Steph Stradley

Realistic Expectations for the 2025 Houston Texans

July 22, 2025 by Steph Stradley 3 Comments

2025 Houston Texans Script — Pterodactyl appreciator, philosopher, and Texans legend, Arian Foster, joked about the NFL being scripted during the PFT Commenter podcast in 2023. What would happen if we collectively wrote the Houston Texans script for 2025? How would we structure our season collectively if we wanted to maximize the chances of the Texans winning the Super Bowl? Let’s conduct a thought and reality experiment.

Congratulations, we have made it to the 2025 NFL season!

You can never fully control outcomes, but collectively you can always work together to increase win probabilities of all sorts. Resource allocation and directing collective help.

Many smart people have worked hard over decades to increase the Texans win probabilities and make it fun along the way. I have listened to everyone who will talk to me about them, and am durn fool enough to try to write down our collective 2025 agenda.

Or perhaps a thought experiment: If we were collectively trying to increase the chances of the Texans winning the Super Bowl, how would each of us contribute to that, to the heart of champion energy that Houston can sometimes tap into in waves.

Here’s my list of 2025 Texans realistic expectations (if you are all bidness) or maybe consider them a script outline (if you trend more artsy) that we can fill out the details together:

Houston Texans Super Bowl.

There’s two types of teams with Super Bowl hopes. No ways and yes ways.

I think a Super Bowl is a realistic expectation with any team run by DeMeco Ryans, GM’d by Nick Caserio, QB’d by C.J. Stroud, given ample resources by the McNairs. Their plan for 2025 is ambitious, but they have already accomplished ambitious things over the last two years, some things I have never seen in my time watching and covering football.

Football attracts amazing people, but sometimes you do not have the necessary people at the same time. At the key spots in 2025, it looks like they do.

Yes, Houston winning a Super Bowl is harder than sending people to the moon and back safely. Collectively, I think we can increase the probabilities to make that happen.

Houston Texas As the Global HQs of Football.

The best of Texas football can be found in football everywhere and is full of win. The Houston Texans were founded with the core directive: If you were creating a football team from scratch, how would you create a winning organization? A team with a name that would never be stolen, and would make Texans proud.

Much easier said as an aspiration than do, but one many people have worked hard to make happen over decades. Anyway, if you were to have a headquarters of all levels of football, I think it should be in Texas, and I think it should be centered in Houston Texas as our values as a city are very Texas football values.

It was great to see the Houston Texans girls flag football team the Texas Fury out of Austin, Texas win the first high school girls flag football championship. The NFL Texans and Cowboys have been very supportive of Girls Flag Football being a sanctioned UIL sport, and I hope it happens soon. More football at more levels creates more football opportunities. The HQ of ALL FOOTBALL makes so much sense to be in Houston.

In unfortunate football HQ news, I learned that the UFL Roughnecks are leaving town. Hate to see that because I love as many football professionals to be able to live and play here, and it is always nice for the Texans to get a local look at players. Really enjoyed getting to know some of the people involved with the Roughnecks and seeing how they did their game presentation and connection with fans.

UPDATE: Posted October 15, 2025. In forunate football HQ news, it has been announced that there is yet another new Spring league team, the Houston Gamblers. We are a little wild west that way. I know stories. I look forward to hearing more about the Gamblers, they will be over at Shell Energy Stadium, where the Dash and Dynamo play.

Fair, Solid Communication.

Quality information management generally is a part of winning, and winning football. Sharing enough to create authentic, cool connections, but not to the degree that it adversely affects winning or vibes. One thing I have noticed in recent years is that different bubbles of our Texans community have different understandings of football and things generally.

We have strong communicators in our communities, we need to keep focusing on getting all eras and kinds of Texans having a better understanding of our shared football needs, intentions, and goals.

Strong Houston Media.

Relatedly, it is best for fans when local nu and old and in-house media is strong and can tell our collective stories in ways that resonate. Makes me sad when trusted voices are no longer in our market or have supported platforms, and happy when we gain new members. Having a variety of quality media covering any sport makes it more enriching to watch.

As a market, the Houston media is very collaborative, doesn’t enjoy manufactured drama, helps each other out. (with notable, often regretable exceptions) People have helped me navigate the old to modern media world, I like to help as I can.

Ultimately, my expectation is for Houston to be a jewel destination to cover sports, and that you don’t have to leave to succeed. Texans as a group are world-class storytellers.

As a community, if you want quality coverage, you need to support it in all the ways, most of them are easy. Subscriptions to local papers help their communities. Like and subscribes on YouTube. Business advertisers supporting content and events.

And at a basic level, in a world where we can communicate in real time for free, please don’t kill the messenger and keep educating, respecting, and entertaining audiences. I know that how people sometimes articulate sports can annoy, and some news is actually annoying, but demonstrating basic human respect to the news providers and audiences makes it easier for everyone to tell stories.

Number One Home Field Advantage.

NRG is a very vertical stadium that puts 70,000+ right over the action. There is not a bad seat, just your preferred sightlines and experience. When we have our energy dialed in, it is impossible for opponents to play well for 4 quarters.

Some off-season talk is about lists of bests, like loudest times in the stadium.

My view? I want every single home game to feel and sound like a playoff game because essentially it is. The NFL season is shorter than MLB and NBA playoffs, and every game is essential to see whether you can get home-field advantage through the playoffs. Noon starts on Sunday can make this a challenge, but I have experienced that before many times, even with teams that objectively had less of a chance than this year’s.

There’s lots of data that says home field advantage matters, and I’d like to see NRG at its best, every single week with no excuses or blame. I know it can happen because I have seen it.

