Down Go the Chinese

As expected, Zheng was no match for Henin. I think she only won a single game. Li however was a much bigger threat to Serena. Both sets came down to tie breakers. That does not give me a lot of confidence that Serena is going to kick me some Henin. I do not like Henin. Serena is not my favorite player either, but I like her a lot better than Henin.

Also, down goes the young Cilic and the dynamic Tsonga. I have only watched part of the Federer/Tsonga match, but it sure was an exciting opening. Federer won in straight sets and I was trying to figure out why I don't cheer for him. He is awfully pretty to watch. He should be my favorite, but.... I don't know. I guess I don't like him because it just looks too easy for him. Oh well. I am trying to like Murray, but so far I can't work up much enthousiasm. I think I will cheer for Federer in the final. He has earned it with spectacular play. We'll see about Murray.

In the doubles, the Williams sisters won, but espn2 didn't show it to me. Maybe that will be an encore match. Very little tennis left. Boo hoo. It is months and months until the French.

OHHHHH Great Tennis

So Petrova played Henin, but I only caught the very end of the match. Apparently Henin owns Petrova, so Petrova is out. Then Venus played Li. Again, my tivo did not tape the match so I didn't see Venus get beaten. I still have not seen Li play this year, but last year she had a good run at one of the turnaments, so she's no push over. Still she's no match for Serena. I did see Serena's match--oh my--what a stunner. Serena was down a set and at 4 games to her LOVE (that means zeroooo) and she came back and won the whole thing. Unbelievable. Sure Azaranka got a few nerves, but she didn't play horrible--Serena just played better. Can you imagine being two games away from winning a quarter final and beating the number one player in the world--haveing a four game lead--Azaranka lost 15 of the next 17 games they played. Talk about heart....break.... (a la Chick Hearns). So we have two Chinese (very unusual) playing Serena on one side and Henin on the other. Li is seeded 16th, but Zheng isn't even seeded. Henin is going to wipe the floor with her and then watch out for the final between Serena and Henin.

On the Women's doubles side it's all top seeds, so Serena and Venus will have a tough time, especially if Li plays Serena hard in the singles semi final. We shall see.

On the men's side--oh my oh my oh my. My supreme favorite Nadal out with an injury. My next favorite Roddick playing through pain almost survived the younger Cilic and then my least favorite--shouldn't even be in the category of favorite except that one time he beat Federer so he sneaked in, Djokovic played through pain, but Tsonga wasn't having any of it and he beat him soundly (though it took him five sets--only his second five set match of his entire career). And then Davydenko was trying to get into my favorite category taking a set off of Federer, but Fed closed him out in summary style in four. Sorry Davydenko you have not made my favorites category. So Tsonga, there is an opening in my favorites category if you take out Federer and then I will even cheer for you against Murray or Cilic. Although that Cilic is playing pretty bravely--I kind of hope that he gives Murray the what for--nah--Murray is pretty formidable--this may be his year to get into my favorites category by taking Federer out in the Final. If Cilic meets Federer, then that will be Federer's lucky day.

The Bryans are up against an unseeded pair in the semi's, but that's not to say that they won't be a challenge, but look for the Bryans in the final for the doubles.

Tennis Down Under

It is time for the Australian Open. Their time change makes the day matches for tomorrow start at 4:00 p.m. here and the evening matches for tomorrow start at midnight. Luckily, I have tivo. Everyone is playing, though a bunch of the women seeds are already out. Safina, tragically had to retire from her match with a back problem and I hadn't seen her play at all. Sharapova was out in the first round (to Kirilenko, the beneficiary of Safina's retirement, but don't look for another Oudin--even Oudin was out in the first round). No on the women's side we are getting down to Henin coming back from retirement facing Petrova (one of my favorites after Jankovic, and the Williams)--one of them will be in the finals and on the other side of the draw it looks like the sisters will be facing off. Serena is playing much better, so she should have an easy time through to the finals. If she plays Henin, that will be huge and I'll be cheering Serena on big time (we don't like Henin). If she plays Petrova, I might have to cheer for Petrova--she is playing really well. We shall see.

On the men's side, the seeds are through. Roddick, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are all through to the round of 8. Cilic played a great match to knock out Del Potro and Tsonga is playing at the top of his game. Davydenko is through, but I have to admit that I fast forwarded through his match with Verdasco. He is so low key--worse than Federer. I like him, but I don't expect any excitement in his game.

I was on pins and needles though the Roddick/Gonzales match. I really wanted Roddick to play well, but I was equally happy that Gonzo played so well. Gonzo is through to the next round in doubles, but I have to cheer for the Bryans. I was disappointed that Isner was out. He played terrific and I expect great things from him in the future.

There were a few really low points last week--I was so disappointed by Clijsters. She played so poorly that it was difficult to watch. Then Baghdatis came out and played the same way against Hewitt and had to retire. I hope they don't have the flu.

