2025 Washington Nationals Recap

Back in March, I asked an esteemed group of individuals for their predictions for the 2025 Nationals season. Want to see how everyone did? Or would rather bury the original post and hope that it never sees the light of day again? Well, since I already created a blog post title, feel free to see how we did. Or don't.

1. There are high expectations for 2023 #2 overall pick Dylan Crews. What do you expect from him this season?

Crews, the #2 overall pick after some guy named Paul Skenes in Pittsburgh, only played in 85 games thanks to injuries. His overall stats of 10 home runs and 17 stolen bases seem encouraging. 27 RBIs, a .208 batting average, and .280 on-base percentage are not so encouraging. Crews was one of the best college hitters of the last 20 years, so it seems unlikely that he forgot to hit overnight. Still, it's been a difficult adjustment to the major leagues. Most of the group had high expectations for Crews, and he didn't live up to them. Frank probably was the closest in his predictions of putting "some pressure on the defense with his base stealing ability." 

2. Who will lead the Nationals in home runs in 2025?

This ended up being an easy one. Nearly everyone (Ryan, Frank, Richard, Chris, Marc, and Sean) picked James Wood who led the Nats with 31 home runs.

3. Will the Nationals be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?

Pretty much everyone through the team would be sellers and they were though not really any big names.  Kyle Finnegan went to Detroit, Amed Rosario to the Yankees, Michael Soroka to the Cubs, Alex Call to the Dodgers, and Andrew Chafin and Luis Garcia to the Angels. You have to be very good at Immaculate Grid or really, really, really follow the Nationals to know most of these players. (Maybe Josh Bell was frustrated not getting traded?)

4. Will CJ Abrams go to a casino this season?

Probably a mean question. I'll just pretend that I didn't ask this.

5. Who will be the team's surprise/breakout player this year?

Richard wrote that this player isn't on the opening day lineup and he was right. Daylen Lile joined the Nats in late May and excelled after the All-Star break. Lile hit .304 in August with 1 home run and 8 RBIs to go along with a .353 on-base percentage. In September, Lile hit .391(!!!) with 6 home runs, 19 RBIs, a .440 on-base percentage and .772 slugging percentage. That's a 1.212 OPS! (OPS is On-Base plus Slugging.) While I understand that this stat is for only one month, as a comparison, Aaron Judge led the majors with a 1.144 OPS and Ohtani was next with a 1.014. 

Partial credit to Ryan for predicting Jose Ferrer. Ferrer pitched pretty well in the closer role after the team traded Finnegan.

6. Which Nats Summer Concert are you looking forward to the most?

OAR and Nelly were the right answers, but there really weren't any wrong answers.

7. Finally, what's your overall prediction for the Nationals? (ex. record, finish in the NL East).

Well, the team was pretty lousy this year finishing 66-96 and last place in the NL East. The record was only better than the Chicago White Sox and dreadful Colorado Rockies. The team fired the manager and general manager mid-season. While I'm not sure anyone would call this rock bottom, I think it's an understatement to say that the Nationals 2025 season was a disappointment. No one thought the Nationals would be THIS bad, though Frank was the closest predicting 70 wins.

Josh Bell photo by Benny Sieu - Imagn Images

Lawrence Moten (1972-2025)

If you asked me to come up with a list of 1,000 blog post suggestions, a post about Lawrence Moten would not be in the top 5,000. However, the passing of the Syracuse legend earlier this week brought up several memories. I grew up a fan of the University of Pittsburgh basketball team and by extension the Big East conference. I also went to college in upstate/central New York where Syracuse basketball was the biggest sports team in the area.*

Moten played for Syracuse from 1991-92 through 1994-95. Looking at his stats, he was only a 31.6% career 3-point shooter (though the 3-point shot wasn't as important or used as much then) and a 71.6% free throw shooter. Yet, Moten averaged 19.3 points per game in his four seasons. He was annoying. He always seemed to make a big shot or a key free throw near the end of games. Moten wasn't on the team that went to the NCAA championship in 1995 (which featured John Wallace and Otis Hill), but he was a big part of the foundation for that team.

Moten also played at a time when you really got to know college basketball players. Look, I'm all for current players getting as much NIL money as possible. Colleges profited off of players for years. I also think it was completely unfair that coaches could leave schools whenever they wanted for a new job but players would have to sit out a year if they transferred between institutions. I'm all for players being able to move from school to school. We'll get back to that momentarily. 

