Hook 'Em Horns!

There are just certain things that you miss when you don't live in Texas. Like Bluebell Birthday Cake ice cream. (I actually found it one time here, at Megamart, in the little individual containers, but I wasn't sure how many times it had been melted and refrozen, so I passed!) Fresh flour tortillas. (I have had fresh tortillas here a few times...homemade by friends in the know!) Seasons. (Okay, so we do have to break out the sweaters and portable heaters for a month or so in January/February!) A gas station on every corner. (Even if it just costs about 15 bucks to fill up my Accord!) Michael's and Garden Ridge. (The money saved by not having those places may be a blessing!) Maybe what I really miss is the convenience of all these things. We learn to make due here...I now always make my own Spanish rice from scratch and have learned that Australian torilla chips aren't that bad! You can get mums at the plant souqs and we even have a pumpkin patch at the school this week. The pumpkins are mostly small green ones, but they did import some large orange ones from Jordan, I think, and priced them out at only about $40 to $50 a piece! (Makes up for the gas prices....)

So what does all of this have to do with the Longhorns, you ask???? We do miss our football! We were even able to remedy that, in part, by bringing a Sling Box back with us from the US this summer. ( see http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/slingbox.htm ) What a treat when, last Saturday night, we watched the Texas - OU game LIVE! It was on at 11 am central, so that meant we could catch it at 7 pm here. In great excitement and anticipation, we gathered our plates of spaghetti and huddled around the computer screen in the study. (Yes, Will and Jake, we were eating in front of the tv....spaghetti, no less!) We were in Football Heaven! It only got better, though....45-35, game over! Sam dressed for the occasion the next day at school.

Now listen...some of my dearest friends are OU grads and fans, even if they do call me minutes before the game and blare Boomer Sooner in my ear. I love Aggies, too, and even have a few in the family. But, there is something about orange that sends chills up my spine, to this day. Maybe that's why I may spend that $5o for a pumpkin yet. (Not really, Keith!) Oh, the simple pleasures!

(Pic snapped by my friend Kristie and shows view of legs of Sam Shrull and Will and Jake Van Hoozer after volleyball practice one Saturday. Can you guess which shorts belong to who? Clue: Kristie was the caller that graced my ears with the OU fight song! )