Ranking the Houston Texans road trips — Texans please remember, your kind of party is always where you are–away, home or in space. Really, hanging out with Traveling Texans is fun if you are fun. Live big, tip big, the Texans way.

Number One Tailgating.

Part of number one home field advantage is number one tailgating. The late, great Commissioner of Tailgating, Joe Cahn, once called the Houston Texans the number one tailgating city in the NFL. Tailgating is essential for getting 70,000 people into a stadium by a noon kickoff with the right energy. It staggers car entrance times, provides more value to individual tickets.

Makes me sad hearing people talk about the best of tailgating in the past tense, and there is no reason why 2025 can’t be the best tailgating year ever if collectively we want that to happen. I’ve met so many incredibly cool people out in those lots. Proper hospitality is a competitive advantage.

If you ever wanted to participate or visit our tailgates, let’s make that an extra fun year to do this. I want to see all the fun people out there.

Traveling Texans.

Some legacy teams never play a true road game because they have supporters everywhere. The Traveling Texans was formed from a collection of fans who wanted the team to feel our support, and to make it easier to find other diehards at road games and have fun. Are you a Texan? Are you going on the road? Well then, you are a Traveling Texan.

For life reasons, I haven’t been to a ton of road games, but it is always uplifting seeing Texans having fantastic road trips. And I have always had a fantastic time on the road, some of my favorite sports times in my life. My expectation for this year is to grow our group and to make it as easy and fun for the organizers and participants as possible.

J.J. Watt Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Relatedly, J.J. Watt someday will be in the NFL Hall of Fame. I hope we are all around to see it with our living eyes. When that happens, I want Texans to have the best Houston party that ever was, in Canton, and all around the globe where they celebrate him. I had a magnificent time going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the first time for the Andre Johnson #375 celebration, and I want to see that for Watt and for as many of the current players (and head coach) as possible.

Last year, the Houston Texans played in the Hall of Fame game and saw Andre Johnson get inducted. He had long odds because he played for teams that often struggled, but his dominance was undeniable. Winning makes it easier for players and coaches to get into the HOF, and I want Houston to be a place where legends can get fully recognized as legends.

More Fun.

Football is supposed to be enjoyable, I think actual fun increases win probabilities even if I can’t prove it with data. I have had fun every year, not necessarily correlated to football winning as I personally do not control that. I am in charge of my own fun, and I am good at it. My favorite Texans times have been generous, kind, fun, and the smart dumb.

My intention in 2025 is to have as much fun as possible with as many friends and future friends as I can. Do fun projects together. Online and in person. Learn cool things. Find all the cool places to watch games. Personally, I don’t do anything unless I choose to do it joyfully, even if, and especially if it is hard. Winning football is fun, and I want people to help make it happen, celebrate it fully and not take it for granted. Looking forward to whatever enjoyable football experiences I can find for 2025.

More Fans.

In the early days of the franchise, it was hard to find other fans that were as excited about NFL football being back in Houston. We quickly found more of each other through the advent of the internet, in-person events, and the Texans encouraging tailgating. Now I know more Texans fans than I can count. That said, my friends and my Texans football friends are not a complete circle. For various reasons too boring to discuss.

Well, it is 2025. I want everybody who might be inclined to enjoy and be welcomed by Texans football to feel its full embrace. I love the feeling when the entire city feels vested in our sports. Our NFL team has a history that is not fully our own, but we collectively we keep making history.

More Fans Globally and On The Moon.

Houston is a very international city. Houston Texas is a great place to do business, and Texans are everywhere and into space. The NFL has an official global markets program of which teams can market in which countries.

Whatever. None of that restricts fans and players from recruiting more fans just by saying we want you to be a Texan no matter what The Powers That Be Say. HOUSTON TEXANS FOOTBALL FUN CANNOT BE CONTAINED OR DELEGATED TO THE MONEY GUYS. I really enjoy our international fans, I’ve learned a lot from them, and I charge you to help us collect all the badass people to be Texans. Also, the moon is a Houston Global Marketing partner because Houston was the first city name said there.

Astrodome: The Astrodme is more than a stadium--it is a way of treating people. — “The Astrodome is more than a stadium–it is a way of treating people.” There is a way of doing business in Houston that makes how and whys of how you do something about as important as doing it. Requires a high level of skill to pull off, but when we all come together, we win and win again.

Collecting History as Football Respectors.

One way to support your present is to respect the past. Our professional football past is complicated, and sometimes the way it is discussed can be painful to people who are still alive. Can’t say I always enjoy people reciting history that I know to be untrue, inauthentic, or casually disrespectful. Some of our stories are being lost to time and internet erosion. With the 25th Anniversary of the team fast approaching, fair histories and discussions of our professional football culture should be collected, shared and told.

About Practice Facilities, NRG, and the Astrodome.

As you may know, the Texans are looking for locations for a new practice, event, retail complex. The team, rodeo, county are working on what comes next for the NRG complex, and the business relationships of same. Given our somewhat tortured history with facilities, taste for practicality, solid resource use, and mixed views on what is good for the city, this is a difficult subject for people to talk about in kind, informed, honest, and football-winning supportive ways.

For some of our older Houstonians in particular, sports facility topics are still a raw subject. The Astrodome itself reflects the best and the worst of Houston.

“The Astrodome is more than a stadium–it is a way of treating people” can be said about our city. When we work together, we cannot be defeated, but when we are at odds with our interactions, it is sad to see.

Can we have uplifting, respectful, informed conversations on this topic? My intention is to encourage that. That we may not all agree on the outcome, but we can make it is good as we can collectively make it to support quality football and our community.

Supporting the Supporters.

The Houston Texans football community includes some amazingly supportive people. The off-season is a good time to get to know different communities better. Players. Coaches. Fans. Media. Business. Advertisers.

