Dad Camp 2023

I wrote about Dad Camp last year, so I wanted to share what we did this year along with some pictures.

Monday: Costco, Library, Swimming Pool

Not the most exciting start to Dad Camp, but there was a purpose to these activities. A local library has a summer reading program where you can earn Washington Nationals tickets. We visited the library specifically to pick up the voucher and then went to Costco where the kids were super excited that I bought a case of Prime, a new hydration drink. 

I had big plans to take the kids to a Nats game on Tuesday or Wednesday, but the tickets were only available for September games.

Tuesday: Renwick Gallery, White House

I wrote last year that I try to expose my kids to art and culture when I can, so we visited the Renwick Gallery, part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Unlike most Smithsonian museums, this one isn't on the Mall and is smaller and more intimate than its contemporaries. The kids' favorite was Janet Echelman's 1.8 Renwick, and they also really enjoyed Alicia Eggert's This Present Moment, and Bisa Butler's Don't Tread on Me, God Damn, Let's Go! - The Harlem Hellfighters among others.

When we finished at the Renwick, we walked by the White House

Wednesday: Visited My Brother's Family

We got the cousins together and went to a very cool park with a ninja course and baseball fields where we played a heated game of kickball

Thursday: Frisbee Golf, Meet The Teacher Day

On the 5th or 6th hole of the frisbee golf course, Luigi had a meltdown over not going first or not getting to use the new disc or something. Who knows? These tantrums happen sometimes but not generally in public. Fortunately, I don't think anyone else noticed. 

The Moose is starting middle school, so this was the first time he met his teachers. We walked from classroom to classroom trying to replicate his schedule which changes every other day. Big adjustment for him, but every other 7th grader is in the exact same position.

Friday: Luray Caverns, Route 11 Potato Chips

This was the big trip of the week. Luray Caverns is just cool. So many stalactites and stalagmites. Nature at its best.

(I don't think the ladder is natural.)

And after lunch, we visited the Route 11 Potato Chips factory. It's not that big, but they gave very generous samples and watching them make the chips was fun. 

Of course, my kids talked much more about the chip factory than the natural wonder millions of years in the making. 

Saturday: Loudoun United Soccer Game

They still haven't offered me the job of being the official team blogger, so I'm not going to expand on the game or anything else associated with the game.

It's going to take some work next year to top Dad Camp 2023!

My 12 Year Old Visited OnlyFans

As I was out running an errand on Wednesday, I checked my email and received the following message from Google:

Subject: OnlyFans.com now has access to The Moose's Google Account

Message: The Moose signed in to OnlyFans.com with their Google Account. OnlyFans.com now has access to some of The Moose's Google Account data, including:

* See your primary Google Account email address

* See your personal info, including any personal info you've made publicly available

* Associate you with your personal info on Google.

OnlyFans is a "subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections." While that sounds innocent enough, there's a lot of X-rated material on this site. Certainly not appropriate for a 12 year old! 

I instantly emailed my son as soon as I received the message.

The subject of the email was "What are you doing," and in my mind I sounded like Dwight from The Office.

Me: Why is onlyfans.com attached to your Gmail account.

The Moose: That's weird.

Me: What are you clicking on that you would attach to your email/Google account?

The Moose: I have no idea.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt since I really don't believe that he was searching for X-rated content. I really think he's too innocent for this. I mean, he wanted to order a "Grilled Cheese" salad for dinner last night off the "grown up" menu, and I had to tell him that it was a Grilled CHICKEN sandwich. Plus, he was in the same room as his younger brothers at the time he was online. 

I checked his browser history and did see onlyfans.com listed. I don't know why or how he even heard of it. My theory is that he was searching for some fantasy football draft advice and came across someone who was offering suggestions on their paid OnlyFans site. Just before that, he was looking at some information about a musician, and maybe he visited OnlyFans because the artist has a page. I really hope one of these two theories are accurate! 

John Daly Wears A Riverhounds Shirt

I've written various Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear posts since 2010, and today marks the first time I've ever referenced the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in one of them. On Saturday afternoon, professional golfer John Daly published the following tweet:

On the surface, this appears to be completely random. John Daly has two major championship titles with seemingly no connection to Pittsburgh and particularly the Riverhounds, the city's soccer team in the USL Championship division, a tier below Major League Soccer. However, Daly is apparently friends with Riverhounds owner Tuffy Shallenberger. Doing some internet detective work, I found this Facebook post for Suzy's Simply Delicious in Mount Pleasant, PA with a message thanking the dessert place for the unbelievable cake for the John Daly golf outing and celebrating the birthdays of Tuffy Shallenberger and his son Dylan. 

