Snow.

Lots of curling this week.

Friday we had a draw. We were ahead by three, and ended up tying. Knocked our own rock out of the house. It was quite a shame. On the other hand, they bought the beer. Someone from another table dropped off the last of their Wee Heavy. I've included a terrific photo of Bob T drinking out of a pitcher.

Saturday was crazy. Jeremy and I had volunteered to help at the open house. 60 people signed up. 200 people showed up. It was an absolute mad house. I was supposed to be an assistant instructor. Because the groups were so huge 14 and 18 people, I ended up taking half of each group and teaching them on the other side of the sheet. Sometime during the open house, it started to snow.

Chris dropped by in the evening for scotch, dinner, and to watch the Huskies lose. Talk about a shame. The Huskies were ahead, and gave up the game. They also had a chance to tie in the last 30 seconds of the game, and almost did. A dropped pass in the end zone, which was then picked up by Hawaii ended those hopes.

Still have a few dishes to do before novice league today.

The crabby curler.

This is turning out to be a crab monster week.

The positives: I got to curl Tuesday and Wednesday. Worked on my balance.
Balance is a work in progress. My knee is very purple right now.

The negatives: Gravity made a mess on the carpet right before the insurance adjustor came over. Or maybe she made it before I got home. Regardless, I was attempting to clean it when the door bell rang. And then I spent an hour and a half trying to navigate Verizon's phone system. Called 5 times, transfered to different places, dropped. Never did get to talk to the billing team.

Probably more Verizon water torture scheduled for today.

Black Friday and other projects.

Woke up at 4:30 am today. Didn't mean to get up until 5:15 am, but of course, I had nightmares that I overslept.

My mother-in-law and I were busy bees. We started off at Joanne's. But since they weren't open, we dropped by Old Navy, where I bought a sweater I will probably return now. Then we went to Joann's, which was crazy, followed by a trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond.

We drove by Circuit City, which still had a line outside of it, and went to Kohl's in Redmond. They had some of the best deals. 40% off a good portion of stuff in their store, and no coupon needed. The line was enormous, wrapping 3/4 of the way around inside the building. But they were incredibly fast. They had everything down. They had somebody to direct the line, somebody to check prices, somebody cashiering, and somebody bagging. It was like the opposite of a Wal-Mart or K-Mart shopping experience. Kudos to them for having it together.

We then stopped by Cost Plus, and then finally at Macy's. The Macy's experience was the exact opposite of Kohl's. My mother-in-law waited a half an hour to purchase one pair of pants, and there was only ONE person in front of her. How horrible was that? I did get a major score there. I got a jacket that was normally $185.00 for 40% off, an additional 20% off, and then had a $10 coupon. So, the jacket was $85.00 and some change. The deal of the day.

After all of that, we went home, ate lunch. Found out that Jeremy and Jeff had driven to West Seattle for tacos and stopped by the Elliot Bay Brewery.

I worked on my project: Wrist Warmers made out of fleece. And thanks to my mother-in-law, I have 2 decent pairs, and then my first ok pair. A total of 3 pairs of wrist warmers.

Happy Turkey Day!!

Full, warm, and sleepy. That's what the Gravity says. She is sooo tired. There were no naps for her. Grandma and cousin Jeff were here for Thanksgiving. She was too afraid she'd miss a treat. Now she's pooped out on the couch.

There was roast, mashed potatotes, homemade rosemary bread with sage butter, stuffing, roasted vegetables, and cranberry sauce. The boys are currently napping...er, watching football. Pumpkin pie will be on the way.

Here's a photo of Jeremy making pumpkin pie, chasing his mom away from helping.
Also included are photos of the dinner sans turkey, and of Jeff passed out, but still clutching his glass of wine.

Turkey Shot!

Yesterday, I got to test out my new shoes. Idiscovered that they were really fast, partially caused by the fact I have a thicker teflon slider than I need. Drills to gain my balance and strengthen my legs and knees up in the near future. So lots of fun in the upcoming weeks.

We won our novice game match! We started out behind, but made a big comeback in the 4th end with 6 points. Near the end, Jeremy was invited to join the 6:00 pm draw as a sub until Ian got there.

Because we stayed to watch that match, we were invited to participate in the Turkey Shot, where instead of a rock, we threw a frozen turkey across the ice. Prizes : Frozen turkey, Wild Turkey, and a stick of butter shaped like a turkey. Gobble, gobble. I got edged out to 4th or 5th place. Jeremy took 3rd and the Wild Turkey. $4.00 for a bottle of Wild Turkey? Not a bad deal.

