My Bionic MAN

So here I am dedicating this blog to my dad and yet I haven't written all that much about him. Out of respect for him and his privacy I will keep it somewhat limited in detail but will discuss how he's been doing since I've moved back.
Just recently ( few weeks ago now) he under went surgery for his second hip replacement. That's right, he is now the Bionic man. I wasn't there when he had the first one done, but if you have ever been in a situation where you could witness the before and after picture it is something very close to a miracle. My dad had his surgery on a Friday afternoon and was up and moving around/walking two days after. The pain washed away from his face and a new found energy and excitement. Absolutely amazing. He is now motoring around like a bat out of hell, or a brand new Porche!! Absolutely remarkable and it's definitely something to see. I am so proud of him.
His recovery is most definitely slower than his first hip replacement which was over a year ago now, due to his first dose of Chemo before Christmas. He is battling bone cancer and this was the next step in trying to slow the spreading down. Unfortunately as a result/side affect of his first dose of Chemo he was plagued with Shingles. It was a very long and weary recovery. He described it as not knowing how to ever get out of the bottom of the hole. There is no doubt that recovering from the Shingles was the toughest fight mentally and physically for him.
I am very a happy to report that he's getting stronger and maintaining his sense of humour and relentless positive attitude towards his recovery.
My hero!

Melia Cayo Guillermo - Cuba

Holla Amigos!!
My apologies for the delay in an update. I usually would entertain myself on my breaks at work by updating my blog then, but they've done a lot of site blocking as of recently and I am not longer able to do it there. Makes sense, I probably shouldn't have been doing it there to begin with.
Anyway Cuba was a wonderful experience and exactly what I needed on so many levels. My curling season had gone down the pooper, and I started feeling very trapped in my current location, work, and personal life.

Melissa and James had a wonderful wedding day surrounded by there friends and family. What a spectacular effort that everyone made by being there and a memorable one at that.

I made some wonderful new friends and have plenty of memories to keep with me forever.
Memories such as instigating a moonlight dip in the ocean (clothing optional...lol) at 2 am, helping out Melissa's cousin Rayna when she had a reaction to coral that had scrapped her legs and blessed with a wonderful new friendship with her, Fixing Sarah's hair because she didn't like how it was done by the local hair stylist and then being asked to do Melanie's as well, The Buffet, evening congregations in the Gazebo, Being locked out of my room and having to walk to the front desk in my pajamas, seeing a GINORMOUS puffer fish while snorkeling off the catamaran, white sand, Banana Mamas, Being inspired to buy a guitar and learn to play, 'Ooooh Noooooo', Kat's boyfriend ;) , Badum bum bum, Beach chair domination and a British bloke falling down the stairs..TWICE, Name that tune contest that I didn't win, white wine..POP!, hammocks, 'Heaven', 'Crash', Bryan Adams, LOOOOONG line ups through customs, 'HOT', Bon Jovi, Michael Bolton, Lionell Richie, Gazing at the stars, Vultures, Anchorman.....

Thank you for the memories everyone and breathing life back into me.

Who's going to put Sunscreen on my back?!?

Well I was hoping for more laughs than there was this past weekend and also hoped for some very entertaining curling. It was entertaining no doubt, but WHOLY F-Bombs Alice!! The final of the BDO consisted of Glen Howard and Kevin Martin. Both teams known for there high percentage curling as well as being arch rivals. It was a good final, but I watched it on the tube at my friend Karen's house. I had the opportunity to see all the games this past weekend thanks to some friends getting event tickets. Thanks DEAN!

But after a long couple of nights and what I thought to be some poor curling to say the least, I opted to hang with my buddy Karen and watch the game together.

There is no surprise that as a curler you have the occasional bad game. It happens.
To sum it up, Martin followed suit of his third Johnny Mo who was MIA when it came to making shots and Glen Howard taking advantage of the situation and getting lucky on top of it. In my opinion as I'm sure a few others would agree including Glen after the non intentional double take out to sit three to seal the deal.

It was interesting sure, but very strange to see teams with such high profiles miss shots so badly and play so badly. It was shocking, but yes, they are human which is nice to see once in a while. I can't say I had a favorite going into it, but I will admit to cheering for the underdog. That being Team Mike McEwan.

It was nice to see Mike McEwan a young team from Manitoba battle it out with the big guns. I thought he did a great job getting to the Semi's and although the outcome wasn't to what I'm sure he would have liked, he still made the crowd and fellow Manitoba's proud. He also succeeded in accomplishing a few obstacles. He has now successfully beat Glen Howard twice and also achieved his next goal of busting through the Quarters to get to the Semi's. Well done!

He and his team deserved the round of applause they received as they walked off of the ice after the semi final lose to Martin.

It was a good showing for them, and I can't wait to see how the provincials work out for these boys. I personally think McEwan is the team to beat. The very best of luck to you boys!!

DESTINATION CUBA!!!
Destination CUBA!! It's almost February can you believe it? I will be going on vacation into the sun during the winter for the second time in my life! Normally due to my curling schedule and vacation time I put towards my schedule I don't have a chance to go away. I've been trying to get a base tan in preparing for the weather and sun to avoid burning my pasty white flesh, but the availability for tanning at this end of the world is completely booked up. I should be tanning every second day, but it's looking like it's only going to be once a week. Not good. I guess I'll have to do with being abnormally white and scaring off the locals, while trying to invent a way of putting sunscreen on my back by myself. Seriously...this is reason for concern. I'd like to think I could come up with an idea and patten it and maybe present it to the panel on the 'Dragon's Den', but I wouldn't really know where to start. Seriously if you are a single person who got a great deal on a trip to a sunny destination and go by yourself..what do you do? Sure if there is a Cabana boy around they might be able to help you out, but I'm speaking from a woman's perspective. If I was a guy, do you think some Cabana boy would want to help and if he did I'm sure it would be for a hefty fee.