Tuffy responded to the tweet with a "Love ya, brother" message and a fist bump emoji. Oh, the Riverhounds defeated Hartford Athletic 2-0.

Go Riverhounds!

Pink

On Sunday afternoon, I started hearing reports about the high potential for severe thunderstorms with an outside chance of a tornado on Monday afternoon and evening. This was very concerning since I had tickets to see Pink at Nationals Park at that exact time. The weather reports didn't change throughout Monday. Dangerous storms. Destructive winds. Torrential rain. Frequent lightning. I'm on an email list from someone at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Center for Weather and Climate Prediction. He sends emails for possible snow storms, and Monday was the first time I ever received a message from him during the summer. As the afternoon progressed, the federal government announced that offices were closing at 3:00. Meanwhile, this is the message Nationals Park posted on social media.

With no further announcements, we decided to try to get near Nats Park before the storm arrived. We figured we could shelter in place in the underground parking garage or at a restaurant. Not ideal, but for a rain or shine event (and expensive tickets) and no updates, we figured we had to get close to the venue. While walking from the garage to the stadium, the downpour began. We were able to duck into a Cava restaurant about a block from the stadium and hunkered down for dinner. After about 30-45 in the restaurant and the rain stopped (and still no update from Nats Park), we entered the stadium. The concourses were packed since the stadium wasn't allowing people to their seats yet. We heard someone mention that Grouplove, the opening act, announced on social media that they weren't playing due to weather conditions. Again, no notice of this or anything else in the stadium or online. Finally, people were able to get to their seats, and a DJ named KidCutUp did his DJ thing (he was actually really good) before Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo played a shortened set.

As you can see from the videos in this post, there was definitely heavy rain throughout the night. I mean, it certainly seemed like the performers and most people in the audience were getting soaked. I don't actually know. Amazingly, our seats were under an overhang keeping us completely dry.

This is a very long introduction to the fact that Pink is awesome. The show is completely unlike anything I've seen before. It's a major artist playing her hits while essentially incorporating Cirque de Soleil into the act. What's amazing is that Pink still sings her songs while jumping and bouncing all over (and above) the stage. If you have a chance to see Pink live, I highly recommend that you go.

A few notes from the concert:

This was the first concert since seeing Christina Aguillera in 2000 where there were more women than men. No lines for the men's bathroom!

Speaking of bathrooms, during my first year at the Celebrate Fairfax festival, I ran into Neil Giraldo in the bathroom. I said hey as I was leaving, and he replied hey as he entered. We didn't see each other this year.

Lots of people wore pink to the concert. I don't remember many people wearing green when I saw Green Day. 

My only disappointment with the show (besides the lack of communication by Nats Park) was that Pink didn't perform U + Ur Hand. Such a good song.

Finally, while the weather wasn't as bad as predicted, don't tell that to the owner of this car in my neighborhood.

UPDATE: USA Today has a recap of the show here.

Found in My Basement: College Papers and Tax Returns

It's been several years since we did a thorough cleaning of boxes. With the older two boys away at camp, we decided to dig into some boxes which have been sitting in our storage closet for years. The best find was a gift card for $100 that we received when Pedro Tulo was born in 2014, and although the expiration date on the card expired, the funds did not, so I called the company and received a brand new card in the mail. We donated toys that my kids have outgrown and have seen better days but may still be useful for preschool-aged kids. We threw away and recycled a lot of stuff. 

As you can tell from the title of this post, I found many folders filled with college papers and tax returns. While I'm not sure how long you're supposed to keep tax returns (it seems like the answer is only 3 years), I have some dating back to my childhood. Why do I have tax returns from when I was only 10? It's not like I was working at Hills or Kmart. Anyway, all tax returns from the 20th century and the 2000s are now gone. Fun fact: I made $1,877 working as a soccer referee in 2005 or 2006. That was definitely before kids when I had a lot more time and was physically able to work multiple games on both days of a weekend. I haven't come close to making this amount in a year since then. I also found this W-2 tax statement proving that I worked at Blockbuster.

