PLAY DATE???
"Hey when are Monty, Snowy, and S1's dog coming over to play?"

"Toys are all set."
Mom fixed the caddyshack rodent so that it squeeks again, and the rope...that thing hurts when you get whipped with it. Kong and tennis balls arent far away, plenty to share...until the time comes and Iona will try to stuff them all in her mouth at once. Hmm, sounds like some people I know after the DOG when there is Pizza.


Iona wasnt into me lasso-ing her around the neck for a close up.

Note: who can find the tennis ball?
Just taking it all in. Trouble with Iona and the camera is that she gets so dang excited that I either get a close up of her "smile" = lack of teeth and need for dentures, or she loses the pose as soon as she knows I am there. I am going to have to work on my paparazzi moves to get some more candids.

COLD
Ok i know i copied Hanna on this but copying is the highest flattery, and the lowest creativity.
It was too cold to get out of my car to photograph the bank temperature (which is really about 10degrees colder than it is). And this was in the sun.
This postgoes out to my friends that live in places like Atlanta ("oh no, we had to wear a scarf today it was so cold here.") and California. Read on to see the essentials your car needs to survive a winter.

A garage...and a bath.
DB
Stash of clif bars, even if they are frozen.
My sister gave this to me about 5 years ago. I put it in my car the day the bridge collapsed. Not sure i know what to do with it, but I hope to never have to use it. At least it is in my car, as opposed to my closet. So that is a start.

WHAT IS UP NEXT?
It is a long wait (End of April)till Roland Garros and Paris. I will try to post on more important things than tennis, like Iona.


But know that the FED is never far from my mind and if he is playing i will try to keep you up to date.

AUSTRALIA 2008 Women
MARIA ....

VERSUS.....
ANA...
Friday night 8:30pm CST ESPN 2
my pick is Sharapova in 2 close sets. 7-6-6-4. But what do it know:)
The Fed lost and i wouldnt have guessed that.

Rafa's Anatomy Lesson:

How many muscles can you name?
Do you know where his Serratus Anterior and Posterior are? This is a great pic of the little "fingers" along his ribs. Also super good details of his forearm extensors. Not to mention his western grip.
Really this is an educational post.

Sadly, Today, The FED was the victim.
What a bummer. Win or Lose he is poetry on the court.
Look for Tsonga to give Novak a run.
Novak played well.

DOR-TREE, THIS IS FOR YOU:



Missed you Doris.
For those that dont know Doris she is the one who plays tennis in Atlanta with her Dartmouth Arm-warmers, since it snowed down there last week. She has travelled to Mexico with me many times and we are students of the "towel" art that is on display here. My favorite is the bathtub Iguana. Sadly our maid thought i was telling her to clean the tub when i tried to ask her for an iguana piece. Oh well.
PS DON JULIA says hi.

Mexico!
Look who joined us on our VACAY!!!
That's right. The Fed stopped by for some showtime at the Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta. I think he was tired from the trip causing the close 5th set 10-8 score versus Tripsaravic.
FYI: The US Open is the only slam that plays a breaker in the 5th. The other 3 play it out, gotta win by 2 games.

Personal time. Honey was nice to let me have some time alone with Rog. Also apologies to my sponsor Prince. (Note my shirt) We were told they had no courts so we didnt come prepared. I have to say it may be the only time in the last 41 years i have ever rented rackets.
Santoro is coined "The Magician" for all his slicer dicer shots ..he has two hands on both sides and is fun to watch, but i think he would be annoying to play. He is the oldest top 30 pro (40yo I think?) and really that is incredible that he still plays as much as he does.
Here is another Fed shot.
Phew all that tennis playing and watching made us hungry and thirsty.

Best Darn 'ritas anywhere. And they dont cost as much as a dinner entree so you dont have to choose, "Eat or drink?" You gotta watch those natives they get funny, start pouring tequila like it is water (and it may be better to drink the tequila at some places actually)

Ok this may appear to be picture perfect, pool, ocean, nobody there but the pool was barely 76 degrees in the mid-day and although it did feel like a good ice bath for weary legs my core temp dropped enough that i had to get out after 40 minutes one day. The last day i lasted 32 minutes before i had muscle twitching in my legs. This is with 2 suits and 2 caps!
My mom was a trooper and walked when i swam and at times i had to get my head/core out of the water to warm up. But i wouldnt have traded it for that indoor bike for a second.

STOP! DONT RUN, let us drive you somewhere even if it is 10 feet away.
Alittle fun and some cross training. You gotta love this sign. Right. I practice good etiquette, stopping before someone tee's off, making sure not to be get in someone's sight lines.

This trip i also learned some new words: Lets see if i can put them in context for you:

" We are sorry we only have 9 holes of golf available, the other 9 are under REMODELATION."
"Please close out your bill at any of our CONSUMMATION CENTERS."

Amazing what i learn in Mexico, other than that Don Julio is still king.

The other thing that is really fun is to listen to the announcers on ESPN go nutso over Soccer (Euro Football) when they score. I have never heard someone hold onto GOOOOOAALLLLLLL
so long.

There are more to come..

Did you know...
That Andrew Shue is a Dartmouth class of 1989? You may know him as Billy Campbell on Melrose Place but he recently starred in a movie called Gracie, with his sister Elizabeth. It is about his brother who died in 1988. Andrew was a member of the soccer team at Dartmouth.
His sister did come visit the campus alot and she often created quite a "buzz!"

