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.

Pictures And More Pictures

Sure, there's a pretty big election tomorrow, and I still want to write about my Winnipeg-North Dakota trip, but today, I feel like sharing pictures. Warning: Some of these are not very recent.

I had no idea there are large groups of people who thought Honey Nut Cheerios are too big and need to be smaller.

I found a Wegmans-mobile in the wild (assuming you consider a Wegmans parking lot the wild).

Here's a fresh and current picture. While I knew that the Nathan's hot dog eating contest on July 4th wasn't aired live, ESPN really killed any suspense by showing that Miki Sudo won with the number of hot dogs eaten in the middle of the telecast.

For any of my Ithaca friends, my parents kept a bowl full of matches in their home. While we didn't keep any while cleaning out their place, I enjoyed coming across this one from Simeon's on the Commons (now called Simeon's American Bistro)

From a Nationals game this summer, I liked the look of these Japanese heritage jerseys.

Deer (and geese) really like "my" golf course at dusk.

It's a rainbow!

At the end of his time in first grade, Luigi drew George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Pretty good!

When I first saw The Moose's socks, I questioned why we bought him a pair with the picture of some type of angry bird

Turns out, that it's actually the Under Armour logo. 

Finally, how about a few sunset pictures?

Really finally. Here's one picture from Winnipeg.

Brand New Pickle Taste Test For Hanukkah

Like Fetch, I'm still trying to make eating pickles part of the Hanukkah tradition happen. 

2022 marks the 25th anniversary of this tradition. If you're not familiar, the quick story is that there was a Kosher Pickle Taste Test at San Diego State University, and since this occurred in December, the student newspaper thought it was part of the Hanukkah celebration. (The longer story is here.) Now, more and more people really do eat pickles at Hanukkah, and one of my life goals is to spread this tradition. It's right up there with trying to be a good father, visiting all 50 states, attending a professional hockey game in every NHL city, and winning fantasy football and baseball leagues.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to spread this tradition as my synagogue hosted an early Hanukkah celebration. There was a menorah build with legos, dreidels, food, and they let me have a pickle tasting table. I bought 14 jars of Wegmans, Grillo's, and Mount Olive pickles (total, not each), and spent much of Sunday morning cutting them up into sample-size pieces. Then, I put on my Portland Pickles T-shirt and brought them to the synagogue. 

While people were a little reluctant to approach the pickle table at first, primarily because they were more interested in eating pizza and getting donuts, more and more people stopped by, tried the pickles, and voted for their favorite. I'm particularly proud of The Moose, Pedro Tulo, and one of The Moose's friends for helping with "plating" the pickles for sampling, encouraging others to try them and vote, and then counting the ballots. I didn't ask them to help; they just jumped right in! 

I consider this year's event a trial run, and I think it was a success. I'd like to do a similar event next year with 10 or more different types of pickles, including by local pickle people. My dream is to have Kosha Dillz perform too. I also hope more Hanukkah celebrations around the world include pickles. It doesn't have to be a taste test (though those are fun), but just pickles next to latkes and sufganiyot would be great.

In case you're wondering, the Wegmans pickles won in a tight race. Oh, my car still smells like pickles too.

Game Changer

Our neighbors/friends recently remodeled their entire kitchen with brand new cabinets and appliances including a refrigerator. They offered us their old frig which we graciously accepted and put in our garage. This has turned out to be a game changer. (Hey, that could be the title of this post!) With three kids, we tend to go through food quickly. There are weekly trips to Wegmans and Aldis (yes, I know the store’s name is Aldi, but I call it Aldis) and at least 1-2 visits each month to Trader Joe’s. They have great frozen meals that the kids enjoy.

Last month, Wegmans was out of its boxes of chocolate chip waffles which Pedro Tulo often eats for breakfast. However, the store had a bulk 48-pack of waffles. With the second refrigerator, there was plenty of room to store the additional 38 waffles instead of the traditional box of 10. So now, instead of getting one or two bags of Trader Joe’s gnocchi with gorgonzola, a favorite of the kids, we might get 3 or 4. Having a little ice cream party for Luigi’s birthday? We got multiple containers and various flavors of ice cream!

