RD3

I went to the New Park years ago. Like when I was at UT. But my memories of it was that it had less shade. We were on Monday July 23 and that was the hottest day of the year to date. You couldn't really tell with the shade and the cold water. It truly was the hottest, coolest time in Texas.

Exactly. Makes me think of this gif...

Ha, I need to take a couple of pics...

I just relayed that to him. I've been telling him to just do it. This price is definitely in what he was hoping for...

I have a friend who has one of the best I've seen. He has about 5 acres and he has a separate 3-car garage in his backyard with a 2-2 guest house on top. Built into the structure is a giant covered patio for his pool. He has a giant tiled backsplash with a big longhorn logo. Very cool. And of course a restroom/shower, built-in grill, tv, ... But one of the features that is unique is he has a bar type roll-top cooler; this has to be commercial-grade stuff because I've never seen it outside a restaurant/bar. Coldest beer I've ever had.

I'm happy with my backyard. Previous owner did it. Outdoor kitchen with built-in Napolean grill, sink, mini-fridge, speakers wired to my receiver in the garage, and built-in hot tob. Big pergola with a couple of ceiling fans with wisteria vine on top. The wisteria provides basically 100% shade; the only problem with that is in the summer it drops small flowers all the time. I can blow it off in the afternoon and an hour later more has dropped. Tiny nit, I guess. I have a mini-fridge in there but it's not even plugged in because my garage fridge is 15 yards away and it keeps the beer colder. I am looking to get a masonry guy to reconfig that spot to put my large BGE in there as a built-in. I have had 1 guy come out to get me a quote but lots of these trade guys are so busy that I haven't even got a # from him...

$6500 for the covered patio + concrete? I have a co-worker who wants to do something very similar to what you've got...

He asked for our houses not boutique hotels.

Like the idiot that wants to stop the "Eyes of Texas". This shit is insane and I'm center-left as it is. These idiots are just driving people to the far right.

I can't find one here. I took Monday off for vacation and took my older 2 boys because they are very strong swimmers (9yo, 7yo). I took them last summer also on a Monday. Both times we hit the Old Park only. We got there at 11am and brought a cooler. We were there until after park closed. The boys had a blast! Me too. Last year we got there at 10am and left before 6pm. They were tired. This year they hit their 2nd wind at 5pm and honestly that 6-8pm window was the best because the shade was definitely kicked in and the lines had disappeared. By the way, I asked some of the staff which day was the best to go for the lines and they all said Wednesday. Some takeaways... Pack more food. I brought sandwiches, chips, waters, gatorades... It wasn't enough. I had enough waters and gatorades but not enough food. We ended up getting 2 personal pizzas at some pizza place. I should have packed more food... They got the $8 refillable slurpee deal and that worked out. They got 2 or 3 refills (at like $1.50 per refill). Get the splash cash. I got the splash cash, loaded it up, and then walked back to my car and left my money clip in there. Skip the $12 locker and leave your phone and money in your car. I know that we are all addicted to our smart phones but this is a water park which spells disaster for phones. And do we need to put our phone around our neck? Just leave it in your car. And getting splash cash, then you don't need the locker. I left my cooler and towels in a corner and there was nothing valuable to steal. My kids loved the rides that were the oldest. Berbahn is a simple water slide but they rode that like 10 times in a row trying to race each other. And the downhill racer which those are probably older than me. I think I'm getting season tickets next year. I have a lot of good friends from NB and they tell me that towards the end of the year they sometimes offer deals where you can buy season tickets for 2019 and you get the rest of this year for free. I definitely want to go to Schlitterbahn again this year and I have vacation to burn to avoid a weekend. And next year with a season pass, I can go on a weekend and not have to be too concerned about missing anything. Next time we need to go to the New Park though...

I started that thread. But I didn't have the handle RD3 at the time...

If you're A-List Preferred it likely isn't worth it. My wife has "A-List" and Companion Pass. I forget what A-List preferred gets you over A-List though I just know it's better...

I agree; it looks like CDC isn't a fan of those either.

ESPN or Fox are doing it because we don't have the end of year rival.

Neutral field games are horrible for the season ticket holders. I hope CDC realizes that the neutral field money grabs only weakens the reason to get season tickets and they need season ticket holders to fill DKR-TMS. On its face, I wish we were playing on campus at Maryland but it's not like Maryland is an iconic football stadium/program though...

Because we are playing Kansas on rivalry weekend this year. Obviously something is broken.

Yeah I'm over 200 games at this point. Since my freshman year at UT in 1993, I have missed maybe 5 home games. And every Texas/OU game in that stretch except 2. And a ton of road games. I will say that UT has improved their concessions big time in that stretch... I went to the Texas @ Arky game in 2004. It was a good time but I'm ok with not playing them all the time. I miss Nebraska & Colorado more than Arky. I know it isn't sexy but if I'm CDC, I meet with the Tech guys and make the Tech game our "end of year rival". I know it isn't TAMU or a sexy opponent but it is probably the school most of us interact the most with (other than TAMU).

You hit up on a great point. Fans want to play colleges that we interact with their alumni. TAMU has no real rival now. They are trying to do LSU but the LSU fans look at TAMU look gum on the bottom of their shoes. Even if TAMU finally beats them, LSU doesn't want this as a rival. Alumni relations is a big part of conference realignment that the ADs were completely oblivious to. Maryland fans are/were up in arms of the move out of the ACC. And I promise you -> deep down the Mizzou fans regret moving to the SEC. They will tell you "fuck Texas, fuck Kansas" but deep down they miss having the Big 12 basketball tournament in their backyard. That event was like their Texas/OU weekend. Imagine if we moved out of the Big12 but lost Texas/OU? Fuck that. But I don't really interact with many SMU or Rice fans. And even the alums I know, they have long given up on football.

Don't go to every game but make a couple.

You're not old school; there are 90,000+ at basically every home game. We only have 6 home games a year and at this point my oldest son (9 years old) wants to go to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. I hope that CDC improves our gameday experience and figures out ways to improve the student attendance issues. Those kids are the future season ticket holders and if they don't have great memories of going to games as an undergrad, they won't be buying season tickets in the future... Some of those things are out of CDC's hands (shortening games) but much is in his control...

You sound old like me. Miss the old days of Raycom sports watching texas vs arkie back in the early 80s. Peter Gardere was my hero. According to my Dad my 1st texas game was in 75 when I was 3. It was against I didnt care and I bet I didnt want to be there. I have a ton of old UT games on my server at home. Including a bunch of the Arky games on Raycom. And the 1995 Texas vs UVa game with Phil Dawson kicking the 50 yard winning field goal; that was Raycom as well. And I was an undergrad in the stands...

Your dad predicted the minor bowl games. I'm impressed.

We make too much for the Roth IRA but I'll google the RMDs...

Get an antenna. I bought this one for $15 at Target.com delivered to store and it's low profile, you can't see it... I have all the local channels plus some I had no idea about. I have Fox via DTV Now but I watched the World Cup final on Fox on the antenna because that is usually the highest quality signal you can get.

And they are raising it $5 per month for even current users. I got the email.