Hawks Bounce Back to Action

The Kansas Jayhawks bounced back to their look and feel we have come to know and love this season.  After a not so hot performance last weekend against Colorado, tonight, they stepped it up against Missouri.  They had bounce in their steps and lit it up against the Missouri Tigers.  Great job tonight Kansas!  Lets keep it one game at a time and march our way into tourney time!

 

On other notes, Bob Knight stepped down as the head coach for Texas Tech.  He is letting his son take the helm and he stepped down after 900 wins.  He was fun to watch and have in the Big Twelve.  He will be missed as a coach for college basketball.  It will be interesting to see what happens for Knights retirement.  He has definitely entertained and worked himself into legendary status.  Thanks Coach Knight for the memories!

Bad Weekend for K-State Too

Kansas State did not have a good weekend of basketball either. I was able to watch the first half of the game and grew concerned when Michael Beasley went out of the game for a few minutes with a bad ankle. He came back into the game later in the second half which I was relieved to see. Now you might be wondering why I would care if Beasley is out of the game. Well, the reason is simple. When March comes I want Kansas State to be a full force so there are no excuses when they play Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. I want all the players present and no excuses.

This does lead me to another thought that I have discussed with Kansas fans and Kansas State fans a like. I find it interesting how it seems that Kansas State fans want KU to lose no matter what. Whether we are playing another Big Twelve school or out of our conference. They simply want Kansas to lose. Why is it that KSU fans have this mentality? When Kansas State plays other non-Big Twelve teams I pull for Kansas State. Overall, it helps all Big Twelve schools if all Big Twelve teams succeed. This includes Missouri! The one team I dislike in all of the Big Twelve is Missouri. However, I still cheer for them when they are playing a non-Big Twelve team. In talking to other fans I do not hear this from them when those fans follow other teams from Kansas State.

I know parents, friends, and general posting I read on boards where Kansas State fans simply want Kansas to fail. No matter what sport and no matter who they are playing. It makes me wonder why there is so much hatred toward Kansas from Kansas State fans.

OK, so I am generalizing and this obviously does not cover every KSU fan out there. I know that the majority that I have talked to this has been their mentality towards Kansas.

For that, I say go Kansas State and get into the NCAA Tourney!

Monday Thinking Back to the Past Weekend

Another weekend down and we move into the first week of February. Wow! Hard to believe that it is already February. Carrie and I are trying to decide on an additional vacation possibility, but it would mean not doing some other things. Decisions need to be made so we can let our friends know our plans.

Our vacation plans are not what this post is all about. No, this post is about the weekend, sports, and having fun. Friday night was After Hours at Washburn University which is a great even that our Alumni Association puts on here at Washburn. To attend, you do not have to have gone to Washburn or work there. It is open to anyone and it is a lot of fun events. The first Friday of each month (usually) is After Hours. Free food, beverages, and fun with people from all over Topeka takes place here.

This Friday I had lunch with a longtime friend Shayne. I told him that in the evening we were going to After Hours. He and his wife, Autumn, decided to attend. They might just join to be paid members after the fun we had Friday night. Susie kicked us out shortly after 7 when the event ended. Carrie and I invited people to our house for snacks and drinks. We ended up playing games and had a great time. Some of us drank a little too much and we were hurting Saturday morning.

Saturday morning I had plans to go into work and do some serious work. Well, I did make it into work, but my serious work did not materialize until Sunday around 11. I went into work and checked e-mail, browsed web sites, and then went to lunch. I took a three hour nap in the afternoon so I could be ready for Brenda's b-day party that night.

Carrie and I got over to Brenda's a little later than we had expected. We were sitting having a good time when our good friends that we do not see often enough knocked on the door. Brian and Kim came to Brenda's party. It was great to see everyone! We played Guitar Hero II which is becoming a common event for us at gatherings. Some of the people at the party did not seem to like that we were playing Guitar Hero, but it was the birthday girls wish to play the game at her party. We had to grant her wish!

Great time at Brenda Beans! We ended the night after playing some tennis on PlayStation. Fun night and Brenda was another day older. Poor Brenda!

