Are You Ready for Some Soccer?

Man on man….time sure passes quick.  It’s time for the Vista Ridge Lady Rangers to take to the soccer fields once again for the upcoming 2009 season.  The two-time defending district champs will face a much tougher challenge to make the playoffs for their 4th consecutive year as they step up to play 5A in arguably one of Texas’ most challenging districts.

The season kicks off Saturday, January 3rd at VRHS with a friendly alumni game.  Katie is planning on coming back from Texas State to play against her archrival - Hannah.  It’ll be interesting to see who get’s the better of each other as I think both had a few deserts over the Christmas holidays.

The season begins in earnest January 9th with the Rangers attending a number of tournaments each weekend during January.  Then district play begins Tuesday, January 27th with a match against rival Leander High school.  The season then features games most Tuesday & Friday nights through March 17th where the Lady Rangers will play against Georgetown, Round Rock, Stony Point, Westwood, McNeil and Leander.

I for one am looking forward to this season as once again I’ll be on the sidelines taking pictures.  This will be the last one for me as Hannah graduates in May and will likely hang up her soccer cleats after the season.   Look for game updates and pictures after each contest.

Go Lady Rangers!

Bonaire - What a special place

I just got back from Bonaire on what was an incredible diving vacation.  They say Bonaire is the shore diving capital of the world, and I can certainly see why.

The island’s western shore is surrounded by reefs from the northern-most tip all the way to the southern lighthouse.  Given the number of places to dive, our dive crew (Holly, Anna, Nav and myself) managed to only sample a few during the week.  The worse dive we had was probably the night dive that Nav and I did at Witches Hut and it was still very enjoyable. The viz was poor that night, but to watch a tarpon actually munch on a parrot fish just 5′ in front of you and hear his jaws slam shut was memorable. Not to mention surfacing to a full moon where the shoreline is all lit up and you can see the city lights twinkling towards the south.

There’s no doubt that we’ll all be going back.  There are simply too many great dive sites to visit not to mention I’d like to spend a little more time in the park on the northern side of the island.

Hope you enjoy my photographs as much as I enjoyed making them.  Click on the picture above to be taken directly to the Bonaire galleries.

Congratulations Hannah

Last Friday night, Vista Ridge held it’s 2nd ever homecoming. Hannah was selected to the homecoming court and got to get all dolled up for halftime. It was really funny watching all the girls come to our house before the game and do all their makeup and hair. I had to get a shower and dressed in another bathroom as it was wall-to-wall girls in our master bath.

Katie came home from TSU to participate in the festivities and found herself a new job should she do poorly at school - an official hair styler. Hannah and Taylor Cohen (one of her BFF’s) were selected for the court and both looked stunning. Of course, Hannah (being Hannah) had to add her own style to the event - she wore her soccer cleats with her dress.

Oh geez…..it’s nerd day at Vista Ridge

Hannah is so Jill’s daughter.  She does nerd better than most - dating back to the 6th grade when she won the nerd contest at school.  I’ve got a feeling that she and her buds have a chance today.  Just so you know - it’s “Educate the Eagles” day since Vista Ridge is playing the Georgetown Eagles tonight.  Anyway, here are a few pictures with the rest loaded in the personal photo galleries.   Just click a picture and you’ll be directed there.

Just compare - 6 years ago and today!

Now that was UGLY!

I’ve been watching Auburn football for years and last night’s game against Mississippi State had to be the ugliest game I can remember.  That is if you’re an offensive-minded person.  If you like defense, then there was alot to love about how well Auburn’s defense played.  Folks - it’s for real and will no doubt keep us in a position to compete this year.  But our offense stunk up the joint.  I don’t EVER remember an Auburn offense playing so poorly.  11 offensive penalties w/one of those for MSU’s only 2 points?  Everytime we started moving the ball, we’d implode with a penalty or stupid play call that backed us up.  It’s clear we’ve got the athletes to compete but so far, I’ve not been impressed with the new “spread”.  I’m not ready to put a fork in it by any stretch, but to me, it just doesn’t seem to have that many weapons - at least in our incarnation of it.  We line up w/one back in the backfield and it seems if he’s to the quarterback’s right - the play is going left or vica versa.  And Todd is no running threat whatsoever.

Let’s hope that we figure it out a little bit this week or next week’s game against LSU is going to be ugly.  Again, our defense might manage to keep us in the game, but unless this offense improves and does so quickly, this will be a long, ugly season heading into the meat of the SEC competition.

Come on boys - I believe in you and know you can do it!  War Eagle!

Tom Kite Charity Golf Tournament

On the evening of Sunday, September 13th, I’ll be one of the official photographers shooting the Kids Classic Auction party - which is the kickoff event for the golf tournament.    This is the 14th year of the event which benefits the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.

For more information on the event, please visit KEYE TV which is one of the co-sponsors of the event.

Never forget 9/11

This morning, I watched some of the 9/11 coverage and the commentators talked about how in the future, the memory of the event would fade.  For me, I certainly hope not.  The hair on my neck stood up as I watched the coverage and remembered exactly how I felt and how angry I was that day.  I’m still just as angry and determined not to let the extreme Islamists win.  We may not have done everything right since 9/11 as a country, but when I think about how this group murdered innocent lives - quite frankly, I don’t care.  We all need to stay focused on beating such an extreme idiology so that our kids and grand kids can live in peace.  I’ve attached a powerful memory that we should all view so that we never forget.

Cincinnati Aug’08

A few weeks back, the management and leadership teams for Dell’s infrastructure consulting services group held a meeting in Cincinnati.  We managed to mix a little fun into business with a scenic riverboat ride.  I’ve captured a few of the pictures from that cruise and have them posted in my online galleries.  They’re available for downloading at no charge!

Auburn defeats So Mississippi 27-13

Auburn played Southern Mississippi today in Auburn and easily won 27-13.  Although the score showed a close game, Auburn was clearly in control most of the game with a solid performance on both sides of the ball, sans 4 turnovers.  A win is always good, but this one was gratifying as the offense finally showed up and demonstrated that it could move the ball and score.  More impressive was the defensive play which held the Golden Eagles out of the endzone until the 4th quarter.  I’m normally not a stats guy - but there was only 1 missed tackle all day by the defense.

New Website Look & Feel

Folks - I’ve completely revamped goaubie with a new look & feel, along with much better integration of my blog and photography sites.  One of the things I’ve learned about web design over the past few months - is that none of the browers are standard and that you have to tweak things with every single release to get a consistent look & feel.  Believe me, I spent hours when I launched the original site trying to get everything working.  I did, but then as the year went on, I found my photography site looked like crap and I simply didn’t have the time to tweak it everytime that one of the brower providers (mainly Microsoft) updated their software.

So I hope you enjoy this new look and feel.  Be sure to visit the “how” section off the menu to learn a bit more about how to really navigate the site to get the most from it.  Also, drop by my guestbook and let me know what you think.

Next Page »