Next up is the ultimate question. After saying good bye to Costco several years ago, is it time to go back?

Notes From Home

Even before we've been staying at home, but especially since we're here 24/7, I've played a fun game around the house called "Turning Off Lights in Rooms Where There Are No People." I have the high score!

With a free preview of Starz, I recorded several movies. Being the wonderful parent that I am, I let the kids (ages now 9, almost 6, and 2 & 1/2) watch "Spaceballs." There are a few more swear words than I remembered, so I just hope they don’t use them in the coming days. Anyway, my oldest who seemed to be paying attention the most kept asking me if this is the funny part. It probably didn’t help that I tried showing them "Star Wars" twice in the past, but they only made it about 30-45 minutes through and didn’t want to continue. Although my oldest said that he liked the movie and was proud of himself for predicting that Lone Star and Princess Vespa would end up together, he (and they) definitely didn’t get it.

I also recorded Quentin Tarantino’s "Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood." I will not be watching this one with my kids!

I've been on Zoom quite a bit lately. The reason I mention this is because when I look in the mirror, I see some hair on the top of my head. Based on my laptop camera angle, I look pretty bald on the webcam. (Of course, most people probably already think of me as bald/balding.)

Ziggy is going to have plenty of dry food for the next few weeks months years. This is a 16-pound bag!

I miss Wegmans. I generally go there at least once or twice a week, but I haven’t visited since March 17th. We did a pretty good job on stocking up on what we need and have also had groceries delivered. However, we’re going to need Passover food and some prescription refills, so I expect to be back soon.

Speaking of Passover, I don’t know how this is going to work this year. I probably go to grocery stores every day or two during Passover to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Wegmans usually has a good selection of premade meals too. Frequent trips are not going to happen this year. Without pasta, pizza, chicken nuggets, and our usual breakfast foods (cereal, muffins, bagels, etc.), I also have no idea what the kids will eat. Any Passover food suggestions are greatly appreciated. Complicated recipes with an extensive list of ingredients are not.

Random Ramblings

I know that I’ve talked about Wegmans many times over the years, but I wanted to add one more story about how awesome they are. Pedro Tulo was “helping” me put groceries on the belt from the cart and accidentally dropped the container of hummus, causing the package to crack. Fortunately, the hummus didn’t get all over the place. The cashier saw this and had a colleague get a brand new container without charging us. I’m sure that other stores do this too, but it was still nice of Wegmans to not have the “you break it, you buy it” policy.

In a parking lot last week, I squeezed into a space and when I opened the door, it slammed into the car next to mine thanks to some very strong winds. Naturally, the driver was in the car when this happened and gave me a “what the heck” gesture. I quickly looked at his car and saw no damage before giving a sorry gesture and also tried to pantomime that it was really windy. Then I walked away. I’m not sure what else I could or should have done.

Reason #1786 that Sidney Crosby is awesome: Watch this between the legs pass.



I love the Australian Open and Grand Slam tennis in general. (I also write some variation of this regularly.) With DirecTV, I get the mix channel for the tournament’s first week where I can watch up to 5 matches at once and then switch to any (or all) of them. They have this for the other Grand Slam tournaments, but I typically can’t watch during the day. With the time difference, I enjoyed flipping between matches before going to sleep. Someday, I’m going to visit Australia and attend the Australian Open. It will probably be 20 years, but it’s going to happen! (I'm going to visit New Zealand too on this trip!)

Finally, my favorite DC-area artist Emma G has a new song and video titled Living Proof. Check in out! (You can also learn more about Emma G on her website.)

Random Ramblings 2018

Happy New Year! Even though we're now into the second week of 2018, since this is my first post of the year, I find it completely appropriate to include a Happy New Year message. Here are some things that have occurred recently:

* The Moose is 6 years old, and I was really excited to show him Star Wars. Unfortunately, he wasn't really into the movie, and we only made it through about 35 minutes. I probably didn't sell the movie enough to him, but I'm putting some of the blame on TNT. The station had the film available for free via On Demand, which was great, but you're not able to fast-forward during the broadcast. Every 15 minutes or so, TNT interrupted the movie to show commercials of TNT shows. Every single TNT show, with the exception of the NBA on TNT, features characters with guns. While I know there are lightsabers and phasers in Star Wars, the TNT shows/commercials are definitely not geared for 6 year olds.

