Sucks

My computer is still out of commission after changing the motherboard didn't fix the problem. My laptop hasn't arrived at our house yet and so my parents haven't moved up my stuff. 3 of my favorite players recently pulled out of the U.S. Open with injury or illness (Ancic, Monfils, Gasquet) and Novak is playing a very tricky match against Radek Stepanek, the tennis player who annoys me the most right now. But most sucky is the fact that I haven't moved all my stuff in yet. I HATE waiting. And the fact that I could have actually been productive at lab doesn't improve my mood either.

Since the blog is so sucky, I'm going to start a new one beginning tomorrow. I will try to tag my stuff as well so I can be a bit more organized. And I just like starting over just because I can.

NOT AGAIN!

Horrible news! Mario Ancic is out of the U.S. Open because of a shoulder injury. He is replaced by Robin Haase in the draw, who will now face Novak Djokovic tomorrow. Mario says he needs 4-5 weeks at least (I think) so he'll also miss the Davis Cup tie against Great Britain. But poor Mario!

Okay, the U.S. Open already started but I can still predict winners. Here are my picks: Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova. The women's side is pretty crazy, though, but Maria says she's all good so I have faith in her. Other people to think about are obviously Justine Henin, Serena and Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic. Svetlana is one of Maria's few threats on the bottom half, I think. Of course I want Ana to win the most! And Novak too!

Also, Stretch and Booty are back together for the Open, but Jamie and Jelena aren't playing mixed together. I find it funny that Jelena news shows up on British sports sites just because she partnered up with Jamie and they were successful.

Lastly and pretty importantly, Tim Henman is set to retire after the Davis Cup tie. Best wishes for him and his family (about to have another kid!). I know he wishes he could still fight, but it looks like injuries decided his career for him. It's unfortunate, but he's been such fun to watch for the few years I saw him, and I just want to thank him for everything he's done.

2007 Vacation in Canada

Saturday - Toronto
places: Music Gardens, Harbourfront, China Town
notes: 5 hours to Toronto. gardens nice, but small. harbour front had Phillipines festival. boat tour of islands was a rip off and totally not worth it. underground mall? we couldn't find it. things close too early in Toronto. walked by Rogers Centre and the basketball arena (Canada Air?). did not go to see tennis, haha, though the Rogers Cup was in Toronto. also skipped the Canadian National Exhibition and the CN Tower (walked by it). saw about 10 people wearing Toronto FC jerseys to support the team playing against Chivas USA in LA (correction: they did play in Toronto at BMO Field). did not see the result of the game but saw a flash of Sacha shaking someon'es hand. China town for dinner. saw Golovin up 2-0 in the third set to Jankovic. watched parts of Princess Mononoke and Kung Fu Hustle before sleep.

Sunday - Toronto to Montreal
places: University of Toronto, Allen Conservatory
notes: drove around University of Toronto, took photos of the outside of Parliament building and of black squirrels. conservatory was nice, especially since it was free! 6 hours or so to Montreal. play more Tales of the World on PSP until it ran out of power. signs only in French once in Quebec province. got to hotel pretty easily (right by Olympic Park). Dad too tired to go out (he drives the whole time) so dinner in hotel = Italian. scour TV (my brother) for English programming. see Torres's beautiful goal - yay! Frank Lampard, though, really showing leadership by lifting Chelsea sans John Terry. find out Man. Utd. lose derby - ouch. end up watching some Harry Potter: Chambre of Secrets while studying some BCS.

Monday - Montreal
places: Botanic Garden, Insectatarium, Biodome, China Town
notes: huge botanic garden is really nice too. lunch at garden restaurant - family "scared" by no English translation of menu until sign flipped around. brother says knowing Spanish doesn't help reading French menu, which is true. insectatarium small but nice. biodome kind of pricy for just four exhibits, but shows off animals living together in more natural environments (aka not a lion in a large rock cage). walk through Olympic Park sort of...walk by new stadium being built by Brocollini for the Montreal Impact, a local soccer team (USL?). night time head to China Town. food much better than in random restaurant in Toronto. went into same store where Dad bought nice cat picture before but nothing worthwhile. TV was America's Funniest TV Moments, Canadian Idol, CSI: Miami.

Tuesday - Montreal to Quebec City
places: Old Montreal
notes: saw Notre-Dame Basilica first. beautiful. went to docks. walked around through Bonsecours Market and up to City Hall. went to souvenir shop and Jackie bought T-shirt. ate French for lunch. get a bit lost on way to Quebec City. find out we lost map of Quebec province. on the road...take a nap and then begin writing diary. ate dinner at downtown Quebec City at a pub restaurant. Mom is feeling sick.

