January 2008 Archives

30 January 2008

UH-Memphis

#1 Memphis rolls into a sold-out Hofheinz tonight.

The Coogs desperately need a win at least once against Memphis this season if they hope to secure a tourney bid. Unfortunately, that's going to be a tall order, as this Memphis team is really good.

A rocking Hof may give the Coogs a shot. Since the sellout was announced yesterday, it seems like the place is going to be as full as it has been in a while. I guess that means we'll head over a little early tonight and hope for the big upset.

Go Coogs!

UPDATE: As expected, Memphis remains undefeated. The Coogs couldn't get enough shots to fall to make it a close game, but I liked a lot of what I saw from UH (which sounds odd when describing a double-digit loss on your home court). When that Memphis team gets on a roll, it resembles an NBA team. They are just wicked good.

The UH fans that abandoned ship with four minutes left sort of typified Houston sports fans (bleh). But maybe some of the big crowd will make it back out for entertaining ball the rest of the season.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/08 14:46 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)

29 January 2008

Good news for WNBA fan

Labor deal agreed to for WNBA (Jenny Dial, Houston Chronicle)

The WNBA and the Women's National Basketball Players Association announced Monday that they have entered into a collective bargaining agreement covering six seasons, starting in 2008 and going through the 2013 season.

There is still a WNBA?

Who knew?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/29/08 08:34 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)

28 January 2008

A bad transportation day

Continental Express jet makes emergency landing at Bush IAH (KHOU-11 News)

There were some tense moments at Bush Intercontinental Airport late Monday.

A Continental Express jet carrying 50 people reportedly hit flap problems.

The jet landed safely and no one was hurt.

Several emergency vehicles stood by as a precaution.

No other details have been released.

Ugh. I HATEHATEHATE those damn regional Embraer jets.

Big rig carrying wine wrecks on North Freeway (KHOU-11 News)

An 18-wheeler carrying wine jackknifed early Monday morning, tying up traffic on the North Freeway for about two-and-a-half hours.

The truck was headed north when two tires blew out, sending the big rig into the guardrail.

No one was hurt. Investigators are trying to determine what caused the blowouts. They said tickets could be issued if it's determined that neglect was to blame.

Umm, KHOU people -- we don't care what caused the blowouts. We care about what happened to the important cargo!

Geez, talk about ~~burying~~ omitting the lede.

UPDATE: Here's one more bad transportation day story.

Party Boat Slams Into Kemah Boardwalk (KPRC-2 News)

A party boat slammed into the Kemah Boardwalk on Sunday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

United States Coast Guard officials said the 65-passenger boat crashed into the Boardwalk near Joe's Crab Shack at about 5 p.m.

Several people onboard suffered minor injuries but refused to be taken to a hospital. A passenger said about 60 people were onboard at the time of the crash.

A few boards were knocked loose, but there was no significant damage.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Hmm, we're thinking "party boat" may offer a clue!:)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/28/08 19:41 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (1)

Danger Train takes out Med Center driver

Metro train hits car making illegal turn onto Fannin (Houston Chronicle)

Police are investigating an accident at the Texas Medical Center today involving a Metropolitan Transit Authority light rail train, officials said.

According to preliminary information, the light rail train struck the car about 12:20 p.m. after the driver made an illegal left turn from John Freeman onto Fannin, authorities said.

There were no reported injuries, Metro officials said.

Drivers still haven't learned to watch out for the Danger Train!

It is going to be fun when drivers start running into the thing along the much busier ~~Westpark~~ Richmond line.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/28/08 19:35 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)

26 January 2008

Sun!

After many consecutive days of gray/rainy/cold weather, there is an unusual development in Houston today....

Sunlight!

Bright sun.

Temps around 60.

Woo!

Grilling will transpire shortly.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/26/08 16:02 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

24 January 2008

Nice international weekend specials

Continental is running a number of very nice long weekend specials for international travel (bookable through Friday for Saturday through Monday/Tuesday travel).

IAH to Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) comes in at $359 (best regular CO fare on FareCompare.com is $618)

IAH to Panama City, Panama (PTY) comes in at $259 (best regular CO fare on FareCompare.com is $513).

IAH to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR) comes in at $149 (best regular CO fare on FareCompare.com is $290).

