Random Mess Of A Life

Constantly reminded

2012-01-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

So many of our friends are struggling with infertility and recently a friend posted on facebook about how the clock is ticking. We know only friends one couple that did not have trouble conceiving within a year. Everyone else is struggling.

One of the problems is, no one talks about infertility. We only told our parents and my best friend, we know the pain of trying to conceive and having nothing happen. That struggle does not need monthly reminders from friends, we get that in the form of blood.

I didn't really think about life with baby once we got pregnant; I think it's some sort of protective measure for my heart. My heart grieves for our friends that have lost children, such pain and sorrow after the feeling of jubilation. I made plans for how to deal with my dysthmia, how to combat potential post-natal depression; but nothing concrete. Of course prior to even trying we talked about what we wanted to give our children, how many we wanted to have and how we wanted to adopt or do foster care.

Once you enter the minefield of fertility treatment though you have to slow down and consider your options, there are only so many rounds of drugs you can take so timed intercourse and IUI are somewhat limited. You can find someone to carry your baby for you or use someone's eggs or sperm. You can spend money for IVF or adoption. This all weighs heavily. At some point in our journey to parenthood, while lying in our bed at night, I up and announced to my husband that if we couldn't have biological children I didn't want children at all. That was a hard realization to come to.

We were very lucky to get pregnant the first time we did IUI. Three blood tests later I was realizing that this was actually happening. I remember our first ultrasound at six weeks, I wished the nurse would've printed a picture of tiny Guster. I was afraid that that might be the only picture we would get, especially given what happened next. I complained about some pain and after a blood draw we found that my hormone levels were very low, the nurse ordered medication and a more detailed ultrasound. The next day we sat in the waiting room of the imaging department waiting for my name to be called, the tech came and told Jason he couldn't come in with me. She had a lot of trouble finding the baby and getting good images, but she finally gave me some peace when she said that she found the heart and that it was beating. Later the nurse called to say everything looked fine with Guster.

When sharing the news of our pregnancy we called some people because I wanted them to be able to process the news privately. I remember being at church when the pastor announced yet another woman was pregnant and I couldn't contain my tears. The feelings of unfairness and inadequacy. I wanted to spare people the pain of having to hide their emotions.

So, moral of the story and your take away:

Fertility starts to decline at age 30 and once you hit 35 you only need to wait six months instead of twelve to seek out infertility treatment.

Talk with a specialist.

Consider your options and realize your plans are going to have to change, you may no longer be able to have the four or more children you planned on.

Don't be afraid to ask your doctor what Plan B is, at the insemination I asked a whole bunch of questions about what we would be trying next.

Don't be afraid to share your story, lots of people are struggling and sometimes it's nice to read the success stories (especially if they share a diagnosis), let's you know someone is experiencing this too - you are not alone.

I'm back!

2012-01-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since I've written on my blog I couldn't remember the name.

Surrounded by two computers and a messy desk

2010-05-06T01:28:00.001-07:00

So, I'm posting on my blog basically because I wanted to leave a comment on Melinda's and I realized I hadn't written on here all year. Maybe when our baby is born I will use it to post pictures and stuff. Melinda asked if I was going to do that and I was thinking, yeah, I'll do it a few times and then I'll just forget about it.

Still like the title of my blog though. Still in therapy (like that's ever going to change).

No longer dealing with trying to get pregnant as you can (not) see, we ended up doing IUI and it worked on the first try. I think I was in shock that it worked the first time out. Jason doesn't really feel comfortable discussing the IUI, but I don't really care if people know. I just don't want to hear anyone's story about how they know someone who was trying and then a) started/finished the adoption process and just got pregnant b) tried for a long time and then stopped and got pregnant c) some other story that I really don't give a **** about. It's not your story, it's what you saw happen, these mysterious people have no bearing on my life and regardless of all that, infertility is like a minefield. It could be the woman, it could be the man, it could be both, it could be unexplainable; each of those situations require different treatments and procedures and just because pregnancy happened to someone you sort of know about doesn't mean that it will happen for us. It is not somehow uplifting or inspiring for you to tell me this "miracle story", it's pointless because by this point in the game people we've heard all the stories! We could really care less that it ended up happening somehow to someone you sort of know. Now if it was you personally that made it through this voyage then sure, go ahead and share. I know it feels good to be able to say "Hey, we did it and it worked", to say "It happened to us and it can happen to you" to sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know I would've appreciated someone telling us "Look, we were dealing with infertility as well and this is the good thing that happened".

Worst daughter EVER!

2009-09-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

So today I was to wake up and be ready for my mom at 5am, Jason turned the alarm off and I woke up at 5:44, I ran to the front door where my mom had been beating at the door for 15 minutes. She woke up the neighbors, I feel so bad about that. Mom drove fast to the airport, I kept telling her to step on the gas and "GO!" Luckily Mom and Louise got to the airport about 6:40ish and right now I am checking SFO's website and it says that they are still boarding - hopefully everything worked out okay.

I have a therapy appointment today, just kind of thinking about what I'm going to talk about, I was thinking about my parent's divorce and realized that today is the date of their marriage. I think it kind of funny, as in odd funny, not ha ha funny, that they are both on vacation today. I wonder if that was intentional or not. Probably not in my mom's case, she's going on a cruise, but my dad planned a trip to Disneyland; either way I hope they both are having a good time.

I've got some of the day mapped out, therapy at 10am and then I've got to go to the teacher supply store and then to Target to get a gift card as an apology to my neighbors (this is the second time that they have been disturbed by my family trying to bang my door down). Jason will be home around 4:30 and then he said he had to check to see if he has an evening client, but he went last week so he should be free this week. Maybe I'll make dinner again, I do have mom's car so I could go buy anything I need. Speaking of mom's car, she wanted to know what I'd be doing with it and I said I had a doctor's appointment today and tomorrow and then she was all "Well (sigh), okay, I just don't want anything to happen to it." thanks, I'm going to be all paranoid now.

I've been cooking dinner!

2009-09-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

So far I've cooked dinner twice this week. Today my whole meal was made from scratch; I made a Cherry Tomato Onion Tart because we had so many cherry tomatoes from our CSA box and udon noodles in a peanut sauce. Yes, I'm well aware that these two items don't go together, but they were both tasty and aside from the actual noodles I made everything! The only thing that went wrong was that I read the oven temp direction wrong, it was 200 but it was Celsisus and I forgot to convert it, oh well, it took a little longer and the tomatoes weren't quite as wrinkly as I was going for but the crust was cooked which is what I was mainly concerned with.

Love Jeopardy!

2009-08-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

We've DVR'd a bunch of Jeopardy episodes and today we've watched 3 episodes. We're not that dorky; I haven't kept score today.

So lately I've been thinking

2009-08-01T20:56:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking lately about my blog and using it as a platform for something bigger. I don't know why, maybe it's because I want to be (cue bright lights and snappy music) FAMOUS! Okay, not really. Besides, no one reads my blog and I kinda like it that way (no offense to those of you actually reading these infrequent missiles).

I thought about writing about my "journey" with depression, but I don't think anyone wants to read about that. I thought about posting different challenges for the day, but I don't know if I'll actually want to complete any of them. You say, but just pick something you want to do! But what I want to do and what I end up doing are often two completely different things. I thought about writing about wanting a baby, but at the moment it's still out of our hands, well it's always out of our hands and into God's, but until we find out what's going on there's no point in hypothesizing, we're just going to wait and go to our appointment and then go from there.

Laziest blogger

2009-05-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Dude,

I am the laziest blogger known to man. Since I really have nothing but time on my hands you'd think I could at least write something down once in awhile.

I'm on Twitter now, another thing that I'll do a few times and then leave alone for months.

Hedo, Hedo

2008-10-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

Hedo, hedo is one of Jason's favorite sayings. Basically instead of using the l's in hello he puts in a d, it's funny and now I say it too.

Not feeling well today. Went to church, we had a potluck, I brought chips and had one of the older girls go to Little Ceasar's and get a pizza. She was already going so I thought she could pick up an extra one. I like potlucks, sometimes the food can be weird, but this time it was really basic. Pizza, cookies, deviled eggs (did you know the last hymn in our hymnal is #666?), cold cuts, cheese and crackers, you get the idea.

I always find it interesting what other people bring. I wasn't sure where the potluck was going to be so I didn't want to bring something that had to be kept cold or hot. I think one of the weirder things about today's potluck was that someone brought 4 strawberries, 4 chicken strips and like 6 potato wedges, that just struck me as strange.

What I don't like is when people want you to sign up to bring something. It's like, I'll bring what I'll bring, I don't want to be tied down for something as informal as a potluck. When I say this my mom always tells this story about how she once went to a lunch potluck with like 20 other women and they all brought potato salad. The moral of that story is that you need a list, but it's also interesting to note that all the potato salads were different. Personally if I was there I'd have brought something different, I don't like potato salad.

From another blogger

2008-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a blog by Emily Adams about a month ago and thought it was cool.

You can only give ONE WORD answers! One word also reminds me of a favorite scrapbook challenge blog: One Little Word

1. Where is your cell phone? Table
2. Where is your significant other? Mail
3. Your hair? Ponytail
4. Your mother? Patsy
5. Your father? Larry
6. Your favorite thing? Jason
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your dream/goal? Free
9. The room you're in? Office
10. Your hobby? Lots
11. Your fear? Falling
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Babies
13. Where were you last night? La Machino
14. What you're not? Dumb
15. One of your wish list items? Release
16. Where you grew up? Hometown
17. The last thing you did? Champagne
18. What are you wearing? Clothes
19. Your TV? Olympics
20. Your pet? Yuck
21. Your computer? On
22. Your mood? Okay
23. Missing someone? No
24. Your car? Dead
25. Something you're not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Good
28. Love someone? Absolutely
29. Your favorite color? Yellow
30. When is the last time you laughed? Earlier
31. Last time you cried? Grandpa

Hobbies - Part Two

2008-09-10T12:52:00.001-07:00

So Monday at our Girl Scout meeting we were talking about Hobbies; as I've mentioned before I have lots of different hobbies that I pursue, anyways I asked the girls to list collecting hobbies, then sports hobbies (E said croquet!), and then making hobbies. During the last list A pipes up with, "Oh man, I'm doing food!" Her first one was cakes so I said baking was a hobby, her second was meatballs (okay, ethnic cusine, cooking that's a hobby) but the third was hot dogs! Couldn't help her there!

Making Paper

2008-09-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I came up with the great idea to make paper with my little Girl Scouts (Brownies). I basically know the process, it's not difficult, but I found the best website! http://www.wipapercouncil.org/makepaper.htm

The best part was that I realized you don't need any fancy equipment, in fact you can do it with nylon's and a coat hanger! In fact that's probably the easiest way to make different shapes.

Closing Ceremonies

2008-08-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

What was with the outfits of the men singing the England national anthem? Grey with yellow?

Okay, the mayor of London, could he look any less posh? He needed his hair brushed, his jacket buttoned, and a little more practice about what his role was here.

Loved the double decker bus, but seriously if Mary hadn't told us it was the London skyline we wouldn't have known because it was so dark and it appeared military-esque. Also, if they were going to use people in wheelchairs it would've been nice if they actually needed them instead of using them as props.

It's a little sad when the flame has been extinguished, but it lives on in memories that float on lucky cloud strips to the sky.

And who knew Jackie Chan sang? And that there is such a thing as fireworks artists?

NBC seems to be confused, they think we want to see all of the singing but none of the actual people. Why didn't they show more of the Flag Bearers, I like learning about the people. Maybe the people who decided this were the same people who thought we wanted to see all of the women's and the men's marathon? I wish the mascots had a bigger role too, I love the mascots! Although we did get a shot of the green panda one, that's Jason's favorite.

Why are there all these old men performers with pretty young women? Opera boring! Just not fitting with the whole "party theme".

I loved the Opening Ceremonies, but the Closing just didn't have the same feelings, I was left going, why are they doing this, showing this, seems that it dragged out with fewer "wow" moments. That could also be due to NBC's coverage though, I get an NBC channel OKOR that's broadcast in Chinese I believe, they featured much more of the Olympians celebrating and meeting up.

Selected Results from Sunday, August 24th

2008-08-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Women

Rhythmic Gymnastics-Team
The Russian Federation takes the Gold, Silver for China and Bronze to Belarus.

