Stuart Speaks

WKCTC

2011-12-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

Last week, WKCTC (which I shall always call PCC)finished in the top five for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. They received a $100,000 prize for doing so. This of course reminds me of my days there and how much I enjoyed it and how great a place it was (and still is).

I had some great professors there. Jackie Moss made Calculus I seem pretty easy. Sarah Penry got me through the mysteries of Calc III and IV. John Robertson taught me a lot of things about Economics that I still remember. Dr. Neil Adams was a great Physics teacher. Dr. Counce made Psychology an interesting topic (even though I was forced to take the class for my degree). And who could ever forget Dr. Chun Ro? I made some great friends there. They let us play basketball in the gym and I probably played every day I was there. The main thing though is I was well prepared to move on to UK when I was done. The only thing they lacked with a few of the freshman-sophomore level Computer Science type classes I would need. But, I managed to get those in at UK later. I also never worked up the nerve to ask out one of the several nice, intelligent, pretty young ladies I met there (but that worked out for the best).

From my understanding, it's still a very good place to attend. They've expanded their offerings quite a bit in 30 years. They merged with the vocational school next to it to be able to offer a vast array of options for students. It's good for people who are wanting to start college right out of high school or go back to get a degree later in life.

The costs there are pretty reasonable. The tuition costs are about 2000 a semester (based on 15 hours). This is comparable to 3300 at Murray State and 4600 at UK (and even more at private schools). That doesn't even include the fact that most students attending there don't have to leave home and save all that room and board cost. There is also plenty of scholarship money available. In fact, all you have to do is make above a certain GPA or ACT score (or a combination thereof) and you can get part or all of your tuition paid. Plus, Kentucky residents can use their KEES money with this. If you have good grades and a decent ACT score, you can pretty well cover your tuition with no problem. Going there can save a student a lot of money and even keep them from running up the large amount of student loan debt most seem to exit college with nowadays.

The other benefit is a high school graduate can more gradually ease into college life. College classes and expectations of professors/teachers are radically different than high school. If you couple that with the newness of living on your own for the first time (and everything that goes along with that), it's a lot dumped on an 18 year old. I know a lot of young people who went away to school and end up back at home in a year because they simply couldn't handle all that. If they go to WKCTC, they only have to deal with the first issue and can get used to that before having to deal with learning to live on their own later.

Of course, one needs to research whether the college they plan on transferring to after WKCTC will accept all of the classes they take there. They also need to be sure they can get enough of their pre-requisite courses at WKCTC. There can be colleges and majors that simply are good fits for a person to complete by starting at WKCTC.

Finally, I will hear the argument that "It's not a real college" (my own son most likely will tell me this after reading this entry). I can tell your of numerous colleagues and friends who went there (back when I did and even recently) who have done very well in their careers. I know in hiring where I work, I never knew PCC/WKCTC to cause the least bit of hindrance in hiring someone.

I would tell any young person (or older person) who is planning to attend college to at least consider the option of WKCTC. I certainly feel it's a very viable option

The Day John Lennon Died..

2011-12-08T18:18:00.000-08:00

(I am ignoring the obvious story of the day for what I originally planned to post here today). This is one of those days I will always remember. 31 years ago, I was watching Monday night football when Howard Cosell broke in with a stunning announcement. John Lennon had been murdered outside his apartment in the Dakotas in New York City. I was not a huge Beatles fan at the time, I became one over the next few years. But I remember thinking how sad this was.

John Lennon had taken five years off from his singing career. He had started to become successful again. His freshly released album "Double Fantasy" was climbing the charts as well as the ironically named single "Starting Over". After he was murdered, the album rose to the number 1 position and stayed there for almost two months. The single stayed number 1 for five weeks. The album ultimately won the Grammy for Best Album. I remember watched the Grammy show while at UK and being surprised that it won. "Starting Over" lost out to "Bette Davis Eyes" for Song of The Year.

I remember this day for an entirely different reason now. It's my lovely wife's birthday. It's always a running joke when Donna will say "What's tomorrow?" and one of us will say "It's the day John Lennon died".

Proving that you can find anything on Youtube, here's a clip of Howard Cosell breaking into the Monday Night Football to announce John Lennon's murder. This moment regularly makes Top Ten list of the MNF most memorable moments. Howard Cosell announced it as New England tried to win the game on a last second field goal (which was blocked) and the game went to overtime. Notice how primitive the graphics look compared to today.

Marathon Man

2011-12-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

To all my readers, I owe you an apology. I've been keeping a secret from you for the past five months. It's part of the reason I've not been blogging as much (only partly, partly is sheer laziness). I've been working on something on my bucket list; something I said I'd do for the first time when I turned fifty (which I turned last month). I've been training to run in the St Jude Marathon.

I got a plan from Runners World that was an 18 week training plan for the marathon. I got very familiar with tempo runs, Yassos, and strides. I also got used to the weekly "long run". With most training plans, you build up gradually to several long runs of 20 miles. The most I've ever run at once is 14 miles (in training for a couple of half marathons I've run). When those long runs started hitting 16, 18 and finally 20 miles, that was rough. A lot of it is mental, it's hard to keep your mind occupied on a task that long. I listened to a lot of Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard pod-casts to make it through. The first 14 weeks or so went really well. Then, on my second 20 miler, I couldn't make it. I ragged out at 15 miles and was really discouraged. The next week started my taper where you reduce your mileage in the few weeks before the race to allow yourself to be fresh for the run. So, that little bit of doubt started to creep in.

Then the week before, I felt myself starting to get sick. I had congestion and a cough. I toughed it out til the Monday before the big day and finally decided to go see the doctor when I developed pink eye. My doctor (Dr. Pittard) wasn't in, but I saw the urgent care doctor (Dr. Grumley). He gave me what he called a "cocktail" of medicines plus antibiotic eye drops (which I referred to as magic eye drops). I dutifully took them even taking liquid cough medicine (which I usually cannot handle). I started finally getting some sleep and recovering.

That old enemy doubt kept creeping in. I kept saying how I didn't finish that last long run and now I've been sick. I tried to talk myself out of going. My two encouragers keep me going though. Donna told me she had been so impressed at how I'd stuck with my training and she knew I'd be able to do this. Jonathan gave me "tough love" saying "Old Man, don't wimp out now". I made sure to get plenty of sleep each night. I carbo-loaded all week. When Friday came and it was time to leave, we got our rental car and headed for Memphis.

The drive went well. Donna drove the whole way so I could rest. We stayed at the Hampton Inn on near Beale Street and the start of the run. I had managed to get a very nice two room suite with our Hilton Points. Donna and I walked to Huey's to eat dinner and had ice cream at Maggie Moo's. I felt fine and thought just maybe I'd pull this thing off. I went to bed early and offered up a prayer that I'd do OK the next morning.

The next day dawned with temperatures in the mid 40's. It was going to be a perfect day to run. I would not have to weigh myself down with gloves, hat, or sweat pants. I ate a good breakfast and loaded my pocket with my Mp3 player and a couple of packets of Chocolate GU and I was ready to go. We walked to the start about 7:30am to wait for the 8:00am start. I used the bathroom one last time and got into my corral. At St Jude, they have corrals you get into based on your projected per minute pace. I knew especially having been sick I need to get in one of the back ones. I got in the corral and found the pace man for a 5:10 marathon (they hold up a big stick with that number on it). Donna gave me a hug and kiss and one more word of encouragement and I lined up with my corral to start.

They release each corral about 2 minutes apart as to not clog things up. So, it was about 25 minutes before my corral got up to start. I was still OK. We got the signal to go and off we went! Everything was good. The only issue was people had gotten in corrals that were meant for faster people and we ended up having to slow down and ultimately dodge them. There were even walkers in front of us (which should never happen). We ran through down and past the Mississippi riverfront. Then, we ran down Beale Street. Donna was there and I waved and gave her the thumbs up that I was still fine.

After that, we turned and headed for the actual St Jude property. On the way, there were all sorts of young people entertaining us with singing and music. Running through the St Jude Campus is amazing. A lot of the kids and parents are out there high fiving you as you run through. It's hard not to get a lump in your throat when you see them holding up signs saying "I'm a Survivor thanks to you" or "I'm alive because of you". There was a lot of parents holding up signs thanking you for helping their kids. If that doesn't encourage you, nothing can. The race has fabulous encouragement all the way through. Even the policemen and women doing traffic control shout out encouragement all the way.

The first 13 miles went well. My pacer went a bit too fast though. He was supposed to do about a 11:49 mile and he did about 11:29. I did fine though. At about the 12.5 mile mark, the half marathon's head for Auto Zone park to finish and the crowd thins out. You loop back through Beale Street again. Donna was there again and I gave her the thumbs up to let her know I was fine. Now, you head out to the Fairgrounds (which I remembered from seeing UK's Liberty Bowl victory in person there a few years ago). Things started to get rougher and as I knew it would, my pace slowed. I had one more ace up my sleeve. Kentucky was playing North Carolina and I was able to listen to it. That got me through the next 8 miles. I am sure people thought something was wrong with me as I kept yelling and grimacing as I ran. I walked through the water stations as I drank powerade and water each time. I had a packet of GU each five miles. The encouragers were still there though and it helped a lot. I crossed the 20 mile barrier and was still OK. I kept up fine. At mile 24, a lady and her son had pretzels and Dixie cups of coke. That gave me a nice little boost and I knew I could make it. I got to mile 25 and I knew I'd make if I had to crawl.

Right before you get to Autozone ball park, you have to climb a ramp. I made it fine though and I knew it was downhill into the stadium. I was able to pick up my pace and run in just fine. There were plenty of cheering people there and I held up my arms in celebration as I ran around the warning track and across the finish! I had done it! I looked at my sports watch and saw I'd run a 5:32 time. I was very pleased with that. I got my medal and looked for Donna. She hugged me and told me how proud she was of me. She said how impressed she was with how strong I looked at the finish. They had a food area and I went through grabbing all sorts of things to eat as I walked. They even had Krispy Kremes so I had to grab a few and eat them as we walked back to the hotel. My legs were tired, but I had no pain. When I took off my shoes, I had no blisters or black toenails. My knees were fine too. I went back to the hotel and spent the rest of evening resting. I did manage to get up about five and walk a block with Donna to get burgers at Dyer's. I felt OK the next morning and we headed for home. We worshiped with the brethren at Hayti church of Christ (who were very friendly) and got home about 2pm.

I still have the glow of this accomplishment. I finished and I didn't finish last in my age group or overall. I had set a goal and made it. If a fifty year old man can run his first marathon and finish, you should be encouraged to set a goal for something you've always wanted to do and pull it off.

Bob Forsch

2011-11-07T17:18:00.001-08:00

I got an email from Donna last week with bad news. She mentioned she had seen where Bob Forsch had died. She remembered that he was the person who threw out the first pitch of the seventh game of the World Series. I remember thinking how fit he looked, you'd have thought he could throw a few innings if need be that night.

1974 was the first year I was really into the Cardinals. It was exciting year with Lou Brock chasing Maury Wills stolen base record. The Cardinals pitching staff was not that good. Bob Gibson was fading. Off season pickup Lynn McGlothen started fast at 12-3 and even pitched in the All-Star game but faded as the season wore on. Veterans like Alan Foster and Sonny Seibert weren't pitching well either. In mid season, the Cardinals brought up a young rookie named Bob Forsch. He pitched well for the Cardinals and they just missed winning the NL East that year.

Bob anchored the Cardinals staff for the next 14 seasons. He won 20 games in 1977. He pitched two no-hitters. They were the only two thrown in that Busch Stadium and he's the only Cardinal pitcher to throw 2. I remember listening to the first one in 1977 (vs the Phillies). I didn't know about the 2nd one in 1983 until somebody told me at work about it. I worked in Louisville and they didn't cover the Cardinals like back home. He pitched in three World Series. Bob Forsch was one of my favorite Cardinals.

I imagine Bob Forsch was on top of the world after throwing out that first pitch in Game 7 and then watching his Cardinals win the World Series. He never dreamed what would happen to him in a week. He never would have thought his old manager (Whitey Herzog) or Cardinal great Stan Musial would outlive him. This just shows how fleeting life can be.

Run for the Border...

2011-10-07T18:43:00.001-07:00

Donna and I were at the church building working to get all the powerpoint slides (songs and lessons) ready for the Central Ladies Day. Jonathan was there mowing. After we got done, we decided to grab something for dinner. After some discussion, we decided to go Taco Bell.

Taco Bell is one of our favorite Sunday after church food destinations. They give discounts on tacos on Sunday and cleverly call this Taco Sunday. I usually think of Taco Bell as the epitome of inexpensive food. We ordered a standard amount of food and I was a bit surprised to find that our total was over 18.00. I started looking and found that tacos were now 1.09 apiece. They even had some burrito value meals that were more than 8.00! It's funny how you get certain things stuck in your head for years about what things should cost. For example. it took me a long time to not think a hotel room that cost more than 100.00 a night wasn't outrageous. This doesn't mean that we won't ever go back but I'll certainly give it more thought next time.

We did go to the Dollar Tree to grab some candy for dessert. Jonathan and I had fun playing with the cheap toys. I grabbed a light saber and held it to his face saying (of course) "Luke, I am your father". We also played with the plastic armor (which was of course too small for us). We finally got back to the church building. April had just arrived from college and of course Jonathan abandoned us immediately.

Time..

2011-09-19T19:35:00.001-07:00

I see this commercial quite often during my daily dose of Daniel Boone on Retro TV and I really like it.

Because we have the two best sons there are, I am often asked "What advice do you have about being a good dad?" (as if I am actually a good dad). Anyway, one of the things I'll say is "Spend as much time with your kids as you can". This commercial reminds me that it doesn't have to being doing what seems "really cool stuff". Just hanging out with your kids is something they'll enjoy and it helps build that strong bond that will last.

I Left My Heart...in Ballard County

2011-09-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

I'm reposting this from three years ago in honor of the day..

Monday September 15th was the 24th anniversary of a day that set my life (happily) on a drastic change.

I was a fledging programmer at what was called Martin Marietta then (now USEC) and living in an apartment in Forest Hills. I had gone over to my buddy Jeff Lawrence's trailer (known to this area as Dr. Jeff on WKYQ). He asked if I had plans for the next evening. I said no thinking we were going to have one of our regular marathon Trivial Pursuit matches. He says "Well, you've got a date". I was aghast. "I've set you up with someone I work with at Trader's Mart" (Trader's Mart is a long defunct want-ad kind of paper). He told me I had to go because I wouldn't be allowed to hang out at his place the next night so I reluctantly agreed.

The next day, I went with my friends Keith "Corky" Johnson and Jim Hill to Massac State Park. I sat on the bank of the Ohio River looking and thinking "What kind of idiot goes out with a girl he's never seen before?".

The hour approached and I headed out to meet her at Trader's Mart in my 1983 Trans-Am. All I knew is her name was Donna Woods and she'd be in a black Olds Cutlass.

I got there and the car was there. I watched the door open with apprehension. Out stepped the most beautiful brown haired brown-eyed girl I'd ever seen. I almost couldn't speak. I finally said "I'm Stuart, do you want to see my driver's license to prove it?". She actually laughed at my bad joke.

She wanted to go to McDonalds and eat so we did. She had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had a Big Mac. I saw some guys I knew and I think they were in shock when they saw me out with this beautiful girl.

She wanted to see Grandview USA at the Paducah Drive-In. I was glad to go there since I worked there for years each summer until I started working full-time at Martin Marietta. My boss (who recently passed away) Richard Phillips was at the ticket booth. I guess he was so shocked to see with such a pretty date that he let us in free. He also told me to go to the concession stand and get free drinks and popcorn. Donna told me later how impressed she was when I brought out drinks and a large brown bag full of buttered popcorn.

The whole date cost 5.00 (including gasoline). She even shared my frugality beliefs! I was enthralled...

The night went great and she even agreed to see me again.

The next morning as I was getting ready to go to church, my phone rang. The caller introduced himself as the "Ballard County Sheriff" and he needed to talk to me about an incident last night. The girl I had gone out with was from Ballard County. My main experiences with Ballard County were to go to the "Game Preserve" (as my Uncle James called it) to camp with my family and a visit to the "Green Palace" (which was really really Green) to watch Lone Oak play in a district basketball tournament. I remember all the kids there blew duck calls the whole game. Anyway, I thought "Oh man, she didn't make it home and now I am the last one to see her and the main suspect". It turned out that they had picked up a couple of guys I know as they came off the Wickliffe bridge and they wanted me to vouch for their idenities.

For reasons I'll never understand, she kept going out with me. We've been married 22 years. She still laughs at my bad jokes. I've worked at "Martin Marietta" for almost 25 years. We drove that black Olds Cutlass til it wouldn't run any more. I've lived in Ballard County for 16 years now. I still order a Big Mac when I go to McDonalds. And I couldn't be happier....

Ugly in Nashville..

2011-09-03T13:37:00.001-07:00

When we found out last year that Western Kentucky's game with Kentucky would be played at LP Field in Nashville, Jonathan and I figured we would go. We knew we could easily get there in a coupleof hours. When schedule came out, we saw the game was on Thursday instead of Saturday. Jonathan doesn't have class on Friday and I knew I could take vacation so we decided we'd still go. The game time was 8:15pm which was late, but was OK for us. When the tickets went on sale, I went ahead and bought us club seats. I knew it was going to be hot on the first day of September, so I wanted us to be able to go into an air conditioned area if need be. I bought a parking pass for one of the LP lots as well.

As the time got closer to the date of the game, I kept hearing that ticket were not good. The hope was 45,000 but it looked like 30,000 was the best they'd draw. I picked up Jonathan at WKCTC and we headed out. We stopped at Zaxby's for dinner in Clarksville. We got to the stadium with no problem. The crowd was low. We had no trouble parking. We got into to the club level and it was great. The area was air conditioned. There were numerous TVs showing various football games. We were on the front row of the club section on the 10 yard line, so our view was great.

The game started and it wasn't so great. UK got the ball first and was stuffed and went three and out. Neither team could do much. All I'd heard all summer was how great the UK offensive line looked and how much better QB Morgan Newton looked. Neither was apparent here. UK couldn't do anything on offense. They had 35 total yards in the first half. A Newton interception set up a WKU field goal. The WKU QB Jakes was just as bad. His interception set up the only decent run by UK (by freshman Josh Clemens) for a TD. UK somehow lead 7-3 at the half. The lower half of the stadium wasn't even full. The whole place just seemed dead

The half time was nice. The Club area had plenty of cushioned chairs and couches. Jonathan and I had a seat and watched Louisville finish off Murray State 21-9. There was much complaining by the UK faithful. I was tempted to ask Mitch Barnhardt for a refund myself :-).

The second half wasn't much better. Morgan Newton litterally sacked himself bringing many groans from the UK faithful. He threw two more interceptions. The UK defense kept holding WKU off. Ryan Tylachka kept getting off great punts to bail UK out. The game was still 7-3 heading into the fourth quarter and we were worried. Finally, with about 6 minutes to go, UK made a couple of big plays. Morgan Newton took off on a scramble and ran for 58 yards. A couple of plays later, he made a beautiful pass to La'rod King for a touchdown. We felt a lot better with a 14-3 lead. UK's defense kept up the heat and UK ended up with a very fortunate win.

The attendence was 24,000. There would have been that many at a UK-WKU basketball game in Rupp Arena. WKU needs to do whatever it takes to get this game played on a Saturday when UK and WKU play again in 2013. MTSU has first rights to the field and would have to give permission. A lot of people including me are very discouraged about UK football now. If UK plays like this, they'll be lucky to win more than two more games (including probable losses to Louisville, Vandy, and UT for 27th straight time). The defense played well, but I don't know if they can do that against an SEC team. We'll see how things go against Central Michigan at home next week.

Crown Me..

2011-08-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago, I started experiencing pain in one of my teeth. I kept thinking it would go away (for some reason). It kept getting worse. I started feeling it even when I ran. So, I asked Donna to call our Dentist's office (White and White Family Dentistry). I went on to work since I presumed that it would it would be several days before they could squeeze me in. I got a call from Donna at 8:25am saying that they could see me at 9 if I could make it. Of course, I said "Yes" and headed out.

Dr. Kelvin White tried various things to try and figure out what the issue was. I was sure which tooth it was. He did an x-ray and it turned out the tooth next to it was fractured. I presumed I would have to come back the next day. Even though Dr. Kelvin was very busy (Dr. Dustin Hall wasn't there), he said that I should stay and he'd take care of it. I would need a crown. I was even able to get a quote on the spot as to how much I would have to pay (after insurance), I didn't even have to leave the dentist's chair. Dr. Kelvin spent the next couple of hours running between breaks of other patients do all the work to get my tooth ready for the crown, take an impression for the permanent crown, and put on a temporary crown. Dr. Kelvin and his assistant kept apologizing for taking so long. I was so grateful for them working so hard to take of me as quickly as they could. I went back to work after I was done.

The next day I went in to work, but by mid-day, I was hurting pretty bad. Dr. Kelvin had thought this might happen so he'd given me a prescription for pain-killers and an antibiotic. Donna filled those for me and I came home and took them. After a couple of days, all the pain was gone. During those next weeks, I had to be careful not to crunch anything hard on the temporary crown and to be careful when flossing. I had no problems at all.

I went back a couple of days ago for the permanent crown. I expected some pain when the temporary one was removed. Literally before I could think about it, Shae said "OK it's off". In less than thirty minutes, Dr. White and her had my new crown on and I was on my way. I had to wait a few hours to eat, so I had a chocolate milkshake for lunch. As always, Dr. White and his staff took great care of me.

The Blazer

2011-07-23T13:01:00.001-07:00

Now that Donna has gotten her the Chrysler 300, we have an overabundance of vehicles. With Josh home, we have SIX vehicles. It was simply time for one to go. The obvious choice was of course our 1989 S-10 Blazer. It has over 196,000 miles on it, the gas tank leaks, the engine doesn't run well, all of the radio speakers are out, and the exhaust sometimes filters through the car. All the same, it's hard to give it up.

When Donna and I married, I had a 1983 Trans Am. It was my cool car designed to attract the eyes of any woman who looked on it. Of course, Donna didn't really like the car at all :-). It was a neat car to drive, but it was not a practical family car. It had a backseat, but it was so small you couldn't really have anyone ride in the back. Jonathan often asks why I got rid of that car which is really ironic. When Donna got pregnant in 1989, we realized that car wouldn't hold a car seat very well at all. She had a hard time getting in and out of the car when she got further and further along. We finally bit the bullet and bought a brand new 1989 S-10 Blazer on sale at Royal Oaks Chevrolet. We traded in my Trans Am for it since we already had Donna's newer Olds Cutlass. It was the first new car Donna had ever owned in her life. Lest you think I was always a Dave Ramsey guy, we actually borrowed money to buy the car. It was the last car we ever had payments on and we paid it off in a year.

That car has gone through a lot. It took us to the hospital twice to get new baby boys. We took it on all sorts of family trips. It was always the car that could pull through any snow. A few years ago, it was the car that managed to get back to our house through snow (and over a few limbs) when the big ice storm of 2009 hit. We've sat on its tailgate to watch movies at two drive-ins (Mayfield and Calvert City). It's hauled all sorts of sports equipment and all sorts of Ballard County/Memorial athletes. Both of the boys learned to drive with it. It's been like a member of the family.

