Airport Family Restrooms Are For Families

Traveling with kids is difficult. A 12-pound infant needs a car seat, stroller, formula, bottles, diapers, wipes and multiple changes of clothes for when he/she spits up on the current outfit. All of this stuff is significantly heavier than the baby itself. Flying with two kids, particularly with both in diapers, brings an even greater degree of difficulty. You just try to get to and from your destination without meltdowns and with as little disruption to the other passengers as possible.

Inevitably, you will need several diaper changes during the trip. Just pray that you don't have to do this on the airplane! Fortunately, most (if not all) airports have family restrooms or at least changing stations in the restrooms. Family restrooms make it much easier for diaper changes and for when you need to go potty yourself without worrying about leaving your kids unattended. However, some individuals decide that they would rather have the privacy of their own restroom even if they don't have any kids with them.

I was at the Jacksonville airport recently with family restrooms but no changing stations in the regular restroom. Unless you want to change a diaper in public (and no one wants that especially for the disposal aspect), the only place to comfortably change the diaper was in the family restroom. I waited more than 10 minutes for a family restroom before finally giving up and calling my wife for help. In case you're wondering, I tried the door several times and even knocked once asking if everything was okay. I got no response. In hindsight, perhaps I should have called security to make sure there wasn't an emergency. Anyway, after I switched with my wife, she saw a woman exiting the family restroom alone.

To this woman and to anyone else using a family restroom without a family at an airport, suck it up and use the "regular" bathroom like everyone else.


This post was also published on the excellent Ya Jagoff , recently included on Pittsburgh Magazine's Best of the 'Burgh 2014. I guess I can share in this award, right? Maybe? Ya Jagoff has had a great run recently including this interview with Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

Ultimate Mix CD

While I have plenty of mix tapes from my high school and college days, I think I only have one mix CD. And it's a good one. This is the ultimate pump-you-up mix that will also ensure that you'll drive a little faster on the highway.

1. Jump Around - House of Pain

2. It Takes Two - Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock

3. Bust a Move - Young MC

4. Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-Lot

5. Humpty Dance - Digital Underground

6. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice

7. Fantastic Voyage - Coolio

8. OPP - Naughty By Nature

9. Gettin' Jiggy With It - Will Smith

10. Lose Yourself - Eminem

11. Hot in Herre - Nelly

12. What's Love - Fat Joe & Ashanti

13. U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer

14. California Love - 2Pac & Dr. Dre

In hindsight, I would probably replace Gettin' Jiggy With It with the superior Will Smith song Summertime (by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince). Otherwise, I still enjoy it.

As always, you can click here for more items Found In My Basement.

Who Is This Guy?

Even though there is a question mark in the title, this is not a Trivia Tuesday. Each week, The Washington Post Magazine publishes Date Lab, where Post staff members match up singles. From Date Lab's Facebook page: "The premise of Date Lab is simple: you fill out a questionnaire about yourself, and we match you up on a blind date. The next day, a reporter interviews you about the experience. It's free to participate, and we foot the bill." Basically, it's exactly like Bravo's Millionaire Matchmaker except that, well, it's not.

The July 6th edition of Date Lab features the pairing of Annie O'Neill, a Steelers fan, and Joe Riley, an Eagles fan.

Before we get any further, I have an issue with the Date Lab staff. How is the compatibility between a Steelers fan and an Eagles fan closer to "Smokin'" than "Brrr" in the Date Predit-o-Meter? Is it because they are both fans of professional football teams? Anyway, the date seems to go well until the end.

Actually, the date goes well, but I can't get past the highlighted text. How is Joe Riley a Philadelphia Eagles fan AND a New York Rangers fan? That doesn't make any sense.

Sofia Vergara: Steelers Fan?

You may know actress Sofia Vergara from "Modern Family," the funny but short lived "Knights of Prosperity" (originally titled Let's Rob Mick Jagger) or from her appearing in seemingly hundreds of commercials. You may now know the extremely attractive Vergara for being linked to the extremely attractive actor Joe Manganiello according to People magazine. While two extremely attractive actors dating is not uncommon, it has been well documented that Manganiello is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

We can only hope that this relationship continues to blossom and that Sofia learns to love the Steelers through Joe.*

* We're all on a first-name basis now!

Photo from "People" by Claudia Vergara.

