Boo to Barnes & Noble

I went to Barnes & Noble this evening to buy some last minute gift cards. I had an American Express gift card that I was going to use to pay for the B&N cards, but the American Express card didn't work. The woman working at B&N told me that they have had problems with AmEx gift cards and went to speak to her manager. The manager quickly said that they don't take AmEx gift cards, but they would definitely take American Express. I said no thanks, went to Target, and used the AmEx gift card to buy Target gift cards instead.

Therefore, this message is to Barnes & Noble. You are losing business by not taking American Express gift cards! You might want to fix this.

Road Trip Recap

After driving 1345 miles and visiting 6 states over a 107-hour period, I’m back home. Hockey Road Trip 2006 was a huge success as we attended three games in four cities and were able to see friends and family at each stop. Here are some notes from the trip:

In case you were wondering, the Penguins defeated the Islanders 7-4 on Friday night, the Senators won 3-1 at Buffalo on Saturday and the Blue Jackets upset the Red Wings (in a battle of colors) 4-3 last night.

I haven’t shaved since Friday morning, which is probably the longest stretch I have gone without shaving since college. I’m thinking about growing a beard again (which I have not done since college).

If you’re in Buffalo, I highly recommend the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery. Not only are the food and beer (especially the amber beer "Trainwreck") delicious and the atmosphere great, apparently, it is the ONLY restaurant in Buffalo (we ate there on both Saturday and Sunday evenings).

Metallica, Green Day and Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song seemed to be popular choices by bars, radio stations and arenas. In a related note, I have now lit the menorah (but not with the late Dinah Shore-ah) in four different states (Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and Virginia).

Thank you to the fine folks at Nationwide Arena in Columbus for not having the "Kiss Cam" which was featured in both Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

I was briefly embarrassed being a Pittsburgher on Friday when Penguins fans started the wave at the Civic Arena.

When did West Virginia change their motto on the signs when you enter the state? I like "Welcome to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia" infinitely more than "West Virginia Open for Business."

There is so much more from the trip that I’m missing, but I’m a little tired. It could be rough going back to work tomorrow. If I’m dragging I can think about planning for Hockey Road Trip 2007. The early candidates are Chicago-Detroit or Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto.

More tomorrow...

Hockey Road Trip

If you could go on vacation anywhere in mid-December where would you go? Would Buffalo make the top 5? Maybe not, but that’s where I’m heading this weekend as part of Hockey Road Trip 2006. It starts tomorrow in Pittsburgh where the Penguins will face the New York Islanders. I’ll be in Buffalo on Saturday for the Sabres-Ottawa Senators game. Monday is the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets in Ohio’s capital city. I haven’t done a road trip in several years, so I’m really excited about the vacation. Plus I’ll get to spend some time with good friends and family and see three hockey games in four nights. Including the Capitals-Penguins game I attended on Monday, it will end up being 4 games in 8 nights. What a nice way to start Hanukkah and the holiday season!

I’ll try to post some updates from the road, but I’m not sure if it will happen. We’ll see.

Much, Much Lighter Topics

I attended my first Penguins hockey game in almost three years (stupid lockout/strike) last night as the Pens defeated the Capitals. What a fantastic game! The Penguins were kind enough to spot the Capitals a four goal lead before tying the game and then winning in the shootout. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the Pens and Alexander Ovechkin for the Caps are a lot of fun to watch and will be for many years to come.

Here are some leftovers from the Jacksonville trip:

* I need to apologize to Dan Reeves, who I saw in the Jacksonville airport. When talking to the guy next to me in the security line, I said that he does Cialis commercials. He actually does commercials for Zocor, a heart medication. That's a big difference.

* I don't care if they have been around for 40 years. Huddle House has to be a knock-off of Waffle House, right?

* Parades are nice. You can see marching bands, some celebrities, mascots and more. With that said, unless there is a special "light" parade (like the parades at Disney), a community should not have a parade at night.

Sad News

I did not sleep well last night and it had nothing to do with worrying about my fantasy football team. Yesterday, I learned the tragic news that a former co-worker had committed suicide. I worked side-by-side with this person for several months and my colleague was always available to answer any of my many questions. More importantly, this person was instrumental in my training and truly helped me become a better professional. When this individual left the company, I was devastated because of how closely we worked together, and I was not sure I could handle the additional responsibilities. I found an e-mail I sent about a week after this person started the new job wishing this person luck, thanking this person for all of their help and letting this person know that the new company was lucky to have this person. I received a quick reply that said that my company was fortunate to have me as well, that this person was not surprised to hear that things were going well and to let this person know if any assistance could be provided. That e-mail meant a lot as I felt like I got the reassurance that I could do my job well.