Pitt is still my favorite basketball team. I just looked at the 2025-2026 roster and really only recognize two names, Cam Corhen and Brandin Cummings. Okay, Papa Amadou Kante also looks familiar since he had a good game against Ohio State at the beginning of the last season. Otherwise, everyone else is new except for Amdy Ndiaye who played all of 21 minutes over 8 games during the 2024-2025 season. The complete turnover of rosters from year to year isn't exclusive to Pitt. It's everywhere. I also follow George Mason basketball closely, and there is only one player (Brayden O'Connor) who had significant playing time last season on the roster this year. 

Which brings me back to Moten. During his time, you knew the best players in college basketball. Looking at the all Big East teams from the early to mid-1990s, I remember nearly all of the names. I can't do that for many teams/conferences today. Maybe it's because I followed college basketball more closely in my teenage years than now, but I don't think that's the case. Yes, while the best NCAA players go professional immediately, many of the really good players switch teams year to year. It's impossible to follow. 

Moten was a star at Syracuse and in the community. That rarely happens in college basketball today when players are only at a school for a year or two.

RIP.

* Completely unrelated to Moten, in 1995 or 1996 former Vice President Dan Quayle spoke at Ithaca College. He may or may not have been testing the waters for a Presidential bid. Anyway, Quayle, born in Indiana and a representative of the Hoosier state in the House and Senate, started the speech by mentioning how Indiana defeated Syracuse in the 1987 NCAA title game thanks to a Keith Smart game-winning shot. The crowd, which was not all college students, was not pleased. There wasn't booing, but there was definitely an uneasiness of him bringing up a sore subject. For my Pittsburgh friends, it would be the equivalent of a Georgia politician speaking in Western Pennsylvania and being excited to mention Francisco Cabrera.

Photos by Manny Milan - Sports Illustrated via Getty and Nick Lisi AP

Shana Tova From NFL Teams: 2025 / 5786

Welcome to the fourth annual post where I scour social media to see which NFL teams share Happy Rosh Hashanah messages. And by scour, I mean that I check NFL teams' Instagram and Twitter pages. I don't search Facebook, TikTok, Bluesky, MySpace, or Friendster or visit individual team websites or drive by NFL facilities to see if they have signs posted outside buildings. I only have so much time! And with that, here are screenshots from NFL teams:

Although I didn't search Facebook, the Eagles' post somehow popped up on my feed. 

And then this appeared in my feed:

Including the Eagles (but not Sunderland in the Premier League), that's 10 separate NFL teams. While I'm disappointed that the Steelers didn't include a message this year or in any of the years that I started tracking NFL posts, this is a significant improvement from 2024 when only 4 teams posted messages.

Happy New Year to those who are celebrating.

Chris Boswell: Serial Killer

On Sunday, the Steelers started the 2025 NFL season with a 34-32 win over the New York Jets. While the game featured quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields facing their former teams, one of the big stories was Steelers kicker Chris Boswell hitting a 60-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to essentially win the game. A 60-yard field goal is extremely difficult, particularly with a roaring crowd in a pressure situation.

Following the game, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said this about Boswell at the 3:30 mark of the video:

You heard that correctly. Tomlin called Boswell a serial killer. And meant that as a compliment. Maybe Tomlin recently watched the new version of Dexter featuring a "good" type of serial killer who only kills bad people. Or perhaps Tomlin saw the Netflix show Mindhunter (filmed in Pittsburgh), where FBI agents interview serial killers to try to understand their behavior. I don't remember the killers talking about a low pulse rate, which is something that Tomlin attributed to Boswell though. (Maybe Tomlin's statement is a setup to get Mindhunter to return for a third season or even as a movie. If Tomlin helps motivate show creator David Fincher to make this happen, Tomlin should immediately get inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame and get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! And Boswell needs to be in the show/movie too!)

In future weeks, Tomlin should accuse Boswell of other crimes. The next time Boswell makes a game-winning kick, Tomlin should refer to Boswell an arsonist. Since he’s on fire! (And yes, an arsonist starts fires and aren't actually on fire.) Or maybe a thief. You know since Boswell stole the hearts of opposing teams’ players and fans. Boswell is definitely a money launderer since he’s clearly money making the kicks. He is so money, baby! 

(This is video is not suitable for work.)

 

Photo from the folks at Ya Jagoff!

