Best And Worst Of 2023

It's time for my annual best and worst of the year in pop culture, entertainment, and more. As you'll see, there are not many "worst of" below. I have limited time, so I'm not watching or reading things I'm not interested in. Here we go:

Best TV Show: Shrinking

I loved this Apple+ show. Jason Segal plays a therapist struggling with the loss of his wife. While I like the storylines of Segal with his patients and his relationship with daughter, what really makes the show are his colleagues, Jessica Williams and Harrison Ford. They are fantastic. It's fun watching Harrison Ford be funny. This scene was the best thing I saw all year.

Honorable mention: Jury Duty

This was such a unique show. Everyone, meaning the lawyers, judge, jury members, etc. are actors...except for one jury member named Ronald who believes that this is a real case. Ronald is such a likable guy, and I don't think this show would work with a different lead. James Marsden playing a version of himself is also fun.

For no apparent reason, I tracked every TV show I watched this year, and I feel like sharing this. 

Better Call Saul (last season)

Party Down (original)

The Chair

Night Court

American Auto

Not Dead Yet

Quantum Leap

Abbott Elementary

Yellowjackets (season 1)

Ted Lasso (season 3)

Sprung

Welcome to Wrexham

Lucky Hank

The Big Door Prize

Mrs. Maisel (season 4)

The Afterparty (season 2)

Shrinking

Jury Duty

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

The Wonder Years

Miracle Workers

Barry (last season)

Succession (part of last season)

Yellowstone 

Lego Masters

The Bear (season 1)

Best Songs: HONEY (ARE YOU COMING?) by Maneskin and bad idea right? by Olivia Rodrigo

All caps and no capital letters at all? Can we please work on this! While I'm way out of her target audience, I am an Olivia Rodrigo fan, particularly with her up-tempo songs. bad idea right? gives me a vibe of  "Naked Eye" by Luscious Jackson. Oh, the song is definitely not suitable for work.

Meanwhile, I think Maneskin has the best guitar riff of the year with HONEY. 

Worst Song: Popular by The Weeknd, Playboi Cardi, and Madonna

Looking at my archives, I picked two songs by The Weeknd as the best of the year over the last few years. This is certainly not an anti The Weeknd post. While Popular isn't bad, I don't find it good either. It's repetitive and don't feel that Madonna adds anything to it.

Best Movie: Parasite

Parasite won the best picture Oscar a few years ago, so I'm a little late to this. The storyline is essentially a poor family scamming a rich family. I mean, there's definitely the message of class and the spoils of the rich. Definitely did not expect the ending.

Most Interesting Movie: The Menu

I can't put this as the worst movie since it's just so different from anything I've seen. I watched The Menu on an airplane and remember leaving the plane thinking "What the heck was that?" I really want to see this again.

And now, these are all of the movies I watched in 2023:

The Menu

Elvis

Rise (A movie about Giannis Antetokounmpo and his family)

Anchorman 2

Logan Lucky

Leo

Elemental

Homeward Bound: An Incredible Journey 

Parasite

Family Switch

Migration

My New Year's Resolution for 2024 is to watch more movies. Almost all of these are movies for kids/families. There's no Barbie or Oppenheimer. I mean, how can I get a media credential for The Oscars with this list?

Best Sports Moment: Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday completed the biggest comeback in English Football League playoff history back in May. Down 4-0 after the first leg, the team battled back to tie the overall score at 4-4 in the 90+7th minute. Peterborough, their opponent, got a goal in extra time, but Wednesday tied it again before advancing in penalty kicks. By far the best sports moment of 2023. (More about this game is available from my May post.)

Worst Sports Moment: Pittsburgh Sports

Although Pitt's men's basketball team returned to the NCAA tournament and the women's volleyball team is now a consistent power, the professional teams struggled. The Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-2006 season, the Steelers are an average NFL team, and the Pirates, though better in 2023 compared to 2022, still had a record under .500. While I don't have a specific moment for the worst sports moment, the Pirates were 20-8 after we attended the 16-1 victory over the Nationals, and several weeks later, the team's record was 35-42. Lots of losses. Actually, there is a worst moment. The Penguins, battling for a playoff spot in the next-to-last game of the season, lost at home to the worst team in the NHL.

Best Book: 12-way tie!

