So I realized that I didn’t do one of these yesterday and now, unfortunately, the days are starting to blur together. So here goes on another edition of “Tales From The Deck”

After tonight’s session we felt extreme sadness. I’m talking like being on the verge of tears. Why, you ask? Because T-Dub!! finished 3rd in the men’s 200 Fly, thus not making the Olympic Team. I don’t know if there was anyone else in the meet we wanted on the team more than him, so when Gil Stovall swam the race of his life (props to him, that was badass!) we knew Davis‘ chances at punching a ticket for Beijing were reduced to zero. But he left it all in the pool. That was his best time. For our own selfish reasons, we want him to continue one more year — like a couple of his teammates — but we understand if he’s ready to move on. Seeing how upset his mom (whom we adore) was after the race, was almost too much to bear.

And the sadness didn’t end with T-Dub!! It also extended to Miss Kaitlin, a regular Swim Aid reader. She’s been fighting a string of health maladies and injuries in recent months, the after effects causing her to lose critical strength and stamina. But, she’s been dealing with it like a champ and with the smile we’ve all come to love. She’s going to be in the AquaZone Friday, so everyone go, say “hi”, and wish her well! And please know that she’s ok. She wants people to know she’s not on suicide watch or anything.

Other National Team veterans who look to be on the outside looking in include Tara Kirk, Rachel Komisarz, and Neil Walker. Both Tara and Neil were regular Team USA captains. So this is going to be an adjustment. Tara has another race in the 200 Breast, but with such a deep women’s field, you just never know! We wish her good luck in that race!

Today’s session really broke our hearts though. There were a lot of happy moments, but I think the sad outweighed the good from our point of view. We were elated at Allison Schmitt and Caroline Burckle making the team. I’ve called Allison to the team before, and as recently as last night. She’s such a great kid and we love how her personality calms others before races. She was classic in her press conference tonight. Classic. It didn’t even sink in that she was on the relay until that presser when a reporter asked her about it.

I’m going to put the rest of this post behind a cut because it is looooooong as hell. I’m not kidding! So get to clickin’ to read on.

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I’m looking forward to a long night of sleep tonight, but before I do that it’s update time suckas!

1. Keep an eye on SwimNetwork.com in the near future. You’ll be able to get to know yours truly a little better. That includes a little more insight on my work at SwimStars.org

2. Because of the previous line, and a couple of other events this weekend, I’m beginning to realize that my so-called anonymity is disappearing in the swim community. Not sure if that will ultimately be a good or bad thing! I guess I’ll have to wait and see!

3. Everyone send good thoughts to dear ol’ T-DUB (Davis Tarwater, for those of you who are new around here). He’s sick and shouldn’t have even made the trip down to Columbus for the Grand Prix. Get better, playa! Pimpin’ aint easy, and you can’t do it when you’re sick.

4a. I am personally taking credit for “breaking” PVK. It’s taken a while, but I finally have him trained very well. Not only does he look more comfortable on the awards podium, but he poses for my camera too. Another thing we Swim Aids have been chomping at the bit to witness was a show of any kind of emotion out of him after a race. Well, I got to see first-hand, the Vander-fist-pumpâ„¢. It was well worth the wait and I successfully captured it for all to see. No, not right now. Later. Although I will be sending his mama the first picture. She couldn’t be here this weekend and I know she’d love to see it!

4b. BTW, props, again, to PVK for his 400 & 1500 Free swims. Holy cow!

5. Felicia Lee swam 5746726094 races his weekend and still had a smile on her face at the end of the night. She’s too cute. Unfortunately, I was unable to fold her up and put her in my pocket. There’s always next time!

6. I got caught in the crush of young fans/volunteers trying to get autographs from PVK, Phelps, and Kaitlin. They told me they were leaving immediately after the session to head back up to Ann Arbor, so I was getting in my social time then. I wasn’t planning on sticking around that long, but before I knew it, I was surrounded. So I just went with the flow, helping fans get their autographs and taking pictures for them as they posed with the CWers. I always enjoy seeing the swimmers interact with their fans. I can almost picture them, when they were younger, doing the same thing. There were so many fans that wanted autographs, but they had to leave and hit the road, so the informal signing was cut short. I got a couple of shots of Phelps, but couldn’t take any of PVK and Kaitlin since they were signing right next to me. I don’t make a habit of sticking Bertha right in the face of someone standing inches from me. Talk about awkward!

7. It’s been a while since I’ve covered a full meet. Now I’m itching for another. Could it be Santa Clara? We’ll see!

8. My SPA groupies wanted to go out after their coach went to sleep, but there aren’t any places near campus or downtown that don’t card, so they were out of luck there. That may have been different if my brother, who works as a bouncer, were working tonight. But alas, he wasn’t, so no party there.

