Tribute to a Great Tennessean

As a woman, a Tennessean, and a lover of basketball, this video is a must-watch. It was shown at the ESPN ESPY awards last night. Even if you don't fall into any of those categories, I highly recommend you take a few minutes to watch, too.


Pat Head Summit is one of the most inspirational people of this generation, and she's prepared to tackle Alzheimer's with the same fire and passion that she's had in coaching. If her track record as a champion and one who overcomes is any indication of how she will fare, I'd say if anyone can fight this disease, she can. I love one of the ending quotes from a former player who comments, "the amount of people that this woman has impacted in women's basketball is nothing to the amount she will impact for the cause of Alzheimer's." Go get 'em, Pat.

On, on U of K

I am too excited to put too much thought into this post in getting ready for the biggest Kentucky game of my life. Yes, I remember the 92 Laetner shot, but I was only 12. I remember the 96 and 98 championships, but I was 15 and 17, respectively. Now I am an adult, UK is my alma mater, and I have much more of a vested interest in the outcome of this game. There are too many stats to quote- like that Anthony Davis won 5 of the 6 major awards given to college basketball players, that we are the winningest college basketball program of all time, that we are 37-2 this season, and went a perfect 16-0 in the SEC, and many more which show just how amazing this season has been.

We re-created the C-A-T-S shot on Saturday night after the Cats beat the Cards in what was one of the most awesome rivalry game ever- seriously, if you haven't read the story about the old men fist fighting in the dialysis clinic, click here to be entertained and amazed at how hardcore the Big Blue Nation is. The quotes are priceless.

(picture)

On Saturday, B was absentmindedly humming the UK fight song during the game. I'm not gonna lie: this was one of my prouder parenting moments! He also knows more of the words than most of the UK student population, I'd wager. (Thank you, UK Chorale, for teaching me the words to sing for the rest of my UK fandom years) Tonight I am hopeful Bradley will go to bed on time so I can watch the game in semi-peace, minus all of the stress I am bound to put on myself.

#8 is within our grasp. Let's Go Big Blue!!!

Catlanta Recap

I am still on a basketball high after my trip with Dad to Atlanta this past weekend to see Kentucky play in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games of the NCAA tournament!  Laura, George, and I surprised dad with tickets to go as an early 60th birthday present.  It was a great trip, and makes me wish I were headed to NOLA this weekend.  Here's the short-ish recap of it all.

The Good:

• Kentucky 102, Indiana 90
• Kentucky 82, Baylor 70
• The parking! Seriously! We bought parking passes online for both days, and the parking garage had walkways directly to the Georgia dome, and the concourse was about as close to our seats as you could get. We drove in and parked, and drove right out after the games both days with minimal game day traffic. I was flabbergasted. (Red parking deck, if you're ever in Atlanta... the Final Four is being held there next year, so I just may be back!)
• Our awesome hosts, family friends, Nathan & Ticia.  Their house is gorgeous, it was only about 20 minutes from downtown, and they made breakfast for us both mornings.  It was great getting to spend time with them.
• As much Cherry Coke as I could drink at the World of Coke taste testing area
• I kept punching dad in the arm, grinning and saying, "Can you believe we're really here?!"  See below for our happy, giddy faces

Can you believe we are at the Sweet 16??!!

The Bad:

• Monsoon rain on the way to the ATL, and heavy traffic on the way back
• Missing the first turn to the Georgia Dome because I was playing "Yeah!" on my iPhone... I had a hankering to hear the "peace up, A-town" and it got us into trouble. Like, an hour-long traffic jam to drive around the block, trouble.
• The "Beverly" drink at the World of Coke... we each tried it in the taste-testing area and watched the next person's face as they sipped it for the first time. When in Italy, don't order a Beverly!
• Within ten minutes of getting into the Georgia Dome, I found out there was no beer being sold (hey, after sitting still in traffic for an hour, you'd want a cold one, too!), I broke my thumb nail all the way down, and the veggie dog that I ordered and was so excited about, they did not have. (Top 5 Vegetarian-Friendly Venue, my Butt!). It was a bad ten minutes. But then I decided that these bad things happen in threes, and so I took that as an omen that we were going to win the game.
• At this point in the season, UK has a lot of enemies. Watching that Louisville- Florida game, I didn't want either team to win. Can't they just give us our national title by default? Okay, so someone had to win, so it might as well have been Louisville.
• Waiting 2 hours (standing) to eat lunch at Taco Mac before Sunday's game.  There were no tables to be had, and then they apparently had two pager #3s, so our name got bypassed.  That food tasted delicious by the time we sat down and scarfed down lunch just barely getting to the Georgia Dome in time for the game.  We also invited 2 other Kentucky fans to sit with us and eat since everyone was short on time and short on places to sit.  The father & son were nice, but we strangely never exchanged names, only stories during our hasty lunch.

