Mostly Sports, Most of the Time

Houston, Bartlesville, Sabetha, Bern, Bartlesville, Houston, Port Arthur

2006-11-28T18:16:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday night I flew to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. We saw family in Oklahoma and Kansas. Sunday night we were back in Houston, and since Monday night I've been back in Port Arthur working on the fire rebuild job. The Thanksgiving trip was great aside from me being sick the entire time. Thankfully, my mother-in-law is a nurse and my sister-in-law is a physician's assistant, so I was able to get some good medical attention and I'm almost back to 100%.

It was an embarrassing end to the regular season for the Horns. We choked away a chance at a second straight conference title and third straight BCS bowl game appearance. What a choke job. That's about all I have to say about that.

The past couple of days in Port Arthur have been pretty straight-forward. Yesterday I attended the normal Monday-Wednesday-Friday 1:00 construction meeting. Aside from that not much news to report, which happens to be good news. Today I spent much of the day checking over my calculation book from another job. Eventually my boss will be checking it over, so it's good to have some time to check it over myself first. In the book are all of my calculations (column base plates, anchor bolt design, column splice design, moment connection design, etc.), printouts from the model that I built, and the structural drawings that we are proposing to issue for construction. Late in the day I had to put on the nomex and hardhat and head out inside the plant to look at a few platforms and compare the damage I saw to some inspection reports that had been written on them.

I left the plant shortly before 6pm and headed for Beaumont. Instead of heading east on I-10 (which takes me to my hotel), I decided to head west towards Houston to see if there was anything done that way. To my delight, there is a Johnny Carino's, Waffle House, Pappadeaux, Cheddar's, and a Tinsletown Cinema. There are also some nice hotels down that way. Good to know. After I passed all of the establishments, I turned around and headed back towards my hotel. I stopped by a Walgreen's and picked up a copy of this month's Texas Monthly magazine.

After getting my magazine, I hit up Outback Steakhouse for dinner. I sat at the bar, watched the Horns play Texas Southern in basektball, and read about the gang problems in Houston. Written by Skip Hollandsworth, "You Don't Want to Know What We Do After Dark" is a gripping account of the out of control gang problem in Houston, and more specifically, in southwest Houston just minutes south of the Galleria.

The way the article reads, the gangs are really thriving in Houston, most notably the Southwest Cholos, La Primera, La Tercera Crips, Somos Pocos Pero Locos, and Mara Salvatrucha, or as it's more commonly called, MS-13. The additional presence of many hurricane Katrian evacuees from New Orleans has only added to the turf wars.

After dinner (bread, salad, hickory burger, one shiner), it was back to The Elegante. Don't get any crazy ideas....it's the name of my hotel.
Walking through the lobby, I look up to see a blonde lady sitting by the Christmas tree. She appears to be talking to someone and there appears to be a light on her face. As I get closer, I realize that the lady is being filmed and must be doing an interview. A closer look reveals to me that it's OU women's basketball coach Sherri Coale (forgive the spelling). She's wearing an OU pullover and as I pass by I hear her saying something to the effect of "I'm real proud with what we've been able to do...." Regardless, that was interesting, and it got even more interesting after I hollered "Hook 'em horns, Sherri." She gave me the horns down with both hands and the guy got it on film.

Ok, so I'm kidding about yelling hook 'em and her giving me the horns down. That would've made for some great blog material, though.

Currently, as of 9pm, I'm watching 8-mile. What a great movie. I'm a big Eminem fan. Do I agree with everything he says and does? No, obviously. But I do think he's amazing....a real lyrical genius. You go, B-Rabitt.

Well that's all for me for the night. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be back home with my girls. I can't wait to hug my wife and hold my baby girl. That Lauren is such a sweetheart. Goodnight from Beaumont!

My First AA Hockey Experience

2006-11-18T07:39:00.000-08:00

Well, last night Dustin and I hit up Coache's in Bricktown (downtown Oklahoma City). After some cheese fries, a barbeque chicken and linebacker special (pizzas), and a couple of jugs of harvester wheat, it was off to the Ford Center to watch the Oklahoma City Blazers face off against the Cotton Kings from Lubbock.