On to the college papers. Did you ever want my thoughts on Secretary of State Warren Christopher from a 1997 paper? How about a 1995 paper titled "The Unification of Germany and Its Economic Consequences?" I was quite generous with the margins and font size of this paper about NAFTA. Really needed to make sure I had enough pages!

Just one more item to share. While I wrote about being a summer intern for Congressman Mike Doyle, here is a letter of recommendation from him. Can I still use this or is there an expiration date?

Best of PGH 2023

There are many times when you watch an awards show like the Oscars or Emmys and everyone knows who is going to win in a particular category. Some nominees may hold a glimmer of hope that they might win, but they know this is unlikely and truly are honored just being nominated. That's me in the Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH 2023 in the Best Blog category. I really am honored to be nominated since I know that I won't win and don't deserve to win.

Let's go through the five nominees:

Iron City Paranormal

I wasn't familiar with this site until I saw the list of nominees. Derrick and Daniel lead a paranormal investigation and research team and write and share videos of their experiences at different sites around Western Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents

Simply put, Sue runs an important website. She's a great writer who shares experiences and stories of Pittsburgh's LGBTQ community and also spotlights horrific violent incidents particularly against transgender individuals. She's won several awards for her blog since its founding in 2005 and deserves all of them and more.

Sean's Ramblings

Hey, that's me! This blog has and always will be all over the place. I write about Pittsburgh sports, followed by a post about running a 5K with my kids, or the battle over stairs in my neighborhood. For every "serious" post about current events, there are many more that might make you question why you're reading about how I saved money at Kohl's or if you really needed to see a picture Ed Sheeran meeting Cameron Heyward.

Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet

This nomination actually bothers me. This is a website promoting a mother and daughter's podcast about magic and mythology. There are no posts on the website. A nomination in the podcast category would be appropriate but not in the blog category.

Breathing Space

You can't have a conversation about this history of Pittsburgh blogs without including Virginia Montanez. As PittGirl, she wrote the hugely influential Burgh Blog and That's Church, and there was huge speculation about the identity of the author (probably mostly from former Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who was last seen in Dark Knight Rises). Virginia now writes Breathing Space under her own name, and I look forward to receiving emails with her posts each week.

This should be the place where I tell you to go to the Best Blog category under People and Places and vote for Sean's Ramblings. If you want to vote for me, fine. However, you really should vote for Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents or Breathing Space. The quality and importance of both sites is remarkable. Sue and Virginia are such great writers and deserve to win. 

Voting runs from now until July 30th. 

(Based on the last 10 seconds or so, this video is NSFW)

2023 Pittsburgh Pirates Draft Recap

Welcome to my annual-ish Pittsburgh Pirates draft recap. While my recaps are usually light-hearted and intended to be funny, I'm going to start with an actual baseball opinion.

1st Round: Paul Skenes - P, LSU

I love this pick. If you want to win in the playoffs and get to the World Series, you need to have an elite pitcher or two. Let's look at the top pitchers for the last five World Series champions.

2022: Houston Astros - Justin Verlander (future Hall of Famer); Framber Valdez (now a 2-time All-Star in only his 6th season)

2021: Atlanta Braves - Charlie Morton (2x All-Star); Max Fried (finished top 5 for the Cy Young in 2020 and 2022). 

2020: Los Angeles Dodgers - Clayton Kershaw (future Hall of Famer); Walker Buehler (2-time All-Star); Julio Urias (Finished top 7 for Cy Young in 2021 and 2022)

2019: Washington Nationals - Max Scherzer (future Hall of Famer); Stephen Strasburg (4-time All-Star)

2018: Boston Red Sox - Chris Sale (7-time All-Star); David Price (5-time All-Star, Cy Young award winner)

You have three first-ballot Hall of Famers in this group and several others that would fall into the Hall of Really Good. While the 2021 Braves may not have had an "elite" starter, Morton and Fried are both really, really good, and Morton (7-5 record with a 3.60 ERA in 18 career playoff games) might have more playoff pitching experience than any active player.

The point I'm trying to make is that the Pirates need to have an ace. A #1 starter. A guy who can intimidate and shut down opponents. These guys aren't available very often, and the Pirates won't or can't trade for one (like the Dodgers did in 2021 for Scherzer) or sign one as a free agent (like Verlander to the Mets this season or wherever Shohei Ohtani may end up next season). Skenes could be that guy. His college stats are insane. The Pirates have to hope that his stuff translates to the majors and that Mitch Keller continues to pitch like he has the first half of the 2023 season. This could be an outstanding 1-2 combination!

