Catch of the Day.

Also known as "What the dog dragged in." Note to self. Don't ask for the blue plate special.

Jeremy is busy cooking.

My friend Jason is over for dinner. I turn around and let Gravity in (I totally do not remember this).

Jason and I hear Gravity whining. I see her with something in her mouth.

"Hey Gravity, who's got their squirr-... Holy shit! She's got a squirrel!"

The squirrel looks exactly like the stuffed animal she used to have, except that it was hanging limp in her jaws.

I open the deck door to let her out with the squirrel, Jeremy jams his feet into some shoes to chase her down. Gravity digs a hole underneath a bush and buries the squirrel under it.

Jeremy gets a shovel to dig the scrappy out. Unfortunately, there are no photos with Gravity holding the squirrel....

Curling Camp, Day Four. Ray is not my husband.

Day four covered timing. It would have been great if I could have paid attention, but the two older women from my sheet were nattering on. They even asked a question that was answered, while they were talking. Due to time constraints and lack of equipment, I used the stop watch a total of three times.

This was also the day that the team that I was on finally gelled. We met our object for the first two games, before we lost our focus.

In the end, I enjoyed my time at the Four Foot Curling Camp. I learned quite a bit about delivery, strategy, and sports imagery.

Other things that come to mind: Sitting at a table with Ray and Jeremy. A lady from my sheet sits down and looks at Ray, then asks me "Is this your husband?" Ray looks at me, I look at him. I said "It must be the Asian thing." Always surprises me when people assume that I've married someone that's Chinese, or that I don't speak English.

Curling Camp, Day Three

Day three started out well. I was in a really great mood. I was a little sore, but I was flexible and able to move around.

The instructors worked on our sweeping techniques. I do not feel that there was enough individual attention on this aspect of curling. Sweeping can be just as important as the delivery.

Luckily Lee took me aside and gave me a few more tips. She knows that I am working towards being competitive. I am by no means perfect, but I believe I will be a much better sweeper this upcoming season.

The mini game was super frustrating. I was having a hard time sticking to the basics. I allowed the tension with our team's skip affect me.

By the time the evening arrived, I had worked my way out of my funk. There was a talent contest, where they had the different teams sing karaoke. Personally, my favorite was the Brown Dog Stool team singing Splish Splash.

Curling Camp, Day Two

All I can say about day two is "Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch."

Even after slathering myself with icy hot and tiger balm, I was very stiff. I wanted to cry when I thought about warming up and sliding out. However, after the warm ups, everything was okay.

There was a big upset on day two. Apparently Elaine had a death in the family. Her family left, and a friend and former Olympian Melissa came out for the assist. Melissa was an awesome instructor. She gave me some great feedback on my delivery.

I spent the first part of the day being frustrated with my slide. I still had not been able to get the hang of my delivery with the broom under my arm. Melissa had me switch over to using an Edge. This was quite the turning point for me.

Lee Merklinger gave a great off ice session about mental imagery. I've been using what I've learned from that session all week long. What sticks with me the most is the tape that Brad Gushue's team made to listen to in the car. The tape has sounds of the rock sliding over the ice, the broom sweeping a rock, and Brad calling out to his team. Something that my team should work on making, I think.

Mini game on day two was just as frustrating as day one. Our team still had not gelled together. I played with Joel R and Sara S from Granite, and then Lu, one of the Canadians. Lu had a much different style than the rest of us are used to, and it created some tension.

Curling Camp, Day One

Day one, we arrived at the Parksville club. The club is next to the beach. Maybe it was because the ice had just been available for a short period of time, but I couldn't believe that there wasn't any sand on the carpet or the ice. Out of the 34 campers that showed up, a grand total of 7 campers were from the Seattle Granite Curling Club.

We were introduced to Elaine Jackson and staff. It included her two children, Lee M, Jock, Sharon D, and Will.

They split us up into 5 groups for instruction. We spent day one working on our delivery. Square shoulders, front press, and hip elevation. During this time, I adjusted the following: broom from above the shoulder to under the shoulder, where I placed my toe in the hack, and where I placed the rock. The rock center should always be lined up with your armpit!

