I received an email a few months ago from my health insurance company about getting a "Move Kit" and participating in an exercise program. The Move Kit basically consists of a generic version of a FitBit that I wear on my wrist. It syncs up with my phone and tracks my steps. The key part of this program is that it is free, so I signed up. While I've tracked steps on my phone for years, it only works when I actually have my phone in my pocket. Since I don't carry my phone when I referee soccer games, I always wondered how many steps I take during these games. Over the weekend, I finally got the chance to try it. While I'm not completely sure of the accuracy of the device on my wrist, in three 70-minute games (one as a center referee and two as an assistant referee on the sidelines) including walking to and from my car and the restroom, I took about 15,000 steps in less than 6 hours.
Debbie Gibson has a book coming out in a few weeks. (I've written about her before.) While I'm not willing to buy it (yet?), I put it on hold at my local library.
After four years as the Dining for Dollars chair for my kids' elementary school PTA, I'm finally out! My job was to contact restaurants to set up events where a portion of the sales would go to the PTA. It wasn't a very difficult job, but it took up more time than I wanted in coordinating dates with the restaurants, the board, getting flyers made, etc. I told the PTA president at the end of last school year that I was done but would stick around if they couldn't find anyone new. I sold it as being a great position for someone who wanted to ease into getting involved but not ready for a leadership position. Someone took the role and has ideas for the school year. More importantly, I'm out!
Well, I was due. After nearly 20 years, I received a summons for jury duty. I wrote about my very limited experience years ago near the start of my blog. Might be some new blog content later this fall! (Though not nearly as good as the TV show.)
The Moose last played organized baseball in the fall of his 6th grade year. As someone who throws with his left hand, it was at this level where he could no longer play infield positions other than 1st base. He wasn't great at first, so he mostly played outfield. Although he had/has a good arm, I'm not sure if he pitched that season. Anyway, it was at this level, where you could clearly see a distinction between players. The good players were really good. There were a few kids who hit home runs and pitchers who could really throw. I don't think The Moose had more than 1-2 hits that season (though he had a good eye and walked a lot). I mention this because he just started high school last week and announced that he wants to play on the high school team this spring. As a pitcher. Not exactly sure how this is going to go, but I wish him luck.
Every year, I take the week before school off to spend time with the kids. Camps are over, and they're still too young to stay home for a week by themselves, so we (meaning me) come up with ideas of things to do. I write this post annually as a reminder of what we did each year.
Monday: Costco, Miniature Golf
Errands need to get done, and this was a chance to let the kids pick snack options for lunch and after school. Plus, free samples! And it turned out not to be exactly free samples. They enjoyed both the Chobani flip yogurts (which I bought on sale) and Pickle Balls (which I bought not on sale).
We almost always go miniature golfing during Dad Camp week. This year, we tried out Perch Putt located 11 stories up in Tysons. Thanks to Groupon for the deal.
Tuesday: Movie
Fairly low-key day. The Moose had a dentist appointment (he should get his braces off in 2 months!), and then we saw Bad Guys 2. It doesn't seem like I missed anything from not seeing the original Bad Guys movie. An unexpected surprise was hearing the voice of Alex Borstein in the film. I'm currently watching the last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and it was different hearing her not swearing! (And yes, I know Borstein has been been a voice on Family Guy for decades.)
Wednesday: Pinball Arcade
I thought this would be something different and that the kids (and I) would enjoy. While it was about 45 minutes away, we went to Jackpot Pinball Arcade in Purcellville, Virginia and played for hours. Took a break for a delicious lunch at Magnolias at the Mill. Big success.
Oh, while it was mostly pinball games, I got the second high score on Centipede!
Thursday: Back to school day.
The Moose had high school(!?!?) orientation in the morning, and Pedro Tulo and Luigi met their teachers in the afternoon.
Friday: Pickleball & Soccer Match
Played pickleball in the morning which is always an adventure with the three boys. The Moose thinks he's Ben Johns (a really good pickleball player) against his younger brothers. Later in the day, we attended an exhibition match between Pitt and George Mason men's soccer teams. Pitt is ranked #7 this preseason but didn't look like it in the first half with Mason taking an early 1-0 lead and Pitt not getting many chances. While I'm not sure how much or how many starters played for each team, Pitt absolutely dominated the second half and ended up winning 2-1.
Throw in a Nationals game and the pool over the weekend, and I think it's been another successful week of Dad Camp. Now, I'm excited that the kids are going back to school!
Last week, I wrote about my experiences watching soccer in Iceland. Consider this part two
of my Iceland adventures. Today, I'm sharing pictures from my trip. I know what
you're thinking. Sean, you're just going to share amazing pictures and videos
of waterfalls, the ocean, and puffins. You're such a tourist, Sean, posting what
everyone shares when they travel to Iceland. I hear you, so instead of doing that
"boring" stuff, I'm sharing random pictures of the trip.
Ranch is one of
America’s greatest culinary accomplishments, so what better way to celebrate
Cool America.
