The University of Tennessee

For the Mississippi State game, Jeff Cathey and Dave Pavlonis booked a house in Gatlinburg for a guys reunion. Although Keith Carver stood us up to allegedly work on his PhD, the rest of us had a really great time shooting pool, talking smack and catching up with each others lives. Will Carver, JJ Brown, Howie Avery, Bert Sams, Mark Clark, Jerry Adams, Patrick Wade and Brian Light were all in attendance (in addition to Jeff, Dave and myself) for various parts of The Guys Weekend. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the actual participants, but I did get some nice pictures of campus.

We actually won the game!!!




















REFLECTIONS - Congratulations Phillies!!!

In case you did not know... and judging by the Fox TV ratings, many of you may not... the Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Series Champions!!!

That's right. Once again, the Kennedy's have brought a world championship in baseball to their new city. When we moved to Chicago (south side) in 2004, the White Sox ended their 80+ year World Series drought. So, when the Kennedy's moved to Philadelphia in 2007, it was a foregone conclusion that the Phillies would reign victorious this year.

On Friday, the Phillies and 1-2 MM of their screaming fans descended on Center City for the Championship Parade. I thought it appropriate to share my observations from this parade.

5) Honking horns - OK, anyone who has ever visited Philadelphia, or any other east coast city for that matter, knows that a true Philadelphian does not really need a reason to honk their car horn. However, for the parade day, EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, was honking their horn for the Phillies. (For those of you reading this that may be natives of east coast American cities, take note. You are the only people in the U.S. who use a car horn so much, and you absolutely mortify all southerners. In the south, a car horn is never used to express anger, rage or frustration at someone. A southern car horn is only used to acknowledge a buddy, who is out on his front porch enjoying some sweet tea, as you drive by, or to say "Hello" to the neighbor, who is driving his tractor down the middle of your two lane road.)

4) Allegiance - Philadelphia fans are loyal!!! I have not seen so many people descend on one place. There were hundreds of thousands of fans that came out in force. Parents held their kids out of school, people skipped work, working people left work to attend the parade. The side effect of this was that the public transportation, designed to accommodate 50,000 people, became extremely bogged down. I was not able to catch a train out of the city Friday evening until after 7 PM. The crowd began dispersing at 1:45 PM.

3) Spirit - fans were adorned in their finest Phillies wear. Hats, T-shirts, jackets, jerseys, you name it. I saw a pimp on a street corner in a bright red suit with red shoes, red socks and matching red hat. The only thing not red was his cane, which had a large "P" ornament on its top.

This raises a question for me... The Philadelphia Phillies that I grew up watching wore maroon uniforms. At what point did they switch to a candy apple red color?

2) Dedication - The fans who descended on the city for the parade showed great commitment. My best illustration of this is the gentleman that rode in front of me on the train, as I went to work Friday morning. I caught the 6:40 AM train. This guy was decked out in his Philly jersey with matching cap. He carried with him, one lawn chair, one 30 pack of Budweiser and a cell phone, which he used to announce to his buddy that he was laying out of work and would meet him at 30th Street Station to start drinking in 35 minutes. I guess 7:15 AM in Philadelphia is 12:00 somewhere.

1) Priorities - Although I, nor anyone else, could move anywhere downtown on Friday, Philadelphia transit worked when it had to. It just so happened that I attended a corporate function in our lobby at 11 AM. Outside, I watched a police escorted 3-truck Budweiser convoy come screaming down Market Street, going towards the parade. It was a model of efficiency.

The Northern Illinois Game

A few weeks ago, several of our college friends gathered in Knoxville for the yearly football reunion. This year, we selected the Northern Illinois game because it 1) fit everyone's schedule; 2) would be easy to get tickets (little did we know that we could have probably gotten everyone tickets for Alabama this year, with the way the team is playing); and 3)Rachel's and my friends from Chicago, Danielle and Andy (pictured above) are Northern Illinois graduates.

I actually had some business in Nashville, so Danielle and Andy flew down on Thursday. We met Rachel's sister, Heather, for dinner at Cabana in Hillsboro Village. It was a great restaurant; they served gourmet southern food. It was probably one of the better eating experiences I have had in several months. Rachel's highschool friend and freshman roommate, Jennifer, joined us for dinner and then led us out to the Honky-tonks on Broadway and 2nd Avenue (we wanted Danielle and Andy to get the full impact of Nashville and Tennessee).

