Sweep Sweep! Hurry!

I think it's about time I jotted something down about my (mis) adventure in curling. Al's family loves themselves some curling. I'm not sure I had ever watched it before I met him, but I really like to watch it now too - although not for hours at a time.
Well, what's better than watching? Doing! Right?
Work offered an afternoon of curling fun. Lessons for an hour and then playing for an hour. I was very excited. Of course, in Vic fantasy land, this was going to be it. I was finally going to be naturally good at a sport. Basically, I'd be ready to play on a team at the end of two hours. Olympics here I come. Yeah...right.
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a klutz. Not a dainty, oops smacked my elbow and knocked over a glass of juice klutz, but a fall-on-my-ass, bruised for months klutz. So it won't shock anyone to hear that I fell. I mean, I face-planted on the ice, taking out a coworker with me. I was sweeping my heart out - I had done really well at sweeping on my first try, so of course, that was it, I was going to be a star sweeper - knock everyone off their socks with my sweeping prowess. Then my feet got all confused and the broom shot out and up away from me and I hit the ice. Knees - wham! Then a fall forward. Chest - wham!
Ahhh, it hurt, but I had to laugh, because I could only imagine how funny it looked (like some five year-old sprawled on the ice after a wipe out at hockey practice - funny stuff if you ever get the chance to watch!), and I would have been in tears, laughing so hard, if it had been someone else.
Next, my throwing skills. The only time I threw a good rock was when I stopped thinking about form and weight and angles and curls and just let it go. So basically, a fluke. Other than that not one rock that I threw made it into play - they didn't make it past the play line. However, by my last throw I was no longer completely falling on my ass each time I let go of the rock.
Even after all of this, it was fun. And it was an all right workout, because the next day my shoulders and arms were feeling it.
And I would gladly do it again... As soon as the bruises heal. The knee ones that is. The ego bruise is just a minor yellow tinge, well on the road to wellness.
Take care, and keep your broom on the ice!
V

The Race Is Back On

The Amazing Race kicked off its seventh season last night (I'm likely going to spill info, so if you haven't seen it, but were planning on watching and don't want to know - this is your red light).
This one kind of got me back into it - last season seemed so blah.
I am enjoying Rob and Amber and I am enjoying the other teams gunning for them. I didn't like Rob or Amber on Survivor, but here I am rooting for them after just the first episode.
I also thought there was a lot less screaming and yelling and bitching between couples/teammates/lifelong friends (yeah RIGHT!!! Just say you're girlfriends - how annoying). Not that there was no yelling, there was a little, but it was a better amount than the constant onslaught from last season (not to producers: people who are consistently horrible to each other are not always the most entertaining - now teams being horrible to other teams is totally different in my book and I look forward to a little healthy backstabbing in a game show/race).
I'm the sort of viewer who gets fed up with certain things pretty quickly like the older woman's "dog gonnit" - blech. Frankly - the older couple bugged me the whole episode - Geronimo indeed! (names - Meredith and Gretchen)
I'm also not loving (I'm going to cbs.com for a minute to get the names of these people - be right back [or for you IM junkies - brb]) Ron and Kelly - I can't qualify this dislike very much, but I already don't like Kelly, not fair, but true.
The funniest part for me was when brothers Brian and Greg got to the sand dunes to dig for plane tickets and saw that there was only one that said 7:40 but three that said 7:00 - they stopped, kind of stunned and were trying to figure out why there were 7:00 ones left and what the trick was. Finally one says to the other, "7 is before 7:40, right?" The reply - "It is where I was born." I laughed out loud at that.
I also enjoyed the change in prize for the team that made it to the pit stop first. I'm sure it will go back to being trips, but $10,000 each is a nice little surprise!
Take care (and happy TV time - I am so devoted to my friend from Panasonic!)
V