Josh has been trying to sell it through various means for the past couple of months. Then, my sister-in-law's husband Jimmy offered to buy it. We were thrilled to get anything for it. He knows how to actually fix things on a car so he can fix some of the issues with it and enjoy using it. Changing out bulbs and an air filter the limit of my capabilities. Donna got a little upset when she saw him driving it after we took it to him today. I'll miss that old car too.

Stan the Man..

2011-07-09T16:50:00.001-07:00

I had wanted to get the new Stan Musial book. Josh got it for me for Father's Day and I've been reading on it since. If you are not a sports fan, Stan Musial is the face of the St Louis Cardinals franchise. I cannot think of another person in sport who would be considered in the same way.

The book is excellent. It of course touches on incidents that I already knew about. There are long chapters but there are very short chapters (2 pages) that touch on specific incidents that relate what kind of person Stan was. There is a great story of something he did for a rookie one holiday season. I knew he was a really good guy but the book emphasizes that. It even brings up how he requested a pay cut when he had a bad season (I cannot imagine that happening nowadays). I also didn't know he was good friends with author James Michener.

Another theme in the book is how Stan seems to have been overlooked his whole life. The author points out that this wasn't as true as much when he played as later in life. I can't speak to that but there are incidents in my life I remember. I remember how he was left off the all time baseball All Star baseball team and was added by the Comissioner of Baseball. The book states that he was the first name brought up and there was no room for argument. The book also reminded me how Stan was upstaged at the All Star game at Busch Stadium a few years back by the appearance of President Obama.

If you are a Cardinal Fan, baseball fan, or a sports fan at all, I'd recommend you read the book. You'll enjoy it.

It's For Your Own Good..

2011-07-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

I was at my doctor a couple of months ago and in the course of our discussion, he said "You're getting close to 50, you should go ahead and get a colonoscopy". I thought to myself "Whoa, What? Let's not go overboard here doc!". He asked who I wanted to use and I said "Dr. McCombs". Both Donna and my father-in-law go to him and really like him. He took really good care of Donna when she was having issues a couple of years ago. So, he got me signed up for an appointment with one of the PAs there.

I went to my appointment secretly hoping I'd get out of doing the colonosocopy. The PA talked with me at length and I told her I was having no issues. Alas, she said "Well since you are getting close to 50, let's go ahead and schedule it". So we did. She gave me a prescription for something called NuLytely and instructions for using it. My appointment wasn't for over a month, so I set the stuff aside.

About a week before my appointment, Donna went and got my prescription. She came back with what looked to be an enormous jug with white powder in it. I found out I was to drive 12 8 ounce glasses of this stuff the night before along with 2 Ducolax tablets. I had to drink 4 more glasses the next morning before my 11:30 appointment. There were four flavor packets you could choose from (cherry, orange, pineapple and lemon-line). I somehow doubted it was going to make the stuff taste like Kool-Aid.

For the week before, you are not supposed to eat beans, seeds, popcorn, peanuts, etc. I knew Josh and I were going to watch the Cardinals play the Saturday before and part of the deal with our seats was free food (including popcorn). I had Donna call hoping again I might get out of it by saying I'd be eating popcorn. Again, no luck. They said "Oh, one night will be OK".

The day before the procedure, you have to have a liquid diet. You are limited to Popsicles, broth and jello. You also cannot have any red or purple colored jello. My two favorite flavors of course are cherry and grape. So, I was limited to orange and blueberry. Donna strained three cans of chicken noodle soup for me. Josh got all the good stuff in his lunch and I got broth.

That night, I started with the liquid. I'd been warned to have something with you when you started this since you'd be "stuck in one spot" for a while. I took my new Stan Musial book Josh got me for Father's Day plus my laptop with Netflix playing. I had Donna mix in the cherry flavoring. The stuff wasn't too bad to start with. I drank the first couple of glasses at 15 minute intervals wondering what would happen. I didn't wait too long. I won't go into the gross details, but it was like a nuclear laxative kicked in. I got through eight glasses chugging them right down. After that, the last four got tougher and tougher. I got all twelve down though. I went to bed after that. I only got up a few times in the night.

Starting the next morning at 7, I worked on the last four glasses. I thought being hungry would help, but getting those four down wasn't as easy as it'd been the night before. I'd put away a gallon of that stuff. That cherry flavoring didn't seem as good at this point. We left at about 10:30 and even ran a few errands (with me close to a bathroom if need be of course) without issue. We got to the Gastro center at Western Baptist about 11:20. I filled out the usual paperwork and was ushered back to a room to wait. The nurse put an IV in and showed up a film about how a colonsocopy works.

Finally about 1:00pm, a nurse came to wheel me back. I looked at Donna and told her I loved her and back I went. They wheeled me into the room and I could see the monitor they would use to see how my colon looked. I could even see the tubing and I thought "Wow, that looks like a lot". Dr. McCombs put his hand on my shoulder and said "Mr Yancy, lets get this done and get you to lunch, OK?" I thanked him and said "Yes Sir!". The nurse started putting the knockout stuff in my IV and said "Here comes the good stuff!". I remember thinking if I should close my eyes. Next thing I knew, I was back in the room where I started. It was like they flipped a switch and I had gone completely out.

I saw Donna's beautiful face and knew I had made it fine. They gave me some Diet Coke to drink. They make you do something quite a bit before you leave. To put it delicately, since they put air in your colon to inflate it to see it better, that gas has to come out before they let you go. Being a male, this was a piece of cake. I looked at Donna once and thought she was crying. Turns out, she was laughing so hard, she had tears in her eyes. They wheeled me out to the curb and Donna picked me up. She then told me how I kept repeating "Dr. McCombs sure looked different" about 10 or 11 times. She also said I was quizzing the nurse about every beverage they had until picking what she knew I would - Diet Coke. That's some mighty good stuff they put in that IV I guess. She told me that everything was fine and they'd removed a small polyp and said I should eat a bit more fiber. Donna fed me when I got home and I just relaxed the rest of the night while my personal nurse took great care of me. I had no problem getting up and heading to work the next day.

Now, let me talk to my friends/classmates that are my age. This really wasn't anywhere as bad as you might sometimes be lead to believe. Please don't put it off and risk not finding colon cancer until its too late. I can tell you the people at the Gastro Center were great and took wonderful care of me. The only bad thing was I would have thought with two days of a liquid diet/not eating that I might drop a pound or two. Alas, that didn't happen..

Drury Inn and Suites Convention Center - St Louis

2011-06-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

I promised a while back I start reviewing hotels and the like from my travels. My disclaimer is that this is strictly based on my experiences and is no guarantee of future results. So, here goes.

We've enjoyed staying at Drury Hotels. It's not a huge chain and its confined to the midwest and south. I've rarely had a bad experience. We spent almost two weeks at the Paducah Drury Suites when we were run out of our home by the ice storm. So, I've accumulated quite a few Drury Key points. I had tickets for the Cardinals Phillies game Thursday, so I decided to see what I could get for free with my Gold Key points.

First, you have to call to redeem points. For Hilton and Mariott you can easily see how many points you have and redeem them online. You can't do this with Drury. That said, the reservation person I spoke with with very helpful and we hammered out the reservation very quickly.

The hotel is pretty easy to get to if you are coming from Illinois via I-64. You can get off at the MLK bridge exit and once you reach the Missouri side, you just make a couple of turns and you are there. You park at the front of the building to check in. I had no problem at all checking in. I could see how check-in could be a problem if there were multiple cars out front and the check-in lane was full.

You get free parking with your resevation in their parking garage. This is something to keep in mind when comparing costs to another hotel since you in effect get free parking in downtown St Louis. The hotel is very secure, your room key is required to enter the hotel from the parking garage. The elevator requires a room key to use. If you use the stairs, you need your room key to enter the door to another level. My room was very nice. The layout of the floor plan is a little different. Instead of one rectangle, it's like two linked rectangles.

Drury's have started having food in the evenings. This night, there were chicken strips, hot dogs, mac and cheese, baked potatoes, broccoli and cheese soup and chips/pretzels. There was also free soda. In the mornings, you get a good breakfast. It's usually exactly the same each morning. The breakfast consists of sausage, gravy, biscuits, scrambled eggs, and french toast. There is also fruit, donuts, oatmeal and the capability to make your own waffle. It's a good breakfast, but I could see where you might get tired of it after a few days. They also have free popped popcorn (with one of those popcorn machines like we used to have at the Paducah Drive In) and soda.

The hotel is a straight shot walking to Busch Stadium. It's about eight blocks away. It's close enough to walk but far enough away to be insulated from the noise.
If you absolutely didn't want to walk, you can grab the Metro and be taken right to the stadium. It's very nice after the game to not have the hassle of having to exit the parking garage's with all the other fans and wending your way home. The Arch is within about six blocks. Union Station is about a mile away, but I'd recommend driving or Metro as opposed to driving.

The cons I give above are not really huge deals. Overall, I'd recommend this hotel to stay in on your next visit to St Louis to see the Cardinals.

Rolo McFlurry

2011-06-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Last Monday morning, I was in the area of McDonalds in the morning. I couldn't resist grabbing a couple of those $1.00 sausage biscuits. As I looked at the menu board while placing my order, I noticed something I'd never seen before. There was an advertisement for a Rolo McFlurry. Rolos are in my top five all time favorite candy's. They are not readily available which is probably a good thing for me. I immediately started singing this of course.

I will admit that I have never had a McFlurry in all my visits to McDonalds. I tend to lean toward getting either a chocolate milkshake or a chocolate sundae. I favor a chocolate chip or Midnite Truffle blizzard at DQ for my mixed ice cream and candy treat. I told Josh about it and he wanted one. After he went to the summer youth series, he went to the Mayfield DQ. He said it was disappointing. All he got was chocolate and caramel mixed with soft serve in a cup. I was heartbroken. He recommended I try one myself and see what I thought.

So today on the way home from church, I stopped by the Paducah Jackson Street McDonalds. I went in to order so I could watch it being made. I could see the young lady scooping what looked like chunks of Rolo into the cup! She doused it with a large shot of chocolate syrup and gave it to me. It was really good! There were large chunks of Rolo in it and it tasted great. I couldn't put it down long enough to pump gas at Supervalu on the way home. Donna was laughing at me as I came in the door. She saw me shoveling Rolo McFlurry in as I pumped gas.

If you can get a correctly made one, I'd heartily recommend it. It's a good thing for my sake they are only available "for a limited time only".

Family Vacation

2011-05-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

It had been since 2007 that we'd taken a family vacation together. Jonathan will be a senior next year, so I hoped to have one more try at a vacation together. I was able to line up the week after the boys got out of school in the Smokys (right before they started their internships at USEC).

We got a 3 Bedroom suite at our Wyndham Resort. It had lot of room (1500 square feet) and four TVs. The trip down was uneventful. We got there about 6 and went out and got pizza and we simply decided to unwind from the trip.

The next day, Donna and I walked and we just rested in the morning mixing in a trip to Wal-Mart for supplies. In the afternoon, Josh and I went to the park to play tennis. It'd been over a year since we played. I managed to hang in OK, but still lost 8-5, 8-2. We had a enjoyable dinner that night at Longhorn Steakhouse.

The next day, we decided to try something on my Bucket List. The boys and I went ziplining. Several ziplining places have sprung up all over the Smoky Mountain area. By far, the most recommended one was Smoky Mountain Zip Lines in Pigeon Forge. I got us each 15.00 off coupons to drive the cost per person to 69.95 each. When we got there, we got geared up with a harness, helmet and gloves and settled down to wait. Once our party got together (7 of us plus two guides), we got on benches in the back of a truck and headed up the mountain. You are unloaded at the first platform where you do two lines that are easy and close to the ground to get the hang of things.

We got to do 16 zip lines total of varying length and height. About midway through, you take a break for water and photos. It was very safe. You have a guide on each end as you zip from platform to platform. You are constantly tethered to the zip line and they check things carefully as you go along. Everybody was very personable. I met a Reds fan (who was civil) and we talked baseball. At the end, you arrive back at the main building are given the opportunity to ride two more long (one almost a quarter mile that gets up to 40 mph) for an extra 20.00 (it's normally more than that). So we did those too. We had a blast and spent most of the morning there. There was a Krispy Kreme on the way back, so we had to stop there. We rested in the afternoon and had supper at FuddRuckers. We went to Wednesday night services at Sevierville church of Christ and enjoyed that as well.

Thursday, we got up and just relaxed more. In the afternoon, we went to play 36 holes of miniature golf at Fantasy Golf. It was warm, but we had fun. I managed to win both times. We went to the Kinkaku Japanese Hibachi for dinner. Our chef was excellent and the food was great as well.

Friday, we decided to go to Clingman's Dome. This is the highest point in the mountains there. It has an observation area. You park and and have to go a little more than half a mile on a very steep path. Josh and I got the bright idea to try and run - Jonathan thought we were crazy. I made it about .1 mile and Josh about .25 miles. We got to the top and waited for Donna and Jonathan. I talked to a lady who had hiked there from North Carolina. We then met a young lady who was hiking to Maine! We observed for a while then went back to the parking lot.

We had lunch and the boys and I decided to go Magiquest. If you've never head of this, it's like an interactive Dungeons and Dragons game. You get a wand to use and you go on quests. We had our wands from Myrtle Beach and they actually worked still. We bought an hour of time and headed in. It was OK but not nearly as big as Myrtle Beach. It did have a couple of secret doors and I did manage to beat the Goblin King. We then did the rest of the things there. First, we played Black Light Pirate Golf. It's all inside and very neat. Jonathan nailed a couple of hole in ones and won. Next, we did the Mirror Maze. It was very challenging. We had trouble in the second part of the maze. We saw Josh reach the Forest part of the maze. He waved at us and vanished. Jonathan and I did find our way out though. Finally, they have a room with Laser Lines in it. Your object is to through as fast as you can without touching any of the lines (you get a penalty for each one you touch). Josh won that. We went back to the room. I got chicken and Marble Slab Creamery Ice Cream for us.

Saturday, we packed up and reluctantly headed for home. The ride home went without event. We'd had a lot of fun and relaxation. It's a bid sad knowing that this was probably our last family vacation until we have grandchildren to take. I don't if I'll be up for ziplining by then though :-).

Decision Points

2011-04-30T16:35:00.001-07:00

I normally don't buy a lot of books new. Books are one of those things you can pick up at an incredible discount if you are just a bit patient. However, I really wanted to read George W Bush's book Decision Points. I respected him as President. I didn't agree with everything he did or said. I know quite a few people didn't like him. Several called him "that Cowboy President" as if that were an insult. Personally, I think a cowboy is as American as you can get, so I didn't have a problem with a Cowboy as President.

Anyway, Amazon had the book for half price when it came out, so I gave in and bought it. I read a lot of it on my ill fated flight to DC that I've already blogged about. I finally finished it last week. It's not written like your normal autobiography. Instead of being a chronological writing of his life, he breaks the books into chapters about big "Decision Points" in his life (hence the book's title). It's quite interesting. He lays out why he made the decisions he did and how hard some of them were. Like I said, I didn't always agree with what he did, but this book helps me understand why he decided what he did. He even admits mistakes he made and regrets he has.

I really liked the chapter called "Stem Cells". I remember this being a big controversy. If you read the chapter and especially the part about "Snowflakes", you can understand why he made the decision against allowing using human embryos for stem cells (which was correct in my mind). Two other things permeate the book which I think are great. One is his love for his family especially his wife Laura. Second, he started every day of his presidency with reading the Bible. If this man with all his responsibilities could make sure he did that every day, none of us have any excuse (especially me) for not spending time with God's Word every day.

It's certainly a book I'd highly recommend.

Bad Knight....

2011-04-23T18:26:00.001-07:00

Bobby Knight is woven into the fabric of UK basketball as few others are. When I think of that the big rival game was when I first started rooting for the Wildcats, it was Indiana and UK. They were always good and ran a brutal picking offense that was tough to guard. I remember the first season I really got into UK basketball in 1974-75. Kentucky won its first few games and then traveled to Bloomington to play the Hoosiers. They lost by 24 but it wasn't even that close. Indiana mopped up the floor with UK. But that isn't what UK fans remember about they game. Late in the game, Bobby Knight was screaming at the refs about a call that went against his team (probably the only one in the game). Coach Joe Hall said something like "Go get 'em Bobby". As Joe turned back to the UK bench, he felt a blow across the back of his head. Bobby Knight had come after him trying to fight him. Knight was pulled away. I am sure UK used this as encouragement (along with the help of sharpshooting guard Mike Flynn who ironically was from Indiana) to upset the undefeated Hoosiers in the finals of the NCAA Southeast region.

I remember having a level of respect for Coach Knight at one point. He was the coach of the USA team in the 1979 Pan-American games. UK's Kyle Macy was a point guard on that team. A Cuban player suckered punched Macy and broke his jaw. The player received a one game suspension. Macy couldn't play for the rest of the games (which the US won). Knight traveled to Macy's home to give him his gold medal. Of course, Bobby Knight left the games on bail after being accused of a scuffle with a policeman.

Coach Knight ended up doing various things such as throwing a chair, choking one of his own players, and launching profanity laced tirades against refs, announcers and fans. He was eventually fired from Indiana. Now he's incurred the ire of UK fans.

A few days ago, Bobby Knight stated on ESPN that "none of UK's players in the 2009-2010 season went to class". His data was immediately protested by UK AD Mitch Barnhart, as well as Patrick Patterson and Demarcus Cousins. Even fellow ESPN commentators spoke against him. He followed up with a half-hearted apology saying he shouldn't have personnally mentioned UK. He didn't apologize at all for falsely accusing the players. I can offer eye-whiteness proof for at least three players.

Josh called me very excitedly at the start of the 2010 Spring Semester to tell me that all of the UK Freshmen players were in his Geology class. He said they attended regularly. Eric Bledsoe, Demarcus Cousins and John Wall were in there. They even attended after the season ended and even while signed up for the draft. We held out hope that they would return since they were still going to class (but of course they didn't).

I hope UK keeps the heat on Knight and ESPN for an actual apology stating he put out totally erroneous and unsubstantiated information against UK.

My Cousin Eddie..

2011-04-09T17:11:00.001-07:00

I was doing my usual after work relaxation of watching Dragnet Tuesday when the phone rang. Josh generally calls at that time to talk to Donna on his way home from work. Donna came to tell me it was my sister Jody. When I got on the phone, I knew it was bad news, but I still couldn't believe it. She told me my cousin Eddie had died. I was absolutely surprised. He had some issues with his lungs and breathing but this was certainly unexpected. He was only 55.

Eddie was my cool cousin. I remember going to Reidland to see my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lee Anna when I was a kid. It seemed like a really big deal to go all the way to Reidland on a drive. They had a very nice house with a big basement. My Uncle Bill had a lot of radio equipment that looked like it belonged in the Bat Cave. They had Charles Chips which were potato chips delivered directly to their house in a large metal can that were excellent. I enjoyed playing with my little cousin Martha Sue. But I was always hoping I'd see my cousin Eddie. He was about 6 years older than me. He was a very talented musician. He was good looking young man, he was even in some clothing ads for a local clothing store. He dressed very cool and all the girls thought he was handsome. But despite all that, he wasn't aloof or stuck up at all. He always would always talk to me and ask how I was and genuinely listen and be interested in what I said. I was always in awe of him. As I got older, we would talk about music. He loved the Beatles and so did I. I saw the Rolling Stones in concert when I was at UK and he wanted to know all the details about the show since he'd seen them before.

The one thing I would say was most impressive to me about him was Eddie's singing voice. He had once of the best singing voices I've ever heard. I was not blessed with a good singing voice. When the Bible talks about "making a joyful noise", that is me. He was in several rock bands in his life. I remember my sister-in-law telling us once that someone had mentioned "Yancy,Barnhill and Dunkerson" once on the radio asking if that was me and my good friend Dr Jeff just laughed and laughed. When people met me, they'd often ask "Are you related to Eddie Yancy?"

I remember going to see his band "White Horse" play with my friend Rick Alvey (This was of course before I started spending weekends with a certain beautiful brown haired, brown eyed girl). I remember after the first set, I just waved and said "Hey Eddie" (not wanting to bother him). He said "Hey" and then rushed over to where I was sitting and hugged me and said he was so glad to see me. He sat and talked to me until he had to go back on stage. He made me feel really special. After each set, he would come over and sit with Rick and me and talk. Later he sang the song "Little Pink Houses" by John Cougar. Instead of singing 'Cause they told me when I was younger Said boy, you're gonna be president', he sang 'Cause they told me when I was younger Said Stuart, you're gonna be president'. Rick looked at me and we laughed. After that set, Eddie came up to me and laughed too. He said "I remember when you were younger you told us you wanted to be president". He really DID listen to all those things we talked about. Then he leaned over and said "Stuart, you won't be like most of these people, they'll never make make anything of their lives". "You are different, you'll make something of your life, I know you'll be a successful man". That made me feel really great.

We saw each other off and on through the years at family gatherings. He was always nice and personable to me and everyone he talked to. As my brother mentioned today at Eddie's funeral, he had that great laugh that just automatically made you happy when you heard it. I remember talking with him at his brother Bruce's funeral a few years ago. He said he lived in Kevil and we needed to see more of each other since we lived that close. To my shame, we didn't. I'll miss him a lot.

Please keep my cousin Martha Sue (his sister) and my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lee Anna in your prayers. They've lost two brothers/sons as young men (in their 50's).

Houston, we have a problem.

2011-04-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

We left Friday for our trip to Houston within minutes of Josh's arrival home from Lexington. We did not plan to go the whole distance on Friday. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Arkadelphia Arkansas.

I got an incredible deal there. I am a Hilton Honors member. The rooms were only 7500 points apiece (generally a Hampton runs 20k to 30k points). I was able to get a room for Jonathan and Josh and one for Donna and I for 15k points each. The hotel was just as nice as any other Hampton I've ever stayed in.

We left that morning. We got off I-30 after reaching Texas. It was very interesting to drive on Texas roads. Highways similar to New Highway 60 here have a speed limit of 70. You slow down to 55 to 60 upon entering towns. We stopped at a Whattaburger. I've always wanted to try one of these after seeing them on "King of the Hill". I was not disappointed, the burgers were excellent.

We made great time. We got to our hotel outside of Houston about 3:00pm. Again, I got a deal. I got two studio suites at the Towneplace Suites for 70.00 each. We rested for a bit and headed out to the game (leaving Donna there). It was about a 30 minute drive to Reliant Stadium. I had bought a parking pass already and there was plenty of parking so we had no trouble. We even had time to walk to Jack in the Box to eat. We got into the stadium in plenty of time for the Butler VCU game.

Our seats were on the 2nd level. It was a very bizarre looking setup. I'd never seen a basketball court in a football stadium. It wasn't even in the center of the stadium. We were further away on our end than people on the other end. But all in all, our seats were fine. The people in the lower arena in the end zones had it worse. The seats were not tiered so the people had to stand up the whole time.

The first game started. It was close the whole way. Butler finally pulled away at the end to win. There were quite a few VCU and Butler fans. UConn had the fewest. Of course, UK had the most. I would guess over half the stadium was UK fans. The guy next to me actually lived in Houston and was there simply to "see good basketball"

The UK UConn game finally started. It was a bad omen when UK won the tip. They had lost the tip in the other games they'd won in the tourney. They forced numerous turnovers but had trouble scoring. They had a slight lead but finally UK got down by 10 at the half. They rallied to take a lead by two on some decent three point shooting. They missed numerous opportunities to pad their lead and UConn took the lead. Even with all that, UK never wilted. They stole the ball with 16 seconds left down two. Alas, they couldn't get off a decent shot. UConn hit two foul shots and UK a three at the buzzer to lose by 1. It was very sad. They reverted to old form where the three freshman scored most of the points and the three upper classmen did little.