Gulfoss is an
incredible waterfall. I could show you pictures and videos of it, but I know
that you want to see that the visitor center has Heinz condiments.
Meanwhile, a
food truck at the Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon has whatever this is.
While this
museum (which was right around the corner from my hotel) has good reviews, it
wasn't on my list of things to do. Did check out the gift shop though.
Many, many
years ago, I remember being amazed by the Dyson Airblade hand dryer. Apparently,
the next step in hand dryer technology is at the Keflavik Airport. It's an
individualized Dyson Airblade at a sink!
Of course, I
took a picture of cereal at the grocery store in Vik. Seems like Weetos is a
better value than Marshmallow Mateys.
The Gruffalo has been one of my favorite books to read to
the kids over the years. I saw a version in Icelandic at a Reykjavik
bookstore and really considered buying it as a gift for them, but 40 American
dollars seemed a little steep for a book I probably wouldn't attempt to read
more than once or twice.
I just want to share that accreditation is important.
The Sun Voyager is a well-known sculpture in Reykjavik. A picture of this landmark doesn't seem to match with the rest of this post. I'm including it here because
of the woman in the picture. I waited patiently for her to make all kinds of
poses in front of it until finally I decided to take a picture of her in
action!
Quick story
about the Yoda Cave. We drove a lot of hours the day we visited this and missed
the turn to the "road" to the cave. When you miss a turn, it's miles
before you can turn around since there's not just an intersection two blocks
away. The road to the Yoda Cave itself was gravel and possibly the bumpiest
road I've ever been on. I was really worried about potential damage to the car
and needing to deal with insurance. So we finally arrived at the cave but were
also getting hungry since it was late in the day and frustrated that we missed
the turn. We got out, took a few pictures, and left, and I thought of Leonard Nimoy on The
Simpsons while I was there.
This is outside
our first hotel room just after 3:30 AM!
Fine. I'll
share a video of puffins.
Yes, there will
likely be a third Iceland post, so stay tuned!
* My kids are
home after being away at camp for three weeks. Each year, it's amazing what
they bring home and don't bring home. So far, I've found several socks that
don't belong to any of them and a random pillow case that belongs to someone else.
Meanwhile, how did all three of them lose their camping / folding chairs?
* I averaged over
10,000 steps a day in July. It certainly helps to have two vacations in
the same month! First time I've averaged that many steps in a day for an entire
month since June 2022.
* I recently saw
a commercial for Nemluvio, a prescription medicine to treat eczema. While I
appreciate the usage of Black Box's Everybody, Everybody in the ad, replacing
Everybody, Everybody with Nemluvio, Nemluvio doesn't work. It's the same amount
of syllables, but it's just off.
As a
comparison, o-o-o Ozempic works perfectly.
* It's difficult
being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. As of Sunday evening, the team is 51-68. At the
trade deadline, the Pirates did not trade three veterans with expiring
contracts, and instead, traded other players for individuals who likely won't
make the majors for several years. Understandable if the Pirates were in a
"rebuild," but the team has been awful since 2018. (In 2018, the team
finished with a winning record. Not in the playoffs but not awful.) While
it's possible that the Pirates will finally spend money and sign free agents
for 2026, based on the team's history with the owner unwilling to spend money
on players, this seems unlikely.
With all of
that written, the Pirates are an exemplary team compared to Sheffield Wednesday. The team has not paid players and staff on time in months, let
about a dozen players leave the team (or sold the players for well-below
market value), and the manager is gone. Oh, the North Stand is currently
closed, deemed unsafe. The entire team is a mess. The best case scenario seems
to be that the owner sells the team and maybe the team doesn't break a record
for fewest points in a season and somehow avoids relegation. To dream
the impossible dream!
Voting is underway through August 22nd for Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH. I
love the fact that there's still a Best Blog category. There are so few blogs
remaining, and this is a fantastic way to highlight blogs and bloggers. This
year's finalists are:
Ana Eats Pgh
Horrorpgh
OneBURGH
Straight Facts
Podcast
What Sleeps
Beneath
Ana Eats Pgh
seems like a website and what she posts are reels, mostly on Facebook. Ana has
good stuff and maybe you can make a case that it's a video blog. Probably a
stretch though.
No idea what
Horrorpgh is. I found a substack that hasn't been updated since 2023. There's a
YouTube page with 8 videos, and some postings on Instagram.
Straight Facts
Podcast is a podcast. It's right in the name. It seems like they have videos of
their podcast on YouTube. Not a blog.
With all three boys away at camp, we took our first vacation without kids since The Moose was only a few months old. He’s starting high school in two weeks. And even that vacation wasn’t really a vacation. I was a groomsman in my friend’s wedding, so while we had a great time, it wasn’t actually a vacation. So with the kids away and to celebrate our 20th anniversary a year late, we went to Iceland.
As you might be able to tell by the title, this post is not about the beautiful natural wonders of Iceland and our experiences traveling around the country. That will come in a future post. This is about football in Iceland which I will now refer to as soccer for the rest of the post. Sorry to anyone in Iceland reading this who prefer football to soccer. for non-sports fans, please don't click away yet. You might find this interesting. Seriously. There's Icelandic music here too!
