Farewell to the Kings?

Well, things are not looking very good for the Sacramento Kings. I've been a fan for a very long time, and you've seen lots of pictures on this blog of the games. I've loved the team through good times and through bad. I think that's part of what makes a good fan.

Sacramento has always been known as having some of the best fans in the NBA. In fact, for a very long time, other teams did not look forward to coming to Arco Arena because we had the loudest fans in the NBA. Our fans have stood by the Kings through absolutely heartbreaking losses.

Due to a major serious of political and financial issues, it looks like the Maloofs (who own the Kings) will be filing to move the team to Anaheim, where they will become the Anaheim Royals. They can't stay the Kings because in addition to having two other basketball teams, LA has a hockey team named the Kings.

Here is the video of Jerry Reynolds and Grant Napear signing off for the season (and possibly forever). These two have been commentating for the Kings for years:

Absolutely heartbreaking.

I sincerely hope every owner in the league votes against the Maloofs. We'll see... The only real ray of light is
a billionaire by the name of Ron Burkle who claims to want to buy the Kings and keep them in Sacramento. All indications from the Maloof camp have been that they're completely against selling the Kings at all. Again, we'll see what happens. The NBA has pushed out the deadline to May 2nd, so we have another few weeks to speculate and agonize.

I'll leave you with a picture from our very last Kings game:

We Love Our Kings!

What A Day!

So last night Carrie called me to ask me to go to the Kings game. Me, being me, said yes (of course). It was such a blast (we won!).

Here's Brig and I at the game:

Here are Carrie and Amy:

However, apparently my little body does not enjoy staying up late anymore, so this morning I woke up looking and feeling exhausted. After fighting my way through all kinds of traffic to work, I open my email only to discover that it was going to be a great day - I got an award at work and had tons of congratulations emails. Nothing makes a crummy start to a day better than some kudos!
After work today I headed over to look at another house. I think this one might work out. I'm going to talk to my realtor and broker tomorrow to see how we can work it. I'll definitely keep everyone posted!
On that note, I'm off to bed to get some beauty sleep! It's Friday tomorrow!!!! :)

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Today was such an awesome birthday!

First of all, I got the wonderful news that the house is a done deal! The previous owner chose my bid over the other people who made offers on it. I'm SO excited! I get the keys on the 26th and can't wait! Now it's time to start pulling everything together - inspections, loans and packing!

As if that wasn't enough, I got to go to a wonderful dinner and the Kings game. We ate at Chris Webber's restaurant, Center Court. (for those of you who don't know, C-Webb is a former Kings player). My family, Brigitte's family and Amber/Kris were all there (it's Brigitte's sister, Delinna's birthday too). We had the honor of sitting at the Bibby table:Here are the girls and I at dinner:
After a fun dinner, complete with singing and ice cream we (Amber, Kris, Brig and Alyse) headed over to Arco for the game. Little did I know, that we had really bad seats. As in, the last row at the very top. In fact, we had our own special row:
We cheered our little hearts out and after half time decided to head down to the empty seats to get a closer view. Brigitte's family was down there, so we had a much better view of Mike Bibby for the rest of the game. Brigitte's quote of the night: "That one guy is really tall". Of course, he was 6'11", but it just sounded funny to all of us since she was referencing a basketball player. I wore my new jersey from Adam and Eva, which, by the way, is LUCKY!
The Kings won the game (woot woot!) and we had a blast. Here's the back of Bibby:All in all, it was a wonderful day... a ton of people from work, school and life called, texted and emailed me. I felt very loved today! Thanks everyone!

WORST TO BEST

Holy cow... today went from the worst day ever, to the best day ever. It started with some major computer problems on my work laptop. To make a long story short, I couldn't access my email all day. I started with the tech people at 7am, ended up in the office with them until 3:30pm. Crazy.

But here's where it gets good. Carrie had invited me to the Kings game tonight. Lo and behold, they no longer have their box seats - instead, we were EIGHT ROWS FROM THE FLOOR! Holy cow, I could almost reach out and touch them! It's amazing, the players look so much bigger from that low! The coolest part was how into all of us Kings fans were... we were cheering like it was game 7 of the playoffs! We had the absolute best time. Here's Brig and I at In-N-Out:



Here's Carrie and Amy at the game:

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/annasmithson/KingsGame10-24-06003.jpg

Here are a couple of Mike Bibby (who didn't play because he has mallet thumb):



And here's all of us girls after the game:


Peja and Bobby both play for the Hornets, so we got to see them again - I have some cool pics of Peja! If you want to see the rest, shoot me an email!

