I first must say that I can't believe all the articles about how terrible it is that so many people withdrew! Oh well! Everyone is having such a great time watching those that are here that I don't think people even think about who's not!

Michelle arrived today and will be in practice tomorrow morning before the men's qualifying round. There are always 2 hours of practice going on before they let us in so I might miss her!!

This morning as I walked in I saw Tonia on the ice. She was almost done when I arrived but I did get Glynn Watts to introduce me to Carol Heiss. She was one of the nicest people I've met yet. She of course is beautiful but also seemed genuinely glad that I was interested in her and wanted to meet her. I got her autograph and picture, my first from an Olympic Champion!! Cool!

I saw several ladies practice their short programs including Joanne Carter (Australia), Yankun Du (CHN) and others I've mentioned earlier. Joanne Carter was very impressive she is a strong jumper and even did a 3 toe, 3 toe combination! She was very fast and had excellent spins. She is definitely one to watch! Yankun Du skated to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and landed all her jumps well. She is a complete skater and could do well here. I can't believe that in an article about Ladies' Contenders it included Angela Derochie (CAN). She seems like a lovely person but has yet to land a 3 lutz. She kept trying over and over again but no success!

I saw Barbara Underhill when she was getting set up by the CTV announce booth. I must have been the first to notice and/or recognize her because I rushed over to meet her and get her autograph. She was talking with a friend and didn't even say "Hi" or anything to me while she signed my book. I wanted to tell her that I loved her and Paul's skating over the years and would miss them very much. She did not seem pleased to be asked for an autograph and thus ignored me. I was surprised because I thought she would be a little friendlier.

Vanessa Gusmerolli still hasn't shown up but the other 2 French skaters were there again. I read an article about Laetitia hoping to be world champion! Whatever! Her practices have been a mess! She angrily kicks the ice when she falls and almost always seems crabby. When she does them her jumps are great but that's about it. Marie skates also to "Fever" and did great. Among others she landed her 3 lutz, 2 toe combo and said "yeah" when she did! She seems young and inexperienced but very promising and exciting to watch. Silvia Fontana (ITA) again impressed us with a 3 lutz, 2 toe combo and many others. She is one of the most beautiful skaters here and BTW trains in Lake Arrowhead. Bright faced Lenka Kulovana (CZE) almost landed a 3 toe, 3 toe combo and has a good Biellman spin.

I then left to go to Parade for the ladies long program practice. When I got there Tanja was skating and as usual was beautiful. She easily landed all her jumps except for the 3 loop. It took her 7 tries to land it. During her run-through she even waved at us who were cheering for her. She landed a high 3 lutz, a 3 toe, a 2 loop, fell on 3 flip, landed 3 sal and 2 axel. Diana Poth (HUN) is very exciting also I think I saw a 3 loop, 3 loop. Shizuka Arakawa (JPN) had a nice combo of spiral then spread eagle into 2 axel.

We saw the US Ice Dancers and got their autographs and told them how excited we were to finally see them skate live. Liz had LOTS of makeup on, Wow! I also saw Elena Sokolova (RUS) wandering around and got her autograph. She skated very well in practice and landed some awesome combinations including 3 toe, 2 loop; 3 toe, 3 toe; 2 loop, 3 toe, 2 loop and 3 lutz, 3 toe! This girl can jump!!!! Maria & Irina didn't come to this practice.

I saw Christy Ness (Kristi Yamaguchi's coach) and got her autograph. She is coaching Lucinda Ruh (Switzerland) She's the one with the incredible Biellman spin that we saw on TV at the 1997 Worlds. Unfortunately she has a bad back and will not be doing it. BUT she is by far THE BEST spinner I have ever seen in ladies skating. You will go crazy if/when you see her on TV. Her positions are very creative and require amazing flexibility. They are also a blur they are so fast. Her jumps were not so good but I hope she can pull it together when it counts.

I saw a little dancing today including the US teams. Punsalan & Swallow were very good and Joseph & Butler did well also. They are so young but will improve much over the next years. The crash victim from yesterday seemed fine today, thank goodness! Winkler & Lohse (GER) also skate to Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet and did a beautiful job interpreting the music. They had great flow and beautiful unison. Shae-Lynn is so adorable to watch during practice because she is often dancing around to the others music and directing, sort of, with her hands! They did Riverdance again and got this crowd all excited too! Amazing presentation by both of them. I thought the other Canadian team (LeFebvre & Brunet) were fun to watch as well.

I heard from a friend that Todd was at the practice at Target Center earlier which I missed :( and landed a 4 toe, some 3 axel, 3 toe combos and a 3 lutz, 3 toe also. He has committed to trying a quad in qualifyings tomorrow, we'll see!!!

Then on to pairs long program practice. Abitbol & Bernadis (FRA) were here finally and were one of the best I've seen yet. They have a very cool pairs spin in the long, watch for it! Schwarz & Mueller are also fun to watch. He landed a 3 toe and I'm not sure about her. They have a huge throw 2 axel.

TODD, he is the man!! He is so far superior to the other men I have seen. He landed everything he tried and only doubled one or two jumps the entire session! What was most amazing to me is that during the 6 minute warm-up period where most skaters just get their legs under them and try a few double jumps, Todd was landing 3 axel, 2 toe's like they were nothing! Once he got going they were all 3 3 combos. He gets so much height on his jumps and that is why he had such clean landings. Have you ever seen Todd have a shaky landing? NO! It's either perfect or he falls. I actually was the first to get Todd's autograph. I think that I have been given lots of luck in this area because I am staying up late every night to write these reports!!:) I also saw his mom there today. I heard that Michael Weiss was in practice this morning but I have not seen him myself yet.

I went back to the Target Center for the pairs short program practice. Again no Russians (this is really disappointing) The beautiful Polish pair (Zagorska & Siudek) had the place to themselves and about 3500 fans to cheer them. No Meno & Sand yet but Ina & Dungjen again had a great practice except some trouble on the 3 toe by Jason. He finally got it after a few tries. Their combination lift in the short is very exciting and it seems like she gets higher and higher as it evolves. The Ukrainians (Filonenko & Marchenko) could also do well. They landed great side by side 3 toes (one of the few pairs to do so yet) have excellent speed and very nice lifts.

Also, I found out that Christine Brennan will be signing her new book "Edge of Glory" on April 5 here in the twin cities.

That is all folks, be back tomorrow with Men's Qualifying and Michelle's first day at practice!