We had already decided to go home if UK lost. Fortunately, the guy next to me wanted to bring his fiancee to the championship game. He bought my ticket. I sent Josh and Jonathan to the car to get it. I threw in my Monday parking pass. He was a very nice guy and enjoyable to talk to. When I got to the car, Josh informed my that he had manged to sell our other two tickets! I had however made a deal with Josh that he'd get 50% of any tickets he sold, so that worked out for him at least.

Leaving the stadium was tough. The roads around it aren't built to handle the sudden out flux of 75,000 people (a new NCAA record). It took us almost 45 minutes to go 1 mile to the bypass. We got back about midnight. I cancelled our hotel reservations for the next two nights and went to bed.

We got up the next morning and I made the decision to not drive the whole way the next day. The boys weren't really thrilled at first, but finally agreed. We went to 249 church of Christ in Houston. The brethren there were very nice and hospitable. We left and ate lunch on the way. We got to Prescott Arkansas and went to church at the Prescott congregation. The people there were very hospitable as well. We had a hard time getting out of there in fact. They were mostly Arkansas fans and told us they had rooted for UK last night and were sorry to see them lose. We drove on to Arkadelphia and stayed at the Hampton again.

We got up the next morning and headed out. As we hit I-55 in West Memphis, it started to rain and rained on us the whole rest of the way home. We were fortunate as it turned out. There were tornadoes in Ballard County. Several buildings were damaged and a person hurt pretty bad. When we got home, Josh hopped in his car and headed home. We tracked him on Google Latitude to make sure he made it.

The trip didn't turn out as well as I hoped (no final for UK). We had a good time together though. I've already applied for tickets for next year...

Final Four!

2011-03-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo!!! After 13 years, the University of Kentucky is back in the Final Four. When I first saw the seed Kentucky got (they should have been a 3 at least) and saw they'd most likely have to beat Ohio State and North Carolina, I thought they'd never do it. I'm glad I was wrong.

We stayed up late Friday night to watch them play the number one team - Ohio State. They played lock-down defense and won on a shot by Brandon Knight with 5 seconds to go. I didn't know if they could recover emotionally from that to play well today. They did! They beat North Carolina by 7. The game was tied was just a few minutes left, but UK rode a couple of clutch threes by Brandon Knight and DeAndre Liggins to win by 7.

We left the car with the score 70-69 and went into church. People crowded around me as I kept up with the score on my Blackberry. We saw that Liggins hit a three with 35 seconds left just before we started services. Then, I saw the final where they'd won!

But that isn't the best thing of all. For years, I've put in an application to try and get tickets to the Final Four. I first tried in 1984 when the Final Four was in Rupp Arena - the year Villinova upset Georgetown. I've never gotten the tickets. In August of this year, I got this email..

Dear Stuart Yancy
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that a random computerized program selected your application for tickets to the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four, to be held April 2 and 4 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas

I honestly thought it was Spam. I did some research and even examined the email headers (being an email admin has it's benefits) and finally realized it was legitimate. I still didn't entirely believe it until I got an application to request a parking pass. The tickets actually showed up February! I figured I would end up selling them especially when the NCAA made it's bizarre ruling not allowing Enes Kanter to play. Again, I was wrong.

So, we'll be heading for Houston on Friday...

United Airlines...

2011-03-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

Recently, our local airport (Barkley Regional) changed carriers. We used to fly Northwest to Memphis. Now, it's United to O'Hare. I've heard good and bad about the new service, but never tried it myself. I had to make a trip to our company headquarters a few weeks ago, so I would find out myself.

I was in Lexington visiting Josh, so I ended up flying out of Bluegrass Airport. They run a similar service to O'Hare as Barkley except they run four flights a day. I knew I was in trouble after Donna dropped me off and I went to the kiosk to check in. I heard the agent tell the guy in front of me "Well, we'll need to adjust everyone's itinerary". Turns out there was bad winter weather in Chicago and all flights were backed up. I ended up with a backup flight to Dulles (instead of Reagan) for my trip. I sat at the gate and they kept bouncing the times of departure around. My original time was 10:40, but they moved that to 12:30 then 1 then 1:30. I had checked the FAA web site and they said flights were delayed 2.5 to 3 hours.

Our pilot ended up loading us on the plane about 12:30 just in case a slot opened up before 1:30. Well, it didn't. So, we just sat there for an hour before we left. We got there just in time for me to miss my flight to Reagan. Turns out the gates for the smaller United flights (from Paducah and Lexington for example) come into a totally different terminal than the main United flights. It's easily a 15 to 20 minute walk. I got an alert saying I had already been moved to my backup flight to Dulles. I went to the gate and the agent assigned my seat. I showed her my baggage claim and asked about my luggage. She assured me that my luggage would be routed automatically to Dulles on my new flight.

I got on my laptop to change my rental car arrangements from Reagan to Dulles. I also saw there was a Winter Storm Warning for Bethesda. So, I changed my hotel to the closest one to HQ. I also set up up my final night at at Hampton Inn close to Dulles so I wouldn't have a tough drive that morning.

The flight to Dulles went fine. I waited for my luggage and it never came out. I went to a kiosk and was told "It was en-route". I waited some more and finally found a United baggage person. They checked and said "Oh, your luggage is at Reagan". I was incredulous and started to make my point about how I was told "it would be rerouted to Dulles automatically". I was then told that "Well, you'll just have to go to Reagan and get it".

Well, this is not as easy as it sounds. Reagan is a good 30 mile - 45 min drive. It had started to freezing rain. Plus, I had no idea how to get there and my cell phone (with GPS) was on its last legs. It finally died on me as I got close. After several wrong turns, I finally got there. My luggage was sitting in the baggage claim office. I grabbed it and managed the stumble my way (after a few more wrong turns) back to my hotel.

The rest of the trip went fine. I went to a fine Wednesday night Bible study at Clarkeville church of Christ. The preach there was from Fulton KY. I had little trouble getting to Dulles the next day and the trip home was fine. It was sure nice to see Donna waiting for me when I got off the plane and into Barkley.

I learned some lessons. One, I have a phone charger that I could use in a car still in shrink wrap! I unwrapped that and put it in my laptop case for future use. Two, I need to be more certain of my luggage re-route next time. Three, I should have checked the conditions at O'Hare before I ever went to the airport. I could have stayed in my hotel room for a few more hours and relaxed.

There isn't much I can do about O'Hare and weather. In the winter, it's going to have a lot more issues than Memphis did. I'll have to allow for that. What disappointed me was nobody at United ever said "I'm sorry about your luggage" Their attitude was almost as if "Oh well, that's just the way it goes".

I may give them one more shot. I will give the Nashville to Baltimore route on Southwest another serious look next time though. The main disadvantage to that is at least when I do get to Paducah, I am 15 minutes from home. At Nashville, I still have a 2.5 hour drive in front of me.

25 years!

2011-03-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Donna and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. I remember thinking all those years ago that "I'll be almost 50 when we've been married 25 years". Well, that day has come.

It's been a wonderful 25 years. We sat down today and just reflected on our past 25 years. We couldn't honestly come up with any really bad things that have happened. We have of course had disagreements and arguments, but we've always managed to work things out. We've lived in three different places (an apartment in Lone Oak, a rental home on the Ballard/McCracken County line and our current home). We've raised two fine young Christian men who have bright futures in front of them.

I was blessed by God to have Donna in my life. I dated a few girls before her, but I'd never met anyone like her. She's the perfect woman. She's beautiful and smart and can be the most gracious lady and also roll up her sleeves and do hard work when the need arises. She's amazing with words and letters (I won't play her in Scrabble, she always destroys me). She's embraced being in a home with three men who love sports. She's supported all of us through all of our sporting endeavors. She's even embraced following Baseball, the NFL and College Basketball simply because I enjoy all of these so much. She's pretty athletic herself. She made the decision right after we got married to take on the job of stay at home mom because she felt it was best for our family.

She teaches me lessons all the time on how to be kind and loving towards others. She also doesn't believe there isn't anything she cannot do. Never tell her "You can't do that"; most likely she'll prove you wrong. She's my biggest fan in everything I do. She still thinks I am the most wonderful guy in the world. She's my encourager when I'm feeling down but knows when I need a "pull up your bootstraps" talk too. She's helped me be a much more faithful Christian.

I could talk for hours about her but I'll let the above suffice for now. I can't wait to see what the next 25 have in store for us..

Enthusiasm

2011-02-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

I am currently teaching the 7th and 8th grade class on Sunday morning. For the first time I can remember, my class is made up entirely of young ladies. I've no experience in dealing with young ladies having raised up two sons. They are a wonderful group. They are very well behaved and seem eager to learn. They participate very well in the class. I've learned as much from them as they have from me, probably more so. I've had to ditch some of my usual sports analogies though..

We are studying the book of Acts. We recently studied Acts 8 and the account of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. One word in one the verses we studied struck me particularly.

Acts 8:29-30 - Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip RAN thither to [him], and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said , Understandest thou what thou readest?KJV - My emphasis.

The eunuch was in his chariot trying to read the book of Isaiah and was having difficultly. The Holy Spirit told Philip to go to him. Philip didn't hesitate, he RAN to make sure he caught up to this man. I can tell you what I'd have probably (sadly) done. I would have argued "But this man won't want me bugging him". Or, I would have dragged my feet until the chariot was out of sight and said "See he's already out of sight, I couldn't have caught up with him anyway".

Philip showed the enthusiasm for the work of the Lord that all Christians should have. He made sure he caught up to this man to help him understand what he read and ultimately to obey the Gospel.

I will tell you that a big hindrance I have is I am not a social person. I tend to be the "strong silent type". This to me is a hindrance to doing those things a Christian should. I certainly cannot teach someone or help them with their needs if I won't even try to talk to them or acknowledge them. I am trying to do better though. I was in a training class in St. Louis last week. I made a special effort to talk to everybody in class. On Wednesday, I was in class finishing a lab before lunch (everyone else had left). Our teacher asked what I was doing for lunch. I started to say "Oh, I am going to stay here and work". But, I finally said "I'm heading out to eat, mind if I go with you?". We had an enjoyable time talking at the Olive Garden. We saw a Lion's Choice on the way back and he said "I've always wondered how those are". I told him that these places put Arby's to shame. So, we went there the next day, and he totally agreed with me.

It's a start anyways. I am going to make a special effort to try and talk to people more and not be so reserved.

Monkeys Eyebrow...

2011-01-29T12:25:00.000-08:00

You are probably wondering where in the world this post came from, so here goes. I was reading several of the Kentucky blogs I follow. They mentioned an article by Pat Forde talking about Coach call-in shows and a reference he made to UK. You can read the article here. Here is what he said about UK.

Not surprisingly, given the over-the-top ardor of its fans, Kentucky has a history of sanity-challenging call-in shows. Tubby Smith (8) probably deserves some kind of humanitarian award for 10 years of enduring them. Tubby isn't a gifted orator -- he starts and stops and hems and haws and will employ the confusing thematic jump-switch in mid-sentence -- but he was a true diplomat during his days in the Bluegrass.

A lot of the calls to Tubby went like this:

"Coach Smith? This is Orville from Monkey's Eyebrow (9)*. I just want to know what it's going to take for us to play more up-tempo, like we used to, and when you're going to put Josh Carrier in the starting lineup. He's a Kentucky boy and I think he deserves a shot."

Translation: When are you going to resign?

Tubby's response: "Well, Orville, you certainly bring up some good points. We'll have to take a look at that."

Translation: You have absolutely no clue. Fifty-five minutes until we're off the air.

*Monkey's Eyebrow is a real town in Kentucky.

Of course, I had to respond..

stuartyancy (1/28/2011 at 6:54 AM)Mr. Forde, I seriously doubt you've ever been to Monkey's Eyebrow. I live in the same county - Ballard so here is some info for you.

I can't vouch for Orville, but I can tell you a little more about Monkey's Eyebrow (since I live in the same county - Ballard).

It's just a wide spot in the road. It's not an incorporated city, it doesn't even have a post office. It's claim to fame it is the location of the TV tower for the local NBC affliate WPSD-TV. I'll tell you I'm a bit skeptical that you heard an actual caller say "he's from Monkey's Eyebrow".

We love the Wildcats in Ballard County just like the rest of the state. We've always especially pulled for Kentucky kids who play for UK. Often, they turn down scholarships at other schools where they could start to just be a member of the UK team. As Adolph Rupp once said "When a baby is born in Kentucky, the parent's first wish is for him to be President like the Kentucky born Abraham Lincoln. The second is that he can play for the University of Kentucky Wildcats".

So, I decided I'd go to Monkeys Eyebrow. I haven't been there in years and years. When I mentioned my plan, Jonathan enthuiastically agreed to go with me. I knew the WPSD TV tower(our local NBC affiliate) was there, so I traced out directions to that.

We went through Bandana to get there. About 20 years ago, I had a "Twilight Zone" moment in Bandana. The congregation I was a member of then (Heath church of Christ) was part of a nationwide evangelistic effort called "One Nation Under God". For four straight weekends, we knocked doors in Western McCracken County and Ballard County. The last place we had to canvass was Bandana. Larry Davis, Keith Anderson and I set out to do that on a Sunday afternoon. We finished and headed out of town (or so we thought). After driving a few miles, we saw a green sign saying we were approaching another small town. Imagine my surprise when it said "Bandana"!. We left again and followed another road. We drove a while (making several turns) and were overjoyed to see another green sign. It said "Bandana". We tried following the sun and moss on the trees and every other sign we could think of and ended up back in Bandana again. Finally I said "Let's go against every logic we can think of and go that way". After several turns, I saw another green sign that said "Ingleside". We were relieved. I made sure I brought a GPS on this trip, just to be safe.

We got to the TV tower with little trouble. You could see it from miles away. We pulled up to its gate and all it had was a block letter sign saying "WPSD" with a phone number and FCC license number. I expected a bigger sign with at least a colorful station logo and "News Channel 6". If it weren't for the tower, the whole place looked non-descript. We drove down Monkeys Eyebrow road. We drove along the outskirts of the Ballard Wildlife Management Area seeing numerous ducks. I'd hoped to see something anyhing with "Monkeys Eyebrow" on it. My understand is the state gave up years ago putting up signs only to have them stolen every time. Finally, I remembered a web site about the area I'd seen. It had a sign in it with the name on it. I called Donna who gave me the address. It's the picture you saw above.

I loaded up the GPS and plotted our course home. Jonathan said "Oh, I know a much better way back to Kevil". I started having Bandana flashbacks. But true to his word, he got us right back. I should have taken him on that trip 20 years ago. He was only one and a half though.

Why is it called Monkeys Eyebrow? I've found several explanations. They range from the brush on hills around the area looking like a "monkey's eyebrow" to the fact that on a county map, the area looks like the eyebrow of a monkey to "this place is only fit for a bunch of monkeys".

Mr Forde, my guess is a Northeastern guy like yourself can't possibly understand the charm and tradition of places like Monkeys Eyebrow, Woodville, Boaz, Freemont, Hardmoney and my namesake Hendron. But we Kentuckians love those places and cherish them in our minds and hearts just like we do our Kentucky Wildcat basketball.

If you want more info about Monkey's Eyebrow, check out this excellent website

Franklin..

2011-01-22T18:06:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I had to go to Franklin Tennessee to do some work with a consultant. I had not visited that part of Nashville suburbia. I've been to downtown, the airport area, and Lebanon Road church of Christ multiple times. I've visited Brentwood (home of Dave Ramsey) and Hendersonville (home of my little sister Melissa and her family). But never Franklin..

The trip started out with my getting a rental car at Hertz. The lady at the counter talked me into taking a Prius. I'd never driven a hybrid or a car like that. The car had push button start and I had a lot of trouble getting the exact sequence down of starting the car. The back class had a large horizontal divider making it hard to see out the back. When I picked up Skip Hancock to head to Franklin, I found out the car beeped the whole time it backed up. I was sorely tempted just to take the car back and ask for another one, but I didn't. Our trip went fine. We ran into traffic at the I-24/I-65 split, but besides that, we had no trouble.

Our work went well. We had a nice leisurely lunch at Steak-n-Shake. I polished off a Double Chocolate milk shake. After our day's work was over, we went to check into our hotel. All of the hotels at our exit were a step below where I generally stay. I am a Drury/Hilton/Mariott guy. These hotels were of the Comfort Inn/Days Inn/Ramada/La Quinta variety. We could have stayed at Cool Springs (a few miles away) but the rooms were 80-100 more. So, I opted for the La Quinta. The room was fine (for 55.00) but it just wasn't what I was used to. It wasn't quite as large and the bathroom wasn't quite as big. There was no workout room. The morning breakfast wasn't as good as even a Fairfield or Hampton. I guess I've gotten a bit spoiled :-) Everybody was nice there. I struck up a conversation with the desk clerk upon seeing him wearing a New York Giants jacket. I talked about my son who liked the Giants and we rehashed the stunning Eagles loss again. The wireless internet worked fine. I did get startled about 6:45am with the loud emptying of a dumpster. All-in-all though it was certainly fine for one night.

That night we at the Franklin Chop House. I have this standing policy (which used to drive my former colleague Craig Vincek crazy) of not wanting to eat anywhere that I could eat at Paducah (prompting my choice that night). They brought out an excellent basket of biscuits and the ribeye dinner was great. My sides of broccoli and baked potato were plentiful. We got out in time to get to the hotel to watch the UK-Alabama game. I shouldn't have bothered. UK got muscled around and got down 20 in the second half. They made a great rally to get the lead to 1, but made several mistakes at the end and lost.

The rest of the work the day as well. We stopped at the Cool Springs exit because I had to go to Krispy Kreme. Alas, the hot light was not on but I got excellent doughnuts nonetheless plus some to take home. We stopped in Clarksville and I devoured a rack of ribs at Chili's. I got home in plenty of time to go to Wednesday night Bible Study as well.

All-in-all it was a decent overnight trip for my first visit to Franklin. We'll be doing more work with this consultant in the future, so it looks like I'll be back..

Sweet Home Alabama...

2011-01-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

Jonathan and I set out Friday to go to Kentucky's FIFTH straight bowl game. We've been to the previous four and plan to try and keep going to all the rest as long as we can.

I'd hoped that UK wouldn't go to a bowl game in Tennessee this year. We got our wish but not in the way we hoped. The BBVA Compass Bowl is the bowl game for the last eligible team in the SEC. Once Kentucky lost to Tennessee, they fell all the way to this bowl in Birmingham Alabama. I bought us tickets right after they announced where Kentucky would play.

We left for Birmingham on Friday. The ride down to Birmingham was uneventful. It's pretty much a straight shot on I-65 from Nashville. We stayed at the Hilton Perimeter Hotel. It was a very nice hotel. The desk staff was very friendly and acommodating. We did find out the Pitt band was staying there. They were very nice and well behaved. We checked in and then went to grab a steak dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse (which was excellent). We spent the evening just relaxing at the hotel.

We got up the next morning to a cool, sunny windy day. I went to McDonalds to get breakfast. I was asked "Do you want to try our new oatmeal?". I almost laughed out loud then ordered a few sausage biscuits. We ate and got ready to go to the game.

One of the big reasons we stayed at this hotel was it had a shuttle to Legion Field. I'd heard bad things about the parking there and that the field was in a bad area of town. The shuttle bus was very nice even having TVs tuned to ESPN on it. Our drive went fine. As we approached the stadium, I could see that the neighborhood was really bad looking. I was glad we'd rode on the shuttle bus. The bus brought us right up to the field.

The game is at Legion Field. This field has been there since the 1920's. It was the location of the Iron Bowl (the annual Auburn-Alabama game) for many years. They finally left when the stadium did not keep up with the quality of their home stadiums. The stadium certainly looks its age. I especially noticed this as I walked around. I noticed it more as the game progressed. The sound system was inaudible most of the time. We couldn't tell what penalties were called or what was going on. One of the two video boards went out as well. The seats were almost all bleachers except for a few suites. The seating was cramped as well. But as a guy next to me said, until UK starts winning more games, this is what they'll (and we'll get).

Pitt had been through a lot. Their head coach resigned (he was really forced out). They hired a new coach only to fire him a week or so later after he arrested on a domestic violence charge. Their defensive coordinator agreed to coach even though he'd accepted another job too. UK's quarterback Mike Hartline was out for the game because he'd been arrested at the end of the season. Pitt was a slight favorite.

Kentucky quelled the first Pitt drive with an interception. UK drove to the 35 but QB Morgan Newton fumbled. The game went back and forth with UK kicking a field goal to go up by 3. Uk drove down the field and could not convert a 4th and literally one inch. Pitt took a 6-3 lead. Uk had to punt with about a minute left in the half. UK's punter took forever and ended up getting his punt blocked. Pitt recovered at the 10 and soon scored a touchdown. It was 13-3 at the half. Uk started the 2nd half with the ball and stalled near midfield. Incredibly they tried a fake punt and failed miserably. Pitt drove 25 years for a TD to go up 20-3 and the game was pretty much over.

Needless to say there were a lot of upset UK fans. We couldn't understand why they didn't use the All American Randal Cobb more or run Derrick Locke more. They never went to the other backup HQ - Ryan Mossakowski. I'll save the rest for my UK futures blog entry later. We stayed til the bitter end (a 27-10 loss for the worst bowl loss in UK history). We took the shuttle bus back to the hotel and got our car and headed home.

We hoped that the UK basketball team would make it up for us. Jonathan and I listened to the game on the way home. Uk fell behind by 11 at the half. They rallied to tie the game and even take a slight lead, but ultimately lost by 7. We then listened to Seattle pull off the upset over New Orleans and the first half of the Jets Colts game.

The game didn't turn out like we'd hoped, but we had our usual good time just hanging out together as usual. We'll keep going to the games every year. Although, I am not so sure we'll get the chance next year. I'll talk about that later...

I remember when..

2011-01-01T07:02:00.001-08:00

Many years ago when I was young, I remember looking forward to New Years Day with great anticipation. I would go to bed right after midnight to be ready. Why you ask? It would the best football day of the year. There would be games from mid-morning til almost midnight. I would even take a half day of vacation the next day so I could stay up late and watch the games

All the big games were that day. The big ones then were the Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl. You had direct tie-ins with conferences. The Rose Bowl had the Big 10 and Pac-10 champs. The Cotton Bowl had the old SWC champ, the Sugar Bowl the SEC and, and the Orange Bowl had the Big 8 champ. There were other games duing the day too. So, if one game got boring, you could flip to another one. And this was before the ESPN/Sport Channel hey-dey, so it was all on national TV channels.

I saw some great battles between Notre Dame and Alabama. I remember Pitt having this running back named Tony Dorsett who you could tell was going to be really good. I remember a Georgia QB with the great name of "Buck Belue" who led Georgia to a win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. I remember going to bed early when I lived in Louisville (and didn't have vacation so I had to get up early and go to work) and missing the end of the Miami Nebraska game that ended up 31-30 Miami. I remember Miami's QB was a freshman named Bernie Kosar. I read the next day how Tom Osborne went for 2 to try and win the game at the end (there was no OT then) and missed. I would always dream of the day UK might be in one of these games

The National Champ was chosen the next day based on the outcomes of these games. You had two polls, the AP and the UPI. There were multiple years that you had co-champions when one poll picked one team and one poll picked another. So, the Fiesta bowl came along to bust all the fun up.

