KDubRedRaider

I always wondered why he looked so familiar, now I know. I still think that last name is ridiculous.

He lives in Kingwood and his wife was my Kindergarten teacher. I also worked with one of his sons at my step-dad's restaurant last summer.

Here's a rendering from the Chronicle.

The show was going to be "Houston", but the Cowboys were winning their super bowl rings, and became "America's Team". The people in charge then changed the show title to "Dallas" thinking it would be more popular then "Houston".

source?

i'd heard rumors that the turf was going to be red (ala boise state's blue), but i am GLAD to see that it's not!

some nice, clean shots of downtown.

i like it!

that scroll-type thing with the ladder in front of it in the second picture is apparently featuring lines of the "matador song" which is tech's alma mater.

By MICHAEL GRACZYK, Associated Press Writer

Tue Jun 13, 2:16 PM ET

CLUTE, Texas - Into a giant sand pit where the remains of a mammoth and a saber-toothed tiger were discovered, some folks want to throw a bus, a couple of antique fire trucks and a space shuttle lookalike that once thrilled visitors at a now-defunct amusement park in Houston.

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Why all the junk? To create a world of wonders for scuba divers.

The owner of the 50-acre pit wants to flood the hole and then charge diving enthusiasts for the privilege of exploring the sunken objects.

It would be one of the nation's biggest lakes ever created specifically for diving, and one of the few started from the ground up, instead of from an existing body of water.

"This is a dream come true," Mike Cryer, who runs a dive shop in nearby Lake Jackson, said as he gazed over the hole up to 70 feet deep that by next year could become Mammoth Lake. Cryer and his wife will help with the project's design and manage the operation.

The guys behind the project are Kenny Vernor and his cousin Tim Sweeten, both 46-year-old diving enthusiasts. Vernor's company owns the soon-to-be-exhausted pit, which has produced sand since the 1950s. He and his cousin also run a junk business that has been saving pieces of scrap that they want to throw down the hole.

Such as the metal skeleton of an old church steeple. A couple of rusty ship anchors. And a number of boats, one more than 40 feet long and another a 36-footer. The salvage company also has a scrap contract with NASA, from which it has gotten a collection of twisted pipes and intriguing metal spheres. And old F-5 Navy jet is already in the pit. The project's organizers are also hoping to acquire a tank.

"Scuba diving itself is very exciting, rewarding," Vernor said. "You put something down there for somebody to look at, (it) just increases everything exponentially. You can get closer, get different angles. If you want to see what the top looks like you just kick your fins and get up there and check it out."

The project will need a permit from the zoning board in Clute, a city of some 11,000 about an hour's drive south of Houston, but officials have been enthusiastic.

Diving in and around big junk is nothing new.

At Athens Scuba Park, a lake about 70 miles from Dallas, a couple of sunken buses and a military cargo plane are among the underwater attractions. In Bethlehem, Pa., a former quarry called the Aqua Park at Dutch Springs attracts hundreds of divers weekly who swim in and around a bus, fire truck, car, helicopters and a trolley.

At the sand pit in Clute, pumps normally prevent groundwater from rushing in. By the end of the year, when the last marketable sand has been removed, the pumps will be shut off and water allowed to build up. The pit could take a year to fill.

Cryer said there is "something uniquely cool" about "diving around an antique fire truck, or a tank, or crawling inside a boat that used to float."

"There's a lot of explorer in most divers," he added.

In 2003 a backhoe operator at the pit unearthed tusks. A skull and other bones also were found. Scientists determined the skull was about 38,000 years old and came from a warm-climate relative of the woolly mammoth. The artifacts are now at Texas A&M University.

Joseph Ramirez, whose family owns some of the property that overlooks the pit, said the lake will attract more traffic but should be good for the city. And besides, "I've got lakefront property," he said with a grin.

See the article for yourself at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060613/ap_on_re_us/diving_lake

This should be a unique attraction for the area.

Thanks,

I have always wondered why there isnt some nice upscale construction along the canyon running though Lubbock. Instead it is relegated to bad commercial and warehouse.

