Retirement (Revisited)

 

So, I’m going to try this blogging thing again.  I’ve tried to decide what I should blog about first.  I
finally decided to talk about my tenth anniversary of being retired.

It seems almost impossible that it’s been ten years since I retired in September of 2015.  I read my blog post about it to remind myself of what I was thinking then.  I remember how stressful my work had become and that convincing me to leave earlier than I’d planned.  I was concerned about our finances.  We’ve done just fine since then.  We’ve done everything we wanted to do.

Not that my life hasn’t been without stress.  I had a bizarre health scare in 2016.  I served as an elder in our congregation at Central.  It was very stressful.  I had pretty much jumped from one stressful responsibility to another one.  I finally had to resign.  I admire the men who can handle the most important of roles so well.   We went through a huge family issue largely because of the reaction of some people to a bad situation.  Donna’s mom had health issues and passed away much sooner than we’d ever thought.   And that’s not even touching COVID.

I’d planned to travel and I’ve done that.  I got to see two of the places I’d mentioned in my original retirement blog post (Hershey Pennsylvania and the Grand Canyon).   I went to London to see the Cardinals play with a side trip to Paris.    I thought I’d be spending a lot of time at St Louis Cardinal and Kentucky Wildcat playoff games and that hasn’t happened.  I did make a trip to Toronto to see the Wildcats play and got to meet my favorite UK player – Jack Givens.  I did however get to see my Denver Nuggets win their first Western Conference Championship in Los Angeles and then win their first NBA Championship at Denver.   Josh and I made a trip to Abu Dhabi to see the Nuggets play.  Donna and I have made several trips to the Cardinal’s Spring Training in Jupiter Florida and to the Smoky Mountains. 

But the best part is the family things that have happened.  Lucy was born in November of 2016.  Being a grandparent is wonderful.  Since I’m retired, we can make just about any event she participates in.  If she needs anyone to watch her, we are always available.  She is the joy of my life.  Josh also married a wonderful young lady and she’s a great daughter-in-law.

So, I’m sometimes asked what I’ve learned about retirement to give advice to others.  The thing I worried about (money) went fine.  What I didn’t think about was what I’d retire to.  You can only watch so much TV and go to so many places.  At first, being an elder was what I thought I’d do.  That didn’t work out.  I then had a brother of mine at Central (where we go to church) convince me to participate in the McCracken County jail ministry.    I never dreamed I’d be able to teach other men the Gospel and give them hope.  It’s the first real evangelism I’ve ever done in my life.  I’ve been doing that for over seven years now and I really enjoy it.  With that and being the “doting Granddad”, I have purpose in my life.

Oh, and how did Donna handle it?  We’ve grown closer.  I’ve taken over some household responsibilities (shopping and running errands).  We’ll be married forty years in March, so we must be doing something right. 

In retrospect, I’m glad I went ahead and retired. 

Wildcat-palooza - Part 2

Josh and I started out on Thursday to head out for part one of our trip. Shelby and Josh went to see Lucy. I met them there a bit later so I could of course see my granddaughter as well. I picked up Josh there. Since Jonathan and Cheyenne live just off of Highway 68, we took the route of going down the Purchase Parkway and through Western Tennessee as opposed to my usual route of I-55 South. The trip through Western Tennessee is a bit more complex, but we made it to our hotel in Southaven Mississippi with no trouble.

My brother Kevin met us there. He came bearing a wonderful gift of one of those handheld Mattel football games from the 70s that I used to have. I immediately had to play a game on it. Josh could not believe that this game (as elementary as it seems now) was so popular. We discussed where we would have dinner. I had read there was actually a Canes inside the new Ole Miss arena. Canes is a really good place to eat with fabulous chicken strips. We decided we’d eat when we got there.

As we drove along, I couldn’t help but think of some of the trips I took as a teenager to Oxford and Starkville. My dad, my brother and I used to go with my Uncle Donnie and my cousins Tony and Neal to see UK play. We’d meet my Uncle Reggie in Jackson Tennessee with his dad – who we all called Mr. Smith. We always had a lot of fun. The first time I ever went to a UK game was in Starkville in 1975. Our whole family went. I remember my dad pointing out an old guy sitting down by the court and telling me to get his autograph. My dad told me it was Adolph Rupp. Sadly at the time, I didn’t even know who that was. My sister Jody and I got our programs autographed. I had lost mine over the years, but my sister gave me hers a few years ago.

We got to the Ole Miss campus. I had stalked out online where to park before we got there. There were a lot of people parking on the side of the road as we came in, but I held out for the parking lot I’d found and was rewarded with finding a spot there with little trouble. We walked a few blocks to the arena. We passed a sign for Manning Way which I ended up having to take a picture of for Jonathan – it had Ole Miss alum (and his favorite player) Eli Manning’s name on it. We got to the Ole Miss arena with no problem and went in.

They had moved into a new basketball arena since I’d been there last (almost ten years ago) called “The Pavilion”. It’s a very nice new arena with a good sized video board. All the seats are chairbacks which is nice. We found the Canes and while it was pricey, it was excellent. My brother ended up buying tamales from a university group since he felt sorry for them – Canes had a huge line while hardly any one was buying tamales. We settled into our seats and waited for the game to start. I would say about a third of the crowd was UK fans.