I think like most people I am wondering why. It just doesn’t make sense. It feels like there must have been some kind of reason, but even then, something was so bad that suicide was the only option? I am still stunned and shaken up although you probably wouldn’t know it if you saw me. I don’t want to turn the focus of this post to me, but I rarely show my feelings (with the exception of sporting events) and can appear to be stoic or even cold. You may even be thinking this since I have been referring to my former colleague as this person or this individual as opposed to he or she. I’m trying to create some type of anonymity if at all possible. This blog has been therapeutic for me and a great release to get things off of my mind. I already feel like this is helping, although I’m sure that I will continue to think about what happened and what if for the days and weeks and even months ahead.

Peyton Manning = Prima Donna

Peyton Manning caused a major delay for all flights in and out of Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday! Here’s what happened:

I was in the Jacksonville airport yesterday not long after the Jaguars-Colts game. Dan Reeves was actually in the security line, though I’m not sure what is connection is with either team. Anyway, when we arrived at our gate all the way in essentially the airport basement, there was a secured section where we saw dozens of people going through. I went up to a guy wearing a Colts jersey and asked him if that was the team.

Guy: The players’ bus already arrived. These are the team doctors. Peyton Manning’s over there eating dinner.
Me (trying to be funny): Is he filming a new commercial?
Guy: Not after today’s game (the Colts lost 44-17).

Sure enough, Peyton Manning was standing by the monster Northwest airplane eating and talking to someone who I assume works for the Colts. No other players were in sight since they had already boarded the plane. A few minutes passed and all of the Colts staff had boarded the plane, but Peyton was still talking on the tarmac. Finally, Peyton walked towards a dumpster, threw away his bag about 30 feet away from me (but on the other side of the window) and then boarded the plane. For anyone wondering, I think he was eating Popeye’s.

Therefore, Peyton Manning caused a major delay for all flights in and out of Jacksonville by eating on the tarmac while his teammates and coaches were on the plane. The flight attendants, trying to get him on the plane, were furious when he started chanting “cut that meat” over and over again! OK, the entire thing about Peyton causing a delay or using catch-phrases from his commercials is a bit of a stretch (and not at all true). However, he really was eating while everyone else had already boarded the plane.

As I’m typing this, I keep thinking about the classic hit “Rumors” by Timex Social Club:

Look at all these rumors surroundin' me every day
I just need some time, some time to get away from
From all these rumors, I can't take it no more
My best friend said there's one out now about me and the girl next door

Maybe I’m just really tired.

G'day Mate

I went to an event at the Australian Embassy tonight, the first time I have ever been to an embassy. While the event and embassy were great, I was disappointed by the men's restroom. I think I was expecting to see a koala bear, kangaroo or Kylie Minogue in there or at the very least pictures of these or the Sydney Opera House. Nope. It was just a plain bathroom with sinks, stalls and urinals. In fact, the urinals were made by American Standard! That doesn't seem right.

Small World & New Links

I've mentioned this before, but I really enjoy being able to share my thoughts on what's going on in my own little world. Therefore, I'm always amazed that random people from across the U.S. and around the world find this site, and although they may quickly hit the back button, at least they checked this out for a second or two. Within the last few days, I've had visitors from Beijing, London, Argentina, Rotterdam, Singapore and Tehran. I wonder how many of these international visitors clicked here searching for Steelers or Flavor of Love information.

---

Through DC Blogs, I have found a couple of sites that are now on my list of sites I visit daily. I have added Bee Log and Ar-Jew-Tino to the links section on the right side of this page. They are cool sites, so check them out.

Unfortunately, to make room for the new links, I had to make a difficult decision. Therefore, Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor's Face Me Ike website has temporarily been benched. It has nothing to do with how he has played on the field this season. It's just that the site has not been updated as much as it was during last season. Maybe his blog was playing for a new contract. We will still have him playing in the nickel and dime packages and hope he earns his way back to the links section.

Tenacious D Review

You have all been waiting for it, so here's the review of the Tenacious D concert from Sunday night at The Patriot Center on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Fortunately, The Washington Post was kind enough to do the review for me. Wait, you wanted to know what I thought of the concert? OK.

