D's Notebook

Tag: parenting (Page 8 of 72)

New Year’s Weekend Notes

January 3, 2023 /

Our holidays come to an end today. M and C go back to class tomorrow, although CHS is once again having a two-week J term filled with electives, so they don’t have “real” school for awhile. L has another week off but I will still have to start setting an alarm to make sure her sisters are awake tomorrow.

A rundown of how we ended 2022 and began 2023.

New Year’s Eve/The New Year

Our postponed Christmas Eve family gathering was rescheduled for this night. It was big, loud, a little crazy, but fun. It helped that it was about 50 degrees warmer than it had been a week earlier.

We were back at our house around 9:00 – except for M and C who went to friends’ homes to celebrate – played a couple games before L and her cousin and S and her sister petered out around 10:30. I stayed up to watch football (more on that below).

New Year’s Day was uneventful. Monday morning we woke to heavy fog and five deer milling about in our back yard. One of those fuckers got a little too close to our pool. That’s all we needed to start the year: a deer falling through the cover, tearing up the pool liner, and probably having to call for assistance to get its dumb ass out.

Our youngest nephew turned three Monday, and his family stopped by for birthday cupcakes.

In the evening the seven of us did an escape room thing. It was my first time doing one. A little weird, especially since we had one kid (take a guess which) being a little bossy and uncooperative. But we made it out with 13 minutes to spare.

My sister-in-law and niece were supposed to fly back to Denver around 10. Their plane was also coming from Denver and kept getting delayed because of the weather out there. It finally took off two hours late. I dropped them at IND around 11:45. Looks like they made it home after 2:30 Denver time. I bet it was fun to clear the snow from their car at that hour.

Our drive to the airport was very weird. We were again under a thick layer of fog. Moments after dropping them off a big storm rolled in. I spent about the first 15 minutes of my drive home on the interstate going no faster than 40 mph with my wipers on high and hazards flashing. There was intense, bright, blinding lightning that was a lot of fun when I was already struggling to see the road. Fortunately there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic at midnight on a Tuesday morning, and I made it home safely.

With family visiting we didn’t get to taking down the Christmas decorations yet. I’ll pull the plug on the outdoor lights today and take them down if the rain clears out. But the inside tree will probably stay up until either Thursday, S’s home admin day, or next weekend. Don’t worry: the Christmas music was retired on Christmas Day!

KU Hoops

What a stupid, wonderful, infuriating, magnificent beginning to the Jayhawks’ Big 12 season. Playing like absolute dogs in the first half and letting a mediocre-shooting Oklahoma State squad light them up from outside to go down by 15 at the half. Followed by a brilliant eight minutes or so to eliminate that deficit and leave us with 12 minutes of knock-down, drag-out basketball that was probably a pretty good teaser for how this Big 12 season will be.

It was the third time in the 2022 calendar year that KU came back from 15 or more down at halftime. I guess they knew the football team came up just short Tuesday and needed to lock in one, last crazy comeback for the year.

Looking back, in 2022 KU hammered Villanova in the Final Four, beat North Carolina for the national championship, came back and beat Duke in the Champions Classic, destroyed what has turned out to be a pretty damn good Missouri team, hammered Indiana, and then had the two mega comebacks against Kansas State in November and Oklahoma State on Saturday. I saw a thing Monday that showed Quad 1 wins for the calendar year. KU had nine more than Baylor, which had the second-most in Division One.

Seems like a pretty good year. I have the shirts to prove it.

CFP

As soon as the KU game was over, I had to scramble to get ready for our New Year’s Eve gathering. Our hosts are not sports fans and do not have cable, which meant I was following the TCU-Michigan game on my phone. As was my sister-in-law whose husband is a Frog. Fortunately for him, he and their son were at the game. Looked like they had fun.

Really glad TCU is the school that got the Big 12’s first-ever CFP win. Not that I am a big Frog fan or anything, but it makes it better that it came after Oklahoma failing for years and Texas never getting there.

M was very astute and asked what I would do if it had been a KU Final Four game that was at the same time as a family gathering and I would not have access to a TV. I told her I would probably have skipped the event, which would have earned me a dirty look or two from S but really would have been better for everyone. No one in the family needs to be around me when I’m watching a stressful KU game. Hell, the girls were making fun of me for screaming during the OSU game Saturday. Can you imagine if it was a game in April?

I was able to watch most of Georgia-Ohio State, which was filled with wonderful momentum/mood swings. Ohio State’s potential game winning field goal sailed left just as the clock struck midnight here in the Eastern time zone. Our Christmas tree automatically turns off at 12:00 AM, so as the ball knuckled into the air, the lights clicked off behind me and the fireworks kicked in outside. It’s like it was all planned to happen that way.

Georgia-TCU should be an excellent game, and I’d be fine with either team winning. Just glad it won’t be Michigan or Ohio State, to be honest.

NFL

I was going to write something about how weird it still feels for there to be regular season games two weekends into January. But after what happened in Cincinnati last night, that feels wrong. I’m glad I wasn’t watching. I’m glad the teams seemed to show way more awareness and empathy than the NFL showed. And I’m really hoping that Damar Hamlin makes a recovery that allows him to live a meaningful life.

Holiday Week Notes

December 22, 2022 /

It’s been a crazy couple of days. That will happen when a massive winter storm is predicted to arrive just as the biggest holiday of the year arrives.

M and C finished finals Tuesday. They seemed pleased with their performances. We’ll find out in a few weeks.

L wrapped up school Wednesday. It was pretty much a useless week, as all tests and assignments were completed last week. She cracked me up by wearing a Santa hat to school each day, then again when we went to the gym on Tuesday.

