I have put together a page for Hurricane Ike. Some pictures and video are there now, along with our story and some links to other pictures. I'll update more in a little while.
Hurricane Ike page
We are OK!
We weathered Hurricane Ike very well. Story, pictures and video will be coming soon.
Briefly: we stayed in Humble through the storm, but left for San Antonio when post-hurricane storms overwhelmed the drainage pond and started flooding the parking lot. We are in San Antonio for now, but will head back on Wednesday.
We've been pretty busy, Amy with work and Jeff with student teaching. As a result, there haven't been any updates. Not because we were too busy, just because nothing much happened.
Updates from the road! Pictures are up from our Christmas trip.
Sorry for the delay, finally got around to updating the Cougar Football page. Enjoy the pictures!
The Cougars traveled to New Orleans to play Tulane and we tagged along. With our friends Sam and Andrea, we drove over on Friday evening, arriving about 1:00am Saturday. We stayed at the Intercontinental and Sam and Andrea across the street at the Hilton.
Saturday morning we went to the D-Day Museum. This was a very interesting place and a quite exhaustive presentation of the invasion of Normandy and the war in the Pacific.
The football game was held Saturday evening at the Superdome. Pictures are on our Cougar Football page.
After the Cougar victory we went to the French Quarter where we found Fritzell's Jazz Pub and enjoyed a couple of great sets with a nice jazz trio with vocals.
Sunday morning we went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee. Then we walked around the French Quarter and the river.
We had a great trip and a whole lot of fun. New Orleans is a great place to visit and we're looking forward to going back sometime soon.
On Friday night, the UH Athletic Department hosted fan appreciation night. We attended with our friends Sam and Andrea. We were treated to free pizza, music by the Spirit of Houston band, and performances by the Cougar Doll dancers and Cheerleaders. Athletic Director Dave Maggard spoke and updated on the plans for the new endzone facility.
We met a few of the players including
Anthony Alridge
and Donnie Avery
We also met Coach Art Briles, who was most gracious and signed our posters.
The Cougars start the season on September 1 at Oregon. After that, they open Conference USA play at Tulane on September 15. We already have our reservations made for New Orleans. Eat'em up Coogs!
Our nephew Adam is being deployed to Iraq (again) and wanted to leave his truck with his folks in Kansas while he's over there. So Jeff flew up to Boston to drive out there with him.
They made the drive on the 16th, leaving Boston at 5am, arriving in Overland Park, KS 20.8 hours later. They averaged 67.6mph for 1409 miles, only stopping 6 times and never longer than 10 minutes.
Before they left, Adam did take Jeff to see the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor:
The next morning, it was on the road:
They crossed the Mississippi around 10pm:
We went to College Station to watch the Conference USA Lady Cougars softball team play in the NCAA regional tournament. They defeated Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday to play Texas A&M on Saturday.
^Angel Shamblin pitched nine innings on Friday and seven on Saturday.
^Christa Raley
^Huddle up Coogs!
^Houston media star, Anna-Megan Raley, sister of Christa.
^COOGS WIN! They defeated the Aggies 8 to 1.
A&M went on to defeat Sam Houston State in the loser's game so they will play UH for the championship on Sunday. Because it is a double elimination tournament, the Lady Cougars will only need to win once while the Aggies will have to beat them twice.
Last night was the last home game of the season for our Houston Cougars basketball team.
Before the game we went to the barbeque hosted by the H-Association and heard Athletic Director Dave Maggard speak:
We got to see the new weight room:
And we had an autograph session with the 2006 CUSA champion (champion!) football team. Who brought the trophy with him.
And then it was off to the game and a thrilling 74-67 win over the Miners of UTEP!
^The Willowridge High School band gave a stirring performance during halftime.
The Houston Cougars took on the Owls of Rice last night at Hofheinz Pavilion, on the UH campus. We took along our new camera to try it out.
^Head coach Tom Penders (standing) and Athletic Director Dave Maggard (right, seated). At the left is Cougar radio color analyst Carl Dukes.
^UH wins! (the 10 minutes on the clock is the "cooling off" period before anyone other than the teams are allowed down the tunnel)
^Coach Penders comes over to thank the students and lead them in the singing of the alma mater.
The new site is up and running! After too much aggravation, we have moved off of Road Runner and set up our own site. Over the next few days, we'll be moving the content to this site.
Liberty Bowl! Jeff went to Memphis to see the Cougars play the Gamecocks of South Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. It was a very back-and-forth game which saw the Cougars leading at the half 28-27, only to fall short by a final score of 44-36. Nevertheless, the Coogs performed well and everyone had a good time.
^The band performed before the game.
^The pregame cermonies featured Boy Scouts, singers, and Homecoming queens from across the USA.
^Leann Rimes performed at halftime.