To leave the ultimate impression on our friends from the north, we pulled Dr. Hargis's (Rachel's Dad) 1970 Cadillac DeVille out and took it for a spin Friday afternoon. This picture earned me the nickname, "The Colonel" from Andy for the rest of the weekend.


We drove the Caddy down to the river, where Rachel shot this picture of Danielle and Andy. Later Friday afternoon, we headed to Knoxville and met up with Clark, Ben (Clark's brother), Jeremy and Jenny Graves and Cooney at Crown and Goose (a really nice new restaurant and bar in the Old City of Knoxville - 2 Thumbs up).

Saturday, we headed over to Neyland Stadium around lunch time to tailgate(game at 7 PM). It was great to see everyone. Several people came into town for the game and stopped by the tailgate. Many are pictured below. Melissa Cooney eeks out Jeremy and Jenny Graves, who drove from Phoenix, AZ for furthest distance traveled. She flew in from Rio de Janeiro for the weekend. Larry, Keri and Emerson Wray drove from Wilmington, NC. Danielle and Andy - Chicago, Rachel and I - Philadelphia, Sarah and Greg Cornell - Jacksonville/Gainesville, FL, Jennifer Hutson - Nashville, Kristen Lee - Nashville, Mark Clark, Ben Clark, Ben and Elizabeth Blanton - Knoxville.

L-R Jenny Graves, Jeremy Graves, me, Rach, Larry Wray, Keri Wray. Special thanks to Larry and Keri for bringing crab cakes and a seafood broil. It was definitely the best food we have ever had for a tailgate. It is also good that Larry brought his cooking equipment, as my grill reliably did not work again for the tailgate. Strangely, my dad can get it to work. However, me nor none of my friends can at a tailgate. It must be the elevation of the parking garage (actually, we learned that you have to tigthen the hand fitting with pliers).

Larry and Kerri, with their 2 year old daughter, Emerson. Emmie is extremely intelligent and outgoing. She was a lot of fun to have along at the tailgate this year. She brought her own pottie with her, which was pretty cool. She also affectionately renamed Ben (Clark's brother) - Tito. We have no idea why she started calling him Tito, but we are pretty sure that the name is gonna stick.

Mark Clark holding Emerson Wray


















Jeremy and Jenny Graves













Sarah and Greg Cornell













Melissa Cooney and Kristen Lee








Rachel and Jennifer Hutson















REFLECTIONS - The Before and After

You may have remembered that I blogged about Rachel's best friend - also named Rachel - a few weeks ago. For those of you who do not remember, below is a "Before" picture of Rachel Bomar, two weeks before delivery.


















Below is the "After" picture, taken approximately 3 weeks after delivery (yes, this is the same person).























Many of you are probably wondering what could cause such a dramatic transformation in one person's figure over a one month span.

Enter Exhibit A - Libby Jane Jerrell (or "The Little Sumo" as lovingly described by her own mother). Tipping the scales at 11 lbs 13 ounces and 22 inches long, Libby dramatically altered Rachel's appearance, as one might imagine.


Mrs. Hargis and Libby

5 Year Anniversary

A few weeks ago, Rachel and I celebrated our Five Year Wedding Anniversary. What is the perfect romantic getaway for a five year anniversary, you might ask? Pittsburgh!!! Look out Casanova... Steve Kennedy really knows how to treat a lady.

OK. Maybe Pittsburgh is not the number one romantic getaway for couples, unless you are out of vacation and need a location to celebrate your 5-year anniversary that is within driving distance of Philadlephia. However, we were pleasantly surprised by how cool the Steel City is. Although the weather was rainy all weekend, we managed to enjoy our stay in Pittsburgh. We will definitely go back.


In addition to PNC field, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates (pictured above), Pittsburgh is also home to Heinz Field and the Pittsburgh Steelers.








This is a picture of the hotel that we stayed in. It is a very interesting design.
















The video below is of the Duquense Incline.



We took the incline to the top of the hillside on Saturday. There are restaurants on top of the ridge that overlook the city. The title picture of the Pittsburgh skyline and the picture of Heinz Field were both taken from the top of the Duquense Incline.






