Winter Storm Jonas

If your city is going to be paralyzed by a blizzard, it might as well be an historic one. Winter Storm Jonas arrived in the DC area on Friday afternoon and finally finished its work sometime late Saturday night / early Sunday morning. While you can see the snow totals for the DC area here (my estimate is that we received about 27 inches at my home), I decided to give a thumbs up/thumbs down on the snowstorm.

Thumbs Up: Jonas. Look, I don't understand why every storm needs a name, but Jonas is fine particularly since the Jonas Brothers are probably thrilled by the extra exposure. Meanwhile, I hope that Hanson is plotting somewhere to have their own blizzard.

Thumbs Down: Snowzilla. Is this name really necessary? Why did this name make it in news stories?

Thumbs Up: My son (The Moose) helping shovel.

Thumbs Down: My street. The snow plow got stuck on Sunday morning, and I don't think it's been back since. My side of the street isn't bad but the other half is still a mess.

Thumbs Up: I found a bag of Stacy's Pita Chips. Sure the expiration date was last month, but they still taste good to me.

Thumbs Down: Sweets. I don't seem to have any here. I should have bought a bag of Hershey's kisses before the snow hit.

Thumbs Up: Me. I did an awesome job shoveling. Here are before and after pictures from Saturday morning.

Of course, we received another foot of snow after I finished, so there was much more shoveling. However, after I finished I felt like quoting Lords of the Underground. They don't understand, I'm the motherf'n man. (Some of the words in the video are NSFW.)



Thumbs Down: My car. I don't think it's ever getting out of this parking spot. My car is in the middle.

Thumbs Up: Pittsburgh Sports. Pitt won an exciting basketball game on Saturday afternoon while the Penguins defeated the Vancouver Canucks.

Thumbs Down: This was supposed to be the annual hockey road trip weekend. It didn't happen. Of course, the New York Islanders actually cancelled the game in Brooklyn, so maybe it will happen in February instead.

Thumbs Up: The Washington Post. The Capital Weather Gang provided great information over the past few days.

Thumbs Down: The Washington Post. I'm a Sunday subscriber, and while I didn't expect to receive the Sunday paper, I liked getting the circular on Friday. Unfortunately, instead of including the Comics, Travel and Arts sections, all I got was the weekly ads. Heaven forbid we don't know the sale prices at Kohl's and Target!

Pittsburgh Is In (According to the Washington Post)

As part of the Washington Post’s 2012 In/Out List, authors Monica Hesse and Dan Zak included this:



Hyperbole is out! The Mayans were right!

Of course, based on the title of this post, you know that I’m going to briefly discuss the Portland-Pittsburgh line. As a native Pittsburgher, naturally, I’m happy anytime that my hometown receives positive recognition. Sure, National Geographic naming Pittsburgh one of the 20 world’s must-see destinations was huge (Pittsburgh and Sonoma, CA were the only two locations in the US). All of the movies filmed in Pittsburgh in 2011 also provided wonderful exposure. However, living in DC and seeing this in the Washington Post was a nice surprise.

The cynical me might suggest that the Post’s inclusion of Pittsburgh in the "In" column could be related to the full-page ad by VisitPittsburgh promoting Pittsburgh on the back page of the December 11, 2011 Travel section. However, since I agree with this selection, I would never suggest such a thing.

The Post’s Maura Judkis has more about the "Pittsburgh is in" selection.

Washington Post Fails To Provide James Harrison As A Date

This is Katie Miller and Chris Bentley.



They were set up as part of The Washington Post's weekly Date Lab. While it sounds like they had a great first date, there is one part of the April 10th article that really stood out to me.

Katie: He texted me on his way home [and] said that he had a really wonderful time and wanted to see me again soon. I texted him back, “Me too,” and also that it was great meeting the King of the Toddlers. I’d give [the date] a 4.5 [out of 5]. I had so much fun. The only reason it’s not higher is because The Post couldn’t arrange a date between me and [NFL player] James Harrison. (Emphasis added.)

To The Washington Post - With the NFL players locked out, couldn't you have arranged for Katie to go on a date with James Harrison? Seriously, The Post could have made it happen.

Your move Pittsburgh Post-Gazette! (I challenge Cat of Cat's Call to arrange a date for James Harrison.)