I want everyone in our communities to mutually support each other. That is a very reasonable expectation among actual people. I’ve felt that support at times I have needed it, and it feels like having wings and flying.

Each year is its own thing, and collectively, I want to keep seeing so many more examples of everybody supporting everybody.

Make More Art.

Photo of Nick Caserio with ZZ Top Cheap Sunglasses Stunting — ZZTop Texans Test: Do you really knock them out with your cheap sunglasses. 2024 mashup art from unknown Texans legends.

Houston has a lot of ways we do things with art. There’s the art that is known as art, of course. But also there is the art in everything, the style and creativity of a particular time.

Sports, tailgates, food, business, art art, clothes, business, everything. We are very custom, connected, and extra. HoUSton is US.

If you don’t feel like you are particularly artsy, supporting art is a way to create art. Our modern world talks about “content creators,” and if you can, please make it an environment where people feel they can succeed and be supported in whatever their art and commerce is here in Houston. So our best feel like they can keep this their home, or at a minimum, when they come into town, they feel at home. Big in Houston about everything is the only thing that really matters, but usually that translates globally.

Attractive Destination.

What most everyone agrees on is that DeMeco Ryans has made Houston, Texas an attractive place for players. That players can see a path to success in Houston, enjoy collaborating as professionals. Ultimately, that is the story of Houston. Badasses of all sorts don’t have to be from here to succeed here. Part of the reason DeMeco Ryans is coaching the Houston Texans is that we collectively made him feel at home here.

Whatever you do that makes it welcoming to be a Texan, keep doing that. If you do things that make it hard on your neighbors, maybe rethink that, find another way. We can’t all live and work in the Greater Houston, but we want to make it good for each other.

Handling Business Like Texans.

I don’t know your business unless I do. Houston is both a big and small place, and it works better when we know each other as human beings, help each other out when we can, and take care of our business.

Have you prepared your person for fall sports? Are you making things good for you, your family, your friends, your people, and your community? If so, way to go, we are ready to roll.

Don’t have to get ready, if you stay ready.

Expectations for You Personally.

If you have read this far, you are the kind of energetic person I want to hear from.

During this season, I am going to talk more about these topics and perhaps other ones. Getting ready for fall and hopefully deep into winter. The same and different people step up every year based on what is going on in their lives. Let’s have the shared intention of making special year for all the good reasons.

That said, I already know my thoughts on these subjects, I’d like to hear yours like an old school blog. More focused on the future, and not criticisms of the past, or problems. I am not the complaint box as I just want things good. Remember keep it the best of Texas: No spam and civil. Also, if you don’t feel comfortable leaving a comment, you know how to get in touch with me. With the deevolution of some social, people just being busy, I have lost touch with some Texans of the past, and if I haven’t heard from you in a while, I’d love to catch up.

Welcome Houston Texans to 2025 – Back to the Future

July 22, 2025 by Steph Stradley 2 Comments

Welcome Houston Texans to 2025 LFGY — Image from Necrodank’s September 8, 2022 time machine YouTube: “Davis Mills: The Way of the Ancients” that foretold elements of our present time.

Dear Texans and Future Texans of Earth and Space,

Hi, my name is Steph Stradley. I am one of many Houston Texans who, over decades, have wanted to see Houston’s professional football teams win a Super Bowl with our living eyes and want to help make that happen together. I know many of you in different ways and in different contexts, but please trust I know a ton about Houston Texans football among other things, and am not here to debate, more to help each other out and watch us thrive together.

For the 2025 season, I am going with you Back to the Future and doing terribly earnest, moderated, old-school football blogging in this location because I know how, and it makes sense for this moment in time, and it makes me happy to do it.

That no matter what social media you consume or don’t, I can create easy-to-share links that you can share with other Texans. Without logins, paywalls, b0ts, fakery, checking for your wallet. Where we can share quality information and have sensible conversations about topics, and I can update posts to make them more helpful as the season progresses.

I have done decades of in-person and online Houston sports fun, and I want to use whatever resources I have available to have more sports fun with global Texans. I have the most fun when it’s more-the-merrier fun. When we all win, that’s the best kind of Houston win.

ALL Texans, I want all Texans to have an uplifted Houston Texans football season, even if you aren’t naturally a football fan or originally a Texan or will ever step foot here. We need and deserve this.

For this blog, I am going to use old school Texans Talk Message Board rules that I enjoyed when I actively did volunteer moderating there. Basically, keep it civil, attack topics not people, stay on topic, try not to make it personal even when it is going to feel personal, no cussing, don’t use words that distract from your message. And above all NO SPAM.

Texas allegedly means “friend,” and I like to keep it friendly, despite a world that often rewards unfriendly things.

One of the main things I’ve learned over the last five years, in particular, is that some things I took for granted Texans know, not all Texans know. And how do you get people on the same page for Texans all over the earth who have different life experiences and media consumption? How will the AI that scans the web, know what is the most reliable and trusted content?

That is an issue bigger than Texas, but at least for 2025, I will be focusing on Houston Texans football and the giant fun group project of getting a Super Bowl victory while we are still alive to see it.

Anyway, at various points in the season, I may ask you for help. Either you personally or all y’all. Just makes it easier to get big things done when specialists with the right resources help, and help communicate to Texans even when they are in space. Please do if it makes sense in your life. I will try to make it easy and fun for you to do for the benefit of all.

