A relatively laid-back weekend that saw the return of football at multiple levels and a glorious change in the weather.<\/p>\n
The high school season began in Indiana Friday. 5A #2 CHS took on Ben Davis, a traditional 6A power that won state two years ago but is in rebuilding mode.[1]<\/a> I figured CHS would win fairly easily. I guess<\/em> that happened. The Irish were never really challenged, but could only score once themselves for an 8\u20130 win.<\/p>\n A bizarre referring decision cost them at least two more points. The Irish blocked a BD punt that bounced around and eventually went out of the end zone. Which, after every rule I reviewed, is 100% a safety. For some reason BD a touchback out of it. I saw a replay and CHS never had possession so I have no idea how the refs decided it was a safety. Naturally BD took advantage and had their best drive of the night, breaking the red zone on the other end before the 4th Irish interception of the night snuffed that out.<\/p>\n CHS moved down to 5A this year but play their usual hella-difficult schedule. And they have the defending 4A state champs, who may be one of the 3\u20134 best teams of any class, in their sectional so I\u2019m not sure this is going to be a super successful season.<\/p>\n L skipped the game. Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, somehow, has been spreading around the school and she said she didn\u2019t want to get it from high fiving \u201cdirty freshmen.\u201d Had she known they would only score once maybe she would have re-thought that. But she did go hang out with friends, so I\u2019m not sure avoiding the disease was her true motivation.<\/p>\n The whole \u201cWeek 0\u201d moniker is dumb, and I\u2019m not sure we need football a week before Labor Day, but I was glad that was an excuse for KU to be on regular Fox with no competition Saturday night. Especially with it being the unveiling of the (60%) new Booth Memorial Stadium. It looked fantastic. It made sense to do it in the order they chose, but was a bummer that the remaining old part of the stadium is what you saw in the standard camera shots. With the dearth of games, the stadium even got some run in a couple of the broader sports news roundup newsletters I get, all very positive. As a Kansas fan, I\u2019m waiting for something horrible to happen to counter these good vibes. Like an earthquake that destroys the entire stadium.<\/p>\n Fresno State was a good opponent to open the season against. Not very good but not terrible either. KU won easily, 31\u20137. It could have and probably should have been a bigger win, but there was the standard \u201cwe\u2019re holding stuff back so future opponents don\u2019t see everything.\u201d Which I also think is dumb.<\/p>\n Jalon Daniels looked really good, except when he got hammered twice and took a minute to get up. They have to find a way to keep him from getting blasted a couple times a game. The running game looked really good. I think the two new receivers were terrific. The D-line was as good as I can remember. Two of the transfers on D look like difference makers. My biggest worries are pass blocking and the defensive secondary. The D was great on first and second down, but struggled on just about every third down.<\/p>\n Lots of time to get better, and I\u2019m sure there are more complex schemes waiting to be rolled out once the competition gets tougher.<\/p>\n OK, American football wasn\u2019t the only football I watched. I\u2019ve been a casual follower of Arsenal for nearly 20 years, 20 years in which they haven\u2019t won the Premier League. They still are not favorites this year, but after making a series of massive moves in the transfer market, they have their best shot in decades to win the league. So I decided to try to watch more matches this year. Which means when events warrant, I\u2019ll roll them into my weekend updates.<\/p>\n I watched a solid chunk of their 5\u20130 win over Leeds Saturday. They are obviously still working in some of the new players and their biggest signing was announced just before the game so wasn\u2019t even on the field, err, pitch.<\/p>\n They go to title holders Liverpool this Sunday, which will tell us a lot about whether they are truly ready to challenge or will be finishing second for the third-straight season.<\/p>\n LET\u2019S FUCKING GO, MOTHER NATURE!!!!<\/p>\n Those storms that passed on Tuesday took us straight from brutal summer to glorious fall. It did take a couple days for the heat to fully slide away, but by Thursday afternoon it felt like early October. Highs in the 70s, lows right around 60, no humidity. This morning when I woke up it was 55. The forecast shows this pattern sticking around for at least a week.<\/p>\n It will surely get hot a couple more times – there is nothing better than an October heat wave – but the past five days have been amazing. We deserve them after the previous six weeks.<\/p>\n We FaceTimed C on Saturday. She seemed to be doing well. She\u2019s reconnected with a girl, E, that was one of her best friends in grade school but who she drifted away from in 7th\/8th grades before E went to another high school. They are in the same major so will have classes together. E also took a class that started in early August so she had already met a few girls which opened some doors for C. We got a message from E\u2019s mom, who we love and spent a lot of time with back in the St. P\u2019s days, saying how happy it made her that our girls had linked up again. C said she had run into a couple other girls that were at St. P\u2019s before going to public high schools, one of whom lives just a couple blocks from us. I don\u2019t know if those two will stick, but it is funny that she\u2019s already run into several kids she grew up with on a campus of nearly 50,000 students.