Day 6: Dallas

I feel I have sufficiently recovered from the events of last night to write about it.  Extreme disappointment is not the emotion of the evening, more like outrage! 

Let's start with the good stuff of yesterday...
We slept in until late and I had a couple cups of coffee with mom.  Once we extracted ourselves from the couch to shower and get ready, we went and grabbed lunch.  Drew always talks about this sandwich shop he likes and so it was time to give it a try.  We went over to Firehouse Subs.  As the name might lead you to believe, it was started by firemen and serves really large portioned sandwiches.  Drew got the Italian and I had the Chicken Salad.  I think I would go for the Italian next time.  It was a good way to get the day going. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the house, gearing up for the Mavericks game. 
This was the first time we have ever been to see a "home game" for the Mavs.  The energy in the building and the fact that our cheers for our team were not met with jeers were the things we were looking forward to the most.  The American Airlines Arena is new since my days in Dallas and is much superior to the Reunion Arena of my youth.  We were like to two little kids, all smiles and contentment, just being in the building.  The game was truly a great game.  The problem was the officiating.  It was obscene.  I haven't seen it's like since the '06 finals vs. the Heat.   The highlights of the game, as you may already know, were: Dirk coliding with Landry and coming away to realize he had some of Landry's teeth in his elbow.  Landry earned a trip to the hospital.   An almost brawl between Kidd and Anderson directly in front of our seats and the Mavs bench.  This resulted in a phantom technical on Carlisle, the coach of the Mavs.  Then there were the "conferences" (at least 3, by my count) between the refs that lasted anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes each, resulting in ridiculous calls.  We were, as I said, outraged.  The Mavs lost in OT, but at least we can say we were there the night Dirk got 2 teeth in his elbow, and the only time Dampier has ever been ejected from a game.  These are the things for the history books, folks! 

the AA Center from the outside

the building on its feet at the end of regulation

Oh, and we ate at the game, of course.  I got all excited because I discovered they had Fletcher's corny dogs (just like at the State Fair of Texas) at one of the concessions.  We decided that sounded really good and immediately ordered up a couple to split.  Well, I guess someday I will make it back to the State Fair, because these did not even come close.  I think they had been made some time before we ordered and had been sitting under a heat lamp for some time.  We also had nachos and popcorn.  One thing on the frugal side that I appreciated was the value deals they had for families and couples.  It can be quite expensive to get to a game and then eat.  While the food was no means cheap, it did help that they had deals (including bottomless popcorn and sodas). 

Overall, we enjoyed our time at the game, sad to have lost, but apparently, that's how it goes.
After the game, I told Drew I really wanted a taco (this is a RARE occurance), so he drove through Taco Bueno to grab a taco.  When we drove away from the window, we had a platter with two tacos, cheese dip, rice and beans, and a bean burrito.  So this is what late night snack means.