As I create more things here and other places, I will put key links below to make them easier to find:

Realistic Expectations for the 2025 Houston Texans. July 22, 2025

This post is sponsored by the memory of my sister Debby Greer-Costello, a total Texans legend. Hope you knew her and keep the best of her spirit in your heart. Today would have been her 58th birthday. She was my best friend, never met a stranger, had a generous heart, gave the best hugs, we laughed and laughed. She did a lot of thinking at the end of her life, and wanted everyone to read this and live healthy, uplifted, long lives. Keep practicing 🙂

Practical Tips to Win Your Property Tax Protest in Houston

May 23, 2025 by Steph Stradley 42 Comments

This post was originally published on April 26, 2014 and was updated most recently May 23, 2025.

Thinking of filing a property tax protest in Houston, Harris County? The deadline for filing your property protest appeal is May 15th, unless that day is a holiday or weekend then the next business day, or 30 days after the date your notice of appraised value was mailed, whichever is the later date. There can be circumstances where you can file your appeal later than that too.

Blog posts are often used as resources, and I wanted to use this blog post as a forum to share my (non-legal advice) experiences, and ask for you to add any practical, helpful advice that you have in the comments below. The Houston Chronicle recently created their own site to help people protesting their property taxes, and I suggest that you visit it.

(UPDATE July 18, 2016: I do not handle tax protests as a part of my practice, so please do not email me to help you or ask my advice. I put this together because I can and to be a generally helpful person in my community).

Practical help to win your property tax protest.

First some basics.

1. File your protest.
On the list of things that you might forget, this can be an expensive one. You can use the HCAD website to file it, so you don’t even need a stamp. This is a particularly important year not to forget this given the rise in values.
It’s not enough just to file your protest. You need to remember to show up to the hearing as well unless you get a i-Settle resolution. This is obvious but is a pain to do every year to say the same thing to get the same result.
2. Should you get professional help to protest?
Personally, no. Easy for me to say because I’m a lawyer.
But many people have positive results without getting tax agent help. At least one study suggests individuals get better results than experts. For residential properties 41% better.
Why is that so?
Tax agent companies might suggest they tend to have harder cases than the people who feel like they can protest it on their own.
Perhaps it is a matter of motivation and familiarity. A homeowner is very motivated to reduce their tax valuation. They can focus their time on only one property, and knows its problems better than anyone.
I don’t want to pay anybody for things that I’m capable of doing myself and likely do better. Have that view regarding restaurant food too, which is why I often order the fish and skip things easier to cook at home.
3. Spend some time exploring the HCAD website.
The HCAD website contains the logistical procedures of what to expect, what information they consider. They go into a lot more detail than I can reasonably do here.
After you file your protest tax protest and receive an informal hearing date, the website will show you what properties their computerized models are using to compare to yours.
That information won’t be on the site until 15-20 days before your hearing date. It will give a list of comparable properties with basic information about them.
You have to log-in and click around a bit to find this information. (UPDATE July 18, 2016: Commenters/emailers have been asking where to find that info. I always end up forgetting where I found it the last time and have to look for it. HCAD currently doesn’t make it obvious that it exists or where to find it. In fairness to them, there’s a lot of stuff on their site. Fortunately, commenter “Kbum” was helpful and answered this below: “Once you log in here https://owners.hcad.org (and set up a user name/password) Navigate to the “Manage Your Property Accounts” page. You will find it at the bottom left of this page under “View HCAD Hearing Evidence.””)
You may want to actually see those properties in person and photograph the outside to distinguish them from your property. It’s been my experience that the properties that their computerized system used to compare to mine weren’t terribly similar.
4. Should you do i-Settle?
If you don’t use i-Settle, then your filing goes to an informal hearing appraiser and then if isn’t resolved then, to the entire appraisal review board. If you use HCAD i-Settle process, you may get a reduction in your home value such that you feel fine taking it without going to HCAD.
For me, though I asked to use i-Settle in the past, I’ve always received this email back after they considered it:

Thank you for signing up for our iSettle™ program. Unfortunately, after reviewing the information we have available, we cannot propose an online settlement for your 2012 protest. Since sales disclosure is not mandatory in Texas, we acknowledge that our market information may not be complete and that you may have evidence unique to your property that may support a reduction in your property’s market value. To be sure you have an adequate opportunity to have it reviewed, we will be setting you up for appointments with one of our appraisers and for a hearing with the Appraisal Review Board. The Appraisal Review Board will set a hearing for your protest and notify you of the time, date and place of the hearing by standard USPS mail.