But I digress. I am heading to Cayo Coco Cuba to attend my friend Melissa's wedding. I'm very excited to see her as well as share this very special and exciting day with her. We have a wonderful friendship and so it was with no hesitation that I join her in this very special day. I am excited! However this is a part of me that wishes I had a companion (whether it be a friend or a boyfriend) join me, but I'm sure as in past history I will do just find on my own (minus the sunscreen application..yes it is a concern).

I hope to check out some touristy things and perhaps do a little bit of hiking and such. I will see what is available to me once I get there. I was hoping to swim with dolphins, however that might not be available to me at the location we are going to be at. Again, we will see.

I haven't left for Cuba yet, but I have 18 days left. So if you're looking for me after these 18 days you know where you can find me. :D

BDO Canadian Open of Curling

I will be checking out the action at the BDO in Winnipeg this weekend being held at the MTS Centre. I have some very good friends of mine from Regina playing in this event and am very much looking forward to seeing them in action. Team Jordison made there debut yesterday in there opening game against Jeff Stoughton. The outcome wasn't as good as hoped and they are currently down 5-1 against Randy Ferbey this morning.

I'll be meeting up with the team and other curling friends this weekend for some laughs and good times. I'll update the post at the end of the weekend and will include pictures from the event.

Good luck to all participants!!

I'm BAAAAACK!

On my drive to Winnipeg to play in my first competitive bonspiel of the 2009 season, I can only report that I was less than enthusiastic. It's been a rough season thus far and very disappointing to say the least. I didn't know what to expect playing this past weekend with Tracey Lavery, Jennifer, and Kara, and quite frankly was less than confident in myself and my own abilities.
The one thing that I love the most in this world is curling. I have missed it dearly, and going from curling twice a week to sparing occasionally in the local league here in town left me feeling like I'd lost my security blanket. Needless to say the competition in a REC league is far from what I'm used to and extremely difficult as a competitive curler to embrace even for the fun of it.
Here's what the draw looked like. http://www.curlmanitoba.org/eventtree.php?txtEventID=1666
We played our first game at the Granite Curling club right downtown Winnipeg. What a nice club, with a lot of personality and character. We won that game, I don't recall the score, but we won none the less. We played well and quickly got very comfortable with each other on the ice. Kara, Jennifer and I were able to talk and discuss freely about strategy, weight and time. It was very comfortable and they were very welcoming to me.
With this win we played at 8am the next morning at the Pembina Curling club.(I would have taken some pictures but my camera battery was dead. Boo). I stayed with my old friend and previous Jr curling competitor Karen Klein at her home in Tyndall. It's about 45 minutes away. She was also playing in this spiel, but not in the Birth section, the competitive section. She didn't play until 11:15 the next morning.
We won our second game which put us into a qualifier game against Kaileigh Strath and a colleague of mine Leslie Wilson. They played well, and we didn't. It was definitely our worst game played that weekend. With this loss we dropped to the B side qualifier which was basically right after the previous game. This would make our third game of the day. We won the B qua lifer and headed into the championship round. First game was at 9AM on Sunday morning against former Jr. Manitoba Champion Calleen Neufeld. We won. It was most definitely the best game we played thus far and the team was really gelling and coming together. It felt great and we were all in a zone and extremely focused. Our semi-final game we were not so fortunate. The score did not dictate how the game really went and we unfortunately lost 8-0. We were in control the majority of the game, but it seemed to come down to one shot every end. Once we were off the ice apparently the consensus from the spectators was that Tracey's last rock was a dud and ran straight. Oddly enough once we reflected back on this between all of us and remembering the outcome of the shots she did have to make with her last one, it became quite clear that the consensus was right. How unfortunate we didn't pick up on this during the game. It is one thing to be able to identify if there is a problem with the rocks you're throwing, but there is the other extreme as well.
Regardless it was a wonderful weekend and I had a fantastic time with these girls. It made up for a lot of the disappointments that have occurred this season, and restored my confidence and my drive to succeed in this sport. I cannot give enough praise to these girls I played with. I did not know them very well at all, but what a great group they are. They maintained such high and positive attitudes as well as exhibited much grace and etiquette on and off the ice.
I can't go on enough about the three of them. What a pleasure to play with them/for them. It was the best experience to date. Although we lost out I was on such a high from the experience I became a chatter box. I could not shut up. Viewing from afar...embarrassing, but I could not contain my excitement and enthusiasm.
So here's a shout out to Tracey, Jennifer, Kara and Danielle(who I spared for)and Coach Gerry and there family and friends. The pleasure was all mine!

85th Annual MCA Women's Bonspiel - Competitive Division

I was thinking that my competitive curling season had come to a thudding halt when I get a call over the holidays to spare in, what would be known in Ottawa as the Last Chance Bonspiel. In Winnipeg they have two bonspiels that qualify you a spot to Provincials. This is the last chance / bonspiel for a competitive team that didn't successfully make it out of there zone to compete at the provincials in Neepawa MB in February.
Tracey Lavery, who spared for us in our very first spiel of the season for Joelle has asked me to spare for them this weekend. I enjoyed playing with her then and am very much looking forward to playing with her competitively this weekend.
Competition will be tough, and it will be an adjustment for her team as well as for me playing together this weekend. I suppose the important part of it all is that Tracey has seen me throw already and so it shouldn't be too much of an adjustment for her. I'll be taking my spot at second on her team and will give it my all.
Wish us luck! I'll keep you posted. :)