It pays to blog...

I received this after someone read a blog entry I posted for my curling club's blog.

Hey Cyndy and Jeremy.

I read Cyndy's tales of an obsessed second-year on the club blog (at least I think it was you), and I was wondering if you guys were interested in curling with Christina P and me in mixed this year on Sunday. We're also curling with a competitive mixed team in super league on Tuesday, and on Sunday we thought it would be fun to pick up some 2nd or 3rd-year curlers for a more social and low-key experience (of course, we still want to win).

Anyway, if you're interested, let me know, or if you know of another couple in your situation which is looking, feel free to pass their names along.

Mike

Funded Athlete Information

Dear Sara (our 2nd, the person who filled out the information) ,

I am pleased to inform you that the Women's Curling Development Fund Committee reviewed your application and voted to grant you and your teammates $600.00 to cover your transportation and housing costs at the Langley Ladies Open Bonspiel. We were impressed by the amount of time and effort that all the members of your team spend helping in your clubs. Since this Fund was established to support grassroots curling, we trust that all of you will continue to give back to your clubs in the future.

As a reimbursement fund, you will receive the $600.00 payment after you submit to me copies of the paid bills for your transportation and housing expenses. If you have any questions about this or any other material, please feel free to contact me.

Good luck and good curling!

Anne (Robertson)

Chairman, Women's Curling Development Fund Committee

Wow. What a Friday.

My Friday morning didn't start out the greatest. I got to work early. Had an impromptu meeting with the owner of the company. Learned some interesting information that I couldn't and still can't share with anyone. I felt like a pan of Jiffy Pop popcorn sitting over a fire.

Just after 2 pm, my day took a turn. My Amazon package arrived. An experienced back end reached out to Jeremy and I to see if we wanted to curl Sunday Mixed with them. We've been looking for an experienced back end all summer. Turns out, they saw my bit on the Chips of Granite Blog "Tales of an Obsessed 2nd year curler.." Hurray for blogging.

A few minutes after that, I received an email from Sara, the 2nd on my competitive women's team. We were approved for $600 in funding. We are now a funded team! I let out a scream, and did some Snoopy dances while I was at work.

I rushed home after picking up the fixings for Friday's dinner. We quickly ate, then headed to a single malt Scotch tasting at Daryl's. Daryl is a curler, and our skip for our Friday night league. Anyways, 7 scotches later, our car is still at his house. We caught a ride home with Dani and Bob T. My head hurts, and I have to get up in less than 7 hours to volunteer. Holy crap.

Balance is getting better!!

Awww yeah. I spent over an hour last night at the club working on balance. No crutch. No rock.
Yesterday's practice felt as good as Saturday evenings practice.

Here are a couple of photos from Saturday and Sunday.

However, I did oversleep this morning. My phone battery was drained, and my back up alarm, Gravity, did not wake us up. Whoops.

Different forms of exercise.

As I sit here waiting for my curling clothes to finish their wash cycle in the laundry machine, I realize that I have been on the ice every day last week except for Thursday. Between an hour and a half and two hours for each session. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I was on the ice twice yesterday. Once in the morning, and once in the evening.

Its funny, I can rouse myself to go to the club, regardless of how sore and tired I am. But, man, its so hard to work myself up to go to the gym. And before those of you non curlers think curling isn't exercise, curling is hard work! Well, it can be. You get what you put into it, like just about anything else.

Oooo. Sounds like the washing machine has stopped. That means I can stuff everything into the dryer. And practice my sports imagery of sliding out of the hack until I fall asleep.

Practice, practice, practice makes perfect.

Lots of curling practice this weekend.

Friday night, Gabrielle flew in from San Francisco. Our team practiced for about 2 hours on the ice, along with several others. It was a very crowded evening. Jennifer W dropped in and practiced with us. With an invite from Jennifer W, I decided to drop women's league, to pick up superleague on Tuesdays. Our team will be Jennifer W, Beth C, Jeremy, and myself. I don't know if we will win all that many games, but it is bound to be a great learning experience.

Saturday (yesterday), we went out on the ice at 11 am. This was a preplanned women's competitive event, put together by Leslie F. We had 15 or so women that turned out for the event. On sheet 1, Leslie worked on Balance Analysis. Sheet 2, Nancy R worked on Line of Delivery. Sheet 3, Miyo worked with us on Sweeping Instruction. It was very well set up for the small amount of time that we had.

