Random Notes on Sports This Weekend --

.... all of which I missed (except one) because I was traveling...

First, Wade Phillips. I'm impressed. I never cared for him one way or the other all that much when he was at Dallas. But here he is, with eight wins and one loss this season. Only the Atlanta Falcons have the same record: 8W - 1L. And the Houston Texans got their 8th win against 7-1 Chicago Bears. Pretty impressive.

Not so impressive was how the NASCAR race played out today. Don sent me the pertinent video. The fans loved it, but not good from my perspective. It's one thing to lose one's cool on the football field, but completely different when racing at speeds of 150 mph (or whatever they were doing). Brad had something to say about this, also. [Update: crime and punishment -- allowed to race this weekend, but docked 25 points and $100,000 fine. I think he should have been suspended. Period. Dot.]

And Notre Dame: 10 - 0. Ranked 3rd, behind Kansas State and Oregon, ranked 1st and 2nd, respectively. I had sort of given up on Notre Dame these past few years, but wow, what a year this has been. Along the way, they beat four ranked teams, including #4 Stanford and #8 Oklahoma. Not bad. Wake Forest should not be a problem next week. It will make the season-ending game with USC must-watch television, Thanksgiving Saturday, 8:00 p.m. eastern.

Luxury Suites Taking Reservations In Williston, North Dakota

Winterton Suites must have been completed sometime this summer/autumn. Here is the original post.

Today I received this note at my personal mail:

I recently stayed at these newly constructed boutique executive suites. Winterton has unassuming exterior, amazing rooms! Great bed, down comforter, full size refrigerator, microwave, counter stovetop, flat screen TV, work station, sofa, deep tub,custom wood trim, tile. Recommend highly!  

So, there you have it. The Winterton Suites website is up and running but the Williston page is still under construction, I believe.

Surface Rights: $10,000/Acre .....

... but not in the Bakken. This is a story about agricultural land going for $10,000/acre in eastern North Dakota:

In what could be a state record for the per-acre value of farmland, an 80-acre parcel in North Dakota’s Walsh County sold for $800,000, or a whopping $10,000 per acre, at public auction Thursday in Grand Forks, N.D.

About 50 people, both bidders and onlookers, attended the auction, which included the sale of farmland in North Dakota’s Pembina County and Minnesota’s Kittson County. Those parcels brought prices ranging from $2,125 per acre to $5,850 per acre. But the 80-acre parcel in Walsh County was the auction sale’s crown jewel.

80 acres. Almost a million bucks. I hope they close this deal before the end of the year to avoid higher taxes in 2013. 

Buyer unidentified.

Look At The Size of This XOM Project in Papau New Guinea

Link here to Reuters.

The cost of Exxon Mobil's  massive gas export project in Papua New Guinea will soar more than 20 percent to $19 billion due to foreign exchange impacts and delays from work stoppages and land access issues, but it is still expected to start in 2014.

Exxon's Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas plant, known as PNG LNG, is the country's biggest-ever resource undertaking and is expected to boost GDP by 20 percent. The gas export project spans a large portion of the island nation and will pipe gas hundreds of kilometers to an LNG export plant near the capital in Port Moresby.

One wonders what kind of energy projects we could see in the US if we had a business-friendly / energy-focused administration.  Nothing like this is going to happen in the US under Mr Obama's watch. Sad.

More Aerial Photos of North Dakota

The following links were sent in by a reader,  who said the links are from Vern Whitten and are from his "Best of 2011" pictures. Again, these would make great holiday gifts.

Western ND and Eastern MT oil country: www.vernwhittenphotography.net/photos/oilpicks

Water issues: www.vernwhittenphotography.net/photos/water2011

Construction: www.vernwhittenphotography.net/photos/const2011

Variety: www.vernwhittenphotography.net/photos/scenic2011

Enjoy. They are incredible photos. Wow.