tennis tourny

this weekend I have been playing in a tennis tournament out at 98th street. it has been a lot of fun. my first match was against andrew lee. he plays for eden prairie and is in the top 10, maybe even top 5 in state. he won the first set 6-1 and the second set 6-4. I think i should have won the second set. I had break points to go up 4-2 and 5-3 in the second set but it just didnt work out. then on friday night I played chris williams. he is the south dakota state champion, but that actually isnt sayin too much. I was beating him 3-2 in the first set and he defaulted because he said his hip was bothering him, and he didnt want to reinjure it. this morning I played corey paluch from south dakota. he is pretty good. I won the first set 6-3 and lost the second set 1-6. then we played a super tie-breaker instead of a third set. a super tie-breaker is up to 10 points instead of 7. i was losing 3-7 but I came back. he had match points at 8-9 and 9-10 but I saved them both and won 12-10. then I played mike eastman from edina. I was up 5-2 in the first set and somehow managed to play so poorly that I eventually lost it in a tie breaker4-7. then I went up 5-2 in the second set, but I managed to close it out and win it 6-2. after that we played a super tie-breaker to decide the third set. I was winning the whole time, but it was close towards the end. I won it 10-7. tomorrow morning I play paul rothman from highland park senior high school. I have never played him in an actual match, but I have played several sets against him. I think we are 3 and 3 against each other, so it should be a good match. peace.

Wow!

That is a great story, Nancy. I hope the Clothes Corner appreciates all you went through! Having been to IKEA twice, my only question is why you left with an empty stomach... the only thing I do there is eat at their cheap cafeteria.

I want to tell you before you hear it on the news...

Yesterday was a busy day...I grabbed a few grapes on my way out the door for breakfast.
I dropped off the minivan at the body shop to have the bumper replaced and got a cute little chevy cavalier to drive for the day. From there I went to the Mall of America for a few errands and a brisk walk. It was getting a bit late, I was hungry (I’m working on an excuse, you see,) so I was trying to work my way quickly through IKEA. When I got to the "As Is" area with my 5 pillows I saw an interesting rolling cart that I thought would be usedful for "Clothes Corner." It was about 3' x 3' x 2'. As I rolled it out to the parking lot with my other purchases, it suddenly struck me... there was that "cute little" cavalier sitting there, not my minivan. It wouldn’t fit in the trunk; it wouldn’t fit in the back seat. There are no screwdrivers or pliers in a rental car and no, the handle of the car jack will not loosen screws. (I tried) I was feeling so foolish by this time. I couldn’t get any of the screws loose and I was starving. It was about 4:15. I ate half the package of Anna’s cookies I had bought, but it didn’t give me any ideas. I tried to call a friend to bring me a screwdriver, but she wasn’t home; neither was Mark. I tried to flag down a police car, but he didn’t see me. I got the tray off but the frame still would not fit. I ended up putting the U-shaped thing in the trunk, with only one side inside. The other two parts were sticking up in the air like a bike rack. The only thing I had to fasten the trunk was the ribbon from my Hershey kisses received at Kristen’s wedding. Finally, I carefully headed for home, but woe, it was not to be. In rush hour traffic headed north on 77 (Cedar) I hit a bump, the ribbon tore, the trunk flew open and the cart frame tumbled out. This is the part for which I am so grateful. It landed wheels down and went sailing across the right and left lanes of traffic and into the median without hitting a car and causing a terrible accident. I saw it all in the rearview mirror. I, of course, pulled off the road, waited for a lull in traffic, crossed to the median and walked back to pick it up. I was so grateful, as I said, but I was also so-o-o-o embarrassed to be walking with this frame over my shoulder, trying to be nonchalant!! That particular stretch of road is always bumper to bumper at 4:45, as people are trying to get on 62 crosstown, so it took several minutes before the traffic broke enough for me to get back across to my car. I hunkered down behind the car and discovered that the bolts had become loosened enough by the mishap to allow me to get one end off. I shoved it into the back seat and headed for home. At first, I wasn’t going to tell anybody, but I haven’t put anything on the blog for so long that I thought, "This is just the thing." Have any of you had someone tell you, "I saw the funniest thing on Cedar last night?" Or "I almost got hit by a rolling cart....?" Nancy

On Sunday afternoon we got together to celebrate the birthdays of Paul, Janelle and Tom. Here they are while blowing out their candles (or right after in Janelle's case). Happy Birthday all - and of course happy birthday to those not in the Twin Cities area!