curling in Texas

When we heard about the DFW Curlign Club open house this weekend, Amy and I knew that we had to jump at the chance to try some curlign at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Duncanville. So Sunday afternoon we joined a crowd of a couple hundred people in giving the roaring game a try.

On the first go around, each person was given a chance to throw two shots half the length of the ice. It was a good chance to get the delivery technique and stance down and provided soem hilarious results with native Texas not used to the slippery curling ice. After everybody got the hang of it a bit, they started having the groups throw the length of the ice complete with sweepers and an expert skip calling the shots. Apparently I'm a natural at sweeping; I guess all those years of watching curlign on TV paid off somehow. My delivery was somewhat awkward looking but I was complimented on my smoothness and got some applause from the others waiting for their turn. Maybe it is naturally in Canadian DNA. Amy had a nice delivery, although was a little low on power and couldn't quite master the art of using the broom for balance. At least she didn't have a total wipe out though and there were a good dozen of those.

WBAP interviewed Amy, asking her why she decided to coem out and give curlign a try. When she responded that it was because her Canadian boyfriend had always been talkign about the sport, the interviewer responded with, "So this is your way of bonding with your Canadian boyfriend then?" It was classic.

They are going to start a spring/summer instructional league up in a month or so after the DFW Curlign Club regular season concludes. I'd really like to give it a try. Great, now we're going to have roller derby and curling conflicts every weekend. That's quite the unexpected combination.

washout and UTA vs. UTD

The one weekend we don't want it to rain it pours. Amy and I passed up the Cowtown Marathon 5k this morning because of the steady drizzle and flooded streets. Dissapointing but better than beign miserable with soaked feet and ruined runnign shoes. We'll have to shoot for another 5k later in the spring.

This evening I headed over to Richardson to watch my friend Jason and his UTD teammates represent their school in roller hockey against rival UTA. It was a hard fought match, with UTA taking a 3-0 lead late into the final period. UTD pressured with the clock winding down and popped in two quick goals to make it 3-2 with about two minutes remaining. UTD couldn't sustain the attcak however, and UTA was able to sneak in a cheap goal with 8 seconds left to make it 4-2 and secure the victory.

I brought my new camera to the game and hopefully will have some pics to post later.

The General

Tonight, admist the first major rainfall event in North Texas since last spring, Amy I went to see The General at the Bass Hall. The classic Buster Keaton silent film was being shown by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, who played the score to the film along with a guest pianist. It was incedibly cool, with dueling bass drums providing "stereo" during the climactic Civil War battle sequence. This movie, with it's great sight gags and railroad clownery has always been a favorite of mine and this was a spectacular way to take it in.

Olympics and hockey failure

Canada is doing incredibly well at the Olympics this year. Every four years it's myc hance to show my usually reserved Canadian pride. Yes, the hockey team fell flat on its face but look at the speed skating ovals where Canada is in the mdelas in nearly every race and just wait for the curling finals coming up over the next two days. Then we'll see who really owns the ice.

Speaking of the Canadian hockey team, I don't think it's as big a deal as everybody is making it out to be. It was amazing when Canada won the gold in 2002 in Salt Lake City but we can't forget that it was Canada's first gold in hockey since 1952. That's a 50-year drought that covers my entire lifetime. So this quarter final loss is a dissapointment but not nearly as heartbreaking as years past:

1984 Sarejevo: I barely remeber these games but the USSR was unstoppable back them. The Big Red Machine which played together solid for years before the Olympic tournament featured the famed K-L-M production line and arguaby one of the best goalies ever to play the game in Vladislov Tretiak. they steamrolled through the tournament with a combined score of 48-5. Ouch. The rag-tag bunch of Canadian college players and non-NHL pros didn't stand a chance and finished out of the mdeals.

1988 Calgary: This was going to be the year. Playing on home ice for the first tiem in the Olympics Canada was assured of gold. The USSR, Sweden and Finland all beat Canada to the mdeal platform.

1992 Albertville: Eric Lindross leads the Canadians into the gold medal game against the "Unified Team" cobbled toegther from the remains of the former USSR which had disintigrated the previous fall. In my first Olympic hockey heartbraker, the last of the great Soviet teams still has enough to soundly beat the Canadians. It's Canada's first Olympic hockey medal since a bronze in 1968 (Canada boycotted Olympic hockey in 1972 and 1976 while arguing that NHL players should be allowed to play against the international players, many of whom are play in Eurpean pro leagues or are payed to play for state-run teams, the latter particularly the case with the Russians) but silver is hard to swallow.

