red hair and black leather

FOOTBALL!!!

They're fast, furious and a force to be reckoned with.

"They're fundamentally much stronger than the guys are," said Jim Stahl, their coach.

And, fundamentally all-female, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports. Meet Chicago's other professional football team.

"It's not powder puff. It's not flag. It's real, tackle football and people are surprised by the collisions and the hits," said player Linda Bache.

The style of reporting is fluffy, but whatever. I wonder if the Bay Area has a team. I should find that out.

SAU 2, TUN 2. Amazing match, actually. Neither team gave up, and a truly pretty goal at 93 minutes by Tunisia's Jaidi.

Next up, Germany vs. Poland. That is going to be an interesting game. A little tense, with Polish hooligans threatening violence for the past few months.

I am so very glad my boss is out of the office today - I can turn his flatscreen to face my cube and have the game up while I obsessively refresh the Guardian's minute-by-minute blog.

I tell you what - if Italy gets to the Final, I'm not going in to work that day, I'm going to stay in my neighborhood and watch the match with the insane Italians. Whee!

Check out this picture of l'Alpe d'Huez, the 16th stage of the Tour de France (today's stage). This is one of the most famous stage of the Tour, and this year? It's a time trial. Oy. It will probably be better in the long run for the frontrunners, but I cannot imagine not having a runup to that steep trail.


In other sporting news, I've managed to complete a 7-mile run yesterday and a 4-mile run today, in weather so muggy I look like I've just stepped out of the shower 5 minutes into my runs. Zach has been dubbed Best Husband To Be EvAH!, because he got up at 6 yesterday morning and fetched coffee and a scone for me so I could refuel after my run. I don't know why, but I had been having a severe mental block about the 7-miler. Between my knee and exhaustion, the three previous attempts had ended in ignomy. Yesterday's run was good, though. Strong and consistent, at least until the very last hill. Today's run was fast, minus the three 15-second stops to stretch out a recalcitrant quad. Tomorrow? A 6-miler. I'll have to see about running a different loop. I'm getting tired of the lakes, and I really need to do some hill work. Maybe I'll loop around and make the marathon mile 2 hill part of the course. That would be good training. Yes.