Men

Water Polo
Hungary scores with the Gold, USA suprises with the Silver.

Volleyball
USA wins Gold!

Athletics-Marathon
Samuel Wansiru of Kenya takes the Gold, his country's first in the Marathon with a new Olympic Record time by almost three minutes! Morocco's Jaouad Gharib takes the Silver, Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia passed his teammate Deriba Merga to take the Bronze. Team USA finishes: Dathan Ritzenhein was 9th, Ryan Hall 10th, Brian Sell was 22nd.

Basketball
USA takes the Gold in a good fight with Spain winning the Silver.

Selected Results from Saturday, August 23rd

2008-08-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Women

Volleyball
Brazil wins Gold, USA takes Silver and China the Bronze.

Sychronized Swimming-Team Final
Russian Federation scored a perfect 50 in their free routine today and they earned the Gold Medal. Spain Silver, China wins it's first Synchro medal with Bronze, Canada 4th, USA and Japan were 5th.

Cycling-Mountain Bike
Sabine Spitz (GER) won Gold, Maja Wloszczowska of Poland took Silver and Irina Kalentyeva of Russia was third. Mary McConneloug and Georgia Gould of the USA were 7th and 8th.

Rhythmic Gymnastics-Individual
Evgeniya Kanaeva (RUS) wins Gold, Silver for Inna Zhukova (BLR) and the Bronze to Anna Bessonova (UKR). Evgeniya was the top finisher for each routine. Olga Kapranova (RUS) was second in Rope and Hoop, third in ribbon, but was unfortunately 8th in clubs due to a drop. Almudena Cid (ESP) in her fourth and final Olympics finished 8th.

Athletics
High Jump Final
Tia Hellebaut (BEL) wins Gold, Chaunte Howard (USA) finished 6th.
1500m Final
Shannon Rowbury of the USA finished 7th.
4x400m Relay Final
Team USA: Allyson Felix, Mary Wineberg, Monique Henderson, Sanya Richards wins Gold! Russia takes Silver and Jamaica Bronze.

Handball
Norway wins Gold.

Basketball
USA wins Gold, Australia Silver and Russia takes the Bronze.

Taekwondo-67kg
Maria del Rosario Espinoza (MEX) wins Gold.

Men

Diving-10m Platform Semifinals and Finals
David Boudia (USA) and Thomas Finchum (USA) advanced to the finals. Gold Medalist, in a stunning upset, is Matthew Mitcham (AUS), China's Luxin Zhou takes Silver, Bronze for Gleb Galperin (RUS). David was 10th and Thomas 12th.

Athletics
5000m Final
Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele sets a new Olympic Record with his Gold Medal run. Bernard Lagat (USA) finished 9th and Matt Tegenkamp (USA) was 13th.
4x400m Relay Final
Team USA: Jeremy Warnier, LaShawn Merritt, David Neville, Angelo Taylor win Gold in Olympic Record time! Silver for the Bahamas, Russia takes Bronze.

Baseball
USA wins the Bronze, Cuba the Silver and South Korea takes their first Gold in Baseball.

Cycling-Mountain Bike
Julien Absalon and Jean-Christophe Peraud of France take Gold and Silver. Nino Schurter and Christoph Sauser of Switzerland took Bronze and 4th. The two Americans, Adam Craig and Todd Wells, were lapped and taken out of the race.

Football
Argentina takes Gold, Nigeria the Silver.

Hockey
Germany scoops up Gold and Spain scores the Silver, Australia claims the Bronze.

It's Coming

2008-08-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Race is coming up in September! I'm so excited and now that we are back in our own place we can begin to make our international cuisine theme nights again!

Stay tuned for details, no spoilers and what we'll be making to eat!

Selected Results from Friday, August 22nd

2008-08-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

Women

Cycling-BMX
USA's Jill Kintner takes the Bronze Medal.

Synchronized Swimming-Team Technical Routine
Russian Federation is in first with 9.9's on every score, Spain is next. Canada and USA are tied for 5th

Field Hockey
Netherlands wins Gold over China 2-0.

Modern Pentathlon
This is the third time this event has been contested by women in the Olympics. Sheila Taor (USA) has competed in three different sports in three different Olympics; in '96 she won a Gold Medal as part of the 4x200m Free Relay team, in 2000 she was 6th in the Triathlon. Margaux Isaksen (USA) is 16 years old and is one of the youngest in this sport's history.
Shooting-Sheila 28th, Margaux 29th.
Fencing-Margaux 24th (15 victories, 20 losses), Sheila was last (36th) with only 4 wins.
Swimming-Sheila puts up a Modern Pentathlon Olympic Record by swimming a 2:08.86 in the 200m Free Swim! Way to go Sheila! To give you an idea of exactly how fast she went, the World Record in the 200m Free is 1:54.82. Margaux was 20th.
Show Jumping-Sheila again number one! Margaux was 10th.
3000m Run-Sheila 7th, Margaux 14th.
Overall Lena Schoneborn (GER) won Gold, Heather Fell (GBR) SIlver and Victoria Tereshuk (UKR) Bronze. Sheila was 19th, Margaux was right behind in 21st.

Athletics
5000m Finals
USA finishes: Kara Goucher 9th, Shalane Flanagan 10th, Jennifer Rhines 14th.
Long Jump Finals
Brittney Reese (USA) was 5th, Grace Upshaw (USA) 8th and Funmilayo Jimoh (USA) 12th.
4x100 Relay Finals
Russia takes Gold for the first time ever in this event, Silver for Belgium, Nigeria wins Bronze, Brazil 4th, Germany 5th. Jamaica failed to pass the baton and in doing so ran Great Britain out of the race, Poland was DQ'd.
4x400 Relay Heats
Team USA: Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg, Monique Henderson, Natasha Hastings. Among the qualifiers are Cuba, Great Britain, USA and Belarus.

Men

Athletics
Decathalon
Bryan Clay (USA), Trey Hardee (USA), Roman Sebrle (CZE)
100m Hurdles-Bryan won his heat, knocking over all types of hurdles. Trey maintained the third position.
Discus-Bryan killed it throwing 176 feet, 5 inches (an Olympic Decathalon record) and maintained first, Trey fell to fourth, Roman was 8th.
Pole Vault-Trey faultered and because he didn't start at a lower height, knowing he was having problems with his wrist, he was unable to clear the bar and recieved no mark, he then withdrew from the competition. Bryan maintained first place, Roman 7th.
Javelin-Another monster throw keeps Bryan in first, Roman was fifth.
1500m-Brian maintains his lead.
Brian nabs the title he has worked for, Gold Medalist! Silver was a battle with Andrei Krauchanka (BLR) nabbing it, Bronze went to Leonel Suarez of Cuba. Russia's was Aleksandr Poforelov third coming into the 1500m, but lost it in the run, he finished in fourth. Roman finished 6th.
Pole Vault Finals
Derek Miles (USA) finished fourth. Steve Hooker took Gold with a World Record.
4x100m Relay Finals
Jamaica sprints to Gold, Trinidad & Tobago with the Silver, Japan scoops up the Bronze. China was DQ'd.
4x400m Relay Heats
Team USA: David Neville, Kerron Clement, Reggie Witherspoon, Angelo Taylor. Some qualifiers: USA, Russia, Bahamas and Jamaica.

Volleyball
USA takes on Russia in the Semifinals. The first two sets went to USA 25-22, 25-21. A hard third set went to Russia 27-25 and the fourth as well 25-22. The last set played to 15 saw USA taking the match! USA will go on to play in the Gold Medal Final! Russia will play for the Bronze.

Cycling-BMX
Semifinals
Kyle Bennett (USA) failed to advance to the finals.
Finals
Maris Strombergs (LAT) Gold, USA finishes up the two other medal spots, Mike Day cycles into Silver and Donny Robinson into the Bronze.

Taekwondo-80kg
Steven Lopez (USA) takes his first contest and drops his second. He entered the repechage where he beat N'quessan Sebastien Konan of Cote d'Ivoire, who had hoped to bring home his country's second medal, to enter the Bronze Medal Contest. To win the Bronze Steve defeated Rashad Ahmadov (AZE). Steven previously won two Gold Medals one in Sydney and the other in Athens.

Diving-10m Platform Preliminary
David Boudia (USA), Thomas Finchum (USA), and Thomas Daley (GBR) are among those advancing to the Semifinals.

Water Polo
USA takes on Serbia and beats them 10-5. Water Polo is the National Sport of Hungary, that is who the US will face in the Gold Medal Match! Way to go USA Water Polo players! If USA wins it will be the first Gold for USA since 1904.

Beach Volleyball
Dalhausser/Rogers (USA) take the first set 23-21 in the Gold Medal Match. Marcio/Fabio (BRA) take the second 21-17. But the Professor and the Thin Beast come back in the third set 15-4. This is the first time one country has taken both Beach Volleyball Gold Medals! Way to go Phil and Todd!

Basketball
Lithuania loses to Spain. The ball bounces Team USA's way and USA and Spain advance to the Gold Medal Game.

Boxing-91kg
Deontay Wilder (USA) v. Clemente Russo (ITA). Deontay is 6 foot 7! Russo moved on to the Gold Medal Match and Deontay takes the Bronze.

Baseball
Cuba defeats the USA and Korea beat Japan. Losing teams will play for Bronze, winning teams for Gold and Silver.

Happy 7 1/4 Year!

2008-08-22T01:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's our 7 year and 4 month anniversary today.

Typically we go to the State Fair on this day, but since Jason just had a week or so off in mid June and he's working 4 10's next week so we can leave for Arizona next Thursday we decided he shouldn't really ask for any time off. Originally we had planned to attend a program at the SF Cheese School but that got pushed to the back burner. (Obviously, the Olympics didn't come to mind. Besides I have a DVR now, so who cares.)

Jason got a new client yesterday and he met them today. I used the time to plan our route to Arizona. We got sandwiches at Togo's and had a quiet night in watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win Olympic Gold. (Yes, it was on last night but we didn't watch it until today, it's that DVR thing again!)

Selected Results from Thursday, August 21st

2008-08-22T01:35:00.000-07:00

Women

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-500m
Carrie Johnson (USA) was 4th and finished right out of the finals.

Diving-10m Platform Seminfinals and Finals
Haley Ishimatsu (USA) finished 14th just out of the finals, Laura Wilkinson (USA) advances. Laura in her last Olympics and International competition did not fare well but her last dive was her best dive. Ruolin Chen (CHN) the young phenom takes Gold, Emilie Heymans (CAN) wins the Silver, Xin Wang (CHN) the Bronze. Paola Espinosa (MEX) 4th, Tatiana Ortiz (MEX) 5th, Laura Wilkinson was 9th.

Beach Volleyball
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh (USA) repeat as Gold Medalists, first team in Beach Volleyball history to accomplish this feat. Silver for China's Tian Jia/Wang.

Volleyball
USA defeats Cuba in 3 sets, they will play next for the Gold Medal.

Taekwondo-57kg
The first of the Team USA Lopez siblings to hit the mats is Diana who makes her statement by taking down Chonnapas Premwaew of Thailand. In the next round Diana was defeated, she entered the repechage and won taking her to the Bronze Medal round where she won!

Basketball
USA takes Russia down 67-52 and moves on to the Gold Medal Match.

Gymnastics Rhythmic-Group All-Around
Belarus was first, China second, Italy third and the Russian Federation a very surprising spot down in fourth.

Table Tennis
Chen Wang (USA) has advance farther than any other USA athlete in Table Tennis history, she has advanced to the quarterfinals! Way to go Chen Wang! She later lost her match in the quarterfinals. Jun Gao (USA) pushed Xue Wu (DOM) to the limit but failed to advance.

Football
In a repeat of the 2004 Olympic Games Brazil and the US faced off, each time the match has gone to extra time, both times with USA taking the Gold. Brazil gets the Silver and Germany the Bronze.

Softball
Japan wins Gold in a huge upset 3-1 over Team USA. USA takes Silver.

Water Polo
Netherlands took it out to an early 4-0 lead but USA was able to add 2 goals in the first quarter. At the end of the first half USA had tied it 5-5. After the third the Dutch were ahead 7-6, with about 30 seconds to go the Netherlands scored bringing it to 9-8, despite two valiant efforts in the last 10 seconds by Team USA they are defeated. Gold goes to the Netherlands and Silver for the USA. Bronze match went to the shoot out and Australia takes it.

