Tech-Texas Game: This Says It All

A picture forwarded to me by a UT fan who got it from a friend. This is of that friend's kids.

GUNS UP, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy of SI via a AP Photo.

What a great shot of the game winning touchdown. You can see the great hands of Michael Crabtree though they are not showing the fact his feet are dancing less than a half a foot from the out of bounds. When he crossed into the end zone the clock said one second left in the game.

Also what a perfect shot of the football showing the Texas Tech logo! You couldn't ask for better. I was really not happy that Tech held the lead in this game all the way until less than last minute and one-half of the game and they might lose. So this game winning TD was so appropriate.

Since I first went to TTU in 1988 Tech has been able to beat Texas and Texas A&M in upsets regularly but usually Tech is not really all that good. They just rise up and play well. Spike Dyke's teams beat both A&M and Texas in a balanced number and combined than even Leach. Leach has A&Ms number but against Texas he has had a lot less success. But Tech was never a real contender when they beat either school....it was just an upset and Tech went to a consolation bowl if lucky.

This upset was only in the odds from Vegas not in Tech's ability. They really are this good (the number 6 ranking was no fluke) and can play with the best of them (Texas ranking of number 1 was no fluke). Hats off to them and Texas for a great game...perhaps one of the greatest College game I have every watched myself. (Someone reminded me of the Oklahoma and Boise State game which was incredible too).

GUNS UP!!!!!!

RWC: South Africa Wins It All!!!!

Well it was not pretty. All field goals from both sides.

SA 15 - England 6.

At least a side that has been worthy in recent times is World Champs. Actually as long as it was a southern hemisphere team then that is actually good enough since they have been strong for the last four years in the Tri-Nations.

RWC: Full of Suprises!

The English somehow beat the French so this is a huge surprise.

So it will be a ....

South Africa vs. England ... Final

South Africa is the favorite and I am pulling for them. I cannot imagine a side like England who could not beat their way out of a paper bag for the last four years be the "World Champs" so to speak. I now know that the RWC means little.

As recent articles say ....

"Kiwis are best in world" - Laporte (French Coach)

" England renaissance 'masks flaws' "


I feel that New Zealand should not worry about the World Cup unless the format is changed so that the top teams will rise to the top. England is not a top team and unless they continue to play for a few more years like they have in this tournment then the appearance in the finals is pointless.

RWC: All-Blacks are out

This happened last Saturday but I was too depressed to blog it. No worries they were beaten by two points by the French who were one of the other favorites.

So the semifinals look like:

England vs. France, Sat (today)
South Africia vs. Argentina Sunday (tomorrow).

England pulled off a huge upset over Oz. I am still in shock more about that than NZ's loss.

I would say my prediction:

South Africa vs France Final. :)

With SA favorites to win it all.

But who really knows.

Favre One More Time

4-0 !!! with TD records and more.

It would be great if they could have a playoff season to give Brett a great send off. It is fun watching him play especially when he is winning.

I may be torn when the Dallas-Green Bay game comes around.

How about those Cowboys 4-0 as well!!!!

RWC: Quarterfinal Matchups ! One off.

Quarterfinals

Date - Time			Result			Venue
06 Oct - 15:00		Australia	-	England		Marseille
06 Oct - 21:00		New Zealand	-	France		Cardiff
07 Oct - 15:00		South Africa	-	Fiji		Marseille
07 Oct - 21:00		Argentina	-	Scotland		Saint-Denis

Well I was off by one. Fiji pulled out a victory over Wales to move into the runner-up spot for that pool. Wales was a surprise and so was Ireland who missed out due to losing to Argentina and France. So it is 5 Southern Hemisphere sides to 3 Northern Hemispere sides. Very interesting and different WC play than ever before.

Scotland just hung on to their runner-up place by beating Italy 18-16 I believe.

I think France then Fiji look to be the best runner-ups and are playing the best. I am not sure which has the best odds of beating NZ or South Africa. Argentina is playing well and look to be in better shape than Scotland. England have no hope against Australia so I do not think it is even close.

We will see how it goes. The ABs really need a good test again France to win...it will be the first time they will play a side very close to their level. Luckily it is in Wales though it will be the same place as the famous French win over the ABs in the 99 WC. Who knows.

RWC: WALES 34-38 FIJI Upset!

