It’s My Imagination

Hook ‘em Horns!

Okay, I have to admit, I don’t really watch that much college football and I definitely don’t keep up with all the games, scores and standings.  But, that being said, I have to tell you that I watched a very exciting Fiesta Bowl last night between the Ohio Buckeyes and the Texas Longhorns.

The game didn’t look like it was going to be worth watching when my husband turned it on.  The first quarter was so boring that we all went into the other room and played on our Wii until it was time for my daughter to go to bed.  I was turning everything off in the family room when I checked the score of the game, just as the Longhorns scored a touchdown by having their quarterback, Coyt McCoy, carry the ball across the goal line showing some nice dance moves as he did it.  This put Texas in the lead and I decided to watch a little bit more before going to bed.

Well, the game was really just getting going and the 4th quarter was so great to watch.  The Longhorns were up a couple of touchdowns at one point and then, the Buckeyes began to dominate.  They scored, not once, but twice.  Then it was time for the Horns to show their stuff.  At one point, the Buckeyes and their fans thought they had stopped Texas and the game was basically over.  But, leave it to the refs to be involved, the made a measurement and determined that the Longhorns had indeed gained enough yards to make a critical 1st down.  Even thought the Ohio coach challenged the placement of the ball, the play call stood up to the challenge and on the very next play, with only second left on the game clock, Texas scored the final, winning touchdown to take the win away from Ohio.

This is one of the few really good football games I’ve seen this year, college or professional.  Although, I do have to say, we did watch our local high school team in December as they won the Texas State Division 5-A Championship in a game that was very similar in its excitement.

Championship Rings for the State Champions

I don’t normally pay much attention to high school football, but hey, football and Texas go hand in hand! That was certainly true this past Saturday night as we watched the team from the high school my daughter will be attending in 3 years play in the State Championship game! Our next door neighbor also plays on the team which made it even more interesting for us to watch.

The game was played at Reliant Stadium in Houston and matched two phenomenal teams. The beginning of the game didn’t look so good for our team, but 4th quarter they came on strong and wound up defeating their opponents. The Allen Eagles are now the 2008 Texas State Division 5-A Champions! Way to go Eagles!

Softball Tournament - Keller Texas

The alarm went off at 5 a.m. yesterday, Saturday, and our day began.  Do you know just how hard it is to get up at 5 a.m. on a Saturday?!   After getting dressed and getting everything loaded into the van, we were off to Keller, Texas and a day filled with nothing but fastpitch softball.   Somehow, my daughter’s team is somewhat unlucky in the draw and seems to always get assigned to the first game of the morning, 8 a.m.  Since it was a 75 minute drive from our house, and she needed to be their 45 minutes before game time for warm ups, we had to get out of our nice warm beds at 5 a.m.

I had directions from both Google and Mapquest (amazing how they don’t send you the same direction), and for some reason, we left our TomTom in the drawer at home.  Thankfully, we only had to make 3 u-turns before arriving at the sports complex.  We had been told that it was located in the middle of nowhere, but it turned out to be a nice area with plenty of shops and restaurants.

The 8 a.m game was horrible.  The temperature was 40 degrees with high winds and it was just starting to get light out.   The girls were all very cold and had trouble making plays and getting their bats around to the ball.  They wound up losing and it was a game to forget, right away.  The next game was at 10:20 and was better.  It was slightly warmer, 45, but still quite windy.  Having the sun up was a plus though and the girls seemed to be more awake.  They made some good plays and managed to win, boosting their spirits.

At 1:00, they played their third game during the warmest part of the day.  I think it may have reached 50 and the winds were a bit calmer.  A few of the girls even played without their sweats and hats on.  They played a team that was very experienced and older, a team that should have been playing in an older age tournament.  Amazingly though, our girls held their own and it was a very close game, one of the best I’ve seen our girls play.  Had it not been for some bad throws and a couple of missed catches, they could have won.  In the end, they lost 7-4, but were pleased with their performance.

The final game was against a team that they’ve played against several time.  This team has come to represent everything that is bad on sports, unsportsmanlike conduct form not just the coaches, but the players themselves.  They are cocky and rude, even calling our players names.  I look forward to the day when our girls can be victorious over them, but, unfortunately, it was not to be last night.

Our day ended with 1 win and 3 losses, but I saw great things from our team.  This was only the 2nd tournament for them to participate in together, they have used these as growth experiences and it shows.  They have one more tournament in a couple of weeks and then will take some time off before regrouping in February.  I do believe that once they get a few kinks worked out that they will be a strong team and even more enjoyable to watch, win or lose.

Parade for Gymnast Nastia Liukin

A parade will be held this coming Saturday, August 30, in Nastia Liukin’s home town of Parker, Texas. The parade celebrates her triumph at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games where she won 5 medals, including a gold medal in the women’s all-around gymnastics competition.

Texas Heat - 10 Day Forecast

Since returning home from our vacation last week, I’ve pretty much been unable to go outside except for in the early morning hours due to the heat. The temperatures in the Dallas area have been over 100 degrees for the past few weeks. It’s miserable. I see on this 10 day forecast, provided by The Weather Channel, that we should start to see a tiny bit of relief beginning on Wednesday.

I am going out now to mow the lawn. It’s 9:14 a.m. and the current temperature is 84. That is almost 10 degrees higher than it was an hour ago. After mowing, I will be in the swimming pool. By noon I will be back in doors, trying to find relief in the air conditioning which has been working over time.

Have a great Saturday!