Have an ice day!

Today, I took my curling obsession to the next level and actually tried out the sport at the Broomstones open house. Accompanying me was a rag tag bunch including Johnston, my coworker Callie, Jeff Roberts, Adam, my roommate Karly, and her friends Matt and Johnny. After making the drive to Wayland and parking in a nearby church, we got on a shuttle bus that drove us to the club and gave us flashbacks to elementary school. Once there, we watched a brief movie about the science of curling before splitting into two groups of four to take the ice: me, Scott, Callie, and Adam vs. Karly, Jeff, Matt, and Johnny. As Michael Scott from the office described it there were no winners or losers, only poetry.

After trying the sport, I made the following conclusions:

• It's harder than it looks on TV (which I suspected).
  
• The stone was surprisingly lighter than I expected.
  
  
• I am good at throwing "warm room" shots -- stones that would go past the house even off the ice (aka a warm room). I apparently need to learn to tone down my power.
  
• Scott and Adam do not have this problem.
  
• The pebbled ice has a lot more traction than I'm used to from my broomball playing days. But you can still slip.
  
• Yelling "HAAAAAARRRRRRD!" is fun. But with my shots, I should probably just yell "WHOA!"
  
• Not only do you yell "hard" when you sweep, but it is hard to do. Really, the hardest part is keeping up with the stone. Unless Johnston throws, then it moves slow enough that I can manage.
  
• More sports should have the rule that the winning team buys the losing team beer.
  
• There is a mini-league starting this Friday. I'm totally game for it.
  

I took more pictures here.

Shustered

The US Men's curling team lost their final game to China just now, finishing 2-7 in the round robin tournament, well out of medal contention. As skip John Shuster missed yet another shot in the 8th end, he was overheard to say "I'm sick of this stupid game." Oh, Mr. Shuster... such good taste in baseball teams*, not such good luck on the curling sheet. The word "shustered" was even coined for his style of play. (That style would be missing the big shot in key situations, it seems. Although hey, he's got a bronze medal from 2006 and you don't.)

On the plus side for the sport of curling, everyone I've talked to who has paid the slightest bit of attention (and, okay, all but one of those people were people I introduced curling to) has joked that they're going to learn to curl so that they too can go to the Olympics and screw it all up. After all, it can't be that hard to beat Shuster's team, can it? (Um, yeah, it probably can.) Even if most of those people never actually pick up a stone, some will (I will!), some of those will stick with it, and maybe even some of those will compete for the US in future Olympics and actually do well.

And so, John Shuster, while you might be sick of this game, the rest of the country is just starting to pay attention.

* If you don't want to install silverlight, it's a video of John Shuster talking about how he's inspired by the Minnesota Twins. Given how the Twins of late have a habit of working hard to make it to the playoffs only to fail miserably once they get there, it's kind of an apt inspiration.

Curling Stone and Roll?

With a hat tip to the NBC announcer, from the country who brought us ABBA and Ace of Base, the Swedish band Hammerfall featured the Swedish women's curling team in their music video "Hearts On Fire." It's... bizarre.

Women: USA 6, Russia 4; Men: USA 4, France 3

And what obscure sport am I reporting the scores for? Why, the only one in which you get to throw rocks at houses -- curling!

For some bizarre reason, curling has become my new favorite sport. I first got into it during the 2006 Torino games, mostly because I loved listening to the announcers' Canadian accents and because the women's team was from Minnesota. Fast forward to last summer when I bought a Wii and brought it home. Deciding to buy me a new game, my dad selected a sports game which included curling and family fun at the cabin was had. (That game is actually not so good and I've since bought a better curling-included game.) So while I've yet to throw a real stone (I'll get to that), I know the rules and the strategy.

Now that the 2010 games are under way in Vancouver, I've been streaming the curling matches at work and watching coverage on CNBC. (In fact, I am currently watch the Canada-Denmark women's match.) For those who don't know the difference between a peel and a tick, the summary of the first few days goes like this: team Canada is generally awesome and unbeatable (particularly the men) and team USA can't win a game, usually due missing a clutch shot in the 10th end. (End ~ inning in baseball... kind of.)

But the US's luck turned around today -- both the men and women's teams finally won! The men's victory is not without drama as it came after they benched their skip (skip ~ last shooter/team captain) John Shuster and replaced him with 22 year old alternate Chris Plys. Oh, the tension in the curling world! Unfortunately for the men, they're still ranked last while the women fare only slightly better. (They're ahead of Switzerland, who remain the last unvictorious team on the rink for either gender.) I'm cheering for Canada all the way at this point.

Today's Olympic victories aside, I've decided that curling is my best shot at ever being a world class athlete, given that hockey didn't really work out for me. And so, on March 7, I'm going to the Broomstones open house with anyone who wants to join me. (Seriously, if you're reading this, are in Massachusetts, and want to go, a bunch of us have registered for the 3:40 slot.) I'm bringing a camera and I'm sure I will discover that hurling a 44 pound piece of granite into a precise spot on the ice is not a easy as Cheryl Bernard makes it look... but I'm also betting that it will be a ton of fun!

Things I didn't blog about this month

I will attempt to make up for more than month of blogging by trying to summarize things I would have blogged about had I remembered to.

