Hilary Booth... of course!

ESPN2 showed the final of the Women's World curling championship between US and Sweden. Apparently they were just going to show some highlights, but the sport's Olympic popularity changed that, so we saw most of the match. The US ladies played quite well, considering they were up against the current Olympic and World champions. According to the US Curling website, the men's highlights will be on April 16th from 3-5pm EST.

I played local tourist today by going down to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. I couldn't have picked a better day. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with lovely blue skies and temperatures in 60s. The cherry blossoms were in perfect form in their pink-white glory. Not surprisingly, there were a million people wandering around. Those were more problems with refreshments and bathrooms than anything else. I had the feeling the Park Service was either not around or completely overwhelmed. I hope it was the latter. The Smithsonian station was so completely backed up when I went home I wound up having to walk up 7th to L'Enfant Plaza. A little more walking than I wanted at the end of a long day, but worth it to have a seat coming home.

Since I hadn't done the FDR or WWII Memorial before, I walked on that side of the Tidal Basin from Jefferson Memorial around. In honor of the Final Four, I also visited George Mason at his new memorial located before the inlet bridge over to the cherry blossoms. He looked quite happy to have visitors, even the children climbing all over him, interrupting his reading. The garden at the Mason memorial was beautiful, all forsythia and daffodils. FDR seemed more serene, although it was odd seeing so much frolic and fun from people while they were in the Great Depression section. Oddly disconcerting. The one problem with the FDR is it is laid out in chronological order, so if you come from the Jefferson side, you'll feel a little turned around. The WWII memorial was lovely and majestic. I was pleased they placed the main states I was interested in together, so I get a picture -- Pennsylvania for my WWII veteran grandfather, South Carolina for my grandmother, and Virginia for my home state.

I took a whole bunch of photos and hope some of them turn out okay.

Above all, I was really struck by how beautiful my hometown can be.

The lone curling club in Laurel, MD had an Olympic Open House last weekend. Alas because I was down with the stomach bug of choice I could not try to attend. Their website showed the turnout on Saturday. *meep* Apparently they had quite a turnout all three days.

How cute. The Os in Google today are curling stones. I watched the last two American matches. Both teams played badly. As bonus coverage, we also saw the Canadian women win their spot and wipe out the British-Scottish chances in one swoop. I'm hoping the guys shake it off for the "playoffs". I found myself thinking of the NFL "It's the Playoffs" ads and giggling for no apparent reason. The Canadian curler Brad Gushue looks like Bryan Singer.

Congrats to Belbin & Agosto for ending US medal drought in ice dance. The Russians weren't as painful to watch as they usually are.