A few things happened either before or while we were traveling that deserve a few words.

Youth Sports

The Friday before we left, St P’s had an assembly for the two girls basketball teams that made it to the City finals including L’s team. She still refused to hold the trophy. I laughed. It was a nice way to end the season.

That was also Semi State Friday for Indiana football, featuring Cathedral’s rematch with Center Grove. The windchill was in the 20s, it was snowing for much of the game, and we had shit to do to get ready for our trip, so I stayed home and listened on the radio. M still went. She said it was the last game of her high school career, since she would miss the potential state championship game, so she felt an obligation to go. I appreciated the dedication. She also said she might only stay for part of the game because of the weather.

CHS jumped out to a 10–0 lead after two possessions and seemed to be firmly in control. Then they gave up 33 straight points. Yeesh. 33–10 final.

M ended up staying for the entire game. I had coached her two weeks earlier on how to interact with her boyfriend if/when the Irish lost. She was way ahead of me. “Oh, none of us are going down on the field if we lose. It will be bad.” I think she and the other girlfriends indeed stayed away from the players after the ass-kicking was complete. She refused to even look at his messages after she got home because she was sure they would make her cry.

So 10–2 playing two levels up from their natural class with a crappy offensive line that forced their stud QB to scramble for his life all year. Not too bad, but it sucks to go out that way. CHS loses several important players – three of them are Power 5 recruits – and will stay in 6A for at least three more years. So M might have had the best run anyone in our family will have with a regional loss, two state titles, and a semi state loss.

KU Football

I saw a few moments of Texas’ destruction of KU while we were eating at O’Hare. That was the most predictable result of the season. Texas had been hearing for a year about losing to KU last November, in contexts that often had nothing to do with football. Not sure even if KU had been completely healthy they had a chance in that game.

Last weekend I went to bed knowing KU was already down two scores to K-State. Didn’t seem like a game to fall asleep on the couch to. From a summary podcast I listened to sounds like it wasn’t a total destruction and the margin, once again, largely due to self-inflicted errors. Now three weeks or so to get healthy for a bowl game.

The big KU football news came mid-week when KU announced a contract extension for Lance Leipold. That was huge news. Sure, the bloom is off the rose a bit by going 1–6 after starting 5–0. But the most optimistic predictions for this year had the team winning four games. The Vegas over/under was 1.5. Leipold got them to six wins and a bowl game, something that might have been on the table next year for the sunniest of KU fans.

When the final contract was announced this week there were a few interesting notes. The buyout is pretty manageable for any bigger program that really wants him. From Twitter I gather there was some mocking of the clauses that allow Leipold to opt out if the construction projects on the stadium and practice facilities don’t begin by a specific date next year. To me those were pure window dressing, another sign that these projects are, indeed, finally happening.

There’s still a lot of work to do. The defense fell apart over the last two months and needs a lot of help, perhaps even a new scheme. The schedule is a little tougher next year, with Illinois replacing Duke.

You would think most of the big names would return with Lance guaranteed to be their coach, but you never know these days. Jalon Daniels is the big key. He seems like a kid who loves KU and playing for Andy Kotelnicki. NIL can change that in an instant.

For programs like KU the big carrot of a bowl game isn’t just the chance to play an extra game but also that extra month of practice you get. Between that and hopefully another good year in the transfer portal, the chance is there for Leipold to really begin to build something next season.

I know, I know. KU football fans should never get their hopes up. I’d like to think times have finally changed.

KU Hoops

I didn’t see a minute of the Bahamas games. Because of time zone weirdness I was awake for a couple of them. But I was in Italy, for crying out loud, and these were games in November. I was not going out of my way to find them.

Getting humbled by Tennessee sucks, but the Vols currently have the best defense in the country, and KU is too reliant on Jalen Wilson at the moment. I’m not going to get too concerned yet. It would be nice if we figured things out before December 17 when Indiana comes to Lawrence.

MJ Rice breaking out Monday night was a nice bonus.

Higher Education

L got her acceptance into Cathedral last Tuesday. No surprise but it was still fun. Her Golden Ticket package was in the mail when we got home; this year the gift was long Irish socks. We get to go pick up her Class of 2027 shirt and yard sign next week.

M also got a message that she has been granted direct admission to IU’s honors college. She was surprised by that since she didn’t think she had even checked a box on her application that she was interested in the program. She’s a little torn on that path. She doesn’t want to take all honors courses in college as she’s only taken one or two per semester in high school. And she doesn’t want to live in the honors dorm but with the “regular” population. We have friends who have a freshman in the honors college and we told M to reach out to her and get her perspective before she made any decisions.

Holidays

I did not listen to any Christmas music until we got home. In fact, as we were leaving the parking garage at O’Hare M said, “Once we get on the road, can you find some Christmas music?” That’s my kid.

We got a jump start on our holiday decorating. We put up some of the inside decorations a week before we left. I put lights on two trees three weeks ago and planned on not turning them on until right before we left. When he had that snowstorm a couple weeks back it seemed like the right time to flip the switch on those. And we decided to go ahead and put up our tree over a few nights the week before we left. S said there was no way she would have the energy to do it upon our return. I was good with that plan.

Oh, and I watched the Cheers “Thanksgiving Orphans” episode that Friday before we left. After 36 years it remains the greatest 22 minutes of televised comedy ever.

Wednesday we had our belated, mini Thanksgiving dinner. Based on requests from the family, I made green bean casserole, Giada’s dressing, corn soufflé, and sweet potato casserole. My plan was to smoke a turkey breast. Which I tried to do. But since the windchills never got out of the 20s yesterday, the bird wasn’t close to done at meal time. We waited half and hour and it still wasn’t ready. So I let it keep smoking and dinner was just sides. Which isn’t a bad thing. Once the turkey came off it was really tasty, so leftovers should be good tonight.