Athletics
20km Walk
Joanne Dow of the USA turned in a seasonal best time and finished 31st.
200m Final
Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM) Gold, Allyson Felix (USA) Silver, Muna Lee (USA) 4th, Marshevet Hooker (USA) 5th.
4x100m Relay Heat
Team USA: Lauryn Williams, Angela Williams, Mechelle Lewis, Torri Edwards drops the baton and is out. Italy is out too.
1500m Heats
Shannon Rowbury (USA) time qualifies, Erin Donohue and Christin Wurth-Thomas finish 8th in their heats and do not advance.
High Jump Qualifying Round
Team USA's Amy Acuff and Sharon Day don't advance, but Chaunte Howard does.

Men

Modern Pentathlon
Sam Sacksen (USA) was 23rd and Eli Bremer (USA) 34th after the shooting.
They were both 29th in the Epee, Eli was 7th in the 200m Free and Sam was 25th.
In Show Jumping Sam was 7th and Eli was 14th, Eli's horse was named DangDang.
In the last event the 3000m Run, Eli was 7th and Sam 17th.
The Gold went to the defending Gold Medalist, Andrey Moiseev of the Russian Federation. Silver to Edvinas Krungolcas, Bronze to Andrejus Zadneprovskis both of Lithuania. Go guys from Lithuania! Sam finished 18th overall and Eli 22nd.

Wrestling-Freestyle
84kg
Andy Hrovat (USA) lost his Quarterfinal bout today.
96kg
Daniel Cormier (USA) lost his Quarterfinal bout today.
120kg
Steve Mocco (USA) won his first two bouts, dropped one in the Quarterfinal bout and in the repechage.

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-500m
Rami Zur (USA) was 6th and does not advance.

Taekwondo-68kg
Team USA's Mark Lopez took to the mats today, an hour and a half after sister Diana, he defeated his first and second and third opponent to enter the Gold Medal contest. After sister Diana took the Bronze it was Mark's turn, he does her one better and captures the Silver!

Athletics
Decathlon-Day One
Team USA athletes: Tom Pappas, Brian Clay 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist and Trey Hardee.
After the 100m: Bryan 1st, Trey 2nd, Tom 19th.
After the long jump: Bryan and Trey maintain their positions, Tom improved to 12th.
After the shot put: Roman Sebrle (CZE) 2004 Gold Medalist was 10th, Bryan had a personal best and maintained his first place status, Trey dropped to third.
Next up was the High Jump when Tom left the competition. Trey took 7th in his heat with a new personal best, Brian was 9th.
In the 400m Bryan was third in his heat, Trey was 4th in his with another new personal best.
400m Finals
It's a Team USA sweep! LaShawn Merritt opened up a big lead to take the Gold after taking the Silver in '04, Jeremy Wariner the defending Gold Medalist takes Silver, David Neville makes a huge dive and finishes with the Bronze Medal.
110m Hurdles Finals
Dayron Robles (CUB) took the Gold Medal. The David's from Team USA finished two-three with Payne taking Silver and Oliver taking Bronze.
800m Semifinals
Nick Symmonds (USA) faded after making his move and does not advance to the finals.
4x100m Relay Heat
Team USA: Rodney Martin, Travis Padgett, Darvis Patton and Tyson Gay is disqualified due to a dropped baton pass, so did Nigeria.
Javelin Throw Qualifying
Leigh Smith, Mike Hazle and Breaux Greer all of Team USA fail to move on.

Sailing
Tornado
Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree finished 15th overall.
Star
John Dane III and Austin Sperry finished 11th over all.

Swimming-Marathon 10km
Maarten van der Weijden (NED) takes the first Gold awarded in this race's Olympic debut. Mark Warkentin (USA) 8th.

Mixed

Equestrian-Jumping Final
Eric Lamaze (CAN) takes Gold and Beezie Madden (USA) jumps for the Bronze. Mclain Ward (USA) was 6th.

Selected Results from Wednesday, August 20th

2008-08-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Women

Synchronized Swimming-Duet Finals
Anastasia's Davydova and Ermakova (RUS) win Gold, Andrea Fuentes and Gemma Mengual (ESP) Silver, Harada/Suzuki (JPN) Bronze, China's Jiang Sisters take 4th, American's Christina Jones and Andrea Nott take 5th.

Taekwondo-49kg
Charlotte Craig (USA) defeated Manuela Bezzola (SUI). Charlotte then fell to Dalia Contreras Rivero (VEN) who went on to win the Bronze.

Swimming-Marathon 10km
Larisa Ilchenko (RUS) outswam Keri-Anne Payne (GBR) to take the Gold, Keri-Anne got Silver, Cassandra Patten (GBR) won Bronze, Chloe Sutton (USA) was 22nd.

Diving-10m Platform Preliminary
Haley Ishimatsu (USA) was 10th, Laura Wilkinson (USA) 5th, they both advance to the Semifinals.

Softball
USA and Japan faced off in the semifinals and they were tied 0-0 so the tie breaker rule came into effect. USA squeeked out a win 4-1. Canada and Australia played and Australia won 5-3. Australia and Japan then played for the Bronze Medal with Japan winning 4-3. Canada and USA will play for Gold and Silver tomorrow.

Hockey
Spain and USA tied it up but Spain was able to score the Golden Goal and take it 3-2. So the USA women advance only as far as the Semifinals, great job ladies!

Table Tennis-Singles
Jun Gao (USA) beat Eva Odorova (SVK) and Sayaka Hirano (JPN). Chen Wang (USA) defeated Krisztina Toth (HUN).

Athletics
400m Hurdles Finals
Gold for Melaine Walker (JAM), Sheena Tosta (USA) took the Silver, Tiffany Ross-Williams (USA) was 8th.
200m Semifinals
Muna Lee (USA), Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM), Allyson Felix (USA) and Marshevet Hooker (USA) advance to the finals. Roqaya Al-Gassra of Bahrain finishes sixth in her heat and does not advance.

Sailing-RS:X
Nancy Rios (USA) finished 26th overall.

Men

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-1000m
Rami Zur (USA) finished 7th and is out of this event, look for him in the 500m.

Basketball
In Quarterfinal play Lithuania beat China, 94-68. Spain beat Croatia, USA beat Australia 116-85. Defending Gold Medalists Argentina narrowly defeated Greece 80-78 and they will face USA in the Semifinals.

Water Polo
In the Quarterfinals Montenegro in their first Olympic Games in this sport beat heavily favored Croatia 7-6. Serbia won over Spain 9-5 and will face USA in the Semifinals.

Baseball
USA outscores Japan 4-2.

Volleyball
Serbia and USA faced off in a tough match in the Quarterfinals today. First set 25-20 to Serbia, the second to the US 25-23, the third to Serbia 25-21, the fourth to the US 25-18, US then comes and wins the next set 15-12! Way to go guys, you played hard and were rewarded!

Cycling-BMX
In the heats Team USA's Mike Day won all three races, Donny Robinson was 6th, 2nd and 3rd, Kyle Bennet was 2nd then 4th, he did not finish the last race because of a big dust up, however they all made the cut to make the Semifinals.

Wrestling-Freestyle
66kg
Doug Schwab (USA) lost his bout in the regular round and in the repechage.
74kg
Ben Askren (USA) won his first bout and lost his second.

Beach Volleyball
Dalhausser and Rogers (USA) handily beat their opponents the Georgians from Brazil to advance to the Gold Medal Match.

Athletics
200m Finals
Usain Bolt (JAM) sets a World Record and becomes the first to win the 100m and 200m since Carl Lewis in 1984. Sprinting to the Silver was Shawn Crawford (USA), Walter Dix (USA) takes the Bronze. Wallace Spearmon (USA) who would've been third and Churandy Martina (AHO) who would've been second were disqualified for stepping on the inside lane.
110m Hurdles Semifinals
Dayron Robles (CUB), David Oliver (USA) and David Payne (USA) all advance to the finals.
800m Heats
Nick Symmonds (USA) moves on, Christian Smith and Andrew Wheating of the USA fail to advance.
5000m Heats
Advancing: Matthew Tegenkamp (USA), Jesus Espana (ESP), Bernard Lagat (USA). Failing to advance: Ian Dobson (USA).
Pole Vault Qualifying
Jeff Hartwig (USA) failed to advance. 35 year old Derek Miles (USA) does advance.

Sailing
Tornado
Johnny and Charlie (USA) were 15th, 14th and 15th.
Star
John and Austin (USA) were 16th, 10th and 4th.
RS:X
Benjamin Barger (USA) finished 26th overall.

Selected Results from Tuesday, August 19th

2008-08-20T00:21:00.000-07:00

Women

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-500m Heats
Carrie Johnson (USA) advances to the Semifinals.

Basketball
Australia beats the Czech Republic, China over Belarus, USA defeats South Korea 104-60.

Gymnastics-Beam Finals
Shawn Johnson (USA) can claim her Gold Medal today! Congrats Shawn! Nastia Liukin (USA) comes away with the Silver! Great job was done by all the US ladies!

Handball
Hungary over Romania.

Sailing
Laser Radial
Congrats to one of USA's newest Gold Medalists, Anna Tunnicliffe.
RS:X
Nancy Rios (USA) was 22nd today.

Volleyball
Cuba wins over Serbia, USA spikes out Italy 3-2. Cuba and USA advance to the semifinals.

Athletics
400m Finals
Sanya Richards (USA) wins the Bronze.100m Hurdles FinalsDawn Harper (USA) wins Gold, Sally McLellan (AUS) takes the Silver, Priscilla Lopes-Schliep (CAN) Bronze, Damu Cherry (USA) 4th, Lolo Jones (USA) hit the 9th hurdle and finished 7th out of the medals.
200m Heats and Quarterfinals
Aliyson Felix, Marshevet Hooker and Muna Lee all from the US advance to the Semifinals. Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM) does as well.
Javelin Throw Qualifying
Kim Kreiner and Kara Patterson (USA) do not qualify for the finals.
Long Jump Qualifying
Team USA's results: Brittney Reese was the tops in her group and moves on to the finals, Grace Upshaw and Funmilayo Jimoh are also in the top 12 and they advance as well.

Water Polo-Semifinals
USA outscores Australia 9-8 to move on to the Gold Medal Match!

Sychronized Swimming-Duet Free Routine Preliminary
The Anastasia's of the Russian Federation are back on top again. Andrea Nott and Christina Jones (USA) were in 5th place.

Beach Volleyball
May-Teanor/Walsh (USA) take on Talita/Renata (BRA) 21-12 and 21-14, they go to the Gold Medal match! Way to go Misty and Kerri you are awesome ladies!

Men

Table Tennis
Sharath Kamal Achanta (IND) took on Alfredo Carneros (ESP), the two are friends, teammates and they train and practice together; Sharath Kamal won the match. David Zhuang (USA) fell to Segun Toriola (NGR) 3-4.

Diving-3m Springboard Finals
Troy Dumais (USA) finishes 6th for the third Olympics in a row, Chris Colwill (USA) was 12th. Canada's Alexandre Depsatie won the Silver.

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-500m Heats
Rami Zur (USA) advances to the Semifinals.

Wrestling-Freestyle
55kg
Henry Cejudo (USA) wins Gold! Henry, at age 21, is the youngest wrestling Gold Medalist for the USA ever, he is also the first Gold Medalist in this weight class for the USA since 1904.
60kg
Mike Zadick (USA) lost the Quarterfinal bout to Vasyl Fedoryshyn (UKR) and then lost again in the repechage.

Gymnastics
Trampoline
Jason Burnett (CAN) wins the Silver.
Parallel Bars
China's Xiaopeng Li wins Gold, Won-Chul Yoo (KOR) Silver, Anton Fokin of Uzebekistan Bronze. This is Uzebekistan's first gymnastics medal.
Horizontal Bar
Jonathan Horton (USA) swings away with the Silver.

Triathalon
Gold for Jan Frodeno (GER) this is Jan's first major international win and his first Olympics. Simon Whitfield (CAN) took Silver, Bevan Docherty (NZL) Bronze and Javier Gomez (ESP) was fourth. The Americans were Hunter Kemper in 7th, Jarrod Shoemaker 18th and Matty Reed 32nd.

Football
Nigeria beats Belgium 4-1.

