Our first match for some time comes tomorrow afternoon against Switzerland. Consequently, lunch was all about carbohydrate loading, but this meant eating a team favourite meal pesto pasta. There was not much hardship. Then, in the afternoon we had a team practice, game preparation and plenty of time to rest up 

On the home front, the team has been busy nursing a baby bird for the past two days. We think it is a baby crow. It fell out of a tree in our courtyard over here. It sits on a ledge, just out of the reach of the hundreds of cats there roaming through this hotel. It is so young that it still needs to be fed by its mother, so the team has taken on this role. We soak food in water and then feed it to the fledgling in a little spoon. Kelly Parker and Chelsea Buckland have taken the lead mother bird roles, and so far all their efforts seem to be working.

We have been telling the front desk that we need to get hold of the SPCA, or equivalent, for them to come and get Luigi ... but, they do not seem as interested as we are in saving Luigi's life. The only "help" they have given us is a suggestion that we put the bird on the ground so that it can fly. Unfortunately this also makes our little fella easy prey to felines. We have a conundrum.
 

This evening D, Sinc, Robyn and I got back to playing euchre. Our card games have obviously been on hold while Sincy is away with her WSL club team. This is too bad for D and I, as it appears she has been practicing while away. She and Robyn even beat us in both games we played. Mind you, they were probably cheating. These two wins by Sincy and Robyn bring their all -time list of wins to a total of ..... 3. We will be wiping the smiles off their faces when we resume playing tonight.

Canada will play Switzerland today at 8;00 EDT in Rome. And they'll play Wednesday in Switzerland at 12 Noon EDT.