Happy Holidays

I've had a pretty good holiday weekend.

Friday morning I took Gravity for a short walk before heading to Anacortes for a holiday brunch at Jeremy's aunt and uncle's. Gravity managed to briefly tag a Red Breasted Sapsucker. This particular bird is in the woodpecker family. First time I've ever seen one of these birds locally. Gravity did not kill it, but did manage to stun it.

We had a fun time hanging out with Jeremy's relatives. Gravity got a chance to hang out with her beagle cousin Jessie.

We left a little late to head to my family's holiday dinner in Sammamish. There was tasty food here and a game of mahjong in one corner of the house, and bingo in another corner.

Saturday, Jeremy headed up to Bellingham to hang out with his cousin Jeff. I stayed home, went shopping for our women's team curling jackets, went to the curling club and did a little bartending.

Today I caught the 2nd half of the juniors game and then had a little curling practice with my women's team. A pretty good weekend.

Busy until I got the flu.

Well, I have been so busy I haven't been cooking anything new.

And then probably because I've been so busy, I caught the flu. So not really feeling like moving much or eating. Thankfully I am at the tail end of it.

The one thing I did attempt to cook, was Shamiana's Major Grey Chicken. I picked all my items up from a local Indian grocery store. Turns out I'm allergic to the curry I picked out. I broke out in hives from all of three little spoonfuls (tastings).

Curling Zone App for the iPhone!

http://www.curlingzone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=87c05c42eb1ead735e776ec1e311f1ff&threadid=8476

CurlingZone Mobile. The first dedicated mobile application for curling news, scores, rankings, and more - right on your phone. Now available on the iTunes Store!

Apple Napoleons

I haven't been working much with mixed media or sewing lately. Part of it is because its curling season, and part of it is because I'm interested in cooking/baking right now.
I was thinking I would try to make 1 new recipe every week, but I can't always do that. So, maybe in lieu of working on art, I will cook/bake at least 1 new recipe every 2 weeks. I'll shoot for once a week, but it gets pretty crazy around here.

I made Apple Napoleons today.



Tasted pretty good. The apple was a little overcooked, but I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Prep Time: 10 min
Total Time: 45 min
Serves: 4

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons sugar
1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed
all purpose flour for work surface
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 small Granny Smith apples, peeld, cored, and cut lengthwise into 1/3 inch thick wedges
2 cups sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar. Place pastry on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle evenly with 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture. Carefully roll out to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out eight 3 inch squares, and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with more parchment and another baking sheet. Chill in freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

2. Bake pastry in oven until crisp and lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Remove top parchment and baking sheet. Transfer with bottom parchment to a wire rack and let cool.

3. Meanwhile in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium high heat until foam subsides. Add apples, cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add remaining cinnamon mixture. Cook until apples are tender but not falling apart. Let cool completely. To assemble, top the pastry with whipped cream the apples; repeat with another layer of each. Serve immediately.

Stinky Pick and the Itchy Butts.

Thursday night I went with my friends Maya, Joe R, and Paula to see Jeff Dunham at the Tacoma Dome.

We got to the Tacoma Dome just before 6:30 pm and there was a line to the parking lot. We drove around them and parked in the free lot a couple of blocks away (thanks to Joe's knowledge of the Tacoma area).

We got on the light rail and took it into downtown Tacoma, where we ate dinner at Harmon's Brew Pub. I had a sampler of beers, Maya had a vanilla porter, and Joe and Paula had a pint of the Pale Ale. The restaurant was super crowded and service was slow. Event when the restaurant emptied out, our server was slow.

After dinner we took the light rail back to the Tacoma Dome. We got their just as the opening act, Brian, The Guitar Guy was finishing up. We got a chance to see the packed arena before Jeff took the stage 15 minutes later.

Jeff opened up with an amusing story of flying to Oregon and there being so much fog that his plane had to land at a small closed airport/airstrip.

After that intro, he started with Walter. Walter is usually my least favorite of his puppets. This time, it ended up being the longest and 2nd best act of the night. There were some politically incorrect jokes about Native American Indians and Indians that were hysterical.