Christina Aguilera: Found In My Basement

In the summer of 2000, I won a contest where I received two tickets to one of nearly a dozen Columbus concerts or events. However, as I mentioned last week, I was in England for most of that summer and unable to attend just about every event. There was one concert, though, that I could see when I returned, and this is the ticket stub from the concert:

Yes, I saw Christina Aguilera perform live at the 2000 Ohio State Fair. She was a genie in a bottle. She knew what a girl wants. She also wanted her fans to come on over baby. She was not lady marmalade or dirrty yet. All I remember was that there were hundreds if not thousands of screaming pre-teen and teenage girls. My friend and I were completely out of place. She also performed a cover of Free's All Right Now and most of the crowd had never heard of the song before.

As an interesting side note to this concert, the opening act when the tour started was a little group called Destiny's Child. At some point during the summer, Destiny's Child got big, and they were no longer opening act material. I wonder what ever happened to them. Anyway, Christina's opening act was a group called soulDecision (thanks WikiPedia!) that seemed like Destiny's Child-lite.

As always, you can click here for more items Found In My Basement.

13 Year-Old Ketchup (Found In My Basement)

When I was in high school, my friend and I worked as videographers at several Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties. We were definitely not professionals and got paid as such. We videotaped the receptions, including the speeches and dances, and gave copies of the tapes directly to the families with no editing whatsoever. Years later, my friend's sister got married, and their parents asked me to come out of retirement to videotape the wedding and reception. While I don't remember getting paid much, they gave me a potpourri of Pittsburgh memorabilia including this bottle of Heinz ketchup to commemorate the opening of Heinz Field.

I'm not sure if you can tell by this picture, but the date on the bottle states September 16, 2001. However, because of 9/11, there were no NFL games that weekend. The first regular season game at Heinz Field was actually October 7, 2001. Therefore, perhaps this ketchup is a collectable worth hundreds or thousands of dollars!

As always, you can click here for more items Found In My Basement.

Friday Video

You can get car insurance from GEICO, Allstate, Nationwide, The General, an Elephant or dozens if not hundreds of places that advertise non-stop. However, if you are Pittsburgh Pirates 3B Pedro Alvarez or a fan of his, there is only one place to get car insurance: El Toro Del Toro.



Terrible effort by the goalie on the bull's shot. He should have made the save.

With the 305 area code, maybe this is Pitbull's car insurance!

Sheffield Wednesday vs. PSV Eindhoven (Found In My Basement)

As part of my graduate program, I spent the summer of 2000 in Lancaster, England with several trips throughout the UK and Ireland. My internship supervisor was a Sheffield Wednesday season ticketholder and offered to take me to a game. Even though my program ended, I traveled back to Lancaster just to meet up with my supervisor to attend a friendly between the Netherlands powerhouse PSV Eindhoven and Sheffield Wednesday, who had just been relegated from the Premier League, and unfortunately, remains in the Championship League today.

This is what I remember about the game:

- Despite the recent relegation, folks were upbeat about the season.

- I ate some type of chicken pie from the concession stand, and it was terrible.

- The final score was 2-2 (though I'm not 100% sure of this now).

- I slept for nearly the entire car ride back from Sheffield.

Why am I bringing this up? Besides the fact that the Netherlands play in the World Cup today, I found the Sheffield Wednesday-PSV Eindhoven program recently. Here is said program:

You may recognize Ruud Van Nistelrooy on the PSV roster. He did not play and actually went to Manchester United not long after the game.

As always, you can click here for more items Found In My Basement.

Trivia Tuesday

Holy crap! I visited Sean's Ramblings, and there's an actual Trivia Tuesday. These used to be common, but now Trivia Tuesday is like an endangered species.

Yes, yes, I'm bringing back Trivia Tuesday. It may only be for this week, but rejoice in this trivia-ness.

Your challenge today is to see if you can pass a U.S. citizenship quiz. These 50 questions on Playbuzz test your knowledge of the United States with sample questions from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization test.

As always, please leave your results in the comments section below and do not use the internet or encyclopedias for assistance. Good luck!

I'll share my results in the comments section later.

Gifford's Good Times Ice Cream Tour

As a global national social-media influencer,* I was invited to attend Gifford's Good Times Ice Cream Tour Ice Cream Social at Dulles Golf Center & Sports Park. As we learned Monday, I am all about free food, so I happily accepted the invitation and took my three-year old son (who I will nickname "The Moose" for a reference that no one will understand) with me. Here are some notes about and pictures of the event.