IAH to San Jose, Costa Rica comes in at $207 (best regular CO fare on FareCompare.com is $527).

If I hadn't already traveled a bunch this month, I'd probably be riding that plane to Costa Rica (it's still tempting). That's a nice deal.

Strangely enough, my CO deals email this time did not list ANY of the international destinations. I always check the website on Monday night, and noticed the international fares. It's probably worth doing, so as not to miss any really good Latin American fares (which CO rarely seems to discount aside from the occasional weekend deal).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/24/08 12:59 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (0)

23 January 2008

Beware the poison arrows

Kenya: Policeman Killed As Protests Rock Town (Kennedy Masibo And Wanjiru Macharia, AllAfrica.com)

An administration police officer was Friday shot with a poisoned arrow and later succumbed to his injuries in Kapsita area within Molo District.

Rift Valley Provincial Police Officer Everett Wasige confirmed the incident which, he said, took place at around noon.

I thought this sort of thing only happened on Gilligan's Island.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/23/08 14:20 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

22 January 2008

Brr

It was about 15 degrees or so in Tulsa this morning when we started running around, and just below freezing when we left this afternoon.

It was 61 degrees when we touched down at IAH this evening.

That's much better "winter" weather (although the cold front is apparently supposed to push down here at some point)....

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/22/08 19:42 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)

19 January 2008

Penders coaches #1000

Tom Penders is set to coach his 1,000th college game this afternoon, when UH takes on UTEP at the Hof.

The game should be a pretty good battle between the two teams that are likely to fight for second place all season in CUSA.

Since CUSA is probably, at best, a two-bid league this year, this is a really important game for the Coogs.

I hope our fickle fan base hasn't already bailed on the team, after the performance against Arizona.

I'm hoping to sandwich a bunch of chores around the game before taking off on another long weekend trip (and escaping cold/wet/dreary Houston for just cold).

UPDATE: The defensive-minded Coogs got the win, although it got a little more exciting at the end than it needed to.

And Coog basketball fans got the shaft, with a doubling of parking prices (presumably for the 6pm East/West Shrine game, although the parking attendant only grunted and shrugged when I asked) and only two ticket doors open on the Holman side of the Hof (meaning slow entry on a cold day).

Sometimes, Dave Maggard's gameday operations really earn the name Cougar High.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/19/08 08:42 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (2)

16 January 2008

Back

We're back in Houston after a highly successful trip to Oklahoma.

There were no weird flight stories this time, although it seemed that about half the plane boarded (legitimately) during elite boarding on the return leg. I've never seen the proportion of elites that high, especially on the TUL-IAH route.

The Tulsa airport has kind of a cool exhibit going right now in the ticketing area. We didn't spend much time looking it over, but Callie tells me a couple of Houston buildings were represented.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/16/08 07:31 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

13 January 2008

A big day for the Phillips family

Brad Townsend has a nice story in today's Dallas Morning News about Wade Phillips and his family-oriented coaching philosophy.

I still think Wade ought to break out one of his daddy's hats on the Cowboys sideline. :)

UPDATE: As it turns out, it wasn't such a great day for the Phillips family, as the Cowboys' and Wade Phillips' playoff difficulties continued.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/13/08 12:34 | Dallas Cowboys | Technorati | Comments (2)

12 January 2008

Is it really January?

What a tremendous Saturday we've enjoyed in Houston -- sunny shorts weather in January!

So far today, I have: 1) Had the usual, leisurely weekend breakfast at 59, 2) Gotten in a badass weights/Precor workout, 3) Watched the Cougars lose to Arizona because they couldn't overcome a good team, an awful officiating crew, and Dion Dowell not bothering to show up at either end of the floor. Still, watching what might have been little Zamal Nixon's coming-out party was pretty sweet.

Now that we've packed all that in, we're off in a bit to the big airport for a long weekend in OK, courtesy of a CO special and family stuff.

I hope you're all enjoying a splendid weekend.

And Go Cowboys! I have a bad feeling about 'gints game, but I hope the rumors about Marion Barber (you know, the Pro Bowl running back) starting are true.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/12/08 17:20 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

10 January 2008

Travel blogging

Bill Montgomery over at the Chron's fine travel blog Houston Departures singles me out for some low-fare traveler recognition.