Okay, this definitely isn't true. I just wanted to share that I read 12 books this year, by far the most since the pandemic started. I was part of a book club in 2023, and book clubs are stressful! It's like high school all over again trying to finish a book in time for the discussion or test. At least we have snacks for book club! Here's what I read this year:

The Umpire Is Out by Dale Scott

How to be Perfect by Michael Schur

Raise a Fist, Take a Knee: Race and the Illusion of Progress in Modern Sports by John Feinstein

The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch 

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski

Best Live Concert: Pink

She's amazing.

Worst Live Concert: Bruce Springsteen

Before you freak out, this is the worst concert I attended because I didn't attend. Bruce postponed his concert from August to September and then to 2024. Hopefully he'll appear in my best live concert in my 2024 post.

Best Blog Post: Goodbye Ziggy

In May, we had to say goodbye to our cat Ziggy. I still miss him.

Worst Blog Post: Is Tim Tebow's Wife a Pirates Fan?

Since she wore a hat with a "P," I immediately thought it was a Pittsburgh Pirates hat. It was probably a Puma hat.

While this may or may not be my last post of 2023, have a Happy New Year!

Goodbye Ziggy

Over the last few years/decades, I've found that I express myself better through writing than through words. Writing gives me time to think things through, and I can easily edit what I type. I've also found writing, particularly through this blog, therapeutic. I really hope that this helps me right now.

On Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to Ziggy. We adopted Ziggy in November 2008 as a kitten from the Fairfax County Animal Shelter. He was with us when we moved into our current home in early 2010 and prior to the kids. I remember worrying about how he would respond to kids and how they would respond to him. It turned out that we didn't need to worry since he was fantastic. He kept us company during feedings and trying to get the kids back to sleep in the middle of the night, and he was patient as they got older and would pull his tail. 

Throughout this time, Ziggy would always find time for the two of us. When the kids went to sleep, he would curl up next to me on the couch. For many years, as soon as I got into bed, he would jump up and join me under the covers. He made regular appearances on Zoom when I worked from home and was a comfort during COVID always being near me as I worked. Sure, there were times he was annoying. Many nights, he would bite any loose paper around to get my attention to give him more dry food. He did this multiple times a night even with a full bowl. 

A few months ago, we noticed Ziggy vomiting nearly every day, so we scheduled an appointment with the vet. They discovered that he had a tumor in his lung which may or may not have contributed to the vomiting. Based on his age, it didn't make sense to have any type of surgery. The vet prescribed Ziggy medicine, and although he vomited less, he still dry-heaved every day or two. He also ate less and less even with medicine designed to increase his appetite. Without food or water, his energy was down. He barely moved from the bed the last few days and his walking was unsturdy. It was time for ZIggy to go. We know that this is the right decision, but it didn’t make it any easier. I'm typing this on the couch, and he's not sitting next to me. When I went to sleep, he wasn’t by my feet as he usually was. When walking around the house, I find myself glancing at places Ziggy usually was to see if he’s there. I’m sure this will fade over time, but I still expect to see him there.

The kids are sad but not overly so. Pedro Tulo and The Moose have already asked about getting a new pet. I’m not sure when or if that will happen.

A relationship with a pet is different than anything else. When I go away, I can still talk or FaceTime with my family. Pets may understand that you’re leaving based on seeing you pack a suitcase, but they don’t know when you’ll be back. My wife shared that Ziggy would often sit by the front door waiting for me to come home when I was away. Ziggy was also the first pet I had as an adult. The first pet I was truly responsible for. We had a bond, a connection.

I’m tearing up again while typing this, so I’m going to stop. I’m really going to miss Ziggy, and I’m glad he’s been part of my life. Here are some pictures through the years in no particular order.

Chewy Is Great

This is not a paid advertisement, but I really wish that it was. Ziggy, our cat who will turn 15 this summer, needed to take some medicine recently. The vet suggested mixing it in his food since there was no chance that he would take it on its own. So I crushed the pill, mixed it with the Meow Mix wet food Ziggy has had since he was a kitten, and watched him eat. Ziggy took a bite, noticed the different taste, and then walked away from the food. I repeated these steps the next day, and Ziggy ignored the wet food. He ignored his food the following day too. Even with no medicine mixed with his food, Ziggy stopped eating his wet food completely.