- Despite having sandwiches and fruit, The Moose was only interested in eating Sun Chips and ice cream. While I'm happy that he enjoyed the ice cream seeing that Gifford's Famous Ice Cream was the reason for this event, I'm not sure I can put "allowed my son to each only chips and ice cream for dinner" on my Father of the Year application.

- I also learned that The Moose is not ready for miniature golf. He seemed to enjoy throwing the golf ball and watching me chase after it much more than hitting the ball.

- Then The Moose turned his attention to the helmets outside the batting cages. Sure he is way too young to enter the batting cages, but the helmets were a huge hit even if they were a little big.

- He reminded me of Dark Helmet.

- I approve of Gifford's Famous Ice Cream. Quite tasty. The only negative is that they didn't bring my personal favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip.

- Lindsay Gifford-Skilling, the General Manager of Giffords, was one of several employees on hand. They are very passionate about their ice cream and the fact that the company is in its 5th generation. Whenever I take a New England trip, I think I'll need to stop at Ben & Jerry's in Vermont and Gifford's Famous Ice Cream in Skowhegan, Maine. Sounds like an awesome trip!

- Besides a fun event, I'm a big fan of receiving free swag which included a Giffords hat and coupons to the Dulles Gold Center & Sports Park.

- Thanks again to Andrea of Real Housewives of Northern Virginia for organizing the event!

* If you question my social-media influencer status, I'll let you know that Sean's Ramblings has almost 20 likes on Facebook. I also have nearly 400 Twitter followers, though many of the followers are probably not real people.

Corner Bakery Free Paninis Journal

I'm getting back to my blogging roots. Last week, I made a reference to Sean's Ramblings favorite, Kevin Pittsnogle. Today, I'm sharing my experience of attempting to win free paninis for a year.

Long-time readers might remember a simpler time when I earned free burritos for a year from California Tortilla. Over the 52 weeks, I ate $278.09 worth of free food just for being one of the first 10 people in line at the Cal Tort grand opening. Therefore, when I learned that Corner Bakery was opening a new restaurant in my neighborhood with the first 100 people in line receiving free paninis for a year, I started planning. By planning, I mean that I mentioned this to my wife a few days ago and I woke up around 5:00 instead of the usual 5:40.

I started the day by shaving, getting dressed and feeding Ziggy. I said good bye to my wife and she gave me an "Are you serious? I can't believe you're leaving since both kids will probably wake up as soon as you leave" look and rolled back over.

I arrived at Corner Bakery just after 5:30, and there was already a significant line. While I expected much of the line to be teenagers, I was surprised of the age diversity among the group. It seemed like about 40% already qualified for AARP membership and there were many families in the group (though no young children). After standing in the back of the line for a minute a two, a woman that works at the Corner Bakery corporate office handed me #56. I was in! Hooray for LaMarr Woodley! (Actually, since Woodley is no longer a Steeler, hooray for, um, Jordan Zumwalt!)

Here are some notes from the morning:

- This was the first time in Corner Bakery history that they gave away free paninis to open a restaurant. Previously, the first 100 people received free coffee. I participated in an historic event!

June 30, 1936 - Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is published.
June 30, 1950 - US enters the Korean War.
June 30, 2014 - Free paninis at a Northern Virginia Corner Bakery

- The first person in line arrived at 2:00 AM. Rookie! It was the first 100 people in line, not the first 10.

- While I brought a chair, book & Walkman (yes, a Walkman!) to the Cal Tort opening, all I took for the Corner Bakery opening was an Entertainment Weekly magazine and a piece of paper and a pen to write some notes.

- I got a little concerned when a guy in a Sherriff's officer uniform came to the end of the line. I worried that he was going to shut everything down. Turns out he joined the line for free paninis too.

- I asked if we got tired of paninis during week 35 if we could switch to a less expensive item on the menu. I was told that I wouldn't get tired of paninis. Then, I was told that the coupons were for paninis only but staff might work with me.

The doors opened promptly at 6:00 AM and everyone received a wrapped stack of 52 cards good for one panini a week for a year from week 1 (7/6/14 to 7/12/14) to week 52 (6/28/15 to 7/4/15). July 4, 2015 seems like a really, really, really long time from now!

