Now This Was Funny

Look who decided to sneak into the background of an in-game contest.

Emily was hamming it up.

And then it really got funny, thanks to Emily and Julia's hijinks.

This Guy Is Smart

If you are opening for Justin Bieber, make sure people know your name.

More Moments With The Mavs

Bridget created this fun photo featuring Julia.

Bridget took Julia and Veronica to Sunday's "Skate with the Mavs" event (as previously mentioned on this blog) at the CenturyLink Center.

The event stirred memories of other Maverick hockey events the girls have participated in over the years, particularly the time in 2005 that Julia got the now-infamous UNO hockey sweatshirt autographed. It is pictured in the clever photo montage above (left picture). When combined with a photo taken nearly eight years later, also of Julia, it's another snapshot in time of their love and involvement (thanks mostly to Bridget and Jon) of the sport and the Mavs.

When I saw the new and old photos, I wondered if I had blogged about that October day in 2005 when Julia got her sweatshirt signed – a shirt that Veronica was wearing up until this season. Sure enough, I did. You can read it here and see some fun photos of the four oldest girls when they were much, much younger.

Here is the video of "Skate with the Mavs" from the KETV.com website.

Fun At The UNO Hockey Game

Three of the girls and two of their friends enjoyed the "suite life" at the game.

It's not uncommon – and certainly a nice gesture – for my sister, Bridget, and her husband, Jon, to share tickets to UNO hockey games they sometimes come into. After all, it's not exactly cheap to take five other people to watch the Mavericks.

But Saturday's game was different than all the rest we have experienced since UNO began playing its games in the CenturyLink Center. That's because the tickets Bridget shared with us were in the Luxury Brands of Omaha (Budweiser) suite. Suite 6, to be exact. And it was everything we thought it would be. (Well, minus the free food.)

UNO was playing the U.S. (Under 18) national team in a game that was rescheduled from Thursday night (when it snowed). Though the Mavericks lost, we had a nice time and the girls who went along (Veronica, Olivia and Julia) were joined by two friends, who also seemed to enjoy it.

The crowd was sparse for the game, which was rescheduled from Thursday.

Bridget came to visit Veronica between periods.

Olivia (left), Julia (center) and their friend enjoyed the free pop and water.

Veronica (right) brought her Hello Kitty playing cards to share with her friend.

Before the game, we made a stop at Taco Bell.

Creighton Game With Julia

Julia and me after the game. She was easy to spot in her Maverick gear.

Julia called me a bit after six o'clock tonight to invite me to the Creighton University men's basketball game. What I didn't immediately realize was that it started at 7:05. And I had just returned from taking Emily home from play practice – and before that, from a bike ride. So after a quick shower and suiting up in some BMC Racing Team lululemon gear, I was off to pick her up.

We zoomed down to the Century Link Center in my van where Julia showed me a great little – and free – parking space close to the arena. As we hustled our way to the box office, we were asked by quite a few people (scalpers) if we needed tickets. This continued right up until we were nearly at the ticket windows. But strangely, not a single person was in line in front of the six ticket windows. Since we had a voucher that gave us four free tickets, we were only concerned that the game might be a sell out. And it was close – 15,755. But the strangest part of the night occurred a split-second before I reached the ticket window. A couple asked us if we needed tickets. "Free tickets?" I asked. "Yes, you can have these," the woman offered, opening an envelope and handing over a pair of $30 apiece seats in the lower bowl. Wow. After a big thank you, we were off to find our seats.

Our view of the court.

It turned out they were on the end of a row with a tremendous view of the court (and the promotions area). The game itself was a good one, televised by NET and against a formidable UAB squad. Creighton's star, Doug McDermott, struggled to overcome double and triple teaming to finish with only five points.

Our experience was not without a run-in with a CenturyLink (formerly "Qwestapo") usher, who wouldn't let us stand behind the wheelchair accessible session for more than 30 seconds while we waited for my buddy, official scorer Tom Jelinek, to return to his seat at halftime. I'll say it again – if Omaha wants to have a reputation for being a friendly city, it's not happening with staffers who work at the CenturyLink Center.