Athletics
200m Semifinals
USA's Walter Dix, Shawn Crawford and Wallace Spearmon qualify for the finals.
400m Semifinals
Jeremy Wariner, David Neville and LaShawn Merritt from the USA all move on to the finals.
110m Hurdles Quarterfinals
David's Payne and Oliver of the USA move on.

Cycling Track-Madison
Argentina scoops up the Gold, Silver for Spain and Bronze for the Russians. Team USA's Michael Friedman and Bobby Lea were 16th.

Sailing
RS:X
Benjamin Barger (USA) was 31st today, Aichen Wang (CHN) was first.
Laser
Andrew Campbell (USA) finished 25th overall.

Baseball
USA puts away Chinese Taipei 4-2.

Mixed

Equestrian Dressage-Individual
Anky van Grunsven (NED) struts to the Gold, Isabell Werth (GER) Silver, Heike Kemmer (GER) with the Bronze, USA's Steffen Peters was 4th on Ravel, Courtney King (USA) was 13th.

UOP in the Olympics

2008-08-19T16:28:00.001-07:00

So I did a little research today to see what other Tigers I could find at the Olympics.

Aside from Jennifer Joines (2003) who is the third Pacific Volleyballer to make the US Women's Team (Jayne McHugh was there in 1988 and Elaina Oden in 1992) there are at least two other Tigers participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Other alumns been looking at Heather Cox who is reporting on Beach Volleyball for NBC and thinking she might look familiar? She's a UOP grad from 1992 in Broadcasting Arts. Or maybe you caught a glimpse of Men's Water Polo and thought you knew one of the coaches. Ryan Brown who graduated from University of the Pacific in 2000 and 2001 with degrees in Business is one of the Assistant Coaches. He was also the head women's water polo coach at Pacific for a number of years.

After reading about Ryan I'm racking my brains to see if I knew him, but I was in COP not Business so it's unlikely. Wish I could find a picture of him when he was younger.

Selected results from Monday, August 18th

2008-08-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

Women

Football
USA takes down Japan 4-2 and advances to the Gold Medal Match. Brazil beats Germany 4-1, they will face Team USA.

Cycling-Track-Points Race
Sarah Hammer (USA) did not finish.

Synchronized Swimming-Duet Technical Routine
The Anastasia's of Russia are in first, Christina Jones and Andrea Nott (USA) are in 5th.

Softball
USA blanks out China 9-0.

Athletics
Discus
Stephanie Brown Trafton (USA) of San Luis Obispo, California spins her way to the Gold on her first throw with her best throw ever! Stephanie, I hope you get to meet Mary Lou! This is USA's first Gold in Discus since 1932. Silver for Yarelis Barrios (CUB), Bronze for Olena Antonova (UKR). Aretha Thurmond (USA) 10th.
Pole Vault
Jenn Stuczynski (USA) who just started jumping less than four years ago took the Silver! Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS) repeats as Gold medal champion and sets a new World Record. April Steiner-Bennett (USA) was 8th.
100m Hurdles Semifinals
The three American ladies Lolo Jones, Dawn Harper and Damu Cherry advance to the finals. Susanna Kallur (SWE) crashed into her first hurdle and didn't finish the race.
400m Hurdles Semifinals
Sheena Tosta (USA) made the finals making it look easy. Queen Harrison (USA) was 7th and doesn't make the finals, Tiffany Ross-Williams (USA) and Melaine Walker (JAM) make the finals.

Gymnastics
Trampoline
He Wenna (CHN) Gold, Karen Cockburn (CAN) Silver, Bronze in her third Olympics Ekaterina Khilko (UZB).
Uneven Bars
Kexin He (CHN) tied with Nastia Liukin (USA) but with the tie breaking process Nastia will have to receive the Silver, Yilin Yang (CHN) takes the Bronze.

Sailing
470
American's Amanda Clark and Sara Mergenthaler were 12th. Australia gets Gold, Brazil Bronze.
Laser Radial
Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) 15th then two 2nd places, her last sail was cancelled today.
RS:X
Nancy Rios (USA) did not finish her first race 8, then she was 26th in race 9.

Hockey
USA and Great Britain finish their match 0-0. USA faces Spain next.

Triathalon
Emma Snowsill (AUS) takes the Gold, Silver for Vanessa Fernandes (POR), Emma Moffatt (AUS) runs past Laura Bennett of the USA (4th) to take the Bronze. Sarah Haskins (USA) 11th, Julie Swail Ertel (USA) 19th.

Table Tennis
Fen Yang (CGO) defeats Crystal Xi Huang (USA) 4-2.

Men

Diving-3m Springboard
Troy Dumais and Chris Colwill of the USA advance to the finals.

Gymnastics
Rings Final
Yibing Chen (CHN) wins Gold, Wei Yang (CHN) Silver, In his 5th Olympics Jordan Jovtchev (BUL) at age 35 finished a disappointing 8th.
Vault Final
Leszek Blanik (POL) takes the Gold.

Canoe/Kayak Flatwater-K1-100m
In heat 2 Adam van Koeverden (CAN) wins and advances directly to the finals. Rami Zur (USA) is able to advance to the Semifinals.

Sailing
470
Australia wins Gold, Great Britain Silver, France Bronze, USA's Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl were 13th.
Tornado
Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree were 12th, 14th, and 15th today.
Star
John Dane III and Austin Sperry (USA) were 15th twice and then 16th today.
Laser
Andrew Campbell (USA) was 8th, then DQ'd, then 31st.
RS:X
Benjamin Barger (USA) was 17th and 25th today.

Handball
Poland v. France and they tie 30-30.

Volleyball
Japan and the USA faced off and the USA remains undefeated in this competition.

Baseball
USA deals a loss to China 9-1 in a tough game where USA players were hit with pitches and a Chinese catcher was injured and taken out of the game. The Chinese coach was tossed.

Beach Volleyball
Dalhausser/Rogers (USA) win over Klemperer/Koreng (GER) 21-13, 25-23. Gibb/Rosenthal (USA) faced Ricardo/Emanuel (BRA) the reigning Gold Medalists, they gave it everything they could but dropped the two sets 21-18, 21-16.

Athletics
400m Hurdles Finals
USA sweeps the medals! Way to go Angelo Taylor speeds to the Gold, Silver for the step stutter Kerron Clement, Bronze for Bershawn Jackson.
3000m Steeplechase Final
Anthony Famiglietti (USA) was 13th.
Long Jump Final
Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda of Panama wins Gold.
200m Round 2
Shawn Crawford, Walter Dix and Wallace Spearmon all from the USA along with 100m winner Usain Bolt (JAM) advance into the Semifinals.
110m Hurdles Heats
China's Xiang Liu the 2004 Gold Medalist will not compete, he has pulled out with an injury. He was the first Chinese man to win an Athletics medal. Also out is the '04 Silver Medalist Terrance Tremell (USA) who suffered an injury. David Oliver (USA) and David Payne (USA) won their heats and advanced.
400m Heats
David Neville, LaShawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner all of the USA advance.

Water Polo
USA dunks Germany 8-7.

Basketball
USA dashes Germany's hopes of a win 106-57. They face Australia in the Quarterfinals. Iran loses and goes home winless.

Mixed

Equestrian-Jumping Team Finals
USA has good news, they took the Gold! Congrats to Laura Kraut and her horse Cedric, Beezie Madden and her horse Authentic, Will Simpson and his horse Carlsson Vom Dach and Mclain Ward and his horse Sapphire. Canada hopped to the Silver and Norway to the Bronze.

Selected results from Sunday, August 17th

2008-08-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

Women

Athletics
Marathon
Oldest winner of the marathon Constantina Tomescu-Dita (Romania) led almost the whole way to take home the Gold Medal. A sprint to the finish decided the Silver medal for Catherine Ndereba (KNE), China's Chunxiu Zhou got the Bronze. The other two in that final pack of four (CHN) was fourth, was fifth. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 23rd, Blake Russell (USA) 27th, Magda Lewy and Deena Kastor both of the USA did not finish the race.
100m Finals
Jamaica proves their new 100m dominance with a one-two-three sweep of the medals. Shelly-Ann Fraser wins and Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart tie for the Silver. Lauryn Williams (USA) 4th, Muna Lee (USA) 5th, Torri Edwards (USA) 8th.
3000m Steeplechase Final
This is the first time this event has been contested at the Olympics. The new Olympic record and World record belongs to Gulnara Galkina-Samitova (RUS) who took the Gold. Jennifer Barringer and Anna Willard of the USA were 9th and 10th. Poor Marta Dominguez (ESP) was in medal contention and then caught her foot on the last hurdle, she tumbled to the ground and then when she got up she was disoriented and crashed into a barrier. She was able to get and return to the track.
400m Semi Finals
Sanya Richards (USA) advanced to the finals, Mary Wineburg and Deedee Trotter of the USA did not.
400m Hurdles Heats
Tiffany Ross-Williams (USA) advances. Sheena Tosta and Queen Quedith Harrison of the USA do not advance.
100m Hurdles Heats
All three American women advance to the finals: Damu Cherry, Lolo Jones, Dawn Harper.

Diving-3m Springboard
Gold-Jinjing Guo (CHN), Silver-Yulia Pakhalina (RUS), Bronze-Minxia Wa (CHN), Nancilea Foster (USA) 8th, Christina Loukas (USA) 9th.

Gymnastics
Vault Final
Hong of North Korea took the Gold, Oksana Chusovitina (GER) captures her second Olympic medal 16 years after her last one, Fei Cheng (CHN) won the Bronze, Alicia Sacramone (USA) was 4th.
Floor Final
Sandra Izbasa (ROM) took Gold, Shawn Johnson (USA) flipped her way to the Silver, Nastia Liukin (USA) danced to the Bronze.

Beach Volleyball
May/Walsh (USA) won their match. Unfortunately Branagh/Youngs weren't so lucky, they fell in two sets to China's Xue/Zhang.

Swimming
50m Free Finals
Dara Torres (USA) finished right behind Britta Steffen (GER) to take the Silver, Cate Campbell (AUS) with the Bronze, Libby Trickett (AUS) 4th, Kara Lynn Joyce (USA) 6th.
4x100m Medley Relay
Australia Gold, USA Silver, China Bronze. Dara Torres did an amazing job!

Basketball
USA takes it 96 over New Zealand 60.

Wrestling
63kg
Randi Miller (USA) wins her first two bouts then drops to Kaori Icho of Japan. She entered the repechage and won to enter one of the Bronze Medal rounds where she beat Martine Dugrenier of Canada to claim the Bronze! Great job Randi!
72kg
Ali Bernard (USA) won her first bout and moved to the Quarterfinal where she lost and moved to the repechage where, like Randi, she won and moved to a Bronze Medal round where she fell to Kyoko Hamaguchi (JPN).

Volleyball
USA upsets favorites Poland. A little shout out here to fellow UOP alum Jennifer Joines! UOP got a shout out during the game today too, go Tigers!

Cycling-Track-Individual Pursuit
Romero took the Gold.

Handball
Jason saw handball this morning. He said "I saw an Olympic sport today that I'd never seen before. I'm still not even really sure what it was." Turns out after listening I deduced it was Handball, seeing as how I know all the other Olympic sports. Today Angola and Kaakhstan tied 24-24.

Tennis-Doubles
Serena and Venus Williams smashed their way to the Gold.

Rowing
Eights
USA took Silver in 2004 but this time around that medal is GOLD! Way to go ladies! Netherlands snuck in there to grab the Silver and Romania who've won 3 Gold's in a row had to take Bronze.
Quadruple Sculls
Gold to China, Silver to Great Britain, Bronze to Germany, Team USA was 5th.

Sailing-Yngling
Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Deborah Capozzi (USA) finished 7th overall.

Softball
USA blanks the Dutch, 8-0.

Men

Fencing-Team Saber
France took the Gold and Team USA the Silver, way to go James Williams, Keith Smart, and Tim Morehouse. Keith had an outstanding day putting up 20 of the 37 touches.

Rowing
Lightweight Four
Denmark rowed to the Gold, Poland to the Silver and Canada the Bronze.
Quadruple Sculls
Gold for Poland, Silver for Italy, Bronze for France, Team USA was 5th.
Eights
USA was the defending champion but they had to go with Bronze as Canada took the Gold and Great Britain the Silver.