Okay, that's enough "serious" baseball opinions. Now back to my usual draft recap where you'll read things you won't find anywhere else.

6th Round: Hunter Furtado - P, University of Alabama

He's like a bird, he'll only fly away.

3rd Round: Garret Forrester, 3B, Oregon State University

He could be the perfect spokesperson for Subaru. (Alternative draft recap idea: Run, Forrester, Run!) 

Competitive Balance Round B: Zander Mueth - P, Belleville East HS (Illinois)

Perfect pick for Pittsburgh. The crowd will go crazy anytime Mueth gets a strikeout. MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUETH

SEC Pitchers

Through the first 8 rounds, the Pirates drafted pitchers from LSU (Skenes), Vanderbilt (Patrick Reilly), Alabama (Furtado), Georgia (Jaden Woods), and Kentucky (Austin Strickland). It looked like the Pirates front office was trying to do the impossible. Draft pitchers from every SEC team! Unfortunately, the Pirates failed to draft anyone from any other SEC school on the third and final day of the draft. Both Magdiel Cotto (Alabama) and Garrett McMillan (Kentucky) pitched for SEC schools, but not Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc.

19th Round: Tyler Kennedy - P, Florida Southwestern State College

I'm so impressed by Kennedy. He had a successful NHL career (including winning the Stanley Cup on the Penguins in 2008-2009), got his picture taken with Taylor Swift, and now is good enough to get drafted by the Pirates. Amazing!

2nd Round: Mitch Jebb - SS, Michigan State University

With the success of Mitch Keller this season, it makes perfect sense for the Pirates to draft another Mitch. I'm a little surprised the team didn't draft a dozen players named Mitch this year.

15th Round: John Lopez - C, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy

The MLB draft tracker on MLB.com is fantastic except for one thing. Under birthplace, the website shows Lopez and anyone else born in Puerto Rico as PR. The birthplace for Skenes, Jebb, etc. are all listed as USA. Last time I checked, Puerto Rico is part of the United States, so why not the USA for Lopez too?

18th Round: Kalae Harrison - SS, NC State University

Back in the 80s, the Pirates had a AAA team in Honolulu, the Hawaii Islanders. I can't imagine the logistics involved. The Pirates couldn't have just called up a AAA reliever for a weekend series in Philadelphia. It would take way too long for the player to arrive. The Pirates had to be sure the AAA player was going to stick around for some time. I mention this because maybe the Pirates organization feels bad for abandoning baseball in Hawaii. The perfect way to make it up to the Aloha state is to draft a player from Hawaii. Done!

20th Round: Peyton Stumbo - P, University of Nevada

Cut that meat! Cut that meat!

Let's Go Bucs!

Please click here to read previous Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins draft picks over the last decade. Enjoy!

Ed Sheeran Meets Cameron Heyward

In the long and storied history of Sean's Ramblings, I've had a series about celebrities in Pittsburgh gear and Pittsburgh athletes with world-renowned athletes (or PAWRA). I write this because this particular blog post doesn't quite fit either category. On Saturday, Ed Sheeran performed at Acrisure Stadium. Based on Sheeran's love of Heinz ketchup, they really should have used the stadium's previous name of Heinz Field just for one night.

Anyway, at some point on Saturday, Steelers' Cameron Heyward and his wife Allie met Sheeran. The Heywards presented Sheeran with a special Steelers helmet featuring a Sheeran concert picture on one side. It's pretty cool.

A little disappointing there's no picture of ketchup on the helmet though.

Photos from Cam Heyward's Instagram page. The final picture includes Jim Sacco, the Vice President of Operations and Stadium Management at Acrisure Stadium.

Family 5K

I ran a 5K with The Moose and Pedro Tulo last week and decided that I should write about it. These family activities are the types of things I should write about more, so that we can read them years from now and remember our experiences together. Before I started writing, I looked back at previous blog posts to see if I already wrote about running a 5K with my kids. It turns out that I did. Sort of. Back in 2016 when The Moose was 5 and Pedro Tulo was 2, I ran a 5K and the kids stopped me in the middle of the race to say hi. This one was a little different.

This is actually the 4th race that the three of us have done together. We ran a 3K turkey trot in 2021, a 5K in summer 2022 supporting a local hospital, and a neighborhood 5K last December. This one took place on the beach in Hilton Head, South Carolina. As a little background, the three of us and several other family members were supposed to do this same race last summer. However, it poured up until two minutes before the race started, so the others bailed and only Pedro Tulo and I went through with the race. This year, it was sunny and somewhere between 80-85 during the race. (This is a "fantastic" picture of me looking into the sun right before the race began.)

