Midwest Clinic

Julie and I just got back from our trip to the Midwest Clinic in Chicago - the conference is held in several hotels downtown. The primary conference site is the Hilton and Towers - same hotel as was used in the climactic final scene in the Harrison Ford movie The Fugitive. The ballroom above held the jazz concerts - it was the room where Harrison Ford confronted the bad doctor while he was giving his speech.

Of course, we had to spend some time shopping. The Disney store had Enchanted costumes on display in their store on Michigan Ave.

We also went up to the former Marshall Fields - now Macys. They still have the animated window displays at Christmas time. This year the theme was The Nutcracker.


On Thursday afternoon we went to the the Chicago Symphony Brass play a concert at Orchestral Hall, then went across the street to the Art Institute to check out their collection.



Food is always a highlight when we go to Chicago - on Saturday before heading home we ate lunch at Heaven on Seven. Great Cajun food - and the famous wall of hot sauce. If you can bring in hot sauce that they don't have on the wall, dinner for two is free.

See you all on Christmas day!

Christmas Give Away

Thought you would like to see my toy give away. Last year we served 2000 kids this year I expect to serve over 3000.

Sunset Dec 9

This afternoon we went to the beach to take a holiday photo for our Christmas cards. Caught a beautiful sunset.

Heavy Surf Day in Carlsbad

I just had to go down to the beach today for a while to see the huge waves roll in. We had 12-15' waves, the biggest in over a year. It was a beautiful day. It got up to 68 degrees on the beach, and I was able to walk around in shorts and a t-shirt. Not bad for December! Check out my video below on "Foam Snails".

What do you think?

Here is my personal opinion - I think Bo Pelini has already been offered the job and accepted.  The reason TO went recuiting during the latter part of the week is because Bo didn't want an announcement made until after the SEC championship this Saturday.

Or, they could be waiting for the Navy coach's season to end so that he can be interviewed.  What do you think?

Search Update

ESPN 1480 says that a team meeting has been called for 4 p.m. tomorrow.  Reason for meeting has not been made clear.

Coaching Search

Lincoln Journal-Star is reporting that a plane left Lincoln for Baton Rouge this afternoon, and was then going to Atlanta. Turner Gill has also been given permission to interview, and Brian Kelly (Cincinnati) is not commenting, but is also being mentioned. Sounds like Osborne is going to travel to Atlanta (location of the search firm he contracted to help with the search) to do the interviews over the next few days. Probably a smart way to do it - avoids all the press here in town, camped out at the airport and the athletic dep't. I predict an announcement before next weekend.

Thanksgiving in CA

We had a really great Thanksgiving Day and dinner with Linda, Doug, Paul, and Lawrence visiting from the LA area. Yesterday, we all (except Doug, who had to work) went down to Tijuana, Mexico (about an hour South), for lunch and shopping. It was a very nice day - sunny in the low 60s (same as today, Sat.). The arch in the second picture is a monument to an old mission in Tijuana. Bottom pic is Thanksgiving dinner at our house in Carlsbad.

Also watched NE blow it on national TV. Hope Tom does a comprehensive job of cleaning house.

Press Conference

Tom Osborne met with Callahan at 7:30 this morning, the press conference will happen at 9:30 a.m.  Let the speculation begin.

Cyclocross Race

With the nice weather this weekend, I rode the bike with some friends out to Pioneers Park to watch the Nebraska State Cyclocross championships - some of the folks I ride with on teamFIRE were riding in the races. I had never seen this sport before - it is really intense and difficult. It's a cross between road biking and mountain biking. Most of the race is held on grass or dirt, with occasional obstacles and hills where the riders have to dismount and carry the bike up the hill or over the obstacles (which are like hurdles about 2 feet high) at a dead run. We sat at the top of the biggest hill, where people ring cowbells and scream encouragement to the racers as they sprint up the hill - some of the spectators tape dollar bills to a tree next to the course - the racers grab them as they go by. In the top pic, we are sitting and waiting for the race to start - the girl laid out just finished her race (she placed second) and could barely move. The next pic shows some racers begin to dismount as they approach the hill. The next two show guys on my team climbing the hill - check out the pain in their facial expressions. In the bottom pic, you can see a couple of kids holding out a clif bar and a dollar to see if the racers will take them. Good fun (to watch, anyway)!