2025-2026 Pittsburgh Sports Predictions

For years, I've asked people to share predictions about teams and even elections. For example, before the 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates season, I asked for predictions about the overall record of the team, the status of the team's manager (I hope that you're doing well, Derek Shelton!), and who would lead the team in home runs. This is a little different. Today, I asked people for predictions for multiple Pittsburgh-area teams in multiple sports for over a one-year period.

Here are our fabulous participants in these festivities:

Josh: Author of Josh’s World and the reason why I included Penn State questions here. (Bluesky)

Chris Carter: Steelers Reporter and host of North Shore Drive Podcast for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Host of Locked On Steelers too and regular on WPXI. Chris is everywhere and can always be found when there’s a score of 13-9. (Bluesky)

Matt Gajtka: Broadcaster and fitness coach among his multiple roles. (Twitter)

Chris Dokish: Covered Pitt for many years and may know the program better than anyone. (Twitter)

Saxboy: World-traveler, creator of amazing videos, and host of The Saxcast podcast. (Bluesky)

Sean: Founder of Sean’s Ramblings in 2005. Been doing this way too long! (Bluesky)

2025-2026 Steelers

Josh: 10-7. They miss the playoffs

Chris: 11-6, 2nd place AFC North, lose AFC championship game

Matt: 11-6 and they win a Wild Card playoff game, before falling in the Divisional round. I think Rodgers has one last solid season and Pittsburgh will be the beneficiary of it. They are not Super Bowl caliber, but we can finally stop talking about the playoff win drought. 

Chris D.: The defense should be excellent, and if it's not there's going to be a lot of explaining that they'll need to do. The offense, with Aaron Rodgers, should at least be average, which should improve them to 11-6, and maybe finally a first round win. Also, I think Payton Wilson is going to become a star this season.

Saxboy: 9–8, miss playoffs mid draft pick, rinse and repeat. 

Sean: Makes the playoff and win a first-round game.

2025-2026 Penguins

Josh: Yikes, I have not followed the off-season at all. I will say 44 wins, with a first round playoff win

Chris: Miss playoffs again

Matt: 87 points and a couple of wins out of the playoffs. This isn't truly a 'tanking' roster and Malkin gives it an extra boost with a final-season push. But, there's not enough here to put them in the top half of the NHL. At least one more year with the also-rans.

Chris D.: It's hard to say what's in store for them at the moment. They're finally starting to ramp up their rebuild, and if they do that by trading some of their better veterans, then they'll almost definitely have a worse season than this past year. As the roster looks now, they're not really bad, but they may get to that point if they make those trades.

Saxboy: Tank season successfully executed, high draft pick, draft 18 year old kid from Ontario

Sean: Finishes about 10 points out of the playoffs. Team trades Erik Karlsson during the season and Letang and/or Malkin retire after the season.

2025 Pitt Football

Josh: 6-6. Then a loss in a bowl game

Chris: 8-4 regular season, decent bowl game

Matt: 8-4 and they beat West Virginia as part of a 3-0 start. After that ...

Chris D.: They have two All-Americans in Desmond Reid and Kyle Louis, a returning offensive coordinator, the returning starting quarterback in Eli Holstein, who looked like an All-American at the beginning of the season, skill players that now fit the system, a veteran offensive line, and a potentially excellent defense. They flopped the last two seasons, but on paper, they should be a 9-win top 25 team. But it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt because of how the last two seasons went. I don't predict records including a bowl because those are total crapshoots now, so I'll say an 8-4 regular season record. Anything less is a failure, and I'm not sure with all that they have that 8-4 wouldn't even be a little disappointing. The only other teams that have two All-Americans are elite programs. Like it usually works with Pitt, and especially Narduzzi, it will come down to how well the quarterback does.

Saxboy: 9-3, would love that. Holstein is gonna do his thing.

Sean: 8-4 and a bowl win at either the Go Bowling Military Bowl in DC or the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.

2025 Penn State Football

Josh: 12-0, National Champs!

Chris: 10-2, College Football Playoffs make Final Four

Matt: One-loss national champions. Don't know much about college football, so why not.

Chris D.: On paper, there may not be a more talented team in the country, but James Franklin has a way of being out coached. Until he shows that he can coach better than his opponents, I have to assume that he'll come up short again.

Saxboy: 11-1, lose Natty 

Sean: Loses to Ohio State in conference play and then in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Makes Josh sad.

2025 Pitt Men’s Soccer

Josh: Ummm, they win the ACC

Chris: sweet 16

Matt: A trip to the NCAA tournament again, and a berth in the national quarterfinals.

Chris D.: Don't know enough about them

Sean: Makes the NCAA tournament but loses in the second round.