* Recently, as I was changing the diaper of three month old Luigi, he had a major spit up when I started to pick him up. Based on the position of his face, the spit up started going right towards one of his eyes. My natural reaction was to warn Luigi to close his eyes. Of course, since he is still an infant, he had no concept of what I was frantically screaming about and was completely unfazed by any of this as I had to go into clean up mode.

* I've written about my love of Wegmans many times over the years. For some dumb reason, I decided to go grocery shopping on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Although I had trouble finding parking on both occasions and the store was as crowded as I've seen it, all 23 check out lines were open and moved very quickly.

* Meanwhile, I went to Safeway recently since they had several great deals. On a weekend morning, the store had 1 register open. One!?!!? Unless I'm in a hurry or only have one item, I try to avoid the self-checkout lines. I find that I often have trouble scanning items or am buying items (medicine or alcohol) that require assistance. Plus, I want to go to aisles with cashiers to help preserve these jobs. So at Safeway, with one aisle open, the staff actually told me to go to self-checkout because there was a line. I don't understand how that store operates.

* I've also started to go to Aldi (or Aldi's in my mind) on occasion since they have ridiculous prices on their brand items. Recently, I purchased dishwasher detergent that said "compare to Cascade" on the packaging. It went poorly. All of the glasses, plates, silverware, etc. had a filmy finish. I ran the dishwasher again with the same detergent with the same result. Then, I ran the dishwasher on a rinse cycle. Then, I bought our normal detergent, but the filmy finish remained.

Finally, I got vinegar and that seemed to solve the problem. I compared Aldi's dishwasher detergent to Cascade and learned that there really is no comparison. Oh, I've also discovered that one of the ways that Aldi's has inexpensive products is because they don't seem to use heat in their stores. It was single digit temperatures over the weekend in Northern Virginia, and the store couldn't have been much warmer than that.

* I'll end with this. Pedro Tulo (age 3) has a catchphrase. He says "Everybody knows that" several times per day with no context and with nothing to do with any type of conversation. I have no idea where he got this.

Tuesday Night

Happy New Year! Today, you're going to get three rants for the price of one (assuming that you're paying for this blog...which you're not, so you're just getting three rants).

I don't have a Fitbit, but my phone counts my steps, and I try to get 10,000 steps per day. Since I returned from my hockey road trip on the first Sunday of December, I've only reached 10,000 steps three times due to me being sick, one of my kids being sick, and/or cold weather making it easy for me to stay inside. We have a gym in our complex, so I decided to walk on the treadmill for about 30 minutes. Not hard core exercise but a way to actually move instead of sitting on the couch after the kids went to sleep.

While one of the two televisions had the Capitals-Maple Leafs game, the other had the CBS show Bull. I pledged never to watch this show because a guy who can select a new jury every week sounded like a terrible show. Plus, I have no interest in Michael Weatherly. It's great that he got his NCIS money and wants to prove he can be out of Mark Harmon's shadow but that doesn't mean that I'm going to watch his show. Yet, I was stuck sort of watching it on Tuesday night. While I knew that Dr. Phil was somehow involved with the show, I was shocked to see Steven Spielberg listed in the opening credits as an Executive Producer. My question is why? It's not like he needs the money. Did he want to get some kind of deal with CBS and being a producer on this show was part of the agreement? I just don't get it. Bull seems like nothing that should have his name attached to it. Oh, I watched about 10 minutes of Bull without sound and probably won't ever see it again.

After the gym, I went to the local Safeway to pick up cat litter. Safeway has $5 Friday deals each week and every few months have Tidy Cats litter for, you guessed it $5. Gene Weingarten, humor columnist for The Washington Post, recently wrote a very funny article titled "Here’s what happened before God let cats loose upon the world." This is the ending

God: Indeed. That leads us to a central issue, Cat. You shall poop in a box.

Cat: WHAT?

God: A little box. From the time you are a small suckling you will know that you must do this and you will never, ever, ever make a mistake about this.

Cat: No!