Tired of Tires

I’ve been a driver for nearly 18 years and probably driven over 200,000 miles during that time. I mentioned briefly last Monday that I got a flat tire, but I didn’t include the fact that this was the first flat tire in the 18 years of driving. Well, while heading back to Pittsburgh on Friday, I had my second flat tire in less than a week. Last week’s incident occurred on I-66 when the rear driver’s side tire blew out. On Friday, I noticed that my alignment seemed a little off when I was on 270, but I didn’t piece everything together until I merged onto I-70 and heard and felt another flat tire. In this case, the rear passenger’s side tire had some sort of valve leak. So now I have two new tires and two new valves on the front tires. However, I still sort of freaked out when I drove to and from Washington this weekend. I worried a little after hitting any bump on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

As a bit of a tangent, I’m quick to criticize or write negative posts against companies that do a poor job. I don’t always give props to companies that go above and beyond my expectations. So today, I want to give credit to AAA auto services. They were amazing during both flat tire incidents. AAA arrived quickly and was extremely thorough and professional. Kudos to AAA!

Since I’m in a generous mood, I’d also like to give kudos to The Washington Post. I unsubscribed from receiving the Sunday edition because they were unreliable in delivering the paper. They ignored vacation stops and wouldn’t deliver the paper until after 9:30 on Sunday mornings. Well, I subscribed again a month or two ago, and something changed within the organization. I had a 6:00am flight to Bradenton, Florida when I went to Pirates’ Spring Training last month, and the newspaper arrived on my doorstep at 4:30 just before I left. They have been great since I subscribed again.

OK, tangents over. Not to make this too much of a sappy post, I was subjected to watching Miley Cyrus and company promote the new Hannah Montana movie on the Tyra Banks show while waiting for my tire to be repaired. While I do not condone torture, airing the hour-long Miley Cyrus-Tyra Banks episode on a continuous loop would cause any terrorist or criminal to confess!

California Tortilla & Washington Post Updates

After 21 consecutive weeks of eating a California Tortilla burrito, I think it is time for a break. However, I still have 31 coupons for free burritos good only at the Reston location. If you are interested in buying a coupon or multiple coupons, please e-mail me at seanramblings[at]yahoo dot com. The regular Blackened Chicken Caesar burrito is $6.19 including tax and some of the other specialty burritos cost even more. I’m looking to sell the coupons for $4 each, but I am willing to negotiate, especially if someone is interested in buying multiple coupons.

As for the Washington Post, I am getting closer and closer to canceling my Sunday subscription. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I received the newspaper at 9:30 AM on Sunday, December 16 and then, the paper was delivered on Sunday, December 23 even though I submitted a vacation stop. Today, the paper again arrived just after 9:30. I submitted a comment on the Post’s subscriber services page, but I doubt that I will receive a response. If I do not hear from the Post by Tuesday afternoon since the screen stated that the Post’s “service representatives have received your message and are working to address it within two business days,” I will call them on Wednesday.

While I was waiting for Sunday’s newspaper, Good Morning America featured a story about an octogenarian couple in Edgerton, Wisconsin who have delivered newspapers for more than 50 years. The story mentioned that they generally deliver the paper around 5:00 AM. That would be 4.5 hours before my newspaper is delivered!

Calling Out The Washington Post

I am having some problems with The Washington Post recently. It has nothing to do with the content or any of the writers, just the manner in which the paper is delivered. I am a Sunday only subscriber and regularly read part of the daily paper on the Post’s website. On Sunday, December 16, I received the paper at 9:30 A.M. To me, that is unacceptable. You see, my brother was a paperboy and he regularly delivered the Saturday and Sunday newspapers before 7:00 A.M. When I had to fill in for him or took over a route from a friend when he was on vacation, the paper was also delivered early. I was awake around 8:00 on the 16th, and would have liked to have read the newspaper before I left my home at 10:00. Since I was out all day, I barely touched the paper.

I was away this past weekend, so I requested a vacation stop. Nevertheless, the Post delivered the coupon section on Saturday (we left on Saturday morning and the coupons were on our door step) and the Sunday paper on Sunday. What’s the point of submitting a vacation stop if the paper is just going to be delivered anyway?

I have already contacted the Post about the vacation stop and the fact that the coupons get delivered even when a stop is requested for the Sunday. I have not yet received a response, but that is to be expected since yesterday was a holiday. However, if the situation is not resolved, I may cancel my Sunday subscription. I would hate to do it, but I might come to that.