Boxing
69kg
Demetrius Andrade (USA) lost his bout to Jungjoo Kim (KOR).
91kg
Deontay Wilder (USA) won his bout in a tough decision against Mohammed Arjaoui (MAR).

Sailing
Finn
Zach Railey (USA) won the Silver.
49er
Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast (USA) were 6th overall.

Athletics
10,000m Finals
Gold and Silver for Bekele and Sihine of Ethiopia, Bronze for Kogo of Kenya. Galen Rupp and Abdi Abdirahman of the USA were 13th and 15th. Jorge Torres of the USA was 25th.
1500m Semifinals
Lopez Lomong (USA) one of the lost boys of Sudan who carried the USA flag in the Opening Ceremonies was last in his semi and will not advance to the finals. Bernard Lagat appearing in his first Olympics for Team USA was 6th in his heat Leo Manzano (USA) was 12th, no Americans will advance.

Gymnastics-Pommel Horse Final
Filip Ude won Croatia their first gymnastics medal with the Silver, Louis Smith (GBR) brought that country it's first gymnastics medal in over 80 years, Alexander Artemev (USA) finished a disappointing 7th after falling off the horse.

Shooting-50m Rifle
Matthew Emmons (USA) was 4th, Jason Parker (USA) 22nd

Swimming
1500m Free Final
Ous Mellouli of Tunisia wins his country's first swimming medal and it's Gold, Grant Hackett (AUS) was unable to make it three Golds in a row and has to settle for the Silver. Larsen Jensen (USA) was 5th.
4x100m Medley Relay
All 11 times this race has been contested Team USA has come away with the Gold, today was no exception!

Mixed

Equestrian-Team Jumping
USA advances to the medal round.

New colors!

2008-08-18T01:49:00.000-07:00

When I got to my blog this evening (okay, technically it's the next day but I don't consider it such until I got to bed and wake up the next morning or until it's so late that it's starting to get light again) I was like, wow! look at those new colors. My blog appeared in browns, greens, orange and a different blue, neat I thought, but how'd it get that way? Turns out that my laptop screen was just laid back so far that color distortion had kicked in. Oh well.

Selected Results from Saturday, August 16th

2008-08-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

Women

Fencing-Team Foil
USA outtouches Poland 31-30 and Hungary 35-33, they lost to the Russian Federation and bring home the Silver Medal! Yea for Erinn Smart, Emily Cross and Hanna Thompson!

Rowing
Single Sculls
Michelle Guerette (USA) wins a Silver! Way to pour it on at the end Michelle!
Double Sculls
Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek (USA) were fifth overall.

Table Tennis-Team
USA fell in South Korea in a very close match. Crystal Xi Huang and Jun Gao did an excellent job, this is the farthest any American team has advanced in Olympic competition.

Wrestling
48kg
Clarissa Chun (USA) victory in her first bout and in the quarterfinals, she fell in the Semifinals to Chiharu Icho (JPN), she then lost to Irini Merleni of the Ukraine in one of the Bronze Medal bout.
55kg
Marcie van Dusen (USA) victory in the first round and then a loss in the quarterfinals.

Athletics
Heptathlon
Hyleas Fountain (USA) wins the Bronze!
Shot Put
Jillian Camarena (USA) 12th, Michelle Carter (USA) 15th.

Swimming
200m Back Finals
Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) wins the Gold, Margaret Hoelzer (USA) Silver, Elizabeth Beisel (USA) was 5th.
800m Free Finals
This event had the Oldest Swimming World Record, it was set by Janet Evans in 1989. It has now been broken by Rebecca Adlington (GBR) who won the Gold.50m Free SemisKara Lynn Joyce (USA) was fifth in her heat, Dara Torres (USA) wins her heat. Both advance to the finals.

Tennis-Doubles
Serena and Venus Williams (USA) defeated the Bondarenko sisters of the Ukraine.

Diving-3m Springboard
Nancilea Foster and Christina Loukas of Team USA have both qualified for the finals.

Weightlifting-75kg+
Cheryl Haworth (USA) 6th.

Cycling-Track-Individual Pursuit
Sarah Hammer (USA) will not advance to the medals.

Softball
USA blanks Chinese Taipei, Chinese Taipei are the people of Taiwan.

Gymnastics-Trampoline
Erin Blanchard (USA) was 13th and failed to advance.

Sailing
Laser Radial
Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) was 6th in Race 5.
470
Amanda Clark and Sara Mergenthaler (USA) were 17th and 7th today.

Men

Water Polo
USA defeats Croatia, what an upset! Excellent guys!

Baseball
USA eeks it out against Canada 5-4.

Cycling-Track
Individual Pursuit
Taylor Phinney (USA) fails to advance further.
Keirin
Giddeon Massie (USA) was third in his heat, then fourth in his repechage heat.

Sailing
Tornado
Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree (USA) were 12th and 7th in races 2 and 3.
Star
John Dane III and Austin Sperry (USA) were 2nd and 4th in their races today.
Laser
Andrew Campbell (USA) was 32nd in his race today.
470
Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl (USA) were first, sixth, and twenty-third today.
49er
Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast (USA) were third and fourth.

Beach Volleyball
Dalhausser/Rogers (USA) v. Laciga/Schnider (SUI) went to three sets and USA came away with the win after some tough sets. Gibb/Rosenthal also advance with a win over Herrera/Mesa (Spain).

Gymnastics-Trampoline
Chris Estrada (USA) was fabulous, he finished 15th.

Boxing
75kg
Shawn Estrada (USA) falls to James Degale (GBR).
48kg
Luis Yanez (USA) loses his bout.

Shooting
25m Rapid Fire Pistol
Keith Sanderson (USA) was 5th.
Skeet
Victory for Vincent Hancock (USA) who shot for Gold making an Olympic Record! Randal McLelland (USA) was 11th.

Tennis
Singles
James Blake (USA) fell to Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the Bronze Medal match. James put up a good fight.
Doubles
Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan (USA) win the Bronze over Clement/Llodra (FRA). Yea guys!

Swimming
100m Fly Final
Michael Phelps (USA) won the Gold in a just amazing race, he won over Silver Medalist Milorad Cavic (SRB) in .01 seconds, this is another one you should watch on the Internet if you didn't see it! Ian Crocker (USA) was fourth missing out on the Bronze by, yes you guessed it, .01. The Serbian team filed a protest about the results of the race, the FINA technical committee looked at the overhead and has determined that the results are correct.
50m Free Final
Cesar Cielo Filho (BRA) wins Gold, France goes 2-3 (Leveaux/Bernard), Ben Wildman-Tobriner (USA) was 5th.

Volleyball
USA defeats China.

Athletics
20km Walk
Kevin Eastler (USA) was 43rd, Chris Erickson (AUS) and Takayuki Tanii (JPN) were DQ'd. Borchin (RUS) walked to the Gold, Jefferson Perez of Ecuador (Gold Medalist in 1996) sped it up to get the Silver and Tallent (AUS) got the Bronze.
100m Final
The fastest man in the world race featured 2 men from Trindad and Tobago, 2 Americans, 3 Jamaicans and one guy from the Netherlands Antilles. Usain Bolt (JAM) was amazing and walked away in his Gold shoes with his Gold Medal, he set a World Record 9.69, Richard Thompson (TRI) Silver, Walter Dix (USA) Bronze, Churandy Martina (AHO) 4th, Asafa Powell (JAM) 5th, Michael Frater (JAM) 6th, Marc Burns (TRI) 7th, and Darvis Patton (USA) 8th.

Rowing-Pair
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (USA) were 6th.

Basketball
USA crushes Spain 119-82.

Really, that's all they could show us?

2008-08-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

Seriously, did we really need to see pretty much the whole women's marathon? I'm so tired, this is just not holding my interest. Especially since the Romanian lady was so far out in front. Could we not see, I don't know: Athletics, Baseball, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Cycling-Track, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Gymnastics-Trampoline, Handball, Hockey, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Weightlifing, Water Polo or Wrestling, all of which were competition areas today.

I know some of these things were on the earlier broadcast and that they showed some yesterday and that more was to come. But seriously, why not just have a program that was just the marathon so those of us who didn't want to see it could watch something else.

I hate spoilers!

2008-08-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

What is with AOL and other major internet news sites with time sensitive Olympic news on their splash page? Seriously all of us want to know what's going on with the Olympics that's why we watch it on TV, if we really need to know the results before we see them on TV we can go to the Beijing Games website. I'm tired of things getting spoiled for me simply because I want to use the internet.

Why can't they just make a link to click on for the most recent Olympics news? Why can't they have different pages for different time zones? Why can't they let you opt out of Olympics news? The Olympics are not breaking news like a major fire in your area or earthquake or other natural disaster.

Selected Results for Friday, August 15th

2008-08-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

Women

Beach Volleyball
May-Treanor/Walsh (USA) face a tough Belgium team, they took the first set 25-23. They made quick work of the second taking it 25-10. Branagh/Youngs win in 2 sets over Cuba's Fernandez Grasset/Larrea Peraza.

Gymnastics-All-Around
First Rotation
Shawn Johnson (USA) 2nd .100 behind, Nastia Liukin (USA) 10th .950 behind.
Second Rotation
Nastia Liukin (USA) 2nd .225 behind, Shawn Johnson (USA) 5th .750 behind.
Third Rotation
Nastia Liukin (USA) 1st, Shawn Johnson (USA) 3rd .600 behind.
Final Results
Nastia Liukin (USA) takes home the Gold Medal! Nastia's father, Valeri, is also an Olympic Gold Medalist in Gynastics. Shawn Johnson (USA) wins the Silver Medal at .600 points behind Nastia. This is the first time in Women's Gymnastic All-Around that the US has gone one-two. Yang Yilin of China rests in the Bronze spot at .075 behind Shawn. Gold was not China's color tonight! 33 year old Oksana Chusovitina (GER) was 9th. Anna Pavlova (RUS) had a beautiful floor exercise; Ksenia Smenova (RUS) also had a spritly routine, the music and her actions were sychronized wonderfully.

Cycling Track-Individual Pursuit
Sarah Hammer (USA) moves on.

Rowing-Lightweight Double Sculls
USA fails to advance to the finals.

Volleyball
USA and China battled it out. 23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11. Team USA just wore them down.

Basketball
Team USA dunks Spain 93-55.

Diving-3m Springboard
Nancilea Foster and Christina Loukas both of the USA advance to the next phase of competition.

Swimming
100m Free Finals
Libby Trickett (AUS) who made her way to the finals due to a Chinese swimming being DQ'd was beat out by Brutta Steffen (GER) who takes the Gold. Natalie Coughlin (USA) took Bronze.
200m Breast Finals
Rebecca Soni (USA) swims in World Record time to claim the Gold and make "Lethal" Leisal Jones (AUS) take Silver, Bronze medal for Sara Nordenstam (NOR). This is Norway's second swimming medal ever.
200m Back Semis
Elizabeth Beisel (USA) wins her heat, Laure Manaudou (FRA) finishes a disappointing last in her heat and does not advance, Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) wins her heat, Margaret Hoelzer (USA) finishes third in her heat and is able to advance.

Canoe/Kayak Slalom-K1
Heather Corrie (USA) was 8th.

Football-Quarterfinals
USA takes down Canada 2-1.

Softball
USA wins over Canada 8-1.

Athletics-10,000m
Shalane Flanagan (USA) captures the Bronze! Kara Goucher (USA) was 10th with a new personal best, Amy Begley-Yoder (USA) was 26th. Good job ladies!

Table Tennis
USA wins the Bronze Play-off Round 1 against Romania.

Water Polo
USA dominates the Russian Federation 12-7.

Men

Athletics
Shot Put
Christian Cantwell (USA) earns the first Athletics medal with a Silver. Reese Hoffa (USA) was 7th, Adam Nelson (USA) had no mark.
100m
Tyson Gay, Walter Dix and Darvis Patton all of the USA all advance.

Cycling Track
Team Sprint
Great Britain wins Gold, Team USA finished last.
Individual Pursuit
Taylor Phinney (USA) moves on.

Shooting-50m Rifle Prone
Matthew Emmons (USA) scores the Silver medal. Michael Anti (USA) was 9th.

Weightlifting-85kg
Lu Yong (CHN) wins Gold, USA's Kendrick Farris was 8th.

Archery
Victor Wunderle (USA) defeats Dong-Hyun Im (KOR) then loses to Juan Serrano (MEX) in the Quarterfinals.