The Fiesta Bowl was created (if I remember right) for teams not from one of the power conferences to be able to play in a bowl game (this was before the days of 30-something bowl games). In 1987 though, they pulled out what everybody thought was a great event. The two top ranked teams were independents (Miami and Penn State). They were both invited to the game. They moved the game to January the 2nd. I remember the game was dull. Penn State won 14-10 I think and Vinny Testaverde threw a whole bunch of interceptions. But, this set the wheels in motion for this whole BCS Championship game thing we have today. Now, all the big bowl games are played out for a week with the championship game being a week into the new year).

I hardly watch any of these games now. I might watch some of the Championship game to see if the SEC can keep their stranglehold on the National Championship. I'll still dream of UK being in one of those big games though. I know some people say the BCS ruined things, but I think that happened a long time before that.

Dinner and a movie

2010-12-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Last week, several of my work lunch friends invited me to go with them for lunch out and to see the newly released "Tron Legacy" this Friday. I decided to go since I could always use an afternoon off of work :-).

We first went to lunch at Jasmine Thai and Sushi. This restaurant is located at Jordan's Crossing very near the Cinemark theaters. I've had take out food from there once but never eaten there. It's very nice and new inside. I have no taste for sushi at all, so I went with one of the most basic of meals - Sesame Chicken. Several of the guys with me ordered sushi. One complaint they had was the menus no longer offered pictures of the various items. I could understand why they might want to confirm what they were ordering.

I started off with some very good Japanese vegetable soup. It was vegetable soup in a clear broth with large chunks of chicken. The Sesame Chicken was good along with a generous portion of fried rice. Our waitress was very attentive and keep up refills of Diet Dr. Pepper. She mentioned desserts. The fried won ton stuffed with cheesecake and chocolate sauce with banana sauce for dipping sounded good, so I got it. I wasn't really impressed. I later confirmed there should have been powdered sugar and chocolate sauce on it (there wasn't). The consistency of the cheesecake was a bit too runny as well. I much prefer a Triple Chocolate Meltdown or Chocolate Wave. We then headed to the Cinemark.

I have not been to the Cinemark since I saw "The Dark Knight". I have nothing personally against the theater. With the advent of Netflix, it's just easier to either have the movie I want delivered to me for viewing or to use the "Watch Now" feature. We went to the 3D version which was more expensive. They gave us special glasses to watch the movie. I was expecting the one red one blue lens type I was familiar with, but they looked like ordinary sunglass type glasses to me.

The previews started and told us at one point to put on our glasses. The 3D effects were honestly better than I expected. Then, it was time for "Tron Legacy" to start. I'd seen the original Tron movie at the old Arcade theater in the summer of 1982. Being a computer guy, I enjoyed the first one, so I wondered if I would like this one. I did enjoy it. I won't try to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but it involves the original Flynn character and his son. It did seem almost a bit rushed at the end as the movie winds down to its climax. There was also use of actual Unix commands in several scenes that I recognized.

I had a really good time. I met Jonathan at the newly opened "Dick's Sporting Goods" to look at some fitness equipment we were considering buying. I went by Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and headed home. I was pleasantly surprised to find Josh had already gotten home from Lexington for Christmas break. All in all, it was a very enjoyable day.

St Jude run...

2010-12-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

Running in the St Jude Marathon (and half Marathon) has become a regular event for Jonathan and I. He's run the marathon twice and I've run the half marathon once. We registered early this year to be ready to run again. We both trained over the past few months to get ready. I barely missed getting in under two hours (2:00:01) and was looking forward to trying to beat that time this year.

We left out Friday afternoon. The drive went fine. Donna dropped us off at the Convention Center to get our race packets. That went well also. We checked into our hotels. Jonathan stays at the Doubletree right next to the finish of the race (on Union next to Autozone Park). It minimizes the walk after the race is over. Donna and I stay at the Residence Inn on Monroe a few blocks over. We all went to bed early to be ready.

When I woke up and checked the weather, I was shocked. The forecast all week was for low 40's (a perfect running temperature in my mind). Imagine my surprise to find the temperature at 60 with 85% humidity. There was also a 10-15 mph wind blowing as well. We got down to the start and lined up to go. I made it through the first 6 miles on pace to break 2:00. Then, I just lost it. I couldn't keep up the pace. I was hydrating at every stop, but I could not keep enough liquid in me given the weather. I made it to the end OK, but my time was much slower - 2:09:34. Needless to say, I was disappointed. Donna encouraged me though so I felt a bit better. I found out Donna met up with Amber Tatum (Jim and Donna Faughn's daughter). Jonathan got to run with her husband Jeremiah over the first 13 miles. I went and rested for a bit and we waited for Jonathan. He came in at the same time as last year - 3:51. Given the conditions, I thought he did quite well.

We went back to his room to watch the rest of the UK - North Carolina game. We came close to getting tossed from the hotel I'm sure with our complaints about the NC biased officiating. UK came close but lost by two. I went back to the Residence Inn and spent the afternoon resting and watching football. Later that afternoon, I got take-out from Dyer's on Beale Street. They have excellent burgers and Donna even enjoyed her chicken tender sandwich and fries. I confirmed Jonathan was OK when I delivered his food. Later that evening, Donna and I foraged out to get some dessert. We grabbed some candy and snack cakes at the Family Dollar near our hotel. While walking to the Doubletree, we found store that sold cake. On the way back, Donna got a piece of coconut cake. I went to bed early.

We got up that morning to temperatures in the 30's! We checked out and went to worship at the Getwell church of Christ (which we always enjoy), then headed for home. We ate at Zaxbys in Blytheville (Again, I wish we had one of these at home) and made it home fine. Jonathan was in good spirits since he found the Giants pounding the Redskins.

Was I disappointed? Yes, I was. Anytime you work hard to hit a goal and miss, you feel a bit disappointed, don't you? I've already resolved to run another half in the spring in Nashville. If that goes OK, I may try something new in December. I'll leave you to figure that one out...

A Fall Trip (Part 4)

2010-11-23T18:23:00.001-08:00

We got up on Wednesday and went to the Colonial Williamsburg Visitor Center. There was not a huge crowd (given that most kids were not out of school). We traded in our vouchers for what they called "One Plus" passes. These are in effect two day passes. They allow you into the "Governor's Mansion".

One we had our passes, we walked across the bridge to Colonial Williamsburg. They have markers on the bridge telling your of the changes that occur as you "go back in time". For example, "You've never seen TV" or "You've never been more than 20 miles from home". My favorate was "You've never paid income tax and you won't get Social Security". I'd make that trade in a heartbeat. The first thing you pass is a working plantation and then an area where you can get an orientation to the settlement. Then, you reach the actual area.

It's spaced out very nicely and covers well over a hundred acres. You first reach the Governor's mansion where the Governor of Virginia lived at the time (Lord Dunsmore). You can tour the mansion (we didn't). You can walk the garden and go into the back courtyard where famous men speak. The first day, we heard Patrick Henry. I found it very interesting as he spoke for almost 45 minutes about the current situation (pre Revolutionary War). Donna lost interest a few minutes into the speech.

Afterwards, we started walking around. You can actually walk the streets freely without a pass. The buildings that require a pass (and that you can enter) have a British flag in front of them. We went into the courthouse and observed several trials. We walked into a few shops as well. We finally headed to the edge of the settlement to look for somewhere to eat. The University of William and Mary is right next to it. There was supposedly a Chick-Fil-A there, but we could never find it. I could tell Donna was kinda bored, so we left (you could come and go) and went to a Wendy's to eat.

I took Donna back to our resort and headed back to CW. I first went to see the "gaol". It was very interesting to see. The jailer and his family actually lived there. The cells had "indoor plumbing". It was used until 1910. Afterwards, I headed to the Capitol Building - the location of the House of Burgesses. Then, I walked around to the Wigmaker and Shoemaker's shops.

I then waited in line to go in the Coffeehouse. It was very interesting. We first sat in the parlor where men would talk and play cards, dice or checkers. We went into the common serving area where on the men working there told us of rumors going around. The lady doing the tour would occasionally lean conspiratorially up to one of us with a rumor about something going on. We finally went down to the basement where we were given a free sample of coffee or "chocolate".

Once I got it, it was nearly 3:00pm. At this time, they put on a performance starting with the reading of the newly received "Declaration of Independence" at the Capitol Building. Then, a young man gathered us around to give news of the Colonials victory at Saratoga. We then went to a stage behind the coffeehouse, where a captured British officer was brought forth to be condemned for his actions in attacking and scalping Colonials. There was more to come, however a strong rain began to fall. So, I left.

We had been invited when we were at the Williamsburg church of Christ on Sunday night to eat with them before Wednesday night Bible Study. We went and had an excellent meal with them. We also enjoyed the Bible Study.

On Thursday, I really wanted to hear George Washington speak. So we went back to CW to hear it. He spoke in the time frame of right after the Boston Tea Party. He was urging Colonials not to buy British goods. He played his character well. Several people asking questions called him General and he corrected them and said he was a Colonel. Others used the word "boycott". He said that he was not familiar with that term and perhaps the person meant "embargo". The term "boycott" did not come about until the 1880's. He kept stressing how we were to be "loyal" subjects to the crown.

After this, there was a reenactment of the Scioto Indians who were guests of the Governor. At this point, they were very worried because the Governor had left because he was worried about his safety with the possibility of the Colonials revolting. When it was over, we saw some more of the artisans. Watching the brick maker was especially interesting. We left and went back to the resort.

After lunch, I went out on my own to see Jamestown. It is a national park as well in the "Colonial Triangle". It was kinda neat to see it. My admission was included in the Yorktown pass I'd bought a couple of days before. However, the one thing it lacked was the park rangers to "bring it alive". I grabbed us something to eat on the way back and we ate and packed to leave the next day.

What was my overall opinion? If you are a history buff, you'll love Colonial Williamsburg. If you're not, it's mildly interesting but not something you'd spend two days at (like I did). Historic Jamestowne (yes with an e) again is interesting if you are a history buff but not that great if you're not.

A Fall Trip (Part 3)

2010-11-06T18:16:00.001-07:00

We got up on Tuesday and ate at a place called Mama Steve's Pancake House. The food was excellent and there was plenty of it. Once we finished, we headed out.

Donna has always wanted to visit a lighthouse. We've never really gone anywhere that is close to one. I had found the Cape Henry Lighthouse on the map about an hour's drive from Williamsburg. So, we decided to take the plunge and go. We also found there was a zoo in Norfolk right on the way back, so we could stop there afterwards if we chose.

There are actully two lighthouses. One is the one that is actually in use and the other is the old one built originally in 1792. They are the Cape Henry Lighthouse. They are both located on a military base - Fort Story. You have to show ID and get a pass to get in. Then, they have you get out of your car and check all over for security purposes. I totally understand that. The man leading the search said he had a grandmother with the last name of Yancy. Since I know my ancestors came from Virginia, I wish I would have had time to talk to him more about that...

We got to the lighthouses. The newer one is a black and white structure there on the Chesapeake Bay. You are not allowed to go up in that one. We could go up in the old lighthouse (pictured above). It's a very imposing brick structure built in 1792. You pay 4.00 and you can go up the lighthouse. Of course, I was game to up so off we went.

Donna as you may know has a fear of heights. I was concerned about her going up in it and unfortuantely, she got about 3/4 of the way up and couldn't go any farther. It is somewhat intimidating. There is a long spiral staircase leading to a ladder to get to the top. I made it up and the view was wonderful. It it warm up there even though there is no light in it any more. The glass all around allows the sun in and makes it very warm. I made it back down OK. I didn't see Donna so I went back down the to our car, but she wasn't there either. Turns out she was on a bench outside the lighthouse and I somehow missed her. She saw me taking pictures of the other lighthouse and came out to meet me and we left.

We went on to the Zoo in Norfolk. It was not a huge zoo, but we found it very nice anyway. There wasn't a huge crowd, so we were able to take our time in viewing the animals. We saw all sorts of animals. We were able to get really close to the giraffe. We also saw some striped antelopes called bongos. We left and went to eat an early dinner at Chili's. We were watching Cash Cab later and the video question to double the money showed a picture of striped antelopes and asked "This creature shares it name with a type of drum". We both immeidately shouted out "Bongo".

We rested for the evening in our room. We planned to go to Colonial Williamsburg the next day. I'll give you my review of that in my next post.

A Fall Trip (part 2)...

2010-11-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

Now that we were settled into our rooms at the resort, we started planning the week in Williamsburg. We took a walk Monday morning and then went to that survey/lunch I had mentioned we'd signed up for. When we walked into the building we were supposed to be in, I got an immediate bad feeling. There was the usual high pressure look of a bunch of tables with couples and a salesman at each. We went to the front of the building to sign in and were told to wait. We were sorely tempted to just bolt...

After about ten minutes, a gentleman came out and called out our names. We went back with him. There was actually some food in the back. I got a polish sausage and Donna got some barbeque. We went to his office and ate and he came back and asked questions about our stay and our experience with Wyndham. He then started talking about our home resort where we have ownership (Nashville). He asked if we were concerned since the resort had to considerably rebuilt after the recent floods. He offered us the chance to trade for another timeshare there at Williamsburg. He came back with the terms. We'd get to do this for only 300.00 a month (for 60 months!). I told him "Absolutely not, We don't borrow money for anything". He was very nice about it (unlike our last experience in Nashville where we were literally told we were stupid not to accept). He escorted us to the exit survey and we got our tickets to Colonial Williamsburg. They were even the more expensive two day passes, so it wasn't a bad experience at all!

I've said this before, but if we had it to do all over again, we wouldn't buy the timeshare. When we bought it in 1997, Nashville was the home of Opryland and we envisioned being able to stay there and literally walk to Opryland. The park closed only a few months after our purchase. Also at that time, the Internet was in its infancy and it was much more difficult to find places to stay than it is now. We've gotten a lot of fun out of it, but I still wouldn't do it again.

Donna wanted to rest so I decided to forage out to Yorktown. This of course is the site where the Revolutionary War ended so I was very interested in seeing it. One thing you have to realize is there are two places to go. One is the actual National Park at the site of the actual battlefield. The second is "Yorktown Victory Center". The latter is more for entertainment purposes from what I hear. The true history buff would much more enjoy the actual park.

I paid 10.00 which covers your entrance there and to the Jamestown National Park. There is a small museum to see plus the battlefield around the Visitor Center. The best part though were the tours the Park Rangers gave. They talked about the different type of cannon (I had no idea) plus how the actual battle was fought. They discussed how the war actually turned here for the Colonials. It was very interesting. I then took a short walk to see the Yorktown monument and the acutal city of Yorktown. There are a few shops and things to see there (including the cave General Cornwallis hid in for a while) but nothing stupendous. I finally took the driving tour of the rest of the Yorktown Battlefield. The neatest thing was seeing the site where George Washington camped and to realize you were standing where he stood almost 230 years ago!

I went back to the resort and picked up Donna and we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse and enjoyed an excellent dinner. We came back and watched a bit of Monday Night Football and went to sleep.

Part 3 is about our foraging out of the "Colonial Triangle" to see something Donna has always wanted to see..

A fall trip (part 1)...

2010-10-29T13:47:00.000-07:00

For years and years, we went to Myrtle Beach with our sons every fall. We had some very great fun times. Now that they are in college, we don't do that any more. Donna asked about going again and I simply cannot bring myself to go there without them.

Last year we went to Nashville because we just had to go somewhere for a week. We planned it out a bit better this year and decided to go to Williamsburg Virginia. We saw that our route would take us right through Lexington on I-64 to give us the bonus of seeing Josh twice in one week.

We left on a Friday and headed to Lexington. We picked up Josh at UK (he's working a few afternoons a week in computer support for the Math Department). He wanted to go to Red Lobster for the "Endless Shrimp". His roommate Cory met us there. We polished off about 240 shrimp between us, but I was the only one to break 100. We went and got our rental car at Hertz at the airport. You are probably asking "Don't they have rental car places in Paducah?". Indeed they do. However, I could rent a car there for 169.00 with tax and everything for a week. To rent a car for 10 days to cover the whole trip in Paducah would be closer to 350.00. We just drove our van and left it with Josh while we were gone.

On Saturday, we stopped to see Josh before we left, then headed out. We got to West Virginia. I found out the state is very hilly. It seemed like we were either pulling up a mountain or speeding down one the whole time we were in the state. We stopped in Lewisburg since it was about half way. We got there just in time to watch the UK South Carolina game. It did not go well. Uk got down big at the half so Donna and I went to dinner at Applebee's. I noticed Kentucky making a slight rally but was still not optimistic. We got back to the room and KY really started coming back. They shut out South Carolina the whole second half. UK finally took the lead with a minute or so left on a 4th down pass from Hartline to Cobb and got the 2 point conversion to go up by three. I was on the edge of my seat now (I am surprised I didn't get us tossed out of the hotel by my yelling). South Carolina drove to the end zone. With a few seconds left, South Carolina went for a TD instead of a field goal. UK tipped the pass in the end zone and intercepted it. I was ecstatic. This was the first time UK had beaten them in 10 years and the first time they'd beaten Steve Spurrier in EIGHTEEN tries.

We got up Sunday and ate at the hotel (Hampton Inn of course). We went to the Lewisburg church of Christ. Everyone was very nice and friendly. We headed out after that. The rest of the drive went well except for the part of I-64 that combines with I-81. I've never seen so many 18 wheelers on one stretch of road. Donna was a nervous wreck.

We got to Williamsburg and checked into our resort. It was beautiful. I did get talked into signing up for a free lunch and survey the next day (more on that later). We unloaded and headed for Williamsburg church of Christ. The brethren were very nice as well. The preacher there is Bill Butterfield the brother of Tom Butterfield who preached a Gospel Meeting at Central a few years back. We grabbed something to eat and headed back to the resort.

In Part II, I'll let you know about we we saw and did in Williamsburg

A little Political Humor...

2010-10-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

I read this in the Reader's Digest today. I found it quite funny, based on your political leanings you might not...

A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave him his business card and told him to stop by for a job. He then took $20 out of his pocket and handed it to him.

The Democrat was impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided it was his turn to help. So he reached into the Republican's pocket and gave the homeless man $50.

The Big E

2010-10-04T17:37:00.001-07:00

I saw on the news today that the Executive Inn was going to start being demolished tomorrow. For those of you non-Paducah people, the Executive Inn was the hotel in Paducah from the early 1980's until a few years ago when it was allowed to fall into serious disrepair. WPSD asked for people to post memories of the hotel, so I thought I'd blog a few of mine.

I remember right after it first opened, Brent Starkey, Kenny Martin and I (and probably a few others) walked from their house to the hotel. We were just wandering around the place taking in how huge it was when we were approached by a security guard telling us "You boys ain't allowed in here".. We laughed about that all the way back to their house.

I took this girl I was dating to "Mr. G's Gourmet Room" (I think it was called) to impress her. It had beautiful views of the Ohio River. I remember they gave us sherbet between the salad and our main course as I found out later "to cleanse our palates". I also ordered a dessert I always wanted to see it flame up when they made it (Cherries Jubilee). I was horrified to see how they made it burn. Fortunately, it burned away as fuel before they poured the hot cherries on vanilla ice cream.

Later I took her for her 21st birthday to see some red haired country singer she really liked in the showroom. I wasn't a big country fan at the time, but I remember thinking "Hey, she's pretty good, she might really make it big some day". Her name was Reba McIntire. I remember the girl I was with talked me into buying Reba's latest album for sale right after we left the showroom. Donna and I still have that album.

I saw several more shows in that showroom. We saw John Anderson. I remember he sang with his eyes closed (yes, we were that close unfortunately). He also sang one of my least favorite songs "Just a Swingin" and that he looked like "death warmed over". We also saw a pretty good Beatles tribute band (1964 I believe). I remember "John Lennon" throwing picks at Donna trying (I felt) to flirt with her. She's always been beautiful, so catches a lot of guys eyes.

Their restaurant had and excellent prime rib buffet on Sunday where they carved it right in front of you. I enjoyed that several times. Makes me hungry right now just thinking about it.

USEC would hold "galas" every year there for their employees in the showroom. They'd feed us really well and then have entertainment. Bowser of Sha-na-na was there several times, but I remember most Paul Revere and the Raiders because they are Jim Faughn's favorites.

They had some pretty good events in the convention center. I remember baseball card shows and taking the boys to a train collectible's show. I also remember in the infancy of quilt show that Donna wanted to go see it so we went about 4 on a Saturday afternoon only to be turned away since "we're ready to close up the show". My how that has changed.

Our house had a minor fire (burning our basement and smoking up the rest of the house) in the summer of 1984. I was on my first business trip ever (to Boston for computer training). My parents and sister Melissa stayed at the Executive Inn for the first few weeks while the house was being cleaned. I remember ordering room service one night while there and getting asparagus. I never ordered that again.

It was sad to see the place fall into such disrepair. I hope they build something just as neat when they rebuild (although I doubt they will). Oh, maybe you are wondering why it was called the "Big-E"? I had some visitors they were coming to our plant from Oak Ridge ask that once. I told them just to watch as they approached the hotel and they'd know. There was a large E (it was lit up as a green "E" at night) that you could not miss as you got close.

At the Dollar General store...

2010-09-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

For several months, we've noticed a building being built on Highway 60 a few miles from our home. It's right down the road from our mechanic (Mansfield's). A couple of weeks ago we finally found out it was a Dollar General store. This seems like a strange place to build. There are now five Dollar General stores in a thirty mile stretch of road in our vicinity. Starting with the one at Cardinal Point in Paducah, then the store west of the mall. Then, after the new one, there is one in LaCenter and finally one in Wickliffe. The other four are at least built around some city or town. The new one is closest to Future City and Cimota City. Do you know where the name Cimota City comes from? I'll let you know at the end of this post.

I went by there last weekend. It's a very nice Dollar General store. The parking lot is very spacious and easy to get out and back from. I was able to get a great deal on 2 liter Diet Dr Peppers. They are always 1.25 but these had an immediate savings coupon of .55 on each. However, as my father-in-law says "Not everything in there is a bargain". It's a good lesson to remember about stores like this. Just because it's in a discount store doesn't mean its the best price.

Figured out that Cimota City reference yet? Think about what major business is close to it....

"At the Dollar General Store" was a famous ad campaign for the stores years and years ago. I looked on YouTube and other video sites and alas I couldn't find a copy. It's been running through my head since I noticed that new store. I'm still amazed that there so many of these stores around. They must be very profitable. I wonder what will happen to the local Supermarket (Food World)?

Oh yes, what's the answer? Spell Cimota backwards and remember that it's close to USEC and it'll make sense.

The age old question...

2010-06-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

Ahh. Sports and science together. How could it get any better? I am glad to know what I've told kids for years as a coach (and yelled at Skip Schumaker several times a year) is proven by science. And this isn't even counting the risk of injury by diving into first as opposed to running through the bag.

Is it better to dive or run past first base?

Almost Perfect...

2010-06-03T18:21:00.000-07:00

If you are any type of sports fan, you've heard how Armando Galarraga narrowly missed pitching the 3rd perfect of the year on a missed call by ump Jim Joyce. I've been very impressed at how Armando Galarraga has handled this. He hasn't ranted and raved about the call. He's accepted that this is part of baseball. It is amazing how many calls umpires do get right considering all the plays that happen so fast.