He segued into his bit with Achmed the Dead Terrorist. It started off like most of what I'd seen on TV and You Tube. There were a couple of times that where his ad-lib was so funny, he lost where he was in his act. My favorite was Achmed picking on Brian, the warm up act. Brian came out to play a theme song for Achmed, and Achmed went on about calling him Stinky Pick. Brian was laughing so hard, he kept bringing up his hand to cover his mouth, and then Achmed would go "Ah, smelling your Stinky Pick again..."

Peanut and Jose Jalapeno on a stick came next, but in my opinion it just wasn't as funny.

When Jeff came out for his encore, he came out with Bubba. Bubba was a puppet that I saw Jeff with over 10 years ago. Apparently a group of people had emailed him to bring Bubba. He apologized and said he was going to use a cheat sheet, because he hadn't used Bubba in an act for so long. Much to his surprise, half the audience quoted the Bubba punchlines.

It was a great event to attend!

Picture depicts how I've been feeling recently.

is sad.

Langley Witches' Broom Bonspiel

Team Coffin won their first game 9-5. The opposing team shook after the 6th end, when we scored 4.

Beth got caught at work, and didn't get here until the 4th end. Luckily we picked up Allison as a spare. I vice-skipped the game. My 2nd or 3rd time vice-skipping. I definitely like lead adn 2nd better.

The ice keened up quickly with a back line to hog line time of 3.75 for tee line.

I shared a little scotch with Nigel, and Derek M, Melissa and I had shots. A Wet Beaver, comprised of Sour Puss Raspberry and Creme de Cacao.

Next game 11:15 am.

Good night.

Langley, here I am!

Taking a few minutes to rest before the first game at the Witches Broom Bonspiel here at Langley, BC.

Had a fun drive up with Em and Sara.

The room here at Best Western is a little funky. Too much carpet cleaner or something. My nose is a little stuffed up.

Yesterday I took the Honda in for an oil change. While we waited, I took Gravity for an hour and a half walk (we got to the dealership early).

A less busy Sunday. What's that all about?

I accomplished several tasks today. I was not quite as organized as I was last Sunday.

Friday night, we saw Alton Brown at Third Place Books. Instead of reading from his book, he performed a Q & A session with the audience. He looked amazing, having dropped 50 lbs since March (per his NPR interview). As usual, he was very witty and funny. He even managed to lose a $1 bet to a kid by betting that the kid's mother drove a Honda Odyssey....

Saturday I drove to the Soaring Heart futon store to pick up two new pillows for Jeremy. On the way back, I stopped by Paseo for some tasty Cuban pulled pork sandwiches. Nom nom nom. I picked up a couple pairs of socks for Jeremy at the Eddie Bauer outlet, but did not really see anything that caught my eye. Well, I was eyeing a replacement down jacket. I have to take my white one to the dry cleaner. The one I was looking at is brown and not as poofy as the white one that I own. Plus the sleeves of the white one are extremely dirty. Not sure how well they'll be able to clean them.

I also baked the cake part of my pumpkin bars to bring for dessert on Sunday.

Afterwards, Jeremy and I headed to An Evening With Kevin Smith at Benaroya Hall. Kevin talked for 3 1/2 hours. He is a lot of fun to listen to.

Today, I rolled out of bed at 10:00 am. I know... pretty late, but we didn't get home until after midnight.

I managed to wash two loads of laundry, bake the Good Eats "The Puffy" cookie recipe and made the frosting for the pumpkin bars. There were several rounds of dishes and the cleaning of the main bathroom before heading out to the club.

Wait, there's more to life than curling?

I have tickets to see Steely Dan tonight at the Paramount.

Friday I have tickets to see Alton Brown at Third Place Books.

Saturday I have tickets to see Kevin Smith at Benaroya Hall.

Who says the only thing I do is curl?

It's Sunday and there's no time to slow down.

I am forcing myself to take a moment to make a blog entry.

