoyed Alicia Eggert's This Present Moment, and Bisa Butler's Don't Tread on Me, God Damn, Let's Go! - The Harlem Hellfighters among others.

When we finished at the Renwick, we walked by the White House

Wednesday: Visited My Brother's Family

We got the cousins together and went to a very cool park with a ninja course and baseball fields where we played a heated game of kickball

Thursday: Frisbee Golf, Meet The Teacher Day

On the 5th or 6th hole of the frisbee golf course, Luigi had a meltdown over not going first or not getting to use the new disc or something. Who knows? These tantrums happen sometimes but not generally in public. Fortunately, I don't think anyone else noticed. 

The Moose is starting middle school, so this was the first time he met his teachers. We walked from classroom to classroom trying to replicate his schedule which changes every other day. Big adjustment for him, but every other 7th grader is in the exact same position.

Friday: Luray Caverns, Route 11 Potato Chips

This was the big trip of the week. Luray Caverns is just cool. So many stalactites and stalagmites. Nature at its best.

(I don't think the ladder is natural.)

And after lunch, we visited the Route 11 Potato Chips factory. It's not that big, but they gave very generous samples and watching them make the chips was fun. 

Of course, my kids talked much more about the chip factory than the natural wonder millions of years in the making. 

Saturday: Loudoun United Soccer Game

They still haven't offered me the job of being the official team blogger, so I'm not going to expand on the game or anything else associated with the game.

It's going to take some work next year to top Dad Camp 2023!

My 12 Year Old Visited OnlyFans

As I was out running an errand on Wednesday, I checked my email and received the following message from Google:

Subject: OnlyFans.com now has access to The Moose's Google Account

Message: The Moose signed in to OnlyFans.com with their Google Account. OnlyFans.com now has access to some of The Moose's Google Account data, including:

* See your primary Google Account email address

* See your personal info, including any personal info you've made publicly available

* Associate you with your personal info on Google.

OnlyFans is a "subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections." While that sounds innocent enough, there's a lot of X-rated material on this site. Certainly not appropriate for a 12 year old! 

I instantly emailed my son as soon as I received the message.

The subject of the email was "What are you doing," and in my mind I sounded like Dwight from The Office.

Me: Why is onlyfans.com attached to your Gmail account.

The Moose: That's weird.

Me: What are you clicking on that you would attach to your email/Google account?

The Moose: I have no idea.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt since I really don't believe that he was searching for X-rated content. I really think he's too innocent for this. I mean, he wanted to order a "Grilled Cheese" salad for dinner last night off the "grown up" menu, and I had to tell him that it was a Grilled CHICKEN sandwich. Plus, he was in the same room as his younger brothers at the time he was online. 

I checked his browser history and did see onlyfans.com listed. I don't know why or how he even heard of it. My theory is that he was searching for some fantasy football draft advice and came across someone who was offering suggestions on their paid OnlyFans site. Just before that, he was looking at some information about a musician, and maybe he visited OnlyFans because the artist has a page. I really hope one of these two theories are accurate! 

John Daly Wears A Riverhounds Shirt

I've written various Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear posts since 2010, and today marks the first time I've ever referenced the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in one of them. On Saturday afternoon, professional golfer John Daly published the following tweet:

On the surface, this appears to be completely random. John Daly has two major championship titles with seemingly no connection to Pittsburgh and particularly the Riverhounds, the city's soccer team in the USL Championship division, a tier below Major League Soccer. However, Daly is apparently friends with Riverhounds owner Tuffy Shallenberger. Doing some internet detective work, I found this Facebook post for Suzy's Simply Delicious in Mount Pleasant, PA with a message thanking the dessert place for the unbelievable cake for the John Daly golf outing and celebrating the birthdays of Tuffy Shallenberger and his son Dylan. 

Tuffy responded to the tweet with a "Love ya, brother" message and a fist bump emoji. Oh, the Riverhounds defeated Hartford Athletic 2-0.

Go Riverhounds!

Pink

On Sunday afternoon, I started hearing reports about the high potential for severe thunderstorms with an outside chance of a tornado on Monday afternoon and evening. This was very concerning since I had tickets to see Pink at Nationals Park at that exact time. The weather reports didn't change throughout Monday. Dangerous storms. Destructive winds. Torrential rain. Frequent lightning. I'm on an email list from someone at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Center for Weather and Climate Prediction. He sends emails for possible snow storms, and Monday was the first time I ever received a message from him during the summer. As the afternoon progressed, the federal government announced that offices were closing at 3:00. Meanwhile, this is the message Nationals Park posted on social media.

With no further announcements, we decided to try to get near Nats Park before the storm arrived. We figured we could shelter in place in the underground parking garage or at a restaurant. Not ideal, but for a rain or shine event (and expensive tickets) and no updates, we figured we had to get close to the venue. While walking from the garage to the stadium, the downpour began. We were able to duck into a Cava restaurant about a block from the stadium and hunkered down for dinner. After about 30-45 in the restaurant and the rain stopped (and still no update from Nats Park), we entered the stadium. The concourses were packed since the stadium wasn't allowing people to their seats yet. We heard someone mention that Grouplove, the opening act, announced on social media that they weren't playing due to weather conditions. Again, no notice of this or anything else in the stadium or online. Finally, people were able to get to their seats, and a DJ named KidCutUp did his DJ thing (he was actually really good) before Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo played a shortened set.

As you can see from the videos in this post, there was definitely heavy rain throughout the night. I mean, it certainly seemed like the performers and most people in the audience were getting soaked. I don't actually know. Amazingly, our seats were under an overhang keeping us completely dry.

This is a very long introduction to the fact that Pink is awesome. The show is completely unlike anything I've seen before. It's a major artist playing her hits while essentially incorporating Cirque de Soleil into the act. What's amazing is that Pink still sings her songs while jumping and bouncing all over (and above) the stage. If you have a chance to see Pink live, I highly recommend that you go.

A few notes from the concert:

This was the first concert since seeing Christina Aguillera in 2000 where there were more women than men. No lines for the men's bathroom!

Speaking of bathrooms, during my first year at the Celebrate Fairfax festival, I ran into Neil Giraldo in the bathroom. I said hey as I was leaving, and he replied hey as he entered. We didn't see each other this year.

Lots of people wore pink to the concert. I don't remember many people wearing green when I saw Green Day. 

My only disappointment with the show (besides the lack of communication by Nats Park) was that Pink didn't perform U + Ur Hand. Such a good song.

Finally, while the weather wasn't as bad as predicted, don't tell that to the owner of this car in my neighborhood.

UPDATE: USA Today has a recap of the show here.