The game started out close. UK was scoring a lot but their defense wasn’t too great. Kentucky however had amassed sixty points by halftime and shot over sixty percent and led by twenty one points. Ole Miss got the lead down to fifteen at one point in the 2nd half, but KY ended up winning 99 to 76. Malik Monk had thirty four points and Bam Adebayo got twenty five. Isaiah Briscoe ended up with a triple double although I felt the tenth rebound was a bit tainted – Derek Willis intentionally bricked a free throw so Briscoe could get that tenth rebound. We thoroughly enjoyed the game. We had no trouble getting out of the parking lot and back on the road to head back to our hotel.

In my next post, I’ll continue the story of our trip and what we did in Nashville before we flew out to Jacksonville.

Escape..

Several months ago I’d seen stories about something called an escape room. The way I understood it worked is you are placed in a room with some sort of theme that you have 60 minutes to get out of. You solve puzzles and use your brain to get out. You have to work as a team to figure it out. This sounded to me like something that would be really be fun to do. There were several of these in the area we’d be staying at in Fort Lauderdale, so we thought we’d give it a shot. We signed up for the Crime Scene Quest at “Escape the Quest”.

We (minus Donna who didn’t want to go) got there and were told how it would work. We would have to get through three rooms in the hour and figure out the actual killer of a woman. We had three lifelines – a hint, a clue, and a time check. We were not allowed to bring in our phones or any timepiece. You are given a walkie talkie to communicate with the staff. With a certain level of excitement, we entered the first room. I don’t want to give away too much, but there were a lot of things to examine and a lot of visual distractions. We burned our hint and clue just to get out of the first room. We got to the second room and never could figure our way out of it. I was totally dejected. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t smart enough to help us figure this out. We ended up going to hamburger place called Circus Freak – it had circus posters and burgers with circus type names. I had the “Two Headed Man” which was a hamburger with a hot dog on top. The burgers were excellent. I slowly started to cheer up. We picked up Donna and went to Wednesday night services at 6th Street church of Christ again. Being with fellow Christians helped me too, but it was just ridiculous to get that upset over something like I did.

The next day, Donna and I went over to Sixth Street again. They have a program on Thursday to help feed and provide clothes for the homeless. Being a warm weather area, there are a number of homeless there. The preacher there did a devotional talking of love with the 15 or so there. I really enjoyed doing this. I talked with several of the people that showed up. They were all really appreciative. Donna and I talked and I convinced her to go with us so we could give the Escape Room another shot. I hoped with the six of us that we could do better.

We went back and attempted the one called “House of Pain”. We used our hint/clue much more effectively this time. I don’t want to give anything away, but once I opened that last door and we got out with plenty of time to spare, I was ecstatic. I wasn’t totally stupid after all. We were so excited that we went ahead and did the final Escape Room there called “Stay of Execution”. Almost immediately though, we had some trepidation. The young lady pulled out five pair of handcuffs and cuffed five of us together. Donna started to look really nervous so I had her get on the end so that she’d have a free hand. Then the young lady took Jonathan and led him away by himself. After a few minutes, she let us in. We looked around the room and found a couple of useful items (I don’t want to give anything away). I have to tell about one part though. There was what appeared to be a light switch in the first room with a question mark over it. I had to press it of course which immediately produced a scream that I recognized as Jonathan. Turned out, we had to get him out of the Electric Chair and get ourselves out (of the handcuffs and the rooms) before the hour ended. Josh of course, used any excuse to press that button and make Jonathan scream even convincing Donna to do it once. Again, we managed (using the hint and clue) to get out well before the time allotted. We celebrated with a trip to Longhorn Steakhouse.

We spent the evening packing. Kentucky was to play UCLA at 9:00 Eastern. We thought they’d win, but they played terribly. Marcus Lee was knocked out early and UCLA took the lead. Kentucky could never quite catch up and were saddled with their first loss of the year. We all went to bed a bit disappointed.

We got up the next morning to leave. I’d hope to make one last walk on the beach, but it was pouring rain so we couldn’t. We said goodbye to Josh and Shelby as they headed to the airport to fly back. We got to Macon that night and then finished an uneventful drive back home on Saturday.

The trip had been a lot of fun. I’m not sure when we’ll go back since UK doesn’t appear to being the HoopHall classic next year. They play in Las Vegas next year, but I’m not so sure I want to do that.

The HoopHall Invitational

We got to Miami several hours before the game. I had been able to park in the closest parking lot (available on ParkWhiz) to American Airlines Arena by using a 50.00 gift code ParkWhiz had given me to be used on the Thanksgiving holiday. Josh and Shelby had already arrived from the Fort Lauderdale Airport. We walked over to the Biscayne Shopping area next to the Stadium. They had a Five Guys so we headed for that to eat. It was a madhouse, but we finally got our food and ate. We walked around the shopping center and then went and saw the harbor. We then walked to the arena. We had to go through metal detectors which were not too bad except for the fact that they impounded Jonathan's nail clippers. We got to our seats and they were as good as I'd hoped. We were only a few rows from the court. Kentucky would be playing South Florida coached by former UK assistant Orlando Antigua. One of their players was the brother of former UK player Darmarcus Cousins. UK was expected to win easily. The Arena was roughly half full and most of them were UK fans. The Miami Heat mascot Burnie entertained everyone and seemed to have a special rapport with Josh.