God: Your life depends on it. Trusteth me on this.

Cat: I cannot ...

God: You can and you will. You scratch bellies. You bite feet. You live as a saboteur. You are an unconscionable jerk. In return for this license you will poop in a little box.

Cat: I am a very good boy.

God: You are not.

Cat: The sand that I shall poop in? Is it expensive?

God: Yes, it is very expensive, indeed.

Cat: Fine.

Basically, $5 for a 20-pound container of cat litter is a fantastic deal. It seems like many other people had the same idea as me last Friday as the litter was completely sold out. I got a rain check.

Back to Tuesday, I went to Safeway to cash my rain check and although I arrived at the store around 9:30 and not midnight, all of the registers were closed with only self-checkout machines available. Of course, two of six machines were out of service leaving one overworked employee to assist a line about 15-deep. After finally getting to a machine, I informed the employee that I had a rain check. He told me that they can only be redeemed at a register. Lovely. He called someone to open a register, and after about five minutes, I finally got to check out. Sort of. The cashier had no idea how to redeem rain checks, so she had to call a manager. Add another few minutes. Finally, we got everything resolved. Sort of. My rain check was for 6 containers of cat litter, but Safeway only had 4. The manager basically told me that I was out of luck and had to use the rain check on the 4. He did not issue me an additional rain check, and I was in no mood to argue as I had already been at the grocery store for nearly 30 minutes. I'm so spoiled by Wegmans with actual people working and employees available to answer questions and, you know, provide customer service. I would vow to never return to Safeway, but I can't pass up the $5 deals of cat litter.

Finally, I came home and opened the mail. One letter was from the homeowner's association with the semi-annual assessment. Here's the problem. The assessment was due on January 1st, so being a responsible resident, I paid it on time. However, the letter included this statement:

Please note that the remittance address on your payment coupons has changed. If you pay by personal check, you do not need to do anything further. Simply use the coupons and remittance envelopes provided to mail your payment. If you use your financial institution's bill payment feature, you must change the payment information.

I do all of my bill payments online, so now I need to call and figure out where my payment went and how it can get to the right place. None of this would have been an issue if I knew about the new address BEFORE THE DUE DATE.

Now that I got this off of my chest, I'm going to try to do something positive. I'm not necessarily going to call it a resolution, but I heard this on the radio and thought it was a good idea. At the end of the day, you're supposed to write down three good things that happened to you. It could be something minor like the Metro didn't break down or cat litter was on sale or something much bigger. Supposedly, after only a few days of doing this, you'll feel better (or something). I'll probably post "my three positive things today" on Twitter. And again, Happy New Year!

Randomness & Monday Links

Wegmans celebrated its 100th birthday this weekend by giving away lots of samples, grocery bags and birthday cake. (My 1.5 year old - Pedro Tulo - loved the sheet cake.) While I really enjoy shopping at Wegmans and definitely appreciated the free swag, I feel partially responsible for keeping the grocery store in business. Wegmans opened in Virginia in 2004, so I have shopped at either the Dulles or Fairfax locations for 11-12 years now. I also shopped at Wegmans when I was in college for 4 years in Ithaca. Conservatively, I've probably easily spent $50,000 at Wegmans. You're welcome, Wegmans!

This is a recent discussion between me and my 4 year old (The Moose)

The Moose: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Me: Retired.

The Moose: (Excitedly) A Tiger!

Although The Moose doesn't read yet, he is now a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly. He had some airline miles that were about to expire, so "he" redeemed them for a year subscription. I'm sure he's going to be excited to read articles about The Walking Dead.

A few articles to start your week:

PGH Sports Daily had an exclusive interview with Steelers and Pitt sportscaster Bill Hillgrove

This is a fascinating article by John Scott, the NHL enforcer/All-Star/now minor leaguer who also happens to have an engineering degree. [Players Tribune]

The Steel Trap published its latest, always entertaining First World Problems post.