We also had "A1" parking. As in row A, stall one. Which meant the only way we could have gotten any closer would have been to park on the front lawn. We felt like superstars!

To make matters even cooler, Amy's boy toy works there and got Carrie down on to the floor to play one of the tie out games (she did really well and won a t-shirt and a mini-Slamson). THEN he gave us all tickets to get an autograph after the game from one of our new players, Louis Amundson. I can't even begin to tell you what an awesome end of the day it was!!! THANK YOU CARRIE!!!

Woo hoo!

What an exciting day! Apparently it's ticket sale Saturday. I'm very excited to announce that Brig, Amber, Kris, Alyse and I will be attending the Sacramento Kings game ON MY BIRTHDAY! I'm so stoked... tickets were only $47 for second deck seats, which I'm perfectly happy with. It's going to be the best birthday ever!

To top that off, we (the five Musketeers) also got tickets to the March 10th Christina Aguilera show in San Jose. Eva and Adam are very graciously letting us crash at their place and we might even make a weekend out of it. What a blast it's going to be! I'm definitely taking my camera to both events!

I spent the rest of today relaxing. Well, not totally. I actually ran again this morning and I have to say I think I'm becoming addicted. I've been running every day for the last few weeks and it feels great! In fact, I actually feel a little weird on the one or two days that I haven't run. I really think it's an addiction. I've made myself a promise to go get new shoes tomorrow... I'm ashamed to say that I'm still running on the shoes that I did my triathlon in. Big no-no. According to most sports docs, you should get rid of your shoes after each major race. An expensive habit? Yes. Saving you from major joint damage? Also yes. So tomorrow is shoe shopping day. I'm a little nerdy and actually get excited about that as well.

Go Mavs!

Not that I like to see any team other than my precious Kings win, but I'm proud to announce that the Mavs sent the Spurs packing today. For those of you who don't follow, the Spurs are the team that bumped (ok, shoved) the Kings out of the playoffs this year. So I'm glad to see them out just for spite. I know, great competitive spirit.

Today was mellow. I went to the dentist, which is almost always a fun experience for me. I've gone to this dentist since I was like 10 (except for those few years in SD) and I love him. I told him about "The Great Crash of 2006" and his eye balls almost fell out of his head. He checked my front teeth "just in case". Now THAT's a good dentist!

Today's Triathlon Training:
Running: 1.5 miles

...and we're done...

I'm sad to announce that the Kings are officially out of the playoffs. I know, sad but true. I think part of today's loss is to blame on the fact that I wore my unlucky Kings shirt (I remembered about half way home from dress rehearsal tonight... too little, too late). *sigh* Well, here's what I have to say:

2006-2007 Sacramento Kings Baby!

Just you wait. We're gonna have a great team!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

HAPPY EASTER!

First and foremost, Happy Easter everyone! Today was fairly mellow - just hung out with the parents and visited a family friend who is in the hospital.

News Break:

THE SACRAMENTO KINGS MADE THE PLAYOFFS TONIGHT! GO BIBBYLIOUS!

Not that I'm excited or anything... honestly, I wasn't totally sure they'd make it this year - I think we have a really great team, but we're just very new at playing together since the only "old" player left is Bibby. That said, there's nothing like an underdog win! I can't wait for the playoffs!

 

Happy Easter again and good night!

KINGS GAME!

Oh my gosh.

Tonight was seriously one of the best sporting events of my life. First and foremost, thanks to Mom and Dad for getting me Kings/Lakers tickets for Christmas. You couldn't have spent your money better!!!

Brigitte and I went to On The Border for dinner. It was so yummy and we had a lot of fun just chatting. The whole place was decorated with purple and black balloons and all of the waiters and waitresses were in some sort of Kings shirt/colors.


After dinner we headed over to Arco Arena where I purchased my foam finger. I've been wanting one, although I wasn't all too sure what to do with it, but I needed to have one.


There was flames, confetti, thunder sticks and lots of screaming. We cheered our little heads off! Mike Bibby had a fantastic game, scoring 29 points, going 8 for 18! Here's my boy:



Bibby hit a shot with 7 seconds remaining in the game - I jumped up and screamed so loud it made me cough! That boy is on FIRE! He was named Western Conference Player of the Week this week! Go Bibby Go!

I can't believe how incredibly loud it was and how enthusiastic the fans were! We had a few Lakers fans behind us, but all in all, it was Kings or nothing! To top of a wonderful game, WE WON! That's right, 114-98, take the Kobe Bryant!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO! We even got cool little beer cozies and little purple megaphones... WHAT A GAME!!! This puts us in 3rd place in our division and 7th place (AHEAD of the Lakers) in our conference. We should *crossing fingers* make the playoffs. Woot!
Here's Brig and I being happy:


I'm totally wired, but have an early meeting and a long day tomorrow. I'm going to try to get some sleep now!

