Mavs win over the Thunder

After a five year absence, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder to get back to the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat. Cheered on by the fans and Mavs Dancers, the team won the series at home four games to one with Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion making emphatic statements that the team belongs in the finals.

Mavs beat Thunder

 The Dallas Mavericks road tripped to Oklahoma City to beat the Thunder in game three of the NBA Western Conference Finals. The first finals game in Oklahoma City Arena ever but the Thunder never got started after a series of turnovers early in the game. 

Game 1 Slam

The Dallas Mavericks took it to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night to kick off their Western Conference Final series with Dirk Nowitzki slam and jamming to 48 points.

Thunder head coach Scott Brooks could only hang his head as the Mavericks defeated the Thunder 121 to 112.

Natural Smackdown

Big winds in Texas today. The gusts were approaching 40 miles an hour. No wonder there was so much crashing going on. Lot of fun anyway since the water is kind of soft for landings.

Blue Angels

Kimo was covering his ears and I thought there was a thunderstorm brewing over the house. I looked outside and the skies were blue, and these streaking blue darts were ripping across the sky. As quickly as they move and the precision of their acrobatics, the Blue Angels never cease to amaze me. They were in Fort Worth, Texas over the weekend for the Air Power Expo at Carswell Joint Reserve Base.

Just Kids Flying Kites

It is starting to warm up in North Texas, the crowds at the lake are getting bigger. Thought I would post a few pictures of Mike Jones and Jonathan Grantham kite surfing. Mike has gotten the ollie airs down and Jonathan really knows how to throw his weight around. Not to say he is fat, just a really big guy at 6'5" so he can really pull on a kite.

Seeing the pictures makes me really want to be somewhere with warm water and steady winds, but sometimes you just take what you can get (and let those teeth chatter)!

Springing

As I look around me there are new colors and bright vistas everywhere. It is obvious that spring is springing since the buds on all the fruit trees are exploding. The mountain bike trail smells like an old woman's closet after the perfume bottle did the hand grenade move. The concentration of scent just goes way overboard. A little rain and the whole place will be back to its green self and put that old man winter back in hibernation for another year.

Super Hype

I spent the day at Jerry World to watch the Super Bowl from the fans vantage point or so I thought. Ended up that I was shoe horned between Gary Hershon who has shot for Rueters for years and on the other side of me was Bill Frakes, a long time staffer at Sports Illustrated. Talk about intimidated, I was scared to move for fear of bumping the camera of a legend and ruining the shot of the game. They both turned out to be great guys, did not seem to mind us passing cards over their heads and bumping them either since we were all in the same boat so to speak.

Turned out to be a great location with most of the games touchdowns being scored in the corner nearest to us. Too bad a lot of the times the players were looking away, but still a great day of action and a really good view of the halftime show.

After all the hype for the week in advance, it really did seem to be a little over blown but definitely a spectacle to see as the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31 - 25. One more in the record books, shall see if Jerry gets another one soon. I think everyone wants warm weather for the big game.

Ice Patterns

  There sure has been a lot of talk of the dangers of being outside in the cold here in the Dallas Fort Worth area with the blizzard of the century putting a freeze on Super bowl XLV celebrations. A side effect of all the snow and cold temperatures is the gorgeous shapes of ice patterns you see. 

  I shot the wheel pattern on my trusty old Honda Civic after driving to Dallas to shoot a Stars hockey game. The streets were actually not too bad but the ice looks like one of those spin paintings from the state fair.

Where is the Hockey

Well I finally went to one of those kind of hockey games that got the saying about "going to a fight and a hockey game broke out." The Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers just do not like each other and it showed on Wednesday night. 

Frozen Toes

When it is the middle of summer, a 100 degrees and my brain is frying. There is not even a whisper of wind and the sun is burning everything to a crisp, withered stalk I need to remember days like Monday in December.

Seventy five degrees, a nice breeze blowing and my toes are freezing even with a 5 mil wetsuit on. That is when I actually get to go ride my kite board.

I saw this from a slightly different perspective since my buddy Guy Witherspoon was shooting and I was the one getting the frozen toes and dizzy from all the spinning.

Beautiful end of the Day

I spent the day at a football stadium and hardly even watched the game, and not because of all the plastic bouncing around me. I was editing other peoples pictures. But I finished the day having a beer with old friends in the parking lot of the stadium after the game and got to watch a gorgeous winter sunset over the home of Superbowl XLV.

THe Really Fast Guys

Now I am trying to keep up with the really fast guys on snow, wow they are fast. Blisteringly fast regardless of weather and I did not know that you called sliding on ice skiing. I always considered that skating and you used a puck that you swatted with a stick, but I guess that is not on a 40 degree slope either.

  Having watched the FIS World Cup racers on the Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek, never again will I say I go fast on skis.