About a week before giving Ziggy his medicine, I purchased 7 boxes of Meow Mix from Chewy for a little over $50 so that I would get free shipping. Seeing that Ziggy was no longer eating this food, I contacted Chewy to return the unopened boxes. Chewy told me to keep or donate the food (which I did to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter) and gave me a full refund. A week later, I received a letter from Chewy wishing Ziggy well. 

I am now a Chewy customer for life. They gave me a full refund, allowed me to donate unused food, and sent a very nice personalized card. The box was pretty heavy, so maybe Chewy didn’t want to pay for return shipping fees, but that’s still a loss for them (at least short term). Of course, based on the goodwill earned and this blog post, maybe this will be a positive in the end. And we will all remember the friendships we made along the way!

Ramblings Round-Up

I usually call these posts "Random Ramblings," but I thought I would mix things up a little today. 

* Earlier this year, we took the kids to see Newsies Jr. at our local middle school. The kids really liked the live performance and the show. Since that time, we have watched both the 1992 Newsies movie (starring Christian Bale) and the Broadway theater performance of Newsies (starring fellow Ithaca College graduate Jeremy Jordan) on Disney+. I mention all of this because I want to take the kids to more live theater and shows. So over the weekend, I took The Moose and Pedro Tulo to the Kennedy Center to see the world-premier of The Mortification of Fovea Munson. It's a musical based on the book of the same name about a pre-teen who works in her parents' cadaver lab. It's a very cute and sweet (and funny) show. 

* I need to take a recertification class and pass a test each year to be a soccer referee. Since COVID began, everything is online. There are certainly benefits to this format. You can break up the learning modules and test over days or weeks and take them at your convenience. The drawback is that I was used to taking a 5-6 hour class every year in December and being done. Without the structured and set class, I only just earned my recertification, so I was ineligible to work any games until now. 

* The focus of the referee class this year was on the behavior of coaches. There is little tolerance for any referee abuse or questioning of calls from coaches or team officials. One warning and then cards come out. I also found it amusing that the US Soccer Federation regularly included a slide showing former national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann seemingly complaining.

* In honor of having a Kohl's credit card for 23 years, the store sent me a $5 coupon and 30% coupon. Will I receive a gold watch for 25 years?

* We receive a weekly report about The Moose's online activities. While he generally spends much of his time on YouTube and ESPN, last week, he visited Redfin multiple times. I had no idea he was in the housing market as a 6th grader!

* Our cat Ziggy now throws up every 2-3 days. He definitely didn't do this when he was younger. While I should probably contact the vet about this, do you find this concerning?

* Finally, The Moose was all in for the women's college basketball conference tournament games last weekend. Because of this, please join the Sean's Ramblings Group Women's NCAA Tournament group on ESPN, and I'll probably create an Oscars pool just for fun too.

I’m Going To Wichita

About two months ago, I volunteered to take a trip to Kansas. One of my bucket list items is to visit all 50 states. I’ve been stuck at 41 states for over a decade, so I jumped at the chance to visit Kansas and bump that number up to 42. Even better, I could tell people that “I’m going to Wichita” and have The White Stripes’ song “Seven Nation Army” in my head constantly.

Fun fact: If you’re in Wichita in the days after the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl, you’re going to hear a lot of discussion about the Chiefs. Since Kansas City is about 3 hours from Wichita, this was not a shocker. Now this is a shocker!

I had a few hours of free time, so I decided to explore Wichita before flying out. First, I stopped by the Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot-tall sculpture where the Big Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers meet. Apparently, there’s a nightly ring of fire ceremony around the sculpture, but I didn’t see it.

Then, I visited the Wichita Art Museum. While I’m used to free museums in Washington DC, I didn’t expect one in Wichita. They have some really neat (technical art term) works and exhibits. I love anything made by Dale Chihuly, so seeing his chandelier and the Chihuly bridge was really neat. (I’m available if anyone needs an art critic!)

Here are some other favorites: 

You can tell that "Chess Game" by Will Barnet is a painting, since in real life, most cats would probably go after the chess pieces!

My kids would absolutely love The Living Room. This looks like so much fun!