This was tough. I really wanted to get this new stance down. I fell over about 50% of the time. Another frustration was three older ladies who were not taking the instruction as seriously as the rest of the people on sheet two. We would all be lined up ready to slide, and they were off to the side chattering away like magpies. When it was their turn to deliver, they weren't anywhere near the hack or prepared to slide out.

Will was our instructor for day one, and he was kind of quiet. I felt that I had to be aggressive with my questions to get the criticism and tips that I wanted.

Sunday, the day before camp starts.

Jeremy and I had a long trip to Parksville, BC for Four Foot Curling Camp. We left Sunday morning and stopped off in Bellingham to visit his cousins. Before we left Bellingham, we ate a very tasty Philly Cheesesteak at DaVinci's.

From there, we drove to Tsawassen to take the ferry to Nanaimo. The lanes were super tight, and I had to crawl from the passenger seat to the driver's seat to get out. Holy candy craps! What a ferry ride, clocking in at 2 hours. Luckily, we bumped into fellow club member Sara. Having another person to talk allowed the time to pass by quickly.

Getting off the ferry, we followed the road to Parksville and found our hotel, the Sandcastle Inn. It was your standard hotel. If we go back in the future, there were plenty more hotels than the curling camp paperwork mentioned, and we will definitely get one with a hot tub!

We had a late dinner at a restaurant called Bugsy's. It was a little dubious looking, because it looked slow inside, but I had a steak sandwich with a caesar salad that I enjoyed. We had actually tried to go to an Irish restaurant, but it was closed when we had stopped by.

Almost ready to leave for Curling Camp!

The hubby is a snoozing.

I think I've finished packing. At least all the important stuff is ready to go. My shoes. My broom. My curling pants and pin.

So tired. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, due to some carousing with our curling friends.

Jeremy and I met Olivia, Cameron, and Chris at St. Andrews. It was supposed to be my night to drink. I ended up only having a scotch. Jeremy had two scotches.

We then moseyed on over to Uber. Uber is the Seattle version of the Gollum pub in Amsterdam. Jeremy started off with a beer. And then he snuck in a second beer. Unfortunately somebody bought him a cigar and another person bought him a beer.

We left Uber just after 1:40 AM. I drove up 99, and made it just past 145th when we had to pull over. Jeremy ended up being super sick. I pulled over 3 times. There was lots of "why? why??" moaning.

I managed to make it as far as the QFC parking lot. Poor Jeremy got sick again. The world was spinning, and we didn't get any further. He pulled his rainjacket over his head and went to sleep. I had a light tshirt on, and was very cold. I managed to sleep for about 10 minutes.

I checked the trunk, and found out there was a fleece blanket. I used ths until Jeremy complained about being cold. I gave it to him, then went wandering around QFC. I found a cheap and crappy Seahawks Sweatshirt for the outrageous price of $28.00.

A half an hour later, I was still cold, bored, and unable to sleep. Its just before 5 am, and I can't handle it anymore. Jeremy is asleep, so I drive home. And all the way home, I murmured under my breath "Please oh please don't wake up. Please....don't wake up". Thankfully, we made it home without any additional issues.

Three hours later, at 8:10 am, my alarm went off. Time to get up and help with the Seattle Granite Work Party. Groan. It was nice to see the other curlers.

I did manage to sneak in a 2 hour nap today, and get 2 loads of laundry done. Hopefully it is enough.

Time to sleep.

Zucchini Bread!!

Zucchini bread turned out perfect and tasty. I wasn't sure it was going to because I forgot to add the sugar to the dry items. In addition to that mistake, I decided the recipe called for too much sugar, and only added 2 cups instead of 3.

Hee hee. The husband has already had a slice without knowing about my mistake. Well, he doesn't know for like 3 more minutes when his google reader notifies him of my blog.

Is it vacation time yet?

8 more hours of work before I am on vacation. Tick tock tick tock.

Two days before we leave for Vancouver BC.

Monday is 4 foot curling camp! Yahoozie! I am sooo excited.

Other things that are happening between now and then:

1. At this moment, I am baking zucchini bread. Should be done in about 5 minutes.
2. One of my coworkers, Tyler's last day is tomorrow.
3. Drinking Scotch at St. Andrews with Chris, Olivia, and Cameron tomorrow night.
4. Saturday is another work party.

