Tired. Exhausted. Sick?

Well, this morning I woke up with a half cough. I spent most of the time with my eyes glazed over. I took a nap in my car during my lunch. I got home around 3:30 and slept until 6. I'm getting ready to hit the sack.

I hope I'm not getting the flu that is going around. I don't have time to get sick. My day of art with my friends has been canceled on Saturday because of too many people being sick.

Curled last night. Our team lost to Linda Draper's team. We were ahead by 1, but she had hammer, and scored 3 points. It was a fantastic shot.

I spent some time working on my delivery on Tuesday as well as Wednesday. Sliding with a rock to the hog line, making sure I stay balanced. Getting better. Only missed the broom a couple of times yesteday, and it was on the outside shots!

I want to be a Rockstar Curler!!

So over the weekend, one of the 2nd year curlers told me about a competition, where they will select 5 people to train and compete for the 2010 Olympics. I'm only a first year curler, and I doubt I'll get a shot at it, but that doesn't stop me from being super excited at having submitted my application.

Ah the dream of curling for 6 months, 8 hours a day. I don't doubt it will be hard work. I'd give a couple of teeth for a chance.

My husband Jeremy and I have been curling since October. We belong to two leagues, the Sunday Novice League, and the Friday open. We are permanent subs on Tuesday, and I'm a permanent sub now on the Wednesday Womens league. We are also known to sub on the Sunday night mixed league and Mondays as well. Just a little curling crazy!!!

There are so many things that I am curious about this competition. Who are they going to select to try out? Do new curlers even have a chance? When are they closing the applications? Where are the try outs going to be? I can hardly stand it.

Jon Bonjovi and the Boss are closet curlers?
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2008/02/11/curling-rockstar-boss.html

Last place in the 5 and under Bonspiel.

Well, I'm fairly disappointed to say, that Team Pirie took the booby prize in this years 5 and under. We played fairly well in the first round robin, and ended up in the S bracket, as S-3. From there, we couldn't hold it together, starting with our first game, where we got skunked 9 - 0. It continued to fall apart from there.

However, we had a most excellent time, and came away with this lovely parting gift of chocolate truffles. It was pretty amusing, considering I was wearing a pig fleece hat. It was as little disappointing that nobody else chose to do anything funky for the bonspiel. Jim's wife Sahara, wore her kitty cat knitted hat, but that was pretty much it.

After the bonspiel, I lost the first game I skipped in the novice league by two points. However, I did have a big 3rd end, where we scored 6 points. One of the ends we lost was followed by the the advice "Never attempt to follow a perfect draw with another perfect draw."

We hung around for the first draw on the mixed league, as Jeremy was subbing for Ian. I picked up Gravity after we dropped Derek off, and then my hubby. Lots of other cool things that I am missing, but I am just too tired. Oh, and there were many hat compliments. Mostly "Nice hat." Not sure if they were sarcastic "Nice Hats" or if they really meant it, but comments just the same.

Hogged it hat.

Tadaaaa!! My first fleece hat, has morphed into my first 5 and under bonspiel hat!
This gal ain't going to be hogging any rocks on Saturday! Once again, come and support Jeremy and I a the curling club. Address and times below!

Gravity was not impressed by my hog hat.

5 and Under Bonspiel this Sat. Come and watch!!

The Seattle Granite Curling Club is having their annual 5 and under bonspiel this weekend. It is open to all club curlers who have 5 or less years of curling under their belts.

I will be playing in the A-2 team, along with Jim Pirie, Chris O'Brien, and Steven Kilpatrick.

Please come and support us!

The times that I will guaranteed to be curling at:

First Draw 8:30 AM
Second Draw 9:45 AM
Third Draw 1:30 PM
Fourth Draw 2:45 PM

The Round Robins start at 7 PM.

1440 N 128th St
Seattle, WA 98133
(206) 362-2446

Gravity is sick.

Poor Gravity. Poor me. Gravity must have gotten into something today. She did not keep her dinner down. Yuck. At least she didn't hurl on our new Ethan Allen rug.

Had a great time over the weekend. Melissa, Joe, Jeremy and myself went up to New Westminster to curl in the Royal City Mixed Bonspiel. We fell into the D[rinking] bracket with our guaranteed third game.

It was a great experience, to curl on Canadian ice. It was quite a bit faster than ours. The Canadians got a kick out of our South Lake Union Trolley shirts. We had some of the best Greek food at Yianni (sp?).

I have included a few fun photos.

13 hours before we leave for Canada.

Not that I'm counting or anything.

Work has been stressful. We've been trying to get test cases written and completed by end of day Friday. I have tomorrow off, and put in some overtime on Tuesday and this evening to compensate.

I spent a day trying to figure out what a dev had written for a use case category. It gave me a headache and stressed me out even after talking to him. Finally, I spent an hour and a half with another dev, who had worked on use cases similar to this. He drew a grid, we filled it out, and voila. I had rewritten the titles of test cases so that I , and my fellow testers could understand them.