The game was somewhat close throughout the first part of the game. Kentucky ended the half on a 15-0 run to take a 42-21 lead at the half. However, there was a scary incident in the first half. In a scrum for a loose ball, Tyler Ullis came up holding his arm. He left the court not to return until the second half (with his arm in a sling). Tyler is the player UK can least afford to lose. It turned out he had a hyperextended elbow. Uk ended up getting as much as a 31 point lead before winning by 21. We stayed and watched a little of the Memphis/Ohio State game and then left.

We walked back to the car to head to Fort Lauderdale. I had the bright idea of stopping by a Krispy Kreme on the way back. One, I wanted doughnuts and two, I thought it'd be something for us to eat for breakfast the next day. I got off an exit on the north side of Miami and we finally found it. Unfortunately, it was in a area that can be best described as "sketchy". Donna and Cheyenne didn't want to get out of the car so Jonathan and I went in to get doughnuts and milk. We got back and could tell they were really uncomfortable. They had seen several scary looking people wandering around so we hurriedly made our way back to I-95. We made it the rest of the way with no problem. We checked into to our resort and the room was as nice as I hoped. We were right on the beach. Josh had gotten food from Wendy's so we ate and crashed out.

We got up the next morning and I headed out to see the ocean and to run on the beach. I ended up ditching that plan after running about a mile on the sand and ended up going to the sidewalk for the rest of my run. Donna and We then went to a Wal-mart neighborhood Market for food for the week. We found out that we had to watch for drawbridges when we crossed back over the Intercoastal Waterway. When a tall boat/yacht went over, we had to wait just like one does for a train. We finally got our groceries and came back. We spent most of the day going back and forth to the beach and enjoying getting out in the surf. The only bad part of the day was keeping up with the UK Louisville football game. UK jumped out to a 21-0 lead only to have Louisville come back and win 38-24. So much for our hopes of going to a bowl game. I ended up ordering pizza out from a recommended place called Heavenly Pizza. The pizza was excellent. We watched a little TV and then went to bed.

We got up the next morning and headed for the worship services at Sixth Street church of Christ. We found the building with no problem. The brethren there were very welcoming and hospitable. One of the elders preached the a lesson about grace and it was one of the best ones about that topic I'd ever heard. Afterwards, we went back to the resort. It turned out the Jets game would be on early and the Cardinals game late. So, we watched football. The Jets won easily over the Dolphins. We kept up with the Giants who dug a deep hole against the Redskins and almost came back to win. We watched the first half of the Cardinal game. They struggled to a 6-3 lead at halftime. We headed for evening worship services at Sixth Street again. Afterwards, I found out the Cardinals had pulled out a 19-13 win. We went and got chicken from Popeyes. It was good but unfortunately, we were shorted a couple of pieces of chicken. We had enough though. We watched a little of the New England Denver Sunday night game and then went to bed.

In my next post, I'll let you know about what we did during the week.

Welcome to Florida!

While last year’s UK season was going on, plans were announced for UK to play in Miami in November. They would be playing former UK assistant Orlando Antiqua’s South Florida team at American Airline Arena – the home of the Miami Heat. The game would be played the day after Thanksgiving. It sounded like a great opportunity to go somewhere warm and see UK play. I also thought we could spend a week in Fort Lauderdale – which is about 30 minutes north of Miami. I talked with Jonathan and Josh and we were even able to arrange it so they and Cheyenne and Shelby could come too. It’d be our first family vacation in several years. This sounded great to me, so I went ahead and bought the tickets in January and arranged for us to have a suite at Wyndham Royal Vista on the beach.

Jonathan changed jobs in October and I was a little concerned that he’d be able to go. But his company graciously gave him that week off in November as part of their offer. The day finally came to leave. Cheyenne was already in Orlando with her family at the Disney Complex so we’d pick her up on the way. We left on the Wednesday before. We got to Nashville and ate at one our favorite hamburger places – Fat Mo’s. We then went to Lebanon Road church of Christ and enjoyed their Wednesday night service. We drove on to Murfreesboro after that and checked in at the Embassy Suites there. I’d forgotten how nice those hotels are. They also offer a cooked to order breakfast which you might well guess we took full advantage of the next morning.

The next day was of course Thanksgiving. I figured that was the first Thanksgiving of my life I hadn’t had a full Thanksgiving dinner with family somewhere. We had the aim to stop at a Cracker Barrel on the way to have their Thanksgiving dinner. We finally stopped in Macon. The restaurant looked crowded but Jonathan somehow finagled us a table for three when we got inside. The food was excellent and it also kept me from overeating like I usually do. We headed out after that and eventually got to the Florida border. We stopped at the Welcome Center there to go to the restroom, but mainly to get a transponder for use at toll booths in Florida. We then pressed on to Lake City Florida to spend the night. I’d booked at suite at Country Inn and Suites there. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. Getting dinner proved to be difficult since it was of course Thanksgiving. I eventually ended up just getting McDonalds.