After nearly 10 minutes waiting in line to order food (and discovering that the first free panini coupon isn't good until next week), I decided to leave. I felt a little bad for getting the free cards and rolling out, but there were 55 people in front of me (though the line moved quickly) and I needed to go home and get ready for work. I'm sure that I'll make it up to Corner Bakery over the next year!

Don't forget to like Sean's Ramblings on Facebook.

Friday Video (Sing)

Here are Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams and a drunk puppet ready to get you ready for the weekend.



None of this will happen as part of my weekend, but this is still a good song!

By the way, how does Ed Sheeran sing the second verse without passing out or needing to take a long break to breathe? What a pro!


Don't forget to like Sean's Ramblings on Facebook.

2009 Called

Despite being in existence since 2005, Sean's Ramblings has never had its own Facebook page...until now. That's right, you can read Sean's Ramblings here and like the blog on Facebook for exclusive behind the scenes content. Right now, that content consists of links back here and an adorable picture of Ziggy with a soccer ball, but who knows what will be on that Facebook page. (Seriously, I have no idea what will be on that page. Probably not Farmville requests.)

So like Sean's Ramblings on Facebook and if you have suggestions about what should be on the Facebook page, share them here and/or on Facebook.

Now, what is this Wikipedia thing?

Sean's US-Portugal Recap

While it is likely that you already read detailed analysis about Sunday's US-Portugal game and the scenarios for the US to advance to the knockout round, you haven't read my thoughts about the game and World Cup (unless you're reading this multiple times). Like my recaps of Steelers games, and, well, just about everything else on Sean's Ramblings, enjoy items and thoughts that you won't see anywhere but here.

- Like every other World Cup match, the festivities began with the starting players entering the field holding hands with Brazilian children. While this is probably a huge honor for the kids who can tell their children that they were on the field during the 2014 World Cup, I wonder if all the kids are truly happy. For example, if you learned that you were going to go on the field for the Brazil-Cameroon game only to discover that you're walking out with a Cameroon player rather than Neymar or another Brazilian player, you might not be that excited.

- I didn't realize that Cristiano Ronaldo and Tim Howard were roommates when they played together for Manchester United. Now that is a reality show I would have watched. Did they have a Felix-Oscar relationship? Did they argue about leaving dirty dishes in the sink? Did they split the bills evenly? I need to know more about this!

- Now that there has been a water break in a World Cup match, I can't wait to use this as a ref as an example when Under-14 coaches complain about having one.

- It was nice of Wonder Woman, Superman & Batman to attend the World Cup match. However, while Wonder Woman and Superman dressed for the hot, humid climate, Batman must have been really uncomfortable.

- There were several times in the match where the announcers stated that, essentially, Ronaldo doesn't play defense. He's basically Alex Ovechkin except that he has won titles. Of course, it helps when you have teammates like Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scoles. Edwin van der Sar, Ryan Giggs, Kaka, Mesut Ozil, & Iker Casillas rather than Martin Erat, Jeff Schultz and Jay Beagle.

- Yes, another Ronaldo thought. Announcer Ian Darke mentioned that Ronaldo was greeted at the hotel by a topless model, a guy in a Donald Duck costume and hundreds of other spectators. Why isn't ABC/ESPN showing this?

- Like Troy Polamalu's hair or Brett Keisel's beard, Portugal's Raul Meireles looked to get major attention due to his beard, mohawk and tattoos. He could easily be a bad guy on Sons of Anarchy. Unfortunately, it doesn't help your reputation as a scary, tough guy when you lay on the ground for approximately 15 minutes after Kyle Beckerman slide tackle. (It really wasn't that bad but some people disagree.)

- Meanwhile Clint Dempsey gets beat up nearly every match and always gets up. He is basically Chumbawamba without the whiskey drink, vodka drink, lager drink and cider drink. Oh, Dempsey also scored a goal off his tummy.

- West Virginia University's Geoff Cameron had a terrible clearance that led directly to Portugal's first goal. Kevin Pittsnogle or Amos Zereoue could have a better job on that ball. (I miss making Kevin Pittsnogle references.)

- Does will.i.am get mad at Portugal's William because of his name?

- Chris Wondolowski is half Native American. Based on all the discussion here in DC last week, I'm surprised no one asked for Wondo's thoughts on the Washington football team name after the game.

