A few other Kerry Park Spiel photos.

Game 1 and more.

Game 1 was crazy. The ice was super heavy and very slippery. It was hard to keep our balance and scary as all get out.

I was happy I managed to get my rocks over the hog line and to not crack my head open.

We started to make friends with our neighbors and the other Canadian curlers right away.

I bumped into Heather, who curled at the PIC. One of the guys that curled at the PIC recognized my jacket, and we made friends with his family. We played Graham in game 2 and lost. :(

We didn't stay up too late on Wednesday evening. We had gotten up early to get to the club and had to wait almost 2 hours to play as the tried to fix the ice.

Kerry Park Summerspiel 2009

Had a great vacation in Canada.

Jeremy and I drove to the Anacortes ferry in our Honda Civic Hybrid. We passed Mike and Em in the Rolling Condo of Groove on I-5 going North.

We had a fun ferry ride over (Mike got lost on the way to the Anacortes ferry AND to the Kerry Park Curling club.).

The first person we saw in the RV lot was Lu, the lady that curled on my team at 4 foot curling camp last year. Small world. :D

Friday. time for some serious coffee.

Someone walked by and commented how funny it was, all of us playing on our phones not talking to each other.

Geeks!!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Wine tasting..awww, yeah!

*hic*

It has been a most excellent afternoon/evening. Little did I know what I was getting into when we held a wine tasting at our house for Amber. I thought there would be three to five bottles of wine. Imagine my surprise when they came in bearing 13! Plus the two that I bought for the test brought it up to 15.

The food was tasty, the wine good, and the company incredible.

I find myself in quite the predicament. 15 bottles. 6 full empties. One is tainted and just not drinkable. That leaves 8 bottles in various states. I have 1 wine bottle stopper. Which bottle to save.

End of June

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow.

Its the end of June already. The month felt like it was dragging along and now its almost July.

Trying to finish tidying up the house for a little BBQ and wine tasting. A couple of my teammates and their partners are coming over.

I have a strawberry rhubarb crumble and a blueberry raspberry crumble prepped to go. I just need to finish tidying up. The blueberry raspberry crumble should have been a cobbler, but I forgot the blueberry preserves. Doh.

Its been a busy day. I've been to QFC twice and Central Market in Mill Creek once. I've tidied the living room, bathroom and laundry room. I've washed 3 loads of laundry. Feeling pretty exhausted now.

I'm also super excited about my upcoming vacation. Summerspiel, baby. Awwww Yeah. Mike C, Em G, Jeremy, and I are headed to Kerry Park in British Columbia. This will be my first summer spiel. I hope I'm not too badly out of curling shape. I've been going to the gym for the last few weeks. I'm a little leery of sleeping in an RV with others. I hope my snoring doesn't keep everyone up, like poor Sara during PIC.

St Edwards Beer Fest 2009

This may be the first year Jeremy and I stayed until last call...

We had a lot of fun yesterday. Our non curling friends Tim, Maya, Mark and Lisa were there. Lisa was surprised by the Georgetown Brewery with her own beer, Lisa. A chocolate stout made with Theo's chocolate. It was very tasty and hard to get a sample of, because it was a special beer for WABL (washington beer lovers). Lisa hooked us up.

Bob and Dani and their son joined us a little while later. Just before they left Joel and his friends stopped by. We stayed until last call, and then staggered to our house to grill up some steaks.

There were some amusing conversations involving chipotle chili cashews (nuts) and Joel was talked to by security for standing on a picnic table.

Itchy and tired.

It's been an incredibly busy weekend.

Friday Joel R came over and had steak/chicken with us for dinner.

Saturday, Jeremy had a board meeting for the calendar club, while I weeded and mowed the backyard. Afterwards, we headed over to Greg R's for a BYOCM (bring your own combustible materials) bonfire. We saw Phillip T, Benj, Mike C, Leon and his wife.

Jeremy got the fire started. The guys took a sledgehammer to an old dog house, there were a few fireworks - bees.., there were toasted marshmallows. There were also a few incredible leaps over the bonfire, which could have caused some singeing of some hairs. And there was an amusing Party til You Puke story that Greg told.

We didn't get home til almost 1 am. I woke up at 6 am to go for a walk with my Dad and Gravity. There was a nice park nearby. We saw a heron, a rabbit, and a hummingbird's nest. We also miscellaneous other birds.

