last weekend we made the long drive across kansas to take in the football game.  this was my daughter's first trip to columbia and from what i could tell she enjoyed it.

on friday, we had lunch at flat branch (clare loves the chokes & cheese) and then walked around campus.  a scoop of tiger stripe from buck's and a beer at the 'berg completed a beautiful afternoon.

clare and grandma relaxed at the new student center (is it called brady anymore?) while we watched the tigers whip some ass.

all in all a great trip.

she's not too sure about the tiger ears:

playing with mama's iphone at the 'berg:

and finally, perusing the fine literature at the bookstore:

so this past weekend my daughter enjoyed her first hot and boring trip across kansas to visit the family.  along the way i tried to explain the recent conference re-alignment hysteria and how it would affect mizzou.  her reactions:

the big 10 you say?  sounds intriguing.

via i47.tinypic.com 

wait, we are gonna be in the great plains division of the mountain west alternative?

and now we're back to the same old big texas foolishness AND everone hates us?

whoopity-doo!  she was unimpressed

at least until baby beef arrives...

i mentioned a while back that my wife and i were expecting our first child.  well, not anymore- she's here!  say hi to Clare:

via i40.tinypic.com

via i41.tinypic.com

she arrived right after we watched ubaldo jimenez throw a no-hitter for the rockies.  sadly, the wife didn't agree that ubaldo would make a lovely middle name.

hopefully, she will make her faurot debut this fall.  and horseshoe- she's half buckeye

its probably my only chance to see mizzou play in person this season, so i will be driving up to boulder on sat.  i would be happy to say hello to any fellow rmn-type folks, maybe even buy you a beer.  i will be at the muaa pre-game party at the boulder outlook hotel, so let me know if you are stopping by.  i'm also bringing 4 non-mizzou types with me- i think i can convince at least 2 of them to root for mizzou

well, the wife and i made to columbus and back.  unfortunately, i caught a cold after the game and have been sick since then.

my wife is an ohio st alumnus, but this was my first game there.  trip highlights:

-overall, the game experience was great.  stadium record 103,000+ fans.  plus at least 100K more outside.  that's a lot of people in one place!

-we only got to tailgate for a couple of hours.  the wife was shopping with mom so i was stuck til they were done.  i guess the parking lots open at 6am, so some friends went early to set up, but we didn't get there until about 5:30pm.  i did manage to slam five 16oz beers in 2 hours to get the juices flowing.  great tailgate atmosphere, everyone having fun, lots of positive energy.  the few usc fans i saw were respectful and treated well by the osu fans.

-even getting in the stadium was ridiculous with that many people.  30 minutes before the game you could hardly move outside.  the horseshoe is farkin' enormous.  our seats were about 8 rows from the top and it is steep- i felt like a sherpa hiking up there.

-the band was amazing.  the script o-h-i-o was really cool.  the tuba who dotted the i was named frank costanza- seriously!

-the game itself wasn't the most exciting.  lots of good defense.  i really thought the bucks had a chance, but their offense was so lame, then the defense couldn't hang on.  i don't think most osu fans really thought they would win, but it was kinda bizarre to hear people bitching about tresselvest after the game (how many more losses before we shit-can tressel?).  different expectations i guess.

-getting out of there was a clusterf***.  it took us 2 hours to get back to the car.  long day

a couple of pics:

a short nap dreaming of big 12 football

the wife and i are flying from denver to akron then driving to columbus.  my first game at the horseshoe on saturday and i'm excited!  hopefully the buckeyes can pull it out.  if you're watching the game, we'll be the ones in red at the top of the south stands.  i'm going to miss the mizzou game, save myself $30 for ppv i guess.  anyway, go tigers and bucks!

m - i - z ...

fifth down game is starting on foxsports rocky mtn right now (12:30 central).  directv channel 683

mizzou bball vs marquette on cbs college sports at 1pm central.  directv channel 613

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

cu sucks marquette sucks

i may have mentioned on here that my wife is from columbus and went to ohio state.  we've made a couple of trips there in the last 2 years, but haven't been to a football game yet.  i was a little bummed that our trip last fall was an away weekend (we went to bww to watch the ohio st-wisconsin game, at least i was able to watch mizzou destroy nebraska on a little tv in the corner with no sound).  i was kinda whiny about it, but no big deal.  so for my birthday this year, her parents send me a card saying they entered the alumni ticket lottery for us to go to a game this fall.  i thought, 'ok, cool', but figured it would be against youngstown st or something.  we found out this week they got tickets for the usc game.  u-s-frickin-c versus ohio state.  needless to say i am excited about that matchup!  i'm sure it will be a crazy atmosphere for that game.

(Promoted to the front page because it is, after all, Front Page Friday.)

after last week's terd at arrowhead, this week I've been trying to figure out how I feel about this year's team.  i generally stay pretty positive and avoid the urge to cliff-jump, but that crap was hard to take.

i had originally planned to go to the game as part of my annual pilgrimage across kansas from colorado, but my cousin's high school team was playing in the state final in st louis so we went there instead.  i'm glad now since i would've been plenty mad in kc and my cousin's team won.  good choice even if it did add 4+ hours of driving thru 'wintry mix' to our trip.

going into last week, i had the feeling that we would come out flat and ku would be jacked up.  so the close game didn't really surprise me, but i didn't think we would actually lose.  while i'm always optimistic that mu will play well, the lack of defensive awareness on this squad is extremely frustrating.  too many times this year, we've had the opportunity to make a play at a crucial moment and had it backfire.  willy mo dropping an easy int last week is a good example.  for the most part they do a good job against the run and *at times* can generate a decent pass rush.  it would be nice if every now and then one of our blitzers wasn't swallowed up by the scrum and actually touched the qb.  the defensive backfield has looked sketchy all year, like 4 individuals instead of a team.  i don't necessarily think its scheme problem, but there are definitely some communication and responsibility issues with that group, which ultimately falls on the coaches.

offensively, i guess there's not a whole lot to bitch about, but daniel is a bit squirrelly back there sometimes.  i think he has a tendency to let the really good teams get in his head at times.  i would love to see us run the ball more (especially on 2nd down) as i'm a big fan of washington.  the one thing that drives me nuts is throwing to the deep sidelines on 3rd down.  i actually do like most of the screens we run, because the usually work and set up the deep ball.

i tried to keep my expectations for this season under control for the most part, probably to keep from being too devastated when things don't work out.  i doubted that we could beat texas and wouldn't have been surprised to lose another (maybe illinois or nebraska or osu).  so 10-2/11-1 was what i was looking for.  9-3 and losing to ku is definitely a disappointment.  however, being one of 2 teams with the opportunity to be big 12 champs is pretty flipping cool if you ask me.  based on my expectations before last season, we are doing wonderfully and i should just shut my stupid pie-hole with the complaining.  its not hard to remember how crappy we were for so long.

anyway, nothing earth shattering here.  just thought i would share some of the thoughts i've had this week.  i hope we can win tomorrow, but even if we don't i'll still be proud of our team and coaches for even getting there.

ps- i know i shouldn't do this, but i'm actually starting to care about the bball team again.  they have at least moved past the unwatchable stage and are now fairly entertaining and easy to cheer for.

mu and ku tied at 1 in ot.  shots: mu 22, ku 7.

more words more words more words more words!

loud noises loud noises loud noises loud noises!

i need to type 46 more words to get this to work.

i hope mizzou wins this game and the football game tomorrow.

woohoo!  m i z - z o u!

fight tigers you will always win...

its now ot #2 still tied at 1

two flippin words!