Today's Triathlon Training:
Running - 1 mile

Poop, Broken Bones and "The Trade"

Let's get right to it.

So today I took Cody for a walk when I got home from work. We went on our normal 1 1/2 mile route, which isn't too bad. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I reached the last stretch of road before our house. You see, it straightens out and you can see all the way down the street. So I notice that about 4 blocks ahead of me is a girl walking what appeared to be a Rottie or Lab. Something big and dark. A few steps later I started to smell poop. So I stop and check my feet. Nothing there. I walk a few more steps and stop to check Cody's feet. Nothing there. We keep walking and I keep smelling it. We cross a court and I look down and see GIGANTIC dog poop in the middle of the street. Seriously, a gargantuan pile of GREEN dog poop. HUGE poop. I'm a little grossed out at this point, but I figure, hey, the dog had a little accident in the middle of the street. So I keep walking. We get across the street and notice that for the next 10 feet there a little logs. Of green poop. I really can't figure it out. Was she dragging him along while he was going? Did he try and fool her? Weird.

In other news, I'm pretty sure I broke my hand. I smacked it on the corner of the dresser right smack in the middle on the back of my hand (yeah, that spot where your bones are pretty much just covered by skin and have absolutely no protection). Now it's all swelled up and hurts to move around. But I refuse to go to the doctor because I don't want to know it's really broken and have another lame "how I broke a weird bone" story. Between that and the foot, I'll need to start making up really good stories.

Finally (and probably most importantly), "The Trade". If you haven't heard, today the Sacramento Kings traded Peja Stojakovic for Ron Artest. I'm not sure how I feel about having a thug on our team. Sure, Bibby kinda looks like a thug, but we all know our team doesn't have a real one. Ron Artest is a little loco. We'll have to see how this works out. I can't say that I'm really sad to see Peja go. Yes, I'll miss Peja the person. But Peja the whimpy basketball player has to go. He hasn't really played well since good old Webber left, so I say ship him off. Love ya Peja, good luck.

That's all for me. Work has been crazy and I'm super tired. I'm going to actually try to go to bed early tonight, even if it means taping "Lost". We'll see if it actually happens.

Merry Christmas To All... And To All A Good Night!

Wow, what a Christmas this was! Christmas mass went really well and we had a blast. We had some friends over on Christmas Day Night (if that makes any sense) and had a blast with them - played games, watched movies, and then I fell asleep. Way to act super old, Anna. Then came the presents... I can't believe how spoiled I am! :) I got a Bose sound dock for my iPod, beautiful scarves (ha ha, Eva, I got mine first!), my favorite makeup, a ticket to the ballet with my mom and dad and (drumroll please):

KINGS/LAKERS TICKETS!

That's right, I, Anna T. Smithson, will be at the coming Kings/Lakers game! Honestly, this is a dream come true! I will be wearing my gold Bibby jersey and screaming like a banshee. It's going to be a blast!

I also got a pair of GAP "curvy" jeans. All you ladies out there, you must get a pair. I went in today and bought another pair for myself. Seriously, they are made for "women whose waist is smaller than their hips". Um, hello!!! Honestly, they are a perfect fit and come in short for us little people. Pricey, but worth it (and they're on sale now!).

Today I went shopping with my sister and for one of the few times I can remember, spent my Christmas money on something totally frivolous that I normally wouldn't buy myself. I bought the silver Motorola Razor phone. OMG, I love it! To let you know how far in the dark ages I've been with my cell phones, I've never had a phone that has the following features:

• a camera
• cool ring tones (like REAL songs, not something that sounds like a bad keyboard)
• voice activated dialing
• pictures that pop up when people call
• that thing where when you turn the sound down it goes "beep beep beep" until you're all the way down. I love that and have been jealous of other cell phone owners...

I'm in heaven. I've been playing with the dang thing all afternoon. Now I just need people to call me...
I'm such a spoiled brat.

Rejoining the Living

Finally, I feel somewhat alive again. Wow, that was one killer sinus infection. Thankfully, my fantastic doctor gave me some great antibiotics and a good decongestant, so I slept for the first time in a while last night. I think that definitely helped. My head doesn't feel like it's going to fall off anymore. Now if only the little bit of dizziness would go away, I would be a happy camper!