Knoxville and Miami Trip

We took the family to Knoxville to visit their old friends last weekend (F-M), and had a fantastic time. We went to Dollywood (which is now really a lot of fun - they've got some great new rides, and its all decked out for Christmas), visited their old farm with their friends, and had a block party in the old neighborhood. We stayed with the parents of one of Caitlyn's closest friends, Savannah Kucera.

The trip made us really miss Knoxville, but things are going pretty well here in CA too. On the back end of the Knoxville trip I flew to Miami for a business meeting (see picture out my hotel room back door). It was an incredible hotel called the Grove Island Hotel and Spa, but I didn't really get to enjoy it (meetings all day and night). Tues. night, though, we had a cooking contest as a kind of team building exercise, and a gourmet chef coached us and then took what we made and turned it into an excellent meal.

Good week for Tommy and Kayla

Tommy and Kayla had a good week. Tommy was inducted into the National Honor Society at Southeast, and played trumpet in the NMEA All-State Jazz Ensemble. He got to play a solo for a packed house of 2500 at the Lied Center.

On Friday we found out that Kayla was selected to the 8th grade All-State Band, and was named first chair clarinet. She will be performing in January in Kearney with the All-State Band.

Husker Rumor

Thought I would let you all know the latest. Lincoln Journal Star has seemingly confirmed that Bo Pellini flew into Lincoln last week and that his wife joined him the next day. I have a staff member whose husband works at Journal star

A Weekend in Hollywood

We had an interesting and fun weekend. Saturday, while the kids and Chris were at horseback riding and dance, I was at the family house of a co-worker whose brother and mother lost their house in the fires. Their 4,000 square foot, two-story house was literally reduced to 3 feet of ash, mixed with broken ceiling tiles, and we were hand sorting through it (using shovels and sifters) to try and find any valuables. The metal actually melted. Most jewelry was vaporized, and coins were fused together and unrecognizable. My small group found several small jewelry boxes, but only one still had a ring in it, and one small frozen puddle of melted gold. Probably the most valuable thing I found was a totally intact china teacup from a kids set that somehow survived when everthing else was destroyed. Very dirty, sad work.

Anyway, later that day we drove up to LA and got there just as Universal Studios was closing, so we got on just two rides (last time we were there we bought a year pass for just $10 more). The real reason we braved the traffic was to go see "Wicked", a broadway musical, at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. The theater doesn't look like much on the outside, but it was very ornate on the inside. The musical was absolutely outstanding - we all loved it. Well worth the trouble of LA.

Summer Project

The colors were peaking in the backyard today, and I'm sick of watching KU score, so I thought I'd post some pics of the deck Julie and I built this summer. We tore up all of the old floor, rails, and steps, kept the old frame, then built a new frame out about 6 feet or so from the old frame. All of the deck past the stairs is new construction.



Here is a winter pic of the old deck.

Halloween in CA

We had hundreds of kids come by (its seemed). I took Sarah around and Caitlyn went with friends. Both girls made up their own ideas/costumes this year. Sarah went as "Clashy Girl" (as opposed to "Classy Girl"), and Caitlyn went as... A Teenager. Scary! (Just kidding, she was "Workout Barbie").

Happy Halloween!

Thought I'd share a couple of before-and-after Halloween pictures.
Jared is the Ninja Warrior, Sean is Spiderman. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Halloween Party

Jon and I attended a Halloween party on Saturday with people from Jon's work. Some of them couldn't figure out who we were - have you yet??
Jon is Michael Vick (he's wearing a prison shirt with Vick's number and his name on the back) and I'm a beat-up dog. A dalmation is the only dog costume we could find, so that's what we went with. Once people figured it out, they thought it was pretty funny.

Halloween Party

We attended a Halloween party at a friend's house on Tuesday. I went as Steve Pederson and Julie wore the Snow White costume that Kayla is going to wear when she works at the Boo at the Zoo event.


Julie receiving the poison apple from the wicked witch.