Oh and I thought with England getting into the quarterfinals that my prediction was set. But Wales is not playing well and Fiji made them pay. Wow.

Another Southern Hemisphere side into the quarterfinals.

Deciding tests today and tomorrow will tell the story.

New Zealand - pool winner
South Africa - pool winner
Australia - Pool winner
Fiji - Runner up
England - Runner up

are all through to the quarterfinals. If Argentina can finish off the Irish then they too will be thru to the quarterfinals for sure.

1912 Carlisle vs. Army

This looks like a fascinating book about Jim Thorpe and Dwight Eisenhower. How a one game over ninety years ago could have changing effect on the future of a country.

Story at SI about Carlisle vs Army

RWC: Update!

It appears the South Pacific Islanders have come to play. Too bad Tonga could not pull this one out. This would have been an even bigger upset than the Argentina one over France.

South Africa 30 Tonga 25

England 39 - 22 Samoa at 71 minute mark.

Samoa just could not hold on. Too bad. I would have liked to see England crash out at the pool level. I guess it is up to Tonga to do the job.

RWC: Quarterfinal Predictions

This is how I see it play out though I think I will be off by one or two:

Quarterfinals

Date - Time			Result			Venue
06 Oct - 15:00		Australia	-	England		Marseille
06 Oct - 21:00		New Zealand	-	France		Cardiff
07 Oct - 15:00		South Africa	-	Wales		Marseille
07 Oct - 21:00		Argentina	-	Scotland		Saint-Denis

The sides on the left will be the winners of their respective pools while the sides on the right will be the runners Up in their respective pools.

Of the Pool Winners only Argentina worries me. This the D Pool and they could lose to Ireland and Ireland lose to France. Then it is all about points. This leads to the runner Up in that pool which I predict is Ireland. You figure it. France was the favorite but with Argentina winning that then it means France has to step up and win the rest of its Pool tests which they could easily do.
Updated prediction to put France in QF since Ireland barely gets past Georgia (14-10). Ireland looks weak.

I believe that England and Wales could either one mess up and not get there as runners up too. Especially England they are looking very weak. Tonga and/or a Samoa might take them.

Not Enough Money To Get Me To Play Again! Really!

59 year old starting for Sul Ross University

"After missing two games with injuries, 59-year-old linebacker Mike Flynt will take the field for Sul Ross State on Saturday for the first time in 37 years."

Wholely Moley! Incredible and Bold. After 26 years, you could not pay me to go back and try to play at any level even Pee-Wees. What is this guy thinking. Grandfather and AARP member. I guess he is a West Texan...hard to get it out of your blood. He was a conditioning coach at Nebraska and A&M. Guess he is in great shape.

RWC: England 0-36 South Africa !!!

The defending world champs have been embarrassed. At this point we could see the four pools won by the top four southern hemisphere teams: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina. It would not be that long of a shot for all four to reach the semifinals either. Unless Frances rebounds or one of the other three UK sides step up then the SH will be looking good as always.

RWC: NZ 76 - Italy 14

The All-Blacks locked this one up btw 11-17 mins with the score being 38-0 at minute 17 or theres abouts. Italy has recently shown very good form but today they just did not show up in the beginning and the ABs took advantage of that in a way that only the ABs could.

Rubgy World Cup (RWC) Begun! Upset already

The 2007 Ruby World Cup has begun! And one of the favorites, host side France, has lost a bit of a shocker to Argentina! Argentina 17 - France 12.

Argentina is my second favorite test side behind the All-Blacks. They are usually a tough side that can surprise you as they did France. Wow.

Tomorrow is three tests...one is NZ vs Italy. I look forward to it.

New Zealand Rugby - Texas Football

Only New Zealand's love of rugby comes close to Texan's love of football. The Rugby World Cup starts next week in France. NZ won the inaugural World Cup in 1987. Since then they have been favorites ever Cup (91', 95', 99', & 03') but have not brought home the Webb trophy since 1987. They are a Cup starved country for twenty years but again this year the All-Blacks are favorites .... and are looking good over the last four years.

The picture (by JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post) shows Richie McCaw (captain) holding a capsule that is filled with dirt from the rugby grounds of every All-Black ever. Turns out there are 1071 capped All-Blacks. I am not positive but I think each All-Black going France this year was presented with a small capsule while the captain received a larger one.

