The Weekend...

So I know that the first thing I should mention is the volleyball game on Saturday night (big win) but I'll save the best for last. Yesterday on tv we saw some more... shall we say, obscure sports. Did anyone know that there is an international governing body for the sport of Tug-of-War? This weekend the world championships were held in Italy and it was televised here in Russia. Yes, really. The commentators talked strategy and lamented the lack of funds for training, and explained the roles of different team members and of the coach, who guided the synchronized tugging. There appear to be different weight classes/categories, and matches are best two out of three. If anyone is interested, there is a TOW federation in Canada - www.catowa.org.

Obscure televised sport number two - table soccer. We saw some table hockey on tv a few weeks ago and thought that was funny... but the soccer table doesn't use any pulleys or handles but relies on the flick, the one-handed flick, to get the ball rolling. Only one hand can be used to flick/motivate the plastic athlete to kick the ball (hopefully to one of his teammates). I'm not sure if this sport will catch on with the ladies - there weren't any female players. This was on one of the Italian channels that we get, and though there isn't currently a league, there are regularily scheduled tournaments. Wow.

OKAY! Volleyball... so the match was huuuge. Well, the win was huge. They weren't expected to beat this team and I am so glad that they did - the other team was super whiney and complained incessantly to the ref... and to each other - definitely not exemplary behaviour with regard to respect, sportsmanship etc. It was a five-setter and it could have gone either way I guess... with both teams up and down like yo-yos. Yaroslavich came through in the end for the win, and everyone was happy. There were some fans that came with a Canadian flag so that was exciting... they were from a neighboring town and had come to watch the hockey game, but rushed over to the volleyball match as soon as it was done.

So that's about it... we had a mellow night on Saturday and last night I made a yummy dinner - beer battered fish and chips (I had no idea what fish I was buying.. luckily it tasted good) and brownie pudding for dessert. This recipe was SO easy... and so fast. And so yummy: www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Pudding-Cake-II/Detail.aspx

Hope everyone had a great weekend!