We got up the next morning and heading to Orlando. We arranged to meet Cheyenne at a Home Depot and picked her up there. We took the Florida Turnpike most of the way there. It’s very different from your usual Interstate. There are few exits with any restaurants, etc, on them. They have Travel Plazas every 45 miles or so. It’s pretty similar to the Beaver Dam Plaza on the Western KY Parkway. We finally stopped at one and it was a madhouse. They did have an Auntie Ann’s Pretzel place in it, so we got pretzels there. We left out to finish our trip to Mami.

That’s enough for now – I’ll continue in my next post and let you know how the ballgame and Miami in general were.

Champions Classic 2015

When UK’s 2015-2016 basketball schedule game out, I noted that the Champions Classic would be played at the United Center in Chicago. Josh, Jonathan and I had seen UK play UCLA there last year. With the game in Chicago, Josh could meet me pretty easily by driving down. So, I waited anxiously for the ticket presale. Imagine my disappointment when I tried to buy them immediately only to be told they were already sold out! I mean, why even bother if you don’t have any tickets to sell? So, I played the waiting game with Stubhub and finally got us two lower level baseline seats.

We’d just spent the weekend in Lexington watching UK play two games, but this one was going to be a lot tougher. I thought UK looked OK but with all the new players (as is the norm now), they looked a bit disjointed. This game would a good test for them. UK hadn’t beaten Duke since the 1998 NCAA tournament, so I hoped they break that streak. I left out for Chicago that morning. It rained almost the whole trip. I stopped at Culvers in Champaign for lunch. I felt a bit guilty eating there without Donna. It really started to rain when I got on i-294 in Chicago which made the trip on it even more of an adventure than usual but I finally made it. I had decided to stay in Lombard this time at Towneplace Suites. I got a good deal on a two bedroom suite. I checked in and the room was nice. I confirmed Josh was on the way and went out to get dinner.

I headed for Portillos. I had gone there several times while at training classes in Chicago. Their specialty is Italian Beef. You can get the sandwich all sort of different ways (different kinds of peppers or wet/dry). I got us sandwiches without peppers and the juice on the side. I also grabbed fries plus the Portillo’s chocolate cake milkshake. I ate in the room and waited for Josh. He hit traffic about an hour out from Chicago. So, he was later than he expected. When he got to the hotel, I brought his food to eat on the way and we headed for the United Center.

The traffic was terrible on the way there. Google maps kept telling us to take a side street that paralleled I-290. I had reserved close parking with Park Whiz so we only had to walk about a block to the arena. When we got there, we found long lines to get in. Everyone had to go through a metal detector to get in. A lot of people acted like they’d never been through one. A guy in front of me kept setting off the alarm and couldn’t figure out why. Security told him he had something in his pants pocket. He was adamant he didn’t have anything until he finally pulled out a set of keys! We finally got in and to our seats just as the player introductions had started.

The game was close in the first half. Duke stayed in it at the start because of the offensive rebounding of the latest Plumlee they’ve cultivated. Kentucky finally managed a six point lead by the half. They had completely shut down Grayson Allen. Five minutes into the second half, Kentucky opened a double digit lead. Josh and I were still nervous knowing a young team could cough up a lead quickly. The Cats continued to hang on. Once they opened a sixteen point lead with four minutes to do, we relaxed a bit. We were sitting in a large group of Dukies who seemed in utter disbelief in what was happening. Coach K ranted and railed at the referees in the first half. In the 2nd half, he finally just sat down on the bench and watched. Kentucky ended up winning 74-63. Josh and I celebrated by buying Champions Classic t-shirts. We watched a little of the Kansas Michigan State game then went back to the hotel. We had the chocolate cake milkshake I’d bought and it was great.

The next morning Josh got up early and headed for home. I did the same to avoid the usual maniacal Chicago traffic (which I did). I had an uneventful trip, but I did have to stop in Marion for Krispy Kreme.

We had a great time. UK looked good. if they can play that well ,they will definitely be a Final Four contender.

UK Weekend

When Josh was at UK, I started what has become a tradition (in 2010). I end up going to the first UK home game of the year. It’s become my birthday present each year since it’s always close to my birthday. The earlier games in the season are generally easier to get tickets to. Josh was able to swing tickets for me the years he was there. Last year, I was able to get Lower Level seats via Ticketmaster. This year, Josh’s former roommate (the recently married Bryant Clemons) got tickets for us. This year for the first time I ever remember, UK had two home games on two consecutive days to start the season. Bryant got us tickets for both games so we were set! Josh and Shelby would get there Friday and Jonathan and Cheyenne on Saturday, so we’d get to have our whole family together.