When scored some $10 tickets outside the arena (face value was $17) and headed to our seats 4 rows off the ice. There were some folks already in our seats, so we found a section of about 10 empty seats nearby and sat down. A few minutes later a j-hole cowboy shows up with his Winona Judd-wanna-be wife and informs us that we are in his seats. As we begin to move down to our seats, he asks, "Do y'all boys even have a ticket?" Well, any other night we would've fired something back like, "No, we snuck in," or, "Do YOU have a ticket, Bubba?" But we didn't. We did what classy people do and just moved down into our seats. You see, "Bubba" probably drove in from a small town last night to catch dinner and see his Blazers. I mean he had his best-pressed Wranglers on, his nicest felt cowboy hat and he's gonna be hot-damned if a couple of prettyboy city slickers are gonna take his season ticket-holder seats.

After some dippin' dots and chuckin' a few pucks, we were in for one heck of a 3rd period. With the Blazers down 3-1, the game began to take on a more physical tone. At the beginning of the 3rd, one of the Blazers players absolutely laid out a Cotton King. In football, it's called a de-cleater. Laid the guy out on his back. Sticking up for his guy, a fellow Cotton King skates over and tackles the Blazer that had delivered the initial blow, and the fight was on. The Cotton King that initially got blasted (#11) skated off the ice and did not return the rest of the night. One fight, several big hits, and 2 more Blazer goals later, we were going to overtime. Tied after the end of the 5-minute overtime, we were now headed to a shootout. Blazers win the shootout 4-3, and the crowd goes nuts. It was the best hockey game I've ever been to. A great time.

Hanging out in Port Arthur, Texas

2006-11-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

Well, it's another 3 days in Port Arthur this week for me. It's tough being away from my girls, but I enjoy being out in the field, so it's a give and take. I'm out here a few days a week now, and that may increase before it goes down. We're demolishing, designing, and re-building part of an aromatics and olefins plant that burned up last April. It's a great job for a young engineer like myself; most people go their whole career without getting to work on a fire re-build, so I'm fortunate to get this experience so early on.

Yesterday was a brutal day for me. I woke up with a headache and my body ached all over. These symptoms lasted all day, and by the evening my headache had only worsened. After work, I checked into the La Quina, went to CVS and bought Advil, Gatorade and water, went back to the hotel and crashed. I woke up today feeling great. I was afraid I was coming down with the flu, but maybe it was just a 24-hour bug. I was miserable though yesterday. When you feel like that, you just want to be home. You don't want to be in some stinky hotel room like I was. That sucked.

Tonight I hit up Chili's for dinner. I went stag so I sent a bunch of text messages while I ate. I probably sent 6 out and got a 50% reply rate - not too bad. Prior to dinner I stopped by Academy and picked up a black stocking cap. The weather we have blowing through southeast Texas is too cold for a bald or balding head.

Tomorrow at work I've got to try to get some RFIs (requests for information) answered. When construction has a question for the engineers back in the office in Baton Rouge, I help get the questions answered so that construction knows how to proceed. One of the RFIs I'm working on involves the adhesive to be used to secure anchor bolts into existing concrete. Engineering specified one type of epoxy; construction wants to use a different type that is easier to use. I have to do some research and figure out if they are equivalent in terms of load capacity, etc.

I'm heading back to Houston tomorrow afternoon. I need to get home soon enough for us to leave for Oklahoma at a reasonable time. Two hours of driving from PA to Houston, 1 hour driving from my office to my house, then 7 hours driving to Oklahoma City: it's going to be a long day.

Next week I'll be back in PA for Monday and Tuesday. Then it's off to Oklahoma and Kansas for Thanksgiving. After that, back to Port Arthur for at least Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Exciting times in PA, exciting times...

Bears-Giants

2006-11-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

So far, after one quarter, both QBs look sloppy. Rex Grossman is starting to look mediocre, as he's been up and down the past four game and looks fairly mediocre tonight. I'm still not sold on Eli Manning. Tiki Barber is still a stud and Brian Urlacher is a beast. I see the homefield advantage being huge in this game. I think this one will get away from the Bears. I just don't think they're as good as they appeared during the first half of the season. I'll check back in later in the game and we'll see if I'm correct.

Well it's almost halftime and the Giants are up 13-3. The weather is cold and drizzly and is certainly impacting the game. The Giants D is stepping up huge in the absence of Michael Strahan and numerous other starters. And right after I say this the Bears run a draw on 3rd and 22 and pick up about 30 yards for a first down. I'm sticking with my original prediction of a big Giants win.

Dynamo Wins MLS Cup!