My Life (December 2015 Edition)

- I was at Wegmans a few weeks ago (shocking, I know), and I saw a kid, probably around 5 years old that looked familiar, but I wasn't exactly sure why, particularly since I didn't recognize the kid's mother. Then, I realized that I thought I saw pictures of her on Facebook. Before this sounds too creepy, I'm friends with someone I knew through camp when I was in high school and college on Facebook. I haven't seen him in probably 20 years, but I know that he also moved from the Pittsburgh area to Northern Virginia. Anyway, I didn't want to randomly go up to the girl and her mother, so I sent my friend a Facebook message to see if his wife and daughter were at Wegmans. Sure enough, it was them, and my friend said it was fine to say hi as long as his older daughter wasn't driving his wife crazy. Since I was with my 4 year old (The Moose), I understood this completely. Naturally, after my Facebook correspondence, I didn't see them in the store again. Are scenarios like this why people use those missed connections on Craigslist? (Actually, don't answer that question.)

- I picked up The Moose from preschool recently and had my 1 & 1/2 year old (Pedro Tulo) with me. In the carpeted hallway on the way out, The Moose tackled his younger brother. They both laughed hysterically. It was cute. As the younger one gets older, I think they're going to have a lot of fun playing together.

- We had an extremely rare date night (and by date night, I mean dinner out on a weeknight) recently at a fairly nice restaurant. In the middle of our dinner but at the end of meal for a table near us, I saw a guy get on one knee and propose to his, I suppose, girlfriend. No one else saw this. It was like a was witnessing history. And here is the video I took of this:



As you can tell, this was not a video. While I considered taking a picture or video of the proposal, I thought it would be in poor form if I did. I actually think that was a plotline of a Modern Family episode. Anyway, she hugged and kissed him, so apparently she said yes. About two minutes later they left. I had food in my mouth as they passed by our table, so I didn't say anything. (Hmm...this seems like a trend in this blog post.)

- I received a letter from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management stating that my social security number and other personal information was including as part of a "malicious cyber intrusion." Lovely.

- As a reminder, if you're celebrating Hanukkah make sure you include pickles as part of your celebration. Here's the history of the Hanukkah tradition of eating pickles.

- Finally, please follow Sean's Ramblings on Facebook. Please?

So Long Costco

We've been members of Costco for several years now, but with our membership about to expire, I don't think we will renew. Yes. I'm writing a blog post about this. The annual Costco membership fee is now $55, either $10 or &15 more than when we first joined. However, despite having two kids and thinking that we'll need more bulk items than before, I've found that we go to Costco less and less. Let's do some math.

The primary pro for renewing the Costco membership is the gasoline prices. Costco's gas is generally about 10 cents a gallon less than any other gas station in the area. If we get gas 40 times a year (I rarely get gas for my car since I rely on public transportation and only drive locally), that's probably a savings of about $40. Yes, a $40 savings is less than the $55 membership fee. Plus, the problem with getting gas at Costco is that you have to arrive either early in the morning or late at night. If you arrive when the store is open, the line is generally at least 4 cars deep despite there being 75 pumps (slight exaggeration). I probably waste as much gas waiting in line than the savings I get.

Other than gas, there really isn't much major savings. The bulk items we buy at Costco (ex. paper towels, toilet paper) are approximately the same cost as the bulk items at Wegmans. While formula was slightly cheaper at Costco, we usually used a rebate check/coupon that Costco would not accept. That coupon made it cheaper ton buy formula elsewhere. Man, I hate that Costco doesn't take coupons. Now, we don't need to buy formula anymore. WOOO! The Target diapers work just fine too. The one plus on Costco's side is that we prefer the Kirkland wipes to others. And yes I just bought 4 boxes of them anticipating that we wouldn't renew.

So I'm sure you're asking, but Sean, what about the free samples and the $1.50 hot dog and Coke? Well, if I feel the need for this, I still have my Costco card. I can still flash it at the front door and get a free sample of some frozen appetizer. I just wouldn't be able to check out with a 24-pack of GoGo Squeeze applesauce (which is about the same price per sauce as the 16-pack at Wegmans). And if I truly need a 20-pack of soap, I can probably find a friend with a Costco membership and borrow their card.

