Monday, April 1, 2013
Well, I admit, despite my assertions that I was fulfilled by KU’s accomplishments coming into the NCAA tournament and would not sweat their performance, I could not avoid my compulsory 24 hours of sadness after their meltdown late Friday night. The endless replaying of the last 2:00 of regulation and the final moments of overtime. The questioning of decisions by players on the court and by Bill Self on the bench.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Here’s what I wrote about KU after their second game of the season back in November: I think this team will be quite good before all is said and done. They’ll get through those rough patches and have a high seed in March. And then it will all come down to who they play…That doesn’t mean they can’t play deep into March or provide a bunch of special memories. But it does mean that despite the various prognosticators who are putting them in the Final Four, I see this as a year where getting to Atlanta is just out of reach.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Happy spring! We are home, safe and sound, and the girls are back in school again. Wait. They’re not. We have seven inches of snow and, I believe for the first time since we started at St. P’s, school has been cancelled. It’s the endless spring break! Whoo hoo!1 What a weird thing, to go from the beach/pool on Friday to putting the snow clothes on and throwing snow balls on Monday.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Well, it’s raining again. But it’s only 9:00 and today it looks like the storms are going to blow through in the next couple hours. But, man, yesterday was about perfect. Right around 80, overcast until noon when everything blew away, and we then had perfect Florida skies all afternoon. We did a shell walk in the morning. We watched the sun set from Sunset Beach in the evening.1 And in-between we spent most of the day in the pools.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
A lazy morning here on the island, so I’ll share a few details of our trip so far to keep me from having to write 5000 words about it when we get home. Of course, I may end up writing more than that this way, but that’s your gain! Ok, the drives down were uneventful. Sure, everyone was cranky by the end of each day, but there were no major issues.
Friday, March 15, 2013
We are off. To Florida. Again. I know. We are spoiled rotten, and our daughters are going to grow up to be contemptuous brats that complain because they’ve been pamered their entire lives. I mean, who goes to Florida twice in two months? It was an unexpected combination of factors that has us well on the way to Captiva Island by the time you are reading this. We felt a little silly going south for spring break when we were just at Disney.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Those Catholics know how to do timing. I was sitting in the parking lot at St. P’s Wednesday, waiting for dismissal, when suddenly the skies opened up and what had been light flurries turned into thick, white flakes that cut visibility and quickly covered windshields. It only lasted a minute or so, but as those big flakes fell, I couldn’t help but think that they looked like white smoke blowing across the parking lot.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
One of the greatest things about YouTube are the people who take old sporting events, chop them up into 10-15 minute versions, and post them for the world’s viewing pleasure. There’s a guy who does a bunch of KU games, and last week I spent an hour or so watching a few condensed, classic games. The one I paid most attention to was a game from December 1993, when Indiana came to Lawrence for a much-anticipated game that ended up being one of the best games I’ve ever seen in person.
Monday, March 11, 2013
It seems there is angst amongst a segment of KU fans today. Some, it seems, are over-looking another Big 12 title because A) the Jayhawks went to Waco and got worked over Saturday and B) they now have to share the Big 12 title with Kansas State. Stop. It’s not the first time KU has been blown out in their final game of the regular season during this nine-year run. And it’s not the first time they’ve had to share the title.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Another rumored major snow event in central Indiana was a bust. Such as been the norm in the winter of 2012-13. We got 4-5" overnight, less than the 6-9" that had been predicted, turning Wednesday into a two-hour delay for the girls rather than a real snow day. They were disappointed when we told them they just had to hang out and play inside for a few hours and then head to school.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I’ve meant to get to my rankings of this year’s TV shows for awhile. But a DVR snafu forced me to wait to see the second episode of “The Americans” until this past weekend. With that finally knocked out, though, I can get to it. Keep in mind, I watch approximately five shows, so making the top five isn’t necessarily a sign of quality. It’s a sign that I pay attention to that program.
Monday, March 4, 2013
My basketball season came to a quick, inglorious end last week. None of our seven teams advanced from sectionals, with four losing in what were at least mild upsets. At one point it looked like I would cover a minimum of three post-season games, including a regional contest next week. But, thanks to all the upsets, I ended up with only one game. But at least that was a good game.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sunday I was finishing up my story on the state swimming meet at my desk. Around the corner, I heard C. reading a book to S.. It didn’t register at first, but soon I stopped writing and paused to listen closer. C. wasn’t slowly picking out sight words or reading some book for early readers that mixes pictures and words. She was working her way through “The Giving Tree” at a solid pace, hardly slipping up on any words.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
One of the many differences between being a fan and being a player is that, as a fan, we can give up. We can suspend hope in the face of compelling evidence. We can look at the clock and the score, sigh and say, “It just wasn’t our night.” Or look at the conference standings and the up-coming schedule and think, “This isn’t our year.” But players don’t have that freedom.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Some various and sundry notes about the weekend past. I covered the boys high school state championship this weekend. As always, it was something else. The event itself is kind of tedious, especially when I only had one swimmer, who was in the finals of two events, to write about. Watching the crowd is the best. I believe I’ve written about it each time I’ve covered a swim meet, but the parents, coaches, and students in the crowd are absolutely nuts.
