Scooter Chronicles

Birthday Weekend 2006!
Had two birthday parties to attend this weekend. On Saturday was my Brother-In-Law David’s son Lyric’s bash. Originally schedule for the park where the last few where held, we ended up at David and Catherine’s place instead due to the remnants of Ernesto. Then Sunday it was my Sister-In-Law’s son Ryan’s get together.

Both were a lot of fun, and in the afternoon. It seems to work out best that way with Nigel. This way we can still get him home and settled down before that last feeding of the night. At both parties Nigel was back to his jabbering a mile-a-minute phase. He seemed to really enjoy himself. And as always, he doesn’t have any problems...

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On Saturday, Marcia and I started watching the Ladies’ Final at Wimbledon. I was honestly surprised to see Amelie Mauresmo in the final, even though ranked and seeded number one. She has had a habit of being a top 5 player and not making Grand Slam Finals. She had won the Australian Open earlier this year, and though winning at the time, it was be default when Justine Henin-Hardenne had to quit due to injury. So here was Mauresmo’s chance at Wimbledon to prove that she could beat Henin-Hardenne. And she did, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

She looked tight the first set, making me believe that she wouldn’t win much then a few more games. She proved me wrong though.

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Screamin’ Nigel
So Nigel has taken up a new pastime the last couple of days. He screams. Now, I don’t mean crying. What I mean is that while he is playing, and he is getting very intense while playing with toys, he starts screaming. It is cute, but annoying. What worries me is the new neighbor downstairs. Hope he doesn’t hear it.

Go Get ‘Em Tigers!
So it’s just a couple of days from All-Star break and the Tigers still have the best record in baseball. And boy is their starting pitching doing great! Another obvious reason is new manager Jim Leyland. I know quite a few Phillies’ fans that are ticked off they didn’t hire Leyland last year...

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Welcome to the first edition of “Ask Scooter Anything”. Thanks to everyone who asked questions. Even if they were trying to be a smarta**. Just remember: ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

: )

Before you start reading my answers, first let me say that none of them are in any way meant to offend anyone and should not be taken that way, even if they differ from your own opinion. Remember, this site is my site, therefore full of my opinions. And even if I rant about something, it doesn’t mean that I want to upset anyone or disagree for the sake of argument. Well, accept for any cracks towards NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. But then again I don’t make any cracks at Mr. Bettman in this post....

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Pizza and Poker Night
On Friday Marcia, Nigel, and I hosted Pizza Night. It was a very small crowd, with only David, Catherine, Andy, and Yvonne attending. And since we all enjoy playing Texas Hold ‘Em, we decided to break out the cards and chips.

Andy has recently qualified for a regional tournament. Eventually down the line he could qualify for the Main Event, if I remember correctly, for the World Series of Poker. He has been doing really well at the last two tournaments he was in. And he continued his winning ways against us all. Though hats off to Catherine. She is improving greatly as a player, but not getting the breaks.

For...

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I didn’t get much of a chance to watch any of the French Open this year, which is a shame since it was rather exciting. Especially the men’s side.

Though seeded fifth, Justine Henin-Hardenne prevailed to win her second straight French Open title, her third overall, and fifth Grand Slam victory. She beat eighth seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4. It was not too surprising in my mind, though I was rooting for the other top ranked Belgian in the tourney, Kim Clijsters. The women’s game tends not to have such a big gap in talent between the different surfaces. I would put her up there as one of the favorites to win Wimbledon in the coming weeks and complete her career Grand Slam.

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French Open - Men’s Draw
The French Open has a tendancy to be the Grand Slam that the little guy lives for. There have been quite a few “no-names” making it to the final. Also, there are a few multiple winners of the French that have not been successful in the other three Slams.

This year that changes. All four of the top seeds made it to the semi-finals. Those being Roger Federer, the defending champ Rafael Nadal, Ivan Ljubicic, and David Nalbandian.

What will be interesting is if Federer and Nadal make it to the final. Federer has not lost a Grand Slam final in his career, and seems unbeatable. Yet he has lost five of his six matches during his career against Nadal. One can only...

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It is always so hard to follow the Australian Open. It is in the dead of winter here (though it has been unseasonably warm all month), and the time difference is a killer. But I did want to mention who won this year.

Roger Federer, who now has been the number men’s player for about three years, won his seventh Grand Slam by beating newcomer Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2. I had seen bits and pieces of two earlier round matches of Federer’s, and I, along with the experts, was wondering if he could pull it off. He was struggling, making way too many unforced errors. But obviously the guy has the talent to fight through it.

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It is getting pretty common on my site to have a tennis post titled “Roger Federer Wins (insert tourney name).” And so the number one player in the world did it again. This time he defeated Andre Agassi, who made one hell of a run in this years tournament. The score, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-1.

Hate to say it, but the first set went just about as I expected. They held serve for a while, and at the smallest hole, Federer broke carrying the set. But the second set started to show that Federer is in fact a human. Agassi broke twice, one of the games won the set for him. It started to turn into a great match.

Agassi continued his run at the start of the third set, getting a 3-0 jump. But the relentless Federer just...

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Kim Clijsters has to be the hottest player on the women’s tour this year. After coming off a year’s absence do to a serious wrist injury, she has been brutalizing her opponents. She managed to win the US Open Series, then topped it tonight by winning the US Open itself. This was Kim’s first Grand Slam victory after being denied four times in previous finals (2001 French, 2003 French and Australian, and 2004 Australian). I would not doubt that if she hadn’t have started with such a low ranking, she not Maria Sharapova would be ranked number one in the world. As it is, she is ranked 4th.

Mary Pierce also has been burning up the tour. She finished second in the US Open Series. But tonight she looked bad....

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