<\/p>\n She also told us she walked her schedule on Friday and her classes weren\u2019t too spread out. IU is a big, sprawling campus, but luckily in the older core, you\u2019re never more than a 15\u201320 minute walk from anywhere you need to be.<\/p>\n When I go to bed at night I have a Focus setting on my phone that blocks all calls except from numbers I have cleared. I don\u2019t need those sports threads I\u2019m in making my phone buzz once I call it a night. When I woke up Saturday morning I had a bunch of texts from IU that came in between 2:30\u20133:30 AM telling kids to shelter in place and, eventually, that it was safe but to avoid a certain area. I hustled down and turned on the news and saw there had been a shooting right off campus, an 18-year-old girl apparently shooting her boyfriend in the leg. Neither of them were students but it was still pretty close to where students might be on a Friday night\/Saturday morning.<\/p>\n Luckily C was back in her dorm and safe. M joked that there was a shooting just off campus at UC her first night in the dorm her freshman year, so she still had C beat.<\/p>\n What a time to be alive. \ud83d\ude2c<\/p>\n Sunday was Bid Day at UC. This year M was in the role of helping girls who are going through rush, rather than vetting them for her house, so she saw a different side of it. She had told us her Little was \u201cobsessed\u201d by one of C\u2019s good friends from high school.[2]<\/a> We found out yesterday that girl is going to be in M\u2019s house. The formal Big-Little relationships get locked in later in the fall, but there\u2019s a chance C\u2019s friend will end up being M\u2019s \u201cgranddaughter\u201d in the house. Small world.<\/p>\n IU and UC both start classes today. And with that begins the most expensive two years of our lives with two in college and one still in private high school. As a bonus, since M is going overseas in the spring, her tuition for that program is due in three weeks. I may need to go sell some plasma. Do they still buy your plasma?<\/p>\n A relatively laid-back weekend that saw the return of football at multiple levels and a glorious change in the weather. High School Football The high school season began in Indiana Friday. 5A #2 CHS took on Ben Davis, a traditional 6A power that won state two years ago but is in rebuilding mode.[1] I figured CHS would win fairly easily. I guess that happened. The Irish were never really challenged, but could only score once themselves for an 8\u20130 win. A bizarre referring decision cost them at least two more points. The Irish blocked a BD punt that bounced around and eventually went out of the end zone. Which, after every rule I reviewed, is 100% a safety. For some reason BD a touchback out of it. I saw a replay and CHS never had possession so I have no idea how the refs decided it was a safety. Naturally BD took advantage and had their best drive of the night, breaking the red zone on the other end before the 4th Irish interception of the night snuffed that out. CHS moved down to 5A this year but play their usual hella-difficult schedule. And they have the defending 4A state champs, who may be one of the 3\u20134 best teams of any class, in their sectional so I\u2019m not sure this is going to be a super successful season. L skipped the game. Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, somehow, has been spreading around the school and she said she didn\u2019t want to get it from high fiving \u201cdirty freshmen.\u201d Had she known they would only score once maybe she would have re-thought that. But she did go hang out with friends, so I\u2019m not sure avoiding the disease was her true motivation. Kansas Football The whole \u201cWeek 0\u201d moniker is dumb, and I\u2019m not sure we need football a week before Labor Day, but I was glad that was an excuse for KU to be on regular Fox with no competition Saturday night. Especially with it being the unveiling of the (60%) new Booth Memorial Stadium. It looked fantastic. It made sense to do it in the order they chose, but was a bummer that the remaining old part of the stadium is what you saw in the standard camera shots. With the dearth of games, the stadium even got some run in a couple of the broader sports news roundup newsletters I get, all very positive. As a Kansas fan, I\u2019m waiting for something horrible to happen to counter these good vibes. Like an earthquake that destroys the entire stadium. Fresno State was a good opponent to open the season against. Not very good but not terrible either. KU won easily, 31\u20137. It could have and probably should have been a bigger win, but there was the standard \u201cwe\u2019re holding stuff back so future opponents don\u2019t see everything.