First off, parental discretion is advised for the lyrics of many Tenacious D songs. I generally prefer my music more PG-13. As for the performance, it was more of a rock opera than a concert. There was never a "How Are You Washington?" question (until the encore) or any interaction with the audience by Jack Black and Kyle Gass. The dialogue was exactly from the CD or to set up to the next song. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing; I just don't recall ever seeing this at a concert before. The first set featured JB and KG playing acoustically while the second half included a full band. The band was really, really good!. The Post mentioned this already, but probably my favorite part of the show was D's brief cover of "Pinball Wizard." I was disappointed that D didn't play "Pick of Destiny." Because of the movie commercials and video on VH1, this is probably the song best known by casual D fans.

Overall, I enjoyed the show more than I expected (I should have prefaced this by saying that I had low expectations since I knew only a few songs). If I had to rate the show on a scale of 1 (Norm McDonald at Ithaca College in '95 or '96) to 5 (Rolling Stones and Santana in San Diego in 1999; Adam Sandler at IC in '93), I'll give Tenacious D a 3.3.

The Greatest Canadian Musicians

Last week, I wrote about the 100 top American albums as voted by the listeners of a Pittsburgh radio station. The more I thought of the results, the more frustrated I became since so many artists were missing. Therefore, I decided that I would create my own list of the top 100 American albums of all-time. This idea lasted for maybe 2 minutes when I realized that I didn’t have the time or energy to do this. That’s when I decided to do a list of the Top 25 Canadian musicians. I figured this would be a lot easier.

1. Neil Young
2. Rush
3. Joni Mitchell
4. Barenaked Ladies
5. Celine Dion
6. Shania Twain
7. Alanis Morissette
8. Bryan Adams
9. Paul Anka
10. Guy Lombardo
11. The Guess Who
12. The Band
13. Sarah McLachlan
14. Anne Murray
15. Gordon Lightfoot
16. Nelly Furtado
17. Nickelback
18. Tom Cochrane
19. Avril Lavigne
20. k.d. lang
21. The Tragically Hip
22. Sum 41
23. Michael Buble
24. Diana Krall
25. Corey Hart

Others Receiving Votes: Daniel Powter, Our Lady Peace, Simple Plan, LEN

To me Neil Young was a no-brainer. He has so many hits as a solo artist and as part of groups such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse. Maybe equally important is his influence as the "Godfather of Grunge" in the early 1990s on artists such as Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth.

Numbers 4 through 7 was a toss-up. Celine, Shania and Alanis are all similar. They have all had massive albums, multiple hits and extremely successful careers. However, as a matter of personal preference, I just couldn’t put Celine ahead of BNL. (Thanks to my friend Jason for providing me with this moment of clarity.)

Guy Lombardo was the toughest artist to place in the countdown. He could actually be #1 because he and his Royal Canadians sold over 100 million records and his version of "Auld Lang Syne" is played everywhere on New Year’s Eve. After Happy Birthday and possibly a few Christmas songs, Auld Lang Syne may be the most played song of all-time! On the other hand, how many people under the age of 40 have ever heard of Lombardo? Guy Smiley – yes; Guy Lombardo – probably not.

Corey Hart had to make the Top 25 just for "Sunglasses at Night."

I should also note that if there is a recording Mario Lemieux singing the "Stanley Cup Shuffle," he would automatically make the Top 10.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

Tenacious D and the Hamburgler

Wish me luck. Tonight, I'm going to see Tenacious D, "The Greatest Band in the World" at The Patriot Center. I honestly have no idea what to expect. I like the song "Pick of Destiny," but that's the only song by Tenacious D that I know. I'm just going to assume that the concert will be entertaining.

Opening for Tenacious D is Neil Hamburger, who I believe is not related to Meat Loaf or the Hamburgler. Based on his website, it looks like he is a comedian. Should be interesting.

College Football Saturday

This Arkansas-Florida game is amazing. Whoever makes the least mistakes is going to win. I have only seen the third quarter since I watched the second half of the USC-UCLA game. In that time, Florida Quarterback Chris Leak (who I like) has thrown two interceptions, including one silly shuffle pass returned by an Arkansas defensive lineman for a touchdown; Florida coach Urban Meyer has used all three time outs; and the Arkansas punt returner decided to try an over-the-shoulder catch, which he drops on the 3 yard-line, and is recovered by Florida for a touchdown. What an ugly game!

I have been against an OSU-Michigan rematch, but after UCLA defeated USC today, I think it's going to happen. Even if Florida ends up winning against Arkansas, they don't deserve to play for the national championship.

I can't believe I'm even writing this. There should be a playoff system like there is for Division II and Division III college football.

My Will

We met with a financial planner earlier this week and one of the suggestions we received is to create a will and a living will, especially after the Terri Schiavo case. Although this blog probably does not count as a legal document, if I’m in coma with no chance of recovering, pull the plug.

