Category Archives: Longhorns

Nice Quiet Week

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This week was pretty quiet as we stayed at home and did various chores around the house. Jennifer is finishing up the drapes for our room. We went out and got Izzy’s bike fixed. A cold snap finally hit Florida and I replaced the downstairs thermostat with a programmable one. This allows me to lower the temperature at night and have it automatically increase the temperature in the morning before we get up.

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One excursion we did was visit the Gaylord Palms’ ICE! Exhibit. The Gaylord Palms hotel had brought in ice sculptors to carve blocks of ice. The exhibition hall was set to nine degrees and they handed out parkas for everyone to wear. Jennifer had the forethought to buy the girls hats and mittens, so they were prepared. However, it didn’t take long before Izzy’s cute nose was turning red. Near the end of the exhibit was a giant ice slide, which the girls got to slide down.

So, overall a nice quiet week off. Next few weeks are busy: Emily’s birthday, the Texas Longhorns try to win the National Championship, the launch of Madden Ultimate Team, Jennifer’s parents are flying in, dinner at Medieval Times (for Emily’s birthday), and a camping trip down at Disney.

Anniversary Dinner

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It’s always easy to remember my wedding anniversary. It’s near Texas-OU weekend. For a while the day of my wedding was the last time Texas had defeated OU. Well, 6 out of 8 times OU has been the victor in this match-up and they won again today beating Texas 28-21. It wasn’t as much of a blow out as I thought it was going to be. Texas was hanging in with them, but in the end McCoy couldn’t pull out a two minute drill to go down the field and tie it up. Like I said, they didn’t look as bad this week. Maybe they can win the rest of the games and go to a respectable bowl this year (hopefully in Florida).

Near the end of the game, we had to leave for our anniversary dinner. We hadn’t been there in a while so we decided to hit The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. It’s a slow meal so you have plenty of time to talk. It’s our eighth anniversary, so we had plenty to reminisce about. We used to make it our “date” place all the time, but got tired of it. It was once again good and we both looked forward to eating there all week.

While we were there, Jennifer noticed a sign for a “Ladies Night” and that it had sponsors. She talked to the manager and got on the list to display her photographs and to put a coupon in a “gift basket” they are going to be handing out. We’re hopeful that this will start to drum up some business for Storybook Portraits.

Another UCF Game

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I headed up once again to UCF today for a game against Memphis. We were having a team event for up at work in the form of a tailgate and then had tickets for the game. The tailgate was fun, company paid for the food and our executive producer paid for the beer. We cooked up some burgers and hung out and tried not to talk about work. That sometimes is hard since we do work for a game company.

There was an uproar over the past week because of the water debacle during the Texas game. Since they ran out last week around half time, they quickly installed some water fountains (I didn’t actually see them) and they handed out a free bottle of water as you entered the gate.

I didn’t stick around to see if they ran out of water again this week. At half time the score was UCF 42 and Memphis 0. So, I decided it was time for me to head out. After all, I needed to get back home by 7:00 to see Texas play against Rice. Finally the Horns blew out a crappy opponent. When Fox Sports Florida turned the game over to another one, Texas was winning 58-7.

A Close Call

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Today I spent all day up at the University of Central Florida (UCF) as the Texas Longhorns came into town. We ordered BBQ over the Internet from The Salt Lick in Austin, Texas and I spent the morning cooking it up for our tailgate. Others were in charge of chips and Shiner Bock. We rolled onto campus in the Sequoia with the Rose Bowl playing on the televisions in the back of the truck around 11:00. We found a choice spot under some trees to set up camp and broke out the beers. After a while, we broke out the BBQ and just sat around and talked and ate until it was time to head over to the stadium.

We packed up camp and started our trek all the way across the campus to the new Brighthouse Networks Stadium. This was the first game in UCF’s new stadium. It was a big deal on the news this morning that no water fountains were built in the stadium. They reassured everyone that there would be plenty of water to purchase. Of course, I went down at half time to buy some water: they were out.

Well, overall the game was pretty frustrating as a Longhorn fan. They UCF fans were quite annoying celebrating every single first down (apparently this is a tradition). The Longhorns looked pretty pitiful and I’m not very hopeful when they play Oklahoma in a few weeks. So far they’ve struggled against Arkansas State, TCU, and now UCF. The play calling is very questionable and Colt McCoy is looking very “Simms like”. Not good.

First Day

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Today was the first day of Vacation Bible School for Jennifer and the girls. Even Isabelle got to go now that she’s two. Almost 400 people are attending and Jennifer said it was a sea of kids in the Family Life Center gymnasium up at church. Fortunately, Jennifer only sees a hand full of kids at a time and only for around twenty minutes until the next group comes in. Today’s picture is some of the decorations that were put up this weekend.