Additionally, Jeremy had a spectacular fall sweeping a turkey, which I think will be on the news. Here's to his 15 seconds of fame.

Richmond, Canada

My friend Maya accompanied me on my drive to Canada, where I purchased my first pair of curling shoes!! *snoopy dance*

The Richmond facility is HUGE and fancy.

After the shoe purchase, we drove to a large version of the 99 Ranch Mall, or a more mall like version of Uwajimaya. There, we came across a local Chinese American Idol of sorts. 10 teenagers singing in Chinese, you vote for the winner.

Apparently I look like I speak Chinese (I sure wish I did), because a volunteer came up and handed me a piece of paper (the voting scrap paper, also in Chinese), and rambled at me in Mandarin for 2 minutes. I looked at her and said that I don't speak Chinese, and she reiterated everything in English. Like I could figure out who was who on the paper anyways.

There was good company, congee with century old egg and chinese donuts, and off key music in Chinese in the background. A good day trip.

The delivery.

1.5 more days before Friday night league. I've been thinking about my delivery, dreaming about my delivery, reading up on it on Curling Tech.

And of course, it will all go to crap after I get my new shoes (Yah!) on Saturday. I'll have to learn all over again. But I'm still very super excited.
After work I'm going to take the Passat to have its emissions tested.

Then, more laundry. I managed to get to loads of laundry done yesterday. I also need to clean the house before next week. So much cleaning to do.

Obsessed.

So obsessed with curling right now. Its lunch time, and I'm thinking about curling shoes. While Jeremy is out at his wood turning class on Saturday, I am going to try and obtain a pair of Balance Plus 200.

I called the Vancouver Curling Club, who is not selling shoes this year, the On the Rocks store, which only has size 7.5s, AND the Richmond Curling Club, who has both a 7 and a 7.5. Wahoo.

Hoping that my friend Maya will come with, or Jeremy's cousin, Jeff. If not, I can drive the 3 hours by myself.

I'm excited to buy my shoes. I'm excited to wear my new shoes. I'm a little scared about wearing them for the first time. I hope not to be too terribly unbalanced. There was a gal that we played against last Sunday by the name of Sue, and she hugged the wall after her deliver. Not sure how she would have done if we hadn't been on sheet one. Here's to hoping I look better than that.

Sorry I can't answer my phone, I'm busy curling.

I went to Tuesday's league to be a sub, but too many people bailed. 2 subs, and a sub for a sub showed up. Jeremy got to play, I practiced with Chris, and the guy who was a sub for a sub.

My balance is better, but still crappy. I hope to drive up to Canada, and try on some curling shoes on Saturday. I'm told, that you start back from scratch when you get shoes, because its so different.

After practice, we watched the juniors play for awhile. A good way to spend the evening.

Mrs. Cranky Pants

Mood. Cranky.

Listening to: Tool and System of a Down.

Any other cranky music recommendations are welcome.

Mark & Lisa's Party

Mark & Lisa's party on Saturday night was a blast. James made a surprise visit, and Mark tried to snort Southern Comfort. There was also some drunken-fu fighting and a trip to JR's (er... BJ's?) for some jello shots, and to our surprise, some fairly good music by a band called Kickstart.

Another family birthday

Went to Jeremy's cousin's birthday last weekend in Bellingham. Had a good time. Lots of nature flocking around their house.

Present for my cousin

I finished this sock dog a few weeks ago, but couldn't post it. It was commissioned by my friend Jason for my cousin Lawrence's birthday. If by some small chance you read this, Happy Birthday.

Pretzels and bunny rabbits.

Another busy weekend has come and gone.

Spam-a-lot was ok. Not worth the money that we paid for the seats. Too much of it was pillaged from Life of Brian and the Holy Grail.

Saturday, we made pretzels for the next day, as it was our turn to bring snacks for curling.

Additionally, between Saturday and Sunday, I made this googly eyed bunny rabbit.

Monster long in the making....

Here's a red guy that I've had mostly done for a month or two, and just hadn't gotten around to putting eyeballs on him. They didn't work quite the way I was hoping, so onto another crazy stuffie.

Arooo!! Sock dog-arooni!

My latest completed sock dog! This one was requested from my friend Marisa.