The Moose ran ahead while I stayed with Pedro Tulo. We alternated running and walking and by about the two-third mark of the race, we knew who was around us. There was a woman who high-fived some teenage boys at one point and they excitedly replied "Go Grandma." There was another family near us too with the mom slightly trailing her husband and child. I whispered to Pedro Tulo that we needed to pass them. With about a 1/4 mile to go and Pedro Tulo walking more than running, I decided to leave him and started to make my move. I passed the grandmother who turned out to be 61. I blew past the mom and her 7 year-old girl. I then noticed a tall woman who was slightly ahead of me trying to keep pace with me as I passed her. She had no chance. I was like Usain Bolt down the stretch! 

According to the final standings, I also went by another 10 year-old kid right before the finish line, but I don't remember that. Somehow, I finished 30 seconds before Pedro Tulo, but there were 7 other runners between us. The big story is that Pedro Tulo improved his time from 45:30 last year to 37:53 this year. That's a huge improvement!

Meanwhile, although Luigi finished several minutes before us, it turns out that he didn't run the complete course. He saw his uncle and wanted to run with/near him and didn't reach the second turnaround. (This is my attempt at creating the course map.)

Overall, despite having a sore ankle for several days after the race, it was a fun run. I enjoy having these shared family athletic experiences and running with Pedro Tulo. I fully expect him to have a better time than me for any 5K we run next year.

Who Gets Invited to Kenny Pickett's Wedding?

As seen everywhere on Pittsburgh Steelers fan sites and social media, quarterback Kenny Pickett got married over the weekend. Congratulations to Kenny and his bride Amy! Kenny Pickett signed a contract for $14 million including a $7 million signing bonus, so money probably wasn't an issue for his nuptials and reception. For the sake of this blog post though, let’s say that the Picketts had a generous though not unlimited budget. So who in the Steelers organization makes the guest list? Full disclosure: It’s very possible that the wedding guest list was posted online, but I haven’t seen it and don’t plan on searching for it. This post is all about speculation.

A starting NFL quarterback is generally considered the leader of the team. As a team leader, Pickett may have wanted to include as many members of the team at the wedding as possible. I think it would have made perfect sense to invite the entire Steelers offensive line. You want them to be on your good side. However, did Pickett include offensive tackle Broderick Jones, the first round draft pick from the University of Georgia who just signed his rookie contract last week? Probably not since invitations likely went out before the April 2023 NFL draft. What about the coaching staff? I feel like it would be a big deal if Pickett didn't invite coach Mike Tomlin or offensive coordinator Matt Canada. 

What about the rest of the team? Maybe Pickett decided that he would only invite veteran offensive players. If that's the case, do you have to invite both sets of Watt and Heyward brothers? Seems like you would want to have Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt at your wedding, but if you invite them, you have to include Minkah Fitzpatrick, Tyson Alualu, etc. The numbers on this guest list are going to add up quickly.

So who would you include or who misses the cut?

Photo by John Bacolo - Gabelli Studio and shared in People Magazine. (The money from People Magazine to have access to these pictures could likely pay for several additional tables at the wedding!)

Sean: A Professional Journalist?

Although I'm not a professional journalist, I like to think that I abide by journalistic standards, I'm not just going to write a blog post to spread unconfirmed rumors or gossip.* I give credit when quoting other articles or using photos taken by someone else. Sure, I received a cease and desist notice from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette years ago for using one of their photos, but I did give the photographer and newspaper credit before removing the picture from my blog.

I mention this because I entered the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists' annual journalism contest earlier this year in the blog/online news category. The general guidelines state that work entered must be of local interest or about the workings of Washington, D.C. and the greater DC metro region. Since I write about a wide variety of topics, including many about Pittsburgh, I entered my May 2022 post about the end of the Celebrate Fairfax festival, which was the largest annual festival in Northern Virginia but is now extinct.

SPJ announced the winners at the recent Dateline Awards held at the National Press Club. Since I was not one of the three finalists, I did not attend the ceremony/dinner. I later learned that the winner was WTOP.com. Although I knew that I entered a category in an open division, to quote John McEnroe, YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!