Sunday I finally made it into work and got a lot completed. I worked from 11 - 1:30 and was ready for the week. With work behind me I went home to watch the Jayhawks barely squeak by the Colorado Buffalos. Wow! KU almost lost that game and talk about not being in sync throughout the game, they did not look good at all. Now, I admit that I feel asleep during the first half and part of the second, but I did wake up in time to see the last minute of the game. I then quickly fell asleep again. As I write this I believe the game was actually on Saturday when I am saying Sunday. As you can clearly see, I am mixing up my days from the weekend. It was a relaxing weekend, but also stressful knowing that I had to finish up evaluations for a deadline.

Sunday was a great night for NFL football. It was the best Super Bowl I have ever seen. I was not really pulling for either team, but come the end of the game I was cheering loudly for the Giants. They pulled out a huge game and made Tom Brady eat his words from a previous interview that week. Making a comment joking that someone said he would not score over 17 points in the game. He laughed and told the reporter that was crazy and it should have been something more like 40+ points that he would score. Well, the joke was on him and the Patriots. Still, it was a great game and a fun one to watch.

So, it was a fun weekend and also a stressful one. I am already looking forward to next weekend! Have a great one yourself and until next time...

Wednesday Night Woes for Kansas... Huge Win for Kansas State!

What a game! Well, at least for Kansas State it was a hell of a game. They did exactly what they need to do in order to take care of business and put away the 20-0 Kansas Jayhawks. Beasley and Walker did what they need to do with not getting into foul trouble and finished off KU for the first time at home in 24 straight at home in Manhattan. Michael Beasley got one part right with stating:

"We're going to beat Kansas at home! We're going to beat them in their house! We're going to beat them in Africa!"

Well, at least the first right so far. It is too early to tell about the second part. Bill Walker simply stated straight and to the point that

I'll predict it.

I'm not scared to say it.

I'm a man. I can live up to my words.

I'm saying we'll beat'em both places.

Well, so far they have lived up to those statements in the first game located in Manhattan. Beasley and Walker combined for 47 points.

The Jayhawks never got into sync in this game and K-State was definitely pumped up for this game. I certainly thought they would be and had a discussion with KSU fans at work about this game. For some reason the KSU fans I spoke to did not think that this was a big game for KSU. Well, tell that to the fans in Manhattan that stormed the court and reacted like they had just won the national championship. When I told the KSU fans that I thought it was the best chance to beat the Jayhawks they came back with the fact that KSU beat KU two years ago. They thought that Walker and Beasley would both be in foul trouble and it would be a lose. Wrong! Beasley did not get his first foul until well into the second half. K-State put on a game all the way around. The only spot that did not shine for KSU was their foul shooting.

Kansas State moves to 5 - 0 while Kansas goes to 5 - 1 in the Big Twelve. It is going to be a lot of fun in February and lets not forget March or the first part of April. Geez, before we know it we are going to be in the midst of March Madness and the Final Four will be here.

Good game tonight Cats! We will see you again in Lawrence on March 1 at 8 pm.

Big Wednesday!

You have heard of Big Monday, what we have coming up Wednesday will be Big Wednesday when in-state rivals Kansas State University faces #2 Kansas in Manhattan. The game is going to be huge because of the talent that K-State possesses. On the other hand, Kansas is going to be tough because they are sitting at 20-0 on the season with only one other team (Memphis) being unbeaten this far.

Michael Beasley was a menace in his last game scoring high numbers in just a few minutes of play. Will he be able to help guide the Wildcats to a win over a power house coming into Manhattan? Time will of course only tell. We know that Kansas has gone on a winning streak over KSU for the past twenty plus years. We also know that it cannot last forever. I for one do not want it to end this year against KSU with Michael Beasley or Walker. So time will tell.

Lets go Hawks!

Friday Night Party, Hockey, and Dancing

For a week that started off with a fire at work the second day of classes (Wednesday), a system not working correctly on Friday, the week ended great Friday night. It was a hectic week and extremely busy at work. However, Friday night definitely helped to relax and meld away the problems of the week.

Yes, we had a fire which was caused by a fuse blowing in our mechanical room. This happened sometime around 7 am Wednesday morning. This was the second day of classes and not a good start to the day or the semester. Our entire machine room (i.e. the campus) was off of the network for about three hours. Finally around 11 am we had partial systems back and before long our network administrators had most everything back on-line before early afternoon. Meanwhile, we were handling the calls and complaints coming in from the campus. Keep in mind that no one had Internet access on the campus. So, everyone was relying on the use of the phone or personal visits. Fun stuff! For the problems that were caused by the fire, the department handled everything in stride and got things going smoothly again. We received a number of thank yous from the campus the following day. Very nice!