I am glad Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig didn't reverse the call. One, I believe this would have tainted the perfect game. Secondly, I don't think a game result shouldn't be reversed like that. There are other games that end on bizarre calls that could ultimately be pushed to be reversed. You never know when a game you lose in April that you should have won could be the one game you needed to get in the playoffs later in the year.

I will also tell you that I am firmly against instant replay. Jonathan and I get in this argument quite often. He's all for it. I am a purist who loves wooden bats, detests the DH and wouldn't like instant replay. How would you handle it? Would you have a certain number of challenges? What would the penalty (like losing a timeout in the NFL) be for an unsuccessful challenge?

Finally, this of course reminded me of the 1985 World Series. I remember watching game 6 with my girlfriend. The Cardinals had taken a 1-0 into the bottom of the ninth. Despite having lost Bruce Sutter to free agency over the winter, the Cardinal bullpen had not blown a lead in the 9th and lost a game all YEAR. The rookie flamethrower Mark Worrell was in the game and he'd been lights out over the last part of the year. Jorge Orta was called safe at first by Don Dekinger in similar play to the one last night and replays showed he was out. Of course, the Cardinals still could have won, but a couple of misplays by Jack Clark and Darrell Porter plus a key hit by former Cardinal hero Dane Iorg (who they never should have let go) beat them. They couldn't recover and got creamed 10-0 in game 7. But, I still have fond memories of that game. As I sat there devastated by the loss, my girlfriend put her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek and said "It'll be OK honey". She could have said "It's just a stupid game, get over it", but she didn't. I thought "Wow, what a wonderful girl this is!". I still think that to this day and she still cheers with me when my teams win and consoles me when they lose.

Time to "fess up"...

2010-05-19T16:01:00.001-07:00

Well, I have to admit something today. Something I've always taken care of for years, I didn't do yesterday. I didn't VOTE.

I've gone to the polls to vote for years. I just don't miss it. I am registered Democrat even though I am not in any way favorable to their platforms. In the state of Kentucky (especially in this end), all of the local races are on the Democratic ticket. The primary elections decide the local offices. There might be token Republican opposition in the November election, but they never win. So, I had offices to vote for (jailer and magistrate) besides the Senatorial primary to decide the two candidates to run in November to take retiring senator (and MLB Hall of Famer) Jim Bunning's seat. I just simply didn't make the effort. It's been all over the news about Rand Paul's victory in the Republican primary. "Cussin" Jack Conway narrowly took the Democratic race. It'll be an interesting campaign.

I am always the one who says "You can't complain if you don't vote" or "That is one of the great things about America and you should never pass on it". There's no good excuse (and that's all it'd be). I'll take my crow medium well..

Centerfield...

2010-05-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Adam Faughn's blog post reminded how much I love this song and the video. There are a few too many Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers in it for me, but there is a good shot of Stan and brief shots of Lou and the Gashouse Gang. BTW, the young man in the picture is the "brown-eyed man" mentioned in the song.

Spring Practice

2010-04-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

Since I get Good Friday off from work, we decided to make a long weekend of it and go visit Josh at UK. I found out that UK Spring football practice would be going on and that it was open to the public. I wanted to see it of course, so I planned to do that Saturday morning.

Donna and I parked our car close to Josh's dorm and started walking. Josh called afterward wanting to know what was taking so long. He knew some direct path through campus to the Nutter Training Facility and got there a lot quicker than we did. The Nutter Training facility is right next to the UK baseball field. These were both new to me, the baseball field was in a totally different spot when I was there and the Nutter Training facility wasn't there. Ervin J. Nutter was a mechanical engineering graduate from UK and gave money for Mechanical Engineering scholarships as well as the training facility.

They have multiple practice fields there including one with artificial turf. There were about 50 to 100 people watching. You could get right up to the edge of the field and watch. They were running multiple drills in blocking and running. The UK QBs were practicing their throws. There are three QBs that have a shot at being the starter. Mike Hartline is a senior and was a starter last year unless being hurt in a bizarre situation at South Carolina (he was nailed on a Delay of Game dead ball of all things). Morgan Newton stepped in a as a freshman to run things after that. Ryan Mossakowski is a redshirt freshman with a strong throwing arm. It'll be interesting who ends up being the starter.

I of course was mesmerized. Donna and Josh watched for a while and then left when I started to rain. I stuck it out though. They ran several more drills (including punt blocking). Finally, they ended up moving to the artificial turf field and running a kind of scrimmage. That was really interesting. The receivers looked to have a lot of trouble hanging on to the ball though. The QBs all had red jerseys on to signify they were not to be touched. A lineman bumped one of them at one point and got a severe tongue lashing from a coach.

Speaking of which, I also saw new UK head coach Joker Phillips. He played there when I was in college at UK (he's a couple of years younger than me though, that makes me feel old). He was very active running from groups of players in various drills giving encouragement and instruction. I'll be interested to see what changes happen when games start in the fall.

I saw several Kentucky sportswriters I recognized including Alan Culter, Chip Cosby and Larry Vaught. Tom Leach known as "the Voice of the Wildcats" was there as well. The players were very nice and signed autographs and talked with people afterwards. It was a very neat experience. I am looking forward to the fall to see how things fare with the team. Besides the QB battle, UK must replace standouts Travard Lindley, Micah Johnson, Sam Maxwell and Corey Peters on defense. They also must replace 4 of 5 starting Offensive Linemen as well as their vastly underrated fullback John Conner. I am hoping we can make it to five bowl games in a row.

Date Night..

2010-03-30T19:16:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, Donna and I have made it a priority to have a date night every couple of weeks. With me being out of town, Josh being home, and several church events, we hadn't been in a while. So, last Friday night, we went out.

We went to our favorite Paducah restaurant (Red Lobster). It is as you know Lobsterfest right now which cemented my desire to go. I got a lobster tail, crab legs, and shrimp scampi platter that was really good. Afterwards, we split a Chocolate Wave. It did make me miss Josh. Whenver he was with us, he and I would split one. We would both eat as quickly as we could so that the other wouldn't eat more than their share.

We usually try to run any errands that need running after we eat out. Donna needed to get some walking shoes. Shoe Carnival was having a buy one get one half price sale so we went there. After quickly purusing the men's aisles, I left while she looked. The area around the Shoe Carnival used to have several stores I liked to visit. I could go to Circuit City or Office Max. I could even clothes shop at Goody's. However, these are all gone now. I ended up going to Gander Mountain.

If you know anything about me, you know how out of place I am at Gander Mountain. It's like a polar bear in the Sahara. I am not an outdoorsman. I have nothing against those who enjoy hunting, fishing and camping. I have several relatives who are avid sportsmen and I live in one of the best waterfowl hunting areas around (Ballard County). I am always intrigued by the varied amount of equipment there. I looked at the different kinds of bait which reminded me of Hank Hill and his disdain for "cheater bait". Hank's a staunch worm man. I made it around to the plethora of camping equipment. I was looking at the video section (on how to track down the "Big Buck") when one of the employees spoke to me. I started to protect that I was "just looking" but he remarked about my UK2K shirt I had one. This started a 15 minute converstation about UK basketball past and present. I finally dragged myself away just in time as Donna was getting ready to check out at Shoe Carnival.

On the way home, we stopped at the Dollar General Store. We'd been unable to find any cheap two-liter sodas so we knew we could get them for 1.25 there. Turned out they were on sale and we got several for 1.00 apiece. We finally got home in time to check out a little NCAA tourney action. It was an excellent date night.

Blue Orleans...

2010-03-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

What a year it's been for UK fans! Never in my wildest dreams did I believe we'd do so well. We lost several players and had to bring in a whole new group. We had four new starters (three of them freshmen). Coach Cal has done a great job in getting this team to play as a unit and they have great chemistry.

For the first time in several years, I went to a couple of games. First, I went with Josh to see Ole Miss at UK. The UK students are allowed to buy tickets for 5 a piece. Since the team is now so popular, not all of the students who want tickets can get them. you go and wait in line then they draw for who gets the chance to buy them and who doesn't. Josh hadn't gotten drawn. I wanted to see a game and of course see him so went. UK won by double digits and we had a great time.

Later, Jonathan and I went. We went to see UK try and avenge one of its losses (to South Carolina). UK won by 20. Jonathan ended up getting to hang out with his brother and get a taste of UK life. We really had fun there too.

I figured I'd seen all the UK games I'd get to see in person this year. We bounced around the idea of possibly going to the Milwaukee "pod", but hadn't really seriously planned it. I found out on "Selection Sunday" that UK had been placed in the New Orleans pod. When I got home from church Sunday night, I (just for fun I thought) checked out the ticket prices. They were pretty reasonable for lower arena seats (100 apiece for corner 20 rows up). This was also spring break week for UK and WKCTC. I talked with Donna and decided to go for it! I got a couple of tickets to UK's first round game with East Tennessee State. I tried to get Josh to go with us, but he'd promised his friend Cory King to take him to Lexington that Thursday.

We decided to drive to Memphis Wednesday, go to church there, and then drive the rest of the way Thursday. We thought about getting tickets for Saturday. Jonathan wanted to get back for the singing at our congregation Friday night. I also wanted to go to the annual Leadership Conference at Briensburg church of Christ on Saturday, so we passed.

We left Wednesday afternoon and got to Memphis with no problem. We actually stayed at Horn Lake Mississippi since it was right off of I-55 (our main route to New Orleans). It was only 20 minutes to Memphis. We stayed at the Drury Inn there. Drury's (as I've mentioned before) is one of my favorite places to stay (my only beef with them is there aren't enough of them around). They've now added a light dinner to their ammenities. We had egg rolls, wings, baked potatoes and salad.

We went to Bible Study that night at Getwell church of Christ. They publish an excellent Christian periodical called the Spiritual Sword. I've been there numerous times and everyone there is very friendly and hospitable. The preacher there is Gary Colley who is a an excellent preacher and teacher. It seemed like he'd only been teaching for a few minutes when we ran out of time. We got to talk a little basketball of course before and after services. We went back to the hotel to rest up for the drive the next day.

Our drive went fine. We drove about six hours stopping only once for gas. You drive to the end of I-55 and then head East on I-10. We got there faster than I thought we would. Our hotel (Drury Inn and Suites of course) very graciously allowed us to check in early. It's a very nice hotel. It was about 6 blocked from the stadium. Parking was right outside in a lot saving walking through a parking garage labyrinth. I'd had reserved a suite (it was only a little more expensive then a regular room. Our room was fabulous! Two flat screen TV with HD and plenty of room. We threw our stuff down and went to find food.

I had wanted to get a Po' Boy sandwich (what we'd call a sub around here). I'd found several recommended ones online. We went for Mike Sergio's which was a short walk away. I wanted to try a fried shrimp po boy. As we waited to get our food, the owner started talking basketball of course. He had a UK helmet prominently displayed on his counter with Coach Cal's signature on it. He said Coach Cal and his family had been in several hours earlier. I guess it was possible since there was a Hilton Hotel right next door. We took our food back to the room. The sandwich was better than I even hoped. We enjoyed watching games and especially Murray State pulling out a last minute win.

About 5:15pm, we headed for the game. The game was to be played at the New Orleans Arena (home of the New Orleans Hornets). It's right behind the Superdome and only six blocks away. We of course were subjected to many scalpers along the way plus all sorts of celebratory posters and images of the recent New Orleans Super Bowl win. We got in and took our seats. They were as good as I'd hoped and we had a great view. However, the gym only ended up being about half full. I was a bit disappionted in the turnout. Most of the fans there were UK fans though. UK started off a bit slow but then got hot. Patrick Patterson scored on numerous inside moves and Eric Bledsoe hit seven threes. UK lead by as much as 40 before winning 100-71. We ended up staying for half of the Texas/Wake Forest game. We talked with several Texas fans sitting around us. We got back to the room and saw Texas lose on a last minute shot. Made us glad we weren't at the arena.

The next morning, my goal was to go to the Cafe Du Monde for beignets. If you don't know that those are, they are a cross between a doughnut and a funnel cake. I walked a mile to get there and get some to take back to the room. I took the way back to the hotel that allowed me to take the Riverwalk and see the Mississippi River. I got back and Jonathan and I enjoyed the beignets thoroughly.

We left and headed back. We only stopped once (to gas up and grab lunch). Jonathan subjected me to some of his music and I subjected him to Dave Ramsey. We had a lot of fun. As a lady at church tells me "You made another memory".

Walkin' in Memphis

2010-03-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

Being a Denver Nuggets fan, I don't get many opportunities to see them in person. They do play the Memphis Grizzlies a couple of times a year so I finally took advantage of that and found a date they would be in Memphis.

My brother Kevin and his family live in Memphis. He's a Grizzlies fan so I checked with him to see if wanted to go. He was all for it and said he'd get the tickets. The game was last Saturday so I drove up Saturday morning. I listened to the first half of the UK-UT game. I listened to the UT network. It was funny to hear them complain about Wayne Chism being beat up under the basket. I thought "well, what's good for the goose.." I went to my brother's and saw the 2nd half. UK really cranked up the heat and blew UT out in the end.

Kevin's wife Kim and daughter Kristen were not going to be there that night, so we had the run of the place. My sister Jody came down to watch Zach so we could go the ballgame. We played some Wii basketball and I pretty well stank at it. My brother pulled out an old Intellivision game console with his games. I ended playing one of my favorite archive games - Burgertime. We let Zach decide where to eat and he chose Dyer's downtown (more on that later).

We drove downtown and parked. We walked to the restaurant down to Beale Street. This of course led me sing "Walkin' in Memphis". We stopped and grabbed the last table at Dyer's. Dyer's is a hambuger place on Beale. They are supposed to have excellent burgers. Their claim to fame is the grease they use to fry the burgers. It's supposed to be the same grease used since 1912 (a special blend). They just filter it out each night and reuse it. My triple burger and fries did not disappoint, they were excellent! Zach and Jody headed for their house and Kevin and I went to the FedEx Forum.

Kevin had gotten us club seats and they were great! We had our own private section with concessions and even areas with padded chairs to relex in. We even had our own bathrooms just for Club level patrons. The game didn't start off well. Memphis played well and Denver played rotten defense. Memphis let all of the first half. Denver finally rallied to tie the game at the end of the third quarter. In the 4th quarter, JR Smith went off. He was hitting three pointers like mad. Denver got out to a 24 point lead and ended up winning easily. I forced my brother into the tradition I have of never leaving a game til the end. We went back to my brother's house. We ended up playing Intellivision Baseball til late and then went to bed.

I got up that next morning and my brother surprised me with bacon and eggs. I left about 9 to head for Getwell church of Christ. I enjoyed worship there and hearing Brother Gary Colley speak. Afterwards, I headed for home. I listened to the exciting UK-MIss State game. I almost drove off the road when Cousins hit the putback with .1 seconds to go to force OT. I hated not seeing it on TV, but I had a thourougly enjoyable time in Memphis.

Steak 'n Shake

2010-03-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Friday night, Donna and I decided to go out. First, I went to Kohl's and she went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She bought some new curtains. I bought a new pair of ASICS running shoes for 39.99. I also had to buy a new winter coat (my good one somehow traveled to Lexington with someone else). I got a 100.00 coat for 30.00.

We went to eat dinner at Steak 'n Shake. It's the first time we've been there in years. We used to go a lot when the boys were younger but quit for some reason. Donna and I discussed it a bit and couldn't remember why. I'm thinking it's that their service got slow (see IHOP - Paducah). I can report that the experience this time was fine. They have a 3.99 menu with multiple items on it. I got a triple steakburger and fries for 3.99. Donna had a single with fries. I was planning to get a milk shake. However, there was a delectable looking Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae on the menu, so I tried that. It was great. A couple of soft chocolate chip cookies with ice cream and fudge sauce and only 2.99! Primeau. Donna had a Butterfinger milk shake that she really liked too.

Our waitress was very enthusiastic and attentive. The food came out reasonably fast and was really good. Donna got on me once for wolfing it down so fast. The manager even asked what I thought of the sundae when I left.

Steak 'n Shake is now back in the first tier of restaurants for the Yancy's.

Kentucky Wildcats

2010-02-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

The Kentucky Wildcats are highly ranked and are having one of their best seasons in years. They are a lock for getting an NCAA tournament bid after not getting in last year. They are eagerly awaiting a game with highly ranked Tennessee. But, I but you didn't realize I am talking about the WOMEN's team.

The women's team is now ranked 17th in the country with a stellar record of 20-3. Matthew Mitchell has coached this team to 2nd place in the very competitve SEC. Victoria Dunlap is being mentioned as a possible SEC player of the year. But, with the great season the men are having, the women's team isn't getting much publicity. They haven't has this good of a team in years.

When I was at UK from 1981-1983, UK had excellent women's teams (they were called the Lady Kats then). I used to see several of the players at the cafeteria at Blazer Hall when I ate dinner. They were not thronged like the male players were of course (Melvin Turpin, Sam Bowie, Jim Master, etc). They were congenial and would talk to anybody. Lea Wise was one of the guards, she was easy to spot with her blonde Farrah Fawcett hair-do. Her running mate was PJ Hedges. Their top scorer was Valerie Still. She was the younger sister of all-time UK football defensive great Art Still (the 2nd pick in the 1978 NFL draft). She is the actual answer to the trivia question "Who scored the most points in their UK basketball career?". Most people answer "Dan Issel". They were actually ranked #4 in the nation my junior year. They lost to eventual National Champion Louisiana Tech in the Elite Eight.

They play Tennessee in a couple of weeks. UT is to women's basketball what UK is to men's in the SEC. Pat Summit has coached them for over 30 years winning numerous SEC championships and NCAA titles. She has the most NCAA wins as a basketball coach (not that obnoxious guy who used to wear those red sweaters). They've already named the court after her at UT ("The Summit").

It's nice to see other sports excel at UK (football, women's basketball, not to mention gymnastics, soccer, baseball and even softball)

Krispy Kreme

2010-02-11T12:17:00.001-08:00

Anybody who knows me, knows I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I've been known to go across multiple lanes of traffic when the "hot light" is on. If we go to a town that has one, I have to go get some. Fortunately for my weight, the closest one is in Evansville.

Well, that was the case until a few days ago. While exiting I-24 and heading toward WKCTC, I noted what you see above on the marquee for the gas station across the street from the college. I had just resolved to try and drop a few extra pounds I seem to have accumulated over the winter and there this is. I thought "OK, I never stop at that gas station any way, I can resist that". Then yesterday, Donna called me from Supervalu to tell me "They have Krispy Kreme doughnuts now". They of course had my favorite - the chocolate frosted creme filled. She asked if she should get some and of course I said "Yes".

I eagerly rushed home from work and had not one but two. I was hoping they might be stale but alas they tasted great. Jonathan had one too and Donna said "I thought those might last a couple of days". My answer was "You're kidding, right?" We've already talked about her NOT bringing home a half-dozen box every week.

We'll see how good I am at resisting temptation over the next few weeks...

Why They Gotta Mess with Stuff???

2010-02-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

I was doing my morning perusal of MSN.com and came upon this a few days ago. Monopoly is releasing its 75th edition. It uses credit cards and it replaces the game pieces with colored tabs. And the board is going to be round??? I've played Monopoly for close to forty years. I cannot imagine anyone changing one of the all time classics. I've played Monopoly for close to 40 years. Josh, my nephew Adam, and I have a family tradition of playing a game every time we get together for a holiday. Other players drift in and out, but we three always have a game.

Credit cards instead of money? What does that teach? That borrowing money instead of paying cash is better? Especially in buying real estate? Obviously, these guys don't listen to Dave Ramsey. How do you handle having the fines pile up in the center of the board til someone hits Free Parking? What about the satisfaction of having a pile of 500 dollar bills? I'm always the banker when I play, what happens to that? I even stay the banker if I get bankrupted.

Colored tabs for the game pieces? One of the cool things about the game is the varied game pieces. I was the dog for years until Josh started playing and wanted it. I gave it up and have been the top hat ever since. My nephew Adam is always the race car. Whenever the game is brought out, those three pieces are always brought out immediately. Nobody ever tries to usurp those.

And a round board? What's up with that? Next thing you know, they'll try to change the shape of the Pentagon.

I've got a battered Monopoly game that actually has the wooden houses and hotels that Donna got me years ago. I guess I'll be hanging on to that one now til it rots away.

By the way, the post title comes from this (One of the few Hardee's commercials that I don't automatically turn off). Jonathan says the I'm the old guy of course.

Sickness

2010-01-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

It all started early Thursday morning. I felt sick to my stomach. I ate a couple of Mylanta pills and went back to sleep. I was awakened a few hours later and couldn't keep anything on my stomach. I hadn't felt like this in a long long time. I was reduced to laying on the couch. Jonathan went to school and Donna to work, so I was on my own. I tried a cracker and sipping water but it "just came right back out".

I spent the entire morning watching "Retro-TV". This is a new digital channel we can pick up now. It has a bunch of old shows I watched when I was a kid. I watched Marcus Welby and then Ironside (which I remember watching with my dad when I was young). I watched Kojak and then one of my favorites - Leave it to Beaver. Finally, I topped it off with Magnum PI and the Rockford Files. I was reminded (again) of a time when TV shows could be very entertaining without being vulgar.

I finally stopped throwing up about noon, but had no appetite at all. I just rested for the day. I was still weak the next day, but steadily improved the rest of the day. Jonathan went to see his girlfriend at her high school game (she plays in the band). He woke us up about midnight sick. Even though he's 20 years old, his mom and I still felt as bad as we did when he was little. We tried to do all we could for him. He felt better by day's end. However, Donna started getting sick about 6:30pm. There is no more frustrating feeling for a husband then watching your wife hurt and not being able to do a thing about it. She finally felt better by early in the morning, but she wasn't able to attend worship services. She missed them terribly. She felt a lot better Monday.

I haven't been that sick in a while. None of us have. It makes you really appreciate your health to go though something like this. And it doesn't even compare to what some people go through on a regular basis.

Music City Bowl 2009

2009-12-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

We were really hoping for Tampa or Atlanta, but still we were glad to get to go the 4th straight bowl Kentucky was in (that's never happened before). I'd been able to get really good seats and Josh was going to go with us for the first time. Clemson worried me though. They missed by five points of going to the Orange Bowl.

I got up about 3:00am and was very dizzy. I went back to bed and felt a bit better. After church, I went home and rested. When Donna and the boys got back (from Parkview singing), I was up to the trip. The guys and I left.

The trip down was fine til we got close to the I-65 interchange and there was a huge traffic backup. Fortunately, I had brought the GPS I got Donna for Christmas. Josh was able to take us on an alternate route to our initial destination - Fat Mo's on Trinity Avenue. For those of you who don't know, Fat Mo's has several locations in Nashville. They serve one of the best burgers around. We got our food to go and headed for LP Field.

We got parked with little incident and set up to wait for the Cat Walk. The Cat Walk is where UK fans line up and shake hands and high five the UK Players and coaches as they exit the bus to enter the stadium. Josh was keeping up with the Jets Colts game he could see on a TV in the Titans store. I got to shake hands with Rich Brooks and see all the players. It was a neat experience.

