Bowled Over....

Kentucky lost its 25th straight game to Tennessee last night. They were in good shape in this one. They were up 21-14 at the half, but their offense absolutely went south in the 2nd half. The freshman QB Morgan Newton as we say in the south "couldn't hit the broad side of a barn". Even with all that, Kentucky recovered a UT fumble with 3:00 min to go on the 37. Randall Cobb drove them to the Tenn 10. Then for some bizarre reason, UK went back to Newton. A draw and a QB run by Newton made it 4th and 2 at the 5. I pleaded with Coach Brooks to put Cobb back in and ran the Wildcat for the win. I knew the UK defense was worn out and couldn't hold up in OT and I had no faith in our offense to score again. UK kicked a field goal to tie and the game went into Overtime. UK lost 7 yards and missed a long field goal. UT reached the end zone in three plays to win 30-24.

That is the 2nd game where UK could have used Cobb at the end of a game and didn't. Cobb is the best play maker UK has, I don't understand why you wouldn't put the ball in his hands in crunch time.

Anyway, UK lost a chance to tie for 2nd in the SEC East to a tie for 4th. They would have most likely been in the Outback Bowl in sunny Tampa. There are now FIVE 7-5 teams in the sec now. Alabama and Florida will be in the BCS, one in the championship game and one in the Sugar Bowl. LSU will end up in the Capital One Bowl because of the Ole Miss loss to Mississippi State.

Now it gets interesting. Normally, Ole Miss would go to the Cotton Bowl, but they went they last year. I would target Tennessee for the Outback Bowl. It's not inconceivable they could swap. Then, with all those 7-5 teams, it makes it a challenge to pick the next teams. My guess would be Georgia in the Chick-Fil-A bowl since it's in Atlanta. The next tier would be the Music City Bowl and Liberty Bowl. They went to the Liberty last year plus that game is on January 2nd when the UK-Louisville basketball game is. Music City is on Sunday night, so if they go to that, I'll have to miss the start of the game. The next game in the list is the Independence in Shreveport Louisiana followed by the PapaJohns.com in Birmingham Alabama. The PJ bowl is on the 2nd as well though so it's probably out of the question.

I'm thinking UK will end up in Nashville for the 3rd time in 5 years and if not there, it'll be the Independence. We'll find out Sunday.

Traffic Jam...

When I go to training classes (in much larger cities than Paducah), I invariably get in discussions with classmates about work commutes. Many of my classmates end up driving over an hour to work because of a) distance (can't afford housing in the city) and/or b) traffic jams. I tell them I have a less than 15 minute drive to my employer (USEC). The only traffic jam I run into is when a farm implement is moving down the road or a cow gets loose.

Last night, we were coming home from Paducah and ran into a line of traffic on Hiway 62 west. That usually means a wreck of some type. Several police cars and vehicles passed us and we were finally allow to proceed to a side road for a detour.

This is the story and photo from the Paducah Sun. One of the perils of living in the country...

Wreck blamed on spilled soybeans
Teen driver skids on US 62 grain

Katie Fostevold, 17, of Bardwell was treated at Lourdes hospital Saturday night after her car “hydroplaned” on spilled soybeans on Blandville Road, hit a tree and burst into flames.

“She was trapped and screaming as smoke filled the car,” said Concord Fire Chief Bob McGowan, the first person on the scene. The driver was able to breathe because her side of the car smashed into the tree and its windows were broken, McGowan said.

McGowan said a few residents tried to extinguish the fire by carrying pans of water from their homes. McGowan used a large carbon-dioxide extinguisher from his vehicle to suppress the fire until fire crews and truck could arrive to extinguish the car’s flames.

“They essentially saved her life,” McCracken County Deputy Chad Shaw said.

Three other teenagers — Katie’s sister Amy Fostevold, 17, and Justin Cotton, 18, both of Bardwell, and Chris Polivick, 17, of Arlington — were in the car. All three were out of the car by the time McGowan arrived, he said.

The three passengers were treated and released at Lourdes. No condition information was available on Katie Fostevold.

At least 500 bushels of soybeans had spilled onto Blandville between Fisher and Gholson roads because a latch on a truck carrying the load was not secured, Sheriff Jon Hayden said.

“When the truck turned west onto Blandville Road from Fisher Road, the load of soybeans spilled onto the road,” Hayden said. “The truck driver was not aware” that the latch on the truck was not secured, Hayden said. As much as 4 inches of soybeans covered the road.

Fostevold was driving west on Blandville when her car skidded on the soybeans, veered over the center line and almost collided with oncoming traffic. She swerved back to the right, spun, left the road and smashed sideways into a tree, McGowan said.