Perhaps it works better for smaller reductions than what I requested. I ended up getting a informal appraisal hearing and approving their offer after i-Settle gave me no offer.
This detailed property tax protest Examiner blog post from a few years ago called “Appealing Houston Property Taxes 101: Taking on HCAD and winning” advises not using i-Settle at all.
5. What to expect from the informal appraisal hearing?
You show up at the HCAD building and wait for your name to be called. An appraiser brings you to his cubical.
When you go to this, bring all the documentation that supports your view of the market value of your home. Lots of quality pictures of defects with your home that adversely affect market value are crucial.
One year, the detailed info that I brought to the appraiser demonstrated that some of the information they had in their computer about my home was inaccurate, and he changed it in their system.
At one meeting I had with an appraiser, he told me that the most that they have authority to reduce with homeowners is $100,000. I do not know if it is true or not.
In my limited dealings with the informal process, they were reasonable and gave me what I thought was a fair offer worth not going the next step to the appraisal review board.
6. What to expect from the appraisal review board (ARB) hearing?
The panel is comprised of three citizens not employed by HCAD to hear your case.
There is also an HCAD employee who represents HCAD that argues against your point view.
When I did this, I put together a packet of material for me, each of the representatives, and the HCAD employee.
One section was reasons why house should have lower value than what the computerized system suggested due to problems with the property. This section had many clear color pictures of problems with the house.
Another section was details on the properties HCAD in its online materials said were the comparables, and why my property was worth substantially less. To do that, I looked both online with the information contained there, but also went to those properties and took pictures.
Then I flipped through the packet of materials, using it as a visual aid to discuss with the ARB panel. It was fancy looking packet with a cover sheet, good quality color photos to try to show I gave the proceeding some thought, respect and time.
Having everything in a packet is also helpful if you feel shy about talking in front of a group of people. You can just walk them through the packet.
The HCAD employee makes her response mostly based on the comparables. So if you give specifics of why those comparables are inaccurate and perhaps show better ones, it is hard for an HCAD employee who just picked up the file to refute you.
You just killed all her evidence and she doesn’t have any additional evidence beyond the comparables to refute your point.
They consider the information, and you get a final determination from them at the end of the hearing.
7. Be nice, be prepared. Get them to want to help you.
Remember, this process is not really about doing a “property tax protest” and more about discussing the information that justifies what the market value for your house is. Market value being what it would sell on the open market.
The informal appraiser and the appraiser review board folks are human beings. Ones who have a lot of control. So you want to politely and logically state your position, with so much support and in such a friendly way they want to help you.
Under no circumstances should you complain about the tax burden to the informal appraiser or to the ARB panel. Because it ain’t their doing. In fact, one of the first things on the HCAD site is this statement:
“If you’re concerned about tax levels, you should take those concerns to local government officials.”
I am certain they know what you think about the rising taxes. They have heard it a million times. Likely from bat-bleep crazy people who said it in bat-bleep crazy ways.
But if you want the human beings who control your tax appraisal to help you, you help them by providing good reasons supported by data.
And being the nice sort of person they feel good about helping.
(This is good advice in dealing with most service providers who have control over something you want them to do–making them feel good to want to go the extra mile for you. They just want to do their job, get paid, get off work, maybe go to Applebees, get some beers. You can try to bulldoze service providers into doing good stuff for you, but that is not a high percentage situation when they have more power and control in the situation).
If you win on the ARB level, you’ve beaten HCAD until next year, when the computer spits out the same old wrong valuation and you make many of the same arguments year after year. (So save your documents).
If you don’t get a reduction at the ARB level, then your next choice is district court, which for most homeowners won’t be worth the time and money. There is no guarantee you and the ARB panel will agree with your assessment, so sometimes it may be worth it to take the informal appraisal reduction for the certainty involved.
7. Talk to your neighbors.
You know your property. Your neighbors know your neighborhood. Sometimes they may know gossip that can help you gather helpful valuation information.
One year, one of my neighbors put a spreadsheet in local mailboxes demonstrating the rise of land values on our street relative to nearby streets, showing an improper valuation issue. That connection wouldn’t have occurred to me until I saw that flyer.
Talking to your neighbors can sometimes give you a sense of what works and doesn’t work in doing their property tax protest.

Also, I’ve found that my Realtor friends can also provide helpful information and ideas, assuming you already have a good relationship with one.

8. Storm Damage.

Hurricane Harvey damage and other storm damage can radically change the value of your property. Even a property that was fixed after the storm can have a downward assessment. The Harris County Appraisal District offered an app, email and phone line to provide damage information right after the storm. [pdf link] If you failed to report damage, you can still do so in your appeal this year, showing pictures of what the property looks like as of January 1st of the taxing year. Even if you repaired the damage, you can still provide information on what damaged houses are now selling for in your neighborhood.

9. Leave a comment here.
As I said, I am no expert in this. What I’d like to do is to start a dialogue about this topic. Where people share their ideas of what works and what they have experienced.
As a Houston homeowner who knows I will be doing this fight every year, I’d like to receive whatever help I can get.

Stephanie Stradley Blog Cookbook – Your Best Recipes

October 9, 2023 by Steph Stradley 1 Comment

FEAST!

The best eating I’ve ever done was at a party where everybody was supposed to bring the best thing they cook. You know, the food that everybody begs you for the recipe.

So everybody brought the food that they were famous for and feasted.

When we gather a bunch of food and call our buds to come over last second, we call it “FEAST.” Which makes sense.

Blog posts so you don’t have to repeat yourself.

One thing you can do with blog posts is to create a repository of things. Like a place to share recipes.

Blog posts can also be a spot to do a crowdsourced collection of things. Sort of a public service that helps me too.

I use to have an Irish Whiskey Cake recipe in a blog post at FanHouse, but AOL nuked those old links. That used to be the place I would send friends who were looking for that recipe. Since I have control over this site, this link won’t go away without me knowing it.

What I want to do in this post is:

1. Share my recipes. I’m going to share three recipes I often get people asking me how to make. They are super easy and taste really good.

2. Asking you to share YOUR famous recipe(s) in this format. Leave a short comment about the recipe, what makes it special, why someone should try it. After that, please leave the recipe or a link to the recipe if you found it online. I want a solid blog post that has only good stuff in it, and I won’t approve blog comments that are a joke or are spam.

3. Also if you try the recipes, leave a comment, and any suggestions if you have them.
If you have more than one recipe you want to share, put them in separate comments please. And thank you, because you likely are sending me good recipes if you have more than one people know you for.

How to find this later?

If you can’t remember how to find this direct link, try googling an assortment of “Stephanie Stradley blog cookbook best recipes” and this should end up being the first link if the googles are doing their job.

This is my mom's handwritten index card of the Brendan's Irish Whiskey Cake recipe. Great handwriting. Glad I still had this because AOL nuked the blog link I put the recipe on. — This is my mom’s handwritten index card of the Brendan’s Irish Whiskey Cake recipe. Great handwriting. Glad I still had this because AOL nuked the blog link I put the recipe on.