Rowing
Lightweight Four Semifinals
USA fails to advance to the finals.
Quadruple Sculls Semifinals
Team USA advances to the finals, congrats to Matthew Hughes, Sam Stitt, Jamie Schroeder and Scott Gault.

Judo-100kg
Daniel McCormick (USA) won his first bout, lost the second and entered the repechage.

Swimming
50m Free Semis
Team USA: Garrett Weber-Gale fails to advance, Ben Wildman-Tobriner advances to the final.
200m Back Finals
Ryan Lochte (USA) scoops up the Gold, Aaron Peirsol (USA) takes the Silver and Arkady Vyatchanin (RUS) who won his spot easily in a swim off lead early but finishes with the Bronze.
200m IM Finals
Michael Phelps (USA) takes another Gold in World Record time, Laszio Cseh (HUN) who challenged Phelps in the Breaststroke finishes with the Silver, Ryan Lochte (USA) grabs the Bronze. Ryan is awesome, he swam in the 200m Back Finals less than 30 minutes before.
100m Fly Semi
Michael Phelps (USA) was able to pour it on in his second lap to win his heat. Ian Crocker (USA) finishes second in his heat.

Boxing-57kg
Khedafi Djelkhir (FRA) defeats Raynell Williams (USA).

Baseball
Cuba beats Team USA 5-4.

Dude!

2008-08-15T00:33:00.001-07:00

Seriously, I didn't realize I went four months without making a post on my blog. That's crazy! I went to all the trouble of making 3 posts two months in a row then nothing. Oh well, I'm on a roll now.

So I think something is wrong with my arm. Mostly it's that my left arm is too fat, and no I'm not one of those women who think I'm fat when I'm thin or a little overweight, I'm fat! So a sort of, well I don't know what I would call it. It's like someone tied something around the middle of my upper arm and it's compressed a little there. But that's not my problem, my problem is that the skin that's there really hurts. I think it's just getting stretched too far, but it sure is annoying.

Selected Results from Thursday, August 14th

2008-08-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

Women

Beach Volleyball
May-Treanor/Walsh (USA) defeat the Norway team.

Archery
Khatuna Lorig (USA) defeated Ana Maria Rendon (COL) and then lost to Ok-Hee Yun (KOR) in the Quarterfinals. You looked good out there Khatuna!

Table Tennis-Team
Nigeria loses to the United States.

Swimming
4x200 Free Relay Final
The Americans won this race in 1996, 2000, and 2004. In 2008 they have to settle for the Bronze, Australia takes the Gold and China the Silver.
200m Fly Final
China goes one-two! Zige Liu for Gold, Liuyang Jiao for Silver, Australia's Jessicah Schipper settles for Bronze. USA's Elaine Breeden was 7th and Kathleen Hersey was 8th.
100m Free Semi
Team USA's Natalie Coughlin advances to the finals, Lacey Nymeyer does not.

Fencing-Team Sabre
USA dispatches South Africa then lost to Ukraine in the Semifinal. USA advanced to the Bronze Medal match where they outtouched France 45-38. Becca Ward had 18 points, Sada Jacobson 14 and Mariel 13. This was Sada's last match, she is set to retire after the Games. Ukraine went on to win the Gold Medal over China, 45-44. Ukraine was a slow starter garnering only 15 points after 5 rounds, Olga Kharlan came on strong with 12 points in her second up to bring it to 27-30. After Olha Zhovnir had zero touches, Olga and Olena Khomrova were able to add 9 points each to win it.

Hockey
USA falls to Germany 2-4.

Shooting
Skeet
Chiara Cainero (ITA) wins the Gold, Kimberly Rhode (USA) shoots and gets the Silver, Christine Brinker of Germany takes the Bronze.
50m Rifle
Jamie Beyerle (USA) was 5th, Sandra Fong (USA) 21st, Li Du (CHN) took Gold.

Tennis-Singles
The Williams sisters (USA) are out of the competition.

Men

Tennis
Singles
James Blake (USA) upsets Roger Federer (SUI) and moves to the Semifinals.
Doubles
Mike and Bob Bryan (USA) take down Guccione/Hewitt (AUS) and advance to the Semifinals.

Judo-100kg
Amel Mekic of Bosnia-Herzegov wins Adler Volmar of the United States.

Boxing-69kg
Andrey Balanov (RUS) is defeated by Demetrius Andrade (USA).

Swimming
200m Breast Finals
Kitajima of Japan takes the Gold with a new Olympic Record. Scott Spann (USA) was sixth.
100m Free Finals
Lezak's (USA) first individual medal is bronze!
200m Back Semifinals
USA's Peirsol and Lochte both won their heats and will move on to the finals.
200m IM Semifinals
USA's Phelps and Lochte advance to the finals.
200m IM Heats
Michael Phelps (USA) wins his heat, he and Ryan Lochte (USA) advance to the semis.

Volleyball
Team USA wins over Bulgaria.

Beach Volleyball
Bigg/Rosenthal (USA) win it in two sets over Japan's Asahi/Shiratori.

Gymnastics-All-Around
The commentators said the Pommel Horse was like Waterloo. People were falling off, not getting momentum. It was bad. Poor Hiroyuki Tomita of Japan fell off the rings, horrible fall but he walked away from it. People were just falling and stepping out of bounds and double hopping all over the place. Wei Yang (CHN) took Gold, Kohei Uchimura (JPN) Silver, Benoit Caranobe (FRA) Bronze. Jonathan Horton (USA) was ninth, Alexander Artemev (USA) was 12th.

Wrestling
84kg
Brad Vering (USA) wins his first bout of the day and falls in the second to Denis Forov of Armenia.
96kg
Adam Wheeler wins over Lajos Virag (HUN) and Huachen Jiang (CHN), then loses to Mirko Englich (GER) in the Semifinals. Adam advances to the Bronze medal match where he beats Tae-Young Han to take the Bronze! Yea Adam!
120kg
Dremiel Byers (USA) wins his first and second bout of the day. He then lost to Jalmar Sjoberg (SWE) in the Quarterfinals.

Baseball
USA takes it home seven-zip over the Netherlands.

Water Polo
USA falls to Serbia 2-4.

Basketball
USA faces Greece and wins it!

Mixed

Equestrian-Dressage Team Grand Prix
Germany claims it's 7th straight Gold medal in this event, Netherlands rides to Silver, Denmark trotted into the Bronze. USA was fourth missing the medals by .472 points, Debbie McDonald on Brentina had a bit of a rough ride, only 4 riders in the top 10 teams finished below her.

I love my DVR!

2008-08-14T00:03:00.001-07:00

I got a DVR with my u-verse (cable and internet) service from AT&T, it's built in to the cable box. Initially I wasn't that excited, but I can tape up to 4 shows at once, which I thought I would never use, but I underestimated the amount of Olympics coverage NBC was showing. I've been able to record the shows that are on in the middle of the night and then watch them the next day. (No, despite the fact that I just moved a week and a half ago I have nothing better to do. Why would I unpack boxes when I could watch the Olympics?) I've been able to see all sorts of coverage, Rowing, Badminton, Cycling, an awesome Volleyball match between China and Cuba. Plus there's still more Olympics to come, a whole 10 more days!

So, I'm very happy with my DVR/cable box. Don't ask about my phone service with AT&T though, that's a complete disaster.

Selected results from Wednesday, August 13th

2008-08-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Women

Judo-70kg
Ronda Rousey (USA) wins Nasiba Surkieva of Turkmenistan and Katarzyna Pilocik of Poland. Ronda then lost to Edith Bosch of the Netherlands who took the Gold. She entered the repechage and defeated Rachida Ouerdane and Anett Meszaros to get to the Bronze medal match where she defeated Annett Boehm of Germany to take the Bronze!

Cycling-Time Trial
Kristin Armstrong (USA) races to the Gold! Emma Pooley (GBR) with the Silver and Karin Thurig (Switzerland) takes the Bronze. USA's other rider Christine Thorburn was fifth.

Beach Volleyball
Branagh/Youngs (USA) take on Cuba and win.

Rowing-Single Sculls
Michelle Guerette moves on to the finals.

Volleyball
China took the first two sets over Cuba 25-18 and 25-14, the third set was a battle to the finish with Cuba taking it 25-23. A back and forth fourth set went to 32-30 with Cuba tying it up with another set win. Cuba wins the fifth set 15-13, what a game! USA triumphs over Venezuela 3-1.

Table Tennis
Singapore defeats USA, USA defeats Netherlands.

Shooting-25m Pistol Final
Ying Chen (CHN) takes Gold, Gundegmaa Otryad (Mongolia) Silver, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren (GER) the Bronze. Elizabeth Callahan (USA) was 25th, Rebecca Snyder (USA) was 28th

Swimming
200m Free Final
Gold Federica Pellegrini (ITA), Silver to Sara Isakovic of Slovenia, Bronze to China, Katie Hoff (USA) was fourth.
200m IM Final
Stephanie Rice (AUS) takes the Gold, Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) has the Silver, Natalie Coughlin (USA) wins Bronze, Katie Hoff (USA) finishes fourth.
100m Free Heats
Lacey Nymeyer (USA) and Natalie Coughlin (USA) advance to the semis.

Basketball
USA crushes Mali 97-41. Two more games remain in the prelim round for Group B.

Tennis
Singles
Serena Williams (USA) wins over Alize Cornet (FRA). Venus Williams (USA) takes down Victoria Azarenka (Belarus).
Doubles
Azarenka/Poutchek (Belarus) lose to Davenport/Huber (USA).

Fencing-Epee
Kelley Hurley (USA) loses to Jung (KOR).

Softball
USA blanks Australia 3-0, Osterman threw a no hitter, no hits, 13 strikes, 2 walks.

Weightlifting-69kg
Liu Chunhong (CHN) wins Gold.

Canoe Kayak Slalom-K1
Heather Corrie (USA) advances out of the heats and into the semifinals.

Water Polo
USA and Italy tie 9-9.

Gymnastics
Gold to China, followed by the US for Silver and Romania claims the Bronze.

Men

Beach Volleyball
USA's Rogers/Dalhausser survive to play another day.

Rowing
Single Sculls
Ken Jurkowski (USA) fails to advance to the finals.
Pair
USA takes second in their heat after a great sprint, the twin Winklevoss', Tyler and Cameron, make it to the finals.
Four
David Banks, Paul Teti, Giuseppe Lanzone and Brett Newlin (USA) fail to advance to Final A.

Canoe Kayak Slalom-C2
Rick Powell and Casey Eichfeld (USA) were tenth after their first run. On their second run they missed a gate and finished 11th, only the top 10 advanced.

Soccer
Team USA tries to clench the quarterfinal berth in their game against Nigeria. In the fourth minute Michael Orozco throws an elbow into a Nigerian's chest and is red carded. Team USA played the rest of the match with 10 people. Team USA failed to capitalize on most of their scoring opportunities. Nigeria scores at 39 and 79 USA scores on a penalty kick at 88 and goes on to lose 2-1. Team USA fails to advance to the quarterfinals. Netherlands beats Japan 1-0. Brazil, Cameroon, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, Netherlands, Nigeria and Cote d' Ivoire advance to the Quarterfinals.

Judo-90kg
Brian Olson (USA) loses.

Fencing-Foil
Gerek Meinhardt (USA) is victorious over Mostafa Nagaty of Egypt and then is defeated by Jun Ahu (CHN).

Wrestling
66kg
18 year old Jake Deitchler (USA) is the first high school student to make the USA wrestling team since 1976 recieved a bye in the first round in a blind draw and then lost to Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan.
74kg
TC Dantzler (USA) in his first Olympic Games at the age of 37 faced Peter Bacsi (HUN), first period went to Peter, the second to TC, the third to Peter who advances.

Archery
Brady Ellison (USA) defeats John David Burnes (CAN), then loses to Jay Lyon (CAN). Richard Johnson (USA) wins over Andrey Abramov (RUS) then falls to Dong-Hyun Im (KOR). Victor Wunderle (USA) wins his first two rounds.

Tennis
Singles
James Blake (USA) defeats Gilles Simon (FRA).
Doubles
Bob and Mike Bryan (USA) defeat Knowle/Melzer (AUS).

Diving-Synchronised 3m Springboard
Wang/Qin (CHN) Gold, Silver for Sautin/Kunakov (Russian Federation), Kvasha/Prygorov (Ukraine) take the Bronze, Americans Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino finish 4.32 points behind the Bronze medalists to take fourth.

