Anything better then crushing a fledging democracy in your sphere of influence? Crushing that fledging democracy DURING THE OLYMPICS. Ah yeah.

Now, I realized this morning that NBC is starting coverage @ 6 AM on BOTH MSNBC (non-HD) USA(HD). Those slots run 6 AM to 2 PM. NBC starts at 10 AM to 6 PM. I'm DVRin the USA HD. My goal is to see every sport for at least five minutes.

Here is my fantasy olympics game, everyone can play. One point for each event seen. One point for every country. Three points for any country under 100K in population. One point for seeing a profile piece on a u.s. athelete, three points for a profile of a non-American athlete. That's it!!!

Checklist 8/9/8:

WOMEN'S WEIGHTLIFTING: Saw the 46KG(?) Women's class. They were performing the "snatch." Weightlifting has two events, the snatch the clean and jerk. The weightlifter for Thailand had hara-juku style berrets all in her hair. The chinese weightlifter ending up winning but I learned that last night via the NYTImes, not by watching the sport. COUNTRIES: Turkey, China, Thailand, Taiwan (5 points)

MEN'S BADMINTON: I watched a guy from Poland play a guy from Estonia. I'm down with Badminton, I'll sit there and watch it for 15-20 minutes- at least until commerical. I'd like to see the men's final, but not so much the prelims. (3 points)

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: NBC is leading with US v. Japan in women's volleyball. Suggestion: follow with beach volleyball? Maybe on USA today? (3 points)

Points so far today: 11.

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Wow it has been exhaustingly hot here in Almerimar over the past 10 days or so, and I have probably unwisely been trying to get back into my fitness, mainly by running! Weve been meeting up with some visiting, regular Almerimar Life readers over the past week and they all seem to be enjoying this heat over here. I guess its the difference between living and being on holiday. I could probably handle chilling out on the beach in the mornings, afternoon siestas, and wandering out for some food, chat and vino in the evenings, and I can also see that whilst a tad hot right now, our August sunshine is definitely an improvement on the rainy UK. This is the dilema of living in a hot country all year round, and particularly somewhere where other people come for holidays. You tell yourself that you dont need to go anyone to have a holiday, but then never actually take one. SO maybe next year we should take a 2 week vacation at home instead of trying to struggle on with all our usual work and activities in this heat.

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Similar posts: beach volleyball

How does the worlds best beach volleyball team keep topping itself? They did so Sunday with the number 15.
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh built their mountain a little higher in Colorado winning the AVP Crocs Slam Boulder by beating no. 2 seed Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis 26-24, 21-14.
The victory was their 15th consecutive tournament title and tied the record for most tournament titles in a row (domestic or international) in beach volleyball history.
While Jordan and Davis reached the finals against Walsh and May-Treanor for a fifth time this season. 2008 has been a real renaissance for Jordan and Davis. Unfortunately, Jordan and Davis have lost all five matches.
The win is the 99th for May-Treanor.
 
“[In the first game] we made some errors, but we’re the type of team that you get us down, we come back,” said May-Treanor. “I don’t know if it was our best tournament… we kind of expected it after being overseas but we pulled it together.”
In a first for the AVP, the event was held at Folson Field at the University of Colorado at Boulder in front of big crowds.
 
“We love playing here,” said Walsh. “We’ve never played in a football field before so it was special for me.