Wednesday - Quebec City
places: old Quebec City, Montmorency Park
notes: walk through Old Montreal. nice Notre-Dame Basilica, very shiny and golden. different than the other. walk by citadel by the river. took photo of Parliament. helped interpret menu for lunch. waterfall park was nice but smaller than expected. got a large cone of soft-serve dipped into chocolate. made a mess. also realized that my favorite "pasttime" of looking at random guys at tourist spots and "evaluating" them doesn't work so well now since the guys are either too old and usually attached (wife/girlfriend/kids) or too young (high schoolish). guess college-aged kids don't road trip with their parents. dinner at the hotel because brother it sick too.

Thursday - Quebec City to Ottawa
places: Parliament
notes: off to Ottawa in the morning. more sucky french toast that I didn't eat much of. yay for eating another bunch of chocolate pastries. out hotel , according to Dad, was like $1200 for 2 days! dude the tax is insane...can't afford to live there! walk to Parliament. took photos outside and it started to rain. bumming in the hotel room. yay PTI. ooh superclasico...hopefully Sacha doesn't kill anyone...by the way 30 runs in one game is insane.

Friday - Ottawa to Kingston
places: Kingston City Hall, Thousand Islands Cruise
notes: slow morning but no rain (yet). caught some SC before leaving and saw a Chivas guy red-carded but the scoreline 3-0. damnit couldn't tear my eyes away from it. now I'm spoiled...but I'll still watch anyway. need to stop desiring Milano cookies, especially at 9 AM. cruise at 12:30 PM. live music was pretty good. awesome weather outside, great for boating. damn long cruise though ~ 4 hours. I don't like being picke on, by the way. anyway got some more soccer updates from a footie show...must torrent Atletico Madrid vs. Real Madrid...oh and still haven't watched Sparta Prague vs. Arsenal...damn.

Saturday - Kingston to Troy
places: HOME
notes: heading home. only hit one rainstorm by Toronto. think I learned my bad eating habits from Mom. "fight" with Eugene over PSP to play crappy RPG Tales of the World. study more BCS - like the cool aspect of verbs. hate customs, take forever. yay home.

Upsetting Day Part 2

Yeah, this is weird, coming before the recap of my vacation in Canada, but a few things have upset me again! And I was looking forward, somewhat, to a few things too...

1) My computer isn't working! The motherboard and/or processor doesn't work and my computer can't boot up because one doesn't recognise the other (don't ask me what it exactly is). I was looking forward to long hours of torrenting and TV recording with it. I think my brother will try to fix it but he's going back to Seattle tomorrow, and I don't know how to install a motherboard into my computer correctly. And I was planning to get a laptop eventually, but that couldn't come in earlier than September 4th, I think, and that's not soon enough in terms of recording massive TV! Why does it have to happen right before the U.S. Open????? I will live, but I wish that I won't have to miss too much. Then again I could just cut class and stuff until I get something to record TV with, haha...

2) Mario Ancic faces Novak Djokovic in the first round of the U.S. Open! This is horrible for me because they are my two favorite male tennis players and I love them almost equally as much. On the one hand, I want Mario to win so that he can put his tennis career back on track. On the other hand, I want Novak to win so that he can do well on his best surface, and maybe even get into the final! But most importantly, I might not get to see Mario play! I miss seeing him, if nothing else.

3) Marin didn't qualify for the U.S. Open! I'm so sad, even if there was the slightest of chances of seeing him once he did qualify (like if he was drawn against Federer, who is facing a qualifier in Scoville Jenkins). At least Tsonga was a direct entry... Ok I'll rant more about the U.S. Open later.

4) The U-17 USMNT lost their first 2 games of their World Cup and can squeeze through if they win over Belgium. It'd be cool if they could advance, especially since I'll have ESPNU once I get into the dorms! I really like Alex Nimo and I hope he can show everyone how awesome he is. The USMNT full team lost to Sweden 1-0, but I'm not terribly surprised. Our team is still going through a lot of turnover so stuff is not cemented. Though for some reason Steve Cherundolo almost looked like Fernando Torres to me...I am surely crazy right now.

But in conclusion I'm just materialistic and mourning the lack of computer and TV, which I can definitely survive without. I really do use those things as a crutch...I'm sorry if I can't make myself happy.

Upsetting Day

WTF is going on? So many upsets today in the world of tennis. Nadal, Gasquet, Chakvetadze retire...Djokovic, Ancic, Ivanovic, Dementieva are upset (yes Mario is unseeded here but he is so better than Melzer). Other seeds were upset, but they weren't as important. It must have been that evil piece of cake yesterday that upset my stomach that has caused all this mischief. And my cherry tomatoes basically all rotted away, along with my peaches...this must just be a bad day. And my TV signal/coverage keeps getting interrupted...it's not happy either. Hopefully not a bad week overall...I want my favorite gymnasts to do well.

