I did watch the Big Game, and was, like many, surprised by how one-sided it was. I couldn't really get into it, having no dog in the fight, but as I don't have television and am not paying for any of the services that would get me the various cable sports services, this was the only gridiron game I saw all season.

Of more interest to me is that the COVID-delayed Australian Open tennis tournament started today (Monday morning Melbourne time), and much of it is available for free on ESPN3, so I'll get a chance to watch some tennis. Some of it is more likely to be on replay, sitting over on my personal computer in the background while I do my Day Jobbe; however, since we upgraded to much better internet connectivity last year, I have enough bandwidth to do so.

I'm in Yuba City today, having come down here last night. I have some business that has to be transacted at the actual bank where I have my account (I'm closing a safe deposit box that I no longer use before the box renews for another year). Then I head home via Dobbins to visit my mother for a short time before rushing home in time, I hope, to attend a Worldcon 76 division heads meeting.

Despite not setting an alarm and being up rather late (by my standards) last night, I woke up only about an hour later than usual. But that means I get to watch the conclusion of the Wimbledon Djokovic-Nadal tennis semi-final suspended by curfew last night. I might be able to see the women's final as well if this first match doesn't go like the marathon yesterday. (What is it about Isner and marathon Wimbledon matches?)

I'm not very good at April Fool's Hoaxes, in part because people take me so seriously.

Not an exciting weekend here, which is just fine with me. I had breakfast at the Wigwam (but did not win it back this time; easy come, easy go) and came home to watch the Miami Open WTA tennis. Later today, Lisa and I hope to take advantage of good weather to get started on a home-improvement project that has waited for the weather to stay above freezing and for which we bought more concrete a few days ago.

That's a new icon, prompted by how often I've been having breakfast at the Wigwam. The backdrop is my tote bag from the 2009 World Fantasy Convention in San José, which has given me excellent service and has traveled the world with me as my miscellaneous tote for many years now.

It turned out that the Atlantis (but not the Peppermill) was taking bets on the Australian Open. It is, however, just as well that I didn't go take a flyer on Milos Raonic, as Nadal took him out in the quarterfinal. So despite the top 3 seeded players knocked out, there is still the possibility of a Nadal-Federer final. On the women's side, it's three out of four women from the USA, and the possibility that the Williams sisters will face each other in a grand slam final again. Should be some great matches coming up.

It's Australian Open time again, and I'm watching as much of the tournament as I can, which isn't as much as I would like, because I do have to get sleep. But I'm enjoying what I've been able to see. I also sign up for the contests that include a trip to next year's Australian open, since you can't win if you don't enter.

A good thing about being home these two weeks is that I can watch the Australian Open coverage on WatchESPN. That's also the bad thing, because it leads me to stay up too late watching matches. So far, our serviceable-but-not-spectacular DSL service is managing to deliver the tennis from Melbourne. I did also sign up for the Tennis Channel sweepstakes for a trip for two to Melbourne for next year's Open. I think I'd really enjoy a trip to Melbourne that didn't see me spending nearly all of the time there dealing with a Worldcon and a Worldcon bid.

It's Australian Open time again, which is the Tennis grand slam whose matches happen at times actually convenient for me to watch, with the day sessions starting at 4 PM Pacific and the night sessions available on replay when I get up in the morning. I can run the night session replay as background on my other monitor while working. And working I was today. Other people get today as a holiday, but my company does not do so, and I was beavering away on a database project that had to be done by 2 PM. (I did make it.)

The Aussie Open is of course an ongoing commercial for Tourism Melbourne, with lots of lovely shots of the city. Not that I need encouragement to visit Australia again. I just need the money and time. Still, I can dream and put in my entries for the Tennis Channel contest that includes round-trip airfare for two to Melbourne, four days hotel accommodation in the Melbourne area, and admission to the first two days of the tournament next year. Hey, someone has to win!

I'm mostly too busy to pay hugely close attention to it, but thanks to the internet I have been able to watch a number of the matches from the Australian Open, including some amazing upset matches. Although sometimes it seems like the whole point of having 128 players in the draw is so that the 1 and 2 seeds can play a match, other times, like this year, you see that you play the matches to find out who is better that day, not who is better on the average, which is what the ranking tells you.

I spent much of today helping move more stuff out of the RetroDome Theatre and take it over to the warehouse where they are storing things until they get a new home. This was a great deal of work, and I said I was glad I don't do it as my Day Jobbe, but I was happy again to help. I snapped a few photos along the way, and if any of them turn out, I'll post them later.

I couldn't stay until The Bitter End because I had a ticket to the SAP Open tonight, and, covered with drywall dust and dirt and what-have-you, I needed to get back the apartment and shower and change before catching light rail downtown. I got to see a very entertaining exhibition match about which I hope to have enough energy to write tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I'm just glad that for the first time in over a week, I don't have to get up at 6 AM or earlier.

In less good news, while i was walking home from the light rail station, idly chewing a food bar, I forgot that I had a temporary crown on the right side of my mouth and managed to break it. I didn't swallow it, but the crown popped off. I cleaned off the largest piece and carefully put it back into place, but now I have to make due until Monday morning, when I hope that my dentist isn't taking President's Day off.

I had an early-morning dentist appointment in Redwood Shores, so I was up at 5:30 AM to I would be sure to be able to get there in plenty of time, which I did, arriving over an hour early. But I'm sure that had I left 30 minutes later, I would have been late — traffic was already slowing as I worked my way north from San Jose at 6:30 AM.

I've now had the chipped tooth ground down and measured for a gold crown, which might end up being a little visible as it's the bicuspid forward of the molars, although not directly forward-facing. I prefer gold on a crown because it's so durable and non-reactive. There's a temporary crown in place until the permanent one comes back from the lab next month.

If I thought the morning traffic was bad, it was nothing compared to the afternoon drive, which I heard one of the KCBS traffic reporters describe as the worst traffic day she'd ever seen, and that's saying quite a lot. I have no idea what caused every freeway in the Bay Area to simultaneously freeze up, but in my case it took nearly 90 minutes to go twelve miles.

I got to the SAP open around 7:30 PM on light rail from my apartment, just as a third-set tie-breaker was being played to finish Lleyton Hewitt's singles match with Sam Querry. Querry won, but that wasn't the last we'd see of Hewitt, as it was back later than evening for the doubles match (partnered with Marinko Matosevic) against the #1 ranked Bryan Brothers. (Top seeded Milos Raonic defeated Michael Russell 6-3, 7-5 in the first evening-session match.) To my surprise, Hewitt/Matosevic took the Bryans the distance and won the "match tiebreaker" played in doubles matches these days to upset the top doubles seeds 6-4, 6-7 (5), 10-7.

There was another doubles match to play, but it was after 10:30 PM and I have to work on Friday, so I headed back toward the light rail station. Rather than wait ten minutes for the train at San Fernando station, I "cut across" to Santa Clara, but that just meant I ended up catching the same Civic Center-bound light rail train I would have caught in the first place. That train unfortunately terminates one stop short of Gish, where I was going. I had the choice of waiting twelve minutes for the following Baypointe train or walking. I decided to walk. Google maps says it's 1.4 km. It was a draw, with me getting to Gish just as that following light rail train did. In the end, I walked 2.5 of the approximately 5 km between my apartment and the Shark Tank. Oh, well, it's good exercise.