New Year, New Look

Decided to give my blog a makeover in honor of the new year. Anyway, over the break I did a bunch of different things:

- visited the various filming locations of Dazed and Confused, one of my favorite movies, thanks to my sis/tour guide:

- went to the Texans/Jaguars game on Christmas Eve. Like I said in one of my early posts, those people know how to tailgate:

The game was actually a decent one until late in the fourth quarter, when the Texans gave up. That's when everyone started chanting "Reggie, Reggie," and it was time to go. Still, I have to give the fans credit; they really weren't that discouraged or as depressed about their team as they could have been (nowhere near as pissed off as the Detroit fans are, and Detroit won twice as many games). My dad's debating whether or not to keep his season tickets for next season (he's had them for all four seasons) and it figures; the Eagles are coming to Houston next year and Fred is dying to go to that game.

- also went to a minor league hockey game, the Houston Aeros (Minnesota Wild affiliate) vs. San Antonio Rampage (Phoenix Coyotes affiliate)

THAT was fantastic. We sat the second row behind the glass and next to the penalty box. There's a small group of core fans that go to every game, but most of the yokels that sat around us knew nothing about hockey, they just came to see the fights. At least there were plenty of those. The game was essentially over in the first period; the final score was Houston 7, San Antonio 1, so it was a real bloodbath. Great game.

The intermission entertainment was Fred's favorite, though; he had to document the Miss Aero contest:

I was most surprised by the Aeros goalie. The San Antonio team generally had better uniforms and equipment, but still. I understand wanting to be comfortable in your equipment, but is there any reason to use Jacques Plante's goalie pads from 1962? Even though it's a minor league team, surely they can afford better pads?

It was hard to leave that 80-degree weather. Oh well, back to reality...

1/5/06 update: Fred alerted me to the fact that I said that the Aeros game was over in the first "quarter." Duh. This is why I shouldn't write posts when I'm ill. I've been doing all sorts of boneheaded things since I got sick. Also, I think it's because I was standing in line at the Caps game for a soda on Sunday and noticed that they stop selling beer "in the fourth quarter." Great for hockey fans, I guess...