Brendan’s Irish Whisky Cake

The Story of the Cake. My buddy Brendan gave this recipe to my mom, who then wrote it down on an index card and gave it to me. It is easy to make, looks fancy and is wonderful. The smells delicious and tastes better. This recipe I get asked for all the time.
I’ve been known to eat this cake for breakfast too. It is irresistable.

Brendan’s Irish Whiskey Cake Recipe.
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
2. Mix:
1 package of Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix
1 package vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup Irish Whiskey
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
5 eggs
3. Pour into greased, floured bundt pan.
4. Drop into the batter avoiding edges:
1/4 cup chocolate morsels (chips)
1/4 cup butterscotch morsels
(Note: You might want to lightly dust morsels with a small amount of flour before putting in batter. If you mix the morsels in the batter before putting it in the pan, they will all sink to the bottom and stick on the pan. You can poke some of the morsels down, but not too much.)
5. Bake:
Bake 350 degrees for 50 minutes to an 1 hour depending on how dark your bundt pan are, how hot your oven tends. If the top starts over browning, put a piece of tin foil over it. Test for doneness with a toothpick.
6. Finish:
After cooling for 10 minutes, put a plate on top of the bundt pan, and carefully turn it over. The cake should fall right out if you greased the pan properly, and didn’t put the morsels too close to the edge of the pan.

If you are taking this tailgating, it is great to cut slices and then wrap them in tinfoil like a breakfast taco. I get the precut foil from Costco as I go to Costco on the reg. This is not an ad for Costco, just saying I like them.

Sometimes we'll put four salmon on the smoker. If you are heating up the wood, you might as well cook a bunch. It gets eaten. Salmon salad sandwiches the next day are heavenly too. — Sometimes we’ll put four salmon on the smoker at one time. If you are heating up the wood, you might as well cook a bunch. It gets eaten. Salmon salad sandwiches the next day are heavenly too.

George’s Smoked Salmon

The Story of the Salmon. One thing that Texas is known for their smoked meats, which is a delicious thing to be known for and reason number 84,589,725 to never move away.

My husband Bill bought a custom smoker at Pitts By JJ many years ago and has been very happy with it.

Though we love cooking a ton of different stuff on it, my buddy George’s smoked salmon is the best. Even people who don’t typically like salmon, like this. Kids will even eat it straight off the grill.

I published the cooking instructions before on the previous version of my Houston Chronicle blog:

George’s Smoke Salmon Recipe.
1. Buy salmon. We buy ours from Costco. Don’t buy the steelhead salmon, buy the other kind.
2. Heat yer smoker. Get your smoker to about 200 to 250 degrees. They like using hickory wood. Do not use mesquite.
3. Moisten cedar planks. You can get cedar planks at most stores. Soak them in water for around 30 minutes.
4. Tin foil boats. Make a boat of heavy duty tinfoil to put salmon in.
5. Lemon juice and season. Use the juice of one to two lemons and squeeze it all over the salmon. Put lots of pepper on top of the salmon to the point that it almost looks like too much. Put sea salt on top, not as much as the pepper.
6. Put salmon on cedar plank then in smoker. First you lift it off of the tin foil and onto the cedar plank. Discard the tin foil boat. Put the thicker part of the fish (the side where they head would have been) toward the smoke source.
7. Cook for 40 minutes to a little over an hour depending on temp, whatever doneness you prefer. Eat it warm or cold, with romaine lettuce boats, pita chips, maybe some herb mayo or plain.

Steph’s Everything Muffins

The Story of the Muffins. I like muffins, but I don’t like the kind they sell at the store or bakeries that are so sugary they might as well be cake. These are great to have when you are busy.

I like packing some in my carry on stuff on the planes because if I don’t, the plane will certainly be delayed to the point of desperation hunger.

These muffins basically have all the ingredients I love in one place. I adopted the recipe from a few I saw otherwise, and made many variations of these since at least 2001.

I make them a lot while I’m watching sports and tweet pictures of them. Which means I get a lot of people asking me how to make them, so here’s how:

This is the oven at my house. It's an old Frigidaire that we call "The DeLorean" because the doors open upward. It cooks very true to temperature, likely because it was built when quality mattered. — This is the oven at my house. It’s an old Frigidaire that we call “The DeLorean” because the doors open upward. These sort of gullwing doors are nice on an oven because you don’t have to reach over hot doors to get the food in and out. It cooks very true to temperature, likely because it was built when quality mattered.

Steph’s Everything Muffins
1. Prep. Preheat oven to 375. Grease muffin tins. When I say to stir stuff in recipe, use a fork. Try to use minimum stirs to mix because over-mixing results in gummy texture when you make muffins.
2. Bowl 1. Put 1 1/4 cup roughcut oatmeal in bowl. Pour 1 1/4 cup milk in bowl with it. Let it soak while you prepare the rest.
3. Bigger Bowl 2. In a bigger bowl, put 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil (though I like using walnut oil), 1 egg. Stir. If you like things more sugary, add more sugar. I prefer the sugar to come from the mix ins.
4. This is the everything part. Then add the everything you want to taste:
I like combos of:
Dark choc + organic coconut + walnuts, or
Dark choc + organic coconut + raspberries + walnuts, or
Diced apple + pecans, or
Diced banana + walnuts.
With some fruits, I put a little vanilla and cinnamon in too. Basically whatever you like, whatever you happen to have in the house.
I’ve never made this recipe with savories like bacon, but I bet that could be good too. Experiment!
Stir those items in.
5. Combine. Then dump oatmeal, milk mixture into the larger bowl and stir.
In a measuring cup put 1 1/4 cups flour. Put 1 teaspoon baking powder in flour and just sort of mix that in the flour measuring cup.
Then slowly dump flour into the big bowl that has the other stuff and mix (VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO OVERMIX THIS STEP). Stop pouring flour when it looks the consistency of raw muffin batter–not too runny, not too thick–I’d rather have it slightly too wet than too thick–the oatmeal is fairly dense. This step isn’t exact because of the quantity of mixins or whether you are using a more moist mix in like bananas. Sometimes I use all the flour. Sometimes I use about a cup.

