My AC Died, Summer's Over, and Football's Back: A Perfect Storm of Sunday Shenanigans

It's a relaxing Sunday morning, and a perfect time to catch up on a few things.

Speaking of catching up, our AC decided to take a break on Friday. Not ideal! But we have someone coming to check it out on Monday. Hopefully it's a simple fix like refilling the freon.

Can't believe how fast summer is flying by! It feels like just yesterday school was out and the season began. Now, fall is right around the corner with another semester starting soon.

By the way, you might notice some ads back on the site. My web host fixed a security certificate issue, and that got the ads up and running again. I apologize for any pop-ups, but with over 1,000 weekly visitors, it helps keep the blog going.

Speaking of keeping things going, NFL preseason is underway! I always enjoy fantasy football drafts, and I have my next one coming up on August 26th. Carrie, on the other hand, prefers the live game experience. Luckily, NFL Sunday Ticket lets me catch all the action on YouTube TV.

And for some local excitement, Washburn football kicks off the season on August 29th! The first home game is September 14th against Colorado School of Mines. It'll be fun to be back at the stadium for tailgating and cheering on the team.

That's all for this Sunday morning ramble. Time to catch the Royals game! Have a great week, everyone!

Semester Starting with What to Watch and Discussion of Sports, Teams, and Excitement as we Head into the End of January 2021

 

Semester Starting

I find it hard to believe another semester is starting. A year ago at this time, I was preparing to start my last semester before graduation. Wow! Time has flown but it does feel good to not have to worry about reading textbooks, posting discussions, or writing papers. I know some students have already started their semester and others are preparing to start. It is going to be another unusual semester for many doing their coursework remote for at least part of the semester if not all of the semester for others. Have a great semester and be sure to reach out for assistance from your instructors if you need help.

What to Watch

During the break and throughout the fall, it feels as though Carrie and I have watched just about everything that is available to watch. A few highlights from our watch history on recommendations if you have not watched them yet. I do plan to do a future post with a full listing, but these are some highlights that were finished recently and worth noting. The following is in no particular order, I will leave a future post to show top rankings for shows to watch.

• The Mandalorian was a show Carrie and I started back in the spring. I enjoyed it, but Carrie was not much of a fan of the show. I finished it out recently finishing season 1 and 2. If you like Star Wars, I would highly recommend The Mandalorian.
• Letterkenny is a show Carrie had heard about and we started watching. There are a number of seasons. Set in Canada focusing on a rural town, the interactions between the characters are funny and worth watching. Fast paced and packed with wit it is worth watching.
• Queen’s Gambit was truly amazing. I have no idea how to play Chess, but the show was easy to follow and fun to cheer on the main character. 
• Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist is another new show we just started watching. The show recently started the second season and we just finished season one. This show does have singing and dancing, but they do a fantastic job with the show and the music is excellent where I found myself signing along to popular songs in the show.
• Perry Mason on HBOMax was fantastic. The show finished their second season and we have been watching from the beginning. One of the best shows depicting Perry Mason I have seen.

Those are just a few of the sampling of shows Carrie and I have been watching. Worth checking out if you have not done so yet. 

Sports, Teams, and Excitement

Following the Washburn Ichabods basketball team has been fun this season. Last year, Greg and I had season tickets to Washburn games and with that not being an option this year, I decided to buy a season pass so I could watch Washburn basketball. The Ichabods are 10 - 1 on the season only recently losing their first game of the season where we were ranked #5 in the country. I look forward to listening, or watching, to every game we play this season and I look forward to watching the remaining games.

The Kansas Jayhawks basketball team continues to be games I will not miss. This team has been different from past teams where we struggle at times, we have lost at home, and at times there does not seem to be a leader on the team. Still, I enjoy watching the games and cheering them on whether in my family room cheering on the television or tweeting about them. We did recently have our game on Saturday, January 16 postponed due to COVID which I believe was from the opposing team. Three out of five games in the Big 12 scheduled for Saturday, January 16 were postponed all of which were from COVID related issues. We can only hope that this trend does not continue with COVID and games being postponed or canceled. Having nationally televised games helps to make these unusual times seem normal, so we can only hope the games can continue and do so safely.

The Kansas City Chiefs start the postseason today playing in the playoffs. With Patrick Mahomes guiding the team, I am looking forward to a fun postseason. Overall, the regular season was fun; we had a tendency to get a lead and let the other team back into the game. In the postseason games, I want to see us stick with what is working in the game (i.e. passing) and keep doing what we do best to get us points. Go Chiefs!

Great End to January

Have a great end to the first month of 2021! Those starting their new semester have a great semester. If you need some relief from studying, be sure to check out some of the recommended shows. I would love to hear from you on your recommended shows. Go Washburn Ichabods, Kansas Jayhawks, and Kansas City Chiefs! Have a wonderful finish to week and I will talk to you again next week.