- Finally, while the Ronaldo to Varelo goal was impressive (though disheartening), these are the best goals from this weekend.

What The H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, NHL?

The National Hockey League releases the 2014-2015 schedule on Sunday afternoon. This is a significant event for hockey fans, particularly those that plan their (nearly) annual hockey road trip. However, I am puzzled by the timing of the NHL's announcement. The NHL should release the schedule at a time when they would get the maximum amount of coverage in the sports world. A summer Sunday afternoon is not that time. Here is what is happening today:

The World Cup. Perhaps you have heard of the planet's biggest sporting event. I guess I should give Commissioner Gary Bettman credit for making the announcement during the Algeria-South Korea game rather than in the middle of the US-Portugal match. Of course, on Sunday evening and Monday, I'm sure that everyone will be discussing the hockey schedule and not America's performance, right?

The NASCAR Toyota-Save Mart 350 race. Actually, nevermind. I don't think there is a lot of overlap between Jimmie Johnson and Jack Johnson fans.

Baseball. Sure, there would be baseball games opposite the NHL's release anytime during the summer, but scheduling the release on Sunday at 4:00 PM Eastern ensures that nearly every baseball team in all time zones will be playing at this time.

Golf. Yes, I looked up the name of the NASCAR race, but I'm too lazy to look up the name of the golf tournament occurring this weekend. The NHL wouldn't have to worry about people watching a golf tournament instead of seeing the schedule if the schedule was announced on a Monday-Wednesday.

It's the first Sunday of the summer! People go outside. There are BBQs and festivals and trips to the playground and simply people being out of their homes and away from the TV. Have the announcement on a weekday night at 8:00 when these things aren't happening (and when the World Cup games are done for the day).

Randomness

- A friend wrote on Facebook that celebrity passings normally don't get to him, but Tony Gwynn's did. I completely agree with him. I wrote a post about Tony Gwynn seven years ago (this blog is way too old) and wanted to share it again today. I had the privilege of seeing Gwynn play probably two dozen times when I lived in San Diego. What's funny is that there's not a specific game or moment that I remember of him and that sort of matches his career. He just consistently got hits. Off the field, he was loved in San Diego and did so much in the community and at San Diego State. He passed away way too soon.

This is Keith Olbermann on Gwynn:



- Here's something I never thought I would say: Dude, you are dominating that prune juice.

- Dejan Kovacevic has an awesome piece about the late Steelers head coach, Chuck Noll.

- There is a sign on 95 North just south of Baltimore that indicates that 695 West is in 1.5 miles. It is wrong and always bothers me. The exit is about 1.25 miles from that sign and nearly .75 miles after the 2 miles sign.

- I'm not sure if anyone tracks this, but I'm convinced there are more tattoos among World Cup players this year than in any other year. Italy is my unofficial top seed for the team with the most players with tattoos. Greece ranks fairly high too.

- Adenoids would be cooler if they were called asteroids. Seriously, wouldn't it be more fun to tell people that you had your asteroids taken out?

- Finally, go to Puck Daddy to see a video of Vin Scully with the Stanley Cup.

Monday Links

Here are some great reads to start your week.

My friend Christine moved to South Korea and started writing about her family experiences. Of course, if she moved to North Korea, you wouldn't be able to read about her experiences. [The Adventures of ChrisMichRob in Korea]

On Fathers Day, Josh wrote about his dad, who recently passed away. [Ngewo's World]

On the lighter side, Josh spent all of May posting about his favorite comedians. There are plenty of videos including some that are likely NSFW. [Ngewo's World]

The Travel Channel ranked Pittsburgh in its Top-10 Best All-American Vacations 2014 [Travel Channel]

Ginny had an awesome 40th birthday party that including a celebration with Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto & David Conrad. [That's Church]

Valentine wrote an ebook called Achieving Mediocrity. Count me in! [Small-Town Dad]

Your latest first-world problems. I may have added some of the items to this list. [The Steel Trap]

Enjoy this video from last month's Lithuanian A Lyga league game. This is how to celebrate a goal. And yes, the black and gold uniforms are a nice touch. [Deadspin]

The Greatest 2014 World Cup Preview

Since U.S. Coach Jurgen Klinsmann said that the Americans can't win this World Cup, welcome to the greatest 2014 World Cup preview you will read that has zero analysis of any games or teams. I've included random facts and interesting tidbits about players, and stay tuned for a never-before-seen picture of the best soccer team to ever play and me!