I learned that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Allen House is in Wichita, but there weren’t any tours available when I looked into visiting. I guess I’ll just need to take another trip to Fallingwater to make up for this. I did, however, stop by the Ulrich Museum of Art on the campus Wichita State University. Again, free! This was probably my favorite work. 

A bar with some weights on it next to a black and yellow painting. No big deal, right? Check out the portion of the video though. 

The artist painted while lifting weights. So cool! I just wish I wrote down her name and the title of her work. Here are a two other pictures I took from the Ulrich:

As I was writing this post, I learned that The Original Pizza Hut Museum is also at Wichita State. Although I didn’t plan on visiting, the fact that I was less than a mile away is somewhat devastating. If I realized I was so close, I definitely would have checked it out.

I had a bizarre restaurant experience. When I arrived for dinner, I was asked if I had a reservation. When I said no, I was told there would be a 30-minute wait. I said that would be fine since I needed to run to Walmart to get a lint brush since some of my clothes managed to have hair from Ziggy on them. I returned and was seated…in a fairly empty restaurant. In the time I was there, I counted 8 other tables with customers and triple the amount of empty tables. My guess is that they were short staffed as there were only two servers. I was told I could only order wine or beer since the bartender called out. The restaurant was also out of bread and baked potatoes. The food was good, but not good enough to deal with slow service and a limited menu. 

I get that the news station’s call letter’s are KAKE, but KAKEland? 

I’m home now, so I guess I can say/write that I have a feeling I’m not in Kansas anymore.

My Terrible Sleep Schedule

As you can guess from the title of this post, my sleep schedule is awful. After a long day of work, taking the kids to their activities, and then getting them to bed, all I want to do is have time to myself. There's often laundry or trash or cleaning the litter box, but when that's done, I sit on the couch and turn on the television. I generally see what shows I have recorded on the DVR or turn on a sporting event. We also have Netflix and Amazon, but I find that I don't use streaming services nearly often as I should.

With the kids asleep or at least in bed, I have a set up with the television on and the laptop or my phone right next to me. It's time to enjoy the long list of shows and movies that I want to watch while also updating my fantasy sports teams, writing blog posts, answering trivia questions, playing chess, or some combination of all of these. Some nights, Ziggy jumps on the couch and curls up next to me.(That's either before, after, or both the multiple times that Ziggy eats paper or the Kleenex box in order for me to give him food. This happens at least 3-4 times a night even though his bowl is full.) And then, I fall asleep on the couch.  

From there, it might be anywhere between 20-30 minutes to a few hours before I wake up. Now if I was smart, I'd go directly to bed. I'm not smart. I'll check my email. If it's after midnight, I might play Wordle. I do just enough to get my brain going again, and then I go to sleep. While I'm still able to fall asleep quickly in my bed some nights, some nights it takes time to fall back asleep. Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck. Some nights, I call it a draw. (There's 1-2 bad words in this song/video.)

On weeknights, between the time I crawl into bed and wake up in the morning, I generally get about 5-6 hours of sleep. This is not nearly enough. The other problem is that this isn't continuous. Approximately every other night, Ziggy wakes me up. Sometimes it's just to jump on the bed and curl up at my feed, but usually it's about him getting older. He's 14.5 now. I carry him to the basement so that he can use the litter box, and then I shake his food bowl, since heaven forbid you can see any portion of the bottom of his bowl. 

This pattern repeats itself almost every night. Any suggestions on how to break this? I really want my time to watch TV and do things I need to get done. However, I know that I need more sleep.

Update

You might have noticed that I haven’t written many blog posts lately. Or maybe you haven’t noticed. This is definitely going to sound like a first-world problem, but I went on two vacations in last three weeks. Between preparing for being away, being away, and then trying to catch up on things after being away, I haven’t had much time to write lately.
 
I just wanted to share that I’m fine and still here. In the next few weeks, I plan on writing about parts of the vacation, an email from over 20 years ago, and my annual Pittsburgh Pirates draft recap. Maybe I’ll even get around to writing about my kids’ baseball seasons which have been over for more than a month now or share my thoughts about things I’m watching and reading. Maybe there will be a surprise or two too.

In the meantime, enjoy a picture of Ziggy making sure that we can’t leave for vacation again!

