Sunshines and Creeps

YaY! It's Friday. Time for another round of Sunshines and Creeps!

• Sunshine to getting wonderful flowers from my hubby for the V-Day! We also went out to eat at our favorite restaurant last weekend, hoping to avoid the V-Day rush and then make a delicious steak supper on the actual night. Then cozied up on the couch to watch 50/50 and The Rum Diary. We also drank a delicious bottle of sparkling Shiraz that Ross's brother gave us for the wedding.
• Sunshine to our sweet dogs who got Ross a gift certificate to JL Beers for V-Day! And to Ross's parents who did the same thing. Guess we'll have one GREAT night there!
• Creep to always being cold at work.
• Sunshine to having great co-workers. More on that soon!
• Creep to Ross's dad having some health issues that caused them to cut their working vacation at Lake of the Woods short and rush back to town for a hospital stay.
• Sunshine to Ross's dad being just fine and to his 60th birthday yesterday! We went out with them to a local Italian restaurant yesterday to celebrate. I had never been there before, it was quite a treat! I had an angel hair/spicy red sauce/calamari dish that was FAB-U-LOUS! It wasn't really heavy like pasta can be. Ross got a pizza, the size of a small car, Ross's dad got the lasagna and his mom got fettuccine alfredo. It was a great night!
• Sunshine to selling raffle tickets at the Sioux/Michigan Tech game tonight! Should be fun to do something productive and see the game at the same time. We're selling tickets for the raffle for the GF Curling Club. Come say hi if you're there.
• Sunshine to actually being just a spectator at tomorrow's game!
• Sunshine to my hubby who has been taking care of our crazy dogs all the time because they're so annoying. We really need a place with a yard for those doggies!
• Creep to Cooper having something wrong with his ears. We need to get them cleaned, he is shaking his head like crazy, which is driving me bonkers!
• Sunshine to a new curling iron (all you ladies know what fun it is to get a new hair tool!)
• Sunshine to a long weekend! Hope everyone enjoys the holiday!

Curling

Curling is a sport best played in the Great White North. Curling is done on ice (just in case you weren't sure) The point of curling is to get your rock closest to the middle. You get one point for each rock that you have closer to the middle than the other team. Only one team scores each round (which is called an "end").

Here, red got one point. Thanks to Ross's brother Mike. He was a great first timer!

Each team throws 8 rocks in each end and there are four people on each team. Therefore, each team member throws two rocks. One person is standing on the opposite side of the ice as the thrower, that person is the skip, they direct you where they want the rock to end up, how hard to throw it, and which type of spin to put on it. The person who throws first is called the "First" then the "Second" and then the "Third". The skip throws last and the Third then calls the shots and plays skip for those throws. If you are not the skip and you are not throwing you are sweeping with what is quite logically called, brooms. (They no longer usually resemble real brooms, but they used to which is why they are called brooms). The sweeping is actually pretty tough and a great little arm workout, but don't forget to breathe when you do it.

Sweeping, harder than it looks, really!

So, that said. I curl Tuesday nights. Last Tuesday night I was curling and then met Ross and his brothers (and later a cousin) out for drinks after curling. At approximately, 1 a.m. I started talking about curling, at which time his cousin decided he would love love love to go curling and Ross has a key for the curling club (any member can have one, don't worry not breaking any laws here). So we decided our after bar would be curling. It was a rockin' awesome time (pun intended). We curled from about 2 to 3:30 a.m., which is not a time I usually see on the clock so I had to take a picture as proof. It is sure a good thing I was on vacation the next day or I would've been in pretty rough shape!! What a great night. I really enjoy Ross's family and I am pretty sure they enjoyed the late night curling too.

Proof I was there.

A couple reasons why I love curling:

1. You get to wear sweats in public and its basically expected! I love love love sweats!


2. 
   
   I get to spend two or three hours with my favorite person in the whole world, Ross. He is too hard on himself and would say that he is not a fantastic curler, but he is really amazing actually and makes curling my favorite thing to do when he is along with it. I love doing things with him (even though my favorite thing to do with him is just snuggle on the couch, when did I turn into such a girly girl?!)


3. Drinking is not only acceptable, but encouraged. (The GF curling club actually makes a chunk of their income from the Beer vending machines, yes you heard me beer vending machines. Picture to be added after this week's match)


4. I get yelled at by a loud Canadian every week and I can't understand what he is yelling but I know what I am supposed to do. It's great having a Canadian on our team, curling is in their blood! Between him and Ross they save our team every week.


5. I get to spend time playing with Ross (worth restating), Amanda, Kyle and Laura each week (or whichever of the three show up that week) as well as getting to know new people from the other teams. My favorite opposing team is the guys from the AFB. They rock (another bad pun intended)


6. Did I mention the beer and that it comes from vending machines?

Can't wait for the game tomorrow!