Last Wednesday, I played my 2nd Mixed Doubles game. It was a make up game, since my partner Benj is out of town today. We won by 3 points against Bob and Dani T.

Friday night I helped Jeremy finish putting together the bed frame. We shoved the old futon frame into my craft room (gah!). The bedroom is now full of Jeremy's handmade furniture and it looks awesome.

Saturday we made a trip to Paseo to try the tasty Cuban pork sandwiches we've heard so much about. http://www.paseoseattle.com/ The sandwiches were very tasty. They were also very juicy and messy! The restaurant only has a couple of tables, so we had to eat in our car.

We then headed to the futon store (http://www.soaringheart.com/) for a new futon and wool topper. This didn't get put on the bed until just before midnight, because we had two rentals at the Seattle Granite Curling Club.

My feet still hurt from standing up through two rentals. The first one had about 60 people. One guy asked me if his daughter Stella could throw a couple of rocks. 20 rocks later, a couple of other little girls asked to throw rocks. I taught them and their father. Then 3 more adults came out to throw rocks! It was fun working with them.

I've accomplished a lot since I woke up today. I've been to the grocery store, washed two sets of dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, washed 2 loads of laundry (currently on my 3rd), washed the master bedroom's bathroom, taken out the recycling and trash out of the house, and tidied up the closet. I am going to try and mow the lawn and take a shower before 2 pm. After that, I'm going to stop by the library to return some books, and then go to the curling club to help out with novice league. We have early draw tonight for Mixed.

There is no time to rest on Monday either, as it is Steely Dan concert night!

Working from home.

Working from home this morning. Can't find my car keys. I don't remember taking them out of the drawer last night after I got home.

Had a good weekend. Saturday went to Richmond for some practice ice. I'm still having problems switching to the broom. We met the Chinese Men's Olympic Curling team, talked to the coaches for awhile.

Sunday I dropped the hubby off for his 3rd game of the men's spiel. Cooked some chicken for lunch this week and made Shepherd's pie. Benj and I won our started the Mixed Doubles season auspiciously by winning against Barry and Cindy K.

Busy as a bee.

I've been going non stop since Jeremy left for his vacation with his sister Ali.

Friday I dropped him off at the airport at 5:30 am. I went to work and walked Gravity like usual. Then I went home for a brief moment and then high tailed it to the Seattle Granite Curling Club to help out with the open house.

One of my new coworkers Alex came by and brought several of his friends. Two contractors that have worked with the company, James and Erin came by with their significant others. Beth and I instructed them on sheet 3, and then we got a game going. Because the first few open houses were slow, we got in a couple of hours of fun.

I didn't get to sleep until just after midnight, and then turned around and woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday so I could take Gravity to doggie daycare. My friend Maya and I then drove up to Richmond for some Dim Sum at the Empire Seafood Restaurant. It was sooo tasty.

We went across the street to the Bay and tried some clothes on. Then we looked around for the Asian mall we stumbled across the last time we visited, and were unable to find it.

Runnin a little late, we headed towards the Langley Curling Club. Their Saturday open league had just started, and the person that was running the office/store was playing. We settled in for an hour and a half wait. Misfortune struck Allison's team, and a player that was late and didn't have time to stretch, pulled a muscle with her first rock. Maya, being the awesome friend that she was, let me sub. Larry the weekend ice maker was kind enough to keep Maya company. I believe I was called crazy for driving 2 1/2 hours for Dim Sum and practice ice.

One of the opposite team's players was Jackie A's cousin. I recognized several other people on other sheets from the Langley Novice Spiel. Allison said I was famous. One of the guys on the other sheet had said to her, "What are you doing letting her play? Her team beat the crap out of us at the novice spiel!"

We crossed the border at 9 pm, and got home around 11 pm. I spent some of that time being worried about Jeremy and Alison due to some text messages that I had received.

Sunday, I was woken up at 7 am with a text message letting me know more or less that all was well. I tidied up a little and then headed over to the club for women's practice.