WTOP is a radio station and institution in DC. The station delivers local news and gives traffic and weather updates every 10 minutes 24/7. The website is a companion to the radio station and probably has dozens of employees between writers, editors, photographers, web designers, marketing staff, and more. How can Sean's Ramblings compete with that? The answer: it can't. 

It was nice thinking that I could be in the same category and room as professional journalists, but I guess I really haven't reached that level. Yet. Now if I can just get a media pass to a Washington Nationals game or the Oscars or Emmys, maybe one day I could be considered a professional journalist. 

* Please don't look at my previous 3,300 blog posts to see if this is accurate. If I did write a post spreading unconfirmed rumors, it was probably in an attempt to be funny and was not intended to be serious.

My Kohl's Victory

I visited Kohl's recently and purchased a short-sleeve button-down shirt for $24 and a pair of shorts for $29.99. Not the most exciting thing you'll read online today, but I rarely buy clothes, and these purchases made sense. Later that day, I received a 20% off coupon in the mail from Kohl's. Between the coupon and my wife not being a fan of the shirt I bought (I already had one that looks similar), I went back to Kohl's a few days later and returned both the shirt and shorts. I then repurchased the shorts, which were on sale for a lower price. With the 20% coupon, the cost of the shorts was $19.99, a savings of $10 in only a few days. I then bought a nice "dress shirt," something I badly need since some of my long-sleeve button-down shirts are older than my recent 6th grade graduate, for $27.99.

The total was $47.98 before tax, and Kohl's had a promotion where you get $10 Kohl's cash for every $50 spent. I went back through the store trying to find something useful for slightly more than $2. It was like going shopping on Wheel of Fortune. (Why did they always have ceramic animals?)

I found a bath towel for $3.99 (after the 20% off coupon) and earned the $10 Kohl's cash. So now, I have a new pair of shorts for $10 less than originally purchased, a new towel, a new shirt, and $10 off our next Kohl's trip, which will be soon to get clothes for the kids for camp. Good job, me!

Friday Video: River Iris

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is The Tony Kornheiser Show. As a former Washington Post columnist and co-host of ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, much of the show is about sports, but Tony also discusses random things about his life and in the Washington DC area. The podcast also features original music, and a recent episode included Passenger Seat by River Iris. I love the guitar riff that starts the song. Just a great song to listen to while driving! 

Friday Video: 6 Underground

I went down a rabbit hole on YouTube recently of 90s alternative songs with female lead singers. There are some really amazing songs that definitely take me back. 6 Underground, this smash by Sneaker Pimps, has been in my head for weeks, so I thought I would share it today. 

Don't think 'cos I understand, I care.

And with that, enjoy your weekend!

Neighborhood News

This is somewhat of a follow-up blog post. Several months ago, I complained about my community management company announcing the removal of steps in my neighborhood. Although several of us tried to fight it, we failed. Apparently, the stairs were a liability issue and too expensive to fix to bring up to code. So instead of doing nothing, our community is going to have to pay somewhere around $2000 (though I don't know the exact cost) for the removal of the stairs and the addition of more mulch and plants. I really hope we have money in the budget for this since I don’t want our fees going up next year. Here are the steps before and now without the steps.

I guess it looks nice, but I’d rather have stairs. While the stairs were removed last week, we had a bigger issue a few days ago. Between 9:00 and 10:00 AM someone broke into two cars right near where the stairs used to end on the main street. There were several other break-ins around the same time in the neighborhood too. Very surprising that this occurred so brazenly in the middle of the day since there are almost always cars driving by and people walking.

I really want to blame the neighborhood management company for this. Maybe the person/people who broke into the cars wouldn't have done this if they saw the awkward stairs rather than the nice new mulch and plants! 

James Madison-Oakton Playoff Baseball

The Moose arrived home from elementary school recently and said that he wanted to attend a high school baseball game later that evening. We had nothing scheduled, so I took my three boys to a quick fast-food dinner and then their first high school baseball game. Guys night out!

This was a regional semifinal game between James Madison High School (21-4) and Oakton High School (16-8) located less than 1.5 miles away from each other. The place was packed since it was a playoff game between two rival schools. The limited bleachers at James Madison HS were full when we arrived, so we watched the game standing against the fence where the third base line met left field. Well, I watched the game as the kids played various football and baseball games with some of The Moose's friends in the huge grassy area adjacent to the field. 

