So I'm not claiming that we stole the Patriots thunder or anything. But I find it odd that the Patriots end up loosing on the same night we win our first curling match. Well okay I guess I can't really pretend that the two are related.
First the Curling match: We had a great game. We were evenly matched which I think was a mixture of us all getting better and playing a team that was short a person. There were a few ends where some amazing shots were made. Including a point where the other team had 2 stones sitting right over the button (the center of the target at end of the ice) and the front of the house was well guarded. Troy and I cam up with this wild plan to tap one of our guards back into the house and at least knock an opposing stone out. Well Troy made his shot perfectly and we actually ended up sitting one point with a stone directly over the button!
Unfortunately the other team had the hammer and they managed to curl down directly to our stone and knock it out. I would not have expected to see 2 shots like that in a novice league game.
Later in the game we had snuck a stone into the house. We had 2 options with our last rock. One, guard the other teams rock. It was sitting just in front of the house and could have easily been tapped back for a point. Or draw around the outside and hope they missed the tape up. Well since we were in a good position and (for the first time) were in the lead we decided to put up a guard and play conservatively. Troy mad his shot and put up a real nice guard so the tap up was now impossible. The other teams only option was to curl from the outside. Well they ended up making their shot and got a nice roll, which took out our shot rock out and left them barely sitting 2!
I don't want to get over confident, because I am sure we will meet still competition in Schenectady, But I am feeling really good about how our team is coming along.
So on to the Patriots game..... not much to say here. I actually missed most of it. But I did hear that the Pats gave up a pretty good lead and just couldn't hold it together for the last 2 minutes of the game. They had a good season, I just really wish they hadn't lost to the Colts, and really mainly to Manning. There is too much press about how he is the best QB in the NFL and all of that crap. And he is so annoying on TV (it seems like every 10 seconds there is another Manning commercial), like he needs more money. I am all for sports figures making some extra money on the side, but really with his commercial filming schedule I'm surprised he has time to practice.
Well enough about that. I guess we will have to wait until next year. For the Pats any way, I curl tomorrow!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
The Cracked Bell (Our Inaugural Bonspiel)
M, Troy, Christa and I participated in our first Bonspiel this weekend. The event was held at the Philadelphia Curling Club which is our home club. We were pretty much destroyed this weekend. But since we have about 3 months of total curling experience I think we did pretty well.
Our first event was Friday night. At first we were all a little bit excited because we realized that the team we were playing was a family consisting of a 12 year old, 2 college age girls and a father. Being new to the club we figured that this was a family out to have fun and we would at least be able to hold our own......
It turns out that the Father is the coach of the Club Juniors teams and his daughters have all been to or are starting to go to Nationals. Needless to say we got our stones handed to us. The final score was 17 to 2. But as a team we choose to look on the bright side of this. 1. We scored 2 points against a very good team who throughout the rest of the weekend made a number of very good shots and ended up finishing 3rd in the event. 2. We actually got out on the ice and made a great effort to learn the sport knowing we probably wouldn't do that well.
Each match we learned a bit more, scoring a few more points and allowing other teams to score less. We played 2 more games that weekend (each team entering is guaranteed 3 matches). And curled against 2 other clubs which was great because it also let us see the other side to club curling, which is the social side. We kept asking for advice and taking that advice to heart.
By the end of the weekend we had a chance to finally combine our lessons learned in our first Novice league game as a team. Again we scored more points and allowed our competition to score less. Still loosing, due in part to the fact that we were all pretty tired from having curled all weekend.
So we are off to Schenectady in a few weeks and that will be in interesting event. I am sure the out come will be similar. One of the best things about or team is the attitude we take with us. We would all love to win and eventually we will probably take a game or two. But until then we need to learn as much as possible and get as much practice as possible. Oh, and have more fun than anyone else there!
Our first event was Friday night. At first we were all a little bit excited because we realized that the team we were playing was a family consisting of a 12 year old, 2 college age girls and a father. Being new to the club we figured that this was a family out to have fun and we would at least be able to hold our own......