Lots of work and lots of fun coming up!

Seattle Granite Club Work Party!!

Yesterday, while Jeremy was in the board meeting, I participated in the work party. My job was to touch up the blue 4 foot rings in the house. Even as klutzy as I am, I managed to avoid stepping in the paint. Booyah!

However, several other people were not so lucky. Cindy, Kristin, Daniel, Phil, and Bev were the casualties that I was aware of. Bev managed to step in both the blue AND the red. Hahahahaha.

A busy week and a busy weekend.

This past week was a pretty hectic week at work. We have all been working hard to get a new feature out for a customer. I feel burned out. If I feel burned out, I imagine the devs that I work with are exhausted.

My highlights of the week include : Lunch with Chrystal and Martha. Coworkers from when I contracted about 2 years ago. That was great fun. We need to do it more often. I miss talking to them. By the way, Martha looks incredible. She's on the 20/20 program, and I can't believe how much weight she has lost.

I also got to the the Breaking Dawn concert at the Benaroya Hall. I really enjoyed Justin's acoustic set (from Blue October). Stephenie Meyer was an interesting woman. After listening to her answers in her Q&A, she sounds like how she writes. I had awesome seats, thanks to my friend Jason for picking them up. I was 3 rows from the very front of the stage. Any closer, and I would have had to crane my neck. The event will forever be coloured by the girl who couldn't make it to the bathroom or a garbage can, and threw up for 5 minutes in the left front corner by the door.

Saturday was a rockin' time at Mary Alice and Joe's Stinky Cheese House Warming party. I got to talk with curlers, some of Joe's coworkers, and eat stinky cheese and Spanich prosciutto.

Today, I mowed the lawn, did 3 loads of laundry, tidied the main bathroom and washed a crapload of dishes. I also spent a couple of hours picking blueberries in our backyard. We had our friends Lisa and Mark over for spicy tacos and beer. I made a very tasty blueberry cobbler for dessert.

Its countdown time. A week until we leave for curling camp.

Ouch.

I am such a Bella (read Twilight by Stephenie Meyers) sometimes.

I just cut a sandwich from Jimmy Johns in half with a butter knife. I managed to cut part of my hand.

Ouch. Really ouch. Its in a crease between my thumb and forefinger. So when I type and stretch out, or make a ball with my fist it pulls it and pushes the skin together.

Ick.

Last night, went to the last concert/reading in Breaking Dawn series that the Benaroya Hall. Had a great time. Really enjoyed the acoustic by Justin F of Blue October. I didn't enjoy so much the girl horking in the corner to the left, about 50 feet from me.

Designs by Maya

Today I helped out my friend Maya. Her boss' wife hosted a jewelry party for her, and I helped her carry stuff around.

She made quite a bit of jewelry and was quite the hit, having had 25 people attend.

Seattle Walk for Autism

Last night, Jeremy and I went to Lisa's sign up for the Seattle Walk for Autism in October.
We donated $20 to receive this really cool shirt to wear for the walk.

Manny from Georgetown Brewing has donated money to the charity. Go Georgetown Brewing!!!

As we left, we saw a rainbow over the bridge....

Weirdest experiences at QFC in the morning.

I seem to have the weirdest experiences at QFC in the morning.

This morning, the checker asked me if I wanted paper or plastic for my purchase. I said paper. He said, "That will be 20 cents more." And I said, "Excuse me?"

Apparently people aren't awake to catch comments like that at 6:30 in the morning. He looked half asleep himself, as he seemed to take 10 minutes to bag some yogurt, fruit, and milk.

In small talk, I mentioned that I'm surprised I didn't miss the comment, as I was tired from not sleeping well. He said ,"That usually means you'll have a bad day. I mean...oops, I hope I didn't curse you." And then he knocked on wood.

There was the other episode at a different QFC more than a year ago, when I was walking in, and the checker asked for a hug.

Weird weird weird. Next, they'll tell me that space aliens run QFC.

Husband is biking on San Juan Island.

The hubby is off on a short vacation. Biking in the San Juans and doing a little kayaking. I saw him off this morning at oh too early o'clock.

I am here at work, frustrated. Trying to figure out how to open an IRC channel, having not done this since college.

Gah. Stupid ancient dinosaur technology.