10. The House of Blues put on a pretty nifty show, but $30 for valet parking? I was as gouged as I was cold.
9. After gorging on sausage, blackened catfish, brisket, fajitas, beans-n-rice and then repeating the process, I will not be eating today.
8. I've never even met Baltimore radio guy Nasty Nestor Aparicio, but just from being in his presence this week I can totally see how the boys over 1310 AM The Ticket could have run-ins with him. He's just ... laughably ridiculous.
7. Sorry, but I don't get the Old 97s. Nice guys. Their music just doesn't move me. Certain I'm wrong here because most Dallasites love them.
6. Very cool to see Daryl Johnston and Michael Johnson on stage together. We have ice this week, but we also have star power.
5. Emerald City is one of the coolest all-time bands in Dallas. And I'm not just saying that because they played my wedding at the Four Seasons once upon a time. Also caught a bit of Mike Rhyner's Petty Theft last night for the first time. Not bad. Not bad at all.
4. With Pat Summerall, Frank Luksa and Dan Jenkins getting Blackie Sherrod Award honors presented by the likes of Randy Galloway, it reminded me how lucky I am to have grown up in this rich media culture. I always wanted to write and talk sports, and I'm sure growing up in a three-newspaper environment helped. I remember tapping my foot waiting for the Dallas Times Herald to hit our driveway in the afternoon, hours, of course, after I'd already devoured the Dallas Morning News. I grew up on Blackie and Galloway and Skip Bayless and Jim Dent. But to me, Luksa is the shit.
3. With food and music in every room last night, XLV put on a show. Still, it doesn't compare to the XXVII party in Pasadena where the media was given the run of the place at Universal Studios.
2. Saddest sight of the night was legendary Texas running back Earl Campbell struggling -- with a walker -- to make it 20 feet to get in an elevator. Took him 10 painful minutes. And to think, he used to run over linebackers at will. The NFL giveth, and taketh away.
1. The three coldest moments of my life: 2001 -- Riding a ski lift on my way to the top of a mountain in Whistler, Canada. 1998 -- Waiting for a cab outside the old Chicago Stadium. February 1, 2011 -- Standing in the valet line at House of Blues. When I got into my car the themometer read 13 degrees. The drive to McKinney was, to say the least, a white-knuckler.
