Ike

What a disappointment!

Last night the weathermen were saying a near 100% chance of rain with up to 4+ inches of rain in the Round Rock area. Now? Just windy and clearing skies. Good thing we didn't water yesterday, huh? I was very tempted to put a sign on our roof that said "Ike, hit it here." But I decided against it.

So now the funny part: Some neighbors were just mowing their lawn, which is a normal thing to do on a Saturday morning. The thing is, the wife was out there with the leaf blower to get the grass out of the driveway. HELLO-OOOO!! You've got 10-15 mph winds with gusts up to 25 and you're using a blower to get rid of your grass. Amazing.

Now we're gonna be lucky just to get a quarter inch.

The Weekend in Sports

This weekend, the Big XII stood for 12-0. An undefeated record for the week against non-conference foes. Granted, there were some 1-AA squads in the mix, but for a league as a whole to go undefeated speaks volumes about the Big 12's depth. Sorry SEC.

The ACC bounced back to have a slightly better week. Duke is, well, Duke. Va Tech beat 1-AA Furman only 24-7 and Maryland laid an egg against their patsy. NC State found some offense after getting shut out by the other USC, but a 34-24 win over William & Mary isn't anything to be proud of.

The Big 10 went 11-0 for an undefeated week, although the boxscore says the Buckeyes had a lackluster performance against Ohio U; Ohio ain't a walkover. They've got some guy named Frank Solich leading the show.

The SEC did well. Florida handled the U, especially with a horrendous overturn in the third quarter. The official on the spot called it correctly. It wasn't that the receiver was out of bounds, it was that he didn't continue possession after getting knocked out of bounds. Arkansas turned in another poor performance, this time against Sun Belt power UL-Monroe. *snicker* LSU didn't have the stones to tell Troy "Hey, let's just play at your place." I mean eight home games isn't enough. You need that ninth one to make sure you have a successful season. NINE HOME GAMES!! That's hogwash. Or at least bayouwash. Ninnies.

Pac10: The biggest news was the criminally awful unsportsmanlike call against Jake Locker after he punched it in for six with the PAT to tie the game. The ESPN analysts beat it into the ground, but you've got to let the kids have emotion in this game.

The Big Least showed its potential with the battle of the century between UConn and Temple, which ended 12-9 in overtime. Temple? Seriously? Meanwhile, Greg Robinson is just counting down the days until he can go back to being a defensive coordinator, although, giving up 42 against the Akron Zips ain't something he's gonna want to put on his ole résumé.

C-USA can sure put some points on the board. However, it's the Skip Holtz-led ECU Pirates that are making headlines by keeping opponents off the scoreboard. East Carolina absolutely dominated the West Virginia Mountaineers, even though WVU was put on notice by the previous week's Va Tech game.

Jason Whitlock spent an entire column doting on his alma mater Ball State and how they have a shot at crashing the BCS party. Who knows with the way ECU jumped up to #14 in the polls. Dan LeFevour and the Chippewas didn't really put on a good game against Georgia. I bet the CMU brass is glad they took out that huge billboard at the baseball stadium (Comerica Park?) and let ESPN follow LeFevour around during the week.

In the Mountain West, rivals BYU and Utah continue on their march toward their end-of-year meeting to decide not only the conference championship, but possibly a berth in a BCS bowl.

Notre Dame laid a blue-and-gold egg against SDSU. I bet the folks at ND are glad they coughed up all that dough on Weis.

So, I think I said last week that I'd have my rankings out this week, but, to be honest, they look silly with ten Big XII teams in the top 11 spots. It'll take several more weeks before things start to sort themselves out.

In other news, Serena Williams! People call Jevon Kearse "The Freak" because of his size and athleticism, but with Serena able to maintain any semblance of athleticism with her new "size", I mean, that's just incredible. I know it sounds bad to make fun of her because her weight looks like it's getting a little out of hand, but she's supposed to be a professional athlete. For all her fashion sense, she should've known to wear vertical stripes instead of what she wore. The thing is, with her 6-4, 7-5 victory over Jelena Jankovic tonight, the rest of the WTA is on notice if she slims down a little.

NCAA

Football Bowl Subdivision.
Football Championship Subdivision.

What does that crap mean? I think it was just another in the long line of "I'm Keith Hernandez!" moments by the NCAA.