Donna and I left out Friday morning. The trip up was pretty uneventful. The one big change on the trip is the interchange for the Western Kentucky Parkway and the Pennyrile Parkway (well, now it’s called I-69). I don’t really know how to describe it other than to say it’s no longer a simple interchange and you should really pay attention when you get close to make sure you go the way you want to go. There was some road construction and New Circle Road was busy as usual, but we made it fine. I had found a new Towneplace Suites over in the Hamburg area that I decided to try. It was about 15 minutes from Rupp Arena and about 5 minutes from where we’d be going to church Sunday. I rented a two room suite so we’d enough room for Donna and I, Jonathan and Cheyenne and Josh (Shelby would be visiting with friends and her parents). The hotel was very nice but the suite only had one bathroom which concerned me a bit for getting ready Sunday morning. Josh and Shelby got there about 4:45 and we headed out to eat dinner. We went to one of my favorite places to eat – BDs Mongolian Grill. You fill up a bowl with as much stir fry stuff as it’ll hold. I usually go heavy on the meat, but there are vegetables and sauces you can add as well. You then take it to be grilled and take it back to your table. The server brings rice and tortillas to wrap your food in. I had a coupon for a free bowl for my birthday so it was even better. We got done eating and headed for the game.

Our hope was to park in our usual spot at Memorial Coliseum. When we got there, the lot was completely full and we didn’t know why. We ended up having to park over by the K-Lair, so it would be about a mile walk. Fortunately, the weather was fine for walking and a lot of the walk was through campus. I found out later that the Lady Kats had a game at Memorial that night as well. We managed to make it to Rupp Arena a few minutes before tipoff. Our seats were excellent. We settled in to enjoy the game against the Albany Great Danes. Kentucky played OK but you could tell they weren’t a cohesive unit yet. They won by 13. We stayed for the Star of the Game interview (Derek Willis) and for Coach Cal’s post game show and then headed back. Josh took Shelby to a friend’s house to spend the night and we went back to our hotel for the evening.

We got up the next morning to have the hotel breakfast. I was not impressed by the choices so I made a side trip to Krispy Kreme. Jonathan and Cheyenne had left early that morning and got to Lexington after noon. We decided to go to Canes for chicken tenders. Bryant met us there. We had a really enjoyable time catching up with him. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit. There was a Culver’s within walking distance of our hotel so we went out for ice cream later. I kept up with the UK Vandy game on WatchESPN (amazingly enough I couldn’t find it on any of the cable channels in the room). It was just as well, UK played pretty poorly. Jonathan, Cheyenne, Josh and I headed to Chick-Fil-A to eat and then to the game. We were able to park in our usual Memorial Coliseum spot this time. Kentucky played NJIT this time. They had beaten Michigan last year and were one of the top three point shooting teams in the NCAA last year. They jumped on top 16-10 in the first four minutes hitting just about every shot they took. UK came back and ended up by 8 at the half. UK played much better in the 2nd half and ended up winning by 30. We didn’t stay for the post game shows since the game started so late (8) so we went back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and went to North Lexington church of Christ (sharing the bathroom to get ready didn’t end up being an issue like I feared). This is where Josh attended while he was at UK. It’s a special place to us; they took really good care of Josh while he was there. It was good to see many of our friends there – it had been two years since we last visited there. One of Josh’s buddies – Davey Moster – came down from Cincinnati to see us. His brother Jake is a current student at UK and attends there. After services and taking with several people, we decided to go to one of our eating institutions – Five Guys. We had a great time there and posed for our usual Five Guys photo. But alas, all good things had to end. We all had to head for home. Our trip home was uneventful and we got back in plenty of time to go to services at our home congregation.

We had a great trip as usual, I am already looking forward to next year.

Weekend in Chicago..

I had noticed several months back that Kentucky would play in Chicago the weekend before Christmas in the CBS Sports Classic. I knew Josh could get there in a couple of hours so we decided we could meet there and make a weekend of it. Jonathan was iffy about going with us because there was a chance the place where he worked might strike. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on three lower level corner seats when they got below list price. Jonathan finally got word that no strike would happen til the first of the year so he was finally in for the trip.

Jonathan and I headed out on the Friday before. The trip up went smoothly. We got past Champaign before looking for a place to eat. We called up Road Ninja. The next exit had several choices including one that warned us not to go because (I kid you not) one of the waitresses has “meth mouth”. We actually found a Just Hamburgers that appeared to be similar to the one in Paducah. The logo was the same but it was strictly a take out place. The burgers were good though. We got to our hotel by O’Hare airport with no problem and settled down to rest. There was a Steak and Shake next door and given it was Happy Hour, I grabbed us both a milkshake plus some cookies for later. We rested in the hotel until it was time for dinner. I wanted to get pizza from Giordanos so Jonathan could try Chicago deep dish style pizza (and because I like it). We got a medium meat pizza (which easily would feed the three of us). Jonathan loved it and we managed to hang on to a few pieces for Josh. Josh ended up taking the bus to O’Hare from Madison so he could come home with me to visit for the holidays. Picking him at O’Hare was a bit tricky. The airport is huge much bigger than BNA in Nashville. We finally managed to find him and get him back to the hotel. He even came bearing my favorite candy – Chocolate Stars. He also brought his Nintendo 4DS which Jonathan promptly latched onto for the evening.