Joining the 21st Century

Last week, I bought my first smartphone becoming the one of the last people between 21 and 40 to get one and probably THE LAST person with both a blog and active Twitter account that didn't have one. I'm still trying to figure out how to use this thing though. For example, I tried turning off the phone by pressing the round button at the bottom but instead activated Siri. My first questions to Siri were how do I turn off the phone and do you cost extra to use but neither question was answered to my satisfaction. Of course Siri has been helpful since then. Last night while making a trip to Wegmans for I believe the 4th time in 5 days, I asked her the score of the Penguins game. At first she replied 3-0 Pens but later answered 3-1 and 3-2. The Pens ended up losing in overtime to Ottawa, so I'm going to blame Siri for this. Meanwhile the phone also has an app (or preprogrammed thing) where I can track my steps. This seems to make much more sense then buying a Fitbit, but I need to carry the phone at all times to track this information. It looks like the smartphone already won a this battle

While getting a smartphone may or may not be one giant leap for mankind, I think I am still behind the times in a lot of ways. Here are some examples:

- I don't have an Instagram account.

- I have never been on Reddit.

- I have never used Uber.

- I don't have Netflix and if I did I would watch movies and shows by getting the DVDs in the mail.

- I have no idea how to watch new episodes of Community on Yahoo. Granted I haven't looked yet.

- I don't get the obsession with Mad Men. I watched the first 9 or 10 episodes, and while I thought the acting was great and the setting/period was really well done, I was bored.

- I have never seen a movie with Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Chris Evans or Chris Pine. Actually, I think Chris Pratt was in Moneyball, so just the other three.

Overall, at least I'm doing better than five years ago!

Your turn to share/confess.

Wegmans Knows Me

I've written about my love of Wegmans many times over the years. Just last week I visited the grocery store three times over an eight day period with my four month-old son. On the first two trips, I walked around the store with a stroller and a shopping cart and received one "you're a good dad/bless your heart" comment for looking awkward having my hands full. During the third trip, I finally figured out that it is easier to shop by placing the car seat directly into the cart.

Anyway, I received the following email from Wegmans yesterday.

Football, tailgating (well, at least the eating part) and coupons for Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur? Yes, please. It's like Wegmans created this ad just for me. All that's missing are offers for Rold Gold pretzels, Similac coupons and cat food for Ziggy, and I'm all set!

Grocery Store Conversation

At a recent trip to Wegmans, I was unable to find bug spray, so I finally relented and asked a grocery store employee who was putting eggs into the refrigerator for help.

Me: Excuse me. Do you know where I can find bug spray?

Grocery Store Guy (GSG): Sure.

He then reached over and showed me a bottle of butter spray.

Me: No. I'm looking for bug spray.

GSG: Can you describe it?

Me: Um, if there are mosquitoes you spray this so you won't get bit.

GSG: Oh, bug spray.

Me: Yeah.

GSG: I thought you said bun spray. It should be between aisles 2 and 4a.

So what the heck is bun spray? According to Google Images, this is bun spray.

With my receding (receded?) hairline, I certainly am not in the market for bun spray.

Random Ramblings

- Despite living about 250 miles away from my hometown, I have run into someone I graduated from high school with twice at the local Wegmans grocery store in the past few months. If she talks to any of our classmates, she would likely say that I have a lot less hair than I did in high school and that I looked disheveled since in both cases, I was unshaven, wearing glasses (as opposed to contacts) and not dressed very well. I have good reasons for looking this way (picking up a prescription for a sick child & going shopping after shoveling snow), but I don't think that makes a difference.

- I saw that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants to bet President Obama a case of Canadian beer per Olympic hockey game this week. Want a really fun bet? If both the US men's and women's hockey teams defeat Canada, the US should get Victoria/Vancouver Island. If both Canadian teams win, Canada gets Maine.

- The big entertainment story this week is Jimmy Fallon's new role as host of The Tonight Show. I don't think I've seen five minutes of either of his NBC shows (with the exception of Saturday Night Live).

- Dallas Buyers Club is up for multiple Oscars including best actor and supporting actor for Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. While I haven't seen the movie, it sounds like both actors did an amazing job portraying Mark Cuban & Jerry Jones respectively, owners of two prominent Dallas sports franchises that are known for spending a lot of money

Where Can You Find Cherikee Red?