• Hockey at Fenway -- Courtesy of Jeff Roberts, I got a ticket to see college ice hockey at Fenway Park. Unfortunately, Sheeva was coming in for a visit that night so I couldn't stay to see the much touted BU vs. BC (men's) matchup. Instead, I got to see UNH vs. Northeastern women's teams play. And it turns out that not only is my sister right and women's hockey is just not as interesting as men's,* but the way they set up the ice at Fenway was to run it diagonal across the infield from first to third. As a results, there were literally no good seats as the only ones anywhere near the rink where near the ends and no one sat at center ice.
• Mystery Hunt -- This really deserves it's own lengthy post, but I'm never going to get around it. That being said, much fun was had despite the fact that I lost my voice to the point that Sunday morning I was Skype chatting to people sitting next to me because it was easier and less painful than trying to talk. While going to sleep was probably the healthy option for me at that point, there were too many people around who aren't normally and I figured I'd sleep when they left. And oh, did I! There were a number of puzzles I enjoyed, but the one best suited for a blog post was Peek Yrrej Tuo. Our task on this puzzle was to remake the Godfather without saying the title of the movie. (I misinterpreted that rule and made a silent film.) Initially a group of undergrads were set to make it on their own. However, when I went to check on them, it turned out none of them had actually seen the movie and they were basing it on things they had read on wikipedia. This was taking too long, so I jumped in to direct and made the masterpiece embedded below.
• Cheese and Biscuits -- I taught myself how to make cheese from a Minnesota State Fair recipe. It was kind of like cream cheese and I infused it with garlic and chives. When I was finished, I wound up with a bunch of leftover whey. From this, I made a ridiculous amount of biscuits: first a batch for a potluck and then multiple batches for an impromptu biscuit party I threw when Breath was in town unannounced. No one who has had the cheese has died and everyone loved the biscuits, so I call it a success.
• The Vikings choking in the NFC Championship game -- Actually, I don't want to talk about this.
• Brandi Carlile -- I just got back from Portsmouth, NH where I saw Brandi Carlile sing for the second time in the past year. It was a sold out show, but I managed to grab a ticket from someone on Craigslist this morning. And it was an amazing show and so worth the hour drive. If her voice doesn't give you chills, something is wrong with you. (I actually much prefer the live arrangement of "Oh Dear" with five voices and a ukulele instead of the more fully orchestrated version on the album.) In my fantasy life in which I became a singer instead of a scientist/engineer sort, I sound like her. After the show, I waited around and got her autograph and we even talked about the State Fair ever so briefly! Oh, and the opening act, Katie Herzig, was pretty good too.

Now, without further ado, "The Internet" presents The Godfather starring Harrison Bralower as Marlon Brando, directed by me (as you can hear at various points):

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

I know the online store says they're out (and really, is that surprising, given its awesomeness?). But all I want for Christmas is the Justin Morneau "Sluggie". Imagine being able to cuddle up with my very own Canadian AL MVP...

Christmas comes early...

... or my birthday came late. Either way, I just bought myself tickets to the only two Twins games happening at Fenway this year. And for the May 19th game, I splurged on myself and will be sitting right behind homeplate. (Well, off to the left, but whatever.) I've also noted that the Twins are playing a weekend series in Philadelphia in June, home of my friend Maggie. I may have to pay her a visit...

(An aside to whoever schedules MLB games -- the Twins play the Red Sox once in April to open Target Field and once in May at Fenway, and then they never play each other again. I'm pretty sure there's a more optimized schedule than that.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I meant to post this yesterday, but got distracted by work...

Every week day morning for over a year now, I walk to the Davis Square T stop to head in to work. On the vast majority of those days, I've taken a copy of the Metro from the same woman who stands at the end of the escalator. (As I have mentioned before, the Metro is not a great paper. But it is free and it has a crossword puzzle.)

When I first started getting the paper from this woman, she never made eye contact and never smiled. She just held out the paper and waited for people to come back and take them from her. When someone did, she'd hold out another paper for the next person... or the person after that if the next person ignored her. It was the same thing everyday, with no sign of personality from her.

I figured she must be bored or shy or both and decided to make it my mission to get her to at least smile. Thus, every morning when I took the paper from her, I would say a cheery good morning. After about a month, she started to look up and smile when I said it. Eventually, she started recognizing me and smiling before I said anything. A few months ago she started holding the paper back from me until I said "Good morning," at which she always responded with a very quiet "Good morning" back.

But yesterday was a big turning point. We did our usual "Good morning" exchange and I took the paper from her. But she wouldn't let go. Instead, she looked me in the eye and said, "Happy Thanksgiving." I wished her the same, and took the paper and headed off to the T.

So, on this turkey day 2009, I am thankful for the Metro lady at the Davis Square T stop and our small little bond. And for Google for sponsoring the free wifi at Logan which is allowing me to post this while I wait for me 6 am flight.

Our fine feathered friend

Today at work we were visited by a guest. After our morning meeting we noticed him (her?) just hanging out by one of the research assistant cubicles. He seemed just as interested in checking us out as we were in checking him out. When I moved the cereal box that was blocking our view of him, he was particularly interested in where I put it. Ultimately, I broke eye contact with him and attempted to take a picture of his backside which either made him lose interest or frightened because he took off from the ledge into the city.

In other news, my phone takes reasonable pictures and can connect to my work computer over bluetooth.

My alma maters are better than Harvard

According to some survey done by the Global Language Monitor, Harvard University only ranks third in public perception -- and the Harvard Crimson is all up in arms about it. The two universities ranked one and two? Michigan and MIT, my alma maters.

It's a fun day to work in a group where over half the people have at least one degree from Harvard.

Go Engineers and go Blue!