Vive La Ziggy

Our cat Ziggy turned 13 several months ago. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers as a kitten but has largely stayed out of the spotlight since his retirement. Now, he's going big. He's running for president of France!

Based on the three years of French I took in high school (and using Google Translate), this says:

In 2022, French Cats Vote Ziggy.

Work Less, To Eat More

This seems to be Ziggy's platform:

+ Ziggy wants health, committed and French food for all.

+ A 100% transparent composition, no more political blah-blah!

+ A veterinary formulation for our croquettes and pates

+ Sustainable food and recyclable packaging

As you can probably guess, Ziggy is a French cat food company. Nevertheless, I completely support the name and campaign and with apologies to current French President Emmanuel Macron, Ziggy has my vote!

Thanks to my friend T for letting me know about this campaign!

My Life in Pictures: September 2021 Edition

Fall is here, and I wanted to share a few pictures of what's happened in my life over the last few months. I'm always home with my kids the week before school starts. It's my annual Dad Camp week. With the kids still too young to get vaccinated and wanting to avoid big crowds or tight indoor spaces, this year was a little more challenging. Still, we found fun things to do. We went to the Lincoln Memorial and walked on the National Mall.

We also visited one of my favorite spots in Northern Virginia, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. I've only gone a few times, but I need to make this a regular destination. It's so peaceful and calming (even with my kids!) with so much to see and acres to walk around. 

A neighbor has one child who just started college and another in high school. They were cleaning their garage, and since they see us outside playing regularly, offered to give us much of their sports equipment. They gave us a sled, a baseball glove, and numerous soccer balls. I still haven't even gone through the entire box yet. While we'll probably end up donating some of it, I'm fascinated by this baseball they gave us. Thanks to asking on Twitter, I found out that this was signed by former Doosan Bears and Lotte Giants catcher/DH Hong Sung-heon. (홍성흔)

I'm always on the go these days, but every once in a while, right before sunset, I walk on my golf course. Nearly every time, I see deer and/or foxes.

I went to Wegmans last month when it was probably around 90 degrees. I planned on buying ice cream or some type of dessert when I came across this item. 

I didn't know that there was an option of buying an 18-pack of Klondike bars, but it was on sale!

Luigi (now 4) took a picture of me looking very focused. 

When I worked in an office full-time, I shaved every day. Working from home part of the time, I find that I shave only every few days now. I definitely prefer this option.

Finally, this couldn't be a life in pictures post without Ziggy!

My Life In Pictures

I thought I would share some pictures from the last month or so. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but The Moose and Pedro Tulo have been back to in-person school four days a week for about two months now. Therefore, it's just me and Luigi (and Ziggy) at home between the time we drop the older kids off at school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. While he probably gets more screen time than he should because I have work to do during the day (and I continue to do work in the evenings too), we regularly spend significant time outside. These are from a playground in our neighborhood (and the view from the playground). I don't think the tree should be leaning in this direction.

We also took a trip to Frying Pan Park. We saw this peacock and while they also had cows, sheep, and chickens, the cat might have been Luigi's favorite animal.

On a recent walk, we saw this blanket(?) from a neighbor's window. A little freaky.

Speaking of freaky, let's talk about cicadas. It rained much of last weekend and temperatures were only in the 40s and 50s. I thought that the cold weather might have killed off some of the cicadas, but they just went quiet and hunkered down instead. With temperatures back in the 70s and 80s this week, they're out in full force. While I'm not sure if the video below really gives the complete cicada experience, they were really loud the other day.

To celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago, The Moose made me a card and was nice enough to remind me to sign him up for baseball this fall.

Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship recently and as he walked to and then at the 18th hole, seemingly the entire crowd walked with him. If anyone with my neighborhood golf course ever stops me while walking on the course, I'm just going to show them this picture and say that it was fine for people to walk on the course at Kiawah, so I'm okay walking ON THE CART PATH here!  

I really needed to go through my clothes, and I finally did last weekend. I ended up donating two bags worth of shirts, jeans, and more. (Well, I'm going to donate them soon.) I think the oldest item was an XL Ohio State University Welcome Week T-shirt from 2000. The XL shirt was probably too big even then, and I don't think I've worn the shirt out of the house in a decade. It was time to go.

Finally, here's Ziggy sleeping on my bed.