Today was all competition so if you don't want to know the results read this later!!!

We ended up sitting close to John Zimmerman and Silvia's mom. We waved at him and he actually recognized us! They looked nervous for her and he had something wrapped up with him probably to give to Silvia! I must say this competition was pretty disappointing. Messy, messy skating!

I am only going to report on those skaters who interested me today. I heard that ESPN showed lots of them!! Great!

Joanne Carter (AUS) is very strong and fast. Her jumps are excellent but her music was very boring and her program lacked intensity.

Maria B got lots of cheers from the crowd including a "You Go Girl"! Unfortunately she popped her 3z and skipped the 2nd jump! Oops! She also looked a little shaky on her other 2 landings. I have a feeling that the pressure of being so close to a world medal finally got to her.

Irina fell on her 3z but otherise skated well and is in 4th.

Silvia Fontana (ITA) is so wonderful. She didn't skate clean but smiled lots and continued to make us love her more every time we see her. John went down to the boards after her skate and hugged and kissed her and gave her some beautiful red roses. The whole crowd went "Awwww" it was very cute and I think they didn't get it on TV! Too bad!

Anna Rechnio (POL), as I keep telling you, is and was today AWESOME. She was one of only a handful to skate a clean program. HUGE jumps and great flair. She skated to Tara's theme from "Gone With the Wind". Don't miss her on TV Saturday afternoon and night!!!

Tanja S had a rough time including bumping into a flower boy and crashing into the boards after her combination. Her marks were unnecessarily low and I felt terrible for her but she managed to smile anyway! She's in 11th place.

Lenka Kulovana (CZE), the really tall one, landed one of the 2 triple-triple combo's of the day (Laetitia was the other)

I saw Karen Kwan and went over to talk to her. She really is tall! I asked her about some music questions I had and she seemed very smart and nice.

WAY TO GO MICHELLE!! She is totally in first place and had a great skate. The only flaw was a slightly off landing on the 2x. She even got a 6.0 from the Canadian judge for presentation. I bet there haven't been many international 6.0's in a ladies short program before today! We were totally crazy for her and didn't stop cheering for a long time!! There was so much stuff on the ice that the girl after Michelle had a hard time finding ice to skate on! Right as the next skater was holding her opening pose a lot of people started yelling. Apparently there was something on the ice. The announcer said "Mojca, please relax, there is something on the ice". Poor girl, the crowd cheered for her to try to help her!

Tonia K stepped out of her 3z but completed the 2t. The rest of the program was very good but the judges didn't agree. She landed in 8th. The magic number here is 12 BTW. If she ends up 12th or higher the US can send 3 ladies to the next Worlds.

Lucinda Ruh (SWI) barely qualified for the LP but got the crowd going with her spins. Her best spins are in the long but she probably won't make it on TV.

After the ladies, Laura & I went on a wild goose chase to try to find big American flags to hold up. We are really looking bad compared to the Canadians. We finally found some (Thank you Menards) and got back after the first group of dancers. Here are a few highlights. The #2 Italian team (Gerencser & Camerlango) had the coolest program of the night. They had really intricate costumes including painted lines and symbols on her tights. Their music was called "Tsunami" and was very tribal, it even included a Lion's roar.

The worst music of the night came from the Czech team Mrazova & Simecek. They totally ruined Bach's Toccata & Fugue by adding a trap set to it. It was so bad I covered my ears for a while. Later in the evening the team that is coached by Alexander Zhulin (Navka & Morozov from Belarus) also skated to a bad version of the same piece. They are very good skaters though.

Punsalan and Swallow were magnificent, (I LOVE this program) They got a rousing standing ovation but unfortunately placed 6th. I thought they should have at least been 5th if not 4th! We saw them come out and sit in the stands for the last group of skaters. They did not stay for the medal ceremony though.

Winkler & Lohse (GER) skated well but he had on the worst pants. They were actually see through and so it looked like he was wearing black underwear with sheer pants over them, YUCK.

The top 3 dance teams were very exciting and I love them all. After B & K's Riverdance we all couldn't wait to jump to our feet. It was very exciting as we knew it would be! The crowd definitely was partial to Bourne & Kraatz and booed the judges loudly many times including when the referee's were announced for the ceremony! People were even holding up signs about the bad judging!

The ceremony was nice and they all congratulated each other. Tomorrow is the big day!!! GO FOR THE GOLD MICHELLE!