2025 Pitt Women’s Volleyball

Josh: Final Four

Chris: National championship loss

Matt: Another tourney trip, but this time they fall out before the final four.

Chris D.: The best program at Pitt over the last few years, but until they win a championship, they're going to be looked at always coming up short when it counts the most. That sounds harsh, but that's what comes with being No. 1 for most of the year, and also having the best player in the country in Olivia Babcock. Pitt needs a national championship again, and hopefully this is finally the year.

Sean: Not as good as last year. Loses in the national quarterfinals.

2025 Penn State Women’s Volleyball

Josh: Back-to-back National Champs!

Chris: Final Four loss

Matt: Another big year, even if it ends in the national semifinals.

Chris D.: Don't know enough about them

Sean: Trip to the championship, but not back-to-back titles.

2025-2026 Pitt Men’s Basketball

Josh: Slightly better than Penn State men's basketball

Chris: Bubble team just miss NCAA Tournament with 21 or so wins.

Matt: Let's call it a winning season, but a .500 season in the ACC and not enough to make the tourney.

Chris D.: Jeff Capel is very good at accumulating talent (from high school, the portal, and internationally), but I don't think he's a good enough coach for his team to be better than their talent. And the talent this year is not among the best in the ACC. I don't think they'll be bad, but I don't see a tournament run either. I would guess that they'll have somewhere around 16-18 wins. On the other hand, nobody thought a team of Nelly Cummings, Jamarius Burton, Blake Hinson, and Greg Elliott would make the tournament a year after the Panthers were 11-21. Probable starters Damarco Minor, Dishon Jackson, and Cam Corhen are solid, but not game changers, so if the team performs better than expected, they'll have to have big seasons from at least three of Beebah Cummings, Omari Witherspoon, Roman Siulepa, and Barry Dunning, Jr., but that may be asking a lot.

Saxboy: NCAA tournament berth by play in game. L in that

Sean: For no reason other than being a homer, the team makes the NCAA tournament and advances to the round of 32.

2026 Pirates

Josh: 74 wins

Chris: Losing record, no playoffs

Matt: 82-80. I figure they almost have to be better. It'll be another banner year for Skenes and we start to see some supplementation from the farm. I have a hard time saying they'll be legit playoff contenders, though, even in an era of three wild cards per league.

Chris D.: Not to be dramatic, but I honestly see no hope as long as Bob Nutting is the owner. They are both cheap and incompetent, and that's a deadly combination. They have the best pitcher in baseball, and the top prospect in the minors- one a superstar, and one on the verge of being a superstar- and there still feels like there's no hope because Nutting simply doesn't care if they win or not. He just wants the money.

Saxboy: I can’t

Sean: The team finally either trades for a good hitter or signs a free agent hitter under 32 and the team finishes over .500 and competes for a Wild Card spot.

Will any 2025-2026 Robert Morris or Duquesne men’s or women’s basketball team make the NCAA tournament?

Josh: Yes

Chris: No on RMU/Duquesne

Matt: I'll go ahead and say the RMU men's hoopsters make the tournament again. They've gotten in a nice groove in the Horizon League. 

Chris D.: Don't know enough about them

Sean: Not this season.

Will any player on any team win an award? (If yes, who and what?)

Josh: Skenes-Cy Young

Chris: Jalen Ramsey DPOY

Matt: Rodgers gets votes for Comeback Player of the Year, and a freshly-engaged Skenes wins the NL Cy Young in '26. Dan Muse gets some support for the Jack Adams.

Chris D.: I think Paul Skenes is pretty much guaranteed to be the National League Cy Young Award winner.

Saxboy: Bad decision of the year award: saxboybilly18 - for going to the Seattle-Kansas City-Minneapolis

Sean: Olivia Babcock wins national player of the year in volleyball. She’s Pittsburgh’s best athlete not named Skenes or Crosby!

Please share any other predictions here (ex. Steelers draft pick, coaches fired, etc.). 

Josh: Steelers trade up to get a QB in the first round. The Pirates do not sign any hitters, aside from their usual reclamation projects

Chris: Steelers pick LaNorris Sellers first round in 2026 NFL Draft

Matt: The Penguins have a few lottery balls in the hopper, but there's no Gavin McKenna lifeline coming their way!

Chris D.: The Steelers are going to get their next starting quarterback in the first round next year, even if they have to trade up to make sure they get the one they want. And it's going to be a very dramatic scene since it will happen in front of a huge throng of Pittsburghers. Don Kelly won't be retained. If Pitt basketball has a poor season, I would not be surprised, if the buyout isn't high, that they get rid of Jeff Capel. But it would take a really bad season and a very low buyout.