- The youngest player at the World Cup is Fabrice Olinga of Cameroon born on May 12, 1996. (Thanks to Grantland for this nugget.)

- The oldest player at the World Cup is Pele born on October 23, 1940. He might not actually play for Brazil during the World Cup, but I guarantee that you'll see him everywhere.

- Landon Donovan will not be on the US team. Instead, you might see him at a local bar near you assuming that you live in Los Angeles. Personally, I'd love to see him serve as a studio analyst for ABC/ESPN. What amazing awkwardness there would be after the US loses a game ("Well, Alexi, if I was playing...") or wins a game ("I'm happy for all of my teammates though the coach is a dick."). UPDATE: ESPN listened to me.

- Jose Cholevas of Greece is the only member of the team with a first name that doesn't end with a s.

- Meanwhile, Gabriel Paletta is the only member of the Italian team with a first name that doesn't end with a vowel.

We interrupt this preview for a picture of Ziggy with a soccer ball.

- I hope that Eden Hazard, midfielder for Belgium and Chelsea, becomes a duke.

- Korea has five players named Kim, four players named Lee and three players named Park. Does that make it easier or harder for the announcers?

- While Fosters is Australian for beer, Ben Foster is English for back-up goalie.

- I challenge you to accurately pronounce the name of Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka.

- The Washington Post created an article of the 10 most-eye catching wives and girlfriends at Brazil's World Cup. This makes me proud to be a Sunday-subscriber. What a list!

- Congrats to Italy's Mario Balotelli on his engagement! Just to show you how strong the Washington Post list is, Fanny Neguesha didn't make it. There may need to be a recount.

Mario Balotelli has struck first in Brazil, popping the question to girlfriend Fanny Neguesha and getting engaged! pic.twitter.com/VJz8lWyDZx

— Nikolas Postinger (@nikpostinger) June 10, 2014

- Shakira is #1 on the Post's list and she and her husband, Gerard Pique, recently visited the National Zoo here in DC. [DC Sports Bog]

- Koke is a midfielder for Spain. K is for Koke, that's good enough for me.

- Sammir and Eduardo don't sound like traditional Croatian names.

- Although Memphis Depay is a forward for the Netherlands, this could be the name of a blues artist or BBQ restaurant.

Time for this incredible video by John Oliver about FIFA's corruption. There's a few bad words here, so it could be NSFW.



- It's nice to see that Dante has a new hobby being a defender for Brazil after writing his Inferno.

- Australian midfielder Tommy Oar is such a big fan of the group O.A.R. that he changed his last name. Of course, his previous last name was Minogue.

- I'd like to congratulate defender Francisco Rodriguez and midfielder Carlos Pena for making the Mexican team. They also both have had successful baseball careers.

- Shlomo Cohen barely missed making the Iranian World Cup team.

- Landry Nguemo & Edgar Salli are both midfielders for Cameroon. I cannot confirm or deny that they are named for Pittsburgh Steelers QB Landry Jones or Pittsburgh Attorney Edgar Snyder.

- Gotoku Sakai made Japan's 23-man roster. I'm trying to put this delicately, but Sakai doesn't quite look Japanese. He looks more American which makes some sense since he was born in New York. I need to learn more about his journey.

- I saw Honduras midfielder Andy Najar play on DC United. Um, that's all I've got.

Time for another picture of Ziggy with a soccer ball!

- Fresh off his 9th French Open title, Rafa is playing forward for Portugal. I can't see Spain being okay with this.

- Former University of Pittsburgh basketball player and current member of the Oklahoma City Thunder Steven Adams plays goalie for Ghana. To make everyone believe that he is not playing soccer during the basketball off-season, he changed the spelling of his name for soccer to Stephen.

- I hope every American player and fan constantly says "Good night, John Boye" to Ghana's defender before and during the game. I think John Boye would be really confused.

Finally, thank you very much for making it this far. As a reward, here is a picture of me with the Pittsburgh Spirit. I can't identify the players but I really hope that Paul Child and Stan Terlecki are in here.