I have been to grocery stories 150 times this week. OK, that’s not true.

I did the normal weekly shopping on Monday.

Tuesday I stopped into a store right after dropping off L to try to get a bunch of stuff for the holiday weekend before the storm-induced panic buying began. I made a decent dent in that list.

Wednesday was my big shopping day. I dropped L off at school and had a window of 8–8:30 to pick up our ham. So I popped into the store next to the ham place to see how well they were stocked. Turned out they were not stocked well but I did get a few things before it was Ham Time.

Next it was onto another big grocery store that was very well stocked. I got 90% of what I still needed there.

On the way home I wanted to stop at a liquor store, but it didn’t open for another 15 minutes, so I ran into the grocery store next to it to work on that last 10%, and maybe avoid a trip to Costco.

I was unable to avoid the Costco trip so after taking C to ortho, we headed that way. When we arrived, at about 11:15, the parking lot was packed and there were literally dozens of people parked on the grass. I told C if it was really this crazy we were going to skip it. But we went down one aisle, immediately had three parking spots to choose from, and headed in. We just needed a few things, but the checkout lines were backed up through the entire store. I made sure to get into the one targeted for the self-check machines and we were out in 15 minutes.

Then Thursday morning I ran to our neighborhood store for a few more things.

So that’s six stops at grocery stores, plus Costco, liquor, and ham.

Ridiculous but had to be done as I think the entire city is going to shut down tonight into Saturday morning between the snow, wind, and cold. The windchill here is forecast to be 25 to 35 below zero Friday morning. That’s no good for anyone, especially people making last-minute grocery runs.

The girls are currently off having their annual Christmas breakfast/cookie-baking party with their grandmother. S is normally home on Thursdays but has to run into the office to help see some patients that were re-scheduled from Friday. Once everyone is home we’re going to hunker down, crank the heat up, and hope the power lines in our part of town survive the winds until our first family gathering Saturday evening.

I’ve enjoyed watching the forecast adjust over the past week. As with any winter storm there is all kinds of uncertainty. The weather app I use on my phone, Hello Weather, has a cool feature that allows you to pick between one of eight different sources for forecast information. In the winter I love toggling between them, as some make a very conservative calculation and others take the worst-case option. Last Sunday, when this storm first got pulled into the seven-day view, these forecasts varied from a prediction of two inches of snow to 22 inches. That’s quite a range! As it stands now, we are in the 3”–6” window, and it’s starting to look like the lower half is more likely.

Regardless, it appears that this will be our first truly white Christmas in at least four years. And that one was just because of a dusting of snow on Christmas morning.

I know this storm is affecting most of my readers, so I hope all of you get through it safely, with heat and power, and that you are able to make all the gatherings on your calendar.

Finals Week

December 15, 2022 /

M and C start their first semester finals today. I’m pretty sure that CHS has changed their finals schedule all four years that M has been there, which she finds annoying. This year the days are split between two morning exams and two afternoon review sessions. So, technically, finals began yesterday with two reviews after lunch. We’ll see what the girls think of this schedule when they wrap up next Tuesday.

This could be M’s last time taking high school finals. CHS seniors are excused from second semester finals in classes they have A’s in. She has one A- in nearly three and a half years of classes, so she’s pretty confident this is her last go. The senior-itis has started to kick in, though, and we’ve already started reminding her that she can’t slack off too much between January and May.

I freaked the girls out a little last week when I told them that I loved finals in college.

My friends will recall that I wasn’t the most focused student in my extended college years. But finals week always got me locked in. I loved getting the exam schedule and sitting down to plot out the days I had tests, when there were review sessions, when I had papers/projects due, and when I would be done. There was something about that tight schedule, without regular classes, that got me super-focused. I was stressed, to be sure, but it was the good kind of stress. I know I wrote some of my best papers then, sitting down at the typewriter with a general idea of where I wanted to end up and, two-three-four hours later, finishing with something I was excited to turn in.

I shared this with the girls in an effort to relieve some of their stress. I wanted to try to get them to view the week the way I did: as a chance to prove that they learned something over the semester rather than just another set of tests that can affect their grades. Finals, and the essay questions that came with them, were an opportunity for me to dazzle my professors not just with my knowledge, but with my writing ability. I know there were years that B’s turned into A’s because I could organize and clearly communicate my thoughts, while I had friends who couldn’t make the same leap because their essays and papers were a mess.

I’m telling you, if college was nothing but finals, I would have graduated on time with straight A’s!

I don’t think any of that worked. The girls looked at me like I was crazy. M especially seems stressed out. She is very smart, smarter than I ever was, something she for sure gets from her mom. But she also got her mom’s tendency to stress out over tests. I’m glad M got my writing ability; her teachers are always telling her how good she is at it. I just wish I could have passed on some of that finals zen to her, and her sisters, as well.

It was kind of fun for me to have her come down and sit by me last night while I watched the Pacers beat the Warriors. She said she needed a change of scenery. As I watched the Pacers try to blow the game, she was on the other end of the couch with her AirPods in, banging away on her final paper for her English class. It made me think of those nights I was cranking out papers late into the night. It was also a reminder that this time next year she’ll be doing this in a dorm room or at the library on whatever campus she is living on.

Catching Up

December 1, 2022 /

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.

DC Trip Notes

November 1, 2022 /

I had a really good week in Washington, D.C. with L and her classmates. It wasn’t all great, but we avoided the major issues that often plague these trips.

We did A LOT. I took some notes along the way, but I think the best way to share the experience is just to list everywhere we went and add a thought or two as necessary.