NOT drinking a Beverly:  Nathan, Tim, & Dad

The Ugly:

• Baylor's uniforms: As if the highlighter-yellow wasn't bad enough, they went to 11 with their awful Camo uniforms lined in bright yellow
• TAB: Why did Coke ever make this drink? Nathan and I each sampled this one at the World of Coke, and to me, it tasted like flat Coke with more sugar. Not as bad as the Beverly, but seriously Coke, why would you make this?
• While waiting in the hour-long traffic around the Georgia Dome, I searched the internet and played us several "Georgia-inspired" songs. There are many. This helped to calm our nerves while sitting still for way too long. It helped the time to pass, but I'd have preferred not to have wasted this time in the first place. (Stupid me, looking for URsher!)
• My Zoolander Fail Facebook post:  Here's the picture- I thought it said "Magnum" but in reality, the sign said Mangum... DOH!

Spelling FAIL!

 A few other pictures from the weekend:

Posing in front of the Kentucky-Indiana final scoreboard

My favorite time out- complete with the Wildcat sporting a Unibrow

Trying a new Coke product

Dad gets his complimentary bottle of Coke

Anthony Davis, National Player of the Year, shooting a free throw

Cats playing D

The newest game craze: Fatheads

The Three Goggles

Senior Darius Miller holding the net

Father-Daughter bonding time

I guess our family just bleeds blue, and I'm so blessed to have enjoyed this great weekend with my dad and to have gotten to see the Cats play some great basketball and earn another trip to the Final Four.  Dad... you're my dad... and I love you, man!

Bradley's Bracket

I grew up in a household that was basketball crazy.  Every March, we would each fill out our NCAA tournament brackets and post them in the kitchen to compare our picks.  Laura & I used to fight over who got to highlight the winners after each round.

Now the bracket picks legacy has been passed on to Little B.  Mom sat him down and went round by round and asked him who he thought would win between each school mascot.  Check out this winning bracket:

Humorously, he has the Kentucky Wildcats playing the St. Bonaventure Bonnies playing in the national title game.  Let the traditions begin, and let's go Wildcats!

Occupy Memorial

Saturday night was one for the books.  It was one of those spontaneous, hilarious nights that take me back to the good ole' days of the Diva Domain when funny Nashville going-out stories abounded.

I found out Saturday after Zumba class that former Sugar Shack roomie-turned-Nashvillian, Anne, was able to score us free tickets to the Vandy- Kentucky game Saturday night.  Well, to be more accurate, her husband Darren is the one who got the tickets, but he had an out of town bachelor party to attend... so sad... so that left me to go in his place!  I was literally dancing in the door when I found out.  We decided to meet up at her house and ride together, grab a quick bite to eat and a few beers, and then get to Memorial in plenty of time to see the game.  You see, unlike fairweather Vandy fans, we like to come early and stay late.

Anne and I are both the proud owners of the new IPhone 4S. We are also both inept at using said devices expertly to find places to eat near Memorial Gym. We knew we wanted to check out Corner Pub since it was being touted as The Place for Kentucky fans to hang before and during the game. After a long circle of Vanderbilt's campus, and finally employing Siri to help us navigate downtown, we found our destination. While it was impressive to see a bar full of blue, the potential for a seat and any kind of food was lacking. After checking out the small quarters, we decided we would be better off finding another spot to dine before the game. By this time, it was dark, and I was already starting to panic that we wouldn't have time to find a new location, eat, and get to the game on time.

