Oct 26

Cross Country is over!

This is actually a photo from an earlier XX meet in Topeka where Sam was actually competing against his cousin- Jay.

Saturday the varsity boys competed in the regional cross country meet at Milford Lake (of all places). They competed against 9 schools (I think) and the top 3 qualified for state. Unfortunately our guys came in 4th- falling 28 points short of the third place team. 2 of our boys and 1 of our girls qualified individually for state but this means Sam's season is done. Sam is disappointed, of course. He finished 6th on the team (top 5 count) and I think with some time everyone has realized that it would have required every team member to do much better than they did to make up those 28 points. Anyway, it was a good season!

Max and I ran over to the KSU/OU game, which started at 11:30 due to TV. I felt that it would be a blowout which it eventually was but for a moment when K-State scored two touchdown's to tie the score at 28-28, I thought something special could happen. Then reality set back in....hard. Half time score was 55-28 and final score was 58-35. Of course our coaches were stressing the 500+ yds, special teams play and the 35 points scored not the 4 major turnovers, the catholic defense- (Holy), OU's 600 yrds and 58 points scored on them. Guess we kind of knew it would be a long year. Next weekend K-State plays KU in Manhattan, which after KU got blown out this weekend by Texas Tech might be a good game. ? Back to being cellar-dwellers.

JCHS football remained undefeated (8-0) Friday night with a win over Topeka High. It was 29-3 at half time I think so that took a lot of pressure off. Manhattan (7-1) had another win also so this Friday night's meeting will probably be something special esp. with it being Halloween and all.

Molly went out to a bday party last night. Kind of scary now that all of her gang is turning 16 & driving & all. For some reason I worry a lot more about her than Sam. May be a father/daughter thing. Her more frequent use of the car is starting to cause some probs.

Later

The peep peep girls from Music Man

Oct 23

Hey all!
I think the last time I sent an email was 10/5 so I'll try and update you on what's been going on since then.

The second week of October was the finale of Molly's tennis season. On Monday they played the league tourney with the regional tourney on Thursday. Molly did ok in both events- winning some but unfortunately losing more. The JCHS team only had two senior girls playing #1 doubles qualify for state. Overall a good experience with good improvement in play quality. She hopes to play #1 doubles next year as the #1 singles competition is pretty brutal! While she had some success, I think she's glad to have tennis overwith. Back to gym.

I was in KC for the state insurance convention also that week. It was fun as usual with golf at Deer Creek on Wed followed by meetings on Thu & Fri. I finally broke down and bought an used (new to me) driver- a Taylormade F5 with a club head the size of a soccer ball (or so it feels) & I was really happy with the way I hit it. Now if I could only drive, chip and putt, I would be a pretty good golfer. Alice came up Thursday night for the annual Past President's dinner, which was lots of fun plus she then got to do some shopping with Mary and Lucy on Friday.

Sam ran cross country on the 11th in El Dorado improving on his time from last year & I think finishing 68th (?) out of 200. The varsity boys got 3rd place overall.

We were closed on Columbus Day, which always feels to me like a fake holiday. Think the government wanted a holiday per month and Columbus was the only excuse they could find. Our agency goal is to be closed as often as the banks are. Unfortunately I celebrated CD by having two teeth pulled. Each one was conveniently on it's own side of my mouth so no matter what I ate, it hurt.

Last week I had 2 more days of insurance meetings; this time with the Ks Assoc of Ins Co's mtg that I had to attend as part of my board of director's responsibilities. I found it ironic that they met at the Prairie Band Casino north of Topeka- the risk managers at a risky place. It was ok.

Sam made his official K-State visit on the 14th. He is already pretty familiar with the campus and the Engineering school as he attended one of their summer camps last year. He did get a chance to talk to a Chem Eng professor, current students & admissions said he's likely eligible for a full ride so that was helpful. Think he's still thinking Purdue, Illinois, then K-State but at this point he's just applying; we'll see what scholarships, if any, will be offered and then make a decision.

Last Friday we had 25 cross country members & coaches at the house for spagetti. This is team tradition before the league meet. Alice used every pot she had and borrowed a few more to make spagetti for that many. A week later (almost) I am getting sick of eating what was left over. Saturday we went to Emporia for xx then back to Manhattan for Sam & Molly to participate in K-State's band competition. Talk about a long day! Alice & I didn't have to go to the band competition (thank goodness) but we did go out and work another deployment canteen for 300 soldiers heading to Afghanstan as advisors. Was suprised that a good portion of these soldiers were in the Navy. I think the current cookies-distributed count is at 140,000 this year.

Saturday night Doug and Kathy rolled in so they could see Mom's performance in the Music Man in our newly renovated Opera House on Sunday. She & the cast did great but after 3 months of rehearsals and 6 performances, they all were ready to have it overwith. Mom's role as a "peep" lady was hilarious and she really hammed it up! It was well done and the Opera House is just fantastic.

This has been a pretty normal week, which I haven't seen in a while. Marysville Mutual had a board meeting Wed and I had a ins assoc committee mtg & golf. (Got it in before weather went bad) Junction City Football remains undefeated (7-0) by beating Washburn Rural last Friday 14-13 in double OT. They should get by Topeka High this Friday followed by the big showdown with Manhattan (6-1) on Halloween night. S

This Saturday we're still trying to figure out how to go to KSU/OU game at 11:30 and Sam's regional xx meet at 2. Seems like the schedulers have absolutely no concern for other than their own events. Of course, it's very realistic to assume that the KSU/OU game will be well determined by half time anyway.

That pretty much brings you up to date.
Later
Scott

Welcome All!

Hi All,
Thought I would experiment with a Blog to see if this might work better than the ocassional emails I have been sending out. Figure I can periodicly update this and then you can jump in at your convenience to see what's going on in our world. Of course the additional advantage is that you can respond directly to the blog and let everyone see your thoughts too. Whether any of this is good or not, we will determine together.

It's too late tonight to really do an entry but I'll pop back in here and give you all an update soon.
Scott