My favorite matches have been Nadal's--he is such a passionate, spectacular player--really fun to watch. I feel like he lets the other player get into the game to keep it close and then turns on his game for the big points. He's dropped a set in each of his last two matches and next is Murray who is definitely up and coming. This will be tough. Whereas, Federer lost only one set in the first round and has had a pretty easy time. I don't see Fed with much competition until the final, but Nadal has Murray and then Djokovic. Both of these guys have beat Nadal in the past and the Australian is not Nadal's surface. It promises to be a great week in tennis.

My dream picks: Nadal or Roddick (Fed would have to get the flu, haha) and Serena or Petrova (Serena wouldn't have to get the flu, but it wouldn't hurt). Play ball.

Friday Goodies

So all my clothes are too small. I have to go shopping for a new suit, because I have nothing to wear to court. Go on a diet I tell myself in an very unforgiving voice. Do you know how much I hate going shopping for a new suit?? I really hate it. I probably wore these shoes (tennis shoes that have to be laced up) on purpose to punish myself and make the suit buying business more tedious. Ugh.

Go on a diet, I tell myself in that smug voice I hate. But I didn't bring my lunch--very bad. I cooked it and walked right out the door and forgot it. That means I will go out to lunch, but I have to go shopping in the mall anyway, so. Except that will be a bunch of calories. No sense in starting a diet before that and I have to get the suit anyway, because it's not like I'll lose a size before next Tuesday when I'm going to court.

So I was driving to work, kicking myself for forgetting my lunch and dreading going shoping when I heard a news story about heroin users dying from anthrax. Apparently heroin in the the UK comes from Afganistan and Pakistan and they both have problems with the antrhax virus in their animals and so it's surprising to the health officials that they haven't seen more deaths from anthrax in the heroin using population. The only advice they can give heroin users is to stop using heroin. As a side note, they described that the spore of anthrax is particularly nasty--it forces your body to produce lethal toxins that basically explode your blood cells so that your organs explode and you bleed to death. As your blood runs out into the field (they were describing farm animals that get the disease) the spore of anthrax survives to contaminate others. That's its life cycle of the virus.

So I'm thinking about how impossible heroin users have it--stop using heroin, extremely difficult or risk having your blood cells and your organs implode in your body. Kind of reminded me that all this weight is going to lead to diabetes--pretty likely--probably more likely than that anthrax thing, but I don't want to be on a diet.

Then I get in the elevator and I remember that its friday. We have my most wonderful chocolate chip cookies from portos on friday. We haven't had friday goodies for three weeks. Our Christmas party was three weeks ago--seasonal home made goodies. Two weeks ago was Christmas. One week ago was New Years. My day was really picking up as the elevator ascended to my office. I tried to be nonchalant as I put my stuff down in my office and grabbed my cup to go to the kitchen. Happy Friday indeed.

No cookies. No goodies. There were some kind of odd pastries. Two of the guys were already going back for seconds and telling everyone in hearing distance how wonderful the goodies were today. I know the food chain in this place--these pastries are going to be showing up forever. Gone are the days of portos. Even if my opinion rated--I'm not allowed to ask for chocolate chip cookies from portos. I need to lose weight. I'm not allowed to want cookies. I should be thanking those crappy pastries for not interesting me in the slightest. They are doing me a great big favor. Thank you very much (sarcasm font).

Taxes

Well, I have all the info (well most of it anyway), so I sat down to do my taxes today and see how much the damage was. I made less this year (one less job) and I applied my refunds from last year to this years taxes, so the bill this year seems modest. Of course I have less money overall, but oh well.

My taxes are rather complex and though I am fairly conservative in my approach, I find myself wishing I were more agressive in my deductions. That very nice briefcase (that I never used myself) that I donated to charity was surely worth more than $100. But I just can't imagine that I paid more than $100. I would never spend that kind of money on a briefcase. Of course I did, because I am well aware that briefcases are very expensive, but I just can't fathom it. So I'm only deducting $100. It was a really, really nice briefcase. Oh well.

I am deducting my expenses from Glendale Beautiful. Those are business expenses. If I'm not there to drum up business, then there is no purpose at all. I also deducted the cost of my Christmas Cards. I sent out all my own cards this year to my clients. As I write this I realize that I should probably take half the cost off for friends and family (even though I of course want all my friends and family to call me if they need an attorney, but the folks in Michigan, Indianna, Georgia and Florida probably won't be calling.)

California has a very odd tax system. If you make slightly too much, you pay a lot more. Some years I only pay a couple hundred and other years it is over a thousand. My income does not vary that greatly percentage-wise. This year I will pay in the low hundreds. We are facing billions in deficit and I feel privileged to live in this state, so I'm feeling a little guilty for getting off so cheap. They owe me a big fat refund, so I was thinking about loaning it back to them interest free. Then I prepared my budget for the year and realized how much I could potentially go into the hole every month--never mind. I better finance my own budget deficit before I go trying to help California with their billions.