Sean: Snoop Dogg, Pat McAfee, and Bret Michaels will all have some role in the NFL draft in Pittsburgh.

Finally, will Paul Skenes and Livvy Dunne get engaged before the end of the 2026 MLB season?

Josh: No, they get engaged at Taylor and Travis' wedding

Chris: No comment on Skenes/Dunne LOL

Seems like Matt answered this question above with a yes!
 
Chris D.: No. He's too busy dominating.
 
Sean: Yes!

Please feel free to give your own predictions in the comments section below, and we'll see how we did at the end of 2026!

Photos by the incredible Dave DiCello, the Pittsburgh Panthers website, Ethan Shulman of The Pitt News, and Roe Ethridge of GQ.

So High School

I have a lot of friends sending their kids off to college for the first time this fall. While I'm still several years away from this, The Moose started high school a few weeks ago. A few observations:

* I went to back-to-school night last week to meet his teachers and get a very brief introduction to each class. Although I've been to the school gym, auditorium, and athletic fields before, this was the first time I've truly walked around the school. And it's massive! No idea how the kids can get from a class on one side of the building to another class on the other side of the building in time.

* I dropped off The Moose and his friend at the team's first high school football game. This will be the first of many, many, many times that I'll drop off or pick up one of my kids at the high school over the next 9 years!

* Those of you who have known me since high school know how close I lived to the school. It was about a 5-minute walk. Now that we need to get my son to or from school for after-school activities, I know that I definitely took that for granted growing up.

* The Moose's homecoming is in two weeks, which is ridiculously early in the school year. He and some friends were talking about going to the homecoming dance and taking dates. Apparently, one friend has a date. I definitely didn't think about going to a dance as a 9th grader. That's what I  thoughtt before I sat down to write this post. As I started writing, I realized that this is not true at all. My high school was only 10th-12th grade, and I went to my homecoming dance in 10th grade, my first year at the school. I actually wrote about it. Thanks again, Doogie!

Plus, we had a 9th grade formal at the end of school year. I went with a girl who ended up leaving me for someone else in the middle of the dance. There were several of us who got dumped that evening. Not that we were dating, but it was definitely an awkward car ride when my parents (or her parents) drove us to our respective homes. Fun story: the girl who left me at the dance and the guy she left me for got married, and I believe have two kids and are still together today.

Not sure if I'm ready to be a high school parent! 

Another August 2025 Random Ramblings

I received an email a few months ago from my health insurance company about getting a "Move Kit" and participating in an exercise program. The Move Kit basically consists of a generic version of a FitBit that I wear on my wrist. It syncs up with my phone and tracks my steps. The key part of this program is that it is free, so I signed up. While I've tracked steps on my phone for years, it only works when I actually have my phone in my pocket. Since I don't carry my phone when I referee soccer games, I always wondered how many steps I take during these games. Over the weekend, I finally got the chance to try it. While I'm not completely sure of the accuracy of the device on my wrist, in three 70-minute games (one as a center referee and two as an assistant referee on the sidelines) including walking to and from my car and the restroom, I took about 15,000 steps in less than 6 hours. 

Debbie Gibson has a book coming out in a few weeks. (I've written about her before.) While I'm not willing to buy it (yet?), I put it on hold at my local library.

After four years as the Dining for Dollars chair for my kids' elementary school PTA, I'm finally out! My job was to contact restaurants to set up events where a portion of the sales would go to the PTA. It wasn't a very difficult job, but it took up more time than I wanted in coordinating dates with the restaurants, the board, getting flyers made, etc. I told the PTA president at the end of last school year that I was done but would stick around if they couldn't find anyone new. I sold it as being a great position for someone who wanted to ease into getting involved but not ready for a leadership position. Someone took the role and has ideas for the school year. More importantly, I'm out!

Well, I was due. After nearly 20 years, I received a summons for jury duty. I wrote about my very limited experience years ago near the start of my blog. Might be some new blog content later this fall! (Though not nearly as good as the TV show.)