2006-11-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

The Houston Dynamo won the MLS Cup today, beating the New England Revolution 4-3 in penalty kicks. Regulation ended tied at 0, and after a thrilling minute that included a fantastic goal by the Revs followed by a score by the Dynamo, it was on to the shootout.

The Dynamo relocated to Houston after last season from San Jose, California.

A Bad Night in Kansas

2006-11-12T06:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been calling it all week: the UT-Kansas State game had all the makings of a potential upset. The game was played in cold Manhattan, Kansas, at night, on ESPN. The Horns had a chance to overtake Florida in the BCS rankings if they looked impressive enough against K-State. Well early on, I knew style points weren't to be had. I could tell that the Horns were going to lose this game in the first quarter. K-State was more physical, more intense and clearly just wanted this win more than Texas. The Horns looked sluggish and uninspired, almost like it was a hassle that they had to play this game. Give credit to Ron Prince and the Wildcats. Coach Prince had his boys ready to play and had them believing that they could knock off the defending national champions. He made some bold calls (two half-back passes in a row) that were executed well and fired up the fans in purple. We'll give him a pass on the boneheaded fake punt call from his own 30-yard line. But when you're overmatched on paper and you have nothing to lose, you have to try to make big plays. K-State did just that.

Ignorant Texas fans will point to the fact the Colt McCoy was hurt on the first offensive series for the Horns and did not return. But offensive production was not the problem. The Texas defense gave up way too many points; Jevan Snead played plenty well to give the Horns a chance, and as a true freshman, Texas could not have asked for anything more from him. I do hope, however, that he can learn to get the ball down some. He threw too many balls to open receivers that were flat out thrown too high. He reminded me of OU's Paul Thompson early in the season.

Moving forward, the Horns still have a chance to clinch their second straight Big XII Championship and in doing so can play in a big time BCS bowl game. They need to regroup before Texas A&M comes to Austin on T+1 (that's the day after Thanksgiving for all you non-Texans). I look for the Horns to get up for the TAMU game and win comfortably. Then it's off to Kansas City for a conference championship matchup against Nebraska.

As a college football fan, you've got to be happy for K-State. They earned this win. They were the better team, clearly. Ron Prince does a great job with those kids.

Here's what Texas Head Coach Mack Brown had to say about the loss:
At Texas there's never a good time to lose, Ohio State wasn't good timing either. What you do is play the best that you can play, do the best you can do and tonight we just didn't win. Half the teams in America feel the same way. I told these kids they should not have their heads down with as many games as they've won in their careers. I think it's emotional every time you lose. It's not good. You put too much into it, you work too hard. The kids are really disappointed but like I said, these kids have lost very few so it's something they're not used to.

Texas fans: get over it. I am. Yes, it's disappointing, but life goes on, even in Texas, even when the Horns lose. We still are in the driver's seat to play in a BCS bowl game broadcast in high-definition. And it's still a great day to be a Texan and a Longhorn fan. There are lots of worse places to live and more disappointing teams to support; speaking of worse places to live and more disappointing teams to support, the ags are coming to the capitol city: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....gig 'em, aggies......so ridiculous it's comical. Keep your Horns up, and be happy our cheerleaders aren't dudes from east texas who wear denim overalls with their names painted on!

Moving on to the NFL, the Texans travel to Jacksonville today for their second meeting with the Jaguars. Who cares? I will definitely tune in tonight to NBC to watch the Bears and Giants battle for NFC supremacy.

NFL

2006-11-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Sunday, and that means we have a bunch of NFL games on tap. Most notably, Peyton Manning and the Colts travel to Foxboro for a primetime showdown with Tom Brady and the Patriots. Manning and the Colts have yet to solve Brady's Pats in Foxboro, and this year will be more of the same: I like the Pats at home to hand Indy its first loss of the season.

Another game of particular interest to Houstonians is the Texans at the Giants. Kickoff is set for 12:00 Texas time. Don't expect anything great out of mediocre-at-best David Carr and the Texans. Here's to continued losing in the hopes of drafting Adrian Peterson, unless of course they decide to pass on the best player in the draft again.

Welcome!

2006-11-05T07:47:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog. I'm a sports guy: all sports. College football, however, is king and will be treated as such on this site. This blog is a medium with which I will share insight, rant and rave, question and comment on the sports world, and at times, the world outside of sports. Enjoy!