Similar posts: beach volleyball

Definition: You can't walk into a self-respecting Puerto Rican restaurant and not see mofongo on the menu. It's a must-try for first-time visitors who want to claim to have sampled the local fare. Essentially, mofongo is a mashed mound of plantains into which a combination of seafood, meat, or vegetables is added. It can be served as a side dish or a main course accompanied typically by beans and rice.
This is a classic Puerto Rican dish that is also popular in Cuba (similar to the Dominican "mangu quot. If you don’t have a tostonera (two pieces of wood hinged together to flatten plantains) use a glass or a small plate to flatten the plantains. If you don't use bacon and stop at step 2 you have tostones which also a great side dish.
2Meanwhile, cook chicharrones or bacon until crisp; remove from heat and drain. Remove plantains from water, drain and dry them on towels, then deep fry the pieces (careful, they may spatter) until golden brown and tender. Remove from oil. Flatten the plantains using the bottom of a flat-bottomed glass bottle or a tostonera if you have one. Fry the plantains again for 30 seconds on each side until slightly crispy.
I'm not a Puerto Rican and actually I never tried it but it seems so good especially after watching Anthony Bourdain's show yesterday and how he was enjoying these Puerto Rican dishes so much. I will make the dish today when I buy the ingredients and thank you MarielC for this good recipe.
Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings that are shaped into individual balls or molded with a mortar and pestle into a bowl to hold meat or fish. This version uses bacon and is shaped into patties that are sautéed. The consistency of the stewed chicken is between simple roast chicken and asopao--the classic soupy Puerto-Rican stew.
To prepare chicken, heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of chicken; sauté 8 minutes or until browned. Remove chicken from pan. Repeat procedure with 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil and remaining chicken. Return chicken to pan; stir in onion and next 5 ingredients (through tomato sauce). Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until chicken is done. Keep warm.To prepare mofongo, place plantains and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large Dutch oven. Cover with water to 1 inch above plantains; stir to dissolve salt. Let stand 20 minutes. Drain plantains, and return to pan. Cover plantains with water to 1 inch above plantains. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain plantains; return to pan. Mash plantains with a potato masher. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, bacon, garlic, and broth. Shape plantain mixture into 24 (1/2-inch-thick) patties.Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 8 patties; cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Repeat procedure twice with remaining patties and oil. Serve chicken mixture over patties.

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For those of you that don't know, my favorite genre of books to read is Fantasy/Adventure. Currently I am re-reading Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. (Read it when I was about 12 or so.) Bought the omnibus edition which is all 10 books put into one massive tome! Got about 70 more pages to go out of the more than 1200 in the omnibus. Therefore, it is fitting that Phil and I won a sword in Norway. Maybe I should take up sword play as a hobby in the offseason.

The sword really was the driving force behind our victory. Both Phil and I talked a lot about winning the sword. Last year we saw Fabio with his sword and were quite jealous. They are real swords. Not sharpened thank goodness. Although the tip of the sword is very sharp and could mess someone up with a good thrust. The lady who gave it to me just about skewered me through the eye with it when we were on the podium.

The tourney itself was as always one of the best on the FIVB tour. The weather is a bit sketchy but that is Norway for ya. The fans here love there beach volleyball and are very knowleadgeble about the sport. They support their Norwegian teams with passion but also support other teams once the Norwegians are out of the tourney. They are loud and have fun but are never negative like some countries fans that chant ahole when you are about to serve.

In our pool we played the 32nd ranked Norwegian team on Thursday morning. They are a young team that received the Wild Card and had never been in the main draw. We pretty much whooped up on them winning 10 and 11. They are physically impressive with both of them being tall and physical but extremely raw. In our second game we played the top Italian team and beat them in two 13 and 15 or so. Ricardo Lione was playing with a heavy heart as his father had just passed away the day before but played well nonetheless.

On Friday we had only one game and it was to see who would win the pool. We played the Swiss team of Laciga and Schnyder. We beat them in 3 games. The first game was not close as we won 21-14. They then switched tactics and served me jump float serves instead of trying to just bomb their jump serves. It worked. We were in a battle the whole second game. We were up 20-19 when Phil touched a line shot and set me a good set. I tried to be aggressive and bang it but got stuffed. I proceeded to get stuffed on the next 2 balls and we had to go to game 3. In game 3 I mixed it up well and we won 15-11 or 12 to win our pool and get the bye in the first round of playoffs.