The Moose last played organized baseball in the fall of his 6th grade year. As someone who throws with his left hand, it was at this level where he could no longer play infield positions other than 1st base. He wasn't great at first, so he mostly played outfield. Although he had/has a good arm, I'm not sure if he pitched that season. Anyway, it was at this level, where you could clearly see a distinction between players. The good players were really good. There were a few kids who hit home runs and pitchers who could really throw. I don't think The Moose had more than 1-2 hits that season (though he had a good eye and walked a lot). I mention this because he just started high school last week and announced that he wants to play on the high school team this spring. As a pitcher. Not exactly sure how this is going to go, but I wish him luck.

Dad Camp 2025

Every year, I take the week before school off to spend time with the kids. Camps are over, and they're still too young to stay home for a week by themselves, so we (meaning me) come up with ideas of things to do. I write this post annually as a reminder of what we did each year.

Monday: Costco, Miniature Golf

Errands need to get done, and this was a chance to let the kids pick snack options for lunch and after school. Plus, free samples! And it turned out not to be exactly free samples. They enjoyed both the Chobani flip yogurts (which I bought on sale) and Pickle Balls (which I bought not on sale). 

We almost always go miniature golfing during Dad Camp week. This year, we tried out Perch Putt located 11 stories up in Tysons. Thanks to Groupon for the deal.

Tuesday: Movie

Fairly low-key day. The Moose had a dentist appointment (he should get his braces off in 2 months!), and then we saw Bad Guys 2. It doesn't seem like I missed anything from not seeing the original Bad Guys movie. An unexpected surprise was hearing the voice of Alex Borstein in the film. I'm currently watching the last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and it was different hearing her not swearing! (And yes, I know Borstein has been been a voice on Family Guy for decades.)

Wednesday: Pinball Arcade

I thought this would be something different and that the kids (and I) would enjoy. While it was about 45 minutes away, we went to Jackpot Pinball Arcade in Purcellville, Virginia and played for hours. Took a break for a delicious lunch at Magnolias at the Mill. Big success. 

Oh, while it was mostly pinball games, I got the second high score on Centipede!

Thursday: Back to school day. 

The Moose had high school(!?!?) orientation in the morning, and Pedro Tulo and Luigi met their teachers in the afternoon.

Friday: Pickleball & Soccer Match

Played pickleball in the morning which is always an adventure with the three boys. The Moose thinks he's Ben Johns (a really good pickleball player) against his younger brothers. Later in the day, we attended an exhibition match between Pitt and George Mason men's soccer teams. Pitt is ranked #7 this preseason but didn't look like it in the first half with Mason taking an early 1-0 lead and Pitt not getting many chances. While I'm not sure how much or how many starters played for each team, Pitt absolutely dominated the second half and ended up winning 2-1.

Throw in a Nationals game and the pool over the weekend, and I think it's been another successful week of Dad Camp. Now, I'm excited that the kids are going back to school!

Iceland Pictures

Last week, I wrote about my experiences watching soccer in Iceland. Consider this part two of my Iceland adventures. Today, I'm sharing pictures from my trip. I know what you're thinking. Sean, you're just going to share amazing pictures and videos of waterfalls, the ocean, and puffins. You're such a tourist, Sean, posting what everyone shares when they travel to Iceland. I hear you, so instead of doing that "boring" stuff, I'm sharing random pictures of the trip.

Ranch is one of America’s greatest culinary accomplishments, so what better way to celebrate Cool America.

Gulfoss is an incredible waterfall. I could show you pictures and videos of it, but I know that you want to see that the visitor center has Heinz condiments.

Meanwhile, a food truck at the Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon has whatever this is.

While this museum (which was right around the corner from my hotel) has good reviews, it wasn't on my list of things to do. Did check out the gift shop though.

Many, many years ago, I remember being amazed by the Dyson Airblade hand dryer. Apparently, the next step in hand dryer technology is at the Keflavik Airport. It's an individualized Dyson Airblade at a sink!

Of course, I took a picture of cereal at the grocery store in Vik. Seems like Weetos is a better value than Marshmallow Mateys.

The Gruffalo has been one of my favorite books to read to the kids over the years. I saw a version in Icelandic  at a Reykjavik bookstore and really considered buying it as a gift for them, but 40 American dollars seemed a little steep for a book I probably wouldn't attempt to read more than once or twice.

I just want to share that accreditation is important.

The Sun Voyager is a well-known sculpture in Reykjavik. A picture of this landmark doesn't seem to match with the rest of this post. I'm including it here because of the woman in the picture. I waited patiently for her to make all kinds of poses in front of it until finally I decided to take a picture of her in action!