Weekend number 2 of curling has passed, and all I can think of is how to get better. So many things to think about when I throw. Body position, balance, don't be too heavy handed. I'm going to try and squeak in some extra practice tomorrow.

This weekend is going to be a crazy weekend. Spam-a-lot Friday night, and the Hot Shot Curling event for 5 years of experience and under, and then novice league on Sunday. Have to find time to wash some laundry, clean the bathrooms, vacuum, and squeeze out a few more sock dogs or crazy stuffed animals.

Glass eyes!

Whoohoo! My glass eyes from the taxidermist store came in. More woolly beasts on the way!

And more curling tonight. Yay for Friday.

Granite Curling Club

You are looking at one of the newest additions to the Granite Curling Club.
I went to the open house tonight, and had a blast!!! All sorts of good fun. Fell on my butt trying to sweep, before I put grippers on my tennis shoes.

Finished Woolly.

I finished putting feet and a tail on my woolly monster. My hubby is going to whisk it off to his work, to watch over his cube.

Time to place an order for some eyeballs...

Woolly Beasts!!

Here is my woolly beast from my art & soul class yesterday. Mine is the one with 4 legs. I'm still finishing up his feet. The others belong to my classmates.

Finally, some projects completed!!

My friend Maya is busy off at Art & Soul in Portland. I am soooo jealous. Sounds like she is having an incredible time, especially in Nina Bagley's class. I'm very lucky to have her as my buddy. She took my charms with her, and is trading them away with the charmsters group. I will leave tomorrow after work, but as of this moment, am only taking Keely Barham's class Woolly Beasts on Monday.

Received my photos from Snapfish, and once I get a check written out, I can mail them to Catherine of the Yahoo Photo Journals Group. This months photo journal is titled Curiosities. It will be my first time participating after lurking around for the last year or two. I saw some demo'd at Artfest 2007 and they are just gorgeous.

Huzzah, our kitchen is mostly done. The counter tops have been installed. We just have a couple of little minor things left, like the trim on the window. Its been a long and arduous journey for the remodel.....

Happy Anniversary 6 years later....

My hubby and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a little late this year. The kitchen is unusable again, as we wait for the company to finish putting on our kitchen countertop.

We went to Stella Mia, had way too much incredible food. We started off with a bottle of red wine and polenta with gorgonzola sauce. For dinner, I had the cannelloni, and Jeremy ordered the spaghetti with meat balls. And to top it all off, we had cream caramel and spumoni for dessert. Yum yum yum.

Here's to 6 years of marriage!!

Vacation Photos & Arfest 2008 talk

I've been back from my 12 day vacation in Port Loring for almost a couple of weeks now. Here are a couple of photos. Me with the bass I caught at Loon Lake, me holding Jeremy's 30 inch pike that got all twisted up, and lastly with my hubby and the pike.

I got 2 of my 1st choices at Artfest. I got Melissa Manley, Michael Demeng, and Susan Lenart-Kazmer. I'm pretty excited. Looks like I'll have class with Ellen and Kim as well as my buddy Maya. i think I only got 2 first choices this year, because too many people don't want to work with animal gut (Melissa's class).

I am such a procrastinator. I have 47 charms to make before Monday, when Maya leaves for Art & Soul. Crap crap crap. I tried felting at the lake, and they suck. They just aren't as cool as Sarah's. (Sarah was one of my many roommates last year at Artfest).
I wonder if she'll make it back this year.....

Artfest 2008 registration mailed!!

Whoohoo. Mailed our Artfest registrations on Monday, since it was a holiday, to get a Sept 4th stamp.

The classes that I am hoping to get as first choice are Melissa Manley, Misty Mawn, and Susan Lenart Kazmer. Susan's class is the one that I'd like to get in the most. The 2nd one I would like the most is Misty Mawn..... Other than that, I could get my 2nd and 3rd choices for anything.

Getting ready to leave for vacation. No email, no news for almost 2 weeks.

More kitchen, less art...

So the last few weeks have been working on the kitchen. We're trying to finish up the grout. My knees are rubbed raw from kneeling on the tile. Jeremy puts the grout in, I get to wait the hour, and wipe it off. I also get to wipe the haze off as well.

This last weekend, I got to spend some time with one of my best buddies, Maya. We were supposed to do crafts together. Heh. Saturday, we drove down to Lacey, Wa and went to Shipwreck Beads. Its kind of the Powells Bookstore of beads. It was a long drive there and back, but I think Maya ended up with lots of good stuff.

