Panthers Road Tripping With DpD

Today was the ‘chill’ day that every long road trip requires.  After being up until almost 4am last night writing and doing my ‘normal’ work that must be sent home in time for a 12pm radio show on 790 ‘The Ticket’, I needed sleep.  8 full hours of un-interrupted slumber later, I was ready to sit around the hotel room and watch some TV.  Granted, it was VERY cold out today, never even reaching the 30s, so I had a little incentive to stay in. 

I tracked down the nearest bookstore, which was about a 15-minute walk away, because I wanted to obtain a copy of the ‘Watchmen’ graphic novel and see what all the fuss is about.  Haven’t had the chance to crack it open yet, but I have a nice plane ride to look forward to in the morning.  The movie looks sick from a special effects standpoint, but odds are my future wife wont be down to see it, so if you’d like to be my date….(Donny, you get 1st dibbs *wink*)

Tonight it was back to the Chinese Phone Booth for one of the quickest basketball games id ever attended.  The most entertaining things that happened in the arena had nothing to do with the game itself. 

The first was a fan vs. fan contest in which they were shown on the big screen Wizards star Caron Butler hitting a game winning shot along with the audio from the local play-by-play announcer.  Then the fans had to do their best rendition of the game winning call.  The first guy was pretty good and I thought would be hard to top.  The 2nd guy was introduced as a visitor from Germany, so expectations were low…but he brought the house down.  He did the whole thing in German, but it was GREAT!  He was uber excited and the crowd got really pumped.  At the end of the call when the shot was hit, he yelled ‘GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL’.  Classic...

The other thing I noticed was the overload of mascots that the Wizards employ.  There is your basic big, blue fuzzy wizard.  There was a muscular blue man with a mask on, and a fat white guy in a Wizards jersey, blue ‘Rod Stewart’ wig and a cape.   3 mascots?  Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

I wasn't kidding about the fat guy...but I'm not going to put you through seeing what i saw.  Oh, the horror...

Unlike the Knicks game, no celebrities in attendance. But then again, the arena was about ¼ full.   Maybe.  We’re talking empty folks.  The upper deck had 6 side-by-side sections that were completely empty.  I’m sure the weather had something to do with it, but still. 

Tomorrow morning we have an 11am flight to Atlanta, where the high is in the mid-40’s and there is no snow in the forecast.  Yay!!!  Tomorrow is also the last full day before the NHL trade deadline…just throwing that out there. 

Speak to you soon…