Quick story about the Yoda Cave. We drove a lot of hours the day we visited this and missed the turn to the "road" to the cave. When you miss a turn, it's miles before you can turn around since there's not just an intersection two blocks away. The road to the Yoda Cave itself was gravel and possibly the bumpiest road I've ever been on. I was really worried about potential damage to the car and needing to deal with insurance. So we finally arrived at the cave but were also getting hungry since it was late in the day and frustrated that we missed the turn. We got out, took a few pictures, and left, and I thought of  Leonard Nimoy on The Simpsons while I was there.

This is outside our first hotel room just after 3:30 AM! 

Fine. I'll share a video of puffins.

Yes, there will likely be a third Iceland post, so stay tuned!

Random Ramblings: August 2025 Edition

* My kids are home after being away at camp for three weeks. Each year, it's amazing what they bring home and don't bring home. So far, I've found several socks that don't belong to any of them and a random pillow case that belongs to someone else. Meanwhile, how did all three of them lose their camping / folding chairs?

* I averaged over 10,000 steps a day in July. It certainly helps to have two vacations in the same month! First time I've averaged that many steps in a day for an entire month since June 2022.

* I recently saw a commercial for Nemluvio, a prescription medicine to treat eczema. While I appreciate the usage of Black Box's Everybody, Everybody in the ad, replacing Everybody, Everybody with Nemluvio, Nemluvio doesn't work. It's the same amount of syllables, but it's just off. 

As a comparison, o-o-o Ozempic works perfectly. 

* It's difficult being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. As of Sunday evening, the team is 51-68. At the trade deadline, the Pirates did not trade three veterans with expiring contracts, and instead, traded other players for individuals who likely won't make the majors for several years. Understandable if the Pirates were in a "rebuild," but the team has been awful since 2018. (In 2018, the team finished with a winning record. Not in the playoffs but not awful.) While it's possible that the Pirates will finally spend money and sign free agents for 2026, based on the team's history with the owner unwilling to spend money on players, this seems unlikely.

With all of that written, the Pirates are an exemplary team compared to Sheffield Wednesday. The team has not paid players and staff on time in months, let about a dozen players leave the team (or sold the players for well-below market value), and the manager is gone. Oh, the North Stand is currently closed, deemed unsafe. The entire team is a mess. The best case scenario seems to be that the owner sells the team and maybe the team doesn't break a record for fewest points in a season and somehow avoids relegation. To dream the impossible dream!

Voting is underway through August 22nd for Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH. I love the fact that there's still a Best Blog category. There are so few blogs remaining, and this is a fantastic way to highlight blogs and bloggers. This year's finalists are: 

Ana Eats Pgh

Horrorpgh

OneBURGH

Straight Facts Podcast

What Sleeps Beneath

Ana Eats Pgh seems like a website and what she posts are reels, mostly on Facebook. Ana has good stuff and maybe you can make a case that it's a video blog. Probably a stretch though.

No idea what Horrorpgh is. I found a substack that hasn't been updated since 2023. There's a YouTube page with 8 videos, and some postings on Instagram.

Straight Facts Podcast is a podcast. It's right in the name. It seems like they have videos of their podcast on YouTube. Not a blog.

OneBURGH and What Sleeps Beneath seem like actual blogs, so please vote for one of them.

Icelandic Football / Soccer

With all three boys away at camp, we took our first vacation without kids since The Moose was only a few months old. He’s starting high school in two weeks. And even that vacation wasn’t really a vacation. I was a groomsman in my friend’s wedding, so while we had a great time, it wasn’t actually a vacation. So with the kids away and to celebrate our 20th anniversary a year late, we went to Iceland.

As you might be able to tell by the title, this post is not about the beautiful natural wonders of Iceland and our experiences traveling around the country. That will come in a future post. This is about football in Iceland which I will now refer to as soccer for the rest of the post. Sorry to anyone in Iceland reading this who prefer football to soccer. For non-sports fans, please don't click away yet. You might find this interesting. Seriously. There's Icelandic music here too!

After flying overnight, we arrived in Iceland and essentially went straight to the Blue Lagoon. Is this geothermal spa an overpriced tourist destination? Yes. Was it worth spending the money for several hours in warm, remarkably blue water? Also yes. 

From the Blue Lagoon, we checked into the hotel and took a nap. I woke up and decided to walk around the neighborhood, and almost immediately after leaving the hotel, heard crowd noise and followed the sound. What I discovered was a soccer field with hundreds of kids in the stands and a stage in the middle of the field. It turned out to be the opening ceremonies for the annual Rey Cup youth soccer tournament. There were club teams from throughout Iceland as well as Germany, the UK, Faroe Islands, and several from the United States. The opening ceremonies included a performance from Icelandic hip-hop artist Herra Hnetusmjor. 