We then headed for church. We walked to the Central church of Christ congregation in downtown Nashville. I'd never been there, but read about it on-line. We took the Shelby Pedistrian bridge. It's a nice bridge over the Cumberland River and we walked about a mile to get there. The brethren there was very nice and we had a great time singing praises to God (it was their monthly singing night). Josh snatched my Blackberry right after services to check the Jets score. Turned they'd won after Indy pulled its starters. We walked back to LP Field and were in plenty of time for the kickoff.

It was cold! The air temperature was in the upper 20's and with wind chill lower 20's Our seats were fabulous, 50 yard line, front row, right behind the UK bench. The stadium was not nearly full but was easily 80-90% UK fans. Kentucky held Clemson on the first drive and then drove down and scored a TD. Little did I know that would be the offensive highlight of the game for them. They held again and drove to the Clemson 29, but a loss and a sack forced a punt. Clemson scored on a 30 yard play action TD pass to tie things up. Kentucky drove down into field goal range and Lonas Seiber came through to make it 10-7. Clemson scored a TD before the half to make it 14-10.

Kentucky started the half with another field goal to make it 14-13. The teams traded field position for the rest of the half. Clemson missed a field goal into the wind. Kentucky had several decent drives stall after they crossed the 50. Finally, the game hinged on a key play late in the fourth. A Uk receiver fumbled a short pass around the UK 20 and Clemson drove it in in a few plays to make it 21-13. Kentucky then mounted a drive which stalled around the Clemson 45. They sent their punter Ryan Tyldacka on to punt. We couldn't believe they were doing this on a 4th and 3. Then, lo and behold he takes off on a fake and gets the first down. Poor guy got nailed though and he looked very woozy walking to the sidelines. I'd seen him practicing taking long snaps and taking off running, but I thought he was just trying to stay warm.

UK got to 4th and 8 and Morgan Newton took off on a scramble. He got about 7 and half yards. Clemson got the ball back and ran out the clock and UK's bowl winning streak was over. It was a good game, the wrong team won. We got out to the car and cranked the heater up. Josh said his feet were frozen. We got home about 1:45am. We had a lot of fun together even with the loss. I found out CJ Spiller got the MVP which I didn't really understand. He had an OK game, but these seemed more like a popularity award (since he's their most well known player). I'd have given the award to the Clemson defense.

What's up for next season? This question looms even larger now when I found out Coach Brooks said after the game he was "80% sure he was retiring". There will be a three QB battle between Newton, Mike Hartline (who did OK until getting hurt on a dead ball in South Carolina) and young redshirt QB named Ryan Mossakowski. They've got to find somebody who complete passes downfield. Clemson just kept playing up tight on defense and UK couldn't get around them. Most of the offensive line graduates and the defense loses standouts Trevard Lindley, Micah Johnson and Corey Peters. Top running back Derrick Locke should be back (he's having his draft status evaulated though). It's be an interesting season next year.

Marathon Man (and a half)

2009-12-11T19:10:00.000-08:00

After last year's run in the St Jude's Marathon, Jonathan wanted to give it another go this year. I agreed finally to run the half marathon. We both spent the summer and fall training. I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

We left on Friday. We picked up our rental car and headed out. We got to Memphis with no problem even dodging the heavy traffic coming into town for the most part. Donna dumped us out at the Cook Convention Center to pick up our race packet. The packet contains your bib (race number to pin to your front) and a D-tag. What's a D-tag you might ask? It's a disposable piece of technology that tracks you through the trace as you pass over certain points. You loop it around the laces of your tennis shoe. It's pretty neat.

We went down to check in to our hotel. Donna and I stayed at the Residence Inn Downtown. I've stayed there several times (including last year's marathon) and always liked it. The man at the front not only unloaded our car but brought our bags to the room and valet parked our car. We felt like real VIPs. We put Jonathan in the Doubletree Hotel. It's right next to the finish. We walked to his room and checked him in.

We ended up going to one of our favorite places to eat (Chili's). I really wish we had one of these in Paducah. I made sure not to over stuff myself. We came back to our respective hotels and I spent most of the night simply resting and trying to hydrate myself for the race the next day. I went to bed early (9pm).

We got up about 6 the next day. It was cold (28) but clear. I went and grabbed some toast and a banana for breakfast. That's my usual long race day breakfast. I got my racing clothes on and we called Jonathan so he'd be ready. We went to the hotel to meet him. We walked down to the start of the race near the Fed-Ex Forum (home of the Memphis Grizzlies).

You get in corrals based on what you think your per mile time will be. Jonathan lined up in number 5 and I got in number 6. My goal was 2:10 and his was under 4 hours. It hit 8 o'clock and they started releasing each corral a few minutes apart. After a few minutes, I was off. They have pace teams holding up signs with marathon finishing times. I got behind the one with 3:55 on it. After a few miles, I actually got hot in my gloves and hat. Donna was waiting to cheer us on at mile 3, so I tossed my hat and gloves to her.

I kept the pace up really well for the first 9 miles or so. The only issue was with water and it isn't the one you'd think. The general practice is once a runner drinks the water in his cup, he drops it and any remaining contents on the pavement. It was so cold, the water started freezing and making large slippery patches. I took a gel packet at 9 miles (chocolate) and it gave me a bit of a boost. But still, my pace fell off the last few miles. It was a welcome relief to turn onto the final street leading to AutoZone park. AutoZone Park is home to the Memphis Redbirds (the St Louis Cardinals AAA team). I managed to kick a bit as I entered and ran along the warning track to the finish line. I had made it. Donna was there to greet me. They have food at the end and even being around 10, I had some pizza.

We went to Jonathan's room for me to rest. My sister Melissa called and said she had just missed Jonathan at mile 19 (very close to where her family lives). He was keeping a good pace, so we went back to wait for him. It was a thrill to see him come around at about 3:50! He ended up with a 3:51:06 which was over 10 minutes faster than last year for him. He was of course, exhausted and we had to walk him up to his room at the Doubletree. Fortunately, it as only a block away.

We spent the next hour yelling at the TV for the UK-North Carolina game. UK held on to beat them for the first time in 5 years. Donna got Jonathan food from the TGI Fridays downstairs and we went back to our room to rest. We went out later that night to Huey's and I got a big burger and fries to try and refuel. We also heard the sad news that a young lady died after running the half marathon. It was the first time that had ever happened at the St. Judes run.

Donna and I ended up going out later to my with my sister and her husband and my young nephew Brody. We had a lot of fun visiting with them but finally came back to the hotel to rest. Jonathan needed more food so we stopped at Taco Bell on the way and got him more food. I finally went to sleep about 9;30pm. We got up and checked out and went to worship at the Getwell church of Christ (they publish the Spiritual Sword). Everyone there was really friendly and we enjoyed it. We stopped in Blytheville on the way home and ate at Zaxby's. We got home without incident.

It was a really neat weekend. I found I beat my goal by quite a bit and I ran a 2:00:01. I wish I'd have known to kick a bit harder to get under 2:00. That'll be my goal for the next half. We're trying to line up our next race and already are making plans to run in Memphis next year.

Bowled Over....

2009-11-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-29T04:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

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 even 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...

2009-11-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

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 admit 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

2009-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

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..

2009-10-31T13:55:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-10-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

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...

Weekend at Lexington

2009-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

Our last trip to Lexington was over Labor Day holiday. We've kept in touch with Josh via Email,Texts, and Skype but we still wanted to be with him in person. We'd picked out the weekend of the 24th of October for several reasons. The main was that the North Lexington congregation was having a Ladies Day that Saturday and Donna wanted to go to that. UK was to play Louisiana Monroe in football as well and I managed to snag a really good seat. So, we went up last weekend.

We left Friday and made it without incident. We ended up staying at the Hampton Inn in Georgetown (about 20 minutes north of Lexington). It was much cheaper (the hotels in Lexington raise their rates on football weekends). Plus, we were more isolated from raucous celebrators (if you get my drift). The hotel was nice like most Hamptons I've ever gone to are. We checked in and went to meet Josh at his dorm.

He came out and we exchanged hugs and greetings. We had brought up a supply of Hot Pockets in a cooler (Josh and his roommate eat them a lot). Josh took the cooler into his dorm and was stopped by the attendant who made him show him what was in it. I never thought of how that might look (bringing in a cooler) but I am actually glad that they are conscientious enough to check there.

Josh then took me to the "Underground". The Underground is a workout area underneath the dorm next to Josh's. They have machines and free weights plus treadmills and the like. Josh and I worked out together. He showed me how much stronger he'd gotten (he goes regularly to stay in shape) plus some variations on some upper body work I'd been doing. I survived it but was sore the next evening.

We then went to the hotel and to Ruby Tuesday's to eat dinner. Josh ordered a steak and we split a dessert. I was happy to find out they served Coke Zero. We then went to Wal-mart to lay in supplies for him. We went back to the hotel and I helped him a bit with some C++ programming. Finally, Josh just crashed out and we did a bit later as well.

The next morning, Donna left to take Josh back to his dorm and then she would go on to Ladies Day. When Josh got to the parking log where his car his (Commonwealth Stadium), they were already towing cars. One of the stipulations for that lot is you have to have your car out on Saturdays when there are UK football games. Josh's car had orange tape to be towed, but fortunately he got his car out just in time. He parked at a friend's house, then Donna took him to his dorm. Donna went to the Ladies Day and really enjoyed it. Shelia Butt spoke on "Sisterhood" and Donna got a lot out of it. I spent the day at the hotel on the treadmill, then doing some Bible reading and finally watching a DVD I had Netflixed and hadn't had a chance to watch (Wolverine - X-men Origins).

Donna got back and we drove to campus. We parked our car in the same spot Josh had and walked. We went to the K-Lair to eat. This is an on-campus restaurant that Josh works at. He was working and we got to see him "in action" plus he got to hang out with us a bit. I walked Donna back to the car and then walked back to Commonwealth Stadium (I ended up getting in almost 6 miles just walking back and forth).

I got to the UK-ULM game and found my seat was as good as I thought it would be. I was on the 50 yard line 24 rows up and had and excellent view of the game. It was a bit nippy but I had dressed for the occasion. UK jumped on them 21-0 and it looked like it was going to be a rout. However, it appeared UK relaxed a bit and ULM got to within 28-7 and just missed another touchdown at the end of the half when the clock ran out. UK had no offense at all in the 2nd half. ULM moved the ball but fortunately only scored one touchdown. UK finally got a safety and ran an interception back for a TD to win 36-13. They'll have to play better than that to beat Mississippi State next week. I met Josh on the walk back and we met Donna and the car and went back to the hotel for the night.

We got up the next morning and checked out and went to North Lexington for Bible class and worship services. We went to Josh's college class with him. Afterwards, we ate at Wendy's and then had to take him back to his dorm for goodbyes. It was sad. We had a lot of fun together and he seems to be doing wonderfully, but we still miss him a lot.

Delta Gone...

2009-10-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, its official. Skywest will replace Mesaba as the Barkely Regional Airport regional carrier. This means that the hub will now be O'Hare in Chicago instead of the Memphis Airport.

I'll miss the Memphis Airport. I knew just where to grab a pretzel or get something more substantal to eat (Backyard Burgers or Popeyes was my usual destination). I know Donna will miss my renditions of "Walkin' in Memphis" that she got to hear to let her know I'd landed safely.

I've never been to O'Hare. I've read it's the second largest airport in the US (behind Hartsfield in Atlanta). There will defintely be more flight options there than in Memphis (the claim is twice as many). I have no idea about food options (always an important consideration for me). I'll definitely give it a try on my nice trip to Chicago (as opposed to a 6.5 hour drive) to see how it compares. The planes are supposed to be bigger (50 vs 36 seat) and faster.

Idols

2009-10-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

When Donna and I went to our vacation in Nashville, we wanted to visit some places there we'd always heard about, but had never gone to. My first thought was the Hermitage (home of Andrew Jackson). However, I found out tickets were 17.00 APIECE. That seemed a bit steep to me. My apologies Mr. Jackson...

We also decided to go to the Parthenon. The Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. It is located in Centennial Park (close to Vanderbilt).

It's a very impressive structure. We walked all around it and checked out the massive columns and the huge bronze doors. It was only 5.00 apiece to go inside (and I had a dollar off coupon), so we went in. The facility hosts displays on the history of the building, a presentation on the original Parthenon in Athens, and an art museum.

It also houses a full scale replica of Athena. Athena was the Greek goddess the temple was built for. This is supposed to be the largest indoor statue in the US. The picture at the top of this blog entry will show you what it looks like. The statue is covered in gold leaf. She holds an image of Nike (Greek goddess of victory and the namesake of the tennis shoe corporation) in her hand.

As I looked at all this, I couldn't help but think of Paul in Athens and his sermon on the Areopagus. He would have been able to see the original Parthenon from where he spoke.

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17 Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. 21 (For all the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.) 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. 23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

My understanding of this is that even with all the idols in the city of Athens, their reared up an altar "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD" in case they had missed one. Paul was able to use this to preach to them about God and Jesus. What would Paul see if he came to our city to look around I wonder? He wouldn't see the images reared up like then. But that certainly doesn't mean we don't have idols today. Anything that we make the primary focus of our lives instead of God, is our idol. For example...

Money - We have to have money to function in our society. Money is necessary to do the Lord's work. The problem comes in when we make money the driving force in our lives. Someone takes a job that God wouldn't be pleased with them working. Or, they are dishonest in business dealings with others to make extra money. Some work long hours to make every dollar they can to spend on their wants not their needs causing them to miss worship services and serving God.

Fame/Popularity - How many times do you see a celebrity do something sinful that gets them attention? This doesn't apply to celebrities only though. What if we go to places we shouldn't (dances, bars, drunken parties), hang out with people we shouldn't, or do sinful things just to be "popular" or approved of by the "popular" people. Sadly, adults can be just as guilty of this as kids.

Sports - There is nothing wrong with participating or watching sports. We are to keep ourselves healthy and fit to be able to worship God and do work in his service. However, some skip worship to attend/participate in sporting events or practices. Some get way too obsessed with the teams they root for by acting like a crazy person while cheering for them or getting way too upset when they lose (Ugh, that hits me pretty hard).

TV - Again, there are worthwhile shows on TV that help spread God's
word or provide entertainment. The problem comes in with watching shows that are vulgar and obscene or ridicule God,Jesus, and Christianity and its values. Some people can spend hours and hours watching TV to the detriment of doing other more positive things. I am fortunate that we don't have cable TV or I am afraid that might be me. When we were in Nashville, I spent three straight hours watching "Cash Cab".

The saddest thing of all is THE UNKNOWN GOD appears to be to a lot of people today what our Heavenly Father was then - UNKNOWN

Opryland

2009-09-27T06:11:00.001-07:00

Donna and I went to Nashville last week for our yearly week-long vacation. It was the first one in almost 20 years that we went on by ourselves. We couldn't bring ourselves to go to Myrtle Beach, so we just went somewhere close (Nasvhille). We didn't do a whole lot. We went to see Dave Ramsey's studio (see previous post). We also went to see the Parthenon (upcoming post). We also made a couple of trips to the Opry Mills Mall.

I know some people won't like this, but I am not very enamored with the Opry Mills mall. There are a few things I like. The Tony Roma's is good and there is a place where you can buy fried donuts. I also grab a Strawberry Julius whenever I am there. I don't like how narrow the aisles are. The layout is funky. It has two main pathways and you have to walk all the way to the end of end to get to the other (no cut throughs that I could find). There aren't any stores that just blow me away. I detest how I feel like I am in a carnival with hucksters. There are too many vendors trying to drag you over to sample their wares. Donna walked up laughing just as some girl grabbed my hand wanting to look at my nails.

I think a lot of my prejudice stems from my memories of what used to be. When you come into Nashville, all of the directional signs mention Opryland. This constitutes the Gaylord Entertainment Conglomerate (Orpy Mills, Grand Ole Opry, the Opryland Hotel, General Jackson steamboat and I am sure other stuff). Opryland will always be something entirely different to me.

I remember going to the theme park there. We went in the early seventies to the theme park. They had characters dressed up musical instruments. I distinctly remember Yancy Banjo (for obvious reasons). It was only two hours away, so it was easy to pop down to for a day of fun. I remember going with Chris Leaver and his family one Saturday. We rode the Wabash Cannonball something like 16 times (it was one of those corkscrew type coasters). Donna and I went on a Saturday with Rick Alvey and his girlfriend when we were dating. We went again after we got married. I remember even going there on our honeymoon. The rides were closed for the season (it was March). But, Ralph Embry did his daily show there and we got to be in the audience for that. I remember it being a family oriented kind of place.

Alas, just before the boys got old enough to go (1996 I think), they abruptly decided to close the park. I've read various reasons why. One is the park had no room for growth. It was bordered by the Cumberland River, Briley Parkway and Opryland Hotel. They had to rip out old rides to put in new ones. I also remember hearing that Gaylord Entertainment just wanted to stick with hospitality type services (whatever that means). There was some rumor they were going to keep a few of the rides, but they didn't.

It wasn't widely publicized outside this area. I've even heard that tourists still show up at the site looking for the theme park (given the area is still called Opryland).

This is a good site with all sorts of info including old maps they gave you when you came in plus TV commercials. If you ever went to Opryland, you'll really enjoy exploring it.

Dave Ramsey

2009-09-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

If you don't know Dave Ramsey, he is a financial radio talk show host with a nationally syndicated program. I first caught him many years ago when he did a show called the "Money Game" from Nashville.

His teachings are very straightforward. Live on less than you make. Don't borrow money and especially don't use credit cards. He has a method called "the baby steps" for getting out of debt. We followed his plans years ago and have been out of debt for over 7 years.

He's very straightforward in his radio show. He has little good to say about credit card companies, payday loan establishments, big nationwide banks, and debt collection agencies. He has no trouble being blunt with his callers when the situation calls for it. He also can be very compassionate and generous when the situation calls for it. I download the free hour of his show he provides each day and listen to it when I run each day (the nerd in me coming out of course). I can almost predict what he'll say to most callers, but he still teaches me things about money. I also love to hear his commentary on current financial issues. He of course hated "Cash for Clunkers" because most people would go into debt to buy the new car. His cash for clunkers recommendation was "Drive a clunker and you'll have cash!!".

Dave recently became a part of Twitter. I of course became a follower. A tweet came out saying that listener's were welcome to come to see Dave's studio. Donna and I were going to be in Nashville in September and this sounded like something I wanted to do. I emailed the email address provided in the tweet. I almost immediately got back a very nice response from Martha Thompson letting me know we were most welcome to come. She also said Dave would come out during breaks and talk and even pose for photos.

As we got close to going, I emailed her again and she recommended Monday as being the best day to come. Monday arrived and I very excitedly drove to Financial Peace Plaza in Brentwood (south of Nashville) with Donna. When we came in, we were greeted very warmly by Martha Thompson. She made Donna a fresh ground cup of coffee in an actual mug and even gave her a linen napkin. She also had cookies and gave us both one. She showed us Dave's studio (which is actually in the lobby where anyone can watch) and told us to sit in the chairs facing the glass of his studio. She said he would come out and talk if he sees people sitting there.

True to her word, he came out on the next break. He talked with several people and then it was my turn! We talked for a bit and I thanked him for the influence he was in Donna and my lives. He very graciously posed for the picture you see here.

After he went back in to his studio, we sat and talked with Martha Thompson for a while. Turns out she is the producer's mom (Blake Thompson). Dave always talks glowingly of Blake Thompson and how he "makes Dave look good". She talked of how great a place it was to work. It has won multiple awards for being the best place to work in Nashville. She talked of all the great things he does for his employees.

I sat and just watched for a while. The lobby is set up very nicely for visitors with chairs and tables to sit and watch Dave in action. Martha also runs the gift shop where you can buy any of Dave's material (CDs, t-shirts, books, etc.). I finally had to drag myself away....

Coach Cal

2009-09-07T18:45:00.000-07:00

Unless you have no interest in college basketball at all, you know that John Calipari is now the head coach at the University of Kentucky. He's done a good job of going all over the state and being "an ambassador" for the team. He finally made it down to Paducah tonight to speak at the Carson Center. I hadn't planned on going at first, but Donna convinced me to.

My first thought when I arrived was the huge crowd already there and wouldn't it have been nice had that many shown up for the Area Wide Gospel meeting there a couple of months ago. Sports outweights spirituality for many and can even be their idol.

I settled in and after a few opening remarks by Jeff Bidwell (the local Paducah TV sports anchor), Coach Cal came up to a thunderous greeting of the crowd clapping to the UK fight song.

He talked about his book that just came out called "Bounce Back". He was pushing that really strong (he was signing books afterwards). It talks about failures he's had in his life and how he's "bounced back" from them. He brought up his brief tenure as head couch of the Nets and how he was fired. He discussed how close his Memphis Tigers team came to winning a National Title.

He stressed two philosophies in his life. The first was to do some thing nice for at least one person a day to show you appreciate them. The second was that leading (like a coach) wasn't how much he could do for himself but what he could do for others.

I've heard these teachings before..

Galatians 6:10 - As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Matthew 20:27-28 - And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

It would be a much better world if we took these verses to heart.

UK 2009 football preview

2009-09-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I should have done this sooner but I have been busy with "insert lame excuse here".

UK has produced three splendid years (well for them) in a row with three straight bowl appearances and wins (something even Paul "Bear" Bryant couldn't do here in the early 1950's). Things were looking really bright with their best defensive players (Trevard Lindley, Micah Johnson, and Jeremy Jarmon) opting to not jump to the NFL. Alas, Jarmon was banned for the year by the NCAA for taking a dietary supplement available over-the-counter (I'll not start a diatribe on that one). Anyway, without further ado, here's my preview

Miami (of Ohio) - At first glance you'd think "Wow, what an opening game" til you add "of Ohio" in there. This game was played at the home of the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday. Kentucky looked quite bad for about a quarter and half but ended up winning easily 42-0. Rich Brooks is never one to run up a score so it could have worse..

Louisville - Well, well, well, how the mighty have fallen. Three years ago, Louisville capped a strong season by winning the Orange Bowl. Bobby Petrino left and its been downhill all the way. Many are expecting an easy win for UK, but I think Louisville will give them a good game. Steve Kraigthorpe is trying to save his job.

Florida/Alabama - These games are at home, but it would take almost a perfect game from UK to win either. The main goal is not to get anyone critical to the team hurt. If they manage to win one of these, a really special season is in the making.

South Carolina/Auburn - It'd be nice if these two were swapped with above and at home instead of on the road. Kentucky really needs to take one of these. The Auburn game is probably more likely, but I wish they'd beat Steve Spurrier just once (they never have).

Louisiana-Monroe/Mississippi State/Eastern Kentucky/Vanderbilt - This starts a four game string of games Kentucky really ought to win. Of course, UK lost to Miss State in 2007 at home (a game everybody thought they'd win). Jonathan and I saw Louisiana Monroe give UK a great game at UK (losing only 42-40). Vandy beat UK last year at UK so these are not givens.

Georgia - Winning "between the hedges" is always tough. UK could win here, it'll depend honestly on how the season is going.

Tennessee - The streak. Uk hasn't beaten Tennessee since 1984, they haven't beaten them at home since 1981. Let me give you some perspective on that. In 1984, I had just started dating this gorgeous 19 year old girl. I was just 6 months into my job at Martin Marietta in Paducah. If you had told me that I would have been married to that beauty for 23 years, worked at "Martin Marietta" for 25 years and had a son who is a freshman at UK and UK would not have beaten UT in all that time, I would have never believed it. I SAW the last time UK beat UT at home. It was 21-10 in 1981. I was a junior at UK at the time. It was cold and spitting snow and UK was 2-8. I remember leaving early had I known the significance that win would have years down the road, I'd have stayed for the whole game. I am certainly hoping Josh's presence there this year will do the trick. Then, we can shoot for Florida (the next longest streak) in 2011.