Saturday the playoffs started. We had the bye as I mentioned in the last paragraph and our first game was not until 2pm. The weather had been surprisingly good the last several days and Saturday was no exception. It wasn't really warm, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but there was no rain and the wind was very slight. In our first match we played the Japanese team of Shiratori and Asahi. They had beaten a Norwegian team to get to that point and it was a big victory for them. They are now tied with the Canadiens for 25th in the Olympic standings and both teams are only 40 points behind the 2nd Chinese team to get into the Olympics. We beat them 14 and 17 and were in control for the majority of the match. In our second match we played the first Chinese team. They are trying to get into the top 6 for Olympic points as that would put them as the first seed. If they are 7 or below they become the 6th seed in the Olympics. I started off slow on some tough jump serves by Tiny but Phil played really well especially from the service line. He and Tiny were both bombing their serves and became a story of who would serve better to win the match. Phil won over Tiny and we won 16 and 19 scoring a real point on an out hit by the right sider to win the match.

On Sunday the weather took a turn for the worse. Woke up to rain and wind and it wasn't looking good. It did slow down however and there was very little rain while we were playing. It was kind of windy but inside the stadium court it was much reduced because of the blockage by the stands. We played the 2nd Dutch team in the semis. It was their first semi ever but they didn't play like it. The first game was a good game going back and forth. We pulled it out by a few in the end though. The second game we were the beneficiaries of some no touch calls on Phil and won pretty easily. Congrats to the Dutch on their best finish ever. This team keeps getting better and better and could be a real threat come Beijing.

In the finals we played Germany's Reckerman and Urbatzka. It was the third week in a row that we played them in the playoffs. The last two we beat them to give them a 5th and 9th respectively. They played really well in the first game and really should have won that game. They were up 18-14 serving. We sided out and then scored two points to get it back to 17-18. They sided out but so did we and we scored another point to even it up. They had one set point at 20-19 but we sided out and took the next point to go up the set point. It took us 8 more set points but Phil got a block to seal the victory at 29-27. The second game we were always a little bit ahead of them. We would very between 1 and 3 points ahead and then they would always bring it back to a 1 point difference. At the end it was 15-14 us. We sided out and then went on a mini run with Phil making a couple of big blocks. It ended on Urbatzka's angle bang being an inch out and we were the winners of some sweet swords.

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Barcelona, Spain, May 27, 2008 - Led by the Brazilian Salgado sisters, eight teams advanced through the women's Qualification Tournament to the Main Draw here Tuesday for the US$350,000 Hyundai Open Barcelona set on the steps of the picturesque Placa Carles Buigas. After four-straight SWATCH FIVB World Tour stops within the Asian Volleyball Confederation in Australia, China, Korea and Japan, the women's international Beach Volleyball circuit is playing for the first time this season in Europe with the inaugural Hyundai Open Barcelona also featuring men's Country Quota matches for teams from Brazil, Italy, Norway and Spain on Tuesday afternoon.

Americano new top 10 >>> beach volleyball

Americano news >>> beach volleyball

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.

Americano news >>> beach volleyball

All information >>> beach volleyball

Americano news >>> beach volleyball

Americano new top 10 >>> beach volleyball

More info about >>> beach volleyball

April Chapple is a freelance copywriter for volleyball products and promotions, columnist for USA Volleyball and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaching Volleyballmagazine and author of numerous online articles on playing and coaching volleyball. Author of the upcoming ebook "How to Stop Serving Like a Wimp" April's volleyball sites are volleyballvoices.com, volleyballvoyeur.com, beijingolympicvolleyball.com, and aprilsbeachvolleyballog.com. She can be reached at april@volleyballvoices.

More info about >>> beach volleyball

your best pictures to us and we will pick some suitable ones to place them around the forum.", "Do you like the beach? Do you like the game? Do you like to make friends? Do you wish to get updated of news, events and good lobangs? We have more than these for you! Register as member today!", "Built with passion, join us today and be part of the warm-hearted Singapore volleyball committee. Registration is simple and fast.

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Americano top 10 >>> beach volleyball

Americano top 10 >>> beach volleyball