Again, I utilized my iPhone to pull up nearby restaurants, and we settled for Chili's due to its free parking, and close proximity to campus. The place was packed, so after putting our name on the list, we pushed through all the people in the bar to try and get a few drinks while we waited, in hopes that someone would leave and we could take their table in the bar. No such luck. Every person in there it seemed, were doing the same thing we were- killing time before the big game, so nobody was going anywhere any time soon. I pushed up to an open corner of the bar to order drinks in between 2 nice-looking Kentucky fans. After a while, we discovered that a) they were Richie Farmer's cousins {Richie Farmer- a famous UK player from 1992, the team known as The Unforgettables}. They even pulled out their driver's licenses to prove their heritage. Yes, Mikey and Rudy weren't pulling our legs- Their last name was Farmer. And yes, I of course had to start the infamous slow Rudy chant, upon discovering Cousin #1's first name. and b) the second funny thing about these two guys is that they are literally farmers by trade in northern Tennessee. I once knew an attorney who's last name was lawyer and she didn't seem to get as big a kick out of that ironic cooincidence as you might think.

Anne and I had a good ole time at Chili's talking to the Vandy fans behind us, Richie Farmer's cousins at the bar, watching basketball on the big screens, witnessing a near bar-fight between rowdy fans behind us, scarfing down a shared appetizer, and generally getting super-pumped about seeing our beloved #1 ranked Wildcats in action.

About 45 minutes til gametime, we walked over to the gym with Richie Farmer's cousins, and a whole crowd of other people en mass for the game. Our seats were on the second level, towards the back and weren't as close as I would have liked, but hey, at least we were there! I giddily snapped pictures of Coach Cal and the team as they warmed up. There was far too much back and gold in that place for my taste, although we did befriend the Kentucky fans behind us, and would flash each other the "Three Goggles" whenever our team drained one. Anne and I both agreed it was too stressful a game. Watching live, you miss a lot of the details, and there's no benefit of having instant replay or analysis from the commentators when they aren't jabbering about unrelated topics.

It was a close game, but the Wildcats prevailed. It felt good to be able to cheer Kentucky on to a road game win, and after the game we made our way back to the Corner Pub and it was like being transported back to Lexington there was so much blue in that place! For these 2 UK grads it was a fantastic night out in Nashvegas.

Final Fourtune

So I'm a little behind on my blogging, but as we head into April, I must exclaim that March has truly been Madness when it comes to Kentucky Basketball.  We are playing in the Final Four this weekend in Houston for the first time since 1998.  I was 17 the last time the Cats went to the Final Four, and man does that put things into perspective!  I had no idea what it truly meant to be a Cats fan then- I just took it for granted that we were awesome and would just always be a top tier program.  I now look at these kids burning couches on UK's campus to celebrate, and I think smugly to myself, those dumb kids with their $5 student tickets, they just don't understand!  They just have no idea what it means to be a loyal UK fan year after year- to watch Dwayne Wade's Marquette team beat us, to falter to UAB in the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney when we were a favorite to win the whole thing, to watch grimly as UNC gets another banner, or, yes, I'll mention it, the agony of losing to Duke in the infamous Laettner shot that these young whippersnappers weren't even a glimmer in their mother's eye when it happened!

But now I'm older and wiser, and am able to appreciate the journey the Cats have gone on this season.  And how does it feel?  Exactly like this:

Best day of work ever

I challenge anyone to have had a better work day on Thursday than me.  It's impossible.  Whatever you did that day, my day was better.  Why was its so awesome?  Because the NCAA tournament began.  I clocked out for a late lunch hour at 3pm, and never went back to work.  Instead, I walked across the street to a sports bar and got to watch the second half of the UK game, which we won by a buzzer beater, and then watched all of the Vandy game while having deep fried bar food and beer with a few friends.  The weather was perfect too.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been if UK had won by 30.  The close games are too stressful for me.

Montage Monday

Welcome to Montage Monday!  Tonight's montage is all about the latest sports updates, since there seem to have been a flurry of them today.

If Tennessee's Bruce Pearl can violate pretty much every NCAA  recruiting violation there is, and only get suspended 8 games, then why can't Enes Kanter, Kentucky's star recruit, get suspended 8 games and play instead of being suspended from playing indefinitely?

