I am really very lucky or fortunate to have met such great people in my short time of curling. I was invited to play with a great group of curlers in the Madison Halloween Bonspiel. In fact one of these guys was my skip - LOL - even funnier up close ! OK it was Tim Ebert a very competitive curler and all around good guy.
One of the great things about curling with that guy in the black hat is that he notices the little things I do that cause me to miss a shot, lets me know and reminds me of the correct way so I can fix it and not make another bad habit.
There were alot of people actually curling in costume, saw a bunch of Daisy May's, Village People, THE BLUE MAN GROUP (boy were they blue - I'd bet they are still blue), aliens, tinker bells, an AIG group knocking the AIG Bailout, there were some young hot looking women but for some reason I don't remember anything beyond hot looking women.
Saw one guy dressed as a banana...but he's not even close to the banana costume I've used. No I am not posting it !
This spiel also had the Team USA Wheelchair curlers, two teams in fact, playing against all of us non handicapped curlers. They can't sweep, imagine throwing your rock and it better be perfect because no one is going to sweep it. Think about how many times your skip has yelled to STOP SWEEP STOP SWEEP as it's getting close. They were very competitive and had alot of people watching their games in amazement.
Steve Brown of Steve's Curling Supplies is a major sponsor of Team USA Wheelchair Curlers. In appreciation of all he has done and continues to do for them they presented Steve, in front of a packed club house, with this great picture. The roar of laughter was deafening and there was no way that picture would not make it to the Internet !
Madison is a wonderful 6 sheet club with a huge viewing window, volunteers again painted a few of the houses in special designs. And the walls out on the ice have numerous banners celebrating the many National and World Championships members have won.
Our team did pretty good, we were in control of most games most of the time, altho I have to confess I got so wrapped up reading all those banners that one time Brad was throwing, Steph was sweeping and they went right past me....I was literally running down the ice trying to catch up ! I'VE NEVER DONE THAT - EVER ! I've always had my head in the game.....geesh.
Steph was laughing at me as I was trying to explain what happened. I think we won that game anyway. Gads - embarrassing !
We found ourselves in the Semi Finals for the 2nd Event - so we were playing Sunday Morning !! Whooo Hoooo always good to be playing Sunday Morning. Right next to us were two Mens teams playing for the right to be in the 1st Event Final. Both of these Men's teams had won World Men's or Senior Men's Championships !
Right next to us...way cool !!
We were playing one of Stephs good friends Nancy Powers (Nancy is a funny lady, funny sense of humor), We were hitting on all cylinders just not all at the same time. They didn't make any big mistakes and I don't think Nancy missed much if anything. They ended up taking the game after 6 ends, in celebration we asked Nancy to try and make the shot we had missed. Chipping off a stone just off the left side of the house and rolling to the button. She made it look easy so we gave her a hard time for not shooting that shot instead of what she threw.
This is our team, Tim on the left, Brad, Stephanie, Me, what a great group of people and curlers. Brad has curled forever, his whole family curls, it would not surprise me if he was born in a curling club. His dad was Stephanie's coach at one time. Speaking of Stephanie (Lucy Radhl) Erstad, what a great friend - we curled at Green Bay this summer, she's always giving me pointers, knows as much about curling as there is to know, a real competitor but down to earth and funny and a laugh as loud as it is funny. I think it's possible y'all may start seeing her at spiels outside of Wisconsin ! So just get ready to hand her the winning hardware if ya know what I mean.
Nancy - you were supposed to have waited to take the picture till AFTER I sucked in my gut !!
Cheers and Good Curling !
I wonder if that house was patterned after the TEXAS flag ???