Traffic came to a stop at Childress Road, and deputies set up roadblocks at Massac Church Road to reroute westbound traffic.

The Kentucky Highway Department cleared the road by using a snowplow equipped with sweeper brushes to push the soybeans to the side, spokesman Keith Todd said.

“We usually try to keep that kind of equipment available during the holiday travel season because it might be needed at a roadside accident,” Todd said.

Crews were able to clear the road by 8 p.m., about three hours after the wreck occurred.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

Josh hasn't been home since he headed off to UK for his freshman year. We've been up there a few times to visit. We looked forward to him getting here. He said that he'd be home Monday night or Tuesday depending on what he could work out with his professors.

Sunday morning, I got up and prepared to run. As I looked out our computer room window, I saw a car in the driveway. Upon closer inspection, it was Josh's. I presumed that one of his friends drove it home for him. Donna then said "His bedroom door was shut!". At this point, we ran to his bedroom and found him asleep in his bed. Turns out he left work and just drove home on Saturday night getting there about 11:30pm. I hadn't ever been asleep that long (I stayed up listening and reveling in this). Jonathan was in on the secret (which is amazing since he is usually terrible at keeping secrets). It was so good to see him. I hated to leave but I ran and got back as quick as I could.

When we got to church Sunday morning. He said one of the big reasons he headed home early was so he could go to church at home. What a great thing!

Donna never looked so happy doing somebody's laundry in all her life.

I should have remembered Occam's Razor when I saw the car..

Sighing over the Cy...

I am sure that you know by now that Tim Lincecum won the Cy Young award over two very deserving Cardinals (Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright). Needless to say (as a Cards fan), I wasn't really happy.

This was one of those years that it seemed like Lincecum was given the award before the season started (kinda like happens with the Heisman trophy). I'll admin he looked awfully good against the Cardinals when I saw him pitch this summer. He did fade down the stretch while the Cardinals pitchers got better. He led the league in strikeouts and tied for shutouts (with Joel Pinero of the Cardinals). That's it. He was 2nd in ERA but tied for FOURTH in wins. Wainwright won 19 games (most in the league). He should have gotten his 20th. I personally witnessed that debacle when he left with a 6-0 lead only for the bullpen to give up 12 runs and lose it. He also lead the league in innings pitched. Carpenter led the league in ERA (by almost a quarter of a run). He was 2nd in the league in wins behind his teammate despite missing over a month of the season. He led the league in winning percentage.

There were two bizarre votes cast. Keith Law who is with ESPN and out of Boston actually got to cast the Atlanta vote (the Atlanta Consitution doesn't allow their writers to participate). He left Carpenter completely off and voted for Javier Vazquez very conveniently of Atlanta as 2nd. An Arizona writer (very conveniently again) put Dan Haren of Arizona in as his third choice. BTW, Wainwright was voted the Outstanding pticher in the NL by the players (the Player's Choice awards).

I guess it didn't really occur to me you only get to vote for 3 pitchers. I know for MVP, you vote for 10. I don't know why that doesn't happen with the Cy Young. I've heard all sorts of stats quoted as to why Lincecum should have gotten the award. I love math and stats, but I think this is very overanalyzed.

But then, I think of the old Peanuts cartoon where Lucy is giving Charlie Brown all these stats about why their team is terrible. Charlie Brown finally tells her "Lucy, tell your statistics to shut up".

Random thoughts

I haven't had anything happen in the last few weeks to merit a full blog entry. Therefore, here are a bunch of random thoughts.

• I've seen UK's football team play twice this year. They look OK, but they are nowhere hear upper SEC eschelon yet. However, they could easily be 8-2 and a top 25 team if they had not blown games to South Carolina and Mississippi State.
  
  
• UK is bowl eligible. Unless they pull an upset in the next two weeks, it's looking like the Independence Bowl in Shreveport (and a long drive). I've read UK wouldn't want the Liberty or Papajohn's.com (yes we've come to that in names) since they are on January 2nd. Uk plays UL on that date and it's like the Super Bowl of Kentucky.
  
  
• Arizona looks like two different teams. They win on the road and lose (to SF and Carolina) or almost lose (Houston and Seattle) at home. This is a complete reversal from last year.
  
  
• The New York Giants have collapsed. They should have won their last game but not being able to score a TD when they ran an INT back to the San Diego 4 yd line near the game's end bit them. I hate it for Jonathan because of the abuse he gets, but you take the bad with the good as a diehard fan.
  
  
• I've eaten at the K-Lair twice this year. It's pretty good and reasonably priced. I'd recommend it if you go to a UK Football game. Its ironic that I never went there the whole time I went to UK.
  
  
• My wonderful wife sat through an entire football game with me. It was the first date I ever took to a UK game.
  
