Global Warming is great for Denmark!

Who says global warming is bad? I think it's just your perspective and or location. It has been t-shirt and short weather basically the whole time I have been here so far. But I know all too well what is lurking around the corner just waiting to terrorize me on my Champs-Elysee Mustang Passion (my bike; make and model.) Every Monday I have my fingers crossed that this will not be the week that I have to bike X amount of kilometers in cold, rainy, and windy conditions. The shortest bike route on any given weekday for me is Wednesday at just 2 kilometers to CCS the weight training center . The longest is Tuesday at about 20 kilometers. The rest of the Lance Armstrong week is as follows and this is an absolute minimum:

• Mon - 10 km
  
• Thurs - 10 km
• Fri - 10 km +2 when I take Christa out to a fancy dinner at 7-Eleven
  

So on any given week I put about 50 km on my Mustang. Which isn't a whole lot but when you are exposed to precipitation and wind chills you might as well raise that number to the power of 200. So as long as the blue skies and mid 60s weather continues me and my Mustang are on good terms.

Last Sunday I was actually able to catch the Bears game. The only problem was it was on at 230 am. To my Dad's as well as Christa's disapproval I busted out the #54 Brian Urlacher jearsey. I made a deal that I would only wear the jersey once a week and while watching the game, but sometimes when she leaves I put it on to do dishes so I can go 110% full game speed. I wash and dry ok! Anyway, Nelly and Joe came over to watch the game. Being a native of cheeseheadland, Nelly is a Packers fan. The game was uneventful as you all know and it was quite painful to watch even more so into the 5am range. Joe, a Rams fan, was fast asleep by now and every so often would kick the ground really hard and startle himself awake. When this happened for the second time we all agreed the game was not worth watching past 515 am. They biked home and I headed to bed Bears up 12-10. I'm glad I didn't see the finale because I would have woke up the entire apartment complex! At least Cutler played well, NOT. And now Urlacher is out for the season, I might be retiring the jersey to just dish duty.

The bulk of this week was spent in preparation for our second training tournament of the preseason. The tournament was held in good 'ol Middelfart. There were two pools and 7 teams total. 2 from Norway, 1 from Sweden, and the remaing from Denmark. Our pool was much easier than the other pool. The only real competition was Middelfart. We played them on Thursday and played a pretty awful match and lost in a quick 3. Top two teams from each pool advance so we were confident that the other two would be pushovers so we would still make it to the semis no problem. This was true we took out those two below average teams on Saturday. Today (Sunday) we played the first semi-final at 9 am. It was early but it was no excuse we played really bad. So many errors we never got in a good rhythm. The Norwegian team was solid but they too made tons of errors, but unfortunately we won the battle for who could make more errors. We lost in an uneventful 3.

The bronze medal match was at 1245 today against Orkelljunga one of the top teams from Sweden. We came out super flat again and dropped game one. Not sure what turned us around but we started playing more loose and starting winning the balls we needed to to win, but that was it nothing more and nothing less. We won the next three sets to win the match and the coveted Bronze (Middel)Fart Medal.

So how did I play? My serve was on and off all weekend but I think it is getting better. Hitting is also getting better, the speed of the sets are still a problem for me as well as the outsides. I had Jordan, our setter, slow me down a bit and give me some height and I was attacking much better winning many more balls off of that type of set. I think that my defense was probably my best attribute this weekend. Attacking and serving will come with more reps, but I think that I took care of balls that were hit in my direction and gave us a chance to turn some balls. It is frustrating though starting a new season and wanting to be as good as you were at the end of last season right when you step on the court. But unfortunately it doesn't work that way and you need to train hard and get comfortable with your teammates to play as well as you can. It will come and I see we are making strides in the right direction, but it just can't seem to come fast enough!

I spent the weekend in Middelfart with Christa's parents Jens and Hanne. They have been very nice and have made some really nice meals during our stay. It has been great! Lucky for me I get to see the Bears game again on tv. It is one of the feature games here in Denmark this week. The game will be on at 1015pm which is nice so I don't have to be up until 5am ripping my hair out. I can at least get all of the hair pulling done at a reasonable hour and get some sleep.

The poll on my blog page is looking like a unanimous 6 votes for posts every Sunday. I think I can come up with enough silliness every 7 days no problem. I would like to add some more pictures to the blog as well in the coming days. Nelly, Joe, and I went out into the city on Wednesday and I got some good shots of the town on a really nice day. We walked through the park and city center for about two hours. Hopefully there are some good shots in there to share. Ok all for now, farvel. Hej, hej.