Justine is coming back! Look out ladies. O_O

Tonight's table tennis session was good. I still get blown off the table by the top guys, but I won matches against several guys that I hadn't beaten yet. I'm seeing improvement in my shot consistency and also match play—figuring out the serve returns and the appropriate strategies against different opponents.

I'm having fun, win or lose, and am getting excellent cross-training workouts so that's what is great about this right now.

The men's b-ball team beat Duke today. Suck it dookies!

Michigan's new coach is doing some good work over there, that squad is on the rise. Now if Weber and Co. can get it together...

I have to find a recording of the opening ceremony, definitely want to watch the rippling box thing again. Based on past television coverage, I wasn't expecting much, so I've been pleasantly surprised at what I've seen so far. I guess we haven't had cable for the previous games; I really like that you can watch the non-marquee sports on the other channels. So far I've seen badminton and handball matches, which I thought I'd never see.

I'll be completely satisfied if I can see table tennis and some velodrome action. That gold medal sabre fencing girl was pretty annoying, but otherwise it hasn't been too crazy with the usual USA #1 bull. Phelps hype or not, I have to admit that I was really rooting for the men's 4x100 freestyle team. I only caught a little of the backstory about how the French were talking trash, so it was awesome to see the anchor surge in the last 25m to barely pull off the upset.

Seems like they've toned down the number of cheesy athlete profiles, which I think is great for coverage.

Wow. The last ten minutes of the match were crazy.

So the men's final match finished very quickly today and there are 3 hours left in the scheduled coverage. Rather than show tape of all the finals (doubles, mixed doubles, juniors) from this year, now they're showing Federer vs. Nadal from last year's Wimbledon. They actually didn't show any (or at least very little, not when I watched) doubles action on ESPN2 either over these last couple weeks. They could have easily shown tape, even late at night or early morning on ESPN, but instead you get hours of poker or whatever other bullshit.

This is really annoying and frustrating. I fully expect similar crappy coverage for the Olympics this year from whoever is broadcasting. We'll get several half hour specials on one gymnast's "road to glory" and not see one second of badminton, handball, velodrome, or any other "unimportant" sport. I'd be mildly satisfied with highlight reels of the other sports, but you seriously can't even get that, just hours and hours of athlete stories. Just put that stuff up on your stupid Web site, so viewers can get that whole "360 experience". I understand you want to get people into it with the personal side, I really get that, but the level to which they shove the stories down our throats is just too much.

If there's an Olympic cable package, we'll probably get it and just completely ignore the network coverage. I remember talking to a former coworker who lives in Vermont, and for the winter olympics he would just tune in to the Canadian stations for much better coverage.

We skipped going to BW3 to watch the game because we were both still tired from the weekend and frankly there isn't much to eat at BW for us. Instead, I used the rest of the fresh paneer to cook my first saag paneer. It didn't have enough seasoning (more curry powder, what else?), but I think all other facets of it were a success. Comparing it side-by-side with a TastyBite packet would help to figure out what else it needs.

The game was fun to watch, much more so than most of the mid-round games this tournament. Without much emotional stake in the game, I had been rooting for Memphis since last weekend. Even more so since someone we know could have come in 2nd in a huge betting pool with a Memphis win, so I was enjoying the tension vicariously.

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For not seeking out the Women's World Cup matches. I knew a couple weeks ago that it was going on, but never bothered to check match times or coverage.

However, IMHO the WC has received very little hype in the American media. You would think by just flipping through the various sports channels I might get a reminder that some non-American Football is also being played, but no.

This is nothing like the 2002 WC, when we lived in Chicago. There was no meeting up in bars for 2am match starts, or everyone showing up at Ginger's Ale House to watch the US play at 6am, then going to work after that. I know that it's also due to where we live and our lack of football-watching friends, but still.

At least I got to see Marta (the best player in the world) make an unbelievable heel-flick move to set up her second goal in the Brazilian win over the US today. I'n not at all familiar with the teams and players, but it seems like the US coach made tons of tactical errors in this match. Big upset, but judging from how the Brazilians played, they definitely deserved to move on. Can the Samba penetrate the defense of the Germans on Sunday? I don't know, but I will wake up early or stay up late to find out. The consolation match of USA-v-NOR starts around 3am.

Last night we were both so beat from yesterday's drive/work/school that we couldn't even stay awake for the end of the game. I'm happy that Illinois was able to hold on for the win. I woke up at one point when Michigan state pulled to within 4.

They're offering *free* tickets to the women's game against Ohio State on 02/11 (2pm). I'd like to check it out. They deserve to get the Hall filled with Orange too. More info here:
http://fightingillini.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/011907aaa.html