It turns out that the Father is the coach of the Club Juniors teams and his daughters have all been to or are starting to go to Nationals. Needless to say we got our stones handed to us. The final score was 17 to 2. But as a team we choose to look on the bright side of this. 1. We scored 2 points against a very good team who throughout the rest of the weekend made a number of very good shots and ended up finishing 3rd in the event. 2. We actually got out on the ice and made a great effort to learn the sport knowing we probably wouldn't do that well.
Each match we learned a bit more, scoring a few more points and allowing other teams to score less. We played 2 more games that weekend (each team entering is guaranteed 3 matches). And curled against 2 other clubs which was great because it also let us see the other side to club curling, which is the social side. We kept asking for advice and taking that advice to heart.
By the end of the weekend we had a chance to finally combine our lessons learned in our first Novice league game as a team. Again we scored more points and allowed our competition to score less. Still loosing, due in part to the fact that we were all pretty tired from having curled all weekend.
So we are off to Schenectady in a few weeks and that will be in interesting event. I am sure the out come will be similar. One of the best things about or team is the attitude we take with us. We would all love to win and eventually we will probably take a game or two. But until then we need to learn as much as possible and get as much practice as possible. Oh, and have more fun than anyone else there!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Nuvi Saves the Day
So we were in Boston for New Years, which I have stated already. Of course the one bad thing about going to Boston (or any where for that matter) for a holiday is that you have to come home (with everyone else in the world who went where you did). Usually we can time things so that we don't get stuck in too much traffic, but there is almost always some traffic.
I have to say that the Nuvi performed wonderfully again for this trip. We hit a little bit of traffic at the I-90/I-84 Interchange where there is usually traffic on heavy holiday travels. This is due mainly to the number of people without EZ-Pass or Fast Lane. On a side note it amazes me that people still don't have EZ-Pass or Fast Lane or what ever. No I can understand people who live in places out side the system, but if you have MA, NY, NJ, or PA Plates and no EZ-Pass you should be forced to drive backwards to your destination on secondary roads. It really doesn't matter how infrequently you use it, it just makes everything easier. As this traffic wasn't too bad and I can blow by almost everyone because I DO have EZ-Pass there was really no need to explore an alternate option.
The rest of it was pretty smooth sailing until the dreaded merge. For those of you unfamiliar with the merge just think of two 3-4 lane highways coming together into one 3 lane road. This almost always spells disaster whenever there is heavy volume. This is compounded a bit by the fact that maybe a mile after the merge there is a rest area so people try to get from the far left to the right to exit for the rest area.
At the first rest stop on the Garden State Parkway I decided to finally enter in my traffic subscription. I had the number but entering the code is laborious task, perfect for taking up time at a full service station in NJ. Am I glad I entered the number. I will admit that Nuvi didn't tell me anything I couldn't already have guessed, but it was good to know to expect it.
As we approached the NJ Turnpike Nuvi told us that the car lane (Nuvi usually recommends that we take the car lane) was backed up and I could avoid this. Now from experience I know that usually the car lane backs up a lot more than the Truck lane. I think this has to do with the fact that the Truck lane drops to 2 lanes before it enters the merge and then only one of those 2 lase actually merge. This allows trucks to sort of glide through the merge without having to actually merge. It also tends to keep the truck lane moving a bit.
We as almost always choose the truck lane no matter what the traffic situation is. Nuvi some times picks up on this (this time it did) and after a little bit Nuvi tells us that the truck lane has building volume as well. We have also discovered from experience that usually once traffic gets bunched at the merger it take a few miles for it to recover as well. so usually just about the time we are ready to get off at the PA turnpike traffic is moving well again. So we asked Nuvi to avoid the traffic.
Ass we approach the first wall of traffic Nuvi has us get off at the next exit (about 1/4 mile ahead. We take a NJ State highway (speed limit was 45-50 most of the way) with a few traffic lights but the stops weren't worse than what we probably would have experienced on the Turnpike. We end up on 195 headed to Trenton then, after a brief user error, ended up on route 1 South towards the PA turnpike. We were seated for dinner near our house by about 8 PM. Great Job Nuvi!
Of course I can't say this way was faster or slower but it felt faster, which is important. And I was not contributing to the traffic jam buy getting off the highway. I can't wait until we have smart vehicles that know where we are going and can correlate our destination with the destinations of the other cars on the road to pick the best route (heck I would even let it drive me there).
