Tag Archives: Staples Center

Laker game with kids

My work, from time to time, hands out tickets to events, and the most coveted ones are of course Laker tickets. (Although last year, Kings tickets were a hot commodity.) Anyway, I happened to win last Friday, so I got Trinity to haul the kids over to my work and, at quitting time, we all made our way in my car to Staples Center.

We happened to not get parking passes this time (we’ve gotten them before with suite tickets), so we parked at LA Live, right off Olympic. I highly recommend this, by the way — its a quick walk to Staples Center (even with two kids), and just $15 for the duration we were there. If we’d actually gotten to the game on time, maybe parking might have cost more, but oh well.

But, alas, our Lakers could not sustain their lead against the Wizards. The Washington Wizards. Guh. For games attended, Trin and I are now 0 for 4, but he’s determined to prove we’re not a jinx. He says he fully intends to attend every game he can until he can prove it.

Sparks game in the company suite

On Friday, there was an announcement on the newsroom system that there were Sparks tickets up for grabs for Sunday. I love tickets in general, so I jumped to get some and it turned out they were for the CBS 2 / KCAL 9 suite. Sweet!

Sparks game

It was a pretty good time. The Sparks won 82-55. But the best part was that Trevor Ariza made an appearance at the game.

Continue reading

We watched the Lakers lose their first game of the season

Watching the Lakers vs. PistonsWatching the Lakers vs. Pistons Watching the Lakers vs. Pistons

Dude. What a sucky birthday present, although it really was no fault of mine. In theory, a Lakers game against the Detroit Pistons was a fabulous present….but not if they lose. And they lost, 106-95. It was a dismal game. Not only that, we were seated around a bunch of Pistons fans, including one obnoxious guy who sounded like he was an Enimem wannabe sitting right behind me. It took all my willpower…

Anyway, here are the first pictures, including one of Jack Nicholson courtside. Our seats really were quite good, Section 107, row 7, seats 7 and 8. I took more pictures of this, and video, before my batteries went kaput. I’ll edit and post the rest of the photos tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to Trinity

Sunday was Trinity’s birthday (hey, I was busy). I’d been planning for a long time to get him something really good for his 29th birthday — I know! He’s practically a baby! — but didn’t really decide until about two weeks ago what to get. I went back forth quite a bit on the iPhone, then thought about a Wii (too hard to get), briefly considered getting him a leather jacket or something else similarly decadent, then went back to the iPhone. Finally, I got inspiration from church folks. It was perfect! It was about in the price range I could spend, was something Trinity absolutely loves, and it was something we could do together (I’m always looking for stuff we could do together). Laker tickets!

I spent a few days quizzing everyone I knew about what game I should buy tickets for. One coworker suggested the Rockets game, but a sports guy said, nah, the Lakers will bury the Rockets — and they did. The sports guy also recommended the Pistons, and the more people I quizzed, the better that game sounded.

So I arranged to get the Friday off when the Lakers play the Pistons (this Friday), and Saturday, just to not have to go to have a random work day in what should be a fun weekend. I called Trinity’s boss to make sure he could have that night off (his company gives him a day off for his birthday). Then I bought the ticket through a ticket broker through my company’s corporate perks site (it really works!). I worried a little when the broker had the delivery scheduled for election day (I was working night shift, Trin working day, so there was a chance the delivery might have arrived when he was home), but it turned out they were FedExed early, on Monday.

So, you might be wondering, how did he react when he saw the tickets?

Continue reading