I can't believe that Christmas is only 26 days away! Holy cow, I need to start shopping! AND I need to send my cards out! This year seems like it has gone by so quickly! I think it's the moving/job switching, etc. Definitely a quick year!

Game tonight - Go Kings! If only we could win this one and make it a 7-7 record! There have been some good articles about Bibby in the paper lately. :)

Holy Crap!

So just when you think it's going to be a great day...

Maybe not.

My day started ok. I got up, took my shower and did my hair. Ok, so all I really had going for me was that I was having a good hair day. I didn't listen to my mom and take a coat, so of course it was freezing outside (note to self: put some sort of brownish jacket on Christmas list). Then I was behind EVERY slow driver the entire way to work. Then I sat in these looooong meetings all day, which were good, just looooong. Which then put me behind on my actual work. So I came home at 5pm (later than normal because I go in early) and continue to work until just now (9:30ish). Yeah.

The icing on the cake? The freakin' Kings lost. Fabulous. The game started out really well and then just spiraled downhill. I don't understand. I'm not even going to try to at this point. I'm hoping that by April we have this all figured out and can win us a championship!

I'm going to bed. Peace.

Massacre

So tonight was the Sacramento Kings season opener. Let me sum up the game with one line, said by the commentator after the Kings scored in about the third quarter:

"Well, that should stop the bleeding for a while."

Not a good sign.

 

At all.

 

Final socre: Hornets - 93, Kings - 67

 

The game looked somewhat positive at the beginning - our new guys are creating some great defense, but the team looked sluggish and like they were forcing plays. I have to say, I miss the Webber-Bibby pick and roll. However, I do think that they can pull it together. I mean, we have 81 more games to go, so there's bound to be a win or two in there. Most sports analysts are giving the Kings a pretty good chance at the title this year - but it's a matter of seeing how well all of the new guys mesh with the old guys.

 

Other than that, today was pretty mellow. Nothing super exciting to report.

Things I Just Don't Understand - Jacked Up Trucks

Maybe it's because I'm little.

Maybe it's because I have a little car.

Whatever the reason, I just don't understand jacked up trucks. Today I'm driving home from work and this truck pulls up to me at the stop light. I'm not kidding, I really think the actual truck started at my roof. Below that was all wheels. My question is - why? I mean, seriously, is there any purpose for that? It doesn't really look cool. It can't be great for your gas mileage. I would need one of those ten foot collapsible ladders to get into it.

And of course, it's always a guy and they always have to stare down at you like they're going to run you over. Well, by the time his big fat tires can even think about moving, I can be half way down the block!

Seriously, if your car is "lifted", please, please explain it to me!

Kings Update:
We lost our game tonight, but it was a really good game. The troubling part was that in the last minute one of our new (and very good) guys, Jason Hart, got hurt pretty badly. They don't know the exact injury yet, but he tried to shake it off. The next play he went to run and just crumpled to the floor. Being the good Kings player that he is, the managed to get the ball to another of our players, but time ran out before we could score. He got up and tried to walk but had to stop every few steps. Finally they picked him up and carried him off. It seemed like he was pointing at his hip. Not sure what that injury is, but it's not looking good.

Picture - Check out the NEW Kings uniforms for this year!!! These will be the alternative (sometimes away) and we'll keep the purple for home. NICE!!! And of course, there's my main man... 
 

Hooray for Basketball!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sacramento Kings Basketball has begun.

So we got our butts kicked. It's only preseason, so that doesn't matter anyway.
And Rick Adelman has decided to become a pimp. He wore this silver jacket that made everyone thing something was wrong with their TVs. Seriously, the thing was weird. It made it look like little lines were moving across your screen every time he turned. Not sure what was going through his head on that one!

I have a much more important announcement.

Mike Bibby has decided to step up and lead the team. For those of you who don't follow Kings basketball, Bibby has the skills to be a leader. He's always lacked on very important thing. He couldn't speak.

*drum roll please*

This summer, Mike Bibby learned to talk. Yes, he spoke before, but now, we can understand him! It's coherent! Now he can lead! It wasn't that he didn't want to before, it was just that the other guys on the team couldn't understand him! They interviewed him and my head snapped around. It's like a whole new person!

So the team actually looks good for this year - we a have a lot of new people, but if everyone stays healthy, we should be doing all right. On a side note, they did a half time special on the team and showed a little ritual they do every year. They all get ready to come running out of the tunnel at the beginning of this first game. They tell the rookies that they get to run up front. Then, when the music cues, the rookies go running out - all by themselves. The veterans are just standing in the tunnel laughing. It's pretty funny to watch!

On that happy note, I'm going to take off my Bibby jersey and go to bed. Good night!