We got up the next day and had breakfast. We decided to try Uber again. Jonathan signed up via my link so he got a 20.00 credit and so did it. He summoned a driver via his phone app. Murray showed up in about 10 minutes. He was about my age so we talked all kinds of sports from the 70s on. As we got close to the United Center, traffic was backed up. Murray hopped off an exit and took us a back way (that he said his dad had taught him) and we got to our destination with no trouble. We went inside and found our seats which ended up being excellent. The United Center is the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks so there were numerous banners hanging up celebrating their accomplishments. We settled in to watch Ohio State and Carolina. Carolina had absolutely no trouble with Ohio State. In fact with about 10 minutes remaining, we all got up to roam the concourse. Jonathan and I found that the Naismith Trophy for the best college player of the year was on display so we got pictures with it. We also were able to get pictures with Coke Zero props which they turned into a magnet. We got back in time to see Ohio State try to mount a run, but they still lost by eight. Finally it was time for our team (the Wildcats) to play UCLA. Aaron Harrison nailed a three and got a steal for another basket. UCLA called timeout down 7-0. Kentucky kept on rolling jumping ahead 16-0 forcing another UCLA timeout at the 16:24 mark. Kentucky kept pouring it on and were up 24-0 before UCLA finally scored at the 12:21. Kentucky kept piling on points and holding down UCLA. The halftime score was 44-7! I felt a little sorry for UCLA (but not that much). It was easily the best half of UK basketball I’d seen in recent memory. The game was more competitive in the second half but UK still won 83-44. We of course stayed til the end.

We left the United Center and I had to get a look and picture of the famous Michael Jordan statue. We walked away and tried to summon an Uber. It recommended we walk a few blocks east so we did. As we tried to get a car, we found one of the fatal flaws of Uber. When there are times of “high demand”, Uber will raise prices to “get more drivers on the road”. They were quoting prices that would be 3-4 times their normal rate. Being cheap, we didn't want to do that. We tried Lyft, but they were doing a similar thing and quoting 100-150% increases in regular prices. I keep trying on my phone and the prices stayed like this. We continued pressing east towards downtown Chicago. Jonathan grumbled all the way saying “we’re gonna die”. However, there were enough people around us most of the way, so there wasn’t much to worry about in my mind. My phone died finally so we decided to see if we could grab the “el” to O’hare where we could catch our hotel’s shuttle. We finally reached Union Station where we could get inside (it was pretty cold) to look at what seemed to me a very confusing map. Between Josh checking Google maps, we decided we needed to get on the “Blue Line”. We found a station a couple of blocks away and managed to get tickets and get on the train finally. The tickets cost 9.00 total, so it was a good deal. It took about 50 minutes to get to O’Hare (the end of the Blue Line). I called the hotel from the courtesy phone in the shuttle area at O’Hare and they told me they’d be there about 6:30. We got picked up and got back to the hotel no problem. We ended up getting Culvers (so Jonathan could try cheese curds) and then going back to the hotel for the evening. We found out later we walked 2.3 miles from the United Center to catch the train. Fortunately, we are all runners so going that far didn't bother us at all.

We got up the next morning and ate and checked out. We went to Bible Class at the Bridgeview church of Christ. We enjoyed being there. We did have trouble getting out because someone had blocked us in. Several people very nicely found the person owning the car and we got out. We only made two stops on the way back – once to get lunch and once to gas up. We made it back in time so Jonathan could get to Maple Hill and Josh and I to Central. We really enjoyed ourselves on our trip. UK plays Duke at the United Center next fall, so we are already planning to go to that one as well. I also learned that you need to have a backup plan when you Uber somewhere just in case. We should have found somewhere to eat after the game to let the crowd die out and then summon a ride via Uber/Lyft.

Champions Classic

I had realized earlier this year that Kentucky would be playing in Indianapolis this fall in the Champions Classic. This is a yearly series comprised of Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State and Duke where the teams rotate playing each other and at different sites. This is as close as they've been so I decided I'd go. They'd be playing Kansas and Duke would play Michigan State. I tried to buy a ticket when they went on sale but all the good seats were taken somehow. I ended up buying a club seat on StubHub so I was good to go. I got a hotel that was reasonably priced (Fairfield Inn and Suites) about a mile from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The game was not at Lucas Oil field where we'd seen the NCAA Regional last year but at the arena where the Indiana Pacers play.

The day of the game came and I headed out. When we went to Indianapolis earlier this year, we went through Indiana. This year, every mapping program I tried sent me through Illinois. I am not entirely sure what changed there, but I ended up liking that route better. I stopped in Effingham at a place called Niemerg’s Steak House. Surprisingly enough though, I got a fried chicken dinner (it was highly recommended). It was excellent. They had a bunch of kinds of pie, but I was really full so I passed. The trip was uneventful and I got to the hotel OK. I checked in and rested a bit. There was a TGIF attached to the hotel, so I grabbed some food from there and ate in my room.

It was time to leave. The wind chill was 4 degrees, so I decided to try one of the new ridesharing services (I'll blog on that separately). I got to the game no problem. While I was line, two ladies from Duke starting talking to me and of course they brought up Christian Laettner. I told him I would never get over that and told them about the upcoming (no joke) 30 for 30 series called "I Hate Christian Laettner". My seat turned out to be excellent. Being in the club section was nice. The first game got ready to start. When Duke came out, they were lustily booed (wonder why? ha). The game was close for the first half but Duke pulled away to win in the second half. The Duke freshmen (Jahlik Okafor, Tyus Jones, and Justise Winston) looked really good (I have to grudgingly admit). Although, Michigan State's defense was to play straight man to man on Okafor which seemed a bit odd.

