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and her refusal to surrender points without a fight, even if it meant flying all over the court. She became the world number-one ranked singles player in 1995, competed in the Olympics three times, and over the course of her career won four Grand Slam singles titles and six Grand Slam doubles titles. She was also the first woman since Martina Navrátilová in 1987 to simultaneously hold the number one ranking in both singles and doubles. In 2007, Arantxa was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame—only the third Spanish player (and the first Spanish woman) to achieve such an honor.

CRISTINA SÁNCHEZ DE PABLOS

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The bullfighter Cristina Sánchez de Pablos was born in Madrid in 1972 and debuted as a bullfighter in Madrid exactly one week before her twenty-first birthday. She enjoyed tremendous international success as one of the first females in the sport (“matadoras”), performing to great acclaim at bullrings in Mexico and Ecuador as well as Spain. During her career, she earned a total of 316 cuts. She retired in 1999.

ELENA GOMEZ SERVERA

Elena Gomez Servera, born November 14, 1985, on the island of Mallorca, Spain, was the first Spanish gymnast ever to win a World Championship title, and the first gymnast ever to complete a quadruple turn in competition. She won the World Championship title in 2002, and in 2003 she won the World Cup competition in Paris on the floor exercise and the bronze medal at the Anaheim World Championships. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Elena reached the finals on two events and finished in eighth place in the All-Around, helping the Spanish team achieve fifthplace standing. In 2006, Elena retired from competition after suffering a back injury.

Pressing Flowers

PRESSING FLOWERS is a nice skill to have when you wish to preserve some of your favorite blossoms from your flower garden. Also, pressed flowers make nice gifts when attached to a homemade card or bookmark. We like this project because it mixes daintiness with power tools.

To make the press, you’ll need:

ft Two pieces of wood cut into 6″ squares.

The wood should be ½″ to 1″ thick.

Four bolts, 2½ to 3″ long.

ft Four butterfly nuts, also called wing nuts, that fit the screws.

Cardboard, cut to 6″ squares. These are reusable.

Paper. While you have the scissors out, cut a supply of paper, same size as the cardboard. (You can also use special blotting paper.)

Drill.

Lay one piece of wood on top of the other with the paper and cardboard in between. Drill a hole ¾ of an inch from each corner, making the hole large enough for the bolts. Drilling the wood, cardboard, and paper at the same time keeps the holes lined up together, and that’s a handy tip for future projects.

To press flowers, layer in this order: bottom of the press, cardboard, paper, flower, paper, cardboard, paper, flower, and so forth. When you are done, place the top of the press over the stack. Then, tighten the bolts, and put the press away. In three to four weeks, the flowers will feel dry and rigid to the touch.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention several alternatives. One is the tried-and-true, stick-the-flower-under-a-heavy-pile-of-books method. Another, related, is the place-the-flower-in-a-random-book-on-your-shelf-and-find-it-a-year-later approach.

A more modern technique, for those who need their flowers dried fast (but not pressed), places the flower in the microwave, on a very low setting, for three minutes.

Four Square

TO PLAY, you need at least four people, and a bouncy, 8-12 inch rubber ball—a kick ball works well. Find a court on a local playground, or draw your own with sidewalk chalk, numbering each of the four squares one through four. The objective of the game is to work your way up from square number four to square number one by eliminating players in higher ranking squares.

Each player stands in a square (if there are more than four people who want to play, have the others line up behind square number one). The player in square number one serves the ball by bouncing it once and hitting it from underneath