Fran, Tiff and Billy's Dallas Reunion Tour '07

Fran and I finally returned to the place we met over 10 years ago while serving in the Texas Dallas Mission...where we met for the first time in a bathroom of some church...where Fran's first impression of me was that I was "snobby". Nice. Everyone knows I prefer, "smug". At any rate, this time we were not plagued by those restrictive "mission rules"...we were free to do whatever we pleased. Yes. This time, we would eat at Medieval Times, and no one could stop us!!!

We did get a rough start. On the flight out I sat next to a "nose picker", the landing was so rough that people actually screamed, and they lost our luggage. Somehow, things did improve. We stayed with my friend Teri and pretty much ran and ate from the moment we got there until we left. That is when we were not fighting off heat stroke...which by the way was every bit as bad as I remembered it...if not worse. Here are some photo highlights of the excursion:


I don't know how I took this picture with chicken in both of my hands!





What would a trip to Texas be without a Longhorn siting.








Billy enjoying Dallas from the top of Reunion Tower.









Aliyah enjoying the game, apparently unaware that it was so hot and humid that people should not be outdoors.








Bonham, TX. 10 years ago, this town was a hellish little speck on the map. Today: they are practically putting in a light rail system. Who knew?







Fort Worth....Fran in what appears to be Stage 3 of heat stroke.

it was in fact electrifying

Okay - I am finally going to give my playoff wrap up. All in all, the games were a lot of fun, and it was exciting that it went on as long as it did. These games however, were not for kids. There were a lot of court side antics that need to be discussed, things you don't see when Steve Kerr is covering the game. (okay, i really mean "upper bowl antics")

Houston Series -

• This one started out with one of the most embarrassing national anthems ever, as discussed in previous post.
• Until the last game of the San Antonio series, this one also fostered the most hostile crowd I have ever seen. Possibly the first and last time I had heard the chant "Break you leg McGrady, break your leg!"
• Game 2: someone 3 rows in front of us actually THREW UP on the ground, distracting us for quite some time during the inevitable smell, cleanup, and for some reason the women behind me practically asking me to describe the vomit to her.

Golden State Series -

• This series seemed to be marked by increased food consumption. We have never seen people buy and eat so many pretzels, nachos, hot dogs, popcorn, beer, ice cream. Larry must have been rolling in cash after this series. We believe the guys in front of us in one game, actually purchased $100 of food each. I missed an entire quarter trying to add up the amount spent. One of these guys precious pretzels broke in half, and one half fell on the stairs during his walk in. In an Oscar winning performance, he raised his fist to the sky and yelled, "NO!"
• A goofy guy 2 rows in front of us used his old school white Jazz windbreaker as a rally towel, and looked really funny doing it. He kept yelling, "Welcome to the House of Pain" and I think he must have been referring to our pain.
• Of course this series had the infamous Fisher shows up late and the crowd goes ballistic moment. It was memorable, and it was hard not to get sucked up into it, although, some of us knew it was a bad match up, and that maybe he should have warmed up for a second.

San Antonio Series -

• The first home game of this series was really wild and out of control in there. There is a man that sits 3 rows in front of us on the end and he is 81 years old with 3 broken ribs. (How I know all of this is not important right now). He looks kind of like Mickey from Rocky, but is a snazzier dresser. He always has on baggy cargo shorts and Vans. He is generally in a altercation with this guy several rows in front of him that likes to stand, and the poor old guy can't stand very easily due to his broken ribs. Okay, so the point of this is that a yelling match broke out between the annoying standing guy, and some guy across the row. I heard a lot of f words, and figured out it had to do with the old guy, but I didn't know what he had done. He was actually sitting there looking very innocent. Annoying standing guy went and got the ushers, who took the old guy out. Then, they came in to question someone else. Eventually, he came back, with a white "warning card", which he promptly threw onto the ground for the usher to see how little he cared about it. After more piecing together, we think the old guy threw something at the annoying standing guy.
• My point is this: how crazy does a game get, when an 81 year old that can't walk without the railing gets issued a warning?
• A guy in the 6th row got hit by fireworks during the player introductions.
• Women in front of me with creepy glasses that light up had a sign that read, "Bring on the Pisstons Spurs your threw" (I left her spelling and grammar just as it was)
• It is a proven fact, that air horns make Tim Duncan miss free throws 5 out of 6 times.
• No need to recount the crowd antics at the end of the 4th game, I think the news coverage did that fine.

Well, that is all i can remember now. For some reason, I think I probably spent as much time watching the crowd as I did the games!!