California trip

Hi, everyone. It's hard to believe that the beautiful area we were in just a little over a week ago is now covered in soot. John, Chris, and kids - we're thinking of you.
Curt, congratulate Christopher! That's great!
Sean is on his very first school field trip today - they went to Fontenelle Forest.
Jon and I are going to a Halloween party on Saturday. Pictures to follow.

Sun Sets on Day Three

I think we're out of the woods. Winds are calm tonight, and consequently the "Witch" fire which threatened us last night doesn't seem to be moving further West. Here are pictures of the sunset tonight (taken about 10 minutes ago) and some of the ash on the driveway. Ash looks like blowing snow on the street, and whereever cars drive they kick it back into the air. All of San Diego County is covered in a layer of this. Everything looks very dirty as a result.

UNL Math Day

I know this seems kind of trivial with everything that is going on in California but wanted to let people know that Chris qualified to be on the Pius Math Competition Team for the UNL math day. He had to beat out several upper-classmen to qualify as they only take the top 8 for the quizbowl.

Tuesday Fire Update

Close call last night, but other than an eighth-inch covering of ash over everything and a couple of damaged trees, we think we're out of the woods. We never evacuated.

However, the fires are still out of control and if the Santa Ana winds come back big today, we could have a whole new ballgame. I'm headed into work, and Chris and I will stay in close contact during the day.

All-State Audition Results

I got the All-State audition results this morning - Tommy was selected to the All-State Jazz Band. The director this year is someone I recommended to the All-State Jazz Band coordinator after seeing him work for several years with Tommy and Paul at the KU Jazz Camp - Tommy is excited to have the chance to play for him again.

Another Fire Update

The fires that were visible from our house to the North around 10:00 tonight seem to have receded. However, Rancho Santa Fe is now burning and they extended the mandatory evacuation through Olivenhain all the way to Rancho Santa Fe Rd, which you may remember borders our neighborhood. Based on visual observations and wind direction, though, I view it as unlikely that we will have to evacuate tonight. The car is packed just in case, and Chris and I will rotate fire watch through the night. We'll keep you posted. Kids are doing fine (Caitlyn gets another day off tomorrow, and Sarah was on Fall break anyway).

Fire Update

Our current situation is that we have two trees that have been blown down or damaged from the high winds, we are entirely inundated with smoke (although the environment in the house is fine since we closed up the house last night in anticipation), and there is ash falling all around. Again, we're not expecting any evacuation due to fire unless a new fire starts nearby. If we evacuate, it will be because of smoke, but this is highly unlikely: I-5 North toward Linda Moorman's house is a parking lot with refugees, so we'll only leave if we have to.

Fire in S. CA

There are at least eight different fires in San Diego County alone. The one which triggered a reverse 911 call to us this morning at 6 a.m. warning us of a pending evacuation was stimulated by a fire which threatened the neighborhood (San Elijo Hills) directly to the NW of us (which remains evacuated at this time). That fire is now under control, and we don't anticipate being evacuated, although the police just drove through our neighborhood on the blowhorn announcing a voluntary evacuation of our neighborhood due to smoke. Here are a couple of pics which show the progression of the situation at our house. Things may get worse before they get permanently better since the Santa Ana winds continue to gust to 60 mph and are expected to last at least through tomorrow, and our humidity remains at 4%, so we'll be carefully monitoring the situation throughout the night. The top picture was taken at about 8:00 this morning, and the bottom was taken a little after 3 p.m. this afternoon.

NSBA State Band Contest

Tommy's band placed fourth in the NSBA state band contest Saturday night - behind Bellevue East, Bellevue West, and Millard West.

Three reasons to cut the cord

This was posted last night on the Journal Star website by Steve Sipple - they have been pretty conservative about printing rumors, so you wonder if this might not happen:

"Lots of rumblings about the possibility of Bill Callahan resigning, effective at the end of the season. Stay tuned.

Callahan said last week he wouldn't resign. But Big Red boosters with very deep pockets could help put together an offer (which far exceeds his buyout) he couldn't refuse. The money's there, if needed.

He wouldn't be quitting, because he would finish out the season.