I drove home and took a nap, before accompanying Jeremy to Marymoor park. Jer and Bob T kayaked from Marymoor to Redhook. When I got to Redhook, I bumped into some of the folks that had biked their last time : Richard B and John C.

Anyways, time to try and get some sleep. Avoid thinking about itchy mosquito bites. Arrrrrgh.

Doggie Dreams

Some paw twitching, with Jeremy's music in the background.

A visit to the dog park.

My best friend Maya met me at Marymoor on Sunday to take our dogs to the park

Gravity, my beagle had a blast. After 5 years of going to the park someone passing me finally had something witty to say.

Me: Gravity, where are you?
Guy passing by: All around you.

Trip to the Ballard Locks

Went to visit the Bensons on Saturday for shrimp fajitas.

After tasty shrimp fajitas, fresh strawberries, and Indian pastries, we headed to the locks.

We saw a Great Blue Heron eat 3 fish and a sea lion. Mary Alice and I watched Jeremy and Joe taunt the people on the Goodtimes III Argosy cruise.

End of May

Last Saturday in May, we drove to Camas, WA for the yearly birthday celebration. This year, after the visit to my grandparents cemetery, we went to the Japanese Garden in Portland. The weather was a little warm, but it was very beautiful.

Monday morning...

Bah.

It is truly a Monday morning.

The car needs to have a tire replaced.

The refrigerator is broken, and all the food I bought yesterday and the day before has to be replaced. To make matters worse, the refrigerator is out of warranty by a few months and the Sears repair people can't get to us until June 4th.

Time to start looking at other repair places.

Too busy for all these problems.

Gah.

United States Curling News May 2009

Just got home from work and checked the mailbox to find the May 2009 United States Curling News.

Lots of photos and mentions of teams from the Seattle Granite Curling Club. Well, We did send 3 teams to various Worlds events, a team to the U-18 event, and hell, the Coleman rink took the bronze medal at Club Nationals!!

My rink is mentioned on page 7. It shows how we led the Round Robin, and how we got beat in the semi finals by Norma O'Leary's team. What was cool, was reading through the article, she mentioned that her team played the best game this season against us. Nice to know that we forced them to bring their best.

If you look at the winning photo of Minnesota 1, you can see my teammates Gabrielle, Beth, and Sara in the background. It just goes to show you that someone is coveting the lead position and trying to take me out (Team joke of the season. Every time I turned around - or more often than not, just standing in one spot minding my own business - someone would "accidentally" take me out with a broom.)

Gravity's Catch of the Day

It is Memorial Day 2009. Its been a very busy weekend, even with the hubby out of town playing at the Hollywood Bonspiel.

Saturday I went to Richmond, BC with my friend Jason. We had Dim Sum at the Empire Restaurant, close to the Marriott Hotel that I stayed at during the PIC. It might just be the best Dim Sum I have ever had. After lunch, we walked around a local mall for a bit, and made fun of the various styles of clothing that people were wearing. I always like to watch the really short Chinese women who wear 4 inch heels, but can't walk in them so they stagger around. I'm short and Chinese. However, I feel no desire to fake being taller than I am using spiky shoes. One: I'm so clumsy, I'd probably kill myself. Two: You can ask really cute tall guys to get things for you on shelves that are too high.

After walking around the mall, we went to the BC Liquor Store. One of the reasons I went to BC, to get a treat or two for my hubby. I picked up a scotch whiskey liquer called Amber by Macallen (A little worried thanks to the Scott's comment on Facebook that it will be too sweet). I also picked up a Glen Fiddich 15. Other than Glen Morangie, I really haven't had any experiences with them. Jeremy had a bad experience with one, and since I can never remember which one, I stay away from them all. This weekend, I thought I'd give it a shot.

On the way home, Jason and I stopped by Casa in Bellingham to share a potato burrito and spicy pickled carrots. I know I'm gong to get a lot of flak for that from my husband. However, I have been wanting a potato burrito for the last two years, and every time we go to Bellingham we go to Davinci's for philly cheesesteak sandwiches or the pizza joint by Jeff's or grill at Brian and Heather's.