What a Fall.... Recap and New Long Post

Well, as I mentioned, it has been a while since I really posted anything to my blog. What is a blog if I never write anything. I know..... it is just empty space that is out-of-date. Perfect! That's what I have here.

Well, as you start looking around the site trying to find content, you will see that the forums no longer work either. I have not had the time, or motivation, to work to resolve that problem. I would like to have another forum on my site, but it is just not that important right now. So, anyone looking for the forums are getting a page with a error message. I did fix up the photo gallery a while back and I am happy with how it turned out. Everything else, well, has just been the same for the past

two something years. Great!

OK, no on to my update which I have been meaning to do for sometime now. The last time I posted anything meaningful to this blog was back in August. I recapped what had happened over the Summer. I spoke a lot regarding my golf game. Well, my golf game basically stopped in late July. My elbow was hurting so much that it forced me to go to the doctor. I had it checked out and then had to go to physical therapy (PT). After all of the PT, I have not played any golf. I missed it a lot, but hope to be able to get back out to play in the Spring. Granted, we have had a lot of good days recently that I should have been playing, but Carrie and I have had something to do every weekend in October.

The Fall semester started back in August. It was a fun start to the semester with a major upgrade at work. We upgraded MyWashburn and our email systems. This caused a few weeks of tense times at work, but it eventually was resolved. We are running on the new version of MyWashburn, but our email system is still running on old hardware. The good news is that with this new upgrade, my Blackberry syncs with email (read, deleted, and moved) as well as with the calendar system. It is very nice! I am hoping to be able to keep it for years to come as it does cost money to use the service.

September was a busy month... in fact, the next two months were extremely busy! Carrie and I were on the go both September and October. It was a fun kind of busy though, so we did not complain. September we had football games just about every weekend for Washburn. I think during the course of the season I only missed about one game which was the first one of the season. We made it to all the rest.

The other big news for September was that my friend, Javier, came back from Costa Rica. He came back on Wednesday, September 23. Brenda, Cheri, Eileen, Carrie, and I rented a limo to pick him up from the airport. It was great! He was completely surprised and we all had a great time! We drank the whole way there, the whole way back, and into the evening. The good news was that I took the next day off of work to run errands with Javier. (Carrie's idea and it was a good one!) We have had Javier living with us while he is renting out his house and trying to sell it since September 23. We are having fun and he is also helping us to eat healthier as well as motivation to work out. His mother is coming to live with us on November 13 for three weeks for Thanksgiving which will be fun. Carrie and I will be gone during some of that time though traveling to Law Vegas, but we are looking forward to having her with us. I know Javi will enjoy it too!

The first part of October brought the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in Helena, Arkansas. It was a great time! Of course I drank a lot and ate too much, but it was fun! A lot of great music and it is always fun to see everyone each year. Chad and I went down this year while Corrie and Carrie had fun in Houston. Yes, Carrie bought purses (notice plural)! Oh well.... There were many great bands. We did have a nice day on Thursday. Friday was rainy and cold... Saturday was just cold! It was a great time though and I enjoyed it once again. I believe this was my 5th year to attend the festival and I am already looking forward to next year! I am hoping that next year, Carrie and Corrie are able to make it. I have only been to the festival once with Carrie. I know she has a great time in Houston with Corrie, but it would be good to go to the festival again with her.

November Carrie and I will be heading to Las Vegas. This is our forth time to Vegas. We are looking forward to it. We will be meeting Chad and Corrie there for the second time. We can hardly wait! We leave Thursday, November 19 and return Tuesday, November 24. We both work one day and then of course there is Thanksgiving on the 26 and 27. We planned it that way! We will be doing some gambling, but not a whole lot. We usually split up $100 or so between the two of us and gamble with it until it is done... Or until Carrie doubles her money and pockets the first part she started with. Me, I usually go through everything we start with and then I watch her play. Gulp! We will be going to a show, but we are not sure which one yet. We got our hotel rooms for really cheap, but not as cheap as what Chad and Corrie got theirs at. They stayed at the place before, so they get member benefits. Oh well!

The football season is starting to end. The Kansas Jayhawks were not anywhere close to what they were hyped at doing this year. We have lost four straight with the most recent last weekend against Kansas State. Reesing has not looked good at all for the past four games and we are on a bad slide. Doubtful we will win any of our last three remaining games with as bad as they are playing and it does not look like any bowl games are in the works for KU this season. I have heard rumors that Mangino might be on his way out. Funny how he does so good for so many years and then he has one bad year... they want to get rid of him. Geez!

The Washburn football team was alright this year. Not great, but not bad. They missed out on playing in a bowl game as well. Their season is done and now we start basketball. Javier and I need to get to some Washburn basketball games this season. I still want to go to a volleyball game, but we never seem to start looking at those until it is too late.

Well, that is a long recap of what has occurred the last few months. Again, I am going to try and update this more often. If nothing else, than with a short message to say where I am at. Have a great rest of the week and I will chat with you later....