Do you remember that failed two-year experiment with March Madness where they went by the pod names instead of the regional monikers and had everyone confused? Don't give me the East Rutherford Regional. Give me the East Regional. Those things had history. Thankfully Miles Brand and his blowhard minions came to their senses and corrected things.

Here is one man's plea for sanity. Give us back D 1-A and D 1-AA. Those make sense. Don't change things just for the sake of change. That's just stupid.

I will never, NEVER use the terms FBS or FCS as descriptors in this space. Appy State is D 1-AA and LSU is 1-A. Too bad their history had to have inane acronyms associated with it.

Week 1 Recap

So, Texas' green secondary grew up in a hurry on Saturday, with freshman safety Earl Thomas providing some big plays after he'd given one up early in the first quarter. The game could've been much closer, say 28-24, at halftime if we didn't get those two turnovers in our red zone in the first quarter.

Even though that first quarter was rough, at least we weren't Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Pitt or any program from the ACC. The ACC merits special detail with the choke-job by Clemson (raise your hand if you were surprised), Beamerball getting turned on its head (the loss wasn't surprising, just the way it went down), Maryland squeaking by the D 1-AA Blue Hens of Delaware 14-7 and Virginia getting taken to the woodshed at home by the Trojans (when your QB is built like Screech you're in for a long season).

The Book 'em Horns are back after going on hiatus during the summer.

My rankings won't come out until next week since not everyone will play their first game until Saturday. The SEC and Big XII are the class of Division I-A, while the Sun Belt is the only conference with a sub-.500 winning percentage.

The early Heisman hopefuls didn't exactly come out slugging this weekend with a combination of injuries (Beanie Wells) and sub-par performances (Tim Tebow, Michael Crabtree), although I know Urban Meyer and Mike Leach are happy that their squads played a complete team game without focusing on just the star player(s).

I did good today with my Aggie buddies at church. One of them remarked to me after a meeting that he appreciated me not bringing it up and that I showed good restraint. That was most evident when a young kid, about 12 or so, walked past me with his A&M shirt on. I wondered, did he not know the outcome of the game? Was he just trying to provoke? Or was he just supporting his team no matter what? At any rate, I kept my mouth shut, because, after all, he's just a kid.

The guys at work on Tuesday? They're fair game. :o)

Let the fun begin!

Uncle Time!!

This past Wednesday night, we had the pleasure of Cheryl's sister and brother-in-law, along with their daughter, over to our house for dinner and fellowship.

We had visited them at their place near Dallas when we'd gone up to see family in Fort Worth, but Niece was teething and not feeling up to par, so it wasn't a great time.

But Wednesday night, she had a fun time with Uncle Ryan. That title feels really weird since they're not close by and we don't talk to them or see them with any regularity. She really giggled and squealed when I poked her belly button and played peekaboo. She even let me hold her for a nanosecond!

Thanks Niece for my Uncle time. I really enjoyed it and I look forward to some more fun in the future; whenever that is.

What A Day!

This is what I saw in the morning while riding my bike to work:

Thankfully I was going against it. Apparently there was a big wreck involving an 18-wheeler on I-35.

This is what it looked like when I was riding my bike home from work:

It didn't take long for me to get tired. When I went over the bridge I got my gangsta lean on so it wouldn't blow me off.

And this is what I came home to:


C is such a trooper for dealing with two of these all day long. I love ya Babe!

Overheard At The Dinner Table

M: "Mommy, I finished my chicken nuggets!"
C: "Okay, you can have your tattoo."

'Lympics

That 4x100 men's relay was just sick. Not only did the 'Mericans smash the world record by 4 seconds. Not only did Lezak smash the 100 split record (46.04) which is a full second faster than the official world record of 47.05 set in the semifinal. But Lezak overtook the world record holder to do it. Although, what would you expect? The French are best at quitting.

Last nights men's gymnastics was fun to watch. We went from "Green Eggs and (No) Hamm" to "Horton Hears a Woohoo!" This Johnny was not worried yet. It was time to go big or go home and Jonathon Horton went big. Congrats especially to Sasha Artemev. No pressure on the kid. His only routine was on the pommel. The other two USA Team Members had a hard time on the horse, especially with both hands around their necks. Germany was making a big move. It was down to him to save the Bronze (could've been silver!) medal. And the little man nailed it!

You'll never listen to women's gymnastics the same again after what I'm about to tell you. Have you watched "Finding Nemo"? You know towards the very end when Marlin and Nemo are on the deck and the pelican picks them up to rescue them from the seagulls? You know how those same seagulls are going "Mine!" and they're all doing it at the same time? That's what the girls sound like when they're cheering on their teammates. That's your laugh for the day.