  
• I would have never thought she'd be so into sports now when we first got married. Last Sunday, I heard someone say from the living room "That's not a catch!!". Who would have ever dreamed that would not be Jonathan or me but Donna..
  
  
• I watched more NFL football last Sunday than I had in a long time. Two observations. One, it's a rare punt return that doesn't get called back for a penalty. Two, it's seemed like any time a receiver didn't catch a pass, he was pleading for pass interference. It's like a batter thinking any pitch he takes is automatically a ball since he didn't swing.
  
  
• The beltway around Lexington is still called New Circle Road. It was called that when I lived in Lexington. Still haven't located Old Circle Road.
  
  
• Went to BD's Mongolian Restaurant in Lexington. It was excellent. You load up as much meat and veggies as you can in a bowl and they cook it for you and give it back. You can put it over rice or in a tortilla. It's great.
  
  
• We went to Stone Cold Creamery afterwards. I should learn that even it's only a dollar more for the huge size than the small, I need to resist the temptation.
  
  
• The same lady has been cutting my hair now for over 25 years. I told her that she cannot ever retire because I don't think I can ever get someone to cut my hair as well as she does.
  
  
• We've been taking our cars to Mansfield's for over 20 years now. They do a great job and are reasonable in their pricing. I don't know what I'll do if they ever close.
  

The Big Hardee and Sherlock Holmes..

I imagine you are wondering the connection between those two. Read on and see.

I was in the Kentucky Oaks Mall area at lunch. I saw on the Hardees marquee that the Big Hardee combo was available for 3.99. You've no doubt seen their commercials about how great it is and how it puts the Big Mac to shame. I am a Big Mac guy. That is my standard order at McDonalds. I ordered it on my first date with Donna. Jonathan orders it now. You can say what you want about McDonalds, but I have always found that I consistently get a decent meal from one no matter where I go.

I ordered the Big Hardee and let me tell you, it was more disappointing than I even thought it would be. First off, it looks NOTHING like the ads. I looked at what I got and looked at its picture on the menu board. It didn't even resemble what I had. The burgers do not reach the edge of the bun like the picture showed. I didn't even get a bit of burger on my first bite. The burgers aren't that great, the sauce wasn't as good as a Big Mac's, and it had too much lettuce. I won't be switching.

I got home and settled down to watch Superman - Batman:Public Enemies on DVD (we'd Netflixed it). One of the trailers was for the new Sherlock Holmes movie with Morton Downey Jr. To be honest, I was already a bit concerned about him playing Holmes (although he did OK with Iron Man).

I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I've got all the books. I read the first group of adventures when I was young and thought he'd died in the "The Adventure of the Final Problem" only to find out he came back from that to be in even more adventures (which I promptly gobbled up). I've read and re-read them. They are among my favorite set of books (right up there with Mark Twain and Jules Verne).

Well, watching the trailer just disappointed me again. He doesn't play Holmes anything like the books. There also appears to be a love interest for him. Any Holmes fan knows that NEVER happened in the books. The only woman he really respected was Irene Adler (in "Scandal in Bohemia"). The books concentrated on his keen analytical deductions of mysteries and even had some excellent adverture scenes in them. This trailer just left me with a bad feeling in my mouth.

That's two disappointments in one day. Hopefully, Kentucky beats Mississippi State tonight..

No Respect...

Interesting quote from Kurt Warner when asked about if the Cardinals felt they got enough recognition after their Sunday night win over the Giants.

You know, I don't think a lot of people care about it but... there's always a part of you that want people to recognize what you're doing, and you want them to recognize the things that you represent. And that's one of the things that I don't think we get enough of. And yeah, maybe rightfully so that we haven't had a lot of success here so you understand it. ...I watched some highlights on ESPN yesterday, and they didn't show a single offensive highlight of the Arizona Cardinals when they talked about our game. It was all focused on the Giants and granted we made some plays in there, but it just continually amazes you that after the success we had last year and going to the Super Bowl, that we still don't get very much national recognition. ...People continue to think of us, I think as a second rate team and organization, and that's what we want to change and we want to make sure you know the guys in that locker room, that we get the credit that we deserve for the football that we're playing.


He's right about "we haven't had a lot of success here". Being a Cardinals fan for almost 35 years, that's an understatement. Also,(in my opinion), ESPN has a severe East Coast bias. Granted, I only see ESPN when I am out of town, but that is what it looks like to me. I jokingly tell Jonathan during baseball season that it ought to be called RSYN (Red Sox Yankees Network). He just laughs and says "They just talk about the best team (his Yankees) and you're just jealous".

Kurt, just keeping using these kinds of things to keep you and your teammates motivated...