On the way back, we stopped off in Redmond to get my hair chopped/lopped/and razored off. First time I've changed my hair in 10 years. Not sure I like it yet. My hubby likes it. Other people have commented that its cute. Not sure if they really like it, but feel like they need to make a comment.

A short trip to Michaels and Joann's, and bam! It was 6 pm, and time for me to go home to work on the kitchen. *sigh*

Sunday, I was in the kitchen until 1 pm. Maya and I still managed to get a couple of hours of crafts done. She's working on a house trade for Art & soul. I'm trying to come up with some kind of charms.

And then, to plot what I want to make for trades for next year's artfest. I have to laugh when I see Maya sign up for all the different trades. I remember overdoing it my 1st year. Last year, all I did were the little stuffies for trades. No fatbaooks. No atc books.

I'm looking forward to the one Art & Soul class I signed up for in October with Keely. I'm hoping that it will whet my appetite until Artfest. I have all these sewing projects in my head that I want to get started on, and no time to do them. Arrrrgh.

Artfest Schedule 2008

Its up, its up, its up!!!!

Happy dance. Now, to determine what I want to take. The Keith LoBue class looks phenomenal, but its slated for the full 3 days.

On a side note, I pulled an ENORMOUS, gigantosaurus zucchini from my garden last night. I doubt its very tasty. Not that I have a kitchen anyways.

Turn back the clock.

I had the best time at the Seattle Mariners game yesterday afternoon. I got a pair of tickets from work (section 123, row 22, seats 9 and 10). I took my mom, who's never been to Safeco Field. She's a bandwagon groupie. She used to make fun of me wasting my time going to baseball games, until Ichiro was brought into the organization...

Anyways, it was Turn Back the Clock game, where people dressed up in 70s gear. They had Erik Estrada from the popular 70s show CHiPs throw out the ceremonial pitch. Then they mentioned you could meet him in section 335. I ditched my mom and ran up the stairs. I was still a good 40 or so people back by the time I got up there.

A great time was had by all. He was only there until the 3rd inning, and there were some really cranky people behind me, calling out all the ones that tried to cut in line. I had somebody take my photo with my iPhone which you can see here.

Attack of the killer Diet Coke

6 am is too early to be attacked by a can of Diet Coke. I was refilling the refrigerator at work, and cut off the plastic off a Costco order of Diet Coke. Turns out, while I was cutting off the plastic, I punctured a can.

My shirt and pants are still damp, and very sticky. My coworker asked me if I stopped drinking coffee. I let her know, that one incident a morning is all I can handle.

I just started this 6 am to 3 pm shift a couple of weeks ago, and the first 2 days I made coffee, I didn't wedge the lid in right, and ended up with coffee all over the place.

*sigh*

Ladybugs, ladybugs..please eat those aphids.

I bought 2 bags of ladybugs to eat the aphids in my yard. Each bag of ladybugs is 1500, or approx 1/3 of a cup. I released one bag last night.

When I checked up on them later last night, some of them seemed more interested in getting laid than in eating aphids, although I caught one chomping.

This morning, they were chilling out as well, but when I checked up on them this evening, only a few were visible. Will try the second bag later tonight.

Feeling a little batty.

Its 9:55 pm.

I'm sitting in my bedroom. My heart is still racing. I've gotten a little closer to nature than I'd normally like to be this evening.

Jeremy and I just finished watching the last episode of Twin Peaks season 2 in bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a black shadow pass across the window. And then another one. And another one.

"What's that?" I asked.

"What's what?" said Jer and turned on the lamp.

We were then dive bombed by a lone bat. Much mayhem ensued. There was cowering under the blankets and much shrieking. The bat flew out of our room, and into the rest of the house, and then back into our room, and out of our room, and back into our room.

Jer ran into the bathroom, and shut the sliding door.....

I threw a blanket over my head trying to find the camera to catch a movie of being attacked by the bat. I never did find the camera while the bat was fluttering about. We ran to the living room, and then Jer opened the sliding door, and tried to herd th e bat out the back. He managed to knock it down with his red fleece shirt, and then threw his shirt out on the deck.

He fluttered the shirt a couple of times. No more bat. We didn't see it fly off though.