Monday: Flew into Baltimore and drove directly to Arlington National Cemetery. We got to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A humbling visit that I think the adults appreciated more than the kids.
Dinner at the Pentagon City Mall (kids ate fast food, adults popped into a proper restaurant).
Then a nighttime, walking tour of some of the monuments and memorials including the World War II and Korean War memorials, Lincoln and Washington monuments.

Tuesday: Breakfast at 6:00 before heading to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for 8:00 mass. Props to the priest for knocking it out in 34 minutes.
The kids took a longer tour of the church site while their math teacher and I snuck out to get coffee and hang out on our own.
From there it was back to the national mall for the Vietnam and Albert Einstein memorials.
After lunch the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which was incredibly moving. I don’t know what made me angrier: confronting the reality of the Holocaust, or knowing as the survivors and perpetrators die off, it gets easier for the lunatics out there to claim the Holocaust either didn’t happen or was exaggerated. We are doomed.
Next out to Mt. Vernon. Not sure what got into the boys, but most of them were total idiots at Mt. Vernon. They asked THE DUMBEST questions of our poor guides. One of many “I’m happy I’m a girl dad” moments. There were several other school groups on the site as well. One group was from the south (based on accents and Clemson shirts several wore) and had a bunch of kids wearing gear celebrating our last president. When a few kids in that group asked their teachers if they could visit the slave cemetery, they were told no. I thought that was very interesting for a variety of reasons.
Following dinner we made a stop and the national harbor and then a walking ghost tour of Alexandria.

Wednesday: A quick photo outside the White House first thing, before the crowds grew.
Then we had a tour of the US Capital followed by a visit to the Library of Congress.
We took the metro a couple stops to near the Washington Monument. The kids ate lunch at food trucks and then scattered at the various Smithsonian museums for most of the afternoon. The parents took a longer lunch at a restaurant.
That evening we drove back into Maryland for dinner at Medieval Times. Which was a lot mentally when you are on day three of a trip. A lot of the adults were looking at each other asking “What the fuck!?!” It took awhile to get into it, but our knight won the final battle so it all worked out.

Thursday: After checking out of the hotel we went to the zoo. We saw the pandas which was about the only thing we can’t see at our zoo here in Indy. Oh, we did see an electric eel get fed her lunch, which wasn’t as cool as I hoped because she didn’t shock it, just yanked it off the hook the handler put in the water.
Another food truck lunch on the National Mall. President Biden graced us by flying over as we ate, which I thought was a nice touch. Pretty crazy to see blocks of streets shut down as police and other emergency vehicles cordoned everything off and multiple helicopters roared in before Marine One descended upon the White House.
After lunch was the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This was L’s favorite stop of the trip, and I loved it too. I could have spent a lot longer here. The slavery section was obviously incredibly emotional. That section of the museum stretches from the beginning of the slave trade in the Americas to Obama’s inauguration. I couldn’t help but think that was fitting since this country began to drift backwards into lunacy in the years after Obama was elected.
Finally we bused out to Dulles to go to the Air & Space museum. Seeing stuff like the Enola Gay, numerous fighter jets, and the space shuttle Discovery was pretty cool.
It was a two hour drive in traffic back to the Baltimore airport and a late flight home. L and I got to our house a little after 1:00 AM.

All this was exhausting, which I think is the point. I was in the midst of one of my insomnia battles which did not help. Wednesday my body finally reset and I was able to fully recharge. Those first couple days were a little rough, though. Even with all my working out, my calves were still barking after the first day of walking.

Fortunately we had nearly perfect weather the entire week. It sprinkled on us once briefly, but otherwise was in the 60s, generally cloudy, and pleasant.

As I said, we had some issues with the boys. I unloaded on the same kid three times. He’s just an asshole and I wasn’t going to tolerate it. He’s lucky he didn’t get sent home because he violated the curfew rules at least one night.

Other than that, the kids were well-behaved. We didn’t have any big incidents. L’s class is so small we could all get on one bus comfortably (St P’s usually has a boy bus and girl bus). Our driver was excellent. M’s 8th grade year they had major issues with one of their drivers.[1] And last year’s class had the bad luck of being in a hotel that couldn’t handle a bunch of middle schoolers and the water literally stopped working one night.

We stayed in Alexandria in a nice Westin. Apparently it was quite a bit pricier than where they stayed last year, but the water worked! There was another school group staying there from Lodi, CA.[2] They were checking out Wednesday morning. I’m assuming they were hitting another east coast city, because that’s a long way to fly for just two days.

My roommate was a friend of mine who also has three daughters. M matches up with his middle daughter – they are still super close despite going to different high schools – so we’ve been friends for 13 years.

One weird thing other parents also commented on: we were constantly turned around or confused about directions. Which seems weird since we all have smartphones and many of us have Apple Watches with compasses in them. I think it was because we were all in the middle of the bus and you can only see what’s out your windows. You never get a real sense for where you are headed or what cardinal direction that is.

The Capital building was in the midst of a major exterior renovation. But there were also repairs still being done from the January 6 attacks. Motherfuckers.

This was my first time in Washington, D.C. It’s amazing how there is so much to do and see in such a relatively small area. We just scratched the surface. There were several areas I would have loved to spend more time in, but I won’t complain about cramming so much into a four-day visit.

Some pictures to close.

  1. I can’t imagine driving a bus in DC.  ↩
  2. This was another Catholic school, and they attended Mass with us. The hotel didn’t clearly mark which group’s breakfast was which, so each morning there were people wandering into the wrong room.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 4, 2022 /

A belated rundown of this past weekend.