The Kentucky Kansas game started and the atmosphere totally changed. It felt like a NCAA tourney game. There were quite a few Kansas fans but still more from UK. A few minutes into the game, a man behind me complained to an usher about a bunch of guys using very audible foul language. The game was close at the first as the teams looked tight. Kentucky started to pull away. It seemed like every time Kansas drove to the basket, Kentucky blocked their shot. Kentucky was up 17 near the end of the first half, but Kansas nailed two threes and a basket to a single free throw for UK and it was a ten point game at half (38-28). Kentucky's 2nd platoon would be starting the second half and I was a bit nervous. I had no need to worry. They shut down Kansas completely. In fact, UK shut down Kansas completely in the 2nd half. They scored a grand total of 12 points and only 3 baskets. The UK crowd kept getting louder and louder. Kansas fans began leaving. By the time the game was over, Kentucky had won 72-40 over the 5th ranked team in the country! It was a great game for UK. I was so happy I even bought a Champions Classic shirt on the way out. I was so pumped and warm, I just walked back to the hotel. There were enough fans on the street so it was safe. I didn't get back til almost midnight. I got up the next morning and drove back without incident.

If UK can play like that, they will be tough for anyone to beat. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The game is in Chicago next year and Kentucky plays Duke so I plan on going again.

Blue Orleans - part Deux

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. We got the buffet (which was great). Josh smartly stuck with the continental. I paid a little more (since the contintental was free) to have the full buffet. It was really good, they even would make items to order. We went to the Hickory Knoll church of Christ. As were got ready for services, imagine our surprise when a family from Josh's home congregation came in (the Neths) came in. We talked with them for a while. They had made trip as a surprise to their kids. We enjoyed our time with the congregation there. We went back to our hotel and checked out.

We decided to head down to downtown New Orleans and eat and go to the NCAAA HoopFest. Driving in downtown New Orleans was horrific. It's all one way streets and with the extra traffic, it took us a long time to finally get to the Convention Center and park. The first order of business was getting lunch. We wanted to get one of the famous Po' Boy sandwiches. In reading various reviews on the web, they all mentioned a place called the NOLA grocery. They warned it was easy to miss and somewhat of a "hole in the wall". We decided we were up for it. We finally found it. We ordered fried shrimp Po' Boys and they were fabulous. I even got in a little sports talk with the sandwich maker. We went to the Hoopfest. When we got there, the line wound all around the Convention Center. We didn't want to go that bad, so we left.

I had reserved a room in Covington for Sunday night. This required us to go over Lake Ponchatrain on the Causeway. This is the longest continuous bridge over water (close to 27 miles). The bridge had multiple turnarounds but no gas stations or rest stops. I am not sure what would happen if you run out of gas or needed to go to the restroom. We made it without incident. We checked into our hotel (the Hampton Inn) and headed for Sunday night worship. We went to the Slidel church of Christ. When we got there, there were only about 15 people there. One of the men there asked if we would want to assist with services. I ended up leading the opening prayer and Josh led singing. He thought he was only leading a couple of songs until the man doing announcements said "Josh Yancy will be leading our singing". He had to scramble to find a few more songs. He did a really good job though. After services, we talked with the people there. It turned out that they had been a congregation of over 200. Then after Katrina hit, a lot of people moved out the area. It was a sad situation but these brethren continue to work for the Lord. We went back to the hotel. I walked next door to the Piccadilly cafeteria. It was OK but not as good as usual. Josh and Curtis walked to Applebees and I picked them up later.

The next day, we decided to go play tennis. We found a city park and played. We had fun but I could tell I was really rusty. I didn't play well at all. We checked out and went back across the causeway. We stopped at a mall that was by the end of the causeway. We strolled around and ate at the food court so everybody could get what they wanted. There was a Cafe Du Monde in there as well. If you have never heard of these, they are coffee shops that serve beignets. Beignets are large puffy pastries (like doughnuts) covered in powdered sugar. I usually go to the one in downtown. However, this one was very good plus it wasn't outside and hot and humid (like the downtown one can be). After the mall, we went to the Nike Store in downtown New Orleans. I'd never been to one. Josh showed me a pair of tennis shoes that were New York Jets green. We left there for our downtown hotel. I had used Hilton points to get a room at the Homewood Suites. The cost of the room would have been 600 a night. I met a guy who stayed five nights and spent over 3k on five nights there. The hotel was very nice. The one different thing was their parking lot. It was crammed full of cars. I felt sorry for the attendant. Every time a car came in or out, he had to move cars around. It reminded me of one of those sliding number puzzles. He did his job cheerfully with a smile for everyone. The hotel had dinner and we were able to get a free dinner of chicken and shrimp gumbo. We went back to the room to rest up for the game. It started raining so we waited as long as we could but finally had to walk to the Superdome in a slight drizzle.

