oblivious.

I hate it when I miss subtle and even the not so subtle cues from my spouse. He ends up being upset. Then I end up being upset. It's a lose-lose proposition.

I want to make it up to him, but there really isn't any way to. Ends up with lots of bad feelings all around.

I always try to be better, but this seems to be one of my many failings.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Practice ice at Langley

What did we do for Valentine's Day?

We drove up to the Langley Curling Club for practice ice.

When the Seattle Granite Curling Club is booked up for the weekend with rentals, leagues, and events, an obsessed curler can contact one of the Canadian curling clubs to see if they have practice ice to rent. Seattle only rents the whole club in 4 hour blocks. One can usually find a sheet in 2 hour blocks for about $60 Canadian.

I've rented ice at two Canadian clubs so far: Langley and Richmond. Both clubs have great ice and really nice people who work/volunteer there.

Yesterday, Jeremy and I had booked ice up at Langley. We found out a few other club members were heading up to Canada for the day and invited them to join us. This is Jiyung and Thomas' first year, Mijung's second year, and none of them had played on Canadian ice before.

Even though I knew it was the weekend of the Seattle - Langley Juniors Bonspiel, I was still surprised how many faces I recognized when we reached Langley. Wes Johnson, Sahara Pirie, and the Sweet family to name a few. It was great to see how many Seattleites were there.

I've included a few photos of that got a chance to practice at Langley and one photo of the juniors playing.

Practice at Langley and Surrey Winterfest 2009

Yesterday, Beth, Sara and I drove up to Langley for some practice ice. The Seattle Granite Curling Club flooded this weekend.

Nigel, the club manager of Langley was bonspielling or out sick. We were greeted by Larry, instead. Larry was very friendly, and made sure our ice was all set up and ready to go at 11 am.
Gabrielle practiced with Cristin and Brady Clark on the sheet next to us. Larry apparently had not been informed about the Clark team coming up to practice, but luckily Gabrielle had her contract.

After a good practice, we headed over to the Willowbrook mall for some poutine and other mall food. I unknowingly selected a table directly behind the Clarks. The wall was very tall, so there was no way I would have known. Before lunch was over, Brady and Cristin dropped by, and we chatted for a bit.

Emily and Jake finally made it over the border, and we dropped Gabrielle back off at Langley. Emily had scheduled some practice ice at Richmond for 4 pm.

Beth, Sara and I then headed towards Surrey, to check out their Winterfest. Their outdoor curling was not exactly what we expected, but still fun to try. The fake 'ice' was very dirty, and the rollers on the rocks didn't exactly work unless you hucked the rocks all the way down the other side.

Before we left, we dropped by the liquor store. I got a funny Scotch blend called "The Peat Monster" for Jeremy. I was sad that he was unable to come up with us, still being on the sick side. On the outside of the store, there was these interesting penis shaped bottles. Not sure what was in them. Too scared to ask.

Club Nationals and the Mixed Spiel Results 2009

I'll start this evening's post with the best bit.

My teammate Beth found this online and sent it to us earlier today. Our team photo starts the gallery!

http://www.curlingrocks.net/photo-gallery.php

Mixed Bonspiel. My team won 3 out of 5 games, and won drink tickets as the runner up in the C bracket. Sadly, we lost to the team my husband was on. Eng-Dinsel 0, Dinsel 2.

Our first game, we tied in 8 ends, and our skip one the shoot out by 1 inch. I played about normal in that game. Our 2nd game we played against the "Wolves" Jake V's team, who we lost to. The 3rd game and 4th game on Saturday were my best games. I feel like I played better in those two games than I have this whole season.

Just need to hold on to that.