FNL

Cathedral finally had their first home game of the year. Since they only have one after this, and it has already been tagged as homecoming, Friday became senior night. Which was a little weird.

I stayed home and listened to an easy 37–6 win over Cincinnati LaSalle. LaSalle has won four Ohio state titles in the past eight years, but this year’s team was kind of dog crap. Or so it sounded on the radio. Until the scrubs gave up a late TD the Irish had gone 11 straight quarters without allowing a score. Granted those were mostly against bad teams, but the defense does seem to be getting better as the season goes on.

KU

After a gritty, gutty, ugly-ass 14–11 win over Iowa State, THE JAYHAWKS ARE RANKED!!!!! AND GAMEDAY IS COMING TO LAWRENCE!!!!! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!!

I missed 85% of the game between basketball, prepping for L’s birthday party, and picking up dinner for the kids. I was able to watch the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, which was not a great experience. KU couldn’t move the ball, the defense was in full bend-but-don’t-break mode, and it seemed inevitable that Iowa State would win, either in regulation or overtime.

Which should have been what happened. But the Football Gods smiled on KU one more time as Iowa State missed a relatively easy field goal that would have forced OT, and the Jayhawks went to 5–0.

I felt terrible after the game, more like KU had lost than won. I think some of that was just the stress of the afternoon and then diving into the game in the worst possible moment. Later in the night I realized KU fans shouldn’t feel bad about any football win. I should be enjoying the W, the record, and the change of tone in the program. Sweating “bad” or “ugly” wins is something the coaching staff and players should be doing, not us fans. The bubble is going to burst at some point and it will be dumb for me to have not enjoyed the success that I’ve been craving for years.

From what I heard on Sirius while driving and read/listened to afterward, it seems like the defense actually played really well. Some of that is surely thanks to an Iowa State offense that isn’t the most efficient in the world. But, even if you give the ‘Clones credit for the three field goals they missed, surrendering only 20 points to a conference opponent would normally be a pretty big deal for the KU defense. It still is a big deal, and it saved the team on a day the offense sputtered, it just got lost a bit in the overall ugliness of the contest.

In the few minutes I did watch I got super annoyed with the ESPN2 broadcast. On KU’s next-to-last drive, the Jayhawks seemed to convert a third down. The announcers talked about what a big play it was, the cameras showed the crowd celebrating, they showed a replay and broke it down, etc. And then right before the next play you saw KU was snapping the ball from five yards behind where the previous play had begun. Only then did the announcers realize that there had been a penalty on KU that wiped out the conversion. Seems like something they or their spotters should have picked up on, right?

ESPN2 didn’t seem to put crowd microphones anywhere in the stadium, either. They would show shots of the band and you couldn’t hear them. When ISU missed the field goal, I assume the crowd was going nuts. That’s what the cameras showed. But you heard the slightest of buzzes on TV. This seems to happen a lot in games that aren’t the marquee matchup of the time slot. For being the World Wide Leader, ESPN sure has a lot of issues getting the basics of showing a game right. For as much as they charge cable companies to carry them, you’d think they could buy enough crowd mics so you get some sense of the environment inside the stadium. Maybe pay some of the blowhards who scream at each other a little less and up the sound hardware budget.

Since this is Kansas football, the Football Gods can’t completely be in our favor. Daniel Hishaw Jr. suffered an awful injury late in the game, rumored to be dislocated his hip late in the game. That sounds insanely painful and is a brutal injury for a guy who missed all of last year.

And then Sunday night Wisconsin fired Paul Chryst. Most folks feel like interim coach Jim Leonhard will get the full-time gig when the season ends. But if the Badgers look like shit the rest of the year, that’s another big job that Lance Leipold has connections to that may target him in December.

I’m not going to sweat that or the Nebraska job. I’m just going to enjoy the seven (or eight?!?! NINE?!?!) games KU has left and hope they can find a couple more wins. I’ll save the angst for once the season is over.

And now we get a whole week to enjoy the lead-up to a very big game against TCU that will get a lot of national attention.

(There’s a TCU guy who goes to my gym. Monday he walked by me and said, “So I guess you’re a football school now?”)

Twitter

I find it damn near impossible to follow Twitter during a football game. EVERYONE thinks they are smarter than the coaches. Doesn’t matter what team/game you’re following. I’ve seen this during KU games, Colts games, and plenty of random games people in my stream are following. The negativity is overwhelming. Where in basketball games Twitter feels like a good way to add context to what is going on in the game, or discuss the action, in football it is an endless stream of people who have been playing Madden for 30 years and think they are smarter than guys who are paid to make decisions.

Granted, a lot of coaches make curious decisions. But not every borderline call deserves a meltdown.

I was reminded Saturday that I often mute a specific KU-related account during games. The dude that runs it shares interesting and useful stuff throughout the week. But during games, even basketball ones, he is SOOOOO negative, that I began muting him on game days last winter. He questions every coaching decision. He rips the refs at every opportunity. He is hateful about opposing fans. Late in the fourth quarter Saturday, Cobee Bryant appeared to have picked off an Iowa State pass that would have ended their final drive. However, replay showed that when he hit the ground, the ball came loose and he never recovered it while still inbounds. It was clearly not a catch and the officials correctly overturned the original call. This guy went off, though, saying how corrupt the Big 12 refs were.

It’s fine to be an irrational fan and always see calls through the prism of your team. But if you’re running an account that represents a website rather than just yourself, you need to calm down and view the games rationally. Don’t embarrass yourself over a play like this, where there is zero doubt the correct call was made.

