I’m so happy I watched Dirk’s last game and especially glad I watched the post-game ceremony. Holy cow, Mark Cuban really knows how to honor a guy. Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp, each of whom Nowitzki called his personal player influences were surprise guests. Larry Bird never does this sort of stuff.
Dirk is so loved by this city. We were fortunate to watch him grow before our eyes, fight through defeats and setbacks, and celebrate the triumphs. The man could have easily left for another team, but chose to stay here and play for less money. Not only that, he gives back to the city in many ways. Charity, as you’d expect, but you find him rooting for all our local and Texas sports teams. And now, he’s going to make Dallas his home and proclaims himself a Texan. It was fun celebrating him and to see him celebrate us.
It was fun watching the Mavs play last night, seeing all the local celebrities be a part of it. I’m a little surprised former President George W. Bush wasn’t in attendance, but then again, I don’t recall him ever being present for any games at the American Airlines Center – he’s more of a Rangers and Cowboys fan. Oh, and occasional SMU basketball fan. But at least he made a video tribute.
I only want Dirk to play one more year, at least one game next year, for the sole reason that he wouldn’t have to go into the Basketball Hall of Fame with D Wade at his side.
I’m not a fan of lemon wedges in any of my drinks. Back in the day, I used to specifically request wait staff to not give me one because I didn’t to be wasteful, but now WifeGeeding will snag it and put it in her drink.
WifeGeeding received a text from our new pastor’s wife (the pastor doesn’t have a new wife, we have a new pastor who is married) late Sunday afternoon inviting us to dinner at a local BBQ joint where kids eat free on Sundays. They have three kids close to the ages of our kids, and she said it was a last minute sort of thing so don’t feel any pressure if we can’t make it. Usually, I’m a bit suspect when it comes to these sort of invites (remember, I’m a cynic). In similar past experiences, I’ve discovered an ulterior motive. For instance, there was a time some church friends invited us for dinner in which we thought they wanted to get to know us better but their real intent was to ask for money for an upcoming mission trip overseas. But, that wasn’t the case this time. All they wanted to do was spend some time together getting to know us and for our kids to play with each other, no asking us to volunteer or take part in something. They are new to the area and living in an apartment and I’m sure they just wanted to feel like a normal or ordinary family. I did my best not to bring up church-related stuff. Sure, the church is his is life and he’s my pastor, but I wanted him to feel like I was trying to get to know him as a person and as a friend. Usually, I fear interaction with other humans, but it was actually nice to step outside of my comfort zone and get to know someone new.
I’m so glad I got out of high school before promposals became a thing.
During a routine medical visit last week, it was revealed to WifeGeeding that she has a cyst on one of her ovaries. The doctor isn’t concerned (and neither are we) but she’s scheduled for a sonogram as a precaution.
Despite living in Texas all of my and growing up in a small rural town, I still get annoyed when I see cowboy hats worn indoors. Lately, it has really bugged me when I see law enforcement representatives wearing them inside the White House.
We have Hamilton tickets for a performance later this month.
Before the start of last night’s game, CBS game commentator Grant Hill stated one team will have the chance to become “a forever champion” which made me laugh because I immediately thought of how Louisville had their 2012-13 national championship in men’s basketball taken away. (As if any organization can take away that moment or memory of when it happened is absurd.) I’m such a cynic when it comes to college sports, the corruption kills me, as well as how much money the non-profit organization NCAA makes from “student-athletes”. The NCAA reported revenue of $1.1 billion for the 2017 fiscal year.
Auburn gymnastics coach Jeff Graba released an update on Cerio’s injuries. She apparently avoided breaking her legs, though she still dislocated both knees and tore multiple ligaments in both knees.
Last night’s game had two players wearing jersey number “0”, I wonder how often that happens as I don’t see that jersey number often.
Basketball shorts are becoming slightly shorter and tighter, but nothing like the “nut huggers” we had to wear in the Eighties.
The cadaver assigned to Nielsen’s team was a 99-year-old woman who had died of natural causes. Her name was Rose Marie Bentley, but the students didn’t know that then.
But as the students and their professors were soon to find out, Bentley was special, so special she deserved her own unique spot in medical literature and history books. The reason? A condition called situs inversus with levocardia, in which most vital organs are reversed — almost like a mirror inside the body. That, along with a host of other weird but wonderful abnormalities, made Bentley a sort of medical unicorn.
DaughterGeeding isn’t a typical child. A lot of kids stress out about taking the STARR test, even practice ones. Yet, she came home from school the other day excited to tell me about this fun test which she gets to read a story and answer questions and wished she could take more tests like that.
I’m not necessarily rooting for Texas Tech tonight (though I’m happy for my friends who are fans/alumni), but I really did like their business like attitude after their win against Michigan State. It is strange to think only one Texas college has won the men’s college basketball tournament, and that school doesn’t even go by the same name anymore.
For three weeks in December 1916, Rasputin and Kirk Douglas were alive at the same time.
Last week I discovered that the man who designed the glass and steel pyramid entrance of the Louvre museum in Paris, I.M. Pei, also designed Dallas City Hall, Dallas’ Meyerson Symphony Center, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’ll turn 102 later this month if I just didn’t jinx him.
The ships’ GPS systems suddenly began to indicate they were actually 65 kilometers away, on land, in the middle of an airport. The incident is one of many highlighted in a new report that found the Kremlin “spoofed” global positioning systems, or GPS, to effectively place a bubble around Putin or properties associated with him. The researchers, with a nonprofit called C4ADS and the University of Texas at Austin, used public marine GPS databases, as well as a GPS monitoring device on the International Space Station to track similar instances.
I received this odd medial lab bill in the mail on Friday. I say it’s odd because not only are they claiming I owe them almost $3,000, but the date of service is four years old. It was for some sort of tox screen I can’t even remember taking. Curious, I looked up the company on Google.
The first result was a bankruptcy filing (Texas Eastern Bankruptcy Court Case 4:17-bk-41310, Filed: 06/19/2017, Last Filing: 02/11/2019).
The second search result was from the BBB which states it’s out of business. The page also has two comments made this week from people saying they received a similar dated bill as mine.
The first Google News result is a 2017 article about a lawsuit between them and Cigna – Cigna Healthcare of Texas Inc. can’t escape a lawsuit by a Texas-based toxicology lab seeking to recover more than $13 million in allegedly unpaid services ( Rapid Tox Screen LLC v. Cigna Healthcare of Tex. Inc. , 2017 BL 298478, N.D. Tex., No. 3:15-cv-03632, 8/24/17 ).