I don't really know many of the soccer results today since I'm hoping to torrent a few matches (Arsenal vs. Sparta Prague, Reading vs. Chelsea). But I think Man. Utd. and Portsmouth tied (another tie for Man. Utd.) and Ajax lost in CL qualifying. Someone I know will be upset about those results... Now if there was a way to only find out results you want and not other results without having to look up every single match individually... Like a mask function? It would be sweet.

Wow, I'm cramming a ton of French in my head. It's not going to help me in Montreal at all, but it's kind of fun to have a goal. I was going to learn French eventually...yay for using things as superficial impetuses...

NOVAK!!!!!!!!

Novak is the best! He beat Roger Federer in the final of the Rogers Cup, a Master Series event! But most importantly, he beat Roger Federer on a hard court! AHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am escatic right now!

How did I wait like 5 hours post-match start to start watching it? I don't know how! (Probably because I had like 6 matches to watch before it.) But Novak is so amazing! Beating Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer at the same tournament...who else can say that? I like his chances at the U.S. Open!

Ahh, Federer is as classy as usual. Also random notes...there were torrents out for Arsenal v. Fulham and Man. Utd. v. Reading but not one of Hannover 96 v. Hamburg SV. I was slightly sad because of that, but a bit more sad that Hannover lost! But Hamburg is going to do well in the Bundesliga this year, so I guess it's not so bad...

AHHH the guy said Novak was Croatian...Novak was nice enough about the mistake, but still...it's like calling someone "French" when he is German or something...but then worse since Serbia and Croatia fought pretty recently. But Novak is so happy, so therefore I must be 10 times as happy...haha...

Scores

Verbal: 650
Math: 790

Not bad. I could have done better (I ran out of time and did some "educated" guessing on all sections) but I will live with these scores. And thankfully not take this test ever again. It was so much scarier than the SAT and I'm so glad it's over.

You don't realize how nice it is to go back and review all of the questions once you are finished until you take a test crappily set up like the computerized GRE. I realized, especially today, how much I depend on being able to do that. Well at least they let me review all of my answers before submitting my chemistry tests, so nothing bad there.

I won't be checking tennis and soccer match scores until tomorrow, after I watch the matches that were shown on TV. Yes, I have resisted the temptation. But I'm going back to Ann Arbor really early tomorrow, and all the fun begins again!

Ooh, now I can focus on learning "French" before our trip to Canada. Yay!

Almost There...

I'm taking that damn test tomorrow morning. I am going to be SO GLAD when that one is done (hopefully with a good score to!). My goal is to have a combined Verbal and Math above 1400 and a writing score of a 4 or better. I find out my verbal and math right away, which is kind of cool, but I can't get that first question wrong, or my score plummets like 100 points. That's the problem with computer-generated tests sometimes...

Watching D.C. United vs. the L.A. Galaxy last night was alright, but more exciting was the news that Benny Feilhaber got a work permit so he can join Derby F.C. He's going to be playing in the Premiership! Wow. Best of luck to him; hopefully he gets some first team action (or actually a lot). I don't expect him to start this weekend... I don't expect to see Bobby or Deuce starting either, but I'm so excited about the start of major European football. The leagues I will try to follow are the EPL, Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Dutch Eredivisie, and Italian Serie A. I don't know how much of PSV I'll watch, though, with Arsenal and Atletico Madrid my main focus for this year. But I definitely want to catch more of Hannover 96 (I think I only saw 2 or 3 of their games last year...probably because I watched more of Bayern Munich). I'm planning to watch at least 2 matches a week...don't think that should be that hard of a task, considering how much I can watch.

I'm kind of antsy, trying to figure out if I want to keep my cable over my vacation or not. You see, I miss some pretty sweet things on TV while I'm out, like U.S. Nationals for gymnastics, the "Superclassico" between the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA on ESPN2, some U.S. open series tennis and the beginning of the U.S. Open. But mostly I care about missing the first two...I don't know how easy it would be to torrent the "Superclassico" or more importantly the gymnastics...plus if one of my friends decides to stay in the apartment while I'm gone, I could have him set up the recordings for me, right? And tell him to watch more TV.

Michaella was so close to beating Maria Sharapova yesterday... Which leads to a new updated rankings of fangirlness for me. I think anyone past the top 6 or so changes depending on my mood and who's hot right now...so a few new names this time!

Men's tennis
1. Mario Ancic
2. Novak Djokovic
3. Gael Monfils
4. Richard Gasquet
5. Marin Cilic
6. Andy Murray
7. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
8. Marat Safin
9. Paul-Henri Mathieu
10. Frank Dancevic

Women's tennis
1. Ana Ivanovic
2. Svetlana Kuznetsova
3. Amelie Mauresmo
4. Michaella Krajicek
5. Vania King
6. Elena Dementieva
7. Jelena Jankovic
8. Maria Kirilenko
9. Sania Mirza
10. Maria Sharapova