Friday morning was not much better with another system that was not working correctly. The system just so happens to be the one that allows employees to do their time sheets, students to register/drop/etc. classes, and a variety of other functions. This caused a lot of phone calls until about shortly after the noon hour Friday. For the day, we took a total of just shy of 100 calls. Now, that might not sound like a lot, but for a call center that averages around 30 a day, that is a lot for us.

My plan for this past week was to work on a lot of projects including writing up performance evaluations. All of that was put on hold until this next week. I did end up working late Thursday night so I could finish up some projects that were due Friday. Good thing I did work late Thursday night because I would not have been able to worked on those items Friday.

So my Friday night started with me requesting the students to leave the lab so I could close down the lab. Carrie and I were to meet our friends at the Expo Center for a Republican party... we were mainly going to drink free alcohol. I was very stressed out from the week, but who can pass up alcohol. We were only able to enjoy the party for about an hour. We were then ready to head to the Topeka RoadRunners hockey game. We had a blast!

The game was exciting enough with the Roadrunners winning 5 - 2 (or something around there). There of course was a fight with some blood, but that's not what this blog is about. This blog is about me dancing between quarters at 60s disco night.

I volunteered under the understanding that I had heard someone shout that it was couples dancing. I thought Carrie and I were going to dance together and then get voted on... No! It was individual dancing to 60s music. As you can imagine, I was hesitant at going through without, but by that time I had already signed the waiver. In case you were wondering, the waiver is so that if I fall on the ice and break a limb, I do not hold the Expo Center accountable. After signing my life away, I got up to follow the event staff to my dancing endeavor. While walking in front of my friends, I told them I thought it was couples dancing and they just laughed. I continued following the event staff to the location down by the ice. While standing waiting for our time to go on the ice two little girls and a little boy with a 60s outfit came down to be included in the dancing. Another contestant and I looked at each other and said it was all over, we already know who is going to win. Sure enough the little kid with the 60s outfit won the event. No, I did not give up right there and go back to my seat, instead I did my dancing and strutted my best 60s moves on the ice.

My moves included the moon walk, lawn mower, and do not forget the sprinkler. I did in fact get a good applause at my dancing. We only had to dance for thirty seconds and with the spotlight it was difficult to see the audience. My friends got a good video of the dancing which I will hopefully get a copy of from them to post on here. It was a lot of fun, but the kicker of it was that our price for performing was a ice cream from a local store. Gee, thanks! I am not sure what the little kid won for winning the whole evening, but hopefully it was a banana split or something a little bigger than a ice cream.

I had a lot of fun and it did definitely help to improve my mood going into Saturday. Afterwards, we went to a new spot here in Topeka called Henry T's. If the name sounds familiar to those of you from Lawrence, it should. It is owned by the same people that own Henry T's in Lawrence. Great food and a great time there too.

Have a great weekend and try to have as much fun as me!

Hamilton Loomis Saturday Night in Topeka Kansas

Wow! What a show! Hamilton Loomis put on a great show! He went on stage around 8:45 and played three sets. We left the place around 1:30 in the morning after he finished his last set. It was a great time!

Hamilton and his band had great sound as well as a good feel with the audience. At one point walking out into the audience standing on the tables and playing his guitar.

If they can get him to the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival in October, I think he would be a great fit. A Friday act would work out great for him and the festival. His interaction with the crowd was like a seasoned veteran of the stage. He wore a wireless mic and would definitely be a "walker" at the festival.

He played three sets and everyone enjoyed the performance. The drummer was really good too! Fun to watch and definitely did a great job on the drums.

The band was recommended by Uncle Tommy from Texas and I know why he likes Hamilton Loomis so much... Uncle Tommy use to be a drummer and this drummer was good!

Going back to the "walker" comment. This is one of my favorite parts about working the festival. I have worked the festival the past two years and typically there are at least a couple of the musicians than like to walk through the crowd. Thus, I get to guide them through the crowd making sure that they get through safely and then return them back to the stage. I can definitely see Hamilton wanting to walk the crowd.

I would highly recommend if you get the chance to check out Hamilton Loomis. Great songs, great performer, and a great time!

Today I find myself relaxing watching movie, playing on the Internet, and trying to get over a hang over from the night before. To check out all pictures from Hamilton Loomis, check out my Flickr page.