9. I shall miss Peter Bick, but I will see him at Trials. If I do make it to Santa Clara, it will be weird to not pal around with him. However, if I’m at Santa Clara, I’ll have my dear kiwi to keep me company!

10. Final Thoughts: I really hope that this Ohio State Grand Prix is a yearly event. I really like having a big national meet here in my own backyard. It’s nice to not always have to travel to meets. I thought everything went really well and the meet ran very smoothly, was well-attended by fans and top swimmers alike, and featured some fast swimming. Can’t ask for much more, can you?

My thoughts aren’t very organized because I am so freakin’ tired right now. I forgot how much I hate mornings. Here’s what I got.

1. [begin rant] Club Wolverine is anti-social this meet. They are hiding under the diving platforms. If they think my black ass is going all the way over there for them, they got another thing coming! They should have chosen a nice bleacher area just like every other freakin team did. Snobs. [end rant]

2. Kaitlin is excluded from that rant. I caught up with her for a second after her 200 Free prelim. I timed it perfectly and got a wet hug from her. What did I get for my effort and planning? She called me a stalker. God bless Kaitlin Sandeno.

3. Paul Yetter is still my fave coach. I missed all of the women’s 200 Free races because we were chatting. If I intend on kidnapping 2 of his swimmers this weekend, I have to butter him up. BTW, my fellow Swim Aids, he asked about you all and says hi!

4. The Hoff is still cool as hell. Got my 1st wet hug of the day from her. She’s the one who told me where CW was hiding. Apparently those LZR suits have adventurous zippers. When they’re at the top, they’re fine, but once you start unzipping them, they just wanna keep going and going and going. With my help, Katie almost mooned the crowd. That would have been classic, no?

5. Ian isn’t here. He has food poisoning lots of schoolwork. Everyone say it with me in their best Shannen voice: “Awww, Ian!” Neil Walker has the flu. Poor Longhorns.

6. Peter Bick is awesome. He keeps me company since I am posse-free this meet.

7. MEGAN ROMANO! While still ghetto, she is as funny as ever! I’d say I spent 80% of the session with her. I even smuggled her food from the hospitality room. Felt like a drug deal. But don’t tell her coach! He’s not supposed to know! Ever wondered where she wants to go to college? She’s going to be a senior in the fall. Well? Megan wants to be a Florida Gator, although she says she’s not too sure. She likes to point out their hot male swimmers to me. Sounds like her mind is made up! Also, her boobs are too big for the LZR suit she wore during prelims. How’s that for embarassing?

8. I saw a new NIKE suit that I really like. It’s black/white, which, to me, equals perfection. I 1st spotted it while hanging with Peter Bick and he inquired whether it was the suit or the suit-wearer that I really liked. Well played, Peter. Well played. For the record: I liked both

9. Coach Bob looks like he’s lost weight. We exchanged pleasantries in the hospitality room.

10. Did a litle OSU Spring Football Game planning with my bro’s friend, and GCSTO coach Tommy. We’re gonna get crunk. Mark my words.

11. Kate Ziegler loves the design I put together for her official website. We’re gonna hook up later and discuss it further this weekend. She didn’t mention being plum tuckered out, though.

12. I miss my fellow Swim Aids (and Mama VDK). While I may not have you guys around to entertain me, I think I have plenty of people to keep me company.

*Whew* I think that’s it.

I don’t think it really gets any better than this.

Usually, we bitch and moan about how expensive swim trips are for us and how we can never afford them. Not the case, this weekend. Well, at least for me! A crapload of the National Team will be in my hometown for the Toyota Grand Prix at the Ohio State University. Perfect!

Not only do I have no travel expenses, but also not lodging issues either. Because of my media credentials I don’t have to pay for tickets. And the cherry on top, is that my dad works at the Ohio State hospital and I’m ganking his parking pass for the weekend, so I won’t have to pay for that, either!

The only negative for this meet — yes, I was able to find one — was that my Swim Aids posse will not be with me. I’m on my own this weekend. I will take my alone time and roam the deck. I will try to harass as many of my faves as possible. I will stop by the SPA area and catch-up with Megan “Too-Ghetto-For-You” Romano, as well as NBAC crew, led by our fave coach. And if they’re lucky, I’ll shout-out my CW peeps. I miss those kids.

If you want the goods, I’m going to try and post as much as possible on Swim Stars Live. It’s going to be harder than usual with no help from my girls.

If I have funny stories/pictures/etc., that’ll probably end up here; unless it’s CW-related. All CW anecdotes will be shared on MGoSwim.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

I thought I’d add a little wintery effect to our home on the interweb. Mostly because of how the warm weather Swim Aids always claim they want snow. (They don’t. They don’t realize you have to drive in it.) So here is their snow. It’s much better this way. Trust me.

Anyway, sorry we are boring again. Lots of training trips about to kick into gear, so not a lot of news.

