Weekend Update

Ah, the weekend. It's what everyone is working for. Sometimes you're busy with lots of activities. Sometimes you can relax and unwind. Maybe sleep in. The sleeping in part never happens for me. On Saturday morning, I woke up a little after 3:00 thanks to hearing Lucy throw up. After cleaning it up with a carpet stain removal, I went back to sleep...only for Lucy to again wake me up at 5:00 because she wanted food. I love this cat, but she is so annoying. And as I’m typing this she is scratching the couch.

Okay, enough about Lucy. Let’s get to some good stuff.

The big highlight of the weekend was taking my boys to a card show. My dad took my brother and me to card shows regularly when I was in middle school, and I actually sold cards several times at the Eastland Mall Super Flea in North Versailles, PA. I love the atmosphere of card shows. For sports cards (since I skip over tables with Pokémon and non-sports cards), many people love to talk about certain cards or teams or players. At this particular card show, I learned why a guy who grew up in Northern Virginia is a Bills fan. I bought myself a $1 Bryce Eldridge card since I saw him play at Madison High School in Northern Virginia, and I hope he has a long and successful baseball career. This led to a discussion about ultimate frisbee with a father and his teenage son who plays ultimate frisbee with some guys from Madison HS. And I bought a Konnor Griffin card because why not.

The Moose bought several cards that might be valuable in the future, but for the most part, they bought cards of players they like or cool cards. For example, Pedro Tulo bought himself a Detroit Pistons Rodney Stuckey card since it included part of his jersey. While it’s a neat card, I doubt there’s a huge resale market for Rodney Stuckey cards. We did not consider getting a Lamine Yamal card for $15K or a Victor Wembanyama card for $8K. Someone else was trying to sell a signed drumstick by Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One guy I met named Nicholas creates his own cards via Near Mint Customs. While we talked about the absurdity of Enes Kantor declaring for the WNBA draft (he was selling some of these cards that he made), I really liked his "What If" series (though Russell Wilson should have been in an Orioles or Rockies jersey since those MLB teams drafted him).

I went out to a really nice dinner the other night and mentioned that I’m seeing the Foo Fighters on Monday night. (Future blog post?) When asked who was the opening acts, I replied Queens of the Stone Age and practically had to whisper Mannequin Pussy. At a quiet, fancy restaurant, not quite the environment to say that name loudly! Actually, this was probably a missed opportunity to say the band name loudly!

Wegmans is discontinuing its mac and cheese boxes. I don’t know why. The grocery chain should really inform me of any actions taken. Anyway, did I buy 10 boxes for 26 cents each? Absolutely. I figure that I might make a box or two and I can donate the rest at an upcoming food drive.

When I was in 5th or 6th grade, my dad put a pair of red sweatpants in the washer with whites. All of my whites turned pink. At that point, I decided it was time to do my own laundry. With The Moose about to start his sophomore year in high school, he should have at least done some of his laundry years ago. Still, he did his first load of Sunday.

When the kids were away at camp, we ran the dishwasher twice a week at the most. Now that they’re home again, we’re back to running the dishwasher every day or two. So many cups get used by them!

It’s Dad Camp week, so more about that to follow.

My Adventures In Not Attending UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest

I received an offer to attend the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest in Washington this weekend. I loved watching WWF (that's what it was called then) wrestling when I was in junior high and even attended a few events at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena (that's what it was called then). I stopped following wrestling sometime in high school. Boxing was still a big deal when I was in high school and college with heavyweights like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. That sport lessened in popularity and relevance (at least for me) to the point where I can't name any active boxer under 40.

As for UFC, it's just not for me. I don't need to see people beat up their opponents. While there's an audience for this, I have absolutely no interest in it. So although I politely declined the invitation to deal with the commute to DC, the heat, the crowd, and the security, in my head, I said to myself that there's probably 100 things I would rather do than attend the Fan Fest.

And then I actually made a list. I decided that my list would only include realistic items. I mean, sure, I would much rather visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris or go to Vegas and see the Eiffel Tower knock-off there (and catch some shows too), but my list is for things that I can actually do this weekend.

1. Watch the World Cup on TV

2. Go to the pool

3. Go out to eat

4. Laundry 

5. Referee soccer games

6. Pay bills

7. Go grocery shopping

8. Go clothes shopping 

9. Cut my kids’ toenails

10. See Herr Metal perform (which I did)

11. Go to the gym 

12. Set my fantasy baseball teams’ lineups

13. Just sit on the couch

14. Go for a walk/run outside 

15. Load, run, and empty the dishwasher 

16. Go to the movies (and I’m not even sure what’s playing)

17. Play board games with the family

18. Attend a Loudoun United soccer game

19. Watch TV (non-World Cup category)

20. Go to the library 

21. Attend my niece’s soccer game

22. Walk by my mailbox every hour or two to see if mail arrived

23. Catch up on work

24. Finalize summer vacation plans

25. Call my friend to wish her a happy birthday

26. Listen to podcasts

27. Pull weeds

28. Scroll through my Twitter and Bluesky feeds

29. Record a podcast with The Moose

30. Play with my cat Lucy even though her version of playing usually ends with her biting me

31. Start planning for Dad Camp week at the end of the summer

32. Search for theater performances in the area to attend over the next few months

33. Drive back to the Scout Shop for the third time in a week to buy more pins and merit badges for Pedro Tulo’s Troop

34. Write some blog posts

35. Begin compiling a list of people I want to contact for an epic blog post idea for this fall

36. Look through MLB rosters to see who the Pirates could acquire to help their bullpen

37. Play pickleball 

38. Play frisbee golf

39. Take my kids to the dentist. All three have braces or Invisalign, so I’m there all the time.

40. Watch videos/reels of people using Saxboy Billy’s Puerto Rico song

 

