tournament of hearts

this sunday b2 and i spent the day watching the scottie's tournament of hearts and the super bowl. we made homemade chili, drank granville island beer and snacked on chips and salsa. it was quite the sports sunday!

the tournament of hearts is one of my favorite sporting events to watch on tv, and last year it was hosted in victoria. i was able to go to many of the games last year with my dad, katie and b2. it was an incredible experience.

this year, a little team from PEI captured the hearts of a curling nation. The team consisted of veteran curlers Kathy O'Rourke and Tricia Affleck, alongside 21-year olds Erin Carmody and Geri-Lynn Ramsay. The province of PEI has never won a Scotties championship, let alone made it to the final. Basically, an entire province was watching the game on Sunday.

it was quite the nail-bitter, but in the end Team Canada (Jennifer Jones) took the title for a third straight year.

*people always ask me "who gets to be Team Canada?" - the answer: each year, the team that wins the Scotties becomes "Team Canada" and gets an automatic berth into the Scotties the following year.


I was rooting for you PEI, your willingness to take risks, play aggressive and still have fun certainly won over this curler's heart, and reinvigorated my desire to form a competitive team. Go girls go!

hurry hard

i love to curl. love it. it's my claim to being canadian - that and my love of great tasting beer. the cool air, the comradery, the competition and of course the post-game refreshments, beer and popcorn, add to my love of the game. but really, i am drawn to the game for two reasons: (1) the strategy behind the game and (2) the skill needed to be great, but the lack of skills needed to play and enjoy. i think the weakerthans captured the essence of curling better than anyone i know with their song tournament of hearts. it's definitely worth a listen (or five).

Now the lounge is full of farmers
for the 7:30 draw
The teammates all left before they had to buy a round
When they pull the 50/50, and I've lost again I'll go
Maybe have one more brown one for the snowy road
All the championship banners going yellow on the wall
And my name when it gets closer to last call

So Elvira brings my bottle
Hold it up and let it bend
Figures of two rinks battling an extra end
And i'm peeling off the label
As they peel a corner guard
Dance down the sheet to the tune of "Hurry, Hurry Hard"

 
the love of curling was passed on to me from an early age, since my dad and mom are all-star players and have curled for decades. my four-pack (mom, dad, my bro and myself) joined a competive mix league when i was ten and my brother was seven. we have played ever since. however, not always on the same team. currently i rock it out on tuesday nights with a different four-pack (katieb23, rocket rob, my dad and i), while my mom plays for a rival team. this leads to immeasurable tension, as you can imagine.

last night was of no exception. we were set to play each other at 645. i won the coin toss. with determination in our eyes, and a kind of focus that would put emergency room physicians to shame, we triumphantly took home the win. we were unstoppable - double take-outs, tap backs, draw behinds...there was nothing we couldn't do. the 8th and final end sealed the deal. that was it, we had defeated my mom's team, and subsequently had invoked a family feud.

game on?