I have to say that the Nuvi performed wonderfully again for this trip. We hit a little bit of traffic at the I-90/I-84 Interchange where there is usually traffic on heavy holiday travels. This is due mainly to the number of people without EZ-Pass or Fast Lane. On a side note it amazes me that people still don't have EZ-Pass or Fast Lane or what ever. No I can understand people who live in places out side the system, but if you have MA, NY, NJ, or PA Plates and no EZ-Pass you should be forced to drive backwards to your destination on secondary roads. It really doesn't matter how infrequently you use it, it just makes everything easier. As this traffic wasn't too bad and I can blow by almost everyone because I DO have EZ-Pass there was really no need to explore an alternate option.
The rest of it was pretty smooth sailing until the dreaded merge. For those of you unfamiliar with the merge just think of two 3-4 lane highways coming together into one 3 lane road. This almost always spells disaster whenever there is heavy volume. This is compounded a bit by the fact that maybe a mile after the merge there is a rest area so people try to get from the far left to the right to exit for the rest area.
At the first rest stop on the Garden State Parkway I decided to finally enter in my traffic subscription. I had the number but entering the code is laborious task, perfect for taking up time at a full service station in NJ. Am I glad I entered the number. I will admit that Nuvi didn't tell me anything I couldn't already have guessed, but it was good to know to expect it.
As we approached the NJ Turnpike Nuvi told us that the car lane (Nuvi usually recommends that we take the car lane) was backed up and I could avoid this. Now from experience I know that usually the car lane backs up a lot more than the Truck lane. I think this has to do with the fact that the Truck lane drops to 2 lanes before it enters the merge and then only one of those 2 lase actually merge. This allows trucks to sort of glide through the merge without having to actually merge. It also tends to keep the truck lane moving a bit.
We as almost always choose the truck lane no matter what the traffic situation is. Nuvi some times picks up on this (this time it did) and after a little bit Nuvi tells us that the truck lane has building volume as well. We have also discovered from experience that usually once traffic gets bunched at the merger it take a few miles for it to recover as well. so usually just about the time we are ready to get off at the PA turnpike traffic is moving well again. So we asked Nuvi to avoid the traffic.
Ass we approach the first wall of traffic Nuvi has us get off at the next exit (about 1/4 mile ahead. We take a NJ State highway (speed limit was 45-50 most of the way) with a few traffic lights but the stops weren't worse than what we probably would have experienced on the Turnpike. We end up on 195 headed to Trenton then, after a brief user error, ended up on route 1 South towards the PA turnpike. We were seated for dinner near our house by about 8 PM. Great Job Nuvi!
Of course I can't say this way was faster or slower but it felt faster, which is important. And I was not contributing to the traffic jam buy getting off the highway. I can't wait until we have smart vehicles that know where we are going and can correlate our destination with the destinations of the other cars on the road to pick the best route (heck I would even let it drive me there).
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Sam Adams Brewery Tour
M, Troy, Christa and I decided to extend the 2nd annual New Years visit to Boston this year and take part in some of the winter activities. Noting says winter like staying in side and drinking beer. We journeyed out to the Samuel Adams Brewer to learn how the Best Beer in America is made.
Mary and Christa enjoying FREE BEER at the Samuel Adams Brewery
Troy contemplating the importance of Free Beer and what effect it has on our society. Or maybe he is just wondering if he likes the Cherry Wheat.
I would recommend the earliest tour possible. At 11 AM on a Saturday there weren't many people there. By the time we left out tour at 12:15 or so the lobby was packed with waiting tour goers. After the Brewery tour we went to the Cactus Club for lunch, which was surprisingly not crowded, but the food there is excellent. Then on the the Mary Baker Eddy Museum to see the Mapparium. This is a very interesting picture/map of the world around 1935. It is amazing to see what has and hasn't changed.
Having grown up in Boston it was amazing to me that I had never heard of this place. I had been to the Christian Scientist campus a number of times, but didn't know that this room existed. A truly amazing place to spend a few minutes of your day.
Mary and Christa enjoying FREE BEER at the Samuel Adams Brewery
Troy contemplating the importance of Free Beer and what effect it has on our society. Or maybe he is just wondering if he likes the Cherry Wheat.