As far as a non-living will, there are some items that I feel really need to be included. My money (or lack thereof) will go to my wife. My baseball, football, Desert Storm, hockey, Garbage Pail Kids and basketball cards will go to my brother. However, some others items are a little tougher. For example, who will get the following:

* A bottle of Big Ben’s (as in Roethlisberger) BBQ Sauce.
* My Kordell Stewart jersey.
* Senior Class of 1997 Commemorative Wine – Ithaca College Blues and Ithaca College Blush – produced by Lucas Vineyards.
* My ticket stub collection. Where else can you have ticket stubs from Pirates, Penguins, Padres, Nationals, Ohio State and Steelers games along with ticket stubs from Dave Matthews Band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Debbie Gibson concerts?
* A bag of Snyder of Berlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers Wavy Potato Chips (I’m scared to open the bag).
* My shot glass collection (I’m using collection loosely; I probably have 8 shot glasses).
* A Donald Duck kazoo.
* My collection of "rare" coins such as 1910 penny, 3 1/2 franc coins, 1 Israeli Shekel, a $2 Canadian coin and a 1990 Chuck E. Cheese token.
* Dancing flowers. When you press the button, a Glen Miller Orchestra song comes on and the flowers dance. It’s a big hit among 2- and 3-year olds. Not so much for their parents who don’t seem to like the song playing over and over again.
* This blog! Will I bestow the honor of upholding the history and tradition of Sean’s Ramblings to just anyone?

These are some difficult decisions.

The Light Where?

I'm on the mailing list for The Kennedy Center and recently received information about the musical "The Light in the Piazza," which won six 2005 Tony Awards. Maybe I should have heard of the musical before and I'm probably not the first person to say this, but my initial thought upon seeing the title was that Broadway did an entire musical about a light in San Diego Padres (and former Mets, Dodgers and briefly Marlins) catcher Mike Piazza! Is Piazza like the aliens in the movie "Cocoon" in which they have skin but are actually a giant light under the skin? Is this musical metaphor of a light that went off inside Mike Piazza's head? Does Mike Piazza have a cameo appearance? The baseball season has been over for a month a Spring Training is still a few months away, so he could probably do it.

Big East Basketball

Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline (who I've never heard of before today) wrote an article that really upset me, and I have no idea why. Basically, he wrote that the Big East conference is really good at the top and really bad at the bottom. The more I think about this, the more I think that he's probably right. Pitt, Syracuse, Marquette, UConn and Georgetown should all have great seasons. Meanwhile, Rutgers basketball has been terrible, DePaul has been disappointing and St. Johns is down at the moment. With 16 teams in the Big East, you can't expect all of them to be great.

With that said, how is the Big East different than any other conference? Every major conference has some elite teams and others that are not. Please show me a conference with no bad teams. You may say the ACC. Well, Miami is 4-3 with losses to Northwestern (who lost to Cornell!), Buffalo and Cleveland State. Who has Virginia Tech beat?

That's my rant for today. Thanks for reading.

Random Thoughts

* When did Britney, Paris and Lindsey Lohan all become such good friends? And who is watching Britney’s kids while she is out partying? I cannot see K-Fed taking on the responsibility of babysitting his kids.

* Is anyone going to see "Apocalypto," Mel Gibson’s new movie? I have heard no buzz about this movie except for seeing a few commercials.

* You heard it here first. Barring injuries, Robert Morris’ men’s basketball team is going to make the NCAA Tournament. A.J. Jackson, who is currently averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds a game, is a really good player. I’m looking forward to see how he matches up against Pitt’s Aaron Gray, Levon Kendall and Tyrell Biggs on Wednesday night.

* While it’s not a new show, I’ve recently discovered "Criminal Minds" on CBS. I’ve liked the storylines the few times I have watched the show, and Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) and Greg (Thomas Gibson of Dharma & Greg) work well together. Plus, I don’t feel completely lost like I (partially) do with "Lost" and "Heroes."

* I’m somewhat famous! I was featured (I’m generously using that term) in Blog 'N' Gold on the Post-Gazette website. Thank you Blog 'N' Gold!

Season Over

For once, Steelers fans cannot blame a loss on Ike Taylor, special teams or turnovers. The key to the game was the offensive and defensive lines where the Steelers were totally dominated by the Baltimore Ravens. Offensively, the Steelers had only 21 yards rushing and Roethlisberger was sacked NINE times. Ben was probably pressured another dozen times. Defensively, the Steelers never pressured McNair and didn’t force any turnovers. The finals score was 27-0 but it wasn't even that close.