Thanks Bill!

I'm always pestering him with cheap fares that have popped up on FareCompare or elsewhere, usually on CO but sometimes on SkyTeam partners (since I want the OnePass miles). It's turned into a fun, obsessive sort of hobby, and gets me to more places than I would otherwise visit (along with Priceline and Hotwire for hotel rooms and rental cars).

I planned on doing more bargain-travel blogging here in 2008, but have been kind of busy with some background things so far this year. But that's still the plan! And as a hint of the sort of things I planned to be posting -- right now, several SkyTeam airlines are offering a nice fare to DC good through March 1. It might be a little chilly in DC in February, but $182 all in is (Sat, Tues, Weds travel) is a steal! Frontier is offering competitive fares that extend through the year, if Frontier is your cup of tea.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/10/08 12:55 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (1)

06 January 2008

Ten Second Review: Istanbul Grill

Callie and I tried the Istanbul Grill (in the Village) tonight.

It's one of those places we've meant to try forever, and just haven't for whatever reason.

For entrees, Callie had the Doner (Gyro) kebab. I had the beef kebab. Both were excellent -- very similar to their Greek counterparts.

We started with a Shepherd Salad with Feta added (very similar to the Greek salads we had on the islands -- no lettuce!), and some hummus. Both were tasty.

I didn't try dessert, although the baklava seemed to meet with Callie's approval. No Turkish coffee, as a workout awaits later (next time).

We got that feast for about 30 bucks, and enjoyed familiar bouzouki-heavy music out on the lovely garden patio (in January -- gotta love Houston during the "winter").

The experience gets a big thumbs up!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/06/08 20:10 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (4)

The Boxy '08 Liberty

I'm starting to see a few of the '08 Jeep Libertys out on the road.

Does anyone like the boxy/hard-edged redesign?

I much prefer the older, curvy design. Not everything needs to look like a Hummer.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/06/08 11:40 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)

01 January 2008

Weird flight

Two weird things happened on today's flight.

Weird Thing #1: The plane was boarded, the door was locked, and the plane was starting to pull away from the gate.... when a really confused dude stumbled up to the front, and asked the flight attendants, "Umm, hey, can I still get off this plane?" He then explained that he had gotten separated from his wife and child in the airport (he added the extraneous information that they were connecting from LA), that he had boarded the plane, and that *shock* they were not on board. Why he only discovered this AFTER we had started to pull away from the gate instead of, say, AS HE TOOK HIS SEAT AFTER BOARDING seemed to confuse everyone. The captain did make the decision to pull back to the gate, and let the guy out. The captain refused, however, to allow the luggage people to come out, find the dude's checked luggage, and pull it off the plane. That whole episode put a plane that was running right on time about 10-15 minutes behind.

Weird Thing #2: Just minutes later (when everyone was supposed to be seated), a colorfully dressed older man who appeared to be Latin American barged into the first-class cabin. When a confused flight attendant asked if she could help him, he said, "I was hoping for some breakfast." I think he was trying to make a joke, but it didn't really come off that way. Instead, it came off as strange crazy man getting WAY too close to the flight deck before the plane had taken off. As I was wondering if we were going to have to tackle the strange man, he announced that actually, he needed to use the restroom, but they were all locked. The flight attendant told him yes, they were, because people aren't supposed to use them, you know, during TAKEOFF. She asked if he could make it quick, and did finally let him use the restroom. After he was locked away inside doing his business, a discussion ensued between flight crew and nearby passengers about what a WEIRD start to the flight it had been. He then came out, went back to his seat, and the plane proceeded to roll to the runway.

That was it for the weirdness, thankfully. I hope the dude who somehow "lost" his family found them. I wonder what his wife thought of that.

I did get a chance to test out the noise-canceling headphones that Callie got me for Christmas. They are PHENOMENAL. Highly recommended. I think they will really be nice on future long-haul flights.

UPDATE (01-03-08): The return flight was completely uneventful. I was fortunate enough to score another upgrade, and relaxed with a glass of red wine and a combination of Micky and the Motorcars and Cross Canadian Ragweed over the nifty headphones (which I can't wait to break out for a TATL flight). The flight even got back a little early. Nice.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/01/08 19:42 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (5)

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