I should probably mention that one of the attractions of the game was James Madison pitcher/first baseman Bryce Eldridge. In separate mock MLB drafts over the last few weeks, Keith Law of The Athletic projects the Baltimore Orioles to select Eldridge #17 overall while Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com (who apparently used to play basketball with my brother) has him going to the San Diego Padres at #25. It definitely appears that Eldridge will go in the first round, so seeing someone play before they are potentially a star was intriguing. Of course, it turns out that Eldridge didn't pitch in the game, and Oakton elected to intentionally walk him for all four plate appearances. More on this momentarily.

In preparation of writing this blog post, I searched online for a recap of the game. Some type of news article or a blog post. I came up with absolutely nothing except for this recap from the GameChanger app, which is clearly auto-generated. I guess I'll give a mini summary of the game. Tied 1-1 after 5 innings, Oakton scored 5 runs in the top of the 6th. While I might be wrong on the specifics, I believe that Oakton retired the first Madison batter in the bottom of the 6th before intentionally walking Eldridge. This makes no sense to me. Yes, Eldridge is the best player on the field, but the worst-case scenario is that he hits a solo home run. Maybe you think there's a 75% chance that he'll get on base, but that's still a 25% chance that he gets out. Of course, Eldridge came around to score and Madison ended up putting up 4 runs after a series of hits and errors. Then, down 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th (the last inning), Madison scored two runs including the walk-off hit batter which GameChanger described in great detail with multiple quotes from managers and players. A little local journalism would have been nice.

The highlight for the kids was the chance to meet Eldridge after the game. He stuck around on the field and was gracious in signing autographs for kids while he probably would have preferred celebrating the win with his teammates, family, and friends. I'm now definitely rooting for him, and my kids are too.

Once again, I show that I'm terrible at writing blog posts titles. There are probably countless options better than the one here.

Random Ramblings

* I was the assistant coach for Pedro Tulo’s soccer team in fall 2021. I recently worked as a referee where one of his teammates from that team played. I believe that this was the first time that I was a referee for a kid that I coached. The kid definitely didn’t recognize me, but he played an extremely solid game, so I feel like I deserve some credit for this!

* I think I found my calling: being a soccer coach for 5 year-old kids. I really enjoy coaching Luigi's soccer team. It's a half hour of various "practice" activities followed by 30 minutes of either 2v2 or 3v3 games against another team. There are no other practices during the week, and an hour total (followed by snacks) is the perfect amount of time for them. They don't have the attention or focus for more than this. I try to make all the activities fun. For example, there's a game called "Ouch" where they try to kick the soccer ball at me and if they're successful in hitting me, I say ouch. Red Light, Green Light is also a big hit, especially since we're not using Squid Game rules. That probably wouldn't go over well!

* I donated blood on Sunday and feel like a superhero!

* Later on Sunday, I opened a porta potty during Pedro Tulo’s track practice, and there was a bird inside. I held the door open, and the bird flew out after several seconds. While I have no idea how the bird got in there, and I was definitely startled when I first saw the bird flying around, I felt like a superhero again!

* I entered one of my blog posts into a writing contest for Washington DC area journalists. The information states that finalists would be notified by the second week of May. Today is May 23rd, so it seems like I didn’t make the cut..

* Ithaca College publishes the ICView Magazine several times per year geared towards alumni, students, staff and faculty and basically anyone already involved in the community. My goal is to get into ICVIew someday though I don't think there's anything interesting about me that would make for an interesting article. Being a soccer coach for 5 year olds probably doesn't qualify.

* Finally, in less than 24 hours, I heard Never Let You Go by Third Eye Blind on a commercial and while grocery shopping. While I could view this as an "I'm so old" moment, I'll be positive and share that I'm happy that the band is still making money off of a 23 year-old song. Still a great song too!

Sheffield Wednesday Wins Greatest Comeback in EFL Playoff History

I don't write about Sheffield Wednesday very often. While I watch highlight videos, follow Twitter for updates during games, and listen to the Owls Americast podcast, I haven't watched a live Wednesday game in about a year. That changed over the last week as I watched two Wednesday-Peterborough United playoff matches.

A quick summary of English football for those who don't follow. You know what, I'll let the first episode of Welcome to Wrexham explain. (Warning: One bad word in the video.)