At 4-7, there is no hope for the playoffs. Five straight wins are not enough in a very competitive AFC. I also do not want to hear any discussion about trying to get a high draft pick. Although the Steelers have not played well much of this season, they are not going to have a Top 5 draft pick…Arizona, Tampa Bay, Detroit, Cleveland, Houston and Tennessee are all teams that are worse than the Steelers.

So what can the Steelers do to improve next year? The obvious answer is for Roethlisberger to cut down on interceptions and for the Steelers to get back to running the football. When Parker runs well, the Steelers win. The offensive line has to get better. Hartings may be at the end of his career, so the Steelers need to determine if part-time rapper Chukky Okobi is the answer at center. Defensively, the linebackers have not made as many plays as you would hope or expect. I think an outside linebacker may be on the Steelers wish list. While Ike Taylor has struggled this year, I still think he can be an effective corner. However, depth at corner is a must. I also hope that Willie Reed can stay healthy to be the answer as a kick and punt returner. Punter Chris Gardocki is probably done as well.

I’ll still watch the season’s final five games but my sports focus is now on the Penguins and Pitt basketball.

The 100 Greatest American Albums

On Thanksgiving Day, Pittsburgh radio state WYEP (91.3fm) had a countdown of the 100 top American albums as voted by the listeners of the station. Since we were listening to part of the countdown, my brother and I debated various albums and artists that should be included on the list. As a countdown of only American artists, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Police, Celine Dion and MC Snow are not included. Our initial thoughts were that Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys would be at the top (we were right). We didn't count Jimi Hendrix because we thought that some of the members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience may have been British. We also decided that we would only choose one album per artist; therefore, we had Nirvana and Pearl Jam in the top 10 (in actuality Nirvana was 11; Pearl Jam 12).

There are many problems with the list, but I'll share just a few. Tori Amos is at #30 and Ben Folds Five (who I like a lot) is at #40. Fleetwood Mac is at #65 with Rumors, but half of the group is British. Even if you do count them as American, how can Tori Amos be 35 spots ahead of them? Michael Jackson is missing from the list as are many Motown acts and artists such as Whitney Houston, Madonna and Mariah Carey. Oh, I have no idea why the Grateful Dead would ever be in the top 10.

November Referrals

I don't want to watch the Madonna concert special or pack for my trip home, so I though I would share this month’s referrals with everyone. For the new readers out there, I borrowed this referral idea from Sarah. These are real searches (usually from Yahoo or Google) that people used to find and visit this place.

dave wannstedt los lonely boys
I don’t see the connection unless Wannstedt is recruiting the Los Lonely Boys to play defense. Maybe they can stop the run.

lip incompletion surgery
Wouldn’t you want lip completion surgery instead?

star of quaker
I’ll go with William Penn since he is the most famous Quaker I can think of. It’s good to know that I remember something about Pennsylvania state history from elementary school.

lyrics crocodile dundee down under
That’s not a knife!

Who is shorty in Las Vegas
I think this is a reference to the mother of Flavor Flav’s next child. I guess what happens in Vegas…

jamal lewis's amusement park
Watch the roller coaster go up and up and up as Lewis runs for 2,000 yards in a season. Uh oh…Jamal Lewis goes to jail, so the roller coaster plummets downward.

tone loc funky col medina lyrics
I think it’s actually Funky Cold Medina, but that’s OK. The one line I remember was "I went up to this girl. She said Hi, my name Sheena. I thought she'd be good to go with a little funk cold medina." Plus there was something about the Love Connection.

Why football coaches don't wear suits
According to Bill Cowher, "I'm not a trendsetter with fashion statements." That doesn’t seem like a good reason. Cowher also said, "I just wear what they put in my locker." That seems more like it.

sitting on a woman's lap
I got nothing. What were you trying to find?

bendick olds
Don’t say Olds say Bendick Olds!


Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Tabloid Fantasy League

ESPN.com's Bill Simmons wrote an article last year with an idea about a fantasy celebrity league. I learned last week (thanks to the Washington Post Express) that this type of league now really does exist. According to the site, www.tabfl.com, the "celebrity fantasy league games follow a photo-based scoring system using TABFL's "Big Four": People, Us Weekly, Star and In Touch. Celebrities with the most photos will score the most points and help you win prizes. Each week we tabulate the pictures and record them in Tabloid Fantasy League's Celebrity Box Scores. Score with your favorite celebrities every week at TABFL. If your celebs are in, you win!"

I actually want to try this. I haven't done much research other than just visiting the website, but if you're interested in joining a league with me, let me know.