I would recommend the earliest tour possible. At 11 AM on a Saturday there weren't many people there. By the time we left out tour at 12:15 or so the lobby was packed with waiting tour goers. After the Brewery tour we went to the Cactus Club for lunch, which was surprisingly not crowded, but the food there is excellent. Then on the the Mary Baker Eddy Museum to see the Mapparium. This is a very interesting picture/map of the world around 1935. It is amazing to see what has and hasn't changed.
Having grown up in Boston it was amazing to me that I had never heard of this place. I had been to the Christian Scientist campus a number of times, but didn't know that this room existed. A truly amazing place to spend a few minutes of your day.
Happy New Year!!!!
-Edit 01/04/2007-I should mention that the picture above is provided courtsy of Troy's Blog. Thanks Troy!
-End Edit-
We went up to Boston for New Years again. That offically makes this the second annual Boston New Years Trip. We didn't get snow this year, but the weather was good. Cold enough to remind us that it was winter, but warm enough that walking around wasn't a problem. This year despite our best efforts we caught the fireworks at midnight. They were interesting. As you can see for the picture Christa had her drinking hat (and glasses, and noise maker, and new years beads) on.
Aside from M and I, Troy and Christa, we were again joined by cousins Sara and Roy, with new additions of cousins Chrissy and Doug and My High School Friend Rachel and her husband Sudir (Last year they were off getting engaged, Happy Engageaversary). After last year we decided there was entirely too much walking so we headed straight to the Red Hat for the evening. On the way we made a pit stop at Hong Kong (the bar not the city) for some chicken on a stick and Scorpion Bowls (I refrained because I over indulged the night before).
This year the Red Hat hired a DJ, who in our opionion ran hot and cold. When we got there he was playing some great 80's music, he played a request or two from the group. But he quickly changed his format to hip hop, which bad but wasn't what we were in the mood for. He made up for it by closing the night (at least our night) with a splash back to the 80's for some AC/Dc, Def Lepord and Van Halen.
So Happy New Year to all! Maybe we will see you in Boston next year!
Broadway Birthday
So I was surprised for my birthday with tickets to see Monty Python's Spamalot. What a wonderful show. On a different level than Evil Dead but in many ways the same. Of course the story was hilarious, and in true Monty Python fashion the show takes many diversions from anything resembling the true story.
All of the famous mini scenes are there, the one notable sections being Sir Bedevere, who's part has changed dramatically from the movie. They have removed the entire witch burning sketch from the musical. I guess they just couldn't come up with a good song featuring a witch (although a good place to maybe make fun of Wicked). They have added the lady of the lake as a character, because (to steal an idea) you won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have a leading lady.
This is a very visual show. I also received the soundtrack for my birthday and while some of the songs were amusing the picture isn't complete until you see they choreography on stage. They whole show just works together.
After the matinee showing we went to dinner at Virgil's and decided while we were in the City we should stop by a few other places and see if we could get tickets. We walked over to The Producers and were in luck they had some center Orchestra seats available. We figured why not, another trip back into the city would just tack on another $100 + bucks to the day so were were in effect saving money by seeing 2 shows in one day. besides we were very energized after seeing Spamalot.
I would like to be able to give the Producers as glowing a review as Spamalot, but I can't. The show was excellent and the actors were very good. But the first act seemed a bit slow. The second act picked up and was much more entertaining. M and I very much enjoyed the show and we are glad we saw it. I'm just not sure we would go see it again. We both commented the for Both Evil dead and Spamalot we would totally be willing to go again Even if we purchased the cheapest seats in the house it would be entertaining to watch both shows again. The Producers while very entertaining didn't strike us as something we would go to again.
The theater was fairly empty, we were surprised when we got there that we were able to get such good seats, but after the show started and the entire row in front of us was empty were were no longer surprised with our "good fortune". During intermission a few people moved around to get better seats so a few chairs in front of us filled in, fortunately no basketball players relocated to directly in front of us.
All in all it was a great second Birthday! Mary and I also took some time in between shows to walk up to see the Christmas tree, and while interesting it seemed as if everyone in NY had teh same idea we did. It was totally packed and that may have hindered our enjoyment.
The good thing is after this trip we both realized thatw e need to get into NY more often to see shows. It is almost too convenient to get there.
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