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I'm happy to report that there are time trials available after each prelim session. This is great news to me because I was really hoping to get a shaved and tapered 50 free time since I can't be at trials when it's swum as an actual event. I will probably swim it on Wednesday afternoon around 1pm CST. I might try another event as well.

Breakfast was great, I'm headed to the Qwest Center now to swim, I can only hope it's still standing!

After a textbook night of sleep, I woke up at a planned 8:45am without an alarm. I'm happy I ended up in a hotel with comfortable beds, sleep is really important during the next few days. Everything feels as it should, I feel rested and ready to go. I've been very conscious of anything not feeling right regarding my limbs and joints. Overall I think I'm in good shape. My ankles are pretty sore, I think this is from wearing sandals a few weeks ago, I stopped wearing them about a week ago. I notice they kind of hurt when I do butterfly kicks, I doubt it will effect my race though.

While I was waiting around for the administration to open the pool back up, I got to walk around and people watch. As expected there are plenty of big name swimmers present. I saw Aaron Peirsol (WR 100 Back), Benden Hansen (WR 100 Breast, WR 200 Breast), Amanda Beard
(Olympian), Michael Phelps (wait, who?), David Cromwell (good 100 back), Eric Shanteau (good 200 Breast), Mary Descenza (good 200 fly), David Plummer (good 100 and 200 back)... Sure there were more but I'm forgetting now. The point being, it turns out that this meet has

After being herded like cattle to safer and safer areas of the basement of the Qwest Center the storm eventually passed. They evacuated the arena and conference center to assess the damage to the building. A few large areas of the exterior of the Arena have been ripped off my high winds. I'm now at a local high school practicing with the Minnesota team

The Qwest Center is leaking! They're bailing water out of the far side of the Arena side of the Qwest Center. The rain is flooding the area apparently.

I just looked at the news and it seems like the worst is over as the storm moves east. We should be able to get back in the pool soon.

Just as I was about to get changed, the announcer cleared the pool due to a tornado warning. The sirens went off and the pool cleared fairly quickly! We have been directed to move to a safer area within the building. A lifeguard told me that they've had 3 tornados on the ground in the last month. This is certainly a new experience, I've never delt with a real tornado warning.

I thought the Qwest center was fairly "done-up" for the swimvitational a few weeks ago! They have "USA Swimming" and "2008 Olympic Trials" banners and graphics tastefully stuck to anything that doesn't move! I ate not too long ago so I'm just sitting among the 15,000 seats taking it all in!

I'm getting registered and at this very moment I'm standing next to David Cromwell, a very fast 100 backstroker. Its sort of funny watching these people figure out what to do with my registration due to the fact that I have no team and no coach. I have 3 or 4 people TRYING to help me, they all look like they're just running around confused at the moment. I've been told they haven't had any unnattached athletes yet... I'm that special!

After a great 3 hour nap I got some quiznos and I'm headed to the Qwest center for the first time to practice. I'll probably do about 1500 meters and a few starts to test out my new backstroke start. I've been running into swimmers everywhere I go, there were quite a few from Penn on my flight and I saw a group from SMU at the airport. I feel like I was just here. The swimvitational was only 3 weeks ago now that I think about it. I'm really glad I came out here to test the pool and get used to the area. Its really easing the pre-meet stress to know exactly where to go and what to do.

I feel like I see advertisements for the Olympic Trials everywhere! There are banners and signs all over the airport. While waiting for my rental car I was informed that Eppley airport is actually ranked as the "cleanest airport in the world". I will admit it looked pretty spiffy.