Weather

So, while here in NYC we've had a very warm fall, 50's and 60's every day except one week in the 40's, in Texas it will snow tomorrow (Thursday) in Wellington. Don't know where Wellington is, well, go to the middle of no where and turn right, in 30 miles you'll be in Wellington. I'd love to be there right now. Anyway, we get asked all the time, "Does it get cold in Texas?" So it's fun to say on a 65 degree day, "Well, it's snowing in Texas today."

Aggies are going to the Holiday Bowl. Funny how a win over texas cures all.

Thankful...

Man, time has flown, November is gone.

First, HOW ABOUT THEM AGGIES!!! 12-7 over the dreadful, awful t-sips. (My wife is a longhorn, as a graduate of the University of Texas, we are a mixed marriage.) This is the first time the Aggies have won since we've known each other. This morning I played the Aggie War Hymn, (I have the cd, I know, I know, ) and told her, "Only 364 more days of this." We handle this rivarly better than I think most do, and most of the credit goes to her, not me. But, as I told her as she seemed a bit amazed at my excitement, "It's different when you're on the dominated end of a rivarly game."

Second, I like Thanksgiving alot, as I think it is a truely American holiday. We spend this Thanksgiving with our dear friends in the city, that we will miss terribly when we return to the mother land.

Finally, we have alot to be thankful for in our family. Baby is on the way. (We don't need socks, I think Drew has more socks than the two of us together now.) We have two nice choices on jobs for Bubba, both of which work with Mrs. Bubba's old job in Dallas. We have all the "stuff" we need for the baby. Baby and Mommy are both healthy! We have great friends in the city that help and support us. We have great families at home that help and support us. We're doing pretty good. I never thought at 30 I would have this much to look forward to, but I'm more excited about the future at 30 than I was at 18 or 24.

Converting a Longhorn to an Aggie

Everyone must go to this website.

SWC Game of the Week: Texas A&M Aggies at Texas Longhorns

This week’s SWC Game of the Week is one of the state’s oldest and nation’s oldest rivalries. The Aggies and Longhorns will meet the Friday after Thanksgiving for the 113^th time. Only Wisconsin vs. Minnesota (115) and Kansas vs. Missouri (114) have met more often. The series started in 1894 and has been played every year since 1915. In 1914 the Longhorns refused to play the Aggies because of their rough style of play under legendary Aggie coach Charlie Moran.

The Longhorns lead the all time series 73-34-5 and 50-13-3 series lead for games played in Austin. The longhorns have won 6 straight and 9 of 11. But over the last 20 years the series is split 10-10 and over the past 30 years the series is split 15-15. The game has been played on Thanksgiving Day 60 times in the 106 year history. Now of course the game is played the day after Thanksgiving because of ABC.

This year’s game will feature a favored Texas squad looking to clinch a Big 12 South title and a berth in the Big 12 Championship game against the North winner, Nebraska. A&M will try to play spoiler, after losing its last two conference games by a combined total of 2 points. The story revolves around whether Texas starting QB Colt McCoy will be healthy enough to earn the start. Jevan Snead played in relief of Colt McCoy in Texas lost to Kansas State in their last game. The last time Texas started a true freshman at QB, Chris Simms, the Aggies beat them. This is also the last time the Aggies beat Texas, and the last Thanksgiving before one Aggie boy met another Longhorn girl. Coach Fran will try to avoid starting his coaching career at A&M 0-4 against the hated Longhorns. The last coach to lose more than 4 in a row to Texas and not be replaced with a new coach was Homer Norton who lost 8 in a row to Texas before being removed after the 1947 season. I guess the 1939 National Championship Coach Norton won for the Aggies gave him a bit of wiggle room. Coach Fran didn’t win a National Championship with A&M.

