two dolla

#resound11 – prompt 9: best photo

Today, please post your best photo of the year. It doesn’t have to be the best technically, it doesn’t have to be the best visually, but it should be a photo that you consider the best. Does it have special meaning? Is it of a significant event or moment? Share it with us!

Asking me to pick a favorite photo is like asking me to pick my favorite player on the Minnesota Lynx. I love them all for different reasons and you can’t make me choose. Ever. But this picture is the one I’m most proud of, I believe.

The Kid and WNBA Rookie of the Year/WNBA Champion Maya Moore at center court before one of the many games we went to this season. It’s possible I was more excited than he was.

so i want my lynx championship gear, right?

But that might be a little trickier than I’d hoped and I think it’s getting me a little riled up.

In case you’ve been under a rock, my favorite WNBA team won the Championship last week. I’m obviously beyond thrilled about that and wanted to procure some championship gear. I don’t know what. Maybe a shirt or a hat or whatever. Something to be like, “Hey, aMinnesotasports team was actually AWESOME for once in the last 20 years! And it was a lady team, too!” Female and 612 Pride? YES, PLEASE.

The Minnesota Lynx tweeted recently that the store in the skyway that’s attached to the Target Center (where the Lynx play) is opening back up and will be open until 5pm today, so fans can get their championship accoutrement. And then it’s closed for the day.

I, perhaps feeling a little annoyed, because once again the WNBA is getting the shaft on availability to fans (see TV schedules, lack of merchandise anywhere, etc.), I responded with this: “And then what? It’s closed until next season and we don’t get any other chance to get championship gear?”

To explain a little bit, this store that everything is available at is a joke. It’s only open during the NBA season, and I’ve only ever seen it open before and after Timberwolves games. Well, right now, and for the past few years, the Timberwolves have looked like my 7th grade basketball team (Go, Sedalia Middle School Wildcats!) and they’re also on strike, so couldn’t the Lynx/Timberwolves organization as a whole use some more income somehow? You know, by selling merchandise that belongs to a winning team? (A winning team that doesn’t have criminal rap sheets, by the way.)

This morning, the Lynx tweet back to tell me that I “Can always buy on wnba.com”.  Yeah? Really? The internet, you say? What’s that?

I mean, I don’t expect the WNBA to ever be as readily available on TV or in stores or whatever, but considering we just won the f’ing championship, had 15,000 people in the stands during the finals, and had close to that many people milling about downtown during the championship parade, you’d think maybe we’d try to encourage this recent growth and take advantage of something that could bring a heck of a lot of awareness to the team, to the league, and to any and all female athletes.

I can’t help but be annoyed as a fan and a little bit offended as a woman.

my history with championship teams

Let’s examine the past, shall we?

The first championship team I remember really following was the Kansas City Royals. When it’s the closest sports team to where you live your entire childhood, it seems automatic. It was 1985 and the Royals were playing the St. Louis Cardinals. Huge bleeping deal for the entire state, right? I was in second grade. When I was standing in the corner for talking too much (this happened daily), then I was sitting across from the one Cardinals fan in my entire class. The Royals, of course won, and my Cardinals fan classmate would go on to be one of my playground fight targets throughout elementary school before he shot me in the wrist with a BB gun at close range. Don’t worry. I called his mom to let her know. The Royals, after that big win, would later familiarize themselves very well with last place. Regularly. They’re still in my list of top five baseball teams.

Fast forward five years. I’m in 7th grade. I’m playing basketball on a team that went 1-5107. We beat the Leeton Junior High Bulldogs. You know who wasn’t losing? The Chicago Bulls. I kept stats on notebook paper of every single game I could watch on WGN. We’re talking hash marks for points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, etc. I wasn’t messing around. I had more Chicago Bulls swag than any kid in mid-Missouri should probably ever had and rocked my jerseys hard all the way through the Jordan era ended for the second time. I tried following them after their championship years, but when Toni Kukock is your star player and you can’t find a coach to save your life, it makes it hard for a kid, you know?

I jumped on the Minnesota Twins bandwagon hard and fast when I moved here. Some years, it’s been way awesome and we’ve landed in the playoffs. I’ve been. Every year. And watched the eventual demise in the first round. Every year. Usually at the hand of the Billionaires. Here we are with this gorgeous, gorgeous stadium and all I want to do is watch some outside baseball from there in October. I’ll keep holding out for it. Don’t worry.

Oh, and you knew this was coming. Now? The Minnesota Lynx. I’ve been going to games since, I think, 2005ish? I don’t remember completely, but I do know there have been some BOOTY seasons. Last place here, second to last there. I’ve seen it. But I’m nowhere near going anywhere. Like most Minnesota teams, it takes forever and a day to build a line up that’s healthy and knows how to play together. Now that it’s here, my head might explode. We’re playing for the WNBA Championship tonight.

Tonight is the only night we can go. And we’ll be there so hard. We’re headed out of town the night of Game 2, then they play in Atlanta. Game 5 will be in Minneapolis. As much as I’d love to see the championship won on our court, I’d much rather have it taken care of in less than five games. So, let’s do it, Lynx. Let’s bring it on home!

i don’t apologize for the #loslynx overload

At all. And you should watch this video. It makes me happy.

there’s some catch up happening here

I have approximately 4.5 billion things that I need to write about. I keep starting blog posts in my head (hello, nerd!) and then never putting them into WordPress. If I could get a trained monkey to take care of that for me, I’d be forever appreciative.

Last weekend was one of the most fantastic weddings of all time. I’m totally always a bridesmaid, by the way. Twice that’s been my role in the whopping five weddings that I’ve actually been to that I can remember. In other weddings, I’ve been a candle lighter and a guestbook attendant. The fifth wedding was a Catholic wedding and I’ve blocked most of that out. (More on this latest wedding later.)