My guess for their record this year is 8-4 which we get them in the Peach Bowl (oops, Chick-Fil-a Bowl) in Atlanta. I am really wanting 9-3 and the Outback and a trip to sunny Tampa though.

Delta Gone....Hello United?

2009-09-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

In the continuing saga of who will be the carrier at Barkley Regional Airport here (or if we'll even have one), a new development has sprung up. When bids were opened yesterday, United put in a bid to have twice daily service from Paducah to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Not only that, but their cost would be almost half of what Delta's bidding to charge the government.

I'm torn. O'hare would have many more connections. I'd even consider flying to Chicago instead of driving (since it's direct). On the other side, I'd hate to see Northwest/Delta employees lose jobs here. I've become very acquainted with the Memphis Airport. I know where the best places for food are and where the restrooms are. I know Donna will miss my singing "Walking in Memphis" every time I have a flight into that airport.

Stay tuned...

Atlanta...

2009-08-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

I spent the last week at training in Atlanta. It was about as calm and uneventful of a work trip as I ever been on. The class was good (but a lot of material). The drive down was fine. I stayed in a very nice hotel (the Embassy Suites Perimeter). I had good meals every night. I went to Wednesday Bible Study at Chestnut Drive church of Christ. I came home Saturday and the only issue I had was in Nashville. For some reason, I-24 was closed at I-440. I went around that to I-65 and picked up I-24 again to home.

The only thing that really happened of note was at breakfast one morning. At the Embassy Suites, they will cook you eggs to order, pancakes or omelets. I generally got a couple of eggs over easy. To save time, I would drop a couple of slices of bread in the toaster (it was one of those rotating belt toasters where you put the toast in the top and it comes out the bottom) and make my order. As I was waiting to get my plate of eggs, I saw an older couple just grab my freshly made toast and walk off. I wanted to yell "Hey, you stole my toast". Instead I just laughed to myself and went over and toasted a couple more pieces of bread.

Food, Glorious Food

2009-08-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I love in life is to eat. I enjoy all types of food, but lean toward the carnivore side (as you've seen in previous posts). My wife is a fabulous cook (I went from 155 to 175 in the first year we were married) so I don't even bother with places like Cracker Barrel or Bob Evans because I can get better down-home cooking at home (plus the cook is gorgeous).

I tried a couple of items I've seen over and over again on TV in the past few weeks. The first item was the Angus Burger at McDonalds. Advertising on this one is at supersaturation level. I am a McDonalds guy. I know some people won't go near one. I do know when I go to one in any town, I can always get a decent meal. My standard lunch/dinner order is a Big Mac, Fries and a diet soda. I broke the pattern and ordered the Bacon Cheese Angus Burger. It was very good. It's 1/3 pound of meat on a special roll and you also get a standard version or a mushroom/swiss combo. It's a dollar more than the Big Mac and it packs a couple of hundred more calories than a Big Mac. I'd order it again though.

Last week on the way to Lexington, we stopped at a KFC. They advertised the grilled chicken. Let me explain that you cannot get this in Paducah. They had a free grilled chicken day where you could a free piece. Josh and friends headed out to the nearest KFC only to be told they didn't have it. They were told that the KFC would have to put in a special grill to make this chicken. The manager also told them that this may be a temporary item (I don't think I've seen that alluded to in the ads which are also at supersaturation level). The closest place to Paducah that has it is Calvert City (about 20 miles east of Paducah).

As we pulled in, I pleaded with Donna to do whatever it took to keep me from ordering the buffet. I always rationalize getting it by saying "It's only a dollar or two more than a meal anyway". It's where two of my big passions collide - thriftiness and food. We ordered a grilled chicken meal. I was disappointed. The skin didn't have that great a taste and the meat didn't have the usual taste or consistency of what I expect from grilled chicken. I would just as soon have their Original Recipe which I really like.

Your mileage may vary. If you have opinions on these or any of the latest supersaturated currently advertisted food items, please comment.

18 and Life

2009-08-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I am now the father of two adults. Josh turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. It makes me feel pretty old to be honest.

Also, the big day arrived to take Josh to UK to move him in. He left early last Saturday and got there well before Donna and I. When he (and we) got there, they had a lot of security to keep you from parking where you shouldn't (parking is a big issue at UK, there isn't a lot of it to go around). We finally got to his dorm and got his stuff in there. We ate lunch at Chili's and then went to our hotel room and rested.

A few weeks ago, I noticed there was a 5k called "Midsummer's Night Run" in downtown Lexington. Josh and I decided to run in it. We picked up our packets that afternoon before we went to the hotel. Later, we picked up a friend of Josh's (she was obviously very bored to want to spend a Saturday night at a 5k). We parked on the fringe of UK (behind Memorial Colesium) and walked to the start line.

It wasn't quite as bad as the MLB 5k, but still (as I found out later) had almost 5000 participants. Again (to my chagrin), there was no statement about lining up based on pace time. We took off and again we were dodging walkers for the first mile. I had moved toward the front this time, so I didn't have to dodge so many.

It was hot and humid. Being downtown, there was little to no airflow. I did great the first couple of miles, then wore down the last mile. When I got to the end, it took a lot of effort to find water (which was bad since it was so hot and humid). I finally found the others (Josh had finished well before me of course) and we started back to the car.

I discovered that the walk back in the dark was much scarier then the walk there in daylight. We were all a bit spooked but we got back. We went to the hotel and Josh back to his dorm.

We picked him up at his dorm the next morning and headed to worship services at the North Lexington church of Christ. Everybody there was nice as usual. Several told him about the various activities they have for the college kids which made us feel much better. We stopped by Wal-Mart for some last minute supplies and got lunch at Canes' Chicken Strips.

We got him back to his dorm and said our goodbyes. Neither of us broke down or anything, but it was still sad. I was able to listen to the Cardinal game on the way (which put Donna to sleep) and we make it home OK.

We were able to use Skype that night after church and do a video call with Josh to be able to see as well as hear him. He looked fine :-)

It's gonna take a while to get over him not being here. We miss him a lot already...

Toot, Toot, Tootsie

2009-08-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

After our elder-deacons meeting today, I grabbed three 69 cent tacos at Taco Bell (they sell for that on Taco Sunday here). Afterwards, I wanted something sweet to cap that off. I headed to our local Dollar Tree to check out the candy. They had the big (3 oz.) Tootsie Rolls 2/1.00 (actually 2/1.06 with tax). That's a great deal but they don't always have them. I got two and promptly started devouring one as I left the store. I felt a bit guilty. I felt a lot better when I read the nutrition info to find one big Tootsie roll only has 150 calories. I didn't expect that low of a calorie count. I resisted the urge to eat the other one (I gave it to Jonathan after church).

Update on the Brad Thompson Situation - Tony LaRussa speaks out

2009-08-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Mr. LaRussa, this is much better...

From ESPN

St. Louis right-hander Brad Thompson will appeal a three-game suspension for pitching inside to the Mets' David Wright, a punishment Cardinals manager Tony La Russa called unfair.

Thompson was not ejected after a pitch rode up and in to Wright during New York's 9-0 victory on Wednesday, after the Cardinals' Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick were hit with pitches by Nelson Figueroa. Thompson was not ejected.

La Russa said Friday that Thompson was "very harshly treated, unfairly."

"I'm not happy because the pitch got away, and we always tell them [the pitchers] if you're going to throw the ball inside and you're going to miss, miss down and not up," La Russa said. "But the fact was, and I tried to explain to [umpire] Bill Miller, Ludwick and Albert got hit and I don't think they [the Mets] were trying [to hit them], they were trying to work the ball inside. And Albert was coming off six hits."

Wright is 5 for 10 with two doubles and a homer in his career against Thompson.

La Russa questioned how the Brewers' Prince Fielder could try to muscle his way into the Dodgers' clubhouse after being hit by a pitch from the Dodgers' Guillermo Mota on Tuesday night, yet the two players weren't suspended and Thompson was. Fielder and Mota were fined.

"I just think [major league disciplinarian] Bob Watson's criteria are tough ... I don't think there's consistency there," La Russa said.

Thompson continue pitching until his appeal is heard.

"We're on the record -- we don't throw the ball at guys' heads," La Russa said.

Bud Selig, I think you need to step in here...

Headhunter and a Mindreader?

2009-08-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have refrained from commenting about Cardinal baseball all year, but with what I heard yesterday, I couldn't help myself.

On Wendesday, the Cardinals were losing to the Mets 7-0. David Wright was up. Brad Thompson had come on in relief for the Cardinals. He threw a pitch near the bill of Wright's cap. Yes, it was a bad thing that it came that close. I've watched the replay and based on where Molina's glove is before the pitch and the reaction of Thompson after the pitch, I don't think it was intentional. Brad Thompson has even stated he didn't intend to throw high and tight. Well, lo and behold Brad gets a 3 day suspension from Bob Watson and an undisclosed fine.

The night before, Prince Fielder was hit in the leg in the 9th inning of a 17-4 loss by the Dodgers by Guillermo Mota. After the game, Fielder attempted to push his way into the Dodger locker room to "confront" Mota. He had to be restrained by security and his teammates. He ended up only being fined (as was Mota).

Bob Watson vice president in charge of discipline handed these down. I just cannot see how he can determine intent unless he is a mindreader. Pitchers throw bad pitches sometimes. I've seen a MLB pitcher throw a wild pitch when trying to issue an intentional walk. It was very obvious what Fielder's intent was but he was only fined. Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick were both hit in the game earlier (not coincidentally after hitting home runs the night before) but nothing was said nor the pitcher hitting them fined.

I think back to several years ago (2004) when Watson suspended Julian Tavarez of the Cardinals for NINE games because he said he had pine tar on his hat. The year before, Sammy Sosa was caught using a corked bat and only got a SEVEN game suspension.

Tony Larussa complained bitterly about the Tavarez incident and even said he felt Watson was biased against the Cardinals. All he said about the Thompson incident was "pitchers shouldn't throw at a player's head". He didn't try to stand up for his guy at all. I'm a bit disappointed in you Mr. Larussa.

Should you ever intentionally throw at a guy's head? No. I just read an old issue of Sports Illustrated online about Tony Conigliaro's getting hit (as told personally by Conigliaro) in the eye by a Jack Hamilton pitch. They have a picture on the cover and it's gruesome. Conigliaro was never the same hitter. I just feel Waston over-reacted quite bluntly because an east coast team was involved.

Here is the incident. Feel free to comment..
...

Wisdom....Teeth

2009-08-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

Josh found out a few months ago that he had to have all four of his wisdom teeth pulled. We spent time figuring out what to do and he finally decided to go ahead and have them pulled. We decided to go with Dr. Heine since he'd done Jonathan's.

Last Friday was the day. Josh and I had eaten a big meal the night before (see the previous post) since he knew he wouldn't be able to eat a whole lot for the next few days. We went into the surgeon's office about 7 and checked in. We waited a few minutes and were shown back to a room with a dentist chair. Dr. Heine talked with Josh a bit. His main concern of course was when he could get back to his running and exercising (answer: 3 days and then only gradually). They started an IV and began injecting him with the knockout stuff. We were escorted from the room to the waiting room. Donna and I talked a bit and I settled down to read a few chapters of Job. I had read only a couple when the nurse came back and said "He's done". The procedure only took 20 minutes. That seemed really fast. We went back and Josh was groggy but not totally out. They gave him only a few minutes and then walked him out to the car to go home.

We stopped at CVS to pick up three prescriptions they gave us (a pain killer, an antibiotic to fend off any infection, and a steroid pack to reduce the swelling). Donna went in to get them. Josh kept pleading with me to let him get and walk. I wouldn't let him, I had visions of him stumbling onto Lone Oak Road. They had our prescriptions filled within 10 minutes and we headed for home.

We got home and Josh was still awake. He promptly settled into the couch, fired up his laptop and got into Facebook. He seemed OK especially since it had only been an hour since his teeth were pulled. I ended up just going back to work.

He's made it great. He's had a little pain but not much. It's taken him a few days to get all his strength back mainly because he wasn't able to eat much.

Dr. Heine called twice (once on Saturday and once on Sunday) to check on Josh. I was very impressed by their office and their concern for him. The whole process went much better than I ever would have imagined.

Martin Fierro

2009-07-31T19:39:00.001-07:00

First, sorry for the lack of posts. I've had several things going on the past few weeks (doing the powerpoint at the Area Wide Gospel meeting at the Carson Center for one) plus not feeling the best in the world (I think my sinuses are messed up).

A few months back, a new restaurant opened in Paducah called Martin Fierro's Argentinean Grill. One of the meals they server is the Rodizio where they bring different cuts of meat on skewers and you eat your fill. I had said I wouldn't go there til I got my weight below 180. I had managed that over a month ago, but hadn't arranged a trip there. Josh was going to have his wisdom teeth pulled on Friday the 31st so we decided to go there for a big meal the night before. We figured he get that in before he'd go several days on a liquid/soft diet.

We ended up taking a couple of Josh's buddies with us. Turns out on Tues through Thursday, you get the rodizio for 22.95 as opposed to the usual 37.95 price. I had made a 5 o'clock reservation and we got there right at five. Turns out you can see them cooking the meat on the grill from the window so we sat mesmerized watching that.

We finally went in and were shown to our table. The waitress explained that we would be brought nine different meats and then could decide which one we wanted repeats on. She showed us how the disk on the table worked. You leave it green to tell them to bring you meat and red to tell them to stop. She showed us the salad bar they had, but we just laughed and said "Bring us meat". So, they did...

We started with sausage, then went to bacon wrapped chicken breast and chicken legs. They brought us top and bottom sirloin, bacon wrapped fillet, pork tenderloin and lamb. They finished up with ribs. It was really, really good. They also bring you rolls, garlic mashed potatoes, and caramelized bananas. After the first round, we requested more ribs, chicken breast and fillet. That finished. Josh took another round of chicken and sirloin and finally gave up. We were all well stuffed and could barely waddle to the car. Josh's friend Chad said he was still not hungry almost 24 hours later. Josh said that it helped him not be so hungry after not being able to eat today because of his teeth being pulled (more on that later).

It was an excellent meal. The only meat we didn't think was fabulous was the lamb (it seemed a bit overdone to me). Everything else was fork-tender, hot, and delicious. Since we were some of the first one's there right when they opened, they didn't bring the meat out as fast as other similar places I'd been too. It did enable us to have a leisurely dinner discussing a myriad of topics.

If you are a staunch carnivore like we are, I'd recommend you give it a try. If you are wondering where the name came from its the name of a 2,316 line epic poem by the Argentine writer José Hernández.

Famous tomatoes...

2009-07-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

My in-laws (Jack and Carolyn Woods) finally some some pub for their excellent tomatoes that they sell to several local supermarkets.

Delta Gone (the sequel)...

2009-07-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

This story appeared in the Paducah Sun the other day.

Delta Airlines will file a notice next week with the U.S. Department of Transportation that it intends to suspend commercial air service at Barkley Regional Airport in 90 days.

But the notice isn’t as scary as it sounds.

It is a necessary first step for the airline to receive a subsidy from the federal government, Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said. “We intend to continue service without interruption.”

Delta operates three daily flights between Paducah and Memphis. The number of flights will drop to two next month.

I hope they are right... We'll see what happens in 90 days..

MLB All-Star Game 5k

2009-07-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Several months ago while trolling for Baseball All-Star Game tickets, I noted that MLB was doing something new in their All-Star game festivities. They added a 5k run for charity (cancer research). I talked to Josh and we decided since it was close (St Louis) and it was the first one, we'd give it a shot.

We went up this weekend to run. We stayed at the Hampton by the Arch. We made sure to get their early since there was a free concert nearby (Sheryl Crow and Elvis Costello) and we didn't want to get caught up in the crowd. Josh and walked over the "Sponsor Zone" (over by Busch Stadium) to pick up our race materials. We managed to snag free tacos from the Taco Bell booth. We traipsed all over downtown looking for food. Once again, the Lion's Choice was closed. I went back to the hotel and did a search and finally found a Subway at Lacledes Landing. I brought food back and we ate and rested.

The next day, the weather was good. We ate and headed over about 7. There was a lot more people than I thought there would be. There were 8,000 in the race. It was a colossal jam. They did have chip timing for a more true time. It was actually in a piece of tape you looped around the laces of your shoe. This way, you don't have to remove it and turn it back in when you are done (like other chips). The crowd to start was huge. Lou Brock (Cardinal icon) was the official starter. It took us almost 10 minutes to work our way to the start line. Trying to get a good time was almost impossible. There were way too many who walked that pushed to the front and there just wasn't enough distance in a 5k for the crowd to thin out. I would get going good and than either come upon a group of walkers or one would move right in front of me. We both made it fine though and got a medal and a t-shirt for our efforts. We were able to get cleaned up in plenty of time to make to Collinsville church of Christ for Bible Study and Worship.

This was their first 5k so I'll cut them some slack. However, they really need to stress in the future that walkers stay in the back and stay to the sides (this is normal protocol in most 5ks). They might consider corrals (used in half and full marathons) that split up people by mile times to help with congestion. We still had a lot of fun and got to spend time together and be a part of history...

I See Blue - Part 2

2009-07-08T10:38:00.001-07:00

Josh had signed up for Freshman Orientation at UK a month or so ago. It involves the parents as well (they have all sorts of informational sessions for us) so Donna and I went as well.

We left Saturday even though the sessions didn't start til Monday. Josh jokingly told everybody "It's because my dad wants to make sure we are on time for everything". Our real reason is so we could attend worship services at North Lexington church of Christ. We'd been there before and one of my fellow deacons at Central (Dr. Tim Mabry) always speaks highly of that congregation plus he said he would let people know about us and Josh.

We drove Josh's Impala just to make sure it would handle the 250 mile trip ok. Plus, I wanted to show him the ins and outs of the trip like which exits have the best food and the route to take. The drive isn't really all that complex except for the part where you go from the Western Kentucky Parkway to the Bluegrass Parkway by taking a two mile stretch of I-65 around Elizabethtown. Josh did all the driving and did really well.

We got there about 8 and checked into the Doubletree Suites. Something about the place kept nagging at me. I finally realized that this was the old French Quarter Suites that I had stayed at a lot many years ago. When we were working with Portsmouth Plant to integrate more fully together in the early 1990's, this was the favorite hotel to use. The rooms were really nice with two flat screen TVs and a jetted tub.

On Sunday, we went to worship services at North Lexington. Everyone was really nice and said they'd "Keep an eye" on Josh. The preacher (Steve Johnson) was very good. Turns out he's from our end of the state (Farmington in Graves County). They have a class for the college students and we were told "they take good care of them". They even gave us a loaf of bread when we left (which Josh promptly devoured). We ate lunch at Cane's chicken strips and then went back to the hotel. We rested all afternoon. I wanted to eat at the Columbia Steak House near the hotel. It was good but I forgot how much food they give you. I couldn't even finish mine. We went back to church, got back and rested and finally went to bed.

We drove to the campus on Monday morning with no issues. We went to the Otis Singletary Center for the Arts for the beginning of orientation. We sat through several presentations and then had a catered lunch. Josh saw a girl he went to Ballard with so they hung out together the rest of the day. Her mother stayed with us since I still know my way around the campus pretty well. In the afternoon, they had breakout sessions you could pick from to go to. One that especially interested Josh was MathExcel. This allows him to have additional work with a smaller group on Calculus and they even have a "Math House" to meet at. It even sounded neat to me. We had checked out from the Doubletree that morning since the rate went up abruptly for Monday nite and went to a Hampton Inn instead. We discussed at length where to get dinner and finally just walked to McDonalds. I did drive to a Krispy Kreme I saw the day before to get dessert.

We checked out the next morning and headed back to UK. First, the students went to a general session while the parents went to sessions basked on which college the student would be going too. Josh is majoring in Computer Science which is in the Engineering college so Donna and I went to that. They explained about classes and degrees and how the students sign up. Then, we went to the Student center for more presentations on things like Campus Security, Parking and Transportation and HealthCare. The students met with their advisors and registered for classes. Josh got in what he wanted and he was happy. The drive home was uneventful and we got back on time for Josh to go to the Summer Youth Series.

We enjoyed it, but it only draws us closer to the day in August when we nock that arrow and shoot it far away.

Delta Gone (well almost...)

2009-07-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

When the Delta/Northwest merger was announced last year, many wondered what would happen at Paducah's Barkley Regional Airport. Some hoped that they would bring in additional Delta flights to say Atlanta. Some feared they would trim back service.

The later came to pass as was announced yesterday. Delta announced it would cut back from three to two flights out of Paducah. They are dropping the mid-day flight and leaving only the 6:30 and 4:00 pm departures. This is the fewest number of flights I ever remember going out of Barkley. When TWA (later American) was there, there were at least 7 (3 TWA and 4 Northwest). American pulled out a few years ago and Northwest had trimmed back to three flights. Needless to say, this caused somewhat of an uproar. Several local businessmen expressed their displeasure at having to either get up really early or get to their destinations really late. Local government (McCracken County and Paducah) said they'd try to convince Delta not to do this. I am unsure how they think they are going to convince a large company to do this but anyway. The reasoning was of course as most often is cost. The flights out of Paducah are smaller commuter flights that hold about 30 to 40. They are generally always pretty full but I presume that simply wasn't enough for Delta.

Northwest in Memphis is the next hop for other areas besides Paducah such as Hattiesburg Mississippi, Fort Smith Arkansas, and Monroe Lousiana (just to name a few). From what I heard, some of those flights might be cut. There is starting to be a fear that Delta might someday pull completely out of Paducah leaving no airlines there. From about 7:00 to 2:00, the airport will be a ghost town I'd guess. It'll certainly hurt the two rental car companies there (Hertz and Avis). It wouldn't surprise me to see one of them pull out too.

Other flight options besides Paducah are Marion Illinois (about an hour away) which has commuter flights via American to St Louis. Cape Girardeau Missouri is about 1.25 hours away and also offers a couple of flights to St. Louis. And of course, one can drive to either Evansville or Nashville. This move solidifies my going to Nashville for my travel. I don't want to have to get to the airport at either 5:30am or leave at 4:00pm and not get to my destination til very late. I often have to fly out Sunday for a class starting Monday and I don't want to miss worship services by flying out really early in the day or really late. By going to Nashville, I can worship at Lebanon Road church of Christ.

I certainly hope they get more flights or another carrier for Barkley Regional, but right now I am not optimistic at all..

One is the worst number that you ever heard..

2009-06-28T17:59:00.000-07:00

The other night Jonathan went on a date. Based on the timing (from when he got home from work), he chose "Year One" as the movie they went to see.

When he came home, he was very upset. He said the movie was terrible and made fun of a lot of good men mentioned in the Bible (Abel, Abraham and Issac) while extolling Cain and the inhabitants of Sodom. I just didn't see that coming at all in the previews. He apologized profusely to his date..

We talked for while and I let him know that it's perfectly acceptable to walk out of movie he finds objectionable. I also told him about a web site that I use and have recommended to others called screenit.com. This site gives very detailed information broken out by various categories. You can very easily see whether a movie is one a Christian would be able to attend or not.