Saturday evening, we went to the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals game. Unlike for the Yankees and Mets, we were able to get really good seats 6 rows up on the 3rd base line for VERY cheap. There was nobody there. I bet there weren't 10,000 people at the game. It may have been due to the weather. The game was awesome! Pittsburgh won in the 11th inning.


REFLECTIONS - FALLING WATER






Sunday morning, Rachel and I drove 75 minutes towards Philadelphia and stopped to see Falling Water - the most famous Frank Lloyd Wright house.




Designed in the 1930's, Falling Water is probably Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous design. The house, designed for the Kaufmann family (famous retail store in Pittsburgh), is built over a waterfall and incorporates the rock cliff into the structural design of the house.


The living room actually has stairs that go down to the water. This access, combined with opening the windows in the living area provides effective air conditioning in the summer by drawing the air flow across the water and then through the room. It also provides a very peaceful water sound inside the house.



The Kaufmann's son actually left the home to the state of Pennsylvania before he passed away. The home, the guest house and all of the furniture inside of both were all designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.









Wright used the layout and design of the windows to make the indoor living spaces seem much larger than they actually are. A lot of the design features on the house are really cool. For instance, the windows are built into the stone but do not have actual seals. I have no idea how they do not leak, but they don't. I also don't know how it deals with freeze/thaw cycles, because I would think that glass and stone have different coefficients of expansion (the windows should crack as they expand at a different rate than the stone, when the temperature swings).




The shelving in the kitchen was built into the walls and actually folds up to form additional table space for visitors or servants.






The living room also had built in shelving. You will also see a large outdoor living area through the window in the living room. Falling water actually has more square footage in outdoor living space than it does on the inside. Almost every room has a outdoor space. The house is totally designed to fit into its surroundings and to cause its guests to focus on the outside.


The fireplaces were really cool. The living room and each bedroom had a fireplace. A single chimney served the fireplaces of each room, but each room had its own chamber. You can see that the stone work for this room's fireplace is a lot wider than the fireplace itself. This is to house the other chambers.




A picture of one of the bedroom patios with the mountain in the backdrop. Not only was the home beautiful, but the surrounding land is gorgeous.








This is a great picture that shows how the windows on one of the reading rooms open up completely. The windows opened from both sides, making the room feel a lot more open.







More of the outdoor living spaces.





Here is Rachel enjoying the herb garden outside of the son's room. Notice that she is wearing her purse on her front. This is so she would not bump into any of the furniture and damage it. As it is all antique, they ask that you be very careful about bumping anything.







A walkway connects the main house to the guest house. This is a statue in the walkway. What is cool is that water from the roof is actually diverted through piping that turns this statue into an indoor fountain.










The living space outside of the guest house.













This is a picture of the living room water access from outside of the home. Notice the waterfall is directly behind this access point.







If you ever have the chance to visit Falling Water, I strongly suggest that you do. If you are ever visiting Pittsburgh, drive out and see it. It is well worth the trip. It is an amazing house. You will never see anything like it. You never will be able to; as the tour guides point out, this house would never pass building codes today. It uses too many creative and non-conventional engineering solutions that would cost an architect a fortune to get approved on a case-by-case basis these days.

The Greek Festival

The weekend after Labor Day, Rachel and I caught up on some house work, licked our wounds from UT's trouncing out on the Left Coast, and wished hopelessly that Skip Holtz might become the Vols next head coach (this point is all in jest).

On Sunday, we accompanied our friends Keith and Meg Edwards to a Greek Festival about 10 minutes from the house. Their daughters, Kate and Abby, pictured with Keith above and again below, were a riot. Believe it or not, they are twins. Not only do they not look alike, they act NOTHING alike. Kate is the dark haired one. Although smaller and quieter than Abby, she is the Alpha female and will destroy anything that violates her territorial rights (OK, this is a bit of an exaggeration). Abbey is the bubbly extrovert. Put them together, and you have hours of entertainment, not to mention a pile of picked flowers (they picked each of us multiple flowers).

The festival was a lot of fun. It was at an Orthodox Church, and they had carnival rides and games for all of the kids. They had a massive assortment of Greek food, which is why Keith and I were there. I followed Keith's lead and tried a new dish. I can't remember the name of it, but it had potatoes, eggs, and cheese. It was really good.