A few of us will be congregating in H-Town for NYE, so that should be crazy. Don’t expect us to post much evidence of our shenanigans on here. Could be very incriminating. And we don’t need that, do we?

College football bowl season is upon us. So, that’s what’s been occupying most of my freetime. I’m not going to lie.

In other news, our fave CW duo is doing a clinic together today in Virginia. Oh, to be a fly on the wall…

Now we know that we have the category set here titled “Club Wolverine Owns Us”, but perhaps we need to change that to something else and start a “Ryan Lochte Owns Us” one. Because we owe him like 59175093750 cases of Heineken. We don’t owe Club Wolverine nada. Actually, if you think about it, they prolly owe us a little somepin’ somepin’…

So, down in Hotlanta, The Lochte is tearing shit up. We just love seeing that. And picking up our Heineken incentive plan from Worlds ‘07, we continue with the Short Course Nationals.

The tally, after 1 day, is as follows:

It’s too bad we don’t really keep track of how many we owe him. Just know that said number is far too high! He knows all he has to do is let us know when/where he wants some and we’ll hook it up! We take care of our own.

Now back to the whole CW issue. Y’all know that if they had a blog, they would have a category that was named “The Swim Aids Own Us”. It’s just a fact.

It’s been a couple of weeks. Time to get back to what we do best around here, right?

So with “The Game” set to jump off tomorrow in Ann Arbor, it reminded me that we haven’t written a Michigan-specific post in a couple of weeks. We know, we know. That’s unacceptable. We’ll be better! We promise!

OOPS, MY BAD!
I’m not sure where I was or what I was doing when the Michigan boys travelled to Bloomington, IN for meets against IU and Texas. I remember being jealous that I wasn’t going to be able to see those meets; especially because the Longhorns almost never venture this far north during the NCAA season. Anyway, long story short, Texas swept both IU and UM, but UM defeated IU. It didn’t hurt the boys though. They actually rose one spot in the CSCAA poll to #4. Represent! I know the boys are likely bummed this week seeing as how they’ll be away at Northwestern when “The Game” jumps off. But that’s what cell phones are for. I’m sure they’ll be routinely updated as to what’s going on. I know it’s not the same as being there, but what can ya do? I expect 3 (yes, 3) Michigan wins this weekend. 2 from the swim team and 1 from the football team.

“THE GAME”
If you grew up in Ohio or Michigan, then you know what a big deal the Ohio State/Michigan rivalry is. Many will argue, but they don’t know. It is THE biggest rivalry in college sports. I grew up (and still live) in Columbus, so I’ve had all things OSU crammed down my throat for as long as I can remember. I didn’t go to school there, or anything. I’m not a fan. But don’t tell anyone around here that. I don’t want to get jumped. But what people fail to realize is that Columbus is not your average “college town”. It is actually the 15th largest city in the country. And there is a lot more going on here than just Ohio State. So I’d be willing to wager there are a whole lot more people like me than you’ve been led to believe.

Last year, when he asked me if I had any extra tickets for him to the big game in C-Bus, PVK told me that I “better be cheering for Michigan”. I was, but a lot of good that did them. Maybe I should be rooting against them this year? Hmmmm. All I know is that I want Mike Hart to get a win against OSU before he graduates. I also want a UM win so I can see the next hilarious thing he says to the media. Swimming needs a “Mike Hart”. For serious.

THE HUSKY INVITE?
Seriously? Why is the Michigan swimming team going to the Husky Invite in 2 weeks? There are some major invitationals and championship meets going down that weekend, such as the Texas Invitational (that Michigan used to go to) and the Short Course Nationals in ATL. So why is Bob dragging the boys out to Seattle for the Husky Invite? Did someone lose a bet? Is the team being punished for something? Who else is competing at the Husky Invite? Anyone? Bueller?

CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN ORDER
We’re afraid he’ll turn “hater” like his oldest brother, but we’re willing to take a chance. On behalf of all of the Swim Aids, we’d like to congratulate a Vanderkaay named Dane on being totally predictable and committing to the University of Michigan. We know you had to keep a little suspense going since everyone has had you as a UM lock for years. (Kind of like we know you’re reading this right now ) But let’s be real. I don’t think anyone would be able to stomach seeing a member of the Vanderkaay clan rockin’ anything other the Maize & Blue (during the NCAA season) and a CW (in the summer). It is simply not done. So Michigan completes the VDK Sweep. Hopefully we’ll see another sweep, in a few years, when Dane is voted a team captain; just like all 3 of his older brothers.

SWIM OFFS
++ I am well aware that this a long post. But it was necessary. You love it.++

++ Wasn’t commenter Messler supposed to hit up the Northwestern/Wisky/UM meets this weekend? If you see this and go, we’d love the 411!++

++ I thought everyone should know that Miss Hunninghake saw our shout-out post, emailed me personally, and sends her thanks for being so sweet. See why we love her?++