Did you also know.....

that Connie Britton from the NBC Show "Friday Night Lights" is a Dartmouth class of 1989 and was in my sorority? ( and so was Karla Kingsley! but she is class of 03' I think)
She is very nice...very down to earth.

Women

So i cant say i know or care as much about many of the pro women, but here are a few thoughts on who i like and who i miss:

Petrova is spicey and fun to watch. She has a really athletic game and i would far prefer to play with her than against her as she rips some big serves. Working against her is a bad-ass temper. If you get a chance to see her play doubles she is really worth the ticket. She reminds me of someone who is on my bike team. The enforcer.

Elena Dementieva: I put this one in so my biker friends can see why my shoulder and neck hurt and why i kinda had to lay off serving. Not like i was a pro but hour after hour of this is what we call REPETITIVE MOTION. At 40 years old the shoulder and neck can only hope that there are a few strands of the Rotator Cuff working to keep that humeral head in place.

On another note i once saw Elena serve 30 mph powderpuffs but still manage to win in three sets. Wow she sure can make it hard on herself if she cant serve consistently. Her serve motion is really erratic and her toss goes all over the place. She is really fun to watch so ihope she is playing more in 2008.

Maria: As much as my tennis friends dislike her i like her. I like how she plays I like her spirit, You cant hate her just bc her dad is a dork. She needs to get her woes from 2007 under control and stay healthy. But i do have to say she embodies some of what i like about tennis. She has cute clothing and she plays Prince. (O3 white, my racket too!) Ok she used to play with the Shark but then switched. Me too.
Kimmie: We miss Kim! Did you ever see her do the splits? on clay? and then win the point? Watch Kim if you want to know what it means to "get down" on the ball. Ok, get low.
My pick: Lindsay. If she is in shape she has as good a chance as anyone to win in Australia in 08. Then again she just had a baby so who knows. All I know is i started to post a pic of poor old Martina and i decided that she didnt deserve space on my website. Geesh she is dumb, as if she thought she wouldnt get caught? Sadly some of the kids (and they are kids, or they were when they started) never really have had a chance to grow up. They are coached by their parents and sheltered in a little tennis world with rewards and recognition and rules that arent really rules. So when they get older (yeah like 20!) and get injured or arent in the spotlight they have no grounding and start doing "Dumb" stuff. Makes the non glamourous world of an education and Div I tennis sound kinda good, really.

I also didnt post a pic on Crybaby Justine. Just dont like her. She has a great game and i know she has worked on alot in her life. Just dont like her. She embodies selfish unsportsmanlike behavior (ask Amelie Mauresmo about it, and Serena too) and maybe someday i will let it go, but i am not ready to embrace her, yet.
Lindsay, Mom, towering at 6'3" That is TALL!

What's up next for Roger?
Melbourne 2008
Aussie Open starts soon, I should know the dates but i am pretty sure it is in the next week that it starts and will run 2 weeks down under.
This bad boy will try to serve his way into the final rounds but my money is on the Pro in the next picture. Look for Djokovic to keep turning heads as well.
Sweet Nike ad on the streets of Melbourne.
Does anyone know who the other people are? It looks like Randy Moss but I dont think he is with Nike..or maybe now that he is with a winning team they picked him up.

And never count out Llyeton Hewitt. Fiery Australian always runs down every ball.

Did you know that the Aussies are leaders in SPF and Skin Cancer prevention?

Did you know they play the Aussie Open under a retractable roof that they close if the temps reach some pre-determined high so that the players dont roast? (and the fans as well?)

DOUBLES
Did you know that The Fed plays some doubles? With a partner that only plays doubles and makes the majority of his income playing doubles with the Fed? I have to check my sources but I am pretty sure that Fed plays doubles 1) Bc he likes it, it helps his game and it is good for the game of tennis to have the #1 player participating in as many events as his body can handle,
2)Bc his partner needs him to financially, otherwise partner wouldnt make a living playing tennis.
That is really cool. Not only is the FED really smart about his training, he gives back in so many ways to the sport of tennis. Doubles really is a different game than singles and to have him out there playing and not "protecting his royal ranking," shows what a great ambassador for the sport he is.
This one is for Lunatic.
I am pretty sure this court is at Sea Level, well maybe not quite. It is at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. But if you go back for a lob you will likely just run into a spectator or a linesperson.
No parachute needed.

Next Post I will try to find something on the Federer Fun house. That may be hard to portray for those of you that havent seen it.

I am curious if my sudden need to post about the FED is telling me i miss tennis or if i just like looking at pics of people in the sunshine. Ithink it is more the later than the former, but as they say, Tennis is a lifetime sport mentally maybe more so for me than physically.

Enjoy.

Now we are talking...

The backhand slice that can easily become, in the words of Patrick McEnroe......."the dropper!"
And can you imagine the angles this guy can create with about 6 inches of court available? No you cant. really.
Let it RIP...
And who do we have here. Petey and Roger. Petey is acknowledging that Rog is the man and that unless Petey gets off the golf course he had better be happy winning an ocassional "demo promo match," for sponsor happiness.

IS this court open to the public??
Roger versus Andre, this is the highest tennis court in the world. It is in Dubai.
Dont go back for any deep lobs on this court. This is an old pic, before Andre retired. I think it may be in 2005. How cool is that??

More views of Holiday 2007
Happy New Year from the sisters...

And the nephews, excuse them, they are VERY BUSY...
Cant leave out the two cuties, one in her red bandana, and honey in his arglye sweater...