Hindsight Really IS 20-20

I remember at the time when Ryan Perrilloux reneged on his commitment to Texas to go to LSU, the Burnt Orange Nation was up in arms.

It turns out that was the best move for the Longhorns given his troubles at LSU.

But hey, when you're a gifted athlete, especially a prized quarterback, you get as many chances as you can, as long as someone's willing to put up with a certain amount of pain in order to rent your services.

Here's hoping this kid will finally get his act together. If he screws this opportunity up, he shouldn't be paid to play football. Earn a regular man's wages instead of having everything handed to him.

It's Only a Month Away...

Football season, that is.

I believe this speaks for all my fellow Longhorns...


We've almost made it through those seven months without pigskin. At least now we have the camps beginning and the blogs going. Check out Tim Griffin's Big XII blog on ESPN.com. He's got a good assortment of original pieces and links.

Coincidence?

I think not.

On the same day I began riding my bike to work, this article came out about an incline in road rage in Portland, Oregon. As more riders hit the road in the bike-friendly town, there has been an escalation in accidents and violence between the groups as new cyclists hit the road either uninformed or ignorant of the rules of the road.

I made it safely to both work and home, but there is definitely room for improvement.

It's a great workout and it helps save on gas money.

Links Part Deux

ESPN.com has been running an interesting feature all week ranking each program in Division 1-A basketball for "prestige". Texas ranked 18th. Today they unveiled the Top 10, with no real surprise with Duke at Number 1. They took it back only to the '84-'85 season since that was when the Field of 64 was started and the 3-point line introduced the following year. Check back here to see how Sportsnation has things.

Slate Magazine had an interesting article on Presidential pardons. They wondered if Bush would use his power to preemptively pardon someone. What choice will he make? Since Bush has been more than obvious about his belief and trust in the Creator, his pardons will, and should, be under more scrutiny than, say, William Jefferson Clinton, et al. His integrity is on the line. Will he be a relativist, or will he stand firm under the pressure. My advice to the President? The leftists have already painted you as on of the worst Presidents in history with the unpopular war on terror; stand out for something.

That's Why They Pay Me The Big Bucks

During football and basketball seasons, my old crew and I from UT shoot emails about what's happening. I was cleaning out my Inbox tonight when I ran across this gem.

First, you have to check out this link and see where Texas ended up and who it matched up with in the Sweet 16.

Next, you need to read my email from March of 2007 after the 'Horns were shellacked by USC.

Oh, what to say...I know most of you guys will shoot me down as a pessimist. But before you do, just let my arguments ruminate a little bit.

Augustin needs a little more seasoning. I wonder if he was just spent playing 30 minutes a game at the pace of college ball. He kinda went all White Chocolate Jason Williams on us the last few games.

Abrams never met a shot he didn't like. Like Antoine Walker, only shorter and a little more handsome.

We don't have a legitimate big man who can dominate inside and make opponents respect the middle.

Our youth really, really killed us on Saturday. Thankfully, they'll get better with time. However, I'm not sure that Rick Barnes is the man that can take us to the next level. Sure we went to the final four back in 2003, but that team was loaded.

Mack Brown recruited well enough to put the pieces around Vince Young to the point where even he and Greg Davis couldn't screw up winning a national champtionship. The Longhorn men went basically seven deep this year with the starting five being four fish and a sophomore. Even freaking Duke was deeper than we were! And they were bounced in the first round.

So let's be real for a moment. We should all know what we're getting from a Rick Barnes-coached team at this point.
1. We cannot defend the 3-pointer, even if we play the 2-3 zone.
2. We turn the ball over too much. DJ Augustin only had a 2:1 assist:turnover ratio. Mike Conley Jr, a fellow frosh at Ohio State had a 3:1 ratio.
3. We are never blowout proof. This was something raised on ESPN this year that really caught my eye. Take a look at A&M, UCLA and other programs that were higher-seeded than us. They never got wupped.
4. Especially in our losses, we don't get to the free throw line. We only had 16 attempts against USC. Unacceptable! We only had 9 FTA against Kansas on 3/3. And when we do get to the line, although this year was slightly anomolous, we can't knock 'em down.
Just take a look at our boxscore from K-State and you'll see points 1,2 & 4.