The atmosphere inside was electric. It was just like the 7th game of the World Series I was at. Kentucky started out well and raced to an 18 point lead and were ahead 14 at half. You knew Kansas would make a run and they did. Coach Cal let off of the gas and quit letting Kentucky run and tried to play out the clock. This strategy failed them against Vandy and almost failed them here. Kansas keep getting closer and closer. With about a minute to go Tyshawn Taylor headed to the goal for a layup on a backdoor play that would have cut the lead to four. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist swooped in blocked the shot. With about 30 seconds to go Elijah Johnson went up for a three. Anthony Davis ran out at him and came down with the ball and walked. Uk held on to win. Finally after 14 years, UK had its title. Coach Cal no longer had to hear how "he couldn't win the big one. We were ecstatic of course. We stayed for the presentation of the trophy and then left. It was raining, but we didn't care. We got back to the hotel. Josh and Curtis wanted to walk around, but I was tired. They left and I went to bed.

We got up the next morning and ate breakfast at the hotel. We got our car out of the sliding number puzzle and headed home. The trip home was uneventful. I dropped the guys off at the Memphis Airport to get their car. I got back about 8pm. It was good to get back. We had a blast and made a wonderful memory.

Yum

After I found out UK had indeed gotten the number one seed in the NCAA tournament and would be playing in Louisville, I starting trolling around for tickets. I found out I could some lower arena seats at a reasonable price. I talked to Josh and he was all for it. Jonathan had a mid-term in one of his classes and couldn't go. I bought two tickets and got a hotel room outside of Louisville on I-64 and Josh agreed to meet me there.

I had no trouble getting there. Josh met me after work at the hotel and we headed out. There was a Zaxby's about a mile away so we decided to get food from there. It was OK but it wasn't up to the usual Zaxby's quality. The chicken strips were smaller than usual. We ate as we drove to the Yum Center where the game would be played. We ran into a little traffic on the way there but nothing terrible.

I had scouted out a parking lot but upon arriving, we found it would be 20 to park. One block further away (at the Louisville Slugger baseball stadium) it was only 10.00 so we parked there. We had plenty of time so we walked around. We went down to the Ohio river shore and then walked to 4th Street Live. Josh had visited that area several years ago on a school trip. He was heartbroken to find a place in the food court where he'd gotten good breadsticks was gone. As we exited, we could see dark clouds and some lighting. The began to really pick up so we ran for the Yum Center.

The Yum Center is the new basketball arena in downtown Louisville where the Louisville Cardinals play. I wanted to see how this new place looked. As we got close there was a huge crowd trying to get in and beat the storm. They only had a few doors to come in to. We managed to squeeze in seconds before a downpour started. It was still jampacked inside. There was one escalator and two sets of stairs to get up which created another bottleneck. We finally got up to the seating level. It's a pretty nice new looking stadium but honestly I wasn't very impressed. I am biased but I like at Rupp how you actually are inside while waiting in line to have your ticket scanned. There are also are a lot more lines to get in there.

The seats were excellent. The stadium was full of Blue of course with a few Western fans sprinkled around. UK jumped out to a 10 point lead then let Western catch up. They didn't play really well but finally generated a run to go up by 19 at the half. Kentucky roared out to 30 point advantage but let up several in the last 5 minutes to win by 15. They still looked very good though. We decided to stay and watch part of the Iowa State-Connecticut game. I was really concerned about UConn because I thought they had the talent to hang with UK. My fears were unfounded. They looked terrible and as if they didn't care at all. They got down 20 in the fist half.

We left with a few minutes to go in the first half. We had no problems getting back to our car and no problems getting out and back to the hotel. We stopped and got a Frosty at Wendy's just like old times. I watched ISU finish off UConn. Josh drove back to Lexington and I went to bed. We had a thorougly enjoyable time.

Final Four!

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...

Franklin..

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..

Date Night..

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...

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".

Kentucky Wildcats

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)

Coach Cal

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.

Flatcats...

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

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

Random Points

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

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

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

UK Mildcats

I just watched UK lose their third game in a row and second on their home court. They just look like they have no fire and don't play defense. It's a rare occurrence to see them get an offensive rebound.

In the game tonight, they let Mississippi State hit 14 three point shots. A lot of them were long shots. However, you have to realize "Hey, they are hitting long threes, why don't we guard them". Against South Carolina, they let a 5 ft 9 guard eat them alive and hit the game winning shot. If Meeks and Patterson don't score 50 points between them, they simply cannot win.

Now they enter a stretch where they play Florida twice, Arkansas, LSU, and Tennessee. It isn't going to get any better.

I wonder if all those people screaming for Tubby Smith to leave regret that now.

The Mildcats...

Well there goes all my optimism for the UK basketball season...

You'd think after the Gardner-Webb debacle of last year that UK wouldn't take anybody lightly again. Well tonight proved that wrong.

Kentucky lost their home opener to Virginia Military Institute. Not Virginia or Virginia Tech mind you... A military college with 1500 students. They gave up 111 points. They were down 83-60 at one point and actually managed to take the lead but then committed a bunch of silly turnovers and ceased to play defense (again).

1. Billy Gillespie, could you please look like you care?

2. Patrick Patterson, a player who thinks he'll be ready for the NBA next year has got to put up a better line than 8 points and 7 rebounds. There were several times in the last few minutes when we desperately needed a rebound and someone who thinks he is an NBA caliber player has to get those.

3. A starting point guard (Micheal Porter) cannot put up a line of 1 assist and 5 turnovers.

And it only gets better with a game at No. 1 North Carolina next week....