There are many stories from this great game, but let’s take one from the 1965 Game. Gene Stallings was the A&M coach, his first year coaching the Aggies. The Aggies were 3-6 and were playing a disappointing 5-4 Texas squad coached by Darrell Royal. The last A&M win was 1956 in the series. Texas had A&M backed up to its own 9 yard line when Coach Stallings called for the “Texas Special.” On the snap, Aggie QB Harry Ledbetter threw a low spiral that hit the ground in front of the wingback on the left side (Jim Kauffman), and skittered into his hands. Kauffman stomped the ground in disgust, and Harry Ledbetter threw down his hands in frustration. Everybody on the field and in the stands relaxed, as the play was apparently over and the pass incomplete. But then Kauffman suddenly turned and threw a long pass to Ken “Dude” McLean, who was running alone down the right center of the field, and across the goal line with no defenders anywhere close. When the referee signaled a touchdown, the stunned crowd slowly realized that the bounced pass was actually a lateral thrown slightly backwards to Kauffman, who had lined up two to three yards back of the line of scrimmage. It was a 91 touchdown pass that had been put in the playbook just for Texas. The field judge ha been tipped off before the game by Stallings so that an inadvertent whistle would not be blown when the lateral hit the ground. The momentum spurred the Aggies to a 17-0 half time lead, but Texas recovered to win 21-17.

Other big games this week:

SMU at Rice (Both teams are bowl eligible, winner might get the bowl.)

Arkansas vs LSU

TCU at Colorado State

Last week:

Rice beat East Carolina in the SWC Game of the week 34-24 for win #6 and to become bowl eligible.

Arkansas 28 Mississippi State 14

Baylor 10 OU 36

Houston 23 Memphis 20 OT (Houston will host CUSA championship game.)

SMU 34 Tulsa 24 (SMU with win #6)

TCU 52 San Diego State 0

Texas Tech 30 Ok. State 24

Coming Home

One of the best things about living in New York, is coming home to New York. Nothing beats flying into LaGuardia airport and flying right by Manhattan. I think this is because the best way to view Manhattan is from a distance. It looks majestic, and you pinch yourself and think, "Do I really live there?" You get the same effect coming around the ramp in New Jersey on your approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. I had to take a car service to NJ for work and was coming back and the driver was chatting me up. I wanted to say, "Shhh, look."

Katie's cousin came to visit when we first moved here and was staying in Times Square on a high floor. Katie and I went up to their room and then glued ourselves to the windows looking out. They thought it was funny, "Don't you live here?" they asked. We should have answered, "No, we live underground in the subway tunnels, we live in a cube in the middle of a room, we live in the back apartment, we live in the booth in the back of the bar, we don't live HERE."

New York at street level is hard, a fight everyday, and often you catch yourself with your head down, trudging along. But from afar, up high in an airplane, New York is magic.

SWC Game of the Week: East Carolina at Rice

This week’s SWC Game of the week features the Rice Owls playing host to the East Carolina Pirates. This correspondent knows where South Carolina is located, and knows where North Carolina is located, but not sure about East Carolina. Anyway, this game’s focus will be the Rice Owls, winners of 4 in a row. This is the first time they have won 4 in a row in one season since 1999. They have improved their 2005 record by 4 games, with only SWC foe Arkansas improving their record by more games (5). This season they have won their first two road games as a member of Conference USA, over UCF and last week’s win over Tulsa, a preseason favorite in C-USA. Wide Receiver Jarrett Dillard has been named one of the 14 semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award, which goes to the best receiver in the country. The architect of this Rice Owl explosion, first year head coach Todd Graham. Todd Graham has the best first year turn around of any Rice coach since Jess Neely, back in the days when teams like Alabama had to have subs jump off their bench to tackle streaking Rice ball carriers. Graham comes to Rice from Tulsa, where he coached under Steve Kragthrope and they turned a 1-10 program around to C-USA champions in year 4. This game will be played at Rice Stadium on the Rice campus in Houston. Now, for this writer, no stadium is better than Rice Stadium. Built for the 1950 season to house the large crowds the SWC champion Rice Owls were drawing, it has hosted many memorable events, including Super Bowl VIII. This year Rice Stadium underwent a 6 million dollar renovation, replacing the athletic surface with field turf, installing new bleachers and a new scoreboard. If you have never been to a game at Rice Stadium, you don’t know what you are missing. It is a true masterpiece. The end zone seats have been covered this year to reduce capacity to 47,000, but they can regain the original 70,000 seats.