I had three days of fever over a week ago, started waking up with sore throats, tons of muscle fatigue, etc. Went to the doctor, stole some medical supplies while waiting, and then found out it’s nothing. THANKS, DOC. Since then, I’ve managed to lose my voice. If you know me in person, you’ll know how much of a travesty this is. It’s slowly working it’s way back and I’m slowly no longer sounding like a prepubescent boy.

Yesterday, the General and I went to the Lynx playoff game. I won tickets via Twitter from a VP of the Timberwolves. They were in a suite, which was way, way awesome. And I think being that far away from the rest of the fans probably prevented me from screaming my fool head off and losing my voice all together. The Lynx won and they’re headed to the Western Conference Finals, starting tomorrow, and don’t worry. We’ll be there. I even ponied up the cash for these tickets. (And more about this to come as well.)

The Kid’s been a rock start in high school so far. He’s got some new friends and the ones I’ve met have been super awesome. It’s weird to think he’s hanging out with people that are old enough to buy cigarettes and porn now.

The whole damn family is heading toSedalia,MO/Belleville,ILin a couple of weeks to catch a high school football game and a city-wide chili cook-off. As always, it’s sure to be action packed and loads of fun.

More blogging. It’s coming. I promise.

the kid and maya moore at center court

We went to the Minnesota Lynx game Friday night and The Kid got to take part in some pregame rituals, including the above picture. Maya Moore (you know, the first female basketball player to ever sign with Jordan’s brand, a four-time All-American, and the number one draft pick in 2011) greeted him at half court giving him a WNBA basketball and a pat on the back. His mom and I were screaming schoolgirls. He tried to play it cool, but he was up until after midnight that night carrying around the basketball and singing songs from Space Jam.

This picture is totally getting printed and framed in our house, both because it’s a fantastic picture (if I do say so myself) and because it’s one of those things that you hope your kid won’t ever forget, you know?

none of that in here

This happened Sunday afternoon:

We’re going again tonight with hopes of it happening again. And again. And again. Because nothing says “DON’T BRING THAT SHIT TO MY HOUSE” like swatting a three-point attempt into the crowd and then chest bumping your teammates afterwards.

wnba opening night: lynx are in l.a.!

All of my normal Friday night routine has come to a halt. It’s opening night of the 2011 WNBA season and the Minnesota Lynx are in LA about to take on a healthy Candace Parker and the Sparks. For some absolutely asinine reason, it’s not on TV unless you happen to have NBA TV and who the hell has that? I’m livestreaming it from WNBA.com’s LiveAccess. And you’re damn right I’m liveblogging this. FRIDAY NIGHT LADY BASKETBALL PARTY. (I’d make that blinking text if I remembered how.)

Pregame Notes: The announcers are bad and it’s just pregame, so I’m hoping it gets better when they’re not forced to make idle chitchat. Maya Moore’s first regular season game is tonight. She’s got some major expectations to fill tonight and the rest of the season, so it should be interesting to see how she meets those… especially since she couldn’t get the Huskies to NCAA championship this past year. Just sayin’. Also, I still love Coach Gillom more than I’ll ever love the Lynx’ current coach.

Starters for the Lynx: Lindsey Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore, Rebekah Brunson and Taj McWilliams-Franklin.

Starters for the Sparks: Noelle Quinn, Candace Parker, Tina Thompson, Ticha Penicheiro and DeLisha Milton-Jones.

More »

you know you love the wnba

I’d been overly excited about paying the balance on my Lynx season tickets for the 2008 season, but I ended up deciding against it. It’s a commitment (I’m not good at those!) and it’s a a good chunk of change when one isn’t really gainfully employed come time to pay your ticket balance. I figured I’d just catch whatever games I felt like, because let’s face it – their piece of shit marketing campaign isn’t exactly going to pack the seats.

Lindsey Harding’s latest knee injury makes me glad I didn’t go through with my season ticket holder status. At least the front office made a good decision in drafting a point guard like Candice Wiggins last month, instead of trying to fill their absolute desperate need for a post player first.

Here’s my prediction: Harding’s getting traded. If it doesn’t happen before the season starts, it’ll happen midway through, and because of this second knee injury, the Lynx won’t get shit for her. They should have pulled the string on it when she was whining about wanting to play in Houston, since that’s where she went to high school.

I like Harding, I do. She’s the second most exciting player for the Lynx, and will probably continue holding that status even while injured. I just don’t think she fits into their longterm plans. Don Zierden’s had the proverbial hard-on for Noelle Quinn ever since Harding went out last season, and with the amount of public appearances Q was making in the off-season, I can’t see her leaving anytime soon.

the wnba doesn’t pay for spellcheck

Before I write any of this, I just want to preface the post with: I love the Minnesota Lynx. Despite the fact that they didn’t protect my favorite player for this summer’s expansion draft, I’m still a fan and I’m also a season ticket holder. In fact, I was about compose this long post about how excited I am about the season and how fantastic the organization actually is.

I was reading MNSpeak today, when I noticed the Lynx has purchased a banner ad. I wouldn’t really call MNSpeak the type of place where the typical Lynx season ticket holder would spend a lot of time, but hey – if you have extra marketing dollars, let’s use ‘em, right? I’m not sure how long they’ve purchased ad space, but you might be able to still catch it there.

If not, I can let you know that the image quality was super grainy, and it looked like someone had just gotten their very first copy of Banner Making 4 U.

And I didn’t even notice the best part of it, but Jenni did:

Whitehouse. Really? I like to think that maybe White House is trademarked and you can only use it in your stellar WNBA ads when you have permission by the actual President, but something tells me that isn’t the case.