Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Twisted!

Yesterday, I started yoga up again for the first time since our last training preparations for Nationals with Marissa and Jennifer Gamboa (Spiker). Now, for all those who has never done yoga before, if you ever attend a session, you'd see a lot of butts pointed upwards, contorted bodies, chants and meditating, and an occasional flurry of feet kicking up into the air. It's not always a pretty sight, but the results, in my opinion, is amazing.

Nicole, our yoga instructor, kicked our butts and hardened our abs. Thank you and birdie to Chris Davis, another yoga member, who requested us to work on that area. Last year, I tried yoga out for the first time. I remembered how it really pushed expectations on how much a person can flex or stretch or pull or hold those positions. It helps that Nicole is our spot checker making sure we are engaging our muscles and pep talking us into believing the impossible. I think once in a while we need that in our lives. Well, this time around after such a long break, I was again reminded of how wonderful and twisted our minds and bodies can be. We started off the yoga routine sticking a tennis ball into the cave of my butt muscle. It was SORE. The more pain you feel, the more you you know you hit the sweet spot. There was grunting and groaning from everyone. Once we got rid of that ball from our behind, there was an instant wave of pure ecstasy. Now, stop those dirty thoughts, you sickos. You know what I mean. We did a similar pressure point to the sweet spot on our backs, and all the tension and knots from the work day and stress seemed to loosen up. I've had quite a bit of stress lately, and it was nice to get it all out.

At the end of the hour and 15 min. workout, I laid there sweaty, sore, and fatigued. I thought about how cold it was now that we weren't propelling ourselves against gravity. I thought about the upcoming challenges ahead with life, work, and curling. I thought about the chili that was stewing in a crock pot waiting for me at home. I could hear everyone's breathing, my own pulse pumping, and Nicole's voice lulling us into peace.

Namaste.

-Domino

Revamping Bond Girls Curling Website

So since we are going to Nationals again, our Bond Girls Curling Website is getting a new look. We still have lots of work to add onto it, but check it out. Feel free to make any suggestions or comments:

www.bondgirlscurling.com


-Domino

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Curling sweeps elegantly into his life - latimes.com

Curling sweeps elegantly into his life - latimes.com

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So Chris Erskine from the LA Times came to a Team Bond Girls/Team Zissou practice to get the inside scoop on curling.

He wrote a nice article about it that appeared in today's LA Times! Check it out!

Marissa

Monday, January 18, 2010

Where is Matt G?

I should have written this on Sat...oh well. Better late than never.

So it's Friday, Jan. 15th around 6:20 pm. I am at the Los Angeles Airport checking in, and I get a call on my cell. It's Matt. He's suppose to be getting on the 6:20 pm flight out of Burbank.

"Hey Matt," I said.

"Hey, Donna. I missed my flight. I'm going to get on your flight on standby, can you check if there are any open seats?" Asked Matt.

I almost tripped over my long pink scarf. If anyone's ever seen my backpack...they'd understand how top heavy it makes me.

I talked to the lady at the counter as soon as I could. She said that there were 24 seats available, but your friend has to put himself on the list in person, and he needs to do it by 8 pm because of the new security measures. Yikes, a Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend...and Matt had only about an hour. I was thinking last year on our way to Nationals when we almost lost Cindy who was stuck in traffic and literally ran to the plane to make it in time. I prayed that Matt wouldn't miss his 2nd flight today and drive all the way to El Segundo for nothing. It normally takes about 30 min. without traffic to drive from Burbank to LAX on a great day. And on an awful day, it could take 2 hours. Luckily for Matt, Paul could take him down and they could take advantage of the carpool lane. With about 10 min. to go and 4 seats left, Matt makes it on the standby list, and he meets up with Cindy in the security check line. Paul must have had some really fancy driving.

We all get on the plane without any more delays. Actually in the end, we landed a half an hour ahead of schedule. That's my pre-playdown story that I wanted to share today.

-Domino

Team Bond Girls and Team Zissou


Good looking group of curlers....

We are the champions!

