Spent Christmas day in Wichita, not doing a whole lot. Gotta tell you, now that my son is grown Christmas just isn’t the same. Maybe I need to have a couple more kids. Or maybe not.
Anyway, now I’m off to Houston for the Texas Bowl on Thursday night. Should be fun. I’m not a fan of college football bowl games for a number of reasons _ first and foremost being that there should be a playoff. But as bowl games go, this is a pretty interesting one. I don’t know whether K-State can hold down the Rutgers running game, but that will be the pressing issue for the Wildcats.
I haven’t spent a lot of time in Houston in my life. So I’m looking forward to seeing the city. I’ve been there, but only in and out.
Will be back Friday and there’s a big Shocker game Saturday night against Northern Iowa. Looking forward to that one. Busy time for a sports columnist, but enjoyable.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. I’ll be writing more from Houston. There are a ton of movies I want to see. Maybe I’ll have time for one when I’m in Texas. But don’t tell my bosses.
What a place. My taxi driver drove 75 miles per hour to the hotel and was flipped off twice by other drivers. I was here just two years ago and the place doesn’t even look the same.
Exciting. I love casinos, though I’m staying away from them on this trip. I promise. I didn’t even bring much money. I’m here to work, people. This isn’t fun and games.
As for work, the Shockers weren’t so hot tonight. Wonder what the mood of Wichita will be after the loss to New Mexico. You tell me. That’s what you’re here for. Or there for. Or wherever you are.
I’m not too happy about not getting to see a Wichita State-Kansas State game in this Las Vegas Classic. I have to tell you, as I wrote in my column for tomorrow, I’m not so sure the Shockers would want anything to do with K-State. Bill Walker is a man and he makes a huge difference for the Wildcats.
Don’t be too disappointed with the Shockers. They’ll bounce back. But they have some things they need to figure out.
Take care and Merry Christmas. I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.
First of all, Merry Christmas to all you bloggers. I get a lot of comments on this blog and I appreciate every one of them. Sometimes I tend to ignore this endeavor and I shouldn’t. I know a lot of you who read this, because you tell me. So one of my New Year’s resolutions is to be better about posting. It’s just that I’m so freaking boring.
Anyway, with Christmas approaching, I was thinking about my childhood memories of the holiday. We would usually have relatives over to the house and exchange gag gifts first, then the real gifts. I was young and impressionable, but it was so much fun. For a while there, I had a pretty large family.
Now I really don’t. It’s me and my son, pretty much. And my son is in Ohio, visiting his mother. Dang, this is making me sad.
Anyway, I have great memories of Christmas, always one of my favorite holidays. I hope you have a great time during this holiday. As for me, I’m on the road.
Take care.
Have a couple of Christmas parties the next two days, then I’m off for Las Vegas to cover the Shockers. Pretty fun way to spend the holidays, if you ask me. It’s fun to write about a really good basketball team, so as a sportswriter this is something you don’t take for granted.
After Vegas, I’m home for Christmas and then headed to Houston to cover Kansas State and Rutgers in the Texas Bowl. I’m not a big fan of the quantity of bowl games; it’s ridiculous for 6-6 and 7-5 teams to get a chance to extend their seasons. But this is a pretty attractive matchup, even if K-State is 7-5.
After that, I’m home for a couple of days. There’s the Northern Iowa game at Wichita State to open the Missouri Valley Conference season. Then the Shockers go to Carbondale, Ill., to face Southern Illinois. I’m going on that trip, too.
Busy times, but fun.
And, of course, there’s the new season of 24 coming in mid-January. And, yes, American Idol will be back, then, too.
I don’t make it to as many movies now for some reason. Maybe because my movie partner isn’t around. But there are a lot of them out there I would like to get to.
So, bloggers, make your suggestions. Tell me what you’ve seen and what you like. And when work calms down a little bit, I’ll get out there and see some, too.
I never took singing lessons and I’m certainly not going to tell you I’m any great shakes when it comes to my vocal ability. But I have to tell you, I do love to sing. And last night, I actually went to do some karaoke.
Karaoke, to hear some tell it, is the biggest threat to our freedom. Many people can’t stand it and I can understand that sentiment, I suppose. Karaoke singers are, for the most part, bad. And they think they’re good, which only makes them worse. Or more pitiful.
Get a couple of beers in me and my hearing is affected, as well as my vision. But that’s another story.
Anyway, I like it. I sang a few Eagles songs, of course: Witchy Woman; Peaceful, Easy Feeling; Hotel California; Rocky Mountain Way (I know, technically that’s a Joe Walsh song). I had a few friends along for support, which is a key element of any karaoke effort. Friends provide even more nerve than a shot of tequila.
OK, enough for now. Off to the Shockers where I won’t be singing the National Anthem before the game.
It’s my new favorite television show. I think I’m a tough audience when it comes to comedy, but this show does it to me every time.
Steve Carrell is unbelievable, but the rest of this ensemble cast is amazing. Especially Rainn Wilson, whom I had never heard of until he took on the role of Dwight Schrute. Sitcoms are difficult to pull off _ especially good ones. This one has supplanted The King of Queens as the best on TV.
I love the new downtown arena, even though it doesn’t yet exist. And it won’t exist until the fall of 2009, they’re now saying. Which is almost a year later than it was expected to open initially.
Oh, and the thing is going to cost about $20 million more than originally advertised.
Cost over-runs are common, but I am bothered by the delay in opening the arena. It was silly for the county and city to spend so much time negotiating with the owners of run-down buildings in the area that need to be torn down to make room for the new building.
But what are you gonna do?
Let’s just hope there are no more arena surprises. As someone who was a strong supporter, I would appreciate smooth sailing the rest of the way.
Went to Wichita’s new wine bar in Old Town last night and I’ve gotta tell you, it’s a nice spot. I’m not a big wine drinker, but the martini’s were excellent and the atmosphere, too.
After having a couple of drinks, I went to see American English, the Beatles-rendition band that travels the country. They played at the Orpheum and it was absolutely great. Love the Beatles _ then again, who doesn’t? It was interesting because not only does this band sound like the Beatles, and look like the Beatles, their guitars and amplifiers and drums are straight out of that era. The guy who plays John even holds his guitar the way John did. And Paul does that little head-shaking thing Paul has always done.
It was a great night.
Some of my WSU friends have a bad feeling about today’s game against Wyoming. Don’t worry, the Shockers will win this one. Wyoming’s strength is its guard play _ the Cowboys get almost all of their scoring from their backcourt. And the Shockers are at deep as guard as any team in the country.
P.J. Couilsinard will draw one of the difficult defensive assignments today and Karon Bradley will probably get more minutes because of his defense. But please, Karon, don’t force shots. Please, please, please.
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