Shifting away from soccer momentarily, I really enjoyed listening to Icelandic radio. The pop stations played a mixture of songs from musicians you would hear on any American station (Ed Sheeran, Alex Warren, Dua Lipa) as well as songs in Icelandic, and others songs in English I was unfamiliar with likely by British artists. What made it even better was I couldn't understand anything said by the DJs. Sample dialogue in Icelandic:

Something, something, something (that I couldn't understand) Natalie Imbruglia Torn. Something, something, something...

The Weather Girls It's Raining Men something, something, something...

There were two songs in Icelandic that I heard several times that I liked, so I tried to figure out the title and artist. I ended up going on a deep dive of the Icelandic Billboard chart and listening to Icelandic songs on YouTube. Justin Bieber has a new album with several songs on the chart. Our friend Herra Hnetusmjor had a song in the top 5 that had previously reached #1. Pretty cool that someone with a #1 hit played the opening ceremonies of a youth soccer tournament. I couldn't find either song I liked on the Billboard chart, but while heading to the airport, one of the two songs played on the radio, and I was able to figure out it was this:

No clue what the lyrics mean, but I like the sound. Oh, there was no editing of English song lyrics on the radio. You clearly hear Sabrina Carpenter singing swear words that do not make American radio.

Back to soccer, the opening ceremonies were right next to Iceland's national stadium. While I wasn't able to go inside, I walked around the gates. The stadium is nice, but it's also much smaller than what I think a national stadium looks like. It's not Wembley in England or Azteca in Mexico. It seems like there is a seating capacity of 9,500 which would be less than my high school football stadium, The Wolvarena.

We left Reykjavik for several days to tour the south coast of Iceland, but I knew we would have time on Sunday evening when we returned. After discovering that the National Theatre of Iceland was near the hotel, I started looking into potential shows to see and got very excited at the potential of seeing Frozen, I mean, Frost.

If I'm going to see a show where I don't understand the language, at least this is one where I know the story. Although I never did figure out the theatre's website, it seems like the show already happened and was on the website as part of the season schedule. The other option was going to a professional Icelandic soccer match. And again, it was difficult to get information. I finally figured out that Valur Rejkavik, the top team in the Besta delid karla (or Men's Best Division) had a home match about a 10-minute drive from the hotel against FH. In case you're wondering, FH is short for Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar. Since that's impossible to pronounce, I'm now referring to FH as the Fire Horses.

I struggled to find information about the game online, so I emailed the team twice to ask questions about how to buy tickets and where to park. I also commented on Valur's Instagram and Facebook posts to try to get this information. I received no responses to the emails or comments. Finally, a few hours before the match, one Valur fan sent me a message letting me know that I had to buy tickets via an app. This was extremely helpful.

About 30 minutes before the game, we arrived at the stadium and found parking to be extremely easy. There was only one entrance (which looks like the entrance to an apartment building) with no one in the ticket booth and one person watching people scan tickets to enter, or taking Icelandic krona from the few people who didn't have tickets electronically. We got tickets through the app's website and scanned my phone to get in.

I am clearly used to going to American professional sports venues. This felt more like attending a high school game. There were no assigned seats and only one of the four sides had stands. There were a few places to buy refreshment and one booth sold a limited amount of merchandise, but you come to Hlíðarendi (that's the stadium name) to watch soccer. Well, or basketball or handball since there's a large indoor court connected to the field. There's no pregame activities or halftime show. It's a soccer match. According to Wikipedia, the stadium holds 2,465 people including 1,201 in seats. I have no idea where the remaining 1,264 people would stand. I included several pictures and videos below so that you can see the stadium for yourself.

This picture makes me laugh. The kids were getting soaked by the sprinkler system. Plus, the boys wore Pepsi shirts, and Coca-Cola is clearly a stadium sponsor. Don't think placement of both Pepsi and Coke would happen at an American stadium.

Aron is on the Valur, but A-A-ron is not.

 

As for the game, Valur won 3-1. These are the highlights though without sound:

I really enjoyed going to the game. If you talk to anyone who visited Iceland, they probably went to the Blue Lagoon and stopped along the Golden Circle (again, future post). My guess is that I'm the only one who went to a Besta delid karla match!

Oh, the waffle (or vofflur in Icelandic) with cream and rhubarb jam was delicious!