So even if Durant stays around, which he'd be a fool to do, we won't scratch the potential of what this team could do. Sure we'd make the Sweet 16 next year, but would we really make much noise beyond that? I don't think so. If it gets a favorable draw it could even make the Elite 8, but I think the Final Four is too much to ask from Rick Barnes. One of the Sports Guy's readers likened him to Art Shell, just standing there with a blank expression on his face while the game goes on without him. He doesn't seem to have that much fire.

And maybe I'm just bitter because it could've been so much better. I had them getting by UNC but losing to Georgetown in my bracket. But if you listen to what I'm saying and think back all these years that we've had Barnes, I think you'll see that there ain't much more than we're getting from the guy. I don't care if he landed Durant AND Oden. We still wouldn't have made the Final Four.

I know I got a little carried away with that last statement, but MAN IT'S GREAT TO BE RIGHT!

Links

This article is an interesting read. I clicked on because of the perspective of what black people think about Jesse Jackson. I know I've covered him in this space before, but now his people are growing perhaps even more tired of his act than I am. In the piece he is called an "old fool" who is "an increasingly irrelevant, former big shot...who does not seem to realize that the times have passed him by." Can Barack Obama overcome all odds to win the White House? Regardless of the outcome, this can be nothing but good for our country. Young minorities, whether black, Hispanic or Asian, will feel impowered and driven to new heights. It's one thing for all little kids to say they want to be the President some day. Now, much more of our population has a role model for those dreams.

It's almost been a year since this article was published, but it remains relevant. It reminds us of the consequences of relativism and the thinking that all religions are basically the same. While the Word tells us that, as much as it is in our power to live at peace with all men, Colossians 2:8 instructs us to "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." I am reminded of The Chronicles of Narnia, where the Ape and the Calormenes get to calling the Donkey 'Tashlan', a mix of Tash and Aslan. Those who did so paid with their lives the penalty for blaspheming the I AM. Exodus 20:7 warns us "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."

Love him or hate him, Brett Favre is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. Maybe not Top 5, or even Top 10, but Top 15. Depending on your viewpoint, he held the Packers hostage most of the last four years as he drug out his decision on retirement, even holding news conferences to tell us he hadn't made a decision yet. But he's forgiven because he hasn't missed a game in I don't know how long, even after his dad passed away and there were other family issues. I can't say I blame the Packers brass for giving him the cold shoulder. The only problem is that, unfortunately for Ted Thompson, Favre has become a demigod to the cheeseheads, reaching a stature that is almost above the Pack. My only question is, when they induct him in the Hall of Fame, will they do the typical bust, or will they having a bronzed butt with John Madden's lips on a cheek? Zing!

It's pretty cool watching our new building go up. The change was amazing from the time we left for our trip on June 9th and when we made it back on July 6th. Now when we tell people it's at 360 and 183, they'll know exactly what we're talking about. We won't have to say it's close to the Arboretum or across from the Gateway shopping center (centre if you're from across the pond). God is good!

Olympics

It's cool enough that they're starting on 8.8.08.

It's even cooler that it's happening in Beijing. Why? Because the word Beijing has three dotted letters in succession. It looks cooler than Fiji because the letters are in the middle.

It's the simple things in life.

Welcome Back Cotter!

I was gone for three weeks, so I had the expectation that most of my work would be done for me so I didn't have to deal with the whole "R is only gone for a few days, let's just leave everything for him to do when he gets back" thing. Boy was I wrong. Honestly, there was an extenuating circumstance, namely that our active ingredient we manufacture was going through process validation, which meant three successive, successful batches. All of those were released during my time gone. So I didn't have to deal with that and the circus our lab becomes during the release testing. But when I got back I had, quite literally, 100 tests in my various queues. That is, in a word, unprecedented.

Knowing I had a lot of work ahead of me, and since the girls were up at 5AM, I went in an hour early and stayed a little past 5 even though our CEO had let us off two hours early. I went in for three hours on Saturday, even though it was a holiday weekend, and took some work home.

This proved to be invaluable and made last week much more manageable than it would've been otherwise. So, work has been good, although it was quite overwhelming at first.

Far West Asia

We've been here for a little under two days. I'd like to share a few cultural experiences we've had along the way.

Their keyboard is slightly different than ours. Instead of a period, it's a capital squiggly C and in place of the 'i' is an 'i' without the dot. I learned that the non-dotted 'i' is pronounced 'uh' and the dotted version is 'ee'.