It feels good to say that every once in awhile....

Team Bond Girls had a fun weekend in Seattle vying for the MoPac Women's Team spot at the 2010 Curling Club Nationals. We were in best out of 5 tournament with the Beki and her team from Arizona. They were an awesome group of ladies and we had a lot of fun playing them and getting to know them better.

We had 3 games scheduled on Saturday, which is a whole lot of curling in one day.

First game was bright and early Saturday morning at 9:00 am. We dusted off the kilts and tried our best to remember what it was like to curl on actual, real dedicated curling ice together. Starting line-up for game #1 was Donna as lead, Jen G as second, Cindy as vice/mate, and me skipping. It took us a few ends to get back into the rhythm of curling on sweet real ice – but suddenly we got on a roll! Everyone was making some really nice shots – Donna quickly distinguished herself as the Bond Girl with perfect draw weight. Her weight was actually on for all three games! And man oh man can our front end (and vice) sweep well! They were on fire! They can definitely teach me a thing or two about how to use my broom. :) They really carried some rocks and kept them on line so well. We won the first game 14-4, which got us off to a big, exciting start.


Second game was at 1:00 pm. After the Team Zissou boys sweetly went and got us sandwiches for lunch - we had a quick bite to eat and went back onto the ice! Line up for game #2 - had Donna as lead, Jen L as second, Cindy as vice/mate, and me skipping. We were on Sheet #2 this go around and once again the whole team really came together and played great. And some more exceptionally good sweeping this game! We won this one 10-2.


Third game of the day was at 6:00 pm after having some time to relax at the club, sit and chat with the Arizona team and make a quick trip to Albertsons for some snacks. We were feeling a bit of soreness from the first two games, but we were excited to go out there and see if we could pull out one more win of the day.


Game #3 was on sheet #5. We got off to a bit of a slow start, but once we found our rhythm - we were good. We had an exciting 5 ender in the 4th end, which was very cool. Good shots from all the girls and they swept through the soreness. :) We ended up getting 3 more points in the 6th end and we ended up shaking after that. Final score was 10-3.


It felt great to have the team back together and real ice and it really felt like we've improved from where we were last year. We don't have a whole lot of access to practice time and no access to real, dedicated ice, but we make the most of what we get and we have a lot of fun doing it! We feel so fortunate to have a chance to go back to Nationals this year and give it another go! We know we'll learn a whole lot more and make some great new friends.


It was also a real treat to be up there with the Team Zissou boys. They didn't have quite as much luck as we did out on the ice - but they are getting so much great experience and you can see how much they are really coming together and developing as a team. Those other MoPac men's teams better watch out next year cause Hollywood will be unstoppable. We had lots of laughs and good times off the ice with the boys and will be sad not to have them in Madison with us. There will definitely be something missing.


Well - I guess that's all for now. You can find out info about Nationals at: www.2010clubnationals.com


And you can keep following the Bond Girls here, at our Facebook page, and on Twitter!


Go Team!

"Skip" Marissa





Friday, January 15, 2010

Countdown begins....

Ok - practice time this morning for me, Jen G, and Ryan went super well. To have a chance to spend 3 hours out on real curling ice was an arena ice curler's dream come true! And we were lucky to have Jon Wilson helping us fine tune our skills. We'll see how sore the three of us are tomorrow.

We picked up Tim from the airport around 1:00 pm and then went down to Pike's Place Market - got to see some fish being thrown around, ate some chowder in a bread bowl, bought some chocolate covered cherries. The things real Seattle-folk do, right? Jon was our guide and kept us out of trouble.

Then a quick nap and back to the Granite Curling Club to see if we could sub. Only Tim ended up playing for Jon - so he was able to get his practice time in on the real ice. His team held their own against tough competition. Jen Lindsay joined us at the club and was able to see the end of the 7:30 pm draw. Sadly none of us got in to the 9:30 pm draw to sub, but that's ok - we'll still be ready to shine on the ice.