1994 Lillehammer: Joe Juneau leads the Canadians into the gold medal game, this time against Sweden. Surely gold is in hand. The two teams play to a tie and overtime resolves nothing. The game and gold medal goes to a shootout. As the Swedsh goaltender makes a final stop to knock Canada out of the shootout, the entire nation weeps. Silver again. That one hurt.

1998 Nagano: Finally, Canada gets to send its NHL best to the Olympics. However, by now, a whole bunch of countries have season NHL verterans and Canada's NHL advatage is not as great. In the semi-finals, Hasek stands on his head for the Czechs who send the Canadians into the bronze medal game (which they lose to Finland). As a Czech victory is all but certain at the end of the semi-final, the camera closes in on Gretzky at the end of the Canadian bench in his only chance to win an Olympic gold. As a tear rolls from the corner of his eye the heart of a nation sinks.

So really, 2006 Torino really isn't bad at all. Not even comign close doesn't hurt as much as having it in your hand and snatched away.

We'll be back in 2010 for sure. Well we darn well better be.

oooo individual chocolate raspberry truffle cake

It was delayed due to extenuating circumstances and a nice ice storm, but the annual Valentine's weekend trip to Central Market followed by lasagna from scratch went off swimmingly again. We didn't have a chance to make cookies though. Maybe next weekend.

Valentine's Day

What could be more appropriate for Valentine's Day than cooking dinner together, watching a movie on Netflix (The Terminal... which is rather cute by the way) and then capping the night off with a little bowling?

tick... tick... tick...

Times up!

Didn't think you could come up with anything. It was a heck of a lot better than the typical weekday where one or both of us are stuck at work late.

the first of many Roller Derby posts

With the revival of roller derby in Texas over the past few years, Amy has always wanted to take part. Unfortunately, due to her unpredictable work schedule, she's relagted to the sidelines. However, one of her friends and cowowrkers (who has a position that let's her get out on tiem every day) has just become involved with a local league, the Assassination City Derby. Tonight was their final exhibition match, and the first that our friend "Smackajawea" (aka number $1.00), was skating in. The matches are held at Dad's Broadway Skateland out in mesquite, which is a virtual time machine back to the 1950's, very cool.

The derby action was fast and furious and it should be fun to watch as the regular season starts up and the group is split into their teams and rivalries develop. These girls are tough. More as the season progresses.

MINI Autocross

I'd link to my post on the DFW NB Club boards describing this but it's down at the moment for some reason.

Steeler Bowl

Thanks to Ryan for inviting us to his huge annual Super Bowl party. Quite the spread.

Yes... Trekkies. I know.

Aeon Flux

Amy and I had been wanting to see this movie for a while but hadn't had time. So what better way to spend the afternoon before the Super Bowl than head over to the Starplex 10 in Irving and catch Aeon Flux playing as a $1.00 matinee?

This movie has an interesting concept, a world caught in a never-ending cycle of cloning and self-replication, that could have made for a great movie if developed a little more. I don't know what it is but somethign is missing in this movie and the result is a B-movie sort of feel. Years from now when somebody makes a new series of MST3K, this movie will likely be featured.

What isn't missing is Charlize Theron... schhhwing! She was hot driving the MINI S in The Italian Job and is even hotter here as an expert assasin who spends the entire movie what are essentially skin-tight S&M-esque outfits and to my surprise, the short jet-black hair really works for her. Certainly more than a dollar's worth of eye candy. I'd take Aeon over Mrs. Smith any day.

Numbers Twist @ The Wreck Room

Numbers Twist is a side project featuring the Red Animal War lineup but in place of their regular drummer they have two, count 'em, two drummers, one of which happens to work with Amy. Yes Amy works with an icredibly divrse bunch compared with my coworkers whose life outside work I know virtually nothing about. Before the show we met Rodney and Stephanie at Fuzzy's Tacos over by TCU for dinner. Well except I was reeling from a cellitus staph infection in my nose and showed up late to just hang out while everybody else ate. Fuzzy's is pretty cool and the food looked good but I am certainly know judge of Mexican, I don't even really like the stuff on a good day let alone when I'm sick.

We went to the Wreck Room and I watched the first thee Numbers Twist numbers before leaving early to get some much needed rest. The effect of having two drummers was very cool and interestign to watch. The songs had a thunderous marching band feel to them as the drummers switched from doing the same parts together in time to playing differing but complimentry parts. The visual was spectacular with the two drum sets parked right behind each other and drum sticks flying everywhere. I hated to leave early but I had to because I was dying in there. Too much smoke for my swollen up nose to handle.