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.

Catch of the Day.

Also known as "What the dog dragged in." Note to self. Don't ask for the blue plate special.

Jeremy is busy cooking.

My friend Jason is over for dinner. I turn around and let Gravity in (I totally do not remember this).

Jason and I hear Gravity whining. I see her with something in her mouth.

"Hey Gravity, who's got their squirr-... Holy shit! She's got a squirrel!"

The squirrel looks exactly like the stuffed animal she used to have, except that it was hanging limp in her jaws.

I open the deck door to let her out with the squirrel, Jeremy jams his feet into some shoes to chase her down. Gravity digs a hole underneath a bush and buries the squirrel under it.

Jeremy gets a shovel to dig the scrappy out. Unfortunately, there are no photos with Gravity holding the squirrel....

Curling Camp, Day Four. Ray is not my husband.

Day four covered timing. It would have been great if I could have paid attention, but the two older women from my sheet were nattering on. They even asked a question that was answered, while they were talking. Due to time constraints and lack of equipment, I used the stop watch a total of three times.

This was also the day that the team that I was on finally gelled. We met our object for the first two games, before we lost our focus.

In the end, I enjoyed my time at the Four Foot Curling Camp. I learned quite a bit about delivery, strategy, and sports imagery.

Other things that come to mind: Sitting at a table with Ray and Jeremy. A lady from my sheet sits down and looks at Ray, then asks me "Is this your husband?" Ray looks at me, I look at him. I said "It must be the Asian thing." Always surprises me when people assume that I've married someone that's Chinese, or that I don't speak English.

Curling Camp, Day Three

Day three started out well. I was in a really great mood. I was a little sore, but I was flexible and able to move around.

The instructors worked on our sweeping techniques. I do not feel that there was enough individual attention on this aspect of curling. Sweeping can be just as important as the delivery.

Luckily Lee took me aside and gave me a few more tips. She knows that I am working towards being competitive. I am by no means perfect, but I believe I will be a much better sweeper this upcoming season.

The mini game was super frustrating. I was having a hard time sticking to the basics. I allowed the tension with our team's skip affect me.

By the time the evening arrived, I had worked my way out of my funk. There was a talent contest, where they had the different teams sing karaoke. Personally, my favorite was the Brown Dog Stool team singing Splish Splash.

Curling Camp, Day Two

All I can say about day two is "Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch."

Even after slathering myself with icy hot and tiger balm, I was very stiff. I wanted to cry when I thought about warming up and sliding out. However, after the warm ups, everything was okay.

There was a big upset on day two. Apparently Elaine had a death in the family. Her family left, and a friend and former Olympian Melissa came out for the assist. Melissa was an awesome instructor. She gave me some great feedback on my delivery.

I spent the first part of the day being frustrated with my slide. I still had not been able to get the hang of my delivery with the broom under my arm. Melissa had me switch over to using an Edge. This was quite the turning point for me.

Lee Merklinger gave a great off ice session about mental imagery. I've been using what I've learned from that session all week long. What sticks with me the most is the tape that Brad Gushue's team made to listen to in the car. The tape has sounds of the rock sliding over the ice, the broom sweeping a rock, and Brad calling out to his team. Something that my team should work on making, I think.

Mini game on day two was just as frustrating as day one. Our team still had not gelled together. I played with Joel R and Sara S from Granite, and then Lu, one of the Canadians. Lu had a much different style than the rest of us are used to, and it created some tension.

Curling Camp, Day One

Day one, we arrived at the Parksville club. The club is next to the beach. Maybe it was because the ice had just been available for a short period of time, but I couldn't believe that there wasn't any sand on the carpet or the ice. Out of the 34 campers that showed up, a grand total of 7 campers were from the Seattle Granite Curling Club.

We were introduced to Elaine Jackson and staff. It included her two children, Lee M, Jock, Sharon D, and Will.

They split us up into 5 groups for instruction. We spent day one working on our delivery. Square shoulders, front press, and hip elevation. During this time, I adjusted the following: broom from above the shoulder to under the shoulder, where I placed my toe in the hack, and where I placed the rock. The rock center should always be lined up with your armpit!

This was tough. I really wanted to get this new stance down. I fell over about 50% of the time. Another frustration was three older ladies who were not taking the instruction as seriously as the rest of the people on sheet two. We would all be lined up ready to slide, and they were off to the side chattering away like magpies. When it was their turn to deliver, they weren't anywhere near the hack or prepared to slide out.