Right now Donna, Cindy and Matt are flying in - they land in about 15 minutes. Team Bond Girls will be all back together and ready for good times on the ice! First draw time 9:00 am. We play 3 games tomorrow and possibly two more on Sunday. It's gonna be a busy weekend in curling land.

We'll keep you posted. Go Team Bond Girls and Team Zissou!

Marissa

I Married a Team Zissou Curler

I never thought I would be saying "I married a Team Zissou Curler." I'm sure most people would ask, "What does this even mean?" I can only say that's exactly what happened...I married a curler, Paul Mendoza, and his team name is Team Zissou. Plus, I am not the only one who shares this honor. Jen Gamboa, my teammate, is married to a Team Zissou Curler as well.

This year both our husbands will be keeping us company and showing their support by competing along side us in the Men's Playdowns for Club Nationals.

I remember the first time, we went up to Playdowns and Nationals, and we were the "new kids on the block." We didn't have a practice routine before. We weren't familiar with all the rules. Heck, we aren't used to playing 10 end games (the norm is about 7). It's kind of nice returning with more Hollywood Curling representation and our significant others. Plus, the boys are lucky that they'd have a cheery support system here for their first playdowns. I feel that they won't find anyone more happy to see them succeed. With all the positive vibes, the plan is for both the men's and women's teams to make it to Club Nationals.

GO TEAM HOLLYWOOD CURLING!

-Domino

Packing for Seattle Club National Playdowns

So I thought that should share our packing list conversations for this trip...As you can see we've got quite a few options for our uniforms. There's only 2 days of competition, and we're ready for 10...It's a Bond Girl thing. (Thanks especially to our Utica Adopted Parents: Liz and Joe who have tripled our pink garments. We love it!)

1. Kilt
2. Black Bond Girls Vest
3. Light pink undershirt
4. Dark pink undershirt
5. Black tights
6. Pink sweatpants
7. Pink sweatshirts that Liz embroidered (we can get a picture of our whole team in them to send to Liz)
8. Curling shoes
9. Broom
10. Cindy - can you bring your stopwatch so we can work on timing?

Donna - are you going to bring your camera to get lots of sweet new curling shots of us!

I think that is everything, right?

Marissa

RESPONSE: Donna

We'll need:

1) Bond Girl Jackets
2) Jen G.'s bringing hand warmers
3) Jen G.'s bringing her fancy tissue holders =P
4) Rain stuff?
5) Ibuprofen
6) Ryan I believe has a whole vat of icy hot
7) Bond Girls T-shirt
8) We should bring our black undershirts as well, just in case something happens
9) Bathing suit stuff to use in the hot spa
10) Name tags?
11) Should we get some hollywood curling pins?

RESPONSE: Cindy

i was planning on bringing my black undershirt just in case anyways. I've got the pink eyeshadow...........check and check

--Domino

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Time to Qualify for Curling Club Nationals

It's that time of year again.... Team Bond Girls is heading up to Seattle to the Granite Curling Club this coming weekend to compete to qualify for the 2010 Club Curling Nationals. It will be freezing cold for us Southern California types who have gotten used to the 70 degree January weather we have been having.

We are playing a team of our pals from the Arizona Coyotes Curling Club, which will be really cool. It's a best out of 5 tournament with 10 end games. So lots of curling and lots of fun in store for us I'm sure! It will be the first time Team Bond Girls has been on real curling ice together since Utica, NY last year. Crazy!

This time the Team Zissou guys will be up in Seattle to compete to qualify for Club Nationals as well. Wouldn't that be awesome to have 2 teams from Hollywood representing in Madison next month!

We had a really successful Poker Tournament fundraiser with the Team Zissou boys this past weekend. Thanks so much to all of our friends and fans who showed up and/or contributed to the event! We are a lucky bunch!

Can't believe the Winter Olympics are right around the corner. We can't wait to get our fill of watching Team USA compete and hopefully we'll have lots of new curlers show up to the Hollywood Curling Club to learn how to curl!

Anyway - stay tuned to the blog to follow our results in Seattle and we'll keep you posted on everything Team Bond Girls!

Marissa