As a child, I often went to Rhoda's in Squirrel Hill with my aunt and uncle and had matzah ball soup, a hot dog or sandwich and a can of Cherikee Red pop (yes, I said pop). I'm not sure how well these items went together, but I really enjoyed these meals. Anyway, if you're not familiar with Cherikee Red, you're missing out on this cherry pop magical deliciousness. I haven't seen Cherikee Red in years, so I turned to the internet* to see if the product still exists.

Last February, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an article by Andrew Seder (why is the writer different than all other writers?) titled "Cherikee Red: Rediscovered Soft Drink From Scranton Makes Comeback But Still Is Scarce." Essentially, Cherikee Red's back. All right! However, where can you find this refreshing and probably low-calorie soft drink? There's a Bring Back Cherikee Red Facebook group that shows some businesses that carry Cherikee Red, but this page hasn't been updated in nearly a year. More importantly, I don't see the product carried anywhere outside Pennsylvania.

Here's my challenge to you. If you see Cherikee Red, post a comment here about where you found it. Bonus points if you see Cherikee Red anywhere in the DC area. Maybe I should ask my local Wegmans to carry Cherikee Red.

As a bit of a tangent, the Washington Redskins should really sell Cherikee Red at FedEx Field. Seems like a perfect match.


* Where I quickly discovered that Cherikee Red is Cherikee Red and not Cherokee Red if that makes sense.

My Monday

Yesterday morning, I woke up expecting to have a typical Monday. Well, as typical as a Monday could be with the Pirates participating in a playoff game. After shaving and eating Honey Nut Cheerios, we discovered that my son, who made a significant amount of noise Sunday night/Monday morning but didn't actually wake up or at least call for us, had a temperature of 101.7. Typical Monday over. The bad news was that my son was miserable and couldn't attend preschool, but the silver lining was that I would have to stay home meaning that I could watch the 3:00 Pirates game.

I took my son to the doctor's office and learned that besides the fever he also had an ear infection. Apparently, it was such a textbook ear infection that the doctor wanted the visiting doctor/student doctor person to take a look. The resident doctor looked and confirmed that there was an ear infection. Um, thanks. Actually, she didn't really say anything. She just looked at his ear. I have no idea if she confirmed that there was an ear infection or if she just wanted to test the equipment.

We were given a prescription for an antibiotic, but since the pharmacy wasn't open yet, we went home. This began the day of Little Einsteins. If you're not familiar with this animated television show, I'm going to go on a quick tangent/vent here. Little Einsteins is my son's favorite show and one of the few shows we let him watch. Originally, I liked the show since it follows the adventures of four kids and their rocket ship as they travel the globe and is designed to teach classical music from artists like Mozart and Beethoven and shows art from Monet and Van Gough among others. Basically, there's a cultural and educational element to it. As I've now watched the show dozens if not hundreds of times, I have some concerns. Where are the kids' parents? How can Leo and Annie's parents let Leo fly a rocket ship? Shouldn't the kids have passports as they travel across borders? You think the military of various countries are okay with a rocket flying into their airspace? Why do Leo, June & Quincy praise Annie for all of her songs? She's no Lennon, McCartney or even Jewel. Finally, why doesn't Big Jet ever use its missiles? Seems like that could be effective.

After two episodes, we went to Wegmans to pick up the antibiotic. Since the prescription wasn't ready, we wondered around the store to pick up a few groceries and to see the trains by the milk section. While walking around a woman with a kid slightly older than my son stopped me and called me by name. I had no idea who this woman was but she clearly knew me. After she asked if I knew who she was, I went through my mental rolodex with a blank look on my face. Finally, I realized that this was someone I knew from high school in Pittsburgh that I hadn't seen in 20 years. Apparently, despite wearing glasses instead of contacts and having messed up hair due to not showering (and significantly less hair than high school), she recognized me since I was wearing a Pirates shirt. If you're going to see someone for the first time in 20 years, you'd like to look your best, or at least better than I did yesterday!

We didn't leave the house the rest of the day. My son fell asleep on me twice and barely ate anything. He was cuddly, but fairly pathetic. Pretty much like the Pirates offense against the Cardinals! Fortunately, the fever went down from 102 at the doctor's office to under 100 before bed time. He slowly returned to his normal happy self as the day went on as I hope the Pirates do in game five on Wednesday.