Kid Hoops

Saturday L had a travel game. They played solid in the first half and had a three-point lead at halftime. Then they played like absolute garbage in the second half and lost by six. L was 1–10 from the field. I think the entire team only shot slightly better than her 10%. Giving them credit for 20% might be too high, though. If Dick Vitale had called the game he would have said it was Brick City with a capital B, baby.

One interesting thing about the game was a girl on the other team may be joining our squad for the next travel season in March. She would be our tallest player, is a terrific athlete, and is a really good defender, but she doesn’t have much of an offensive game. Since we can’t get a rebound to save our lives, that alone makes her a decent addition. Then again, maybe after playing against us she’ll decide she wants to play for a different program. I would argue our poor shooting will give her lots of chances to grab offensive boards!

Sunday L had a CYO game. It was against a team we figured we should beat easily as L’s class has never lost to them in any sport. We jumped out to a 9–0 lead but then ran into issues and only led 14–8 at halftime. L got three fouls in the first quarter and had to sit most of the half, which didn’t help. One was legit, one was marginal, and the third was a crap moving screen call.

We came out smoking in the second half, or at least it seemed like we did. We were much better on defense and ran good offense, just couldn’t get the shots to drop. We got the lead up to 10 and held steady around there before winning 26–13.

I sat on the bench and kept stats. We had 14 steals, which was great. However, six of them were in the first quarter and then we didn’t have another until after halftime. We really should have had 20+ but our girls are soft going after loose balls. They would knock the ball loose then just stand there and watch the other team go after it. Drove me nuts. We got out-rebounded by 2. I think L is destined to never play on a team that can rebound.

There was a call in the fourth quarter than nearly made me lose it. L was defending the ball and ran into a screen. From my vantage point the screen looked solid and legal. Neither L nor the girl setting the screen went flying. But the ref blew his whistle and looked to the scorer’s table. “Foul is on eleven…” and I let out a sarcastic “WHAT?!?!” And just about chucked my clipboard. Our head coach jumped off the bench to argue. L looked totally shocked. Then our mom who was keeping the book turned to us and said “Eleven white, not eleven purple.” The coaches and I looked at each other and laughed. I decided it was a makeup call since L had been called for the illegal screen in the first half, and they didn’t make that call again the entire game. Oh, and both times the screens were legal. Refs…

She had six points.

Wednesday we play a team we’ve never beaten. L has a bunch of friends on that squad, several of which she’s played with outside CYO. She’s pretty excited about it. If we grab those loose balls and can get some rebounds, I think we have a chance.

L Turns 14

Monday was L’s birthday. After her game Saturday she had four friends over. They swam, hung out, and spent the night. It seemed like a good time.

There’s a seventh grade boy who lives nearby who they invited over to play basketball and hang out with them. I couldn’t get a sense of whether one/some/all of the girls like him, as in like-like, or if he’s just a nice kid who lives close. We know his parents a little – his dad actually coached L in soccer way back in first or second grade – but we don’t hang out in the same circles. I give him props for coming over to a house he’s never been to before and hanging out with five older girls for a few hours.

Weekend Notes

September 12, 2022 /

The first full football weekend of the year. I have some notes.

Friday

We had the big 6A #3 Cathedral at 3A #1 Bishop Chatard game Friday. Or the girls did. S and I knew it was going to be an absolute shit show; BC has a tiny stadium in the middle of a packed neighborhood and it seemed like every Indianpolis Northside Catholic was going to go. So we went to dinner with friends while the girls enjoyed the game.

Although it wasn’t much of a game. I checked my phone at about 7:45 and CHS was up 21–0. They got it to 35–0 before half, had a running clock for the second half, and won 38–0. I watched the highlights Saturday, and pretty much every score was a long pass, or set up by a long pass. When you have four receivers who are 6’3”+ and your opponent is small, you have to take advantage.

Of course, Chatard has a better chance of winning state than Cathedral, so not sure the BC fans were smarting too much afterward.

I got home in time to watch the end of the Tiafoe-Alcaraz US Open semifinal. Frances gave it his all, but Carlos Alcaraz is just too damn good. We’ve been waiting for years for the next superstar to come along in mens tennis. Alcaraz might be that dude.

Saturday

Lots of sports.

Alabama-Texas was interesting, surprising, and entertaining. Not the game I expected at all, although I really didn’t think ‘Bama would blow them out.

I caught the end of the Marshall-Notre Dame game. What a disaster for the Irish! Marcus Freeman seems like a really good guy but he’s feeling the heat already about whether he was the right hire.

L had a basketball game Saturday evening. They played a team made up of lacrosse players. These girls were big, athletic, and had this really good offense that kept getting them open looks. But they were not basketball players. L’s team ran them off the floor, at least in terms of the score, winning 47–23.

L had six points on 3–7 shooting, including two sweet drives for layups. On one she got hammered and threw it up-and-in off the backboard as she tumbled to the ground. Her teammates went nuts and she came up with a look like “THAT WENT IN?!?!” Then she missed the free throw… Not sure what’s up with her at the line lately. Her jumpers look good but her free throw form is awful.

I was glad it was not a close game. The refs were ones who never call fouls unless they are hard fouls at the rim. And these lacrosse girls were mega-physical and handsy. Once L was leading the break and a girl was tugging on her off arm the entire time, slowing L down, and the refs didn’t call anything. Need to teach her how to flop.

AND HOW ABOUT THOSE JAYHAWKS!?!?!?! Two-and-oh! Highest scoring team in the country!