After women's practice, I got in a short call to the hubby to see how he was doing. I then headed to my mom's house, where she cooked up some live prawns - last of this season's prawns. I got a wonderful nap in the sun. I took 4 bags of books home with me. I've still got a little bit of stuff at my mom's.

We then drove to Joy Palace to have dinner with my Grandma, my aunts and cousins (Mayme, Sue, Cindy, Chuck, and Austin). I didn't eat much because I was still full from lunch. I was there mainly to socialize and see Poi Poi.

By 7 pm I was headed home. The dog then proceeded to keep me up late.

Today has been work, lunch with Peter S, and then a bunch of errands and practice. I mowed the back yard, picked the last of the tomatoes, did a load of laundry, took a shower, washed dishes, and returned books to the library before leaving for practice.
Very tired now and getting some sleep.

bad mom.

I feel like a bad mom.

I can hear gravity crying in the back room at the vet. She has an abscessed anal gland, and they are trying to drain it.

I didn't do it at the vet two weeks ago because she was already so traumatized. The two blood draws and check on a tumor sent her into 3 seizures.

I can already sense a seizure coming from this trip. Gah.

I am such a bad mom.....

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Labor Day Weekend

This 3 day weekend has been pretty mellow.

Did a little laundry. Chased the beagle around. Tried out a new cookie recipe, Chocolate Cherry Almond cookies. The cookies were nom nom nom-alicious.

This morning I made Carrot Tofu Scramble for brunch. Jeremy is slow cooking his famous chili. He's now working in his wood shop.

If I get time, I'd like to make some corn bread later today. However we have people coming over for bridge at 6:30, so it might just be tidying up the house.

Beagle seizures.

Two seizures today. One at 1:40 am and the other at 12:30 pm. Both were longer than she's had before.

Not sure if they were caused by the stress of going to the vet. Two trips in one day - blood draw in empty stomach and blood draw on full stomach, or if it was from us coming back from vacation.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Camp Day 2 and 3

This year has been quite a bit different. There has only been one day of mini games so far. Mostly drills. Lots of off ice instruction and on ice instruction where you don't get to throw a lot of rocks.

However I feel that the video analysis has been stronger, as we were also offered drills to correct the issues that they talked about in our deliveries.

My sliding foot comes over too fast and too far over. I was recommended to start with my slider foot a little farther out.

Once again, not a lot of people volunteering to skip. I've stepped up to the plate a couple of times, even though I like sweeping. A couple of times, when we've been unorganized, I've also said a few things to get everyone moving. I hate standing around being unorganized and wasting time.

Jeremy and Joel are still at party night. I gave up after the first karaoke song broke out.

I thought Jeremy and Joel were coming back for the nightly dip in the hot tub. Apparently they went out to the pub with the instructors. I would have liked to have hung out with them too. Oh well.

A soak in the bath tub and off to bed it is then.

Camp Day 1

Camp didn't start until noon, so we started out with a quick trip to Qualicum. We stopped by a chocolate store for a piece of chocolate that Joel financed due to lack of Canadian funds, and a trip to the hardware store to find a screw/nail for Jer's little photo buddy.

Camp started with registration and lunch. Lunch was ham or turkey sandwiches, salad, and fruit. I saw a few people returning from last year.

This year there were 56 people, up from last year's 32. While there are more instructors, it does feel just a tad bit crowded at times. Example, we started out with some mini games, and are rotating through 6 person teams.

After 4 ends, we had some off ice instruction about the curling delivery. When we headed back to the ice there were 3 different stations that we rotated through.

Our first station was sweeping. The most interesting thing about it, is that this year they are teaching closed sweeping.

The second station was set up. Getting in the hack and getting but not sliding up.

The third station was balance. We practiced the drill in pairs. It was the drill that I wasn't balanced enough for last season, and got smacked in the nose with when I let go of the broom.

Dinner was fairly tasty. Salad, a dinner roll, beans, rice, and chicken.