In case you were wondering, Ziggy was of no help yesterday. After his breakfast, he slept the entire day until it was time for him to have dinner.

Finally, my son is mostly back to normal today. The fever is gone and he's running, talking and singing, three things he did not do yesterday. He still doesn't seem to want any food, but he is so much happier than Monday.

Another Reason I Love Wegmans

This was spotted during a recent trip to the Wegmans grocery store in Fairfax, Virginia:

Notice that I wrote Fairfax, Virginia. Fairfax is four hours from Pittsburgh (or five hours if you hit the traffic that I did yesterday) and is part of the Washington Redskins territory. In addition, the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants and New York Jets are all closer than Heinz Field is to Wegmans Fairfax. Regardless, I need to commend Wegmans in carrying any type of Steelers products. Excellent decision!

P.S. Has anyone tried this ice cream, and if so, is it any good?

I Don't Understand Virginia Sometimes

I generally like living in Virginia, and more specifically, Northern Virginia. I live in an area with good schools and libraries. I love the fact that Wegmans is only a few miles away though a local Sonic would be nice. Plus, I rely on public transportation and that usually works well for me. (I now fully expect to experience an hour-long Metro delay tomorrow.) Now to the things that bother me. Virginia will be one of the last states to approve gay marriage though marrying your first cousin will likely stay legal forever. I can't say that I'm thrilled to be in a right-to-work state where I could get fired at any time. I also don't understand why there is a one-term limit for Governor when there are no term limits for state senators or delegates. I guess the legislature wants to make sure that they have the power.



Here's something else that bothers me. While this isn't new, I'm only getting around to writing about this now since Virginia Lt. Bill Bolling announced Tuesday that he would not run for governor as an independent. You see, there is not a statewide Republican primary for Governor, Lt. Governor or Attorney General. Instead, the candidates are selected at a party convention which essentially handed the Republican nomination to Ken Cuccinelli. This seems undemocratic! Why not let the people choose instead of the party elite? Anyone have a good explanation for this?

On a related topic, the Virginia Governor race is going to be brutal, and I'm not looking forward to the campaign and especially the ads.

How I Spend My Money (2012 Credit Card Spending)

Although there are multiple credit cards in my household, we tend to use one credit card significantly more than the rest. This credit card company also provides a year-end statement showing how we spent our money which you can sort by individual retailers or category (groceries, travel, etc.). I shared the places where we spent the most money in 2011, so I thought I would bring this back for 2012.

1. Wegmans - I'm generally at Wegmans at least once a week. We also tend to take friends and family from out of town here so they can enjoy the Wegmans experience. I'm not kidding.

2. Target - Kids are expensive. We like the Target diapers, and Target sells Ziggy's cat food for cheaper than anywhere else.

3. Amazon - Kids are expensive especially if you don't want to leave the house to buy stuff for them.

4. Sun Refining & Marketing (better known as Sunoco) - Remember when gas at $2 a gallon was high?

5. Costco - Call me if you need toilet paper.

6. Metro - There's just no way to avoid this expense. I guess I could drive to work, but then you would see Sunoco move up the list and a parking garage reach the top 10.

7. DirecTV - This is the only bill that is paid directly through the credit card as opposed to the bank account. I need to do some serious thinking next year (again) as to whether it makes sense to keep Sunday Ticket.

8. USAir

9. JetBlue - It looks like I did a lot of exotic traveling but the reality is that these are all trips to visit family. I'm scared to see where USAir and JetBlue fall in 2013 when we have to start buying a ticket for my child (kids under 2 fly free).

10. Old Navy - It was close, but Old Navy barely edged New Burgundy for the 10th spot.

Obviously things like rent, gas and electric would make this list, but as I mentioned under DirecTV, we don't use our credit card to pay those bills. Overall, this is a fairly boring list. It would be nice to have some excitement and show international travel, luxury hotels, fancy restaurants, or sports or theater tickets, but that's not where I am in my life. I tend to think that eight, nine or even all 10 of these companies stay on this list in 2013.

Where did you use your credit card the most in 2012?