Sunday I spent some time in the yard weeding. I also pulled everything out of my craft room. The rest of the house looked like something had exploded. I tried to organize my books and my crafts, but it is more than a 2 day job. I was supposed to go to a baseball game, but the person that was going to go with me was jet lagged. I attempted to find another person to come with me but failed.

Today I left my house early to have Dim Sum with my mother and sister at Joy Palace on Martin Luther King Jr. It was tasty, but just not as good as the place in Richmond. It was fun talking to my mother for a bit.

I then came back to mow the lawn and weed some more. While I was mowing the yard I heard a commotion. I ignored it for a minute or two, and then turned off the lawn mower. Turns out Gravity had caught herself a baby blue bird, and she was being yelled at by the baby's parents. By the time I got to Gravity, the baby bird was no longer with the living.

Back inside to finish a couple of loads of laundry and to frantically put everything back inside the craft room. Everything put a table's worth of paper's is back inside the room. I managed to throw away two bags worth of stuff - but alas, like weeding, it does not look like I made a dent in it.

I have a Serbian Potato Casserole in the oven. Jeremy is on his way home. I hope that I will not get scolded too badly. :D

A weekend of sun and the annual meeting.

This was a nice mellow weekend filled with sun, friends, and homemade ice cream sandwiches. Well, the ice cream wasn't home made, but close enough this time around.

Saturday Jeremy and I started off our day with the NAMI walk. We were with Bob Thibodeaux, his sister and an Italian exchange student. The weather was beautiful compared to last years chilly, misty walk.

After our walk, we went to the U Village so Jer could pick up a new monitor at the Apple store and get lunch at the Ram brew pub.

From there, we went to the club to get the tables set up for the annual meeting. An hour plus later, we went home and I took a 15 minute nap and then Gravity out for a walk.

We were back at the club just after 4:30 pm so Jeremy could help finishing prepping everything for the meeting. I was nice being able to see everyone. I talked with Lisa M, Bob T, Mark B, Susan S, Leslie F, my teammate Sara S and others. After the traditional meeting and dinner it was time for them to hand out crystal. To my surprise, our team received beer steins from the WSCA for being the Washington State Women's Champions. LOL. Jeremy and I also received crystal for being runner up in the Friday Night League (Bah, we only lost one game. That game was in the semi finals, and to the skip and vice that we played with our 1st season, which was last year).

A few of us hung around and closed down the club just after midnight. Just some good old end of the season fun.

Today we slept in a little. It was also another super nice day. I did a couple of loads of laundry, Jeremy mowed the lawn, and we both weeded for awhile. We prepped for dinner and I made Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies off a recipe I got from Lisa R. They didn't look as nice as hers did, but they were very tasty and made for awesome ice cream sandwiches.

Joel Russ came over to drop off his broom for Jeremy to take to the Hollywood spiel next weekend and had dinner with us. Steak, pasta salad, salad and dessert. To finish our evening we watched Men With Brooms.

Knees, please....

Just came back from having both my knees checked out.

The knees 'look' excellent per my x-rays. However, I need a follow up MRI on my right knee to see what kind of meniscus tear I might have.

The meniscus tear could be so little that I can continue curling with just wearing a knee brace to having a surgery to shave some of it off. Apparently lots of NBA players continue playing without any surgery with a meniscus tear....

Don't let your dog eat...

Chocolate, grapes and raisins, walnuts, onions, mushrooms and macadamia nuts.

These items were listed in little advice column in the Seattle Times today.

For more info, go to www.healthypet.com, and search for "prevent poisoning."

Another year older... :D

Here's to hoping my birthday wishes will come true.

1. Good year with the family.
2. No more doggie seizures.
3. Another awesome curling season.
4. This cough to go away and never come back. :D

And thanks to Facebook for helping me keep in contact with all of my buddies on my birthday.

Beachcombing for glass...

There's a neat article in today's Seattle Times about beachcoming for glass.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2009158179_pacificpglass03.html?cmpid=2628

It mentions a favorite in the Port Townsend area. The Port Townsend Glass Beach. Again, since its well known to the public, they mention that it is an area that will probably be picked clean by midsummer.

A fun read for people that like to look for rocks and other fun things when at the beach.

Some people have even made a business out of it, making sea glass bracelets and rings.

For more information, there is a book "Pure Sea Glass", written by Richard LaMotte.

There is also the North American Sea Glass Association http://seaglassassociation.org/

Gravity