41. Go to the podiatrist. The toe nail on my big toe looks better, but there’s still more healing that needs to happen.

42. Return pants to Costco

43. Clean Lucy’s litter box

44. Clean out my Gmail messages and photos. My Google account is out of storage.

45. Not bet on sports (one month of no online bets!)

46. Go through papers/mail/bills. 

47. Play Wordle

48. Try to get The Moose to finish his last assignment of the school year

49. Go out with friends to play trivia

50. Take a nap

It was really difficult coming up with 50 more items, so I stopped here. I mean typing all the different names of shows to watch would easily get me to about 250. So for those of you attending the Fan Fest, more power to you. I'll gladly do any of the items above.

Herr Metal photo by Jessica Miller.

Steelers Win, But How?

The Steelers faced off against their division rival the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday and somehow prevailed 18-16. Here are some key stats from the game:

The goal in football is to score more points than your opponents. To do this, you usually need to score touchdowns. The Steelers scored the same amount of touchdowns as me on Sunday with 0.

Wide receivers Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin, and Mike Williams combined for 1 catch for -1 yards. Again, that's one less than my cat Lucy.

Baltimore rushed for 124 yards on 19 carries for 6.5 yards per carry. With that type of success, many are asking why the Ravens didn't run the ball more. Derrick Henry, arguably the best running back in the NFL, only had 13 carries.

The Steelers were 4 for 16 on 3rd down conversions. That's a lot of failed 3rd down conversions. 

The Ravens scored two touchdowns in their two red zone attempts, while the Steelers went 0-4 in their trips to the red zone.

Based on these stats, you would definitely think the Steelers lost. Again, they scored no touchdowns against the highest scoring team in the league! However, the Steelers forced three turnovers and kicker Chris Boswell went 6 for 6 on field goals and that was the difference in the game.

8-2 is nice. Go Steelers!

Finally, I need to give credit to Taco Bell for using Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta in one of its newer commercials. Love this song. 

Much better than Davante Adams looking miserable that he has a Taco Bell in his house. (Just ignore everything other than the commercial in the video.)

Random Ramblings: March 2024

* Six-year-old Luigi is playing baseball for the first time this spring. While he is using his brothers' old helmet and bat, he got a brand new glove as well as a cup. He is completely fascinated by wearing a cup and keeps calling it his "penis cup." Fortunately, he is only using this name in the house.

* Based on the Pittsburgh Steelers off-season acquisitions, I planned a blog post about the team's 2024 soundtrack. The post was going to start with two Wilson Pickett songs in honor of the Steelers quarterback combination of Russell Wilson and Kenny Pickett. Of course, the Steelers traded Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles making the entire post moot. I guess I need the Steelers to hire retired quarterback Philip Rivers as a member of the coaching staff or organization and sign wide receiver Phillip Dorsett from the Denver Broncos so that I can created a new playlist featuring this song:

* I haven't mentioned Lucy very much since we got her in September. She constantly wakes us up around 5:00 AM but waited until around 6:00 the first few days after we moved the clocks forward. That ended. We're back to her waking us up at 5:00 again.

* I'm really happy for the Duquesne men's basketball team winning the Atlantic-10 tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977. The team hasn't been very good for most of my lifetime, so the Duquesne fans and graduates deserve to celebrate.

* Fun fact: Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot's son Robbie Dambrot plays for the Loudoun United soccer team.

* There is now a hawk living on our street. Oh, it's not Dominique Wilkins. I don't know when the hawk moved in, but our neighbor noticed him/her on Saturday. I'm now completely fascinated by this and really want to get some pictures and videos. This is my second attempt which isn't terrible. 

* The best view of the hawk would probably be from my kids' bedroom per the picture above of Lucy looking out the window. With the nice weather recently, the cherry blossoms have started to bloom almost earlier than ever blocking any possible view of the nest. This is clearly a first-world problem since the cherry blossoms on my street are beautiful and don't last more than two weeks. 

Welcoming Lucy

My brother and his family got a kitten named Lucy at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, their dog constantly chased Lucy whenever they were together, so Lucy really didn’t have the freedom to roam around the house whenever and wherever. Because of this, not long after we had to say goodbye to Ziggy, they asked if we wanted to take Lucy. Between some vacations and work needing to be done at the house, we delayed a decision until late August when we said we would take her. On Monday, we brought Lucy home.

For the first 4-5 hours at our home, Lucy stayed in the basement. While she found her litter box, ate food, and drank water, Lucy didn’t really let us near her. I get it. She’s in a brand new place, and three loud boys will make anyone want to hide! With everyone in bed and me sitting on the couch watching TV, she ventured to the main level of the house and even upstairs. I worked from home on Tuesday to get some bonding time with Lucy. She did more exploration and started being comfortable around me. I mean, I have some scratches on my hand and arm (she made me bleed my own blood), but she purred and seemed happy to be around me.

(The next two videos are not suitable for work or kids.)

She's starting to get into a routine. She sleeps/hides under one of the living room couches when the kids are home in the evening. They are loud, and she doesn't seem to want to deal with all three. The big adjustment for us is going from Ziggy, an older cat who slept a lot including on or next to me to Lucy, a kitten who has incredible energy. She's basically Roy Kent. She's everywhere.

Enjoy some pictures!