Sheffield Wednesday has been around since 1867 with a long history of playing in England's top league. They were actually a founding member of the Premier League in 1992 but got relegated after the 1999-2000 season. That's when I was first introduced to the team though I probably didn't start following them closely until about a decade ago. Wednesday haven't been to the Premier League since 2000 and were relegated from the Championship division to League One (the third division) following the 2020-2021 season. The way English Football works is that the top two teams during the season earn an automatic promotion. Then, the teams finishing 3rd through 6th compete in the playoffs with the winner also going up. Wednesday finished 3rd this season meaning that they played a two-game series against 6th place Peterborough United. Peterborough won the first game last Friday 4-0 in an awful game. So to advance to the final at Wembley Stadium for a chance to move up to Championship League, all Sheffield Wednesday had to do was come back from a four-goal deficit. No team had ever been down more than two goals after the first leg and advanced, but to quote Jim Carrey, so you're telling me there's a chance. 

And then this happened:

Incredible. I don't think I've been this excited about a game and celebrated so much after a goal (in this case Liam Palmer's goal at the end of regulation) since the US-Algeria 2010 World Cup match.

I should probably mention that I almost predicted the result. I published this tweet several hours before the game.

When Peterborough scored in extra time, I figured, yeah, this is just like Wednesday. Get our hopes up and lose in the worst way possible. Fortunately, the team came through and won an amazing game.

Now, Wednesday will play at Wembley Stadium at 10:00 AM Eastern time on Memorial Day. I'll be watching!

Here's a little more about the game from the BBC and ESPN. Sheffield Wednesday also posted an extended video of highlights of the match. I may watch this all weekend long!

Campout Lockout

I recently celebrated my birthday by going on a Cub Scouts camping trip with Pedro Tulo. If I got to choose what I wanted to do on my birthday, attending a rainy campout and sleeping on the ground inside a tent probably wouldn't make my top 10. Or top 100. As I wrote in the fall, camping really isn't my thing. My son likes his Cub Scout pack, and everyone is nice and helpful, which is fantastic as I have very little to offer in terms of cooking, setting up a tent, etc.

On Saturday night, the rain finally stopped and the activities (and smores) concluded, so it was time to settle down for the night. Pedro Tulo and a friend ran ahead to use the campground restrooms. The campground has about 6-8 individual restrooms with sinks and showers. While I feel like most of the people with RVs don't necessarily need showers, they are nice if you just show up with a car and a tent. You can also get away from the dozens of Scouts for a minute or two to use the restroom in peace. 

Anyway, I found Pedro Tulo as he finished brushing his teeth, and I took his restroom after he departed. I placed my things down and apparently locked the door while I held it open. I hoped that Pedro Tulo would wait for me, but he decided that he wanted to head back by himself without a flashlight. As I tried to convince him to wait a few minutes to walk back with me, the door closed behind me. I attempted to open the restroom, but I managed to lock myself out. Not great, Bob.

Here are the items stuck inside the restroom: A lantern, a towel, my toothbrush, toothpaste, my contact lens case, contact lens solution, and my multifocal prescription glasses that I just bought last fall. Some other scouts/parents we knew tried to reopen the door by using a library card. (I didn't want to mess up a credit card.) That didn't work, so we went back to the campsite and found one of the scout leaders. I left Pedro Tulo with some friends, and a scout leader and I found the campground hosts.I was not familiar with the campground host position. Apparently, you get to stay at the campsite for free (and some places offer a small salary) in exchange for greeting and assisting campers, performing janitorial duties, and being available for late night emergencies. In my case, it was a 9:00PM emergency. I had another flashlight in the tent, and I could skip brushing my teeth, but I kind of needed my glasses.

The first host didn't have extra restroom keys, so he found the second host. This host had keys, which worked on the other bathroom doors but not at the one with my stuff. I found out later that some teenagers damaged the door last fall by setting fire to toilet paper in the bathroom. If I ever get a bill for my kids causing damage by lighting toilet paper on fire, they're going to be grounded for a year. The park replaced the door, but the master key didn't work on this particular bathroom. Despite being an amateur locksmith (I'm not sure I want to know what that means, but I'm picturing an Ocean's Eleven heist), the host could not open the door. The only option was to wait for park staff the next morning. I went back to our tent and went to sleep wearing my contacts.

That's pretty much the end of the story. I found park staff early Sunday morning, and his keys didn't work either. Fortunately, he called one of the managers on site and did have a key. I guess that Pedro Tulo and I helped the staff and campground hosts learn that they need a new key for the one particular bathroom.

Goodbye Ziggy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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