By resigning now, it would:

1. Take pressure off the players, because it would remove the uncertainty surrounding the situation.

2. Allow Osborne and Company to begin in earnest the search for Callahan's successor.

3. Help minimize the wild scramble to salvage the 2008 recruiting class once the season ends."

NU Football

There is an e-mail making the rounds that declares that Charlie McBride will be appointed interim head coach either immediately or after the game Saturday. It also says that Pelini has been contacted and is definitely interested in the head coaching position. It also says that a few of the Osborne's retired staff will come back to help finish the year. Shawn Watson would stay on as offensive coordinator.

I think it is a lot of garbage. I don't think anything will happen until after the season is over.

Views from outside Nebraska

Here are a couple of interesting stories - the first from the Kansas City Star, and the second from the Dallas Morning News.

Tom Osborne - A.D.

Tom Osborne will be named A.D. today - not known yet if he will be permanent or interim.

Steve Pederson fired

Interestingly, Chancellor Perlman says that he decided to do this last Thursday - before the game against OSU. Two questions I have:

1) Did Pederson get lucky at Pitt and/or unlucky here? They think he was the best thing since sliced bread at Pitt - and he got great results. I think it has as more to do with his treatment of his own staff (lots of people quitting in the last couple of years), his coldness towards big money boosters, and a cold management style than it does with the utter failure of his football staff.

2) Do they want to bring in a new A.D. because there is a need to hire a new football coaching staff, and they couldn't trust Pederson to do it?

This is Husker Football??

Picture of the stands (you can see Paul if you look really close) during the 3rd quarter of the ballgame Saturday. Notice the empty seats.

Some musings (or ventings) as I sat in the South stadium during yesterday's debacle:

1) Lydon Murtha committed two major penalties (personal foul, then holding) on the first two plays of the game - and yet was not pulled from the game to settle him down and get his head in the game. Would this have happened under previous coaches?

2) Players who cannot make plays either because of lack of effort or mental mistakes continue to play - even when the game is out of control. So called blue chip recruits have given up their redshirt year to be used only on special teams. Ricky Thenarse - one of the few Husker defenders who has actually made a solid hit this season, finally got a little playing time late in the game. Same thing with Quentin Castille - the only back the Huskers have who can make 3-4 yards out of nothing (which is what there usually is, considering the lack of blocking). There is no downfield threat in the passing game - and Maurice Purify touched the ball exactly one time in the game. Let's get some speed and athletic ability on the field - even if they are freshmen, and even if they don't know the whole offense. Other schools seem able to get their best players on the field, why can't we?

3) Remember, a couple of years after Barry Switzer left, when OU would obviously give up in a game? Nobody could understand what the problem was, as most experts agreed that OU had plenty of talent. Sound familiar? OU solved their problem only after having to clean house several times until they got Stoops. What is it going to take here?

4) There were some guys from Wisconsin sitting behind me - they were in town on business and decided to come to the game. In the 2nd quarter (we were already behind by 31 points) they asked me why nobody was booing at the obvious lack of effort. I told them that unfortunately, many people were half expecting this kind of performance.

5) There were only a few times during the day when the crowd cheered - the tunnel walk, the opening kick-off, a good hit by Thenarse on a punt return, when the band entered the field at halftime, and (sarcastically) when the Huskers made their first first down (in the third quarter) and forced OSU's first punt (also third quarter). There was also moderate cheering when we scored in the fourth quarter, but by then most fans had left.

6) The game was completely out of control in the second half - yet there was very little substituting. How are things going to get better if the this year's backups who will be asked to start next year get no game experience now?

7) Things I saw that I never thought I would see at a Nebraska game:

• People turning down tickets at $10 ea. right before the game.
• Fans sarcastically releasing their balloons when the opponent scored.
• Fans uniformly exhibiting stunned silence and depression rather than anger and passion.
• Fans leaving in droves before halftime.
• A Nebraska team quit.
• Fans expecting to be blown out at home by a mediocre team.
• Fans discussing whether there is any Div. I team that could be considered an underdog to NU.
• Fans hoping out loud that we go winless the rest of the year to force the administration's hand in firing the coaching staff and A.D.
  
• Fans wearing bags on their heads ala the old Saints.

Sorry for venting. Rant now over (until next Saturday).

Today at the beach

Da, yup, yup, yup, it's the ocean all right! And it's wet!!