Boxing
48kg
Luis Yanez (USA) wins 12-9 over Jose Kelvin de la Nieve of Spain. Luis is a Gold medal favorite.
91kg
Deontay Wilder (USA) defeats Abdelaziz Touilbini of Algeria and moves to the Quarterfinals. Deontay has been boxing for less than three years, he wants to win the US's first heavyweight gold medal since 1988. Brad Pitt (AUS) loses to Arjaoui (MOR). Usyk (UKR) defeats Nijiati (CHN).

Swimming
200m Fly Finals
Michael Phelps wins the Gold with a World Record time.
4x200m Free Relay Finals
USA takes Gold in a World Record, Russian Federation Silver, Australia grabs the Bronze.
100m Free Semifinals
Lezak (USA) third in his semifinal heat, advances to the finals. Garrett Weber-Gale (USA) was fifth in his heat, he does not advance.
200m Breast Semis
Kitajima (JPN) and Scott Spann (USA) advance to the finals, Eric Shanteau (USA) finished 10th overall with a personal best but fails to advance to the finals.

Baseball
Team USA drops game 3 to Korea 7-8.

Cycling-Road Time Trials
Gold to Fabian Cancellara (SUI), Silver for Sweden's Gustav Larsson, and Bronze for Levi Leipheimer of the USA who focused all his attention for this year on this race. USA's David Zabriskie was 12th.

Sailing-49er
Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast (USA) take first in race 7, 8 and 9.

Badmintion
Howard and Bob (USA) lose to Cai/Fu (CHN), they put up a good fight but fail to advance to the semifinals.

Mixed

Equestrian-Dressage Individual
Courtney King on Mythilus (USA) is 4th.

Selected Results from Tuesday, August 12th

2008-08-13T01:03:00.000-07:00

Women

Beach Volleyball
May-Treanor/Walsh (USA) dispatch Cuba (Grasset/Peraza).

Diving-Synchronised 10m Platform
China wins Gold, Australia Silver and Mexico takes the Bronze, this is Mexico's first diving medal. Team USA finishes 5th.

Swimming
200m Fly Heats
Kathleen Hersey (USA) first in her heat, Elaine Breedan (USA) was fourth both advance to the semifinals.
100m Back Final
Natalie Coughlin (USA) takes Gold, Silver to Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) and Bronze for USA's Margaret Hoelzer.
100m Breast Final
World and Olympic record holder Leisel Jones of Australia takes Gold, Rebecca Soni (USA) Silver, Mirna Jukic (AUT) Bronze, Megan Jendrick (USA) 5th.

Hockey
USA v. Japan in a hard fought battle the teams tied 1-1.

Softball
USA crushes Venezuela 11-0.

Archery
Khatuna Lorig (USA) defeats Virginia Arnold (FRA) and Alison Williamson (GBR), she moves on to tomorrows event. Jennifer Nichols (USA) defeats Ika Yuliana Rochmawati of Indonesia and then loses to Nami Hayakawa of Japan.

Sailing
Laser Radial
Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) 4th in Race One, 5th in Race Two.
RS:X
Nancy Rios (USA) 22nd in Race Three, 26th in Race Four.
470
Amanda Clark and Sara Mergenthaler (USA) finish 10th and 14th.

Weightlifting-63kg
USA's Natalie Woolfolk takes 12th and Carissa Gump 14th.

Football
USA defeats New Zealand 4-0.

Rowing
Lightweight Women's Double Sculls
Renee Hykel and Jen Goldsack (USA) win their heat in the repechage and move to the semifinals.
Quadruple Sculls
Lia Pernell, Lindsay Meyer, Jen Kaido and Margot Shumway (USA) finish second in their repechage final and move to the finals.
Pair
Portia McGee and Anne Cummins (USA) finish 3rd in their repechage heat and will battle for 7th-12th place overall.

Men

Boxing-51kg
Oksung Lee of Korea defeats Rau'shee Warren (USA). Rau'shee is the reigning world champion.

Swimming
100 Free Heats
Jason Lezak (USA) 4th in his heat, Garrett Weber-Gale (USA) 2nd in his heat, both advance to the semifinals.
200m Breast Heats
Scott Spann (USA) 2nd in his heat, Eric Shanteau (USA) who has testicular cancer (and his dad has lung cancer) was second in his heat, both advance to the semifinals.
4x200 Free Relay Heats
USA sets a new Olympic record and advances to the finals.
200m Free Finals
Michael Phelps (USA) Gold, Taehwan Park (KOR) Silver, Peter Vanderkaay (USA) Bronze.
100m Back Final
America goes one-two with Aaron Peirsol claiming the Gold and Matt Grevers taking the Silver.

Rowing
Eight
Team USA moves to the finals.
Lightweight Four
Mike Altman, Patrick Todd, Will Daly and Tom Paradiso finish third in their heat and move to the finals.

Water Polo
USA beats Italy 12-11.

Sailing
Laser
Andrew Campbell (USA) is 14th in Race One, 18th in Race Two.
470
Stuart McNay and Graham Biehl (USA) are 17th in Race Four.
RS:X
Benjamin Barger (USA) 24th and 26th.

Shooting
50m Pistol
Daryl Szarenski (USA) 14th, Jason Turner (USA) 21st.
Double Trap
Army man Walton Eller of the USA takes the Gold! Jeffrey Holguin (USA) was fourth.

Gymnastics-Team Final
China takes home the Gold medal, Japan the Silver and Team USA captures the Bronze.

Badmition-Doubles
Bob Malaythong/Howard Bach (USA) beat the Dednam team from South Africa.

Judo-81kg
Travis Stevens (USA) beat his first opponent and lost to his second.

Beach Volleyball
China (Xu/Wu) defeats Estonia (Kais/Vesik) in a tough match. Gibb/Rosenthal (USA) battled it out with Brink/Deickmann (GER) to win in two sets 21-15, 21-13.

Fencing-Sabre
Jason Rogers (USA) wins his first round then drops his second to Team USA teammate Keeth Smart who had a bye in the first round. Tim Morehouse (USA) who also had a bye in the first round lost to Boris Sanson of France 12-15. After Keeth's win over Jason he went on to defeat Aron Szilagyi of Hungary in the Quarterfinals he lost to Julien Pillet (FRA) 13-15.

Basketball
USA beats Angola 97-76.

Canoe/Kayak
Slalom Canoe Single
Benn Fraker (USA) finished 6th!
Kayak
Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo brings home the Bronze, this is Togo's first Olympic medal.

Volleyball
Another defeat of Italy by America today!

Wrestling-55kg
Spenser Mango (USA) wins his first bout then loses his second.

Mixed

Equestrian
Eventing Team Jumping Final
Germany takes the Gold, Australia the Silver, and Great Britain the Bronze. Team USA finished seventh.
Eventing Jumping Final
Hinrich Romeike of Germany takes the Gold, Gina Miles (USA) riding McKinlaigh wins the Silver and Kristina Cook of Great Britain has the Bronze. Other USA finishes Rebecca Holder 42nd, Karen O'Connor 44th.

Men's Gymnastics Coverage Sucked!

2008-08-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, NBC's coverage of the Men's Gymnastics Team Finals sucked. Talk, talk, talk is all they did! People tuned in to see the athletes, not listen to a bunch of blowhards pontificate on China's dominance, USA's surprising performance and wonder why everyone on Japan's team seems to be out of their minds. At the very least could we possibly see someone from each team do each appartous? Instead we are interrupted with swimming heats and shots of China fixing the parallel bars. Then we are told how unexciting China's high bar routines are but we see them anyways!

Selected results from Monday, August 11th

2008-08-12T00:46:00.000-07:00

Women

Basketball
China and Team USA face off and Team USA comes away with the win 108-63. Tina Thompson was the high scorer for Team USA putting in 27 points. Australia beats Brazil 80-65.

Fencing-Foil
Team USA: First Round-Hanna Thompson wins over Anissa Khelfaoui (Algeria) 11-2. Erinn Smart wins 15-7 over Martina Emanuel (GBR). Emily Cross had a bye. Second Round-Hanna lost to Carolin Golubytskyi (GER) 5-13, Erinn lost to Corinne Maitrejean (FRA), Emily lost to Wanwen Su of China. Italian Valentina Vezzali won her third consecutive Olympic Gold, that is a new Olympic record. Seven time Olympic medalist Trillini finished fourth.

Beach Volleyball
Branagh/Youngs (USA) take 2 sets over Pohl/Rau (GER) 21-17, 21-16.

Shooting-Trap
Corey Cogdell (USA) takes home the Bronze medal!

Volleyball
Team USA loses to Cuba. China beat Poland in three sets.

Swimming
100m Fly Final
Lisbeth Trickett and Jessicah Schipper both of Australia were first and third. Christine Magnuson (USA) took the Silver.
400m Free Final
Rebecca Adlington (GBR) Gold, Katie Hoff (USA) Silver, Joanne Jackson (GBR) Bronze.

Judo-57kg
Valerie Gotay (USA) over Gulzat Uralbayeva of Kazakhstan, then lost to Isabel Fernandez of Spain.

Tennis
Team USA results: Serena Williams beats Olga Govortsova (Belarus), Venus Williams wins over Timea Bacsinszky (SUI), Jill Craybas lost to Patty Schnyder (USA).

Water Polo
In a back and forth game between China and Team USA, Team USA emerges victorious with a 12-11 win.

Men

Badminton
Raju Rai (USA) lost to Ville Lang (FIN).

Tennis
Singles
Sam Querrey (USA) lost to Igor Andreev (Russian Federation), Robby Ginepri (USA) lost to Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Roger Federer (SUI) defeats Dmitry Tursunov (Russian Federation).
Doubles
Sam Querrey and James Blake (USA) lost to Andreev/Davydenko of the Russian Federation.

Beach Volleyball
Dalhausser/Rogers (USA) after a loss to Latvia win their first set 21-15, the second set 21-10 over Heuscher/Heyer (SUI).

Swimming
100m Breast Final
Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) repeats his Gold medal performance from 2004. Alexander Dale Oen brings home the Silver and Norway's first swimming medal. Brendan Hansen (USA) was fourth, Mark Gangloff (USA) was eighth.
4x100m Free Relay
In case you haven't heard, Team USA took the Gold in an amazing race. I highly recommend watching the race on nbcolympics.com if you didn't see it. France took the Silver, Australia the Bronze, Italy was 4th, Sweden 5th, Canada 6th, South Africa 7th (they took the Gold in 2004), and Great Britain 8th.

Shooting-10m Air Rifle
Jason Parker (USA) 23rd, Stephen Scherer (USA) 27th.

Boxing
57kg
Raynell Williams (USA) defeats Alessio di Savino of Italy.
60kg
Georgian Popescu of Romania beats Sadam Ali (USA).

Judo-73kg
Dashdavaa Gantumur of Mongolia beat Ryan Reser (USA).

I am not obsessed!

2008-08-11T21:21:00.001-07:00

Seriously, I'm not, I don't care what my husband thinks. Besides, I did not spend all day glued to the TV, I put the Alden Family Gazette out and set up my organizational system for our new desk. I also went to Girl Scouts and tried to make the bookcase not top heavy.

Selected Results from Sunday, August 10th

2008-08-11T00:15:00.000-07:00

Women

Cycling-Road Race
Kristin Armstrong (USA) 25th, Amber Neben (USA) 33rd, Christine Thorburn (USA) was 52nd. Gold-Nicole Cooke of Great Britain, Silver to Emma Johansson of Sweden, Bronze for Italy's Tatiana Guderzo.

Archery-Team
South Korea wins Gold, China Silver and France Bronze. South Korean women have won every team competition since it began in 1988.

Shooting-10m Air Pistol
Brenda Shinn (USA) finishes 37th, Rebecca Snyder (USA) was 41st.

Swimming
400m IM
Gold goes to Stephanie Rice of Australia who set a new Olympic and World record. Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) takes the Silver, Bronze to Katie Hoff (USA), Elizabeth Beisel (USA) was fourth.
4x100m Free Relay
Gold awarded to the Dutch who set an Olympic Record, Silver for Team USA and Bronze for Australia.

Diving - Synchronised 3m Springboard
China wins Gold, Russian Federation Silver, Germany Bronze, American's Kelci Bryant and Ariel Rittenhouse were fourth.