Talk about crazed fans and country. Expectations are high and NZ will not easily accept less than the Webb trophy this time.

New: Freeline Skates - Cool!

Check it out here

Sir Donald (The Don) Bradman

Well, I know these types of posts may not be of interest to family and friends but in the spirit of broadening ones knowledge of culture I am posting this one. Also in the spirit of the Nolen's being in England then cricket is appropriate.


Donald Bradman (of Oz) is considered the greatest batsman in the history of Test Cricket. It is hard to compare the statistics of cricket to baseball. In cricket they do not have what I would call a batting average but they do have what is called a Career Test Batting Average which is the average number of runs hit in per Test. A century (100 runs) is very impressive for one Test in ones career and many batters collect a century or more off and on. But no one has a Career Test Batting Average that comes close to a century except for Donald Bradman. The Don has an average of 99.94 runs for his career (20 years) test batting average and most likely would have stayed over 100 runs if it were not for scoring a duck (or scoring zero) runs at his last at bat before retiring. To put Bradman's accomplishment into perspective then looking at the next closest batsman you will find an average of 60.97 runs. And this record stands still today even though Bradman retired in 1948.

While in NZ we heard alot about Bradman who was at the time still alive. He passed on in 2001. He was highly respected and universally liked. I once saw a picture taken of Bradman shaking Babe Ruth's hand in the stands of a Major League Baseball game. A very interesting contrast to say the least.

To follow and learn more about cricket then go here to Cricinfo.com.

Greatest Game Ever Played

An incredible, but true, underdog story about a twenty year old amateur named Francis Ouimet and his ten year old caddie named Eddie Lowery at the 1913 U.S. Open. This poster was created using a real image of the two walking up one of the fairways at the 1913 U.S. Open. The image was selected as the logo for the USGA 's Centennial celebration.

"Mr." Ouimet won that Open beating Harry Vardon, whom many consider to be the greatest British golfer in history even today, in a playoff.

Ouimet and Lowery's stories were only beginning and are incredible in themselves.

Link to Francis Ouimet's story with links to all the other players found at this site. Please follow it and learn more about these incredible men.

All this was kick started by the Disney Movie called The Greatest Game Ever Played starring Shia LeBeouf of Even Stevens fame. Shia did a great job in this movie. The movie was is a good one to watch if you did not. Inspiring.


Well with all the rain stopping for a few days then I might be able to get the lawn mowed and the gutters clean. We will see how the weekend goes.

Gwen got in Colorado, thru Ebay, Elizabeth a cool car bed for when she no longer need the crib. Meaning when she no longer can be contained by her crib. Until then we do not need her coming to wake us up when she gets up. :) We will have to post a picture of the bed. Elizabeth loves it.

Emily had Emma Schmidt over for a sleepover and the two had a good time. Went swimming the next day. Tali will be coming over for a sleepover next Friday while Ruth and Rich are on a cruise to Alaska.

The girls can now go get their favorite cinnamon rolls again. After their friend Sam who owned Cafe Alegra closed shop they could not get those cinnamon rolls anymore. When Bryan and Patty Booth (of Coffee Booth fame) opened up a cafe on DP road Gwen asked Bryan to see if he could get the cinnamon rolls. Sure enough they serve breakfast and Bryan was able to get the cinnamon rolls.

The Booths are also going to try to serve Hot Meals for the LA school system. This is good news for Emily since she likes to eat hot food at school and they will try serve a Hot Meal every day at the schools. Good news for us since we run out of things to send her that are hot and will stay hot. Right now the Booths have contracts with three or four schools and are working on more. This will keep them busy. Bryan will not have time for working on cars anymore....we will have to find a new mechanic for our cars.

School starts this coming Wednesday the 16th. Hard to believe Emily is in third grade.

It is going to be a busy week coming up.

Cricket Power

Finally added some optical power to Em's Cricket. Not a bad looking scope. Hopefully she can get used to it easier than the peep-sights that come with the rifle.

There are several firearm options out there for small kids and youth to learn with. Sorta neat that folks are thinking about training the future of the shooting sports.

• Cricket Rifles
  
• Chipmunk Rifles(Legendary)
  
• Henry Rifles (Mini and Acu - Bolts)
  
• Savage Rifles (The Cub)
  
• CZ Rifles (The Scout RF)