After lunch, we headed to Merrymeade Farm, which is a farm market and livestock zoo very close to our house. We looked at the farm animals, grabbed some fresh produce and enjoyed ice cream cones.

A relaxing, well spent Sunday.




REFLECTIONS - SUPERSTITIONS

Bill Langston entered an extremely thought-provoking blog last week (please see "Schwangston" link in my favorite blogs area) regarding sports superstitions. As requested, I left a list of my personal superstitions from long, long ago, when I was actually in shape and played sports. For instance, I didn't shave on the days I was scheduled to pitch. I also had pre-game rituals for getting ready for basketball and baseball (put the uniform on the same each time, warmed up the same, etc).

With Florida coming to town this weekend to likely administer a GARGANTUAN butt-whoopin' to my Vols, and through Bill's prompting, I thought it appropriate to analyze the superstitions that might be affecting this team.

1) Steve Kennedy game attire - All avid football fans believe that their actions directly affect the performance of their team on the field. I believe that my attire may be the cause for the poor football performance in recent years. I wore a lucky cap/T-Shirt combination that went 24-2 over the two year stretch of 1997-1998. It included a National Championship. Unfortunately, both items became so frayed they were forced into retirement.

I have struggled to find "lucky" attire since then. I thought I had found it briefly in 2004, when the Vols began the season 3-0, including a win over arch-rival Florida. The Eric Ainge era began and then quickly flickered into a bad memory with a sack in the Notre Dame game that ended his season and turned him into a mental wuss for the next 3 years.

2) Every great sports program that has fallen on hard times has a single defining instance that led to derailment - a dreaded "CURSE". The "Curse of the Bambino" (began when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees) plagued Boston for over 90 years before they finally won the World Series after a 90+ year drought. The Cubs hope to end the "Curse of the Goat" (the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern cursed the team when they would not sell a ticket for his pet goat to attend the 1945 NLCS) this year. My new home, Philadelphia, has the "Curse of William Penn" (no sports team has won a world championship in Philadelphia, since the statue of William Penn on top of City Hall was eclipsed as the highest point on a building in PA in the 1970's. The recently completed Comcast Tower erected a new statue of William Penn to break the curse. Result - the Philadelphia Soul won the Arena Football Championship).

Tennessee must therefore suffer from a curse:

a) The curse of James Banks - star WR kicked off of the team in 2003 for violating team rules (in Tennessee, "violation of team rules" = "he liked to smoke weed"). I doubt that this is the curse, as the Vols were a lousy 8-5 in 2002 before his dismissal and had the audacity to lose to an ACC school in the Peach Bowl that year.

b) The curse of Mark Alexander - in 1998 (the last year that Tennessee won a National Championship in football, University Center Manager and Neyland Stadium Gate Gestapo, Mark Alexander, threw one Stephen Ryan Kennedy out of the Florida game for trying to enter the stadium on a borrowed student ID. This unloaded an entire battery of "curses". These were all aimed personally towards Mr. Alexander, however I may have accidentally cursed the entire stadium). The rest of that season was salvaged by the fact that my future wife retrieved a piece of turf from that game, which I kept alive in my Kingsport apartment until UT captured its first National Championship in 45+ years. The turf subsequently "gave up the ghost". This curse is likely not the culprit either, as the Vols were a respectable 11-2 in 2001.

c) The curse of John Ward - retired "Voice of the Vols" ended his brilliant career at the end of the 1998 National Championship season. Not the likely culprit as John Ward never cursed anything. He is pseudo-deity.

d) The curse of Joe Johnson - retired UT President. This man is salt of the earth and one of the nicest gentlemen to ever walk this earth. Again, he would not curse anything. One still has to wonder given the philandering and inappropriate conduct of the past few UT President.

3) Maybe it wasn't my attire... maybe it was the loss of one of the most celebrated and frequently encountered items of clothing on the UT campus. No, I'm not talking about the Kappa Sigma "croakies" or Massey Hall underwear. I am referring to the eternal Mark Clark UT Power-T logo baseball cap. Although I don't remember precisely when its use was greatly reduced, I am certain that it lead to some sort of "orange imbalance" in the world and likely several losses.