\u201d Which I also think is dumb. Jalon Daniels looked really good, except when he got hammered twice and took a minute to get up. They have to find a way to keep him from getting blasted a couple times a game. The running game looked really good. I think the two new receivers were terrific. The D-line was as good as I can remember. Two of the transfers on D look like difference makers. My biggest worries are pass blocking and the defensive secondary. The D was great on first and second down, but struggled on just about every third down. Lots of time to get better, and I\u2019m sure there are more complex schemes waiting to be rolled out once the competition gets tougher. Arsenal OK, American football wasn\u2019t the only football I watched. I\u2019ve been a casual follower of Arsenal for nearly 20 years, 20 years in which they haven\u2019t won the Premier League. They still are not favorites this year, but after making a series of massive moves in the transfer market, they have their best shot in decades to win the league. So I decided to try to watch more matches this year. Which means when events warrant, I\u2019ll roll them into my weekend updates. I watched a solid chunk of their 5\u20130 win over Leeds Saturday. They are obviously still working in some of the new players and their biggest signing was announced just before the game so wasn\u2019t even on the field, err, pitch. They go to title holders Liverpool this Sunday, which will tell us a lot about whether they are truly ready to challenge or will be finishing second for the third-straight season. Weather LET\u2019S FUCKING GO, MOTHER NATURE!!!! Those storms that passed on Tuesday took us straight from brutal summer to glorious fall. It did take a couple days for the heat to fully slide away, but by Thursday afternoon it felt like early October. Highs in the 70s, lows right around 60, no humidity. This morning when I woke up it was 55. The forecast shows this pattern sticking around for at least a week. It will surely get hot a couple more times – there is nothing better than an October heat wave – but the past five days have been amazing. We deserve them after the previous six weeks. College Girls We FaceTimed C on Saturday. She seemed to be doing well. She\u2019s reconnected with a girl, E, that was one of her best friends in grade school but who she drifted away from in 7th\/8th grades before E went to another high school. They are in the same major so will have classes together. E also took a class that started in early August so she had already met a few girls which opened some doors for C. We got a message from E\u2019s mom, who we love and spent a lot of time with back in the St. P\u2019s days, saying how happy it made her that our girls had linked up again. C said she had run into a couple other girls that were at St. P\u2019s before going to public high schools, one of whom lives just a couple blocks from us. I don\u2019t know if those two will stick, but it is funny that she\u2019s already run into several kids she grew up with on a campus of nearly 50,000 students. She also told us she walked her schedule on Friday and her classes weren\u2019t too spread out. IU is a big, sprawling campus, but luckily in the older core, you\u2019re never more than a 15\u201320 minute walk from anywhere you need to be. When I go to bed at night I have a Focus setting on my phone that blocks all calls except from numbers I have cleared. I don\u2019t need those sports threads I\u2019m in making my phone buzz once I call it a night. When I woke up Saturday morning I had a bunch of texts from IU that came in between 2:30\u20133:30 AM telling kids to shelter in place and, eventually, that it was safe but to avoid a certain area. I hustled down and turned on the news and saw there had been a shooting right off campus, an 18-year-old girl apparently shooting her boyfriend in the leg. Neither of them were students but it was still pretty close to where students might be on a Friday night\/Saturday morning. Luckily C was back in her dorm and safe. M joked that there was a shooting just off campus at UC her first night in the dorm her freshman year, so she still had C beat. What a time to be alive. \ud83d\ude2c Sunday was Bid Day at UC. This year M was in the role of helping girls who are going through rush, rather than vetting them for her house, so she saw a different side of it. She had told us her Little was \u201cobsessed\u201d by one of C\u2019s good friends from high school.[2] We found out yesterday that girl is going to be in M\u2019s house. The formal Big-Little relationships get locked in later in the fall, but there\u2019s a chance C\u2019s friend will end up being M\u2019s \u201cgranddaughter\u201d in the house. Small world. IU and UC both start classes today. And with that begins the most expensive two years of our lives with two in college and one still in private high school. As a bonus, since M is going overseas in the spring, her tuition for that program is due in three weeks. I may need to go sell some plasma. Do they still buy your plasma? BD has a really good defensive back that is committed to KU, but I didn\u2019t hear his name once. Not sure if CHS was avoiding him or he didn\u2019t play. \u00a0\u21a9 It cracks me up how she always uses this term. The active members always find a recruit to be \u201cobsessed\u201d with during rush. Seems weird to me. \u00a0\u21a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[242,33,26,67,13,58,14,37,15],"class_list":["post-16596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arsenal","tag-college","tag-family","tag-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-parenting","tag-soccer","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16598,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16596\/revisions\/16598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKansas Football<\/h3>\n
\nArsenal<\/h3>\n
\nWeather<\/h3>\n
\nCollege Girls<\/h3>\n
\n\n