Kickoff lunch

Last of the raccoons?

Oh please, let this be the last of the raccoons!  Last night the neighbor dogs barked ALL NIGHT!  When I went into the bathroom this morning, I saw why.

It turns out that three coons were hanging on the side of my house.  Luckily, a trapper was not far from my house. He managed to get a noose on each of them and he will relocate them.

I couldn't get the picture of all three of them hanging on the bathroom window screen, but you can see two in this image.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

 

Some of the NW Arkansas alumni of William Woods University (OK, to me, it is still WWC) met for lunch at Crystal Bridges today.  I have been intending to go for some time and just never got around to going.

I should have gone sooner.  If you grew up in the Ozarks, as I did, you will find the setting very familiar.  I was raised in Neosho and spent summers on Elk River.  The setting is in the hills with a small stream running through it.  They have put in some small dams to make pools and the museum is built over and beside the pools.  The surrounding area and the building are spectacular.  There are walking trails around the building and BOB and I will go to walk them when the temperatures are more moderate.

The art is quite impressive as well.  The main museum is laid out so that you see the art chronologically.  I didn't start taking pictures (allowed with no flash) until I had been through several rooms.  Here are the few images that I did take.  (Please excuse some of the photos that are a bit blurry.  It was the best that I could do with my phone.)

This is a world class museum, both for the art within and for the architecture and setting.

Oh, and the lunch was wonderful.

These pictures were taken from inside the museum.
Both are views of the same area, but the second one has some reflection from behind me.

	The Arkansas Traveler
By Neosho native Thomas Hart Benton

Really BOB?

 

Every time that I go to the bathroom, is it your job to guard the door?

Coach John L Smith

The Northwest Arkansas Razorback Club golf tournament in Bella Vista. Coach didn't play, but drove around heckling the players.

Football practice field

It is sodded and looks nearly ready. The photo was taken from Razorback Road. I didn't take a picture from the South side. But the parking area is under the practice field. It appears to be just a one level parking area.

You can see the Walker Pavilion just North of the new field. The scoreboard in the background is at John McDonnell field.

Yes, I am in Omaha!

Go Hogs, beat the Gamecocks!

CWS: General Admission High Jinks

The general admission sections at any CWS game is full of people there to have a good time, not there to watch baseball.

They love to start the wave. One night they did multiple versions: normal, fast, very fast, slow, very slow and reversed.

Normally there are a few beach balls tossed. But at game 12, on Thursday, it seemed as though everyone in left field G/A had a beach ball. At the end of an inning they were all tossed in the air, soon ending up on the warning track. Initially, two members of the grounds crew went out to retrieve them, soon followed by the entire grounds crew sprinting out to help.

No buses

This street is normally full of two rows of buses following a game. Not tonight.

Of course the game was cancelled, so I guess they have an excuse. The bus did come about 10 minutes later.

It's wet in Omaha tonight

It's bad luck to be superstitious

That's what a friend always says. So, with that in mind, I brought an assortment of hats to Omaha. I will not wear the same hat to any of the Razorback games. I think that I will buy a new Arkansas hat today. I visited a store yesterday that had a wonderful selection and will add a CWS patch to the hat of my choice.

Left field bullpen

The left field bullpen features the logos of all the participants.

Better seat for UCLA/Fla St

Finally

I finally had a Zestos. It was a chocolate malt and I could taste the malt. YUM.

Scenes from Arkansas CWS win vs USC

Here are a few scenes from Monday's game vs. South Carolina.

Ribby came way up to visit us!

Astin preparing to pitch to the final batter of the game.

Celebrate!

I was a bit wound up after the game. I missed having Holly and Carl to give me one of Carl's excellent margaritas. I had to settle for this.

It's final!!

The Razorbacks defeated South Carolina to go to 2-0 in the College World Series.

Arkansas is away team vs So Car

On the bus, redux

There are always LSU fans at the College World Series, this one (who identifies herself as a coonass) just happens to be married to a Razorback!

Sunday night CWS

The iconic statue which stood in front of Rosenblatt Stadium, is now in front of TD Ameritrade Park. And kids of all ages get their pictures made there.

My seat for the UCLA vs. Arizona game is further into left field, but in the lower deck.

UCLA vs. Arizona

Ticked over tickets

No, not me, I am delighted to be able to be in the ballpark for each of the Razorback games at the College World Series.

Those around me yesterday were not feeling so happy. More than one person told me that they should have gotten tickets elsewhere.

According to the release on ArkansasRazorbacks.com, only those who donate at the Broyles-Matthews level and have baseball season tickets were eligible to purchase tickets from the U of A. I even know someone who has a suite at Baum, yet was not able to get tickets for the CWS.

So those sitting around me were high dollar donors. Yet here we all sat - in the upper deck, way out in left field. Several people said that they were going to complain to Mark Scoby about the location of their seats.

I doubt that complaining will help. I'm sure that the Razorback Ticket office did what it could with what they were given. I'm convinced that it is the same situation as most bowl games, the U of A is not given any choice seats. Those go to the season ticket holders. There are many people in Omaha, and elsewhere who have had season tickets for many years. They may have even expanded the number of season ticket holders when they opened the new ballpark.

So I will be in whatever seat the ticket office sees fit to give me. I will be cheering on the OmaHogs for as long as they are here. And I will continue to be very thankful to those who got me the seat.

Before the game

Headed to the CWS

On the stadium express bus. GHG

Omaha: Here I come!!

 

Believe it or not, I actually thought about not going to Omaha for the College World Series.  Those thoughts did not last long.

I quickly found a motel room for a reasonable price (not easy with the ever-increasing popularity of the event.)  But then began the search for tickets.

It seems that when the series moved from Rosenblatt to Ameritrade, the number of tickets given to the individual schools was greatly reduced.  The best that I can tell, they cut the number for each school in half.

For most schools that would not create any sort of problem.  But this is Arkansas and we do support our Hogs!  What a pain this must be for Mark Scoby and the staff at the Razorback ticket office.

I am pleased to say that I have managed to score one ticket for each of the Razorback games.  Whew!  I am quite thankful to those who helped in my ticket search.

So, I’m off to Omaha on Friday to Call the Hogs!  Now to pack.

Update:  I just got a call and BOB has a place to stay while I’m in Omaha, thanks to Sharon of the Pet Emporium in Pea Ridge.

Go OmaHogs!  Woo Pig Sooie!!

The Quean gets her due

Dinner at Rawhide

Dinner at Pappadeaux

Yum!!

Busted

GSPCA National 2012 - getting there

It was a long drive from Fayetteville to Phoenix, but I allowed lots of time. Other than the gale-force winds blowing in Texas and New Mexico, there were no problems.

My roommate, Nancy Conrad, made it here easily too. This morning Nancy was to show a dog in sweeps at eight a.m. As she got ready to leave the room, she couldn't get out!

It seems that when she closed the safety latch last night, it wedged shut. We couldn't get it to budge. We worked it back and forth several times. Nancy finally got frustrated and broke the latch.

The moral of the story is: Don't mess with Nancy!