Pittsburgh Festival In Washington

Perhaps it's because Celebrate Fairfax is only days away, but I'm getting into the festival mood. I also realize that it's unlikely I'll be able to visit Pittsburgh this summer (this year?) and that makes me a little sad. Therefore, why not put the two together. That's right. I want to create a Pittsburgh festival in the Washington, DC area.

I could worry about the details like location (Dulles Expo Center?), insurance, security, etc., but today, I'm going to be an ideas man. There are thousands of Pittsburgh transplants that live in the Washington area (see the 2008 Steelers game at FedEx Field and the Post-Gazette series detailing Pittsburghers that moved away) and even more if you expand this to Baltimore. Why not celebrate our Pittsburgh-ness and expose the city to the greater Washington DC area?

The first step would be to partner with Visit Pittsburgh, the official tourism office for Pittsburgh. They are the experts on all the great things to do and see in Pittsburgh.

Here is what else this festival should have (some of this is unrealistic but others could definitely work):

- Food: You can't have a Pittsburgh festival without Pittsburgh food. Primanti's sandwiches, Quaker Steak & Lube wings, hot dogs from The O, Potato Patch fries, Peppi's Roethlisburger, pierogies, Eat 'N Park Smiley Cookies, anything from the Oakmont Bakery, Prantl's Burnt Almond Torte, Vincent's pizza, Sarris Candies, Dave & Andy's ice cream and lots of Heinz condiments. Yes, there will be Iron City beer too. I'm getting hungry!

- Some type of presence from current or former Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins. Heck, we can have some Riverhounds or Maulers too. Yes, I'll even allow a visit from Steely McBeam.



- We need to have some type of Kennywood exhibit. Maybe they can build The Racer or Thunderbolt for this festival.

- Music: Let's get Wiz Khalifa, Rusted Root, The Clarks and Mac Miller, who recently wrote "I am Pittsburgh" on Twitter.

- Admissions officers from Pitt, Duquesne, CMU, Robert Morris, Chatham, Point Park, and Carlow to help recruit high school students.

- Bring a dinosaur from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum. With the dinosaur hall at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History closed until 2019, folks in DC will want to see a real dinosaur skeleton.

- An exhibit from the Andy Warhol Museum.

- A Mister Rogers and/or Daniel Tiger exhibit. Mr. McFeely could make the trip to DC again.

- Birds from the National Aviary.

- Have a giant poster showing the view of Mt. Washington where people can take a picture standing in front of it.

- Booths from some of Pittsburgh's biggest employers such as UPMC, Giant Eagle, Highmark, US Steel, and PNC Financial Services to recruit potential employees.

What else would you want to see at a Pittsburgh festival? Do you think this could happen?

Celebrate Fairfax Ticket Giveaway

Did you realize that it is now June? That means Celebrate Fairfax!, Northern Virginia’s largest community-wide celebration, is set to take place THIS WEEKEND (June 6-8, 2014) at the Fairfax County Government Center. The 33rd annual festival features 25 acres of amazing concerts, family programs, green living, thrilling carnival rides and nightly fireworks on Friday and Saturday! Among the festival's highlights are the more than 120 concerts and performances on eight stages, with an exceptional line-up of national, regional and local artists including headliners: The All American Rejects, Cheap Trick and The Hunts. There are also more than 300 exhibitors, food vendors, crafters and interactive activities such as ExxonMobil Children’s Avenue, a petting zoo, the Fairfax County Karaoke Championship, great festival foods, Greenology, the Fairfax is Beautiful Photo Contest, the Craft Beer Garden & Silent Disco, and the DockDogs Championship (a personal favorite from last year's event).



You can find out more about Celebrate Fairfax on the festival website, and today, I'm excited to give away two adult general admission tickets to this year's event. To enter, please answer what you most want to see at this year's festival in the comments section below. One comment/entry per person. Please enter by 10:00 PM Eastern time Tuesday, June 3rd, and I will use Random.org to choose a winner. Please also make sure there is a way for me to reach you if you win. (You may also send me an e-mail at seanramblings at yahoo[dot]com with your e-mail address if you don't want to include it in the comments section. For example, my e-mail address is seansblogis@awesome.com, and I entered comment #5.) Good luck!

Plus, you can purchase discounted tickets at the Celebrate Fairfax website or at Northern Virginia Wegmans stores.

Update: Congratulations to drinkyourmilkshake for being the winner of the Celebrate Fairfax tickets! I will be in touch with the ticket information.