Other games this week:

Arkansas at Mississippi State

Baylor vs. Oklahoma

Houston at Memphis (To clinch hosting C-USA championship)

SMU vs. Tulsa

TCU vs. San Diego State

Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma State

Last week’s game:

U of H came back to beat SMU 37-27 and take one step closer to hosting the C-USA Championship game.

Other games:
Arkansas 31 Tennessee 14

OSU 66 Baylor 24

Houston 37 SMU 27

Rice 41 Tulsa 38

Kansas State 45 Texas 42 (UPSET ALERT)

Nebraska 28 Texas A&M 27 (Nov. woes continue)

TCU 27 New Mexico 21

Oklahoma 34 Texas Tech 24

SWC Game of the Week: Houston at SMU

This week’s SWC Game of the Week is the Houston Cougars traveling to the Hilltop in Dallas to take on the Southern Methodist Mustangs. SMU is one win away from becoming bowl eligible. It would be the first bowl game for the Mustangs since 1984. The road gets tough for SMU starting with this game against Houston, followed by Tulsa and a visit to Rice. Houston on the other hand is setting its self up nicely to host the Conference USA Championship Game. The trip to SMU appears to be the last hurdle, as they finish the season on the road against last place Memphis. U of H is bowl eligible for the 3^rd time in 4 years, the first time that has happened since 1978-1981. If the Coogs win this one, it will be their 8^th victory, the first time that has happened since 1990. Think, the Coogs are winning all these games without splicing porno clips into the game film. The U oh H QB, Kevin Kolb, has been nominated as a finalist for the O’Brien National QB Award. (Of course we all know that Davy O’Brien played QB at TCU (Dallas Woodrow Wilson High School Grad) in the Southwest Conference. Ahh, the glory days. He won the national championship at TCU in 1938 but he might not be the best QB in Horn Frog history. Some could argue those honors should be saved for one Slingin’ Sammy Baugh.) This should be a good match of old SWC foes, and has championship implications.

Other notable games this week:

Arkansas vs. Tennessee

Rice at Tulsa

Texas at K-State (Could wrap up Big 12 South Title)

Texas A&M vs. Nebraska (Fran: Touchdowns = 7 points, Field Goals = 3 points)

TCU at New Mexico

Texas Tech at OU

Last week’s Game of the Week:

Oklahoma defeated Texas A&M before a rowdy crowd at Kyle Field 17-16. OU jumped out to an early 14-3 lead in the first quarter, but would only score a field goal the rest of the way off an A&M turnover. The Aggies tried to catch up in 3’s. After a failed 3^rd and goal pass from the 2, A&M settled for a field goal with 7 minutes to go to cut the lead to 17-13. With 3 minutes to go, A&M again elected to kick a field goal. They would never get the ball back, with OU converting a 4^th and inches on the 29 yard line and sealing the win. After the game the media informed Fran that field goals are worth 3 points, not 4, and touchdowns are worth 6 points with a chance for 1 or 2 more. He’s going to put that in the game plan for Nebraska.

Other scores;

Arkansas 26 S. Carolina 20 (Look out for the Hogs…, how great would an Arkansas vs. Texas game be this year?)

Texas Tech 55 Baylor 21 (Baylor is missing starting QB Bell.)

Houston 27 Tulsa 10

Rice 37 UTEP 31 (Rice has won 3 in a row!)

Texas 36 OSU 10

TCU 25 UNLV 10

One final note:

After Saturday, if you are an Aggie and happen to be married to a longhorn, then you have permission to make fun of the longhorns until THE GAME. This is in the pre-nup, so no back talk.

Texans

The last 6 months I've had the pleasure of sitting next to our exchange engineer from Denmark at work. She worked on our project, and we became friends. (A friend at work I've needed lately.) Anyway, she had to write a report as she is going back to her Denmark firm. In her report she put the following, "I've learned that Texans are Texans before they are Americans." I felt so proud, I did my job!

Overheard on Subway

Little Kid to Dad: What is your job?

Dad: I'm a lawyer.

Little Kid: Gibberish, something like what do you do...

Dad: I'm a partner, I'm a head lawyer.

Little Kid: Why is your head so big?

Little kids sometimes are more aware of things than their parents.