Friday, February 22, 2013
You would think, as much as I love music, that I would have some sweet set-up for listening to my tunes. A nice stereo receiver/amp with kick ass speakers and some high end headphones for use when I couldn’t crank it up to 11 You would be wrong Since going fully digital about a decade ago, I’ve relied on pretty modest listening hardware. Most of my music has poured from speakers hooked up to my rotating cast of Macs.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Telegraph Avenue: A Novel - Michael Chabon. Chabon has an impossible task. His The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is one of my all-time favorite books. I was very eager to read this, his most recent novel. But it’s hard not to want it to be as good, as powerful, and beautiful as Kavalier and Clay. And since it wasn’t, it feels like a disappointment despite being a very good book.
Friday, February 15, 2013
I’m the dickhead in the kitchen Pouring wine in your best girl’s glass With that, the first line of the lovely opening track (“Acts Of Man”) to Frightened Rabbit’s new album Pedestrian Verse, lead singer Scott Hutchison sets the stage for another epic album of wallowing in sorrow, guilt, and misery. For three verses he offers a litany of the romantic failings of men, sprinkling the mini-chorus of “Not here, not here, heroic acts of man,” between them.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
It is winter, which means we spend a lot of time in our basement where it is warmer and less drafty than our family room. I, especially, tend to head down there in the evenings to watch TV, read, and relax after the girls have gone to bed. Recently M. let me know she was keeping tabs on me. “Dad, I know what you do in the basement at night,” she said, cheerfully but with a hint of accusation.
Monday, February 11, 2013
It’s been a busy two weeks out on the road. I’ve covered three girls basketball games, a boys game, and the girls state swimming championships. Oh, and there was the night I drove into the ice storm. Some notes. Saturday I covered a girls sectional championship game. It was IHS, which features the best player in the county who dropped 40 the last time I had them, going for their second sectional title in three years.
Friday, February 8, 2013
I was in Bloomington covering a high school basketball game Thursday night. By the time I did my interview, wrote, and filed my story, moderate rains had moved through B-town. To get back to the highway, I had to drive the main north-south street that runs through downtown. Along the way, one car pulled out in front of me then stopped, blocking my lane. Moments later another car slammed on its brakes when its attempt to make a left turn was blocked by a car straddling the center line.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Man. I mean seriously. WTF. OK, that’s the extent of my KU freakout. I laughed at people who were jumping off figurative ledges after the Jayhawks' home court winning streak came to an end Saturday against Oklahoma State. OSU was exactly the kind of team this year’s KU team should have fits with: more athletic at almost every position on the court. Forget the last month of pedestrian basketball by KU.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
We were invited to attend Monday’s Indiana Pacers - Chicago Bulls game by friends. They got tickets from a business associate that had messed up an important transaction at an especially inopportune time. Thus, we enjoyed a fine NBA game from the comfort of row six behind the Pacers bench. Row one is the seats that are on the court, equally close to the action as the bench. Rows two and three are actually the aisle behind the bench.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Some delayed, assorted thoughts from what was a pretty super Super Bowl. I struggled with which team to pull for. I much prefer John Harbaugh to Jim. But the Ravens have Ray Lewis. I admire Joe Flacco but am in awe of Colin Kaepernick. San Francisco is one of my favorite places in the world. But The Wire took place in Baltimore. So many factors. In the end I went with my pick and leaned Niners.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Last year at this time we were enjoying a perfect mid-winter week in Indianapolis. The temperature was in the mid-40s to low 50s all week, it was dry, and the hordes who had descended upon the city delighted in their Super Bowl week experiences. As I type this as 2:18 pm on February 1, 2013 the windchill is a brisk 5°. It snowed yesterday and last night. There was a massive pileup on one local interstate yesterday.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Book-ending our vacation were L.’s first two birthday parties that were her own. She’d been to several parties over the years, but always because she was the third sister, not because it was the party of someone her age. So she was awfully excited about these two gatherings. It was funny to watch her. As one of the two or three oldest kids in her class, and a third sister, she is one of the ringleaders for all class activities.
Monday, January 28, 2013
We haven’t taken a ton of family vacations over the years. But when we have we’ve always been fortunate to have safe travels and good times at our destination. Our luck held up once again and we had a fantastic time last week on our first (and still expected to be last) trip to Disney World. I’ll do my best to sum up the week without forcing you to read for half an hour.
Monday, January 21, 2013
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to let it rip: we’re going to Disney World tomorrow. I didn’t go when I was a kid. My parents were never in position to afford it when I was little. And I wasn’t ever into anything Disney. In fact, the contrarian streak in my personality could probably be traced back to my early loathing of Mickey and the rest of the Disney gang.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
So there I was, putting my final touches on my ode to Ben McLemore when a quick check of Twitter revealed that the sports news world was exploding. There have been some crazy sports stories over the years, hell even in the last couple weeks,1 but good freaking lord, this Manti Teo thing just blows them all away. I pride myself in avoiding stories that are more celebrity gossip than real sports news but man, I am all in on this one!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Some updates from the field. My last three games, going back to the week of Christmas, have all been interesting and each related to the same school, IHS. First I had their boys playing the #1 team in Class 3A. IHS fell behind 11-0 in the first 90 seconds and I was sure it was going to be just another blowout. IHS righted the ship, though, and got it down to four points before halftime.