We listened to the beginning of the game on our way to basketball and I was regretting finding the Sirius broadcast when West Virginia scored on a 59 yard TD pass, KU had four penalties on their first possession, and then WVU scored again. I checked the score at halftime of L’s game and saw it was 21–7. I was glad I was watching hoops.

When we got back into the car it was 28-all and I was all-in. We heard KU take the lead as we drove home in an intense storm, and then watched the fourth quarter and overtime from home.

What a great win. This was a game pretty much every KU squad for the past decade would lose by 40+. But the Jayhawks settled down after the bad start, hung in there, and dominated for a long stretch. Then they not only won, but got the ultra-rare, double-digit overtime win thanks to Jacobee Bryant’s pick-six.

There was some whooping it up in our living room, and some questions from the girls upstairs about what the hell was going on.

It looks like after getting it wrong four-straight times, KU finally hired the right coach. It was bound to happen eventually. The Jayhawks are disciplined, more talented than in recent years, put that talent in the right spots, are prepared for their opponents, and don’t fall apart the moment they face adversity. A long way to go but things finally seem like they are trending up.

Naturally Nebraska lost about 30 minutes later, Scott Frost was fired Sunday, and Lance Leipold is reportedly high on the list of potential replacements.

I think that bloom will fade, as Nebraska is not going to hire a guy who goes 4–10 this year.

Unless KU wins eight, nine, ten games this year, right?

Sunday

The first NFL Sunday of the year. I missed most of the Colts game as L had to go do her team photographer duties for her CYO football classmates. It was pouring rain so I decided to sit in my car and read in case she wanted to bail early. She ended up staying the entire time so I read a ton and didn’t see much football.

I did listen on the radio long enough to hear the Colts go down 20–3 but then turned it off to focus on my book. We got home in time to see the Colts tie it, then blow a chance in win in overtime. This franchise just does not do opening day well. I believe this is nine-straight opening weeks without a win. So maybe a tie is progress?

Still a super-disappointing beginning to a season in which the Colts were, allegedly, poised to be a player in the AFC title race. At least no one else in the AFC South won. You figure there will be growing pains as Matt Ryan settles in, but he wasn’t the problem on Sunday. At least when I was watching.

I forgot about the US Open final until late and caught the last four games of Alcaraz’s win. The first of many, I would bet.

I half-watched much of the SNF Buccaneers-Cowboys game. That old fucker Brady can still sling it.

Kickball Wrap Up (Forever)

September 8, 2022 /

Well, it’s over.

L’s team went out with a whimper in their final two kickball games, losing 21–7 on Tuesday then getting run-ruled 42–13 on Wednesday, ending the season at 2–5. I believe that was the first time they had a losing record.[1]

These two games were more of the same. We couldn’t kick or field, and it killed us. In the Tuesday game, against the team we beat to start the season, we were up 4–0 after one then gave up eight runs in the second and were dead after that. L went 1–3 with just a double. They against the division champs Wednesday we were never in it, down 9–1 after the first inning.

At least we closed out the game strong. As we came up for our last kicks in the bottom of the fifth our coach told the girls we needed home runs from everyone. The first girl kicked one. The next girl kicked one. The next girl got on base with a single. And then L came up.

Again, she had zero home runs on the season. Only once had she really been close. So far in this game she was 1–2 with a triple. This time she crushed the ball, her best kick of the year, sending it to deep center, between the fielders. But, as I’ve shared many times, outfielders get the ball in much quicker at this level. Didn’t matter. She was on her horse, as they say. The girl in front of her is super fast and L had almost caught her by the time they got to second. She was a step behind her at third and I could tell there was no way she was stopping. A good throw might have gotten her but the relay was off line and the girls scored right on top of each other.

Finally the elusive home run. And in the final kick of her career!

Three of the next four girls made outs and the season was mercifully over.

Although the results sucked I really enjoyed most of the games this season because I got to keep score with some good people. One mom has a son who is in C’s grade and they’ve socialized a bit, so we had some common ground. I had kept score with one dad before and he is more chill than me, so pleasant to work with. A second dad has three daughters the same ages as my three, and we’ve come across each other several times over the years. We had two games this season and great conversations while we watched our youngest square off. And a second mom I had two games with has been both the kickball and volleyball coordinator at her school, so we shared stories of all that comes with that. Wednesday she had another mom sit with us so she could teach her how to keep score (I assume this new mom has younger girls). When she introduced us, she said, “He’s the best scorekeeper I’ve ever worked with. He’ll explain everything and you’ll never get lost.”

Awwww, in my last game I got the best compliment of my life!

If you saw my Facebook post last night, I crunched the numbers for our family. Since M began playing in the spring of her third grade year, our girls played a combined 29 seasons of kickball. That works out to somewhere between 200–210 games. I figure I kept score or coached for 90% of those games, most misses either coming that first season before I was handed the scorebook or because I was coaching one girl while another played somewhere else. That’s a lot of kickball!

To be honest, I’m a little bummed I didn’t keep better records and know exactly how many total games we played and what the family’s overall record is. Alas…

I do know the girls combined to play in two division playoffs, two City semifinals, and five City championship games. M’s team was the only one to win a championship, and that was a shared title after a week of rainouts. C’s team was the only one never to make it to any kind of playoff, something she took personally for awhile.[2] Blame her assistant coach (me) for that. And I do know that our overall record, as a family, was well over .500. That was mostly thanks to an elite athlete on M’s team and then all those home runs from L for five years.

Folks who know us well will recall that my kickball story began the night S and I went on our first date. While making small talk as we waited for our table at dinner, I asked if she played any sports growing up. When she said CYO volleyball and kickball, I laughed in her face. Next thing I knew she was jabbing a finger in my chest and telling me that kickball was a real sport. Pretty sure I laughed some more.