Gravity missed it all. She looked around, but never caught the bat movement. I am just sitting here giggling in hysterics, because now that it is over, its pretty funny. Jeremy theorizes it got in through the attic, with the remodeling of the kitchen going on right now.

Anyways...bedroom door is now closed. Computer is being turned off. Hopefully there will be no Batman dreams. Holy bat-mania!!!!

More kitchen demolition.

And still more kitchen demolition.

Exhausted on the Fourth.

I can't wait to go to sleep tonight. We ripped out most of the kitchen and living room in 2 days. Alison, Mark, and Lisa came over to help us demolish everything today. Here are a few of the photos.

Another weekend gone bye bye.

9:45 pm, and another weekend gone by too quickly.

Last week I finished 2 sock doggies, commissioned by the admin at the company that I work for. My first commission!

Actually, I'm too much of a softie. I only asked that she buy the socks. She also gave me $10 per sock dog as well! Technically, if I was to sell them, the price would probably be $40 each. Its amazing how much time goes into making one of those things.

Its weird though. I'm sewing...but I don't feel like I'm crafting. But I am doing some sort of arts and crafts.

Yesterday, my hubby and I drove to Bellingham to hang out with his cousins. Jeff's girlfriend Yuki has a 3 month visiting visa from Japan. She's quiet, but quite the jokester. She put a temporary tattoo on Jeff while he was sleeping. She also hid his beer from him during lunch, behind a wall made of napkins.

We looked around at the Farmer's market afterwords, and then hiked for 3 hours at the beach near Larrabee State Park. We harrassed a couple of lizards, some little crabs, and a handful of snails. While we climbed some rocks, we saw a crab in the water large enough to eat, and another that had grass growing on top.

Today was a mellow day. Laundry day. Threw out some items. Put a few more on Craigslist. Hope I make a little bit of money.

The birds.

Yesterday at work, a couple of crows startled her, when they slammed into her window. We all went and looked at the bird, as it recovered from being stunned.

This morning, about a block away from work, I got tagged by a crow. I was happily minding my own business, listening to Kevin Smith's SMODcast on my iPod, when a crow swooped over my head. I noticed the wind it generated as it swooped by. It landed on a branch a few feet away.

I continued walking, and then got tagged on the side of the head, as the crow swooped over me again. What the heck? I kept walking, and it tagged me a second time. It perched up on another branch ahead of me. Mr. Crow (Mrs. Crow?) cocked its head, looked and cawed at me. I asked it what it wanted...it looked at me with its beady eyes and didn't answer. I continued on my way to work, and was not bothered again, but I could feel it watching me.

I looked around, and didn't see any babies around, but thats the only reason I could think I was being divebombed. Unless I had somehow managed to insult the crow gods.

Take me out to the ballgame.

The VP of operations gave me a pair of tickets to see the Seattle Mariners play the Texas Rangers yesterday. The Mariners won, 5 - 4. They were fantastic seats, aisle 123, row 22, seats 9 and 10. I invited my hubby's cousin Jeff, but he was already busy, so I took my dad.

It was dad's first time to Safeco field. He seemed to enjoy the game. We had some drunks sitting behind us. There was a very large gentleman from the Lakewood area sitting to the right of me. He was eating a bowl of Ivar's clam chowder, and with every two or three bites, would dribble some down the front of his shirt.

He proceeded to make small talk with me, and of course, almost immediately started with one of my pet peeves.
Large man,"Are you from Japan?"
Me "No."
Large man, "Are you from Korea?"
Me "No."
Large Man, "Are you from China?"
Me "No."
Large man starts to look perplexed. My father's with me, so I don't want to yank his chain too much. I break down and say "I'm from Seattle."
Now he really looks perplexed. "I was born in Seattle."
Blank look. "But my father sitting NEXT to me was born in China."
Face lights up. "I was in Taipei once."
Sigh. A few more minutes of his remembering the olden days, and it was back to baseball.

Damn, but Sammy Sosa looks scrawny now that he's off the 'roids. That was probably one of the biggest comments I heard at the game. He definitely looks smaller than he used to.

Today was a nice mellow day. Didn't get any arts & crafts done. Just some laundry and a little weeding, and a bit of snoozing with my dog. The hubby took me out for dinner , and we browsed for a little at Third Place Books. How good was I? I didn't buy ANY books. Although there was on that I ogled and had a hard time leaving alone. I have too many projects, and not enough time for a new one.