As we exit November, a final observation about this month's presidential election:This is a map of 2008 presidential election results by county. Sure, some places are redder than others, and other places are bluer than others. But as this map shows, there are red counties in "blue" states, blue counties in "red" states and, most importantly, an awful lot of purple all over the place.People and
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thanksgiving reflections
Posted on 7:01 PM by jackline
Although perhaps not quite as unhappy as last year's Thanksgiving, this year's holiday was certainly bittersweet and awkward, given the fact that Lori's mom, as well as other relatives on her side of the family, are no longer with us. As such, our Thanksgiving Day gathering was purposefully subdued, consisting of only a handful of people besides Lori, her brother, Kirby and myself. We still
Update on Lori's car
Posted on 4:49 PM by jackline
Following up on this incident: as bad as the damage to Lori's car was, it was not severe enough for the car to be written off by the insurance company. Repairs to the car were completed this past week and Lori picked it up Wednesday afternoon.Aside from the fact that they forgot to replace the trunk light and that one of the rear doors doesn't close quite as smoothly as it used to, the car
Monday, November 24, 2008
Back from Dubai again...
Posted on 9:37 PM by jackline
...for what will hopefully be the last time this year.Friday's trip was about as easy as a 16-hour flight in economy class could be. The guy at the hotel who took over half an hour to check me out last time managed to get the job done in less than ten this time, the taxi to the airport was prompt, the line at the ticket counter at DXB's gleaming new Terminal 3 (which is now fully operational) was
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Cougar football attendance watch
Posted on 11:09 AM by jackline
Yesterday's home game against UTEP concluded the University of Houston's 2008 home football schedule. The Cougars averaged 21,519 fans per game for their five home games this season (the game against Air Force that was moved to Dallas due to Hurricane Ike is not counted). This is an improvement of 564 fans/game over the 2007 season.I've updated my historical wins - versus - attendance graph to
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Rotation Seven complete
Posted on 10:31 AM by jackline
It's a bit after 10:30 pm and I'm relaxing at my hotel. In a little bit, I am going to finish packing and try to get a few hours of sleep before I wake up and head to the airport, board EK 211 and fly back to Houston. I'm not looking forward to the sixteen-hour flight - I've already resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to get a middle seat and that I'm going to be surrounded by screaming
Very belated election thoughts
Posted on 8:38 AM by jackline
Now that the State of Missouri has finally been called for McCain, albeit just barely, I can officially evaluate my election-eve prediction:Barack Obama will be elected the 44th President of the United States by winning 311 electoral votes to John McCain's 227.In the end, I think McCain will wind up with narrow victories in several states currently rated as "toss-ups:" Florida, Indiana, Missouri,
Monday, November 17, 2008
Death cab
Posted on 9:25 PM by jackline
This was the scene right on front of our office building sometime last week. I hope nobody was seriously injured.Needless to say, my own experiences with da ngerous Dubai taxicabs makes me thankful that I don't depend on them to get around anymore.
Houston 70, #25 Tulsa 30
Posted on 8:02 PM by jackline
It seems like every twenty years, the University of Houston Cougars deliver a beatdown of epic proportions to the Tulsa University Golden Hurricane. In 1968, there was the infamous 100-6 game. Twenty years later, the Run-and-Shoot-era Coogs clobbered Tulsa by a score of 82-28. And now, another twenty years on, the Coogs once again lay the smackdown on 25th-ranked Tulsa, 70-30. The Coogs, avenging
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
There goes Dubai's heart disease rate...
Posted on 7:28 AM by jackline
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Houston 42, Tulane 14
Posted on 5:55 PM by jackline
It's too bad I couldn't be in Houston to see this one. The Coogs finally put together a complete, four-quarter game and steamrolled the Tulane Green Wave at Robertson Stadium Saturday night. It was Houston's sixth consecutive victory over Tulane.The Cougars played sloppy football: they turned the ball over three times, they missed a field goal, they muffed (but fortunately recovered) a punt
Paris from 37,000 feet
Posted on 5:38 PM by jackline
I thought that if I got to the airport early enough I could something other than a middle seat this time. No such luck.
I was also hoping that I might be able to avoid the "flying nursery" section of the aircraft this time as well. Again, no such luck. The number of families with small children that fly Emirates between Houston and Dubai is such that there is no part of the airplane where one
I was also hoping that I might be able to avoid the "flying nursery" section of the aircraft this time as well. Again, no such luck. The number of families with small children that fly Emirates between Houston and Dubai is such that there is no part of the airplane where one
Friday, November 7, 2008
That was a short week...
Posted on 11:45 AM by jackline
Looks like I was a bit conservative with my prediction of Obama's margin of victory in the electoral college. I haven't yet had time to write my post-election wrap-up; in fact, I really haven't had time to do a lot of things I've wanted to do this week. maybe I'll get a chance to do that once I get back to Dubai.Not that I really want to go back to Dubai, mind you. There comes a point at which
Monday, November 3, 2008
Calling the election
Posted on 9:08 PM by jackline
As my regular readers (all three of them) have probably noticed, I have steadfastly refrained from posting about the presidential election this year. It has at times been difficult for me to restrain myself. I will have something to say about the election results (local as well as national) later this week.However, the campaign is finally coming to a close, and I thought I'd test my prowess as a
College football 2008: the home stretch
Posted on 7:39 PM by jackline
As we enter the final few weeks of the college football season, it's interesting to see how much different the national championship picture is today than it was at the season's beginning.The preseason consensus (AP plus USA Today) top five - Georgia, USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Florida - have all suffered at least one loss. Two of them have already lost twice and are out of the championship
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