And, famously, the real joke was on me. I married that Catholic girl from Indianapolis, moved here, had three daughters who went to Catholic school, and spent the bulk of their grade and middle school years representing St P’s on the kickball diamonds of Indy.

The first game of M’s fourth grade year, her coach walked over to me and said, “I hear you’re a sports writer. Can you keep score?” Soon I was reading up on the rules so I could understand what the hell was going on. About a year later when the kickball coordinator job came open, that same coach told me she thought I would be great at it. I made the mistake of sending one email asking the out-going coordinator what all was involved in the position. All it ever takes is one email to volunteer yourself for any school role, and for the next four years I ran the program. I helped coach L’s team their first year, although the moms who had all played kickball in their CYO days did most of the work. I helped coach C’s team for five seasons over three years.

It was a pretty good run. I hope the girls have as many great memories from their kickball years as I do.

  1. L didn’t play in the spring of fourth grade, when she decided she didn’t like kickball, and the team may have been under .500 that season.  ↩

  2. Their best shot was having a lead in the last game of the season going into the seventh inning against the team they were tied for first with, and then having a total meltdown and giving up 25 runs to lose. Ugh.  ↩

Holiday Weekend Notes

September 6, 2022 /

I’m guessing this was our last ever four-day Labor Day weekend, at least on the academic side of things. St P’s generally (but not always) gives the kids Friday and Monday off, while CHS just takes the actual Monday holiday off. Who knows what M’s schedule will be this time next year, but she won’t be here, so that means the remaining girls will be on the same schedule for the final holiday weekend of summer in 2023.

L took advantage of her extra day by doing some work for us and family members to earn some money. She’s been drafted as the St P’s football team videographer/photographer and has been saving up for a camera. With a final push over the weekend she was able to order it.

Her first project of the weekend was mowing her aunt’s yard, which she has done a few times. I followed her around with the trimmer, which is too big and too temperamental for her to use. As I was trimming I felt a white-hot heat on my right forearm. I dropped the trimmer, thinking it was in the process of blowing up or something. But I didn’t see any smoke and it started right back up.

“Well, shit,” I thought, “I think I just got stung!”

But I hadn’t seen/felt anything on me or seen anything fly away. I looked around and then noticed, on my nephews’ swingset/playhouse, the biggest wasp I had ever seen crawling around. I got a fly swatter from inside the house and nailed it. Seconds later several more Big Ass Wasps emerged from under the decking and I fled before they could get me.

Fortunately my sister-in-law had a couple cans of wasp/hornet killer. I unloaded one on the nest I could see poking through the frame and left her instructions to hit it again when the wasps returned for the evening.

Not going to lie: the sting hurt like hell. I don’t know if I’ve ever been hit by a wasp before, but this fucking hurt. Even today, Tuesday morning, the area is all swollen, red, and itchy. I’m not sure what flavor of wasps these were, but I’m just going to call them Murder Hornets because they were so big and the sting was so painful. Still, happy to take one for the team rather than one of my nephews.

IMG 5531

Don’t fuck with the Murder Hornets

Friday night was one of the more interesting sports following nights in my recent history.

I had the US Open up on the TV, watching Serena Williams’ final match that began at 7:00. At 7:30 the Cathedral game began, and I pulled up the audio on my phone. And at 8:00 KU kicked off their season on ESPN+, which I had on my MacBook Air.

Super Sports Fan #1 here!

It was a bit chaotic keeping track of everything, but I managed, selectively muting as conditions warranted.

I should probably write more about Serena’s loss. I think of my life not really hitting adulthood until right around 1999–2000. That made Serena the last athlete from my extended childhood or adolescence or whatever who was still active. Just another sign that we are getting older.

Props to her for such an amazing career, for coming back after having an insanely difficult pregnancy and childbirth experience, and for going out on her terms. I couldn’t believe she was still playing doubles with her sister Venus on Thursday. I think that effort clearly affected her in Friday’s match. Then I realized that she just wanted to play with her sister one more time and was willing to sacrifice her singles match for that opportunity. When you’ve won everything there is to win, you get to pick how you say goodbye.

Cathedral fell behind 13–0 but then ripped off 35-straight points for a 35–21 win. The game was three hours away so none of the girls went. The Irish had a ton of injuries going into the game, so played a number of kids who had not played the first two weeks. This week they play their big-time rivals BC, who are ranked #1 in 3A and just lost the the #1 4A school on the final play of the game.

KU rolled Tennessee Tech. Which should be expected, and I know non-KU fans are making fun of us Jayhawks for being excited about the win. Never forget this is KU football, a program that has found a way to do the un-doable for decades. Pounding an overmatched opponent is never a given for Kansas, and while one or two more wins is likely the max we can hope for this year, at least we checked off the easy win.

The team looked better, with more playmakers on defense than I can recall. But they still lack depth and things will be very different this week against West Virginia and pretty much every week for the rest of the year and the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher. But this game was the baby step we needed.

Saturday we headed up to S’s aunt and uncle’s in the morning. They live on a lake and offered to take the girls out to ski. M took a brief run and had no issues. L tried but could not get up. C was annoyed about having to wake up early on a holiday weekend and stayed in the boat. We took a nice trip around the lake and got off the water just before rain moved in.

Later in the day L had a basketball game. They were playing a team they’ve played many times. That team plays and practices all year, and added another good player since our last meeting. We were down 13–0 to start then went something like 5–22 from the free throw line and lost by 15. L alone was 1–6 from the line. She was 0–4 from the floor but had three rebounds, three assists, and three steals. She hit one shot that came after a foul was called away from the ball and was super annoyed by that. I was super annoyed she was missing so many free throws after all the practice shots she put up over the summer.