Badminton-Doubles
Jiang/Li of Singapore beat USA's Mesinee Mangkalakiri and Eva Lee.

Sailing-Yngling
Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Deborah Capozzi (USA) eighth in race three, fifth in race four.

Beach Volleyball
Misty and Kerri win over Japan's team.

Gymnastics
USA and China qualify for Team Finals. 33 year old Oksana Chusovitina of Germany has qualified for the All Around. Team USA qualifies Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin for the All-Around.

Weightlifting-53kg
Miss Jaroenrattanatarakoon of Thailand won the Gold, Melanie Roach (USA) finished sixth.

Rowing
Lightweight Double Sculls
Renee Hykel and Jen Goldsack (USA) are third in their heat and enter the repechage.
Quadruple Sculls
Lia Pernell, Lindsay Meyer, Jen Kaido, and Margot Shumway (USA) were third in their heat and enter the repechage.

Hockey
Argentina and USA tie.

Men

Fencing-Epee
Weston Kelsey (USA) lost to Fabrice Jeannet of France. Fabrice went on to win the Silver medal.

Volleyball
USA beats Venezuela 3-2. 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-10.

Football
The Dutch and Team USA tied 2-2 today.

Water Polo
Team USA crushes China 8-4.

Judo-66kg
Taylor Takata (USA) beats Tariel Zintiridis (GRE) and Dex Elmont (NED), then lost to Yordanis Arencibia of Cuba and to Aheen El Hady of Egypt in the Repechage.

Shooting-Trap
USA finishes 22nd, Bret Erickson, and 23rd, Dominic Grazioli.

Sailing
49er
Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast (USA) were 5th in the first race, 14th in the second, 15th in the third.
Finn
Zach Railey (USA) 2nd in races three and four.

Swimming
400m IM
Gold-Michael Phelps (USA) with a world and Olympic record, Silver-Laszlo Cseh of Hungary, Bronze-Ryan Lochte (USA).
400m Free
Taehwan Park of Korea brings home his and his country's first Gold medal in swimming. Lin Zhang of China won the Silver, which was the first medal ever in swimming for China. The American's Larsen Jensen won the Bronze and Peter Vanderkaay was fourth. Oussama Mellouli of Tunsia was fifth.
100m Breast Semifinals
Mark Gangloff and Brendan Hansen of Team USA both finished third in their heat and make the finals. Kitajima of Japan also advances.
4x100m Free Relay
France advances and says they'll crush the Americans.

Boxing
64kg
Javier Molina (USA) lost to Boris Georgiev of Bulgaria.
69kg
Demetrius Andrade (USA) wins over Kakhaber Jvania of Georgia.

Beach Volleyball
Gibb/Rosenthal (USA) defeats Boersma E./Ronnes (NED) 2-0.

Basketball
USA 101 to China 70.

Weightlifing-56kg
Qingguan Long of China won the Gold.

Tennis-Singles
James Blake (USA) wins.

Mixed

Equestrian
Eventing Individual Dressage - Day 2
Team USA-Rebecca Holder riding Courageous Comet in 5th, Gina Miles riding McKinlaigh in 10th, Phillip Dutton on Connaught in 14th, Karen O'Connor in 16th, Amy Tryon 24th.
Eventing Team Dressage - Day 2
Australia first, Germany second, USA third, Great Britain fourth.

Olympic Results for Saturday, August 9th

2008-08-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

First of all I'm slightly annoyed because NBC is showing things "live" here on the West Coast, are they incapable of changing the graphics? Also these live things are happening on Sunday. I'd really like to know what's happening on Saturday, however I suppose they want to report first before the newspapers. It's actually not that horrible, I just a bit of a lead up!

Jason thinks Michael Phelps looks like Eli Manning. Weigh in!

Women

Fencing-Sabre
USA sweeps the medals! Mariel Zagunis (6th seed) defended her Gold medal from 2004 and walked away with another one today, Silver medalist Sada Jacobson (1st seed and Bronze medalist from Athens), Bronze medalist Becca Ward (2nd seed). Excellent job ladies with tough fought victories! This is only the second time this event has been contested at the Olympics.

Judo-48kg
Sayaka Matsumoto (USA) lost to Ryoko Tani (Japan) and Shugen Wu of China.

Shooting-10m Air Rifle
Jamie Beyerle (USA) 4th place, Emily Caruso (USA) 15th.

Weightlifting-48kg
Gold for Xiexia Chen of China, Silver to Sibel Ozkan of Turkey, Bronze earned by Wei-Ling Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Beach Volleyball
Branagh/Youngs (USA) battled it out in the second set to win against R.Kadijk/Mooren of the Netherlands 21-19 and 27-25.

Swimming
100m Fly
Elaine Breeden and Christine Magnuson of the USA advance to the semifinals.
4x100m Free Relay
Advancing to the finals: Canada, USA (2004 Silver Medalists), France, China (top finisher!), Germany, Australia (2004 Gold Medalists), Netherlands, and Great Britain.
400m IM
Stephanie Rice (Australia), Katie Hoff (USA), and Elizabeth Beisel (USA) advance to the finals.

Men

Beach Volleyball
Rogers/Dalhausser (USA) lost to Samoilovs/Plavins of Latvia in two sets.

Cycling-Road Race
Levi Leipheimer top American finisher in 11th, Christian Vande Velde (USA) 17th, George Hincapie (USA) 40th.Jason McCartney (USA) and David Zabriskie (USA) did not finish the race. Gold-Samuel Sanchez of Spain Silver-Davide Rebellin of Italy Bronze-Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland

Judo-60kg
Taraje Williams-Murray (USA) defeated Hiroaki Hiraoka (Japan) then lost to Javier Antonio Guedez Sanchez of Venezuela.

Shooting
Trap
After the first day of qualifications: Dominic Grazioli (USA) 16th, Bret Erickson (USA) 31st.
10m Air Pistol
Jason Turner (USA) finished 4th, Brian Beaman (USA) was 5th. Good job guys!

Gymnastics
USA Team advances to the Team Finals. Jonathan Horton and Alexander (Sasha) Artemev both of Team USA advance in the All-Around. Jonathan also advanced in the Horizontal Bar and Sasha in the Pommel Horse. Sasha was chosen to replace Morgan Hamm on Thursday. Way to go guys!

Swimming
400m IM
Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps both of the USA advance to the finals.
400m Free
Peter Vanderkaay and Larsen Jensen both of the USA advance to the finals.
100m Breast
Mark Gangloff and Brendan Hansen both of the USA advance to the Semifinals.

What happened before the Opening Ceremonies?

2008-08-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Women's Football-Norway beats USA 2-0
Men's Football-USA beats Japan 1-0
Men's Gymnastics-In case you haven't heard, both Morgan and Paul Hamm are out of the competition due to injuries.

Opening Ceremonies

2008-08-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

Here are my, of course, random thoughts on the Opening Ceremonies.

Loved the firework footprints, that was so awesome! Thought the inclusion of children representing the ethnic groups of China was important. When the light up guys made the National Stadium it was neat, but when they zoomed in and you could tell that they were standing on each other's shoulders, just wow!

The Parade of Nations-I hate NBC's failure to show all the countries. Early on in the parade they mention that for most of these athletes this is their best or only Olympic moment and they go on to mention that one country said please show us don't cut to commercial, yet they continue to skip and hurry through countries. Maybe they should just skip their half an hour of commentary at the beginning of their broadcast and show us all of the countries. By the way, what was up with the outfits of Hungary's women! They looked like someone threw up all over them, sorry ladies but they did you wrong. El Salvador picked their flag bearer by a text messaging vote!

Why are we focusing so much on NBA basketball players! Please there are other athletes out there just as deserving of our attention. Could we focus on the hard work and dedication it took for people to get there instead of who plays on what NBA team?

I thought the inclusion of a child hero from the earthquake was touching. Loved the torch lighting, very different and unique!

Olympic Fever!

2008-08-08T11:16:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been blogging. Why, because no one reads this. But that is all about to change! It is Olympics time! I love the Olympics, I used to write nightly updates on fool.com under the name mneakrase, but since I don't frequent that site currently I thought, why not write them on my blog. Not that I use this currently either, but I thought it'd be a nice outlet.

So, Pacific Standard Time over here and there will be no spoilers! I hate spoilers, I hate when big companies on the internet don't take into consideration the fact that multiple time zones exist across the world. I'd like to be able to browse the internet without being bombarded with pictures, breaking news and updated medal counts all for things that haven't yet been shown on tv in my time zone.

So, stay tuned for Olympics thoughts, as well as pre-season football. (I've picked the Niners for tonight!)

The Answering Machine

2008-03-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

I can't get my new answering machine message out of my head! We recorded it last night with all household members participating. It was inspired by the YouTube video starring the Potter Puppet Pals in "The Mysterious Ticking Noise". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

Dumbledore!

I've always loved having funny messages on my answering machine. I've had the theme song from COPS, tons of singing versions. When I was in high school and learning to drive my sister made one about how we were in the hospital due to my "bad driving", unfortunately Mom made us erase that one after some slow witted person heard it and then left a message saying she was going to activate the Statewide prayer chain and that she hoped we'd recover soon. I mean seriously, if that really happened why would we be telling people on the answering machine?

Dumbledore!

I don't think anyone reads this

2008-03-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

I mean, it's just me talking away infrequently. I don't have anything cute or witty or funny to say. It really is a random mess. So, if no one reads this how am I to become famous? See, that's one of my little secret things. I want to write a blog where no one knows it's me and have it be famous. People would read my blog and make comments and talk about it. Then maybe one day I'd overhear some people talking about my blog or someone would tell me about how cool my own blog is without even knowing I write it! Dude!

I haven't even told people about my blog. I want it to be secretive, no not the blog itself, just secretive about who writes it. But how do I do that? Send out e-mails telling people about the cool blogs I read and have this be one of them? That's not going to work, they'll see how new it is and just assume I write it. Self-promotion sucks. I mean sometimes you have to self-promote or no one knows you're there, I just wish that it didn't apply to my blog.

I told my husband that I have a blog, but I wouldn't tell him where it was. I want him to find it on his own and somehow just realize it's mine. Besides, I might want to write nasty things about the people I know on here and it just wouldn't be cool if they knew I wrote it. Then they'd write nasty things about me on their blogs. But I don't personally know anyone who writes a blog so then again it might not be a problem. I wouldn't use people's real names. I would never write anything nasty or mean about my husband. Other family members, well . . . they wouldn't know, after all, it's not like I used their real names or anything. Besides, a lot of people in my family are named after each other, I could just say I was talking about the other Kathy or something.

What I found on the Internet - Part One

2008-03-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

So I've been searching the internet as I'm wont to do and I discovered a great group that is helping libraries. The name is great, Dewey Donation System! Unfortunately their annual Book Drive is over for the year, but that doesn't mean you can't help. Besides, the whole site is full of touching and hilarious writing! Brings tears of joy and laughter to your face.

Check it out at http://www.deweydonationsystem.org/!

I love pretzels!

2008-02-29T23:46:00.002-08:00

I love pretzels, I just finished eating some covered in white chocolate, yummy! I also love the square pretzels that are stuffed with peanut butter. Oh and if you haven't had the soft pretzel bread sticks at DisneyWorld (German restaurant and Cinderella's Castle) you are missing out!

Hobbies

2008-02-29T23:45:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I spent most of my free time looking at art conventions. Today I'm thinking a lot about hobbies. There are tons of hobbies out there! A few of my hobbies are Where's George? http://www.wheresgeorge.com/, Scrapbooking http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/ (my favorite site), Traveling (igougo.com) and Graving http://www.findagrave.com/ (my favorite site).

Other interesting hobbies (with some associated websites) Reading http://www.bookcrossing.com/, Puzzles http://www.jigzone.com/, Business Card collecting, Stamped/Squished design pennies, Coin/Bill Collecting, Board Games, Candlemaking, playing musical instruments (wouldn't it be super cool to have a music room with different instruments and record/CD players with all sorts of different music in it!), Cooking (I love to make themed ethnic cusine when watching The Amazing Race), I could go on and on.

Today I start my blog!

2008-02-28T16:18:00.000-08:00

That's it folks, I've started a blog. Will I come back later today and color in some spots? Tomorrow will I decide it's worthless and that no one wants to hear and delete it? Who knows-