Will was our instructor for day one, and he was kind of quiet. I felt that I had to be aggressive with my questions to get the criticism and tips that I wanted.

Sunday, the day before camp starts.

Jeremy and I had a long trip to Parksville, BC for Four Foot Curling Camp. We left Sunday morning and stopped off in Bellingham to visit his cousins. Before we left Bellingham, we ate a very tasty Philly Cheesesteak at DaVinci's.

From there, we drove to Tsawassen to take the ferry to Nanaimo. The lanes were super tight, and I had to crawl from the passenger seat to the driver's seat to get out. Holy candy craps! What a ferry ride, clocking in at 2 hours. Luckily, we bumped into fellow club member Sara. Having another person to talk allowed the time to pass by quickly.

Getting off the ferry, we followed the road to Parksville and found our hotel, the Sandcastle Inn. It was your standard hotel. If we go back in the future, there were plenty more hotels than the curling camp paperwork mentioned, and we will definitely get one with a hot tub!

We had a late dinner at a restaurant called Bugsy's. It was a little dubious looking, because it looked slow inside, but I had a steak sandwich with a caesar salad that I enjoyed. We had actually tried to go to an Irish restaurant, but it was closed when we had stopped by.

Almost ready to leave for Curling Camp!

The hubby is a snoozing.

I think I've finished packing. At least all the important stuff is ready to go. My shoes. My broom. My curling pants and pin.

So tired. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night, due to some carousing with our curling friends.

Jeremy and I met Olivia, Cameron, and Chris at St. Andrews. It was supposed to be my night to drink. I ended up only having a scotch. Jeremy had two scotches.

We then moseyed on over to Uber. Uber is the Seattle version of the Gollum pub in Amsterdam. Jeremy started off with a beer. And then he snuck in a second beer. Unfortunately somebody bought him a cigar and another person bought him a beer.

We left Uber just after 1:40 AM. I drove up 99, and made it just past 145th when we had to pull over. Jeremy ended up being super sick. I pulled over 3 times. There was lots of "why? why??" moaning.

I managed to make it as far as the QFC parking lot. Poor Jeremy got sick again. The world was spinning, and we didn't get any further. He pulled his rainjacket over his head and went to sleep. I had a light tshirt on, and was very cold. I managed to sleep for about 10 minutes.

I checked the trunk, and found out there was a fleece blanket. I used ths until Jeremy complained about being cold. I gave it to him, then went wandering around QFC. I found a cheap and crappy Seahawks Sweatshirt for the outrageous price of $28.00.

A half an hour later, I was still cold, bored, and unable to sleep. Its just before 5 am, and I can't handle it anymore. Jeremy is asleep, so I drive home. And all the way home, I murmured under my breath "Please oh please don't wake up. Please....don't wake up". Thankfully, we made it home without any additional issues.

Three hours later, at 8:10 am, my alarm went off. Time to get up and help with the Seattle Granite Work Party. Groan. It was nice to see the other curlers.

I did manage to sneak in a 2 hour nap today, and get 2 loads of laundry done. Hopefully it is enough.

Time to sleep.

Zucchini Bread!!

Zucchini bread turned out perfect and tasty. I wasn't sure it was going to because I forgot to add the sugar to the dry items. In addition to that mistake, I decided the recipe called for too much sugar, and only added 2 cups instead of 3.

Hee hee. The husband has already had a slice without knowing about my mistake. Well, he doesn't know for like 3 more minutes when his google reader notifies him of my blog.

Is it vacation time yet?

8 more hours of work before I am on vacation. Tick tock tick tock.

Two days before we leave for Vancouver BC.

Monday is 4 foot curling camp! Yahoozie! I am sooo excited.

Other things that are happening between now and then:

1. At this moment, I am baking zucchini bread. Should be done in about 5 minutes.
2. One of my coworkers, Tyler's last day is tomorrow.
3. Drinking Scotch at St. Andrews with Chris, Olivia, and Cameron tomorrow night.
4. Saturday is another work party.

Lots of work and lots of fun coming up!

Seattle Granite Club Work Party!!

Yesterday, while Jeremy was in the board meeting, I participated in the work party. My job was to touch up the blue 4 foot rings in the house. Even as klutzy as I am, I managed to avoid stepping in the paint. Booyah!

However, several other people were not so lucky. Cindy, Kristin, Daniel, Phil, and Bev were the casualties that I was aware of. Bev managed to step in both the blue AND the red. Hahahahaha.