Sunday we had the local family over for our annual Labor Day gathering. It never got too hot or humid and the rain held off, so it was a pleasant day around the pool. I stay the hell out of the pool when the nephews take over. It’s more fun to drink and watch than constantly babysit your kids so they don’t sink.

Monday was your standard, lazy Labor Day. I watched some tennis – Frances Tiafoe upsetting Rafa Nadal was obviously the highlight, a truly enjoyable match. I was bummed Danielle Collins lost, but we don’t need to go into details about that.

(Another quick aside about tennis: Nick Kyrgios beating Daniil Medvedev Sunday was also entertaining. Not sure I’ve ever switched my opinion on an athlete as quickly as I have about Kyrgios. I thought he was a lunatic who needed to be shut down at Wimbledon. Now I think he’s one of the most entertaining, compelling, and interesting players on the tour. Not sure I necessarily love him, but I do root for him to stay in tournaments because they are a lot more fun with him on the court.)

I read a lot, we did some shopping as we prep for our next big trip, and we did some cleaning around the house.

Otherwise a pretty chill holiday weekend.

This morning we were socked in by low, thick clouds. When my alarm went off at 6:50 and it was still pitch black my first thought was, “Did I sleep through a month and it’s October 6?” Just a tangible reminder that summer is over.

Weekend Notes

August 29, 2022 /

Kind of a weird weekend, or at least it got off to a weird start.

L threw up all night Thursday and into Friday morning. I heard her throwing up again around 6:45 and went running into her room only to discover it was M across the hall throwing up in her bathroom.

Just like old times! At least they are old enough now not to puke in their beds.

Both girls stayed home from school, L feeling like crap all day. M threw up one more time around 11:00 but then acted like she made a miraculous recovery and started bugging me about going to the CHS football game that evening. I kept saying no, she would pout and ask again, so I finally told her to leave me alone and ask her mom. Not sure what was involved in that text exchange but she was out the door as soon as I left to pick C up. More on that later…

C had three friends come over after school and I drove them out to the far westside for the big #2 CHS vs #3 Brownsburg matchup. BHS jumped all over Cathedral early, getting up 21–0 thanks to a blocked punt, an Irish fumble, and two long drives. CHS ended the first half and opened the second half with long touchdown passes to cut it to 21–14. But they immediately gave up a 78 yard TD pass and only a late TD made it a respectable 42–35 loss. I’m not sure when the last time CHS was behind by 21 points. It’s been at least three years. It’s the first time they’ve lost to someone other than two time defending 6A champs Center Grove since November 2019.

It was a thoroughly respectable loss. BHS is a really good team.[1] But CHS looked kind of bad. They lost their entire offensive line and nine starters on defense from last year’s team. That shows. The o-line can’t protect their stud QB, who was running for his life all night and got hurt late, or open holes for the running game. The d-line can’t get pressure, which was a problem against a good team like BHS. Their best defensive player, who committed to Purdue on Sunday, was getting double and triple teamed all night because none of the other linemen could do anything. There’s a lot of work to do if the Irish want to have any chance of competing this November. Especially in class 6A.

Something new for me: watching a game when one of my daughters is dating a kid on the team. M’s boyfriend starts, although he’s on and off the field quite a bit. I’m honestly not sure what his position is. He’s usually lined up across from a receiver, but sometimes he’s inside, sometimes he’s outside, and sometimes he’s positioned more like linebacker. Anyway, each defensive play I was checking if he was on the field and where he was at. I kept shuddering because for some reason he – a 5’8”-ish kid – kept getting matched up with BHS’ 6’2”+ receiver. Why they never threw at him I don’t know. Thankfully G was not in coverage when the kid got loose for that 78 yard TD. G made a few tackles but it was not a great night for the defense, so I’m sure he was upset with their effort.

As for my oldest daughter…at halftime I walked down to talk to some friends. I noticed an ambulance with the lights on near the other end of the visiting stands. A few minutes later C called me. Which was weird. My girls never call me, they always text.

When I answered she said M had passed out and was getting checked out by the paramedics. She passed her phone to M who said “Hi! I’m fine!” She claims she just got hot in the super crowded CHS student section and felt like she was going to pass out, so her friends ran over to get the paramedics. They checked her blood pressure, pulse/ox, and blood sugar. Everything was normal but they asked her if she wanted to go to hospital. She declined, signed a form, and watched the rest of the game without incident.

While I’m sure the heat and crowd contributed, I bet throwing up twice and not eating or drinking much all day didn’t help.

It could be worse: some of her best friends (who were not at the game) tested positive for Covid over the weekend. Although who knows, she could be next…

Fortunately the rest of us avoided the stomach bug. Not sure how just those two got it, and how it wiped L out for like 48 hours while M was back to normal pretty quickly.

That meant the L couldn’t play in her travel team game on Saturday. Sounds like she missed a doozy. Her team lost by three in double overtime. Our best player fouled out with 1:00 left in overtime. According to the texts I got, she wasn’t anywhere near the play but the ref gave her the foul. Apparently her grandfather nearly got kicked out of the gym afterward. Now I’m glad I missed it!

L was well enough to go to the required tryout for next year’s team on Sunday. She said she felt sluggish and didn’t play well. I got there in the final minutes of the scrimmage and I saw her blow by a girl, score, and get fouled, so that looked good.

  1. They have a former quarterback at the University of Kansas, so you know they’re legit.  ↩

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