Yep, Texas Heat. Of course you must be thinking of the weather in Texas during the summer...wrong! I am talking of the cover to Sports Illustrated May 1, 1989.

Rewind almost 18 years. My father said if he gave me a subscription to Sports Illustrated I had to read at least one article per issue. I thought that was a deal because I was in the phase of my life where it was socially acceptable to cut out pictures from magazines and hang them on my wall. Needless to say that for the next 26 issues and the additional 2 bonus issues, I was very familiar with the sports world and Stephanie Seymour.

Fast forward several more years later. My Dad had made a major purchase. He was able to get tickets to the game in Arlington that Nolan Ryan was supposed to pitch his 300th win. Amazing, right? We had the great seats off to the upper part of the old Arlington Stadium. See the picture below - we are the red dot.

I was able to yell at Nolan over the top rail as he warmed up down below. He was throwing a football to get loosen up; I thought that was awesome. My Dad had just purchased a sweet Rebel camera with an zoom lens, so we got some good pics. In fact they used one on a baseball card.

Well I guess by now you can tell who liked the Rangers and collected one or two baseball cards in their day.

In case you didn't know, it was a fantastic game and Nolan did a good job but came out in the 5th losing. So he did not get his 300th win that night. We did get the commemorative program that listed all 299 of his wins and a shirt that said 300 wins and had them all except number 300. That time at the game with my Dad was magical - every pitch, every hit, it was just wonderful being there. We still talk about it.

I remember watching Nolan strike out Rickey Henderson for number 5,000. I watched his 7th no-hitter, I even have his autograph ... twice. I went to ACU and on the baseball field it had a sign that read "Thanks Nolan and Ruth" but nothing brought me as close to him as this past Saturday.

A friend of mine is getting married in August, so he and his fiancé had a "home improvement" shower. I think this was a great way for her friends and his friends to meet and give the couple more gifts. This event was catered, a catered shower that was top notch in every way (I had a double cheeseburger, because I am that guy). They have some really nice friends.

THIS WAS NOLAN RYAN'S OLD HOUSE - it made the whole evening. I put my hand in the pool and touched my wife's belly (in case you didn't know I am going to be a father, again), so that Zygote will throw 100 mph fastballs. OK, I really didn't do it, but there was discussion about taking some of the grass.

It was a pretty fun evening all the way around. I had a evening with my wife, we hung out with some friends we hadn't seen in a while, and then I went over to the groom-to-be's apartment and I won at poker. To celebrate the end of playing poker, we must go to Whataburger and get taquitos. They taste so good at 3 a.m.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH
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By the way, went to Discount Tire again (Thanks Tom, used your account again) because while trying to get my car inspected at Avis Lube off Rebecca, I ran over a nail in the road. Avis Lube was nice to fill my tire up for me and then I ran over to Discount Tire where they fixed my flat, rotated my tires and let me read the paper in under 25 minutes with nothing to pay. I was super happy. Now if I can just find a way to use this blog to write about more of my customers????!!!!
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I would have watched the game on Sunday but I wanted to be cool like everyone else and not. I almost feel bad for the NBA, almost. This will teach the NBA to let the Mavericks win.

We recently had this article in the paper about Ryan.