Titans QB Vince Young is said to be out for a "season ending thumb surgery," so says the ESPN crawler across the bottom of my screen repetitively.  My opinion?  Vince might be having surgery, and he might be out for the rest of the season, but the two are not mutually exclusive.  I'd say it has more to do with VY throwing a hissy fit at the end of the game yesterday, and then walking out on his coach as to why he won't be playing any more this season.

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto didn't win the triple crown, but he did just win the coveted National League MVP!  Dad called George tonight to ask him how much he'd sell his rookie Votto jersey for, which you may remember , George used as a fishing rag before he knew who Votto was.

The Vikings fired their coach Brad Childress today.  Last year the Vikings got one game away from the Superbowl, and this year they're sucking it up big time.  I just can't see how one mostly bad season can make a team forget where they were a year ago.  Can we really demand instant success from players and coaches?  Can we also all agree that Brett Favre needs to go back to Mississippi and be done with the NFL finally?

I am currently blogging and watching tonight's UK game versus Oklahoma on dvr.  Nobody tell me the outcome of this game before I can finish it!  It had better be a good one.  Currently UK is ranked #9, and all anyone wants to talk about is the 5 recruits we lost in the first round of the NBA draft last year.  Surely you don't get a top ten ranking based on last year's NBA recruits.  Surely some of this year's players warrant a little more publicity, and I'm not talking about Enes Kanter, who can't play because he's too busy hanging out with NCAA violating pal, Bruce Pearl.

A Bradley-less Blue bash of an evening

Saturday, Kim and Greg had us over to their house for dinner. Kim made these amazing Chicken Chimichurri fajitas with drunken peppers and onions along with Mexican rice that my mouth is still watering over!

After dinner, we drove downtown to Pensacola where we dropped the guys off at the civic center to watch a minor league hockey game. We girls were supposed to go too, but once we found out that UK played at the exact same time, we opted to go to a sports bar to watch basketball instead. We've definitely got our priorities straight!

My friend Kim and I with our blue shirts and coozies, and new matching basketball key chains, thanks to the sports bar owner.

Nick, filling out the winner's bracket

Yeah, we did! Go Cats!

Throughout the evening, we met several other UK fans, and made some new friends. We also mercilessly harassed the North Carolina fan who was sitting at the table next to us with his wife, who was from Kentucky, and there to watch the UK game.

Checking out the competition. Nick is a Syracuse fan (the name of the sports bar is New York Nick's), so we had fun harassing each other all night.

Yeah okay, so he kind of has the dirty old man thing going on in this picture, but really, he was a nice guy!

Bracketology!

Brian and Greg are definitely in a Bromance.

After their game was over, the guys met up with us, and the four of us walked over to Seville, a bar complex in Pensacola that I've been hearing about for 2 years; 7 bars inside one building. With the hockey tickets we got in free, so we went in and headed straight for the piano bar. Besides Kim and Greg paying the pianist to play the UK fight song (which they didn't know, so they did a lame generic fight song with "Go Wildcats" inserted into it), we also met a guy from Kentucky who payed them to let all of us get up on stage and do the C-A-T-S cheer. I love meeting Kentucky fans wherever I go, and there's nothing like tournament time to bring the Wildcats out of the wood works!

Later on we moseyed over to the dance club portion of Seville, and at one point I was on the dance floor dancing to "I'm on a boat" and just laughed to myself. I had no idea that song actually got club spins! Kim and I commented several times how glad we were that we were not in "that" stage of life anymore as we noticed all the girls in their tall shoes and tiny dresses lamenting their boy drama in the bathroom. Hey Kim, I said during one bathroom trip (cause, you know, girls always travel in packs), darn it, I forgot my spandex dress tonight! Yes, it was nice to just be able to go and have a good time in our UK shirts, jeans, and tennies.

We had a great double date night, and are so thankful to Ann for babysitting Bradley for us so we could go. It's a rare thing these days to be able to enjoy a basketball game without a toddler clamoring for my attention. It's even rarer that we go out-out for a date night, so it was a lot of fun.

Blue & White Basketball Night

Last night we hosted an NCAA watch party, which I aptly titled the Blue & White Basketball Night. Invited guests were asked to bring food to share, and show up wearing their blue & white to support the #1 seeded Kentucky Wildcats. The evening was a blast. We had hamburgers, fries, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, homemade mac & cheese, chips galore, sundried tomato jam on crostini with goat cheese and thyme (thank you Chef Boyrar-Greg), and of course, Blue & White frosted cupcakes!