Leslie impressed us with her angels drill. What a hard drill!! Moving into delivery position, then standing back up. I went down for the 1st angel, wobbled, almost fell over, then called it good. Gabrielle was the most graceful of us all, and managed to complete the drill all the way down and back on sheet 1.

Nancy had some great drills for us on sheet drill. The most important tip, that is easy to forget, is to make small adjustments in the hack. Keep your movement small.

Miyo had awesome advice on sheet 3 with her sweeping instruction. I've worked hard to change my 1st year curling sweeping habits, since I went away to Four Foot Curling Camp. I appreciated what she had to say to match the sweeping strokes of the person that I am sweeping with. The best advice : drink water throughout a game so you don't get dehydrated and lose focus.

After practice, our team had lunch at the 125th Ave Grill. There were some tasty vegetarian omelets, a BLT, and a prime rib dip. We chatted with Sara's kids, talked a little about Beth's work, and just a smidgen about curling.

After a quick trip to the mall, and a nap, Jeremy arrived back in town with his new Balance Plus 300s, with a 1/4 inch slider. We headed back to the club for some more practice. We called a few others, but only Beth and Derrick came out to play with the 3 of us.

Practice was interesting. I decided that after this women's practice, my goal for the week is balance. I spent all evening sliding out without a rock or stabilizer. The first half hour was miserable. I was all over the place, falling over half the time. Derrick came over, and showed me a drill using dixie cups. After only being somewhat successful with that, he tried one of the drills they showed us back in four foot. Where you get into your delivery position, grab the broom head of someone's broom, and they drag you across the ice. One small tip that I didn't know: when falling over, don't let go of the broom head. I made it out, maybe half a foot, before I lost my balance, let go of the broom head, and got clocked on the nose. Ow.

That drill didn't last very long. From that, I decided I needed to practice getting in the hack, and sliding out to the delivery position, without pushing out. I did that several times in a row. Then I did a short delivery without a rock or stabilizer. Success! I tried a few short deliveries. When I started to wobble, I went back to the basics. Looks like I have found my drill for the week.

We finished the practice at 9 pm, and then headed over to Mark and Lisa's party for a beer. The party was to collect money for the Autism walk. We donated some money, and had a few snacks.

Time: 8:50 PM

I am sooo exhausted. I went into women's competitive practice feeling refreshed, but halfway through practice started to flag.

I should have gone to sleep an hour ago, but felt the need to wash my curling clothes. It's bridge night tomorrow night, but I might get a chance to throw a couple of rocks.

Where do my trades end up?

Nice to see that my trades from Artfest have a happy home. You can see the owl that I made in the upper right hand corner of the photo of Teesha Moore's studio.

Yeah! Practice Ice!

So, ice was available at the Seattle Granite Curling club as of last Sunday.

After getting my bartender's certification, a few of us went out on the ice. I had a big old cheesy grin on my face. I love curling.

I also went out to practice on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monday was the 2nd year curlers party. Neil had invited Beth C to help out. We had a grand old time, with Beth, Jeremy, Mijung and myself on a team. Won our first game. Completed the goals that we set for ourselves. When we had hammer, score more than one point When they had hammer, keep them to one.

After curling yesterday, I stayed up late and worked for a couple of hours. Today I've been feeling a little under the weather. I left work early, came home and slept for a just over an hour. I still feel a little odd.

The guest room has been dusted and vacuumed. Both bathrooms have been cleaned, and the house is ready for our guest - the skip of my competitive women's team. She's flying out from San Francisco to practice with us this weekend.

Crabby.

I made a poor joke a couple of days ago. The repercussion happened last night and this morning. I realized in the middle of the night what a poor joke it was. I did not sleep well, and woke up every 15 minutes or so dwelling on what a poor joke it was.

I apologized this morning. Apology was not really taken. I still feel badly and the person is not to happy with me.

Because I didn't sleep well, I'm tired. I feel like an ass. The person is very pissed off at me.
Additionally I feel cranky, because when I have had poor jokes played on me, I feel like I was not allowed to be angry.

I am now debating on my next course of action.

A busy weekend.

Saturday I drove down to Portland with my dad, his girlfriend, and his sister. We had lunch at Blackstone to celebrate my Aunt's birthday. Then we made the traditional visit to my grandparents' graves and stopped by Powells book store.

Today, we stopped by the Apple store in Bellevue Square so Jeremy could buy Spore. My mother stopped by to take her old dresser and night stand, and to drop off the ones my Aunt Sue was getting rid of.

I bought Jer a cookie at Specialty's. One of the chocolate chip wheat germ ones. Looks like it was tasty. NOM NOM NOM.