If you are feeling fancy, you can put a crumble of cinnamon sugar nuts on top.

6. Cook for 20 minutes. My oven cooks these perfectly in 20 minutes. Your oven may be different. You just want them to look brownish on top. If you use moist ingredients like raspberries or blueberries, they may bubble a lot and may take a little extra time to cook.
7. You will eat one more muffin than you planned. Let the cool for a bit and then pop out. Sometimes you need to run a knife around the edges if they are sticking.

Please Add to My Blog Cookbook.

If you try the recipes, please let me know in the comments and provide any questions or suggestions.
And please, add your best recipe to this post, or a link to your go to recipe. Bonus points if it is easy to make but doesn’t look that way.

Published original on May 19, 2014, Updated October 9, 2023, just in time for tailgate season.

Why Your Social Media Sucks

April 20, 2021 by Steph Stradley Leave a Comment

“Why Your Social Media Sucks” is an overly provocative title intended to grab negative attention. It begs for an argument.

“No, it doesn’t.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“Yours is worse.”
“You didn’t prove this and oversold your headline.”
“Sure it does. I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Whatev.”

Personally, I don’t enjoy this headline technique at attention-getting.

It does not suit me. I don’t enjoy when others use it. I don’t think it engenders respect or trust.

Today, I’m being a part of an online Trinity Talk called “Why Your Social Media Sucks: How to Improve Your Online Presence,” with Trinity University faculty members Dr. Jacob Tingle and Dr. Dominic Morais.

We talked about this as a title and agreed on it as more of a discussion point.

My focus in the talk is answering the following question: In the negative-attention begging world, how can you conduct your online presence in a way you feel good about and works for you as a person or your business?

First, how’s your website?

When working at their best for society, search engines should be connecting people to the businesses they are looking for without undue expense or time. If someone is searching your business or you, they should be able to find a fair and helpful representation of you if you want that.

So before overthinking the latest in social media, a business should have a functional, useful website that if someone is searching for your business specifically, they can find you and know what you do.

This seems basic but so many businesses cannot be easily found even when people are searching.

Often marketing directories that want individuals to pay them for better placement dominate the top spots in search engines. Someday, maybe today, we are all working for tech companies that end up being an expense without justifying the time and money using them. (The Skynetting of the web is a different topic altogether).

Whatever your job is, you may be forced to learn about marketing because if you don’t, you may not be as effective as you can be at your primary job. The difficulty is that it can be hard to figure out who to trust and who provides value to you and your business.

My website is fine. Should I be on social media, and how?

Some questions to ask:

Purpose.

Why are you doing it? What is your intention? Does it work with who you are now and where you see yourself in the future? Does your online self fairly represent who you are in reality?

Money and Time.

What resources do you have to spend on it? Is this something you can maintain? Does it distract you from other things that are better uses of time? Is something that worked for you in the past no longer working for you?

Medium.

There are different types of online interaction, and the different technologies evolve over time. Some businesses are more well suited to some kinds of social media versus others.

Necessity.

For many businesses, some level of online interaction is necessary or useful. This can change quickly, and you need to adapt in smart ways that work for you and your work.

Marketing.

Sometimes it feels like everything is marketing over everything. That the quality of the product or service is less important than how it is sold to people. That the new world is old products marketed in more friendly to consumer ways.

To me, the best marketing is just connecting people with the right thing without spamming, imposing, and harming others in the process. Making people’s lives better. On the internet, marketing can feel broken due to impositions on businesses and customers and the disconnect and distrust between the two.

Creating authentic, positive communities online that are a net benefit to society is beyond marketing. How are you serving your real world communities and using your talents to make your life and others’ better?

Sometimes, this can be difficult to navigate as a consumer of online content, finding what is actually beneficial versus those who market well, but do not have quality goods and services that they are sharing.

For better and worse, the costs and barriers to communication have come down, and the challenge for all of us is to figure out how this can benefit ourselves and society without creating harm.

“Any attention is good attention” is a popular ethos, and it works for some people, but it can be hard to maintain over time and can cause unnecessary problems.

Social media is just another way of interacting with people.

The web allows you to travel all over the world all at once. Have you given thought to how you want to interact with friends and strangers? Humans, not too long ago, had very limited interactions with other people. Those interactions can be good but they can also end up in unintended, sometimes unpredictable negative ways.

“Influencer” culture can be helpful to people, but also, like in non-online interactions, influences can be bad too, and sometimes it is easier to see when that is happening to other people than when it is happening to yourself.

As the last link notes, we should all take care who, where, how long you hang out online.

Reality programming on TV does not fully reflect reality but it edited in ways to make it more engaging. With social media and online interactions, we are all creating our own reality programming daily with no editor or producer filtering what is shown, and media companies doing some but little moderation.

Is this something you want for yourself or your business?

How to communicate online?

What are your values and goals? We all communicate in different ways, enjoy and value different things, have different goals.

For me, I have put together guidelines that have evolved over many years, have been learned from smart experts, happy and sad accidents, practical experience. These usually work for me, but my values, talents, and goals may not be yours:

Avoid unnecessary drama.

People have different life experiences. It is easy to get sideways with people you don’t know, particularly online, when you do not see facial expressions, hear tone, don’t know someone personally, or know if someone you are talking to is a put-on. I have enough issues living without manufactured drama, and often the best way to win an argument is often not to get into them.