What do you want to be when you grow up.

O.K. thanks for b-day wishes, and part II of turning 30, career. When I was little I really thought I'd be a professional baseball player. I think I knew the odds were slim, but I'd overcome them. Then when that dream kinda ended (I still may be discovered on the Central Park softball fields) I wanted to be an architect. Then I figured I was too good at math, so I chose civil engineering.

Now, back track a bit. I loved Legos growing up and built stadiums out of them. Now I'm a structural engineering working on a baseball stadium. Not bad, huh? But what do I want to be when I grow up?

I like my job o.k. but not the industry, which tends to over work people until they jump off a building. But at 30, and after working for a few years, I feel like I know what I want out of a job more than ever, so I feel good about it. I want to be challenged at work. I want to do meanful work. I'm proud of civil engineering and feel like in a certain way we serve the public. I like to say civil engineers have added more years to your life than doctors have. I don't want to just push money around. It'd pay better, but I don't think I'd have as high of a satisfaction. I'm not putting anyone down, just telling you how I feel. I also want to go home at 5:30 or 6:00 and have the weekends off. I think I'm a motivated and hard worker, but there is a long list of things I like to do outside of work. I enjoy my softball leagues, I like to have time to read books, I like to jog, I like to go to events (performances, sports, etc.), I enjoy teaching Sunday School at Church, and I like to spend time with my wife and soon to be baby. I think this makes me better at my job as well.

So, at 30 I feel like I know what I want out of a career more than I did when I started. And I'm looking for it, and have some nice leads.

Coming up...

Family, Where to Live, Friends ...

SWC Game of the Week; OU at Texas A&M

This week’s game of the week is the OU Sooners traveling down to College Station to play the Texas A&M Aggies on prime time ABC. Kickoff will be at 7 PM Eastern, or 8 PM for the East Coast Media outlets, like this one. OU is ranked #18 but is without their star running back, Adrian Peterson. Not to mention they are playing without projected starting QB Rhett Bomar who cheated this summer so they didn’t let him play. But the Sooners only lost is to the Texas Longhorns, who have not had the privilege of beating A&M yet. A&M, ranked 21^st, is a bit of a surprise this year at 8-1, only losing to Texas Tech at the last minute. The Aggies seem to be hanging on by the “skin of their teeth” but come up winners each week. They will be tested this November though, as the schedule gets a big tougher with OU, Nebraska at home, then the annual showdown with texas in Austin. Now, are the Aggies all hat and no cattle, or are they ready to play with the big boys? This game will go a long way to determining that. OU’s defense is coming together and will be the test for QB Steven McGee who has led A&M on several drives late to win games.

Bit of series information, OU leads all time14-10 with the first meeting in 1908. OU was a charter member of the SWC before leaving a few years later. OU has won the last 3 games, but the A&M victory was over a #1 ranked OU squad at Kyle Field. Of course that got a man fired. OU then won the next game 77-0, and it was worse than the score indicated.

Other games this week:

Arkansas at South Carolina

Baylor at Texas Tech (Old SWC foes)

Houston vs. Tulsa (Cue Coog fans, go to a game.)

Rice at UTEP

Texas vs. OK State

TCU at UNLV (see editorial comment about TCU below.)

SMU has a bye after playing on Tuesday, Tuesday?

Last week’s game of week:

A&M defeated Baylor 31-21 and won the Battle of the Brazos for another year. A late 65 yard TD run by Michael Goodson sealed the win for the Aggies.

Texas beat Texas Tech 35-31 at Jones Stadium in Lubboch. Tech lead most of the game. QB Colt McCoy had another solid game and Texas won a game that good teams do.

Other games last week:

Arkansas 44 La Monroe 10

Houston 51 UCF 31 (Where are the Cougar fans? Not at the games.)

SMU 22 UAB 9 (on Halloween, on ESPN2, with the worse commentating ever.)

TCU 26 Wyoming 3

Who else thinks TCU isolated themselves from the rest of the state by joining the Mountain West? 4 of the Texas teams are in the Big 12, the other 3 in CUSA, then TCU. They play no in state rivals for conference play. Not smart in this writer’s opinion.