Additionally during meeting, I brought up topics I felt needed to be addressed before our next software release. I kept thinking about them, because nobody had taken ownership of them. Now, they are on the white board. While nobody has taken ownership of them still, at least they are documented. I apologized for taking up so much of his time, and he said "There's no need to ever apologize for being detail orientated."

I've gotten everything that I could get done off my plate, and in an email. No need to worry about work until 6 am Monday morning. Now I can worry about packing. Heh.

Since I've gotten home, I've washed dishes, two loads of laundry, and tidied up the main bathroom. I've also spent a little time with my beagle, Gravity, played two songs on Guitar Hero 3, taken a shower, and typed up this blog. Not bad, since I got home just before 7 pm.

Off to bed. I have to get up early to take Gravity to doggie daycare. ZZZZZZZ.

Whooo me?

I am getting in every spare minute to making owls for trades for Artfest. I have 24 completed owls, one tree, and 2 forest gremlins. I have 4 owls that are stuffed, but need to be sewn up, have eyes and a beak attached to them. I have cut another 6 to 8 patterns for sewing.

If I can keep this up, I might be able to have 75 t0 80 owls to trade! Yahoozies! My only problem is squeezing in time to work on my two gallery pieces. Its only mid February and I am panicking!!

No time this weekend for arts & crafts. I'm heading up to Canada for my first curling spiel outside of the club. Technically, its only my second spiel. LOL. I'm excited for the spiel, but unhappy at the lack of time for crafts. I would like to create a couple of journal entries on water color paper. Shop for supplies for Artfest.

I think I will try to make a few extra special trades for people who share supplies. Also, I need to think of a few special trades for my buddies that I made last year who will be returning as well.

Driving the P(ASS)AT home from curling.

I've just gotten home from the curling club. At a stoplight, I looked in my rearview mirror, and saw the driver pointing at my car, and the passenger laughing. The P(ASS)AT strikes again.

Several years ago, my husband decided to scrape off the word PASSAT off the back of the car. Apparently it was difficult, and in the end, he left the letters ASS. To this day, we still get people who notice it and start laughing.

Had the worst game ever curling in the novice league. I missed every single shot. It was very disappointing. We lost our game by three points. First game we've lost this half of the season.

I meant to come home after the traditional pint and socialization, since my husband was going to play in the late draw. I ended up staying until 9 pm, but I had a blast. The McLeans had food duty tonight, and brought in a baked potato bar. I helped grate cheese, wash dishes, bake cookies, and make the occasional smart aleck comment. Interacting with them always ensures that you'll have a good time.

I chatted with Ian about Barack Obama. Turns out he went to the rally at Key Arena on Friday. The doors opened at 11:00 AM, and the 20,000 seats were filled at 11:10 AM. Three thousand people were turned away at the doors. I wish I could have made it. Ian definitely has a passion for politics.


When I haven't been curling, Artfest has been in my head. Getting my trades ready, and putting my art supplies together. Its not until April, but as I am busy concentrating on my trades, I do not think I will have much time to play with my paints and inks. I hope I can have about 75 stuffies ready by the time April rolls around. I've also been tossing the idea of making fleece scarves for people who are used to warmer weather. I was supposed to leave early, and try my hand at one or two of them tonight. *sigh*

Anyways, Gravity our beagle, has been fed and watered. I'm going to play with her for few minutes before I wind down for the evening. Good night, sleep tight, and plenty of dreams about making art.

My first fleece hat.

Here it is, a picture of me and the first fleece hat that I've sewn. Done without a pattern, it turned out ok. Its a little big. I added ears at the last minute. I probably should have done tentacles instead. I've been thinking about the hat for the last couple of days.

Yesterday I had to undo some stitching, because I had sewn it up incorrectly. We learn from our mistakes.

Sometimes I feel like my body is falling apart...

My right knee hurts. Probably too much curling last week. Between the mixed league bonspiel, and being a sub for two draws on Monday as well as two draws on Wednesday. We only played a 6 end game in today's novice league, and my knee was ready to be done by 4.

Earlier today, Rob called me to sub for him tomorrow late night draw. I passed him off to Jeremy. I think I'm going to take it easy this week, and rest my knee up.

Whenever my knee hurts like this, I think about an animated short i saw in one of Mike & Spike's animation festivals. One of my favorite shorts, was a spoof of Lee's press on nails, in which it was Lee's press on limbs. Just lick them and stick!! Comes in all sorts of color, red, aquamarine, and paisley! I could use a replacement knee!

Yesterday, Jer went to Bellingham to visit his cousin Jeff in his new house. I stayed at local. I took Gravity to the vet, and went to buy Ride the S.L.U.T. (South Lake Union Transit) shirts for the Royal City Bonspiel. I also managed to do a couple of loads of laundry, clean the master bedroom's bathroom, and the dishes.

Here are a few more stuffed animals I made for the Artfest trades as well!! More owls, a tree, and a couple of forest gremlins. Not sure what I'm going to do for the forest gremlins mouths yet.... We'll see. The fabric that I picked for them is a pain in the but to use for stuffies.