Keep good energy.

I’ve found that I receive the respect and energy that I tend to give. And that if someone’s behavior towards me is hostile, I do not need to return that energy. I can acknowledge it and defuse it. Maybe it is a misunderstanding. Maybe that is just the online interaction they are used to or enjoy.

Maybe it is just a put-on or someone seeking negative attention. Sometimes, I can choose to ignore it. I can also understand that sometimes the hostile energy often says more about the person making it than it does me. I’d rather pay attention to people who interact in conventional ways than reward people with my attention after they try to get it in negative ways.

Dealing with people who seek negative attention for their ends is difficult to navigate, particularly when the things they are promoting hurt you and other people. However you interact with people behaving in difficult ways, make it an intentional choice.

Keep humanity at the center of interactions.

You never know what is going on in someone’s life.

Sometimes seeing the humanity in other people in both in-person and online interactions can create a positive situation out of something that started off negatively.

People feel as they do always.

Often, people will feel a certain way, and share reasons to justify their feelings. And then various people argue about those reasons, even though the argument is really about feelings, and you can’t really argue someone’s feelings away.

Telling people how they are supposed to feel usually ends up poorly.

For me, a better way is to invite people to a way of looking at something, or framing a topic, and trying to make that a place that suits people of different experiences and backgrounds, without engendering unnecessary fear, anger, unhappiness. That can be a hard thing to do without shared trust, but it is great when it happens.

Ultimately, people like what and who they like. If we all liked the same things, life likely would be expensive and boring.

It’s okay for us to like different things. The main disputes between people happen when some people’s likes make other people’s lives worse.

Attack arguments, not people.

The best online forums have that as a basic moderation guideline which feels good based on what I value. Some days this feels more difficult than others, particularly when people are being intentionally provocative about things that are core values to you.

Time and place and audience.

Whether online or not, communication is respectful of time and place and audience. What works in some situations does not work in others.

Look for shared understanding.

Often words and phrases people use do not have shared meaning. Avoid jargon and work from shared understanding when you can, particularly among strangers with different experiences.

Take care on difficult topics.

Relatedly, complex topics are often that way because stakeholders do not have shared interests and understandings, no easy answers, and that there are hard truths from different perspectives. On topics like that, I try to take extra care in my words, say them with good intent but knowing that good intentions may not be enough for highly emotional topics.

You don’t have to have an opinion on everything.

Really, it’s fine to just not. Wisdom comes from knowing what you don’t know.

Avoid words and behaviors you can’t easily take back.

If you say enough words, offer enough opinions, some you may regret.

You don’t have to fight online or anywhere if that isn’t your job. Some mediums are more combative by nature but you do not need to engage in that.

Figure out a way to make online a net positive.

If your online presence isn’t working for you, figure out how it can if you are able. It is a tool. It should not be your boss. Boundaries. Times. Influences. Deleting or taking a break temporarily or permanently.

Sometimes you can’t make online work for you, and you need to step away.

Listen to the people who care about you. The people closest to you. If the people you value express concern about how your online behavior affects you and them, consider it.

Online interactions with the entire world at once is a human experiment. One where no one can really be In Charge of the ethics of it but socially, we can encourage positive interactions.

Be intentional.

Some people get a new medium of communication and jabber away without thinking of the consequences of what they are saying, who the audience is, or how it fits within the medium. However you communicate, make it an intentional choice.

Just keep living.

A lot of this likely may sound more serious than I intend. I enjoy the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the disagreements sometimes come from the details.

We have a life. Many good ways to live it. Makes me sad when people’s lives never really have a chance or go astray. Hope that your online life makes your life better and not worse.

You be you.

You be you because you don’t really have an alternative. You, as a person, may change over time. And my wish for you is to be kind to yourself, and your future self.

These are just my own guidelines that I have embraced over years that make it easier to engage with friends and strangers online. Guidelines, not rules, because I can intentionally choose to do something different. Other people with other talents and values and purposes, may choose to do things differently.

Some things I wished I learned a long time ago but really, I am part of the first generation who has lived through this from its beginnings. I thank all the brilliant people who I have learned from and still learn from, and just passing this along to return the favor.

As always, take what works for you and leave the rest.

Also, please do not spam the comments because that is not a positive online experience for anyone, particularly me.

The Deshaun Watson Lawsuits: Frequently Asked Questions

March 26, 2021 by Steph Stradley 15 Comments

A plaintiff’s attorney filed numerous civil lawsuits by women against Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. The cases state Watson assaulted, sexually assaulted, and harassed women after contacting them with the pretense of seeking a traditional massage.

Watson’s lawyer has acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations, shared his view the allegations are false, an account of a “blackmail scheme” by one plaintiff, derided the tactics of the plaintiff’s lawyer, and wants to get the names of the petitioners to investigate the allegations confidentially.

The plaintiffs’ attorney has objected to that implication and said he would provide additional information about non-disclosure agreement he states Watson wanted signed.

When I get repeated questions about a topic involving sports and law, I sometimes do explainers to share my opinions about a situation.

My background is that I’ve been a lawyer for 30 years for businesses and individuals, have practical legal experience in many areas of the law, including this topic, and have written about the Houston Texans and also NFL discipline issues since 2006.

The Deshaun Watson lawsuits FAQ includes:

Thoughts on emotional and high-profile legal topics.
General questions about the lawsuits against Deshaun Watson.
Civil Lawsuit Topics.
Potential Criminal Cases.
Potential NFL Discipline.
NFL Trade Implications.

My goal is to discuss this in a clinical, practical, accurate way in a way where it can be helpful to both lawyers and non-lawyers who have questions about this case.

There are headers for different sections, and you can skip to the parts that interest you.