After flying overnight, we arrived in Iceland and essentially went straight to the Blue Lagoon. Is this geothermal spa an overpriced tourist destination? Yes. Was it worth spending the money for several hours in warm, remarkably blue water? Also yes.
From the Blue Lagoon, we checked into the hotel and took a nap. I woke up and decided to walk around the neighborhood, and almost immediately after leaving the hotel, heard crowd noise and followed the sound. What I discovered was a soccer field with hundreds of kids in the stands and a stage in the middle of the field. It turned out to be the opening ceremonies for the annual Rey Cup youth soccer tournament. There were club teams from throughout Iceland as well as Germany, the UK, Faroe Islands, and several from the United States. The opening ceremonies included a performance from Icelandic hip-hop artist Herra Hnetusmjor.
Shifting away from soccer momentarily, I really enjoyed listening to Icelandic radio. The pop stations played a mixture of songs from musicians you would hear on any American station (Ed Sheeran, Alex Warren, Dua Lipa) as well as songs in Icelandic, and others songs in English I was unfamiliar with likely by British artists. What made it even better was I couldn't understand anything said by the DJs. Sample dialogue in Icelandic:
The Weather Girls It's Raining Men something, something, something...
There were two songs in Icelandic that I heard several times that I liked, so I tried to figure out the title and artist. I ended up going on a deep dive of the Icelandic Billboard chart and listening to Icelandic songs on YouTube. Justin Bieber has a new album with several songs on the chart. Our friend Herra Hnetusmjor had a song in the top 5 that had previously reached #1. Pretty cool that someone with a #1 hit played the opening ceremonies of a youth soccer tournament. I couldn't find either song I liked on the Billboard chart, but while heading to the airport, one of the two songs played on the radio, and I was able to figure out it was this:
No clue what the lyrics mean, but I like the sound. Oh, there was no editing of English song lyrics on the radio. You clearly hear Sabrina Carpenter singing swear words that do not make American radio.
Back to soccer, the opening ceremonies were right next to Iceland's national stadium. While I wasn't able to go inside, I walked around the gates. The stadium is nice, but it's also much smaller than what I think a national stadium looks like. It's not Wembley in England or Azteca in Mexico. It seems like there is a seating capacity of 9,500 which would be less than my high school football stadium, The Wolvarena.
We left Reykjavik for several days to tour the south coast of Iceland, but I knew we would have time on Sunday evening when we returned. After discovering that the National Theatre of Iceland was near the hotel, I started looking into potential shows to see and got very excited at the potential of seeing Frozen, I mean, Frost.
If I'm going to see a show where I don't understand the language, at least this is one where I know the story. Although I never did figure out the theatre's website, it seems like the show already happened and was on the website as part of the season schedule. The other option was going to a professional Icelandic soccer match. And again, it was difficult to get information. I finally figured out that Valur Rejkavik, the top team in the Besta delid karla (or Men's Best Division) had a home match about a 10-minute drive from the hotel against FH. In case you're wondering, FH is short for Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar. Since that's impossible to pronounce, I'm now referring to FH as the Fire Horses.
I struggled to find information about the game online, so I emailed the team twice to ask questions about how to buy tickets and where to park. I also commented on Valur's Instagram and Facebook posts to try to get this information. I received no responses to the emails or comments. Finally, a few hours before the match, one Valur fan sent me a message letting me know that I had to buy tickets via an app. This was extremely helpful.
About 30 minutes before the game, we arrived at the stadium and found parking to be extremely easy. There was only one entrance (which looks like the entrance to an apartment building) with no one in the ticket booth and one person watching people scan tickets to enter, or taking Icelandic krona from the few people who didn't have tickets electronically. We got tickets through the app's website and scanned my phone to get in.
I am clearly used to going to American professional sports venues. This felt more like attending a high school game. There were no assigned seats and only one of the four sides had stands. There were a few places to buy refreshment and one booth sold a limited amount of merchandise, but you come to Hlíðarendi (that's the stadium name) to watch soccer. Well, or basketball or handball since there's a large indoor court connected to the field. There's no pregame activities or halftime show. It's a soccer match. According to Wikipedia, the stadium holds 2,465 people including 1,201 in seats. I have no idea where the remaining 1,264 people would stand. I included several pictures and videos below so that you can see the stadium for yourself.
This picture makes me laugh. The kids were getting soaked by the sprinkler system. Plus, the boys wore Pepsi shirts, and Coca-Cola is clearly a stadium sponsor. Don't think placement of both Pepsi and Coke would happen at an American stadium.
Aron is on the Valur, but A-A-ron is not.
As for the game, Valur won 3-1. There are the highlights though without sound:
I really enjoyed going to the game. If you talk to anyone who visited Iceland, they probably went to the Blue Lagoon and stopped along the Golden Circle (again, future post). My guess is that I'm the only one who went to a Besta delid karla match!
Oh, the waffle (or vofflur in Icelandic) with cream and rhubarb jam was delicious!
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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