Canyon West isn't really going to be near any canyons though...

Can you tell me about the Canyon west Project. I heard that white horse canyon was to be damned. Is this part of that"

Thanks

Tech Grad here

Canyon West is going to be a huge shopping and entertainment center along the Brownfield Hwy. at the intersection with Milwaukee Ave. I drove by the other day, and the land has been cleared and they've started construction on a Target that is set to open in October.

There's more infomation here:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...?showtopic=4222

Kingwood High School, however, is as good as it gets for the area and is a sure thing.

That is no lie.

There's so much growth now along the new addition to Milwaukee Ave.

I'm really excited about the Canyon West project.

Well I live about 3 blocks from where this hotel is going to go up and I know that a Chili's is under construction right off of University Ave. across the street from the new Starbuck's in front of the Centre at Overton Park.

I can't wait to see what other things are going to start popping up in that area.

This should be a great thing for the Overton area!

Or "Tell them you mean business", or "Back to work...but doctor he's dead! Like Doodie"

He definitely says "light duty" not "like doodie".

In defense of the naysayers, this project is following a familiar pattern: the ever-receding groundbreaking date. This has always frustrated posters, going all the way back to 1982 when the forum was just a bunch of penpals, writing letters in longhand and sending them out. The big discussion topic back then was the Bank of the Southwest tower - would it be built? Communication in those days took a long time, because each post had to be sent to a central mimeograph machine, from which copies were sent out to all the members. Everyone contributed to take care of the 19 cent postage. This historic topic garnered seven posts, at that time a record, and as us oldtimers will recall, the project experienced several delays before finally being cancelled. I still remember sitting at Gilley's in my stenciled jeans and cowboy hat, crying into my Lone Star.

Thanks!

Queen of Houston news? Another ethnic poser.

I was being facetious.

One more question though.... How packed is it after club hours on the weekends?

It's pretty crowded, but you probably wouldn't have to wait more than 15 minutes.

Don't forget the high schools in Aldine:

Eisenhower, Nimitz, MacArthur--All WWII generals

Well the commercials in lubbock make houstons commercials look like major productions. but any of those hilton commercials...ahh i wanna take his chainsaw and use it on my tv

There's a local record store up here called Ralph's Records, and they have a series of commercials parodying the Wizard of Oz. They're absolutely AWFUL.

BTW, I like those Thunderbolt Transmission commercials.

Does anybody know what the plans are for the Pioneer Hotel in downtown Lubbock? I've seen a lot of bulldozers around it and there seems to be work going on inside.

It seems like a building with a lot of history, does anybody know any background?

I believe Lubbock's location will always be working against Texas Tech. Nobody who isn't from West Texas is ever thrilled at the idea of coming to a dusty town in the middle of nowhere to attend college. The drive from my house in Houston to my apartment here in Lubbock usually takes about 9 hours. People from the DFW area usually have to drive 5-6 hours to get home. That, to me, is Tech's greatest downfall: it's not close to anybody.

Hmm...I guess the term "The Bubble" is state-wide (probably nation-wide) because the first time I ever heard it was among my friends in high school (mid-late 80s) referring to our hometown of Kingwood. We'd go over the railroad tracks and make a "sucking" sound..."Ooops, back in the bubble!"

I graduated from Kingwood High School in 2004 and up we STILL called Kingwood "The Bubble."

The railroad track thing is funny though, I might have to share that with some of my friends from back home.

What about the Fisherman's Wharf in Galveston?

They are seriously overpriced considering their food is mediocre at best (I think I spent like 20 bucks for a half serving of shrimp on some cold linguini). The service is pretty sketchy (my waiter last time was sweating profusely, had bloodshot eyes, and kept rubbing his nose).

Overall a pretty mediocre restaurant, its only saving grace is the (somewhat) pretty view of the water.

You guys are forgetting the queen of Houston news:

Does anyone else find Shern-Min Chow annoying?

At least you the anchors and reporters in Houston are decent. In Lubbock, they're all old, washed up news people from other cities, or newbies who don't have the slightest idea what they're doing.