Then came Welcome Night!! Last year I won nothing from Welcome night. This year I won THREE items. The first item I won from having the largest denomination of bill in my purse. It was a 50,000 dollar from Indonesia. I've had that squirreled away for more than 7 years. When I came across it cleaning last year, I put it in my purse, wondering if they would play the same question this year. My prize was a curling pin. Then, when we were getting in line for another game they had, I sneezed. I won an impromptu "Weirdest sound that a camper has ever made." I won another pin.

My third prize was from ROCK bingo. I had actually decided that I couldn't win it, looking at the different questions that were asked. Someone who had won the same kitchen appliance at a bonspiel. Someone who has the same middle name. Someone whose parents had the same name. Joel pointed out that Jeremy and I had a pet with the same name. With that, I filled out quickly someone who went to the same college, someone who had the same allergy, someone who had stolen 5 points in a game, and someone who had a pet with the same name. Booyah! The prize for that was a little gift that the couple of Japanese people that came to camp brought.

Since then, we've hung out at the hot tub and been terrorized by overactive children in the hotel swimming pool. Just chilling out after a mellow half day.

Vacation Day 1

We left home early in the morning and stopped off in Bellingham to eat at Casa que Pasa. Nom nom nom potato burritos. Jeremy purchased a little buddy to appear in photographs.

From there we raced to Tsawwassen Ferry at 12:45. We made it with room to spare! We passed our time playing cribbage. I was feeling headachy and headed to the car for a nap.

We drove to Nanaimo first and wandered around attempting to play our favorite game STP, but they were all in hiding. We heard some music from the Nanaimo Jazz festival, walked along their boardwalk area and saw a jellyfish. The boys ate Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo, while I settled for a soft serve ice cream cone.

Our suite at the Beach Club Resort is pretty luxurious. 2 rooms, 3 washrooms, and a kitchenette and entertainment area. Phat!

We walked to the local pizza joint for dinner and were annoyed by some tweens that kept running and biking around. I found some Merrydale Cider at the LCBO and we got breakfast fixings at the grocery store.

I ended my evening with a nice long soak in the ginormous bathtub and the complimentary bath salts.

Vacation!!

Vacation started today. Feeling just a little under the weather. Hope to feel better before tomorrow, or at the very most Monday.

We're headed back to Parksville for Four Foot Curling Camp, Part Deux.

For those of you who didn't hear about it last year, here are a couple of photos until the current vacation gets under way.

Quote of the Day

A quote of the day one of the devs sent out,

"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live." Rick Osborne

A not so busy Sunday

Today was not so busy, but I still got a decent amount of work accomplished.

I spent most of my time in the yard removing weeds and mowing the lawn. I also helped Jeremy glue the end tables together. Got a couple of loads of laundry done, walked Gravity.

Cross fingers. Posted a couple of items to sell on Craigslist in the Seattle area. My Army of Darkness poster, autographed by Bruce Campbell. A couple of Seattle Mariners items.

Another busy Saturday.

Jeremy is off biking on Lopez Island with some friends.

The list of completed tasks so far today:
1. I've made lunch to go for Jeremy
2. Washed one load of laundry
3. Stopped by the tailor. He made fun of the little stitches I used to sew my PIC patch on my jacket. "What, you want it to stay on forever?"
4. Stopped by the bank
5. Returned library books
6. Been to 4 consignment shops. Found one to leave my clothes at.
7. Stopped by the Subaru dealer
8. Picked up my jackets from the tailor.
9. Spent too much time at Office Max recycling some old electronics.
1o. Picked up my sewing machine from being serviced. They misplaced the cover, and will call me on Monday.
11. Started a second load of laundry.
12. Moved things out of my craft room to the basement, so I can start throwing things away or deciding if I can sell them.

To do list:
1. Yard work
2. More laundry.
3. Folding laundry and matching socks.

Its 5:15 pm and I want a nap. Heading back to the craft room to finish moving stuff around.

Je ne comprends pas

Not sure how my teammate Beth found this, but there's a page that has information about my competitive women's team from last season in French.

http://www.winnipegchefs.ca/

Pretty crazy.

Pig Roast!

Here are a couple of photos from last nights pig roast at the Rugens.