4) I conducted a little research for this Reflection. To correctly identify the event that started this downward spiral, one has to define when the bad times began. I propose that 2002 was the beginning of the end. Although the 2000 season was a disappointing 8-3 and 2001 ended with a loss in the SEC Championship game and a chance to play for the National Championship, we were 11-2, BCS contenders and Citrus Bowl Champions. I propose that the wheels fell off in 2002, with an 8-5 record capped by a loss to Maryland in the Peach Bowl. Anytime you lose to an ACC school in football, it should be viewed as a negatively defining moment for your football program.

That said, what world events could have resulted in the 6 years of University of Tennessee football bad karma that have ensued?

a) Introduction of the Euro on January 1, 2002 - likely not the culprit, as the Vols won their New Years Day Citrus Bowl Game.

b) World Wrestling Federation changes its name to World Wrestling Entertainment - although this was an earth-shattering event for Mark Clark, Larry Wray and myself, it likely had no effect on UT football.

c) Dick Cheney serves as President for several hours after George Bush has a colonoscopy - although this is as frightening as Randy Sanders serving as a Head Coach, I believe this, too, is coincidence.

d) Freddy Heineken, Dutch beer magnate, dies - a traumatic event in the lives of beer-lovers world-wide. However, Jack Daniels is the drink of choice at Neyland Stadium. He has been dead since 1911 with no ill effects on volunteer football, other than a few pre-1927 losses to Vanderbilt.

e) The LA Angels win the World Series with "The Rally Monkey". This likely began the "Curse of West Coast Visiting Dominance" on the Vols. However, I don't think this curse carried over to all aspects of Tennessee football, or we would have not stomped the Golden Bears at home in 2006.

f) Ingrid Betancourt kidnapped in Bogota, Columbia by FARC rebels. I initially hoped that this was the cause of our misfortunes. Ms. Betancourt was heroically rescued earlier this summer by government forces in a peaceful rescue, and I was sure that UT football fortunes would change for the better. Not the case at UCLA.

g) Worldcom files for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. If this is the cause for UT football poor performance over the past several years, then the events of this week (Lehman Brothers became the new king of bankrupt U.S. corporations) will either lead to curse reversal or one DISMAL 2008 football season.

With the Gators coming to town Saturday, we will find out.

Jennifer Kain's Wedding

Rachel and I flew to Nashville for Labor Day Weekend to attend Jennifer Kain's wedding (to Jasper). This is a picture of the infamous "Pigg and the Gang" (L-R Sara Pigg Walker, Jennifer Kain Richardson, Rachel Kennedy and Becky Sexton).


The crew, all friends from Physical Therapy School at Belmont University, also attended a bridal brunch Saturday morning. This was good, as it allowed me to watch college football in the afternoon.


The wedding was held at a Presbyterian Church in Brentwood, TN and was one of the most beautiful services I have ever attended. The reception was at a country club near by and was very classy. (Sarah and Brian Walker are shown dancing here, as Brian fulfills his obligation of "one dance").


My bride and I at the wedding reception.


The Groom's Cake was absolutely amazing. It has Reese's Cups all around it. It was the most magnificent cake I have ever seen, probably because I am a huge fan of peanut butter and chocolate.


The Wedding Cake was gorgeous, too. It was a strawberry cake and was absolutely delicious.


On Sunday, Becky and Sara came over to the house to swim. Kristen Lee and Rachel's best friend, Rachel Bomar Jerrell, also came over. The pudgy girl pictured here with my Rachel is Rachel Bomar Jerrell (she is pregnant, in case you are an idiot). It is hilarious because she hasn't gained weight anywhere except in her belly. She looks like a watermelon on toothpicks. Sadly, she can run stairs faster than I can.


Sunday evening, Rachel, Kristen and I met Rachel's sister, Heather, for dinner in East Nashville. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Rose Pepper's. It was really good. It was great to see Heather.




Here I am, chillin' with the ladies.

REFLECTIONS - TOBY THE WONDER DOG

Rachel's parents took in a stray dog a few months ago. Promptly given all vaccination and named "Toby", this little dog has a lot of spunk and personality. He is quite entertaining. The vet estimates that he is about a year old.

The two videos below show Toby at his finest. In the first, Dr. Hargis dodges so Toby can fetch his tennis ball.



In this vid, Toby shows his mad catching skills.