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.

Before the tournament started, a few past champions made their picks on the winner this year. That ol’ brainiac Boris said these groundbreaking, wise words: “Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal. The better player will win.” Really? Very insightful.

Moved up one to #17 today thanks to one guy ahead of me thinking Federer would lose today. I’ll definitely move up at least another spot at the tournament’s end cuz another person ahead of me thought Roddick would win it all. Then, when Federer wins it, all the people ahead of me who thought Nadal would win will also drop and I could finish about 9th.

No, I didn’t forget to post yesterday; they don’t play on the middle Sunday. All four of the guys I had left advanced, the most dramatic of which was Andy Murray’s comeback from two sets to none down to win just before 9:30pm London time. I finished the day at #18. However, just as cousin Mark said, much of the remaining guesses are the same for everyone (a Federer-Nadal final), so it’ll be unlikely there will be much more movement. Indeed, none of the 409 participants have any more than four correct guesses going into the final eight. Side note: did you know you can download entire matches from the Wimbledon.org website? They’re WMV files just over one gigabyte.

Back up to #30. Rollercoaster ride, this game. A couple good picks helped and a couple popular picks of other people’s that lost furthered the cause. I have eight of the last sixteen players correct. Right now on the standings list I’m #1 on my Tennisopolis team and #5 in the U.S.

We’ve been working on reading this whole time of course, but tonight Brooks read a few pages of Dick & Jane on his own! He was so proud and excited!

Finished the day down 44 from yesterday to #75. At one point today I noticed I was around 150, so could’ve been worse! But Mario Ancic beat that fraud David Ferrer (GOD, I hate him - just kidding) late today, so that helped. So the top half of the draw is finished with their third-round matches and only three of my eight picks made it thru. Ugh. With tomorrow’s bottom half I still have five of the eight left. Go team!

Rebounded today all the way to a tie for #31, probably on the strength of a couple obscure picks who have made it thru. I’m #1 on my team (Tennisopolis.com) and about sixth in the U.S. Just six points off the pace and as the tournament progresses, more points are awarded for correct guesses, so the standings could really start moving now! Too bad a fourth player of my final eight is now gone too (Roddick). If Ferrer beats Ancic, I’ll eat my hat!