Billy Gillispie chase scene

Saw this on John Clay's blog (Herald Leader sports reporter) this morning. It's classic.



Alan Cutler was there when I was at UK years ago. I've always been let's say "Less than fond of him".

Mouse Nation

I've spent the last few days in "Mouse Nation" (what I've always called Orlando). I generally go to a Microsoft Exchange gathering each year(ExchangeConnections) to learn all I can cram in my head about email.

I drove down to Nashville and went to worship at my 2nd church home (Lebanon Road church of Christ). Adam Faughn did his usual fine job with a lesson on the role of older ladies in the church. I went to the airport from there. Again, I used Southwest's curbside check in and got in and through security in less than 10 minutes. I got to again enjoy a leisurely lunch at O'Charleys. I was A34, so I got to grab a nice aisle seat and the trip went fine. I drove to the Hyatt Grand Cypress (right on the edge of Disneyworld) to register for the convention.

I checked into my hotel (Homewood Suites) and then headed for evening worship at Kissimmee church of Christ. This is where I attend when I am in the Orlando area. It's about a 20 minute drive from the Disney area and I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a place to worship while in the Disney area.

I generally never stay in the host hotel in Orlando. One, its right on the border of the Mouse plantation so it's generally packed. Two, I really like staying in Homewood Suites and I can get a bigger room with free breakfast for less money. When I got there Monday morning, I was surprised to find many parking spots (this generally is never the case). I could tell upon going in that attendance was really down. I later found out it was about one third of what is normally is. There are always vendor displays each year. Normally, there are more than 30. This year, there were TWELVE. There were not nearly as many sessions as normal to pick from and several of the speakers whose sessions I always like to go to (Paul Robichaux, Devin Granger, Jim McBee and Steve Riley) were not there.

That said, I still picked up a lot of knowledge both from the session speakers and fellow attendees. The food they provided was really good. They normally do box lunches on the last day, but they did a cookout this year that was excellent. It was still a good conference but just not nearly up to snuff as previous years.

Random notes

• I went to Tony Roma's Monday night and couldn't resist the temptation of all you can eat ribs. It was great. I could barely waddle back to my hotel room afterwards though.
  
• I got to see the UK win over UNLV. It didn't start til 9:30 Eastern though so I was up til 11:30pm (way past my bedtime). I had to get up for a busy day at 6:30am, be there by 8:00 and stay til after 6. I was tired when I got back that night, but fortunately, Homewood Suites puts out a light dinner every night. I was able to get hot dogs and chips and that was fine for me that night.
  
• The weather was great. It was 90 when I got off the plane. It felt really good to be warm all week. Running outside in the warmer weather each morning makes it really easy to get loose. When I got off the plane in Nashville and was waiting for my shuttle to Economy parking, I was pretty cold (even though it was in the high fifties) since I'd gotten used to Orlando weather.
  
• I went to Kobe's Japanese Steak House before Bible Study Wednesday night. I found out that they are not kidding when they say that grill is hot! I was reaching for my container of sauces and touched the tip of my finger to the grill. Ye-o-ow. No lasting damage though..
  
• The crowds in Orlando in general were down as well. I guess all the talk of "the economy" has people scared.
  
• I managed to get A19 for my trip home so I got a good aisle seat again. The Southwest Terminal in Orlando is fabulous. Generally at an airport, people are scrounging for power outlets for their laptops. Not here. They had numerous counters with outlets and even USB connections to charge your laptops and phones (for free). They even had padded chairs with outlets next to them in great supply. And there was free wireless Internet (not the usual 4.95 to 9.95 you pay at other places). I still don't know why other airlines don't copy Southwest more. Right now, I'm sold on them. I am just about to the point of driving to Nashville for all my plane trips for the combination of attending at Lebanon Road and flying Southwest.

It was great to get home Thursday afternoon. I brought Zaxby's from Clarksville home for us (they have fabulous chicken strips). I wish someone would open one of these in Paducah.

Had to laugh..

Even though UK is in the NIT for first time since I was in high school, I had to laugh at this picture in the Herald Leader today.

When the going gets tough..

Today was a day I had to gird up my loins for a very difficult task. It's something I just do not like to do something I'd rather just about do anything else than. Today I went SHOPPING....

I was in the process of packing for what is hopefully my last business training trip for quite some time. I was packing running shorts and noted that most of the pair I have are pretty much non-wearable. So, I would have to go a place I really do not like to go - the MALL.

When I got to buy something, I generally know exactly what I want, exactly what it costs, and where its located. This way I can get in and out relatively painlessly. When Donna occasionally sends me to the store to buy something, she tells me exactly what it costs and where its located. I agreed to go to "Super Saturday" at Supervalu today. She actually cut out the items she wanted out of the ad and sent them with me.

Donna told me that Sears was having its "Door Buster" sale and would be opening early for that. When I got there, I begin to think I'd sneaked in early because there was hardly anybody in there. I found some shorts I liked at a good price but went ahead and steeled myself to look around.

I went down to the other end of the mall to JC Penney's. They had some shorts I liked so I picked out a couple of pair to buy. It took me a good five minutes to find an open register to pay for them at. I was almost put them back.

Going back, Kandy Kraze was calling to me. "Stuart, you haven't had any chocolate stars in forever". "Come back to me". Chocolate stars (for those who don't know) are just about the best chocolate candy on earth. I got turned onto them when I was a child. That was back when Sears was "the store" in Paducah. They had a candy counter that we'd always visit when there. I would get chocolate stars. They used to sell bags of them at Wal-Mart but fortunately for my waistline they stopped.