At work, I conducted the first team meeting for my new team. It was pretty much silent as I explained the plan for figuring out the type of game we were going to build. I also had to give some bad news to some guys who were going to moving off to a new team. Of all the things I don’t like about being a manager, it’s delivering bad news. It’s a fact of life that it’s part of my job and I know I have to do it and I don’t have a problem doing it. I just don’t like doing it. I guess no one really does, unless you are sadistic.

NCAA Football 08 comes out tomorrow and the Marketing department had some extra Xbox 360 Faceplates, so I snagged one for my 360. The requests for copies of NCAA from some of my friends started coming in this weekend. I plan on picking up my copy tomorrow. A pretty good commercial featuring the Texas Longhorns was sent around work today as well.

Longhorns win Alamo Bowl

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The Longhorns pulled off a victory in their last game of the season. They were pitted against unranked 6-6 Iowa in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. The pictures of the River Walk got me hungry for Mexican food and fresh tortillas, but oh well. It should have been a blow out by Texas, but it didn’t turn out that way. The Longhorns looked pretty poor in the first half. McCoy was throwing passes too short and was generally looking pretty confused, but not as confused as the Texas defense. They let Iowa get an early lead, which was very very similar to their earlier games in the season. A few calls and plays go their way and all of a sudden they are back in the game and pull off a 2 point victory: 26-24. All I have to say is that I’m glad this season is over and I’m looking forward to the next.

Texans are now 3-0…

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…against Florida teams. They are 0-6 against non-Florida teams, but that’s besides the point. Unfortunately, they didn’t give tickets out to any of the games at work this week. I was hoping to win tickets to the Texans–Jaguars game since it was only about an hour and a half drive away up in Jacksonville. Texans were up early and held strong winning 13-10, despite missing two field goals. This was their first road win since December 2004.

You may be saying to yourself that I haven’t commented on another game which happened yesterday. Well, here at Frenchville, we only talk about positive sports events. We don’t talk about how the Longhorns choked away their chance at a rematch against Ohio State in the National Championship. We don’t talk about how Colt McCoy’s collar bone isn’t broken and he’s questionable in the game against A&M. And, we definitely don’t talk about they now must beat the Aggies in order to have a rematch against Nebraska in the Big XII Championship.

My Poor Xbox

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Today my Xbox died. The past couple of days it’s been locking up randomly and today it finally gave up and just flashed some red lights on the front when I tried to turn it on. I called customer support and they had me send it back in to get repaired. I heard a rumor on the Internet that some of the early Xbox 360 models were overheating because a heat sync on the graphics chip wasn’t installed properly. Oh well, it’s coming up on a year, so I was afraid that my warranty was going to expire soon. So, I made sure and called them today.

Today Abby went on a field trip with Jennifer for Jennifer’s photography class. They went to Rollins College to take some pictures of their unique architecture. Jennifer had been enjoying the class and has learned a lot. Her ultimate goal is to start her own business taking children’s photographs. Today’s picture is one of Abby posing for Jennifer while on their field trip.

The Longhorns rolled all over Oklahoma State tonight. Winning easily: 36-10. I was worried more about this game than I was against Texas Tech. Fortunately, Texas didn’t let OSU get ahead like they did Nebraska and Tech. They started out strong and kept it up the whole game.

Longhorns Win a Close One

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The Longhorns pulled out a nail biting win against the Nebraska Cornhuskers today, 22-20. It wasn’t looking good, down 20-19, when the Longhorns caused a fumble with less than two minutes to go. They drove down the field and kicked the game winning field goal with 20 seconds left in the game. The Longhorns dominated most of the game and it wasn’t until the end of the third quarter that the Cornhuskers became energized, perhaps it was the snow that started to fall. Anyway, Colt McCoy rallied them and drove down the field. It was the most exciting Longhorn game since the National Championship.

Parent’s Night Out

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On Monday Jennifer and I had our seventh wedding anniversary. We didn’t do much on Monday because Jennifer had her photography class. Also, for the first time ever, EA Tiburon had a “parent’s night out” on Friday. All the kids of employees came up to work and they had hired a company to watch all of them while the parent escaped for a night out of the town. They had crafts and watched Finding Nemo on our giant projection screen. We took all the girls up there and then Jennifer and I went to our favorite “date” restaurant: The Melting Pot.

Texas once again crushed Baylor, this year 63-31. It wasn’t looking good when Baylor jumped to a 10-0 lead, but I had faith that Texas would come back. there was no way that Baylor would beat us. The defense once again looked great. They stepped up and caused turnovers, two of which they brought back for touchdowns. Florida lost, so that should move Texas one step closer to a rematch with Ohio State in the National Championship.