Curling

My company is getting bigger. Everytime I walk around the halls there is a new person. With that we've started to have more organisation which is good.

A social committee has started and their first event was curling.

We had an instructional period, then broke into our teams to curl. Most of the staff had never curled. Mike and I had a (very) slight edge.

Here we are strategizing above. I was the skip of our team. Don't we look like professionals? Pretty sure that we should have tried out for the olympics. We had a great time. It's funny, Mike and I look really serious here, but most of time we were laughing and joking around. They gave everyone grips on their right foot, but no slider because they were afraid of people falling (which they actually did fairly often which was surprising to Mike and I). Mike somehow ended up with a slider and was skooting down the ice like a pro.

We were sure that we were going to lose because we ended up playing against the team of the guy who actually curls in Vancouver and ran the information sessions and printed rules sheets for everyone. However we actually ended up tied by each winning two ends. I somehow got very lucky and managed to throw winning stones at the end of both those ends, so I looked like an awesome curler (total fluke) The final end, half our team left to relieve their babysitter and we ended up with newbies that hadn't had a chance to play a game so we lost that end. Mike and I were surprised at how well we did. It was really fun. Then we had some pizza and beers in the lounge and went home.

Other than that, what is new? We've started a few new hobbies. I've been going to a cardio kickboxing class for exercise and I am taking pottery classes which I plan to continue. The pottery classes really help me to "destress" and just concentrate and be quiet on this one simple thing for a couple of hours and not think of anything else. If I get good at it, guess what everyone is getting for Christmas? ;) Mike also will be putting his hockey equipment to use this summer. He's joined a summer league which plays every Saturday (in the mid afternoon). I'm not sure how thrilled I am about that. I'm glad he's getting exercise and getting a hobby, but every Saturday this summer? I think I would have passed on that, but we'll see how it goes. I may have to find a substitute husband for those days :) Right now, Mike is in Vegas with "the boys" and I have a girl's night planned for tonight.

We are planning a trip at the end of May and are in the process of booking it. I really am looking forward to a vacation! Not exactly sure where yet, but my vacation is booked, the dogs are booked, just need the vacation now. It's gonna be somewhere hot and beautiful and I'm leaving it to Mike to book :P

Well, that's all for us for now. I'm gonna head over to the pottery studio to get in touch with my artsy side :)

Forgotten Post - Los Angelas

I just realised that I'd never done a post on our trip to LA.

Mike had put in for tickets to the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian so we planned a trip around it. However it turned out that the show ended up being cancelled because of the issues with Conan and Jay Leno but we went on the trip anyway because we'd never been to LA.

When we arrived we picked up the rental car and went to Venice Beach which was one of the places we wanted to see.

It was very nice weather considering the February weather that was going on in Vancouver.

We stopped at a nice little grill on the beach and got some burgers and beers.

We watched some skateboarders for a while as there is a really awesome skate park there. We also checked out "Muscle Beach" which is the outdoor gym that Arnold Schwartzenegger used to work out at when he was becomming Mr. Olympia.





























Then we checked into our hotel. Mike had got a deal on the hotel so we got a very nice room. I was really impressed with the digs. Everytime someone spoke to me, I though they were going to ask me to leave.

The next day we went to see Hollywood Boulevard and the stars. I got a few pics with the really good ones like the Michael Jackson one for instance was very busy with a line around it because it was so soon after his death.

This is Mike's favourite pic of the whole trip. The car we rented to drive around was a Mercedes. He hadn't planned on that, but when we got to the rental place the one we reserved was not available and it didn't take too much twisting of Mike's arm for the sales lady to convince Mike to spring for the Benz. He really enjoyed driving it around LA, that's for sure.
We also made a trip to Santa Monica Pier to take a trip on the roller coaster and see the view. It was a bit blustery, but very nice and kind of romantic.

The pic below was actually from the roller coaster as the sun was setting.
We had some nice meals at some great places and really enjoyed ourselves. With the hotel room and the car I felt like we were on a second honeymoon or something.














We also went to see the hollywood sign in the hills, drove to Malibu in the car and saw Bel Air.

It was a great trip and I got to cross one of the great US cities of my "seen it' list.