I checked in the "sports speciality" stores on the way back to Sears but they were way overpriced. I ended up buying one more pair at Sears and I was done.

To be honest, the only reason I really ever like going to the mall is to get big cookies for special occasions from "The Great American Cookie Company" or to go to "Chick-Fil-A". Chick-Fil-A, if you are listening out there, you'd get a lot more of the Yancy business if you'd ever open that long rumored store OUTSIDE of the mall...

I survived it...

Your dentist's name is Crentist???

At my last checkup a few weeks ago, I found out I need to have a filling replaced. It was originally scheduled for April 15th (somewhat ironically). However, my dentist's office called a couple of days ago with a cancellation opening Wednesday at 3. Josh was already going for a filling at that time, so we went together.

I've been a patient at White and White Family Dentistry for years. It was originally Dr. Sid Brantley's. He moved on to ortodontia (he did Jonathan's braces) and Dr. Keith White took over. I had become a patient because when I called my original dentist I'd used since I was child with a very sore tooth, he said he couldn't see me for two weeks. Dr Brantley took me that evening (he did Thursday evening appointments) and I stuck with them ever since.

It's been years since I had anything but a checkup so I was a bit apprehensive. It went totally painlessly though. I didn't even feel it when they injected my gum to deaden it and the tooth. Dr Kelvin White and his assistant did a great job.

We did find out that Josh has impacted wisdom teeth. I discussed with his dentist there (Dr. Dustin Hall) and we'll have to decide what we want to do and when.

BTW, if my post title makes no sense, it comes from an episode of the The Office.

Michael: Sounds like a good dentist.
Dwight: Oh yeah...
Michael: What's his name?
Dwight: (lying) Crentist.
Michael: Your dentist's name is crentist?
Dwight: Yeah...
Michael: Huh... Sounds a lot like dentist.
Dwight: Maybe that's why he became a dentist

Flatcats...

I told myself I wasn't going to watch the game. But, I kept going to check in. Of course, Kentucky just managed to tease me enough to keep me watching, but never really be in any position to win.

Billy Gillespie reminds me of the coach at Ballard Memorial when Jonathan and Josh played. He is going to run his particular offense no matter what the other team does on defense. He'll play the defense he wants to play no matter what the other team does. He'll use the most bizarre substitution patterns as if to say "I'm the coach and I'll do what I want, so there".

Random Points

• Coach, did you notice that defense Florida was playing? It's called a ZONE. Kentucky has been known to play that pretty successfully in the past to shut down penetration (which is the big problem Kentucky has this year on defense).
  
• I am really starting to think that 54 point game was a bad thing for Jodie Meeks. He's reached the point now where he will not pass the ball even when he has three guys on him.
  
• What happened to DeAndre Liggins? Think he'll be back next year?
  
• What about Darius Miller? He played a lot in the first half and we never saw him again.
  
• Looking over and seeing the UK coach laughing during a game is not encouraging.
  

My guess is UK will get put out in the first or second round of the SEC tournament. They'll get a home game in the NIT quite possibly against Tennessee Martin, Middle Tennessee or Murray State and lose. Perfect capper to the season.

I'll never forget my junior year at UK in 1982. They started out ranked second in the nation to North Carolina (who had some freshman named Jordan on the team along with James Worthy and Sam Perkins). By the end of the year, they were a six seed in the NCAA tournament. They had what was then a play-in game to meet Louisville for the first time in 25 years. Kentucky messed up those plans by losing to Middle Tennessee who had only got in by winning the OVC tournament (they weren't even the best team in the OVC that year). I heard from every Murray State person I knew when they said "We even beat those guys and you couldn't?". North Carolina went on to beat Patrick Ewing's Georgetown team to win the National Championship.

Westkentuckystar.com

I've found a web site that provides local news better than the other local media websites. Our local newspaper requires that you pay to access their site (one of the few I am aware of that still does this). The local TV station doesn't seem to update theirs with regularity. The site I use now is www.westkentuckystar.com. It is done by Bristol Broadcasting (who owns several radio stations in this area). I went to school with Donna Groves (the news director there) and have always found her to do a a really good job in getting information out quickly and most importantly accurately.

One feature of the site I especially like is the alerts section. You can be alerted via email on School Closings, Breaking News, Weather Alerts, and Traffic. The latter has already helped me to avoid a problem coming home via the Interstate on a business trip.

I'd recommend you take a look.

Two Tickets to Paradise..

I cannot bring myself to blog about the sad state of UK bball right now, so I'll go with a different topic.

I've been a Cardinals baseball fan since I was 12 years old. I remember that 1974 season vividly. Lou Brock stole 118 bases to shatter Maury Wills record of 104. The Cardinals came down to the last day and lost the NL East to the Pirates. The Cubs choked away a game with the Pirates that would have allowed the Cardinals to play for a tie (this started my long standing dislike of them of course).

I try to go to a game or two every year. The last few years I've resorted to Ebay to get any kind of decent tickets. A couple of days ago I got an email offering me the chance to buy tickets a day before others since I was member of the Cardinal email club. I've tried this before and the good seats are already gone. I took a shot at it today. I was amazed when I managed to get field boxes behind home plate for two games in June. Getting multiple field boxes for a game is usually almost impossible without buying on the resale market. I am not sure whether to attribute this to the lack of confidence of Cardinal fans about the upcoming season or the fear of the "weak" economy. The latter is my guess.

I also bought tickets to see the Yankees play at Kansas City next month. The things a dad has to do for his sons...