They like to point at you and call you a foreigner. I remember our friend PVA regaled us with a story one time of how a little boy was walking by with his mother and pointed at him saying "Foreigner! Forgeigner!" He shot back at him with "East Asian! East Asian!" I wanted to do this, but I don't know the Far Western equivalent.

Yesterday when we went to have a picnic on the waterfront, an old convertible came past with a guy banging a drum and the driver honking the horn. Seated in the middle, in the place of honor, was a young boy, probably ten years of age, in a white robe with a white hat upon his head. The occassion? Circumcision. It's common for boys 7-14. I believe I can speak on behalf of all mankind when I cringe and say OUCH!

Kids are adored here. Not like they are in the states with the grandparents. Everbody loves kids. Especially pale ones with blonde hair. It's not uncommon for high school boys to come up to kids and want to hold them. Tonight, two gents came up to S after we got ice cream and water and gave her the ole coochie-coo. I could feel C's skin crawl as they did it. I've been with her long enough that I did the same. She suggested that we Purell her face.

Beating the heat: Today was 100 and it's going to be the coolest day of the week. Kabob says 107 is in the forecast for later this week. It plumb wore us out today. It really hit M hard, especially after her and Chickpea were up till midnight last night before falling asleep in Chick's room. We were eating dinner and Kabob noticed her starting to nod off. I excused her and she left the room. I thought she might be playing in Chick's room quietly like she has several times. But when C went to look for her, this is what she found in our room. Poor sweetheart. She even fell back asleep after S woke her up when we put her down.

I consulted my fact-checking team and she confirmed this is the first time M has ever fallen asleep before S. Both girls asleep by 8:30. We can actually have a significant amount of adult interaction with our hosts!

Sunday, Sunday. So Good To Me

Not a bad Father's Day.

C took care of the girls with Tio & Tia and let me sleep in till 11:30. I don't know when the last time it was that I slept in that late. It must've been my last semester in college, which would've been upwards of seven years ago.

We went to the beach and enjoyed some time in the sand and sea. There was a fun paddle game that Tio brought and we had a max 88 consecutive hits between us. That may not sound impressive until you factor in dodging people walking by and the wind blowing in off the Mediterranean.

Then I got some good snuggles from S after she woke up from nap. Since she's such a mommy leech, it's VERY few and far between that she'll just stay still in my arms and nuzzle up to me.

Week two begins today.

Adaptation

There are a lot of things different in Espana than America.

1. Traffic. They incorporate circles with liberty and the rules are quite different. You have to constantly be on your guard. And it doesn't help with all the motos zipping around.

2. Schedule. Namely, everything is done 2-3 hours later than in los Estados Unidos. We've been eating "early" dinners at 7:30. We normally sup at 5:15.

3. Scenery. Sure Austin is green, but you can't look out your balcony and see the Mediterranean Sea in front of you and a mountain range to your left.

4. Currency. Wow the dollar is taking a beating! It's about 1.5 dollars per Euro. I have a better understanding about what the folks are going through over here. Even if you get a steal of a deal on anything, it still kicks your bank account's butt.

5. Trash. It's all over the place. You know how Texas has those signs that say "It's unlAWFUL to litter" and "Don't Mess With Texas!"? It's just like that, except the exact opposite. Graffiti is all over the place. It's not just limited to gang-infested areas. We walked to the supermarket and in the tunnel there was a graffiti with a combo Mickey Mouse/skeleton head that said "Mickey Mouse must die!" Those anarchists are so nice. I'll try to get a foto of it and post it later.

6. Five-Second Rule. Not Applicable. The people over here train their kids with "Caca! No en la boca!" whenever something hits the ground. Tio warned us of it and we heard a lady use it on her grandson.

7. Manners. If you don't cut in line you must be either stupid or slow. No feet on the coffee table or chairs/sofa because you've most likely been walking around in sandals all day. Now I better understand the washing of feet.

8. Laundry. Whereas in the states people are wont to air their dirty laundry, here it is not uncommon to see all types of clothing hanging out to dry on the balcony.

Prayer Requests

Thank you for all your prayers so far. They have been working. Please keep it up.

I have been a lot more mindful of not sinning in my anger. While I haven't responded only in love, it's been good for the most part.

Please pray for C. She got a sinus infection and is on some antibiotics. Please pray that these meds will work well.

Thanks,

R