We just got back tonight from a 12-day trip to Boulder, Colorado. We stopped off first near Sante Fe, New Mexico, at my aunt and uncle’s house for a couple nights - awesome views there - and then continued on to Boulder. We stayed at Chautauqua, where Laura and her family had traveled to a bunch of times growing up. This time, Laura’s parents had gone to Wyoming first and then met us there at Chautauqua too. We had a couple sick days and a couple rain days, but we got to do most of the stuff we hoped to, like hiking around the Flatirons, seeing Boulder, seeing some cousins, playing on the Chautauqua Green (a big open grassy park area), and of course, relaxing! Hover over each thumbnail below for a bit of info.

Boris Becker is now engaged to his late manager’s 24-year-old daughter, Alessandra (Sandy) Meyer-Wölden.

“Spanish Sweetshop Owner Finds Homer Simpson Euro“

Four years ago today…

Oh man, did I plummet. Ended the tournament at #148 - not even in the top half. Oh well. I did actually move up five spots in the overall rankings for the year though. The U.S. Open is next up, starting on August 25th. Still have a few weeks left to evaluate players! The Olympics next week sorta makes things interesting, what with the long trip over there and then right back again and who will even go, etc. For those who don’t lose early, players will have one week before the U.S. Open starts, so will they decide to play one last warm-up event or skip it so as to not push themselves too hard? Yes….hmm…

No, that’s not ‘REZ-uh-MAY’ above; it’s ‘reh-ZOOM’. From my Tennisopolis.com post: “i thought i’d get creative on the pick’ems and enter twice, each under a different username: one for my REAL picks and one just based on rankings/seedings just to see how it played out. well, i guess you have to use a different email address too when using two usernames, cuz it appears i’m only entered once - with my set of picks based on rankings! oof! not the one i wanted. oh well. learn for next time.” Yes, I just quoted myself. That’s ok, right? Anyway, so with my ‘mistake’ picks, I’m up to #71 out of 224. There are only three from our Tennisopolis team entered in this one.

update: up to #19 as of 9pm CST!

Brooks’ girlfriend Macie and her family are moving away in August and today he said, “No matter how far apart, our hearts still believe.”

Yeah, it’s been awhile. But here are a couple pics of the kiddos and then one of a dead tree outside that I finally got down the other day.

Good for Rafa, but something just doesn’t seem right in the world now that Federer is not the Wimbledon champion anymore. I had the same feeling when Lleyton Hewitt won in ‘02. We were watching while Roger was losing - namely, the first two sets and then again at 7-7 in the fifth! (We were returning from Dallas during the rain delays and the second half of the match.)

Because of my inaccurate finals guess, I dropped in the bracket challenge from 15th to #25. Still, not too bad out of 409 people worldwide. That’s good enough to move up 77 spots to #86 in the overall 2008 rankings out of about 700 people. I’m #1 from my team and the sixth American and hadn’t even entered three of the six events this year so far! Yes! Next up: Cincinnati’s Tennis Masters Series event in three weeks.

Well, we got Ali married off this weekend. She and Brad are on their way to Tahiti and Bora Bora now. Awesome weekend centered around the Saturday events at The Tribute, saw a bunch of old friends and folk from Minnesota. Wish I got to talk to all of them a bit more. A memorable time.