It has reached the point where Donna and I rarely even go to the movies. There are just not any that we feel right going to. It's
sad but true.

Wii Fit

2009-06-18T18:50:00.001-07:00

Right before Memorial Day, Josh came to us wanting to buy a "Wii Fit". He had the money and Donna and I agreed it was OK.

I didn't think much of it for a couple of days until Josh asked me to come and try it out. The Wii Fit consists of the game CD and a balance board. First, you have to pick a Mii (this is an animated character that kinda looks like you). Then, you are weighed and the system measures how balanced and stable during that. I was surprised how non-balanced/stable I was. You are then presented with a couple of balance challenges (they vary each time you weigh in). The system then melds all that data together and gives you your Wii Fit age. Mine was absolutely awful to start with - 63!!.

You can then have four categories to choose from - Yoga, Aerobics, Srength Training, Balance Games. I started with the Yoga. I found that I was not flexible at all. You are given scores based on how well you keep your balance during the various Yoga poses. Strength training consists of basic exercises such as Twists, Push-ups/Planks, etc. You are scored on balance on some and how stable you are doing the others (the balance board measures the amount of pressure you put on it). The Aerobics has exercises like Hula Hooping, Stepping and even some runs (I do that on my own). The Balance part is more like games, but it's fun to do and would be really fun to do with younger kids.

I was skeptical of this thing at first. It actually seems to do a job of making sure you do the various exercises correctly. It certainly makes you accountable on your weight (giving you your BMI as well). You can look at charts to see your progression (or lack thereof) on your BMI/weight. If your weight goes up, it asks you to choose a reason why (snacking, late eating, over-eating, I tended to choose "I don't know").

You can set a goal for weight loss. I had a goal to get under 180 by Monday. Well, I amazingly (it's words not mine) hit my goal today. I haven't weighed that little in many years. It promptly made me set another goal so I am trying to lose 3 more pounds in a month (to get my BMI under 23).

Did it make that much of a difference? I have gotten more flexible and my balance is a bit better (but still pitiful when I do the yoga Tree Pose.). My Wii Fit age is down in the 30's (it was actually 30 today). Knowing I was going to have to weigh in and it would be recorded forced me to be more careful on my eating. For example, we went to Back Yard Burgers one night. I normally get the large double-meat burger combo, but I went with the single burger combo instead. I eat one plate of food at dinner and don't eat after that until breakfast the next day. If I could resist those new Sonic Molten Chocolate Bundt cakes, I'd be even better off (I'm glad they are available "only for a limited time").

Would I recommend Wii Fit? It costs 89.00 or so (assuming you have a Nintendo Wii). It's a lot easier doing this at home and I certainly feel more comfortable not having an audience like I would at a health club. Plus, there aren't immodestly dressed people in the game like could possibly be at a health club. You acutally see your Mii get thinner as you lose weight. The daily weighing does give you accountability. It's not quite Yoga like you'd get in a true Yoga class, but I think it's great for a beginner like me. If you are just beginning, I would recommend you at least take a look.

Like Father, Like Son

2009-06-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

I had another one of those moments in my life when I realized I am growing older.

Jonathan interviewed this spring for a summer intern job in Engineering where I work at USEC. He really didn't think he'd get the job since he's only been in college for one year. He ended up being chosen though. I was very proud of him. He did it all on his own, I didn't try to talk to anybody there about it.

His first day was last Monday. I saw him in the hall and he said he was heading out with another engineer to a project site. It's very strange to see your son working at the same place you do.

He's heard (and me too) all week that "you look just like your dad" and "you can tell whose son he is". I am sure he has this nightmare.

Doughnut Day 2009

2009-06-05T07:52:00.001-07:00

I was reminded by a collegue that today is Doughnut Day 2009. Krispy Kreme will give you a free doughnut of your choosing today.

I love Krispy Kreme. I've been well-known to careen across multi-lanes of traffic when the "Hot Light" is on. There is one in Fenton Missouri on I-44 on the way to Six Flags that I've careened off the exit at 70mph when the light is on.

Alas, there is no Krispy Kreme in Paducah. My understanding is the guy who came up with them is from Paducah, but never opened a store here. The closest one to me is in Evansville (a 1.5 hour drive). Don't think I wasn't tempted :-).

Graduation

2009-05-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night was Josh's high school graduation. The place was packed. There were twenty more graduates than at Jonathan's last year and it showed. Fortunately, we got there early and got decent seats plus managed to hold spots for both of our families.

Josh was one of two valedictorians. Both of our sons were valedictorians and as you might guess, I am pretty proud of them. They took hard classes (Calculus, Physics, etc) so they certainly earned it. Josh did his speech on "Attitude Determines Altitude". He did a great job on it. Transcripts are available for a nominal fee :-). Afterwards, Josh went with some of his buddies to eat and then come back for Project Graduation. This is (as you probably know) where they lock the kids in until the next morning to ensure a "chemical free" night. From what Josh told me and pictures I've seen, it looks like a lot of fun for them. Its better then most graduation nights I was familiar with in the past in this area which turned out to be huge drunken bashes.

It was an emotional day. Donna called me that morning and I could tell she was really upset. She finally told me that she was upset because Josh was leaving for school for the last time. She could remember when she sent him to pre-school for the first time and now he was done with school. I do not know how we'll ever get home from Lexington in August after we drop him off. I imagine sedation of some type will be in order. I am reminded of a lesson Jim Faughn preached where he referenced Psalms 127:4-5. These verses compare children to arrows in a quiver. He also talked about the coming when those arrows come out of the quiver and are shot into the distance. We're nocking our bow with one right now and it'll be let loose in a few months...

Literature

2009-05-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading a lot. My favorites are the Bible and various classic literature by writers such as Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson. I have given up on reading most modern literature. For example, I tried to read Stephen King's "Bag of Bones" years ago and found it so vulgar that I gave up. The only "recent" fiction I've read is the Harry Potter series. I still read a lot of non-fiction (Finance, Bible study aides) books plus books of facts like almanacs.

A favorite classic of mine is the "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. I was reminded of this recently when I saw the Facebook page of a young man (Derek Ratliff) I go to church with . The story is about a man who appears to be a brainless rich aristocrat who turns out to be a dashing brave famous hero (The Scarlet Pimpernel) who saves French aristocrats from the clutches of the French "Reign of Terror". Does the general premise of that sound familiar (rich man who is actually a hero that nobody could believe would be him)? I've always felt that this book was the forerunner of the disguised superhero genre that is popular to this day (Bruce Wayne/Batman, Tony Stark/Ironman, etc). It's not an immensely long book (about like Treasure Island). It has some history in it concerning the French Revolution. I'd recommend you give it a read.

What I've just found out is the Baroness wrote other prequels and sequels to this book. I am already scouting out a few to buy to find out the further adventures of "The Scarlet Pimpernel"

Oooh, Donuts...

2009-05-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

I have loved Red's Donuts for as long as I can remember. Their original shop was on Bridge Street. I can remember in my youth getting a Large Dr Pepper, four soft shell tacos from Taco John's and then getting 6 of their fabulous chocolate iced-cream filled donuts to top it off (this would be after a couple of rounds of Putt-Putt golf). That was back in the day when I could eat and eat and never gain an ounce... I have learned not to buy donuts anywhere in Paducah since I am always disappointed when I do.

They moved to a location on Jackson Street some years ago. It's right on the way to where we worship (Central church of Christ) and we have to constantly resist the temptation to stop in and grab some. This morning, Donna wanted to buy some donut holes for the Ladies Tea at Central. If you don't know what donut holes are (I actually met a guy from New York City a few years who didn't), they are the little pieces of donut that are cut out from the center of a regular donut and fried and covered in glaze. They are excellent especially when they are fresh like they were this morning (second only to the chocolate iced - creme filled I mentioned before). I had to make myself stop from eating all of them along with the chocolate iced - creme filled I bought so there would be some left for my sons.

Anyway, they now put advertising on their boxes. Donna and I always find it funny that this advertisement is on there.

Tennis anyone?

2009-05-13T12:36:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the Regional Tennis Tournament at the Larry Heflin tennis complex in Lone Oak. My younger son Josh is finishing up his third year playing tennis. He had played very little tennis up until high school (in gym class). I remember him coming home to say he was joining the team. I was a bit surprised but we played a lot together over the past few years to help him practice. I used to be able to beat him no problem, then we got to where we played close matches. This year, it's a different story. He beats me easily now. Last Sunday afternoon, he beat me 8-0. I didn't play that bad, he's just gotten better.

He's had to play the one seed this year, so he's had to play a lot of good players and he didn't win as many matches as when he was the three seed last year. He's also running track (the long distance events) so he has to run back and forth between practices and matches/meets.

Anyway, he wanted to win one match at the Regional as his goal. He drew a player from Heath. Both of their matches were rained out this year (as were several others) so he knew nothing about who he was playing. Watching them warm up and play they looked pretty evenly matched. He lost the first set 6-2 and was down 3-1 in the second but came rallying back to win 6-3 and then won the decisive set 6-2. He was thrilled. His reward was to play the 2nd seed from St. Mary who was very good. Josh did manage to win a couple of games, but lost 6-0, 6-2.

I'll miss watching him play and especially our games together once he goes off to school. We talk and have quite an enjoyable time when we go to play.

As a bit of trivia, Larry Heflin was my 10th grade Geometry teacher at Lone Oak. Probably neither of us would like to admit that this was 32 years ago... Also, Josh's tennis coach was his geometry teacher as well.

Denver Nuggets

2009-04-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

I was happy to find out this morning that my favorite NBA team (the Denver Nuggets) won game 5 of their series with the New Orleans Hornets to advance to Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs to face the Dallas Mavericks. This is their first playoff series win in 15 years. This of course may prompt you to ask "Why do you root for the Denver Nuggets"?

Go back with me to the mid 1970s. The NBA was nowhere as popular as it is now. They might a show a few games a year on TV plus parts of the playoffs. I seem to remember they even would tape-delay playoff games. There was another basketball league back then called the ABA (the American Basketball Association). They used a red, white, and blue basketball (I used to have one, wish I still did). They pioneered several basketball changes that the NBA actually adopted including the 3-point shot, the slam-dunk contest, and high school kids going directly to the pros (i.e Moses Malone). There was a team in that league called the Kentucky Colonels that played in Louisville. Not only that, they had two prominent former UK players in Louie Dampier and arguably the best Wildcat of all time - Dan Issel.

They were very competitive in the ABA. There was a country-city rivalry with the New York Nets and their star player Julius "Dr. J" Erving. Kentucky finally won the ABA championship in the 1974-1975 season. They challenged the NBA champs (the Golden State Warriors) to a championship series which the Warriors declined. Things were looking great! Then, in a bizarre move in the off season, the owner of the Colonels sold Dan Issel to the Baltimore Claws (a new ABA franchise).

That owner was John Y Brown. He is well known to Kentuckians as the man who bought KFC from Colonel Sanders (later selling it). He was also governor of the State from 1979-1983. He later divorced his first wife and married Phyllis George. She was a former Miss America and the first prominent female NFL sportscaster. Brown made me even more upset after the season when he refused to pony up to have Kentucky move to the NBA (when the ABA finally folded) with the New York (later the New Jersey) Nets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers and finally the Denver Nuggets. He ended up buying the Buffalo Braves team right after that (they became the LA Clippers). I pushed everybody I knew to not vote for him for governor in 1979 and would never vote for him for anything after that.

Well, the Claws folded in something like a week after the season. Dan Issel ended up with the Denver Nuggets. With Issel being a UK guy plus the Nuggets being an ABA team, I started rooting for them and have ever since. They had good teams those first few years and even got to the West finals in 1987 before losing to the Lakers (with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Ever since, they've bounced back and forth between mediocre and terrible (one year they lost 23 games in a row!). They've made some good personnel moves in the past few years. The final piece was getting point guard Chauncey Billups in exchange for Allen Iverson at the start of this year. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Hope you enjoyed what my sons would surely call "an old man story".

Country Road, take me home...

2009-04-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

Josh was playing tennis in Murray on Friday afternoon and wanted me to come there. He wanted a ride home so he could get to a Multimedia class gathering that night. He grudgingly said "Since you are driving all that way, you can watch me play". He generally does not like Donna and I to watch him play. Naturally I jumped at the chance.

We go to Mayfield a decent amount. It's been years since I've been to Murray. I got to Mayfield and the "Dick Castleman Bypass". Mayfield has maybe 10,000 people in it but somehow they were able to get a bypass built around their city. It's nice I admit (it used to be a quite weavy trip through downtown Mayfield) but I am not sure how it was justified. Obviously somebody (quite possible their local representative it's named for) had a good bit of influence in the Kentucky state legislature.

After rounding the bypass (about 3 or 4 miles), I turned left to pick up the main part of 121. I was surprised to find that it was now integrated with hiway 80. It was also now four lane. Turns out hiway 80 is going to be fourlaned all the way to Murray. Right now it's done all the way to Coldwater. They've had to put in a traffic light in Coldwater now to get the four-lane traffic back onto 121 from the four-laned 80. It's bizarre seeing a traffic light in Coldwater. I don't even think its as big as Wickliffe or LaCenter. It might be comparable to Kevil.

After a bit of online research, the plan is to four-lane 80 all the way from Mayfield to Cadiz. Again, some representatives in this part of the state must have some influence in the state legislature. It may divert traffic from Stella depriving me the right to always yell "Stell-aaa" in my poor Marlon Brando impersonation whenever we see the green sign when we drive through (and earning incredulous looks from my sons each time).

I've lost a bit more sympathy for our Governor when he complains about a lack of money. I may incur the ire of some, but I cannot understand the need to four-lane that corridor. I've gotta believe there are hiways that need it worse than that in the state...

Kansas City, here I come

2009-04-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

I got up Saturday morning and ran on the treadmill at the hotel. We finally left a bit before 11 for Kansas City. We stopped in Columbia and ate at Chili's. We got to the hotel (Drury Inn and Suites) about 3:30 so we had time to rest a bit before the game (at 6:10pm).

The weather was a bit warmer so we just went with bringing coats. You can walk from the Drury Inn to Kaufman Stadium (home of the Royals). It's right next to I-70 (you actually walk on an overpass over I-70 to get there from the Drury). You have to walk down a steep grassy hill, but that's it. We got in and found our seats were better than expected. We were in the 200 section behind the Yankee dugout. I had seen the tickets listed as row HH, so I thought we'd be in the back of the section. Turns out they count rows from the field, so HH ended up only being about 35 rows up.

We watched the players warm up. I noticed CC Sabathia warming up (he's a big guy and very hard to miss). Turns out he was going to pitch instead of the originally scehduled starter (Joba Chamberlin). Sabathia is one of the best pitchers on the majors (even though he got hammered on opening day) so Jonathan was happy about that. I didn't recognize hardly any of the Royals starting lineup. I've heard talk of them being a dark horse in the AL Central race, but I have a very hard time believing that... The Yankees were missing A-Rod and their high dollar new first baseman Mark Texiera didn't play either. Jonathan's favorite (Derek Jeter) played though.

The Yankees picked up a couple in the first on an RBI double by Jorge Posada. Sabathia looked strong in striking out two Royals in the first. In the third, Jeter singled, stole second and went to third on a Johnny Damon ground ball. Nick Swisher (subbing for Texiera) hit a a slicing fly ball toward the right field line. I thought "Jeter will score on that catch since the right fielder is running toward the line to catch it and won't be able to make a strong throw home". Next thing I know, the ball falls fair and Swisher ends up with a triple. Matsui doesn't get him home from third with one out, but Posada gets another big double with 2 out to make it 4-0. Sabathia gives up two lead off singles in the 4th, but strikes out Billy Butler and coaxes a DP out of Alex Gordon to escape unscathed. In the 5th, Nick Swisher hits a two run homer to make it 6-0.

I decide at this point to look for the elusive polish sausage I didn't get the night before. I went all the way around Kaufman stadium and nobody sells them! Unreal. I had to settle for a jumbo hot dog and and big pretzel instead. I'll say that the food choices at Busch Stadium are much more varied.

Sabathia finally left in the 8th since he was close to 110 pitches. The Royals finally got a run in the 9th (prompting a sarcastic cheer from their remaining fans). There were quite a lot of Yankee fans there (besides Jonathan) who were ecstatic with a 6-1 win. We walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

We got up the next morning and headed out. We stopped for Bible Study and worship services at the Eastside church of Christ in Columbia Missouri. We later stopped in St. Louis to try and eat at Lion's Choice. We were again thwarted as it seemed the whole franchise was closed for the holiday. We stopped at our old standby (McDonalds). The trip home was uneventful. Jonathan and I had some nice father son discussions. We did wrestle over the radio. I did listen to the Cardinals Astros game and heard Kyle Lohse pitch a shutout for a Cardinals sweep of the Astros.

We got back about 5:15. I wasn't starving but I decided to try out the Midnight Truffle Blizzard at DQ (it came highly recommended by my son Josh). I was not disappointed, it was great! It probably has thousands of calories, but it sure was good. We went to church and it was good to see Donna and Josh. Josh even brought me a leftover Arby's roast beef (he didn't quite finish their 4 for 5.00 deal).

It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. We are eagerly awaiting the NFL schedule release on Tuesdays. The Giants play at Arrowhead this year (it's right next to Kaufman Stadium) and we hope the game is scheduled such that we can go..

Meet me in St. Louis..

2009-04-11T06:58:00.001-07:00

For the past couple of years, Jonathan and I made a road trip to Kansas City see his beloved Yankees play there. It's about a six hour drive, but it's interstate most of the way. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I'd prefer to drive half way (St Louis) the night before so as to not make a 6 hour drive in one day. Since I was gonna be there anyway, I decided to take in the Cardinal-Astro game. I managed to snag a good seat on Ebay (Field box, 10 rows up) so I was set.

The trip up was uneventful. It drizzled on us most of the way. We drove straight through (three hours) and never stopped. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Chesterfield. It was about the midway point for our trip, plus I got a fabulous rate (71.70 with tax!). I left Jonathan at the hotel (hopefully studying for his Calculus and CME tests on Monday) and headed out.

Chesterfield is normally about a 20 mile straight shot up I-64. However, I-64 has been under construction for several years and they completely close sections of it. You either have to make a wide detour on I-44 or I-70 or take a side road off of I-170 (where the closure starts). I did the latter and hoped on Forest Park Parkway and managed to get downtown relatively easily.

I parked in our usual garage on Pine and headed down to my favorite place to eat before the game. Lion's Choice is a roast beef chain in this part of Missouri. It quite honestly puts Arby's to shame. Well, I get there and its closed with a big sign saying it was closed for the holiday weekend. There were not a lot of choices left. It was either Hardees, TGIF, or the place I will never call by name let alone go to (the place where they wear orange). I went to Hardees. I paid about 5.50 to eat. Just for fun when I got to the ballpark I added up the cost for a hot dog, pop-corn and drink and it was 14.00!

I walked on over the the ballpark. As I was going in, someone gave me a free McDonalds card foam finger plus a free egg McMuffin coupon (sweet...). I went in and found my seat as good as I had hoped. It was nippy though.

Joel Pinero pitched for the Cardinals. That worried me a bit. Mike Hampton pitched for Houston. I remember him dominating the Cardinals (for the Mets) in the 2000 championship series. It seems like he's been hurt ever since. Pinero shut them down. The Cardinals nicked Hampton for a run in the first but Ankiel struck out with the bases loaded. The Cardinals took a three run lead and Pinero pitched well. The Astros finally got a run on him in the 6th, but the Cardinals got a run back in their half. Pinero tired in the 7th. Josh Kinney came in and walked two to force in a run but struck out Hunter Pence to finally end the inning 4-2. Ryan Luckwick hit a home run to make it 5-2. The Cardinals loaded the bases with a hit and a couple of walks. However, with the pitcher having walked the last two, David Freese inexplicably swung at the first pitch and hit into a double play. Carlos Lee matched it with a towering blast in the 8th to make it 5-3.

In the eighth, they flashed up the Blues victory and the crowd went wild since this clinched their first playoff appearance in several years. They started chanting "Blues". Khalil Greene looked confused during his at-bat. It sounded like booing if you didn't know what was going on and I don't know if he got that.

Jason Motte came in to close. He totally imploded on opening day giving up 4 runs to turn a 4-2 lead into a 6-4 loss. He gave up two hits and got one out and Tony Larussa smartly pulled him and brought in Kyle McClellan. I was hoping that the Astros didn't get Lance Burkman up there. Even without those dinky Crawford boxes in his home park, he's a major threat. Kyle put them down and the Cardinals had a 5-3 victory. Coupled with the Cub loss earlier in the day, they were in first place!

The crowd was only about 38,000. They usually sell out. I am not sure if it was "the economy" or the weather (it was upper 30s by game end). I fortunately brought two coats, gloves and a hat so I was fine. With the crowd from the Blues game and this game, it took a lot longer to weave my way to I-64 West and back to the hotel, but it was worth it to see a Cardinal win. This was the first time I'd ever seen them win at the new stadium. They'd lost the past three years when I've gone.

Now onto KC to see the Yankees-Royals today!

Billy Gillispie chase scene

2009-03-28T04:05:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

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..

2009-03-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

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..

2009-03-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

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???

2009-03-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-07T13:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-07T05:29:00.000-08:00

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..

2009-03-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

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...

Doctor, Doctor, give me the news

2009-02-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

In the past week, I ended up having to make two trips to the Western Baptist Emergency Room.

The first was on Thursday. I got a call from Donna saying the school had called her and Josh had cut his finger in Physics lab. I went to the school to get him. He was in the nurse's office lying down. Turned out, he had felt faint when coming to see the nurse, so he had to lie down. She showed me the finger and it was obvious he'd sliced it pretty good and it'd need stitches.

We got to the Western Baptist ER and I was shocked to see that no one was in the waiting room. I began to wonder if it was closed down. It wasn't though. We got in, the doctor looked at his finger, a young lady sewed up his finger (7 stitches), and we were out in an hour and half. That has to be a world record. Josh was even able to go back to school (his choice, not ours). He said the worst part of the experience was all the ribbing he took at school.

The second visit was more serious. I got a call at work Tuesday afternoon from Donna's mom from Donna's cel phone. I knew right then that something was wrong since her mother has probably used a cel phone less than five times in her life. She hold me Donna was having chest pains and an ambulance was coming to get her. I left work and headed to the ER. They took me right back, but she wasn't there yet. Dr. Tim Mabry was there (a friend of ours from church and fellow deacon). He went and found out that she was en route and kept giving me updates as to how close she was. It turned out they (the EMTs) had done some things at the house so that is why it took longer.

She got checked in and in one of the ER rooms for patients with suspected heart issues. They did tests and couldn't find any heart issues but decided to keep her overnight to monitor her. This was the first time she'd been in the hospital since Josh was born 17 years ago. They did multiple tests (including a stress test and ultrasound) and found no heart or blot clot issues. They finally decided to go down the route of acid reflux and are treating her for that.

Some random thoughts

You should always wear the proper hand protection when cutting things.
WBH was great. Everybody there was really nice. They even gave me a meal the evening Donna was checking out so I didn't have to forage out for food.
Donna had been having pains, but kept putting off going to the doctor because she was "too busy". She (and my brother too) would tell you now that if you have symptoms, don't put off a doctor's visit.

Thanks to everybody for the prayers and the concern you've shown for us over the past week.