I decorated with blue & white pom poms, and little basketballs I found at the dollar store, and as a table centerpiece, used 3 stemless wine glasses (thanks, Rhonda Lu!) and filled them with the basketballs, and some daisies in blue food-colored water.

Even Grandma Anna found some blue & white to wear!

Thanks aunt Peggy for that Kentucky flag you see in the background- at least, I think that came from you!

Cheering the Cats onto a victory- L to R, Brian, Greg, Kim, Anna, Felicia, and baby Nevaeh- check out her Wildcats cheerleading outfit!

With mommy's permission, Bradley gets a cupcake!

Our little cheerleader. He stood at the tv and shook his pom pom!

Me & my hubby- doesn't he look great in Blue??

UK alums befriended in Florida: Amanda & Kim

Group Photo- the only person we're missing is John (Anna's husband) who came early, then had to leave and come back later. We had such a great time hanging out and watching basketball together with everyone. Have I mentioned that I am simply mad about March??!!

A Season of Blue

Someone's Facebook status read yesterday, being a UK fan is soo much more fun this year than it was last year. I couldn't agree more! We have turned our team around, thanks to our new head coach John Calipari and his great recruits of our mostly freshman-starred team. As the season has gone on, I have met more and more UK fans, attended a NW Florida alumni watch party, and met some great new friends in the process. Bradley mimics me screaming at the tv during games, so he's the darling of the room everywhere we go as he shakes his pom pom and yells "Go, Go!" claps his hands, and says "Cats Cats!" (we're still working on the third Cats, but I'll take what I can get!)


I have aptly titled this blog post "A Season of Blue" after my favorite blog about UK sports A Sea of Blue. Watching games with friends and family this season has been a blast, and I love recruiting new fans all the time, especially turning my husband and son into Wildcat fans whether they like it or not. Here is a season's worth of our UK clad family and friends:

Bradley with Grandma & Grandpa B in Tennessee after the Louisville game


Freshman roommates Amanda and Ellen, with the littlest Wildcat at Christmastime



Blue Orleans: Conley, Ari, Bart, me, and Bradley during the Vandy game in January

The other Vandy game- the one we almost didn't win, we watched at a sports bar on Okaloosa Island as part of the unofficial NW Florida UK alumni association. Here we met our new friends Kim and Greg.

Tyler is happy because we're winning

Kim and I lead the old foaggies in the C-A-T-S Cats Cats Cats cheer


My boys in blue

Has anyone else noticed that getting your kids to say cheese does not result in the most natural looking smile?

One lone guy at our table, a friend of a friend, was a Florida fan, and this is what we do to Florida fans' hats


"Go, Go!"


Our friends Matt and Shannon and their son Braylon came to spend a few days with us, and were here to watch the UT game. Matt is a Kentuckian by birth, Shannon is a Wisconsin convert like Brian, and Braylon doesn't have a choice at this point!

Me with UK alum Kim, and her boyfriend Greg

Kim took and edited this picture of Bradley- we discovered that pickles are a good distraction and keep him occupied for a while!

Family photo in Blue taken at Pensacola beach after the UT game. Even the sun couldn't cheer us up after that tough loss.


Finishing up the regular season, we watched the Florida game at Buffalo Wild Wings. Ann took this picture with her phone, so it's proof that she was here rooting on the Cats to a victory this day, along with Kim and Greg as well.

Yesterday's nail biter we watched at Helenback's in Navarre with Tyler, Felicia, their friend Bill, and their daughter Nevaeh. Bradley was cranky by the time the game went into overtime, and so all the screaming when Demarcus Cousins made the last shot to send the game into OT made him cry! Otherwise he was a good little cheerleader.

Babies and Mamas: Felicia and Neveah in her pink UK gear, and me and Bradley in our blue

It's just been announced that we're a #1 seed going into the NCAA tournament, and the Florida chapter of Big Blue Nation is up to the challenge of cheering on our Wildcats to victory! In fact, I think we just decided to host a party at our house on Thursday night to watch the first game. Anyone got any great ideas for blue and white foods??