Jaminfrog

There were some decent commercials this year I guess, but our favorite Super Bowl spot of late came a couple of years ago and involved a cat, marinara sauce and a misunderstanding. Continue Reading »

Co-worker and fellow basketball fan Cavin pointed me in the direction of this article about Shaquille O’Neal’s massive monthly budget.

There are several things amazing to me about this since I don’t yet make $20 million a year like Shaq does. First, the dude spends $1500 a month on cable tv. What channels and how many pay-per-view movies is this guy ordering? Second, $2300 a month for pets? And $17 grand a month for clothing. He’s apparently not shopping at Ross Dress for Less.

If Shaq is making $20 million a year, getting taxed about $6 million, and spending almost a million a month, that means he is (relatively speaking) putting next to nothing in savings, just like the rest of America.

Lesson from The Big Aristotle: As income increases, don’t increase standard of living at the same rate.

Chel and I are headed off to the TCU-UT game tomorrow night in Austin. Our friend Jen was kind enough to give us a ticket, and Chel is kind enough to let me go to the game while she hangs out in Austin for a little bit. (She loves Austin much more than she would love standing by me while I yell at a football game, anyhoo.) Go Frogs!

Skill will get you here. Heart will get you there.

A fellow Mavs fan carried that sign as we exited the American Airlines Center last night following the Mavs dramatic game five win. Chelsea and I got to go, courtesy of Republic Title. (Have I mentioned how much Chelsea loves her job? Have I mentioned how much I love Chelsea’s job?) It was a nice study break before my first final tomorrow.

When the Mavs were up by 20, Chel turned to me and predicted that the game would get close, but the Mavs would win by 5. Being the loyal fan, I took her prediction as blasphemy against our vaunted Mavs.

Sure enough, the Warriors fought back and ended up taking a nine point lead with about three minutes to play. Then the Mavs took control and won the game by 6 after a 15-0 run. Chel was right. I was sorry.

As we left the building, we got to talking about how the whole NBA playoffs thing might be rigged, a-la professional wrestling. After all, it is to the teams’ and league’s advantage to have long-running, exciting series. Even the elevator guy in the arena agreed that it might be rigged.

“That would break your heart if you found out all this was rigged, wouldn’t it?” Chel asked.

I told her I didn’t think it would. Sports give fans something to believe in. Something to enjoy in the midst of crazy jobs, or stressful finals. Something to show that if you have a good amount of skill, and an even greater amount of heart, you can do great things.

Before this series, the Warriors had 20,000 yellow t-shirts printed up that say “We Believe.” Mavs fans countered that last night with signs that say “We Believe More.” And in the end, it doesn’t matter who wins. The fun is in the believing.

My second semester of law school is almost in the books! My three finals start Thursday and end a week from Friday. Although I’m feeling moderately prepared with a few days left to study, a few distractions are preventing me from being super-focused. So I figured, in the spirit of distractions, I would spend some time writing about them, instead of studying!

Distraction 1: Pets
This morning I was finishing up my outline for Civil Procedure, which is first up on Thursday night. (The good thing about law school is that you can bring any notes you want into the test, and most people try to make that into some kind of coherent outline.) So here I was in the office, all kinds of books on my lap, when Luca decided she needed her morning loving. And when Luca decides she needs some attention, no volume of Civil Procedure materials will stand in her way!

Distraction 2: Mavs
Last semester I didn’t really have to deal with any sports-related distractions, so it’s a little different this spring now that the Mavericks’ NBA playoff run has begun. I have found myself scheduling my study time around their games, which is tough since they’ve been losing more than winning so far. I’ve tried Tivo-ing the games and watching them later, but then I sit on my computer checking the scoreboard on ESPN.com. I guess the silver lining if the Mavs keep losing is that I’ll get back to studying.

Distraction 3: Summer
Since I’m not taking summer school, there’s so much fun stuff to look forward to — trips to the beach, eating dinner with Chelsea, no more outlining — that it’s hard to bear down for the week ahead.

Those three distractions and more are all well and good, but I just need to forget about them for the next 12 days and focus on finals. Luca and the rest of the fam will still be there in 12 days. The Mavs may not be there in 12 days, but oh well. And a more relaxing summer will definitely be there in 12 days.

So, if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to Dan’s house to watch the Mavs game. I figure I can cut the distractions out. Starting tomorrow!

Went on the weekend grocery run this morning, and on my list was four tomatoes. They had a nice little group already prepackaged, so I added it to the cart and moved along. I didn’t really notice anything special about them until the friendly Wal-Mart cashier exclaimed, “NASCAR tomatoes!” Sure enough, our tomatoes are endorsed by the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. Not sure what that means for our salads this week. But next time I’m going to be on the lookout for NFL broccoli.

Unfortunately, the six-win Ponies are not going bowling, after all. They lost a heartbreaker to Rice yesterday, so the Owls will be the team going to a bowl game for the first time in umpteen years. That picture of Coach Phil Bennett from the Dallas Morning News pretty much says it all. (Although he was actually wincing from a sideline collision with a player, not the loss itself.)

It’s been an all-around heartbreaking season for my Frogs and Ponies…so close, but yet so far away.  The Frogs had that big win against Texas Tech, but then those two conference losses ruined any chance of busting up the BCS this year. At least my Mavs are pulling it together.

Here’s a shout-out to my favorite underdog SMU Mustangs, who are bowl-eligible with six wins for the first time since 1997. Who knows what bowl they might actually play in, but with roughly 4 gazillion bowls out there, I’m sure they’ll find one.

I heard a rumor that it might actually be SMU vs. TCU in the Armed Forces Bowl played at Amon Carter Stadium at TCU. I dunno about that, but it would give the Frogs the opportunity to win back the Iron Skillet that kept them from going to a BCS game last year.

Ok, as you were…I’m off to finish up the paper that will determine my grade in legal writing class.

We had a great time at the TCU-Texas Tech game, the first Frog home game in more than 20 years to sell out. I caught a little bit of the loudest cheering, from the fourth quarter when the Froggies were about to score and put the game out of reach. It’s hard to tell from the video, but there were about 45,000 screaming fans. (One in particular is wearing a nice little cowgirl hat.)

All’s quiet on the dental front now that my mouth is feeling much better these days.

It’s football season, and we got it kicked off last weekend by going to TCU’s home opener against UC-Davis. It wasn’t much of a contest, but we had a great time. One of the good things about Chel’s new job is that she gets to take clients to fun places like sporting events. Her guests for this game were her client Bob and his two little boys and little girl.

As a sports fan, sometimes I tend to yell a wee bit too loud and say not nice things, but I was keeping it under control in front of the kids. I yelled only fairly acceptable things at the officials, like “You’re horrible, ref!” when a call went against the Frogs.

Now the little boys thought that my yelling was the funniest thing. After I criticized the refs, they kept trying to get me to yell something else. Being in the presence of kids, I had to wait for a positive play. Our defense made an interception! I waited for the crowd noise to die down, and at the top of my lungs yelled “WE LOVE YOU FROGS!”

There’s nothing better than making kids laugh. I think I’m really going to enjoy being a dad some day. The little ones are going to have a positive influence on my yelling at sports events.