FUN FUN FUN-drasier

On Saturday, we held our Casino Royale Fundraiser. Despite, record cold weather and spurts of rain, slushy snow, and YES! hail (it's a novelty here in Burbank), many Team Bond Girl supporters still showed up and had a great time. Here's a quick summary:

Brent's Deli supplied the delicious assortment of sandwiches, chips, and other snack items. Delicious!

We had a total of 19 poker participants, all who played their heart out. We started the actual tournament at around 6:00 PM, a slight delay because of the weather.

Karl and Kate Preusser was celebrating their anniversary with us so we baked them a special cake.

Poker Tourney consisted of Texas Hold 'Em with increasing blinds every 20 min. We were also introducing another element to the game called "Headhunter" where a prize would be given to the poker player who "takes out" the most poker players.

WINNERS:

1st Place - Matt C.
Blu-Ray Player Prize Pack

2nd Place - Sean

3rd Place - TJ

4th Place - Joey

5th Place - Karl

Consolation Prize - Andrea (taken out by a Team Preusser Sandwich.)

Headhunter - (Most Poker Play "kills") - Matt C.

(Pictures to come soon)

Congratulations to all our winners and participants. We couldn't have done it without you.

- Domino

2011 Club Nationals Information At-A-Glance

This is just some information at-a-glance for all those interested in following along our journey to the 2011 Club Nationals.

Team Bond Girls Arrival:
March 5 at 7 am (Yes, we are taking the red eye)

Dates of Tournament:
March 5 - March 12

Schedule of Events:
Saturday March 5th

5:00 p.m. Welcome Reception- Mankato Curling Club
6:30 p.m. Practice Session 1 AK, MI, NJ, CO, CA
8:00 p.m. Practice Session 2 NJ, CA, MI, CO, OR

Sunday March 6th

8:30 a.m. Practice Session 3 IL, MN, WI, ND, WA
10:00 a.m. Practice Session 4 IL, ND, WI, MN, WA
11:00 a.m. Team Meeting
1:00 p.m. Opening Ceremonies

Saturday March 12th

5:00 p.m. Closing Ceremonies- Mankato Curling Club
6:00 p.m. Social Hour- Best Western Garden Inn
7:00 p.m. Banquet & Awards- Best Western Garden Inn. - Entertainment to follow

Location of Tournament:
Mankato Curling Club
600 Hope Street
Mankato, MN 56001-4321
(507) 388-3335

Public Admission to watch games:
$3/draw
$5/day
$20/week

Saturday Banquet (2/12) for dinner and entertainment: $25

Schedule:
To Download Draw Schedule

Team Bond Girls Updates:
Webstream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-bond-girls-curling-club-nationals

Twitter: http://twitter.com/teambondgirls

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bondgirlscurling

Blog: www.bondgirlscurling.blogspot.com

Website: www.bondgirlscurling.com

Brent's the Best

Team Bond Girls eat at:


http://www.brentsdeli.com/

For the 3rd year in a row, food for our poker tournament participants will be generously provided by Brent's Delicatessen & Restaurant...delicious.

If you haven't been to Brent's, you're missing out because it's amazing. The portions are generous, and the flavor is....Well, it's no wonder people's mouth start to water at the mention of Brent's. They've been serving Southern Californians since 1967, and they're still going strong. Their food has been featured on the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." If this doesn't convince you, then maybe you should give it a try in person.

There are two locations:

WESTLAKE VILLAGE
2799 Townsgate Road
Westlake Village CA 91361
(805) 557-1882
Open daily 7am to 9pm

NORTHRIDGE
19565 Parthenia Street
Northridge CA 91324
(818) 886-5679
Open daily 6am to 9pm

Stop by for a real deli treat, and let them know that Team Bond Girls sent you!

Thank you, Brent's, for your help and great food. We love it!

**Check out their fancy website at: http://www.brentsdeli.com/

Sew What

Team Bond Girls would like to introduce:



http://www.sewwhatnow.com

Ever since the "adoption" went through 2 years ago at the 2009 Utica Club Nationals, Team Bond Girl's uniforms have undergone a transformation, doubling maybe tripling in size in fact. It's all because of their Utica Mom, Liz, who along with Joe adopted us that year as our New York host family. We were very spoiled because she just happens to run her own embroidery business, Sew What Embroidery by Liz. You may have seen some of her work in our numerous photos: cute customized bags, sweatshirts, pants, shirts, hats, etc.

Fact is: You can't have enough pink or black!

This year is no different. When we decided to give our uniforms a fresh look, we turned to Liz to help us with our embroidery needs. You can see her awesome work on our new on-ice and off-ice jackets and pants.

Check them out as we try to curl Team Bond Girl style at the Mankato Curling Club March 5th - March 12th.

Pictures coming soon.

Thank you, Liz!

Team Bond Girls love everything you do for us!

**Check out Liz's website: http://www.sewwhatnow.com to see what she can do for your customized embroidery needs.

Hello, ALO

We are very proud to announce our sponsor:



www.alosport.com

This year at the Club Nationals pay very close attention to Team Bond Girl's really cute, slate and white off-ice warm up jackets. They have been generously provided by ALO Sportswear. We have done a lot of research on a few different companies, but this one stood out above the rest. We are very proud to have them as a sponsor. Here's why:

1) LA Based - We have to represent something from our neck of the woods, of course!

2) Great Philisophy - ALO stands for Air, Land, and Ocean

This is high performance clothing made out of minimal impact and recycled materials such as modal, bamboo, organic cotton, and recycled polyester. Also the company within does all it can to reuse, reduce, and recycle.

In short, Alo is made for active people with a great message to all who wear it and see it.

3) VERY CHIC!

Men's or Women's wear doesn't matter. They are all very fashionable. Who says you need to sacrifice style to be environmental? You can see for yourself.

All these elements screamed Team Bond Girls. We feel that this new jacket will fit nicely with our uniforms especially now since this year's T-shirts can be purchased in a new dark gray color.

Thank you ALO!

Team Bond Girls will wear your jackets with curling pride.



*Check out what's new and cool on www.alosport.com and feel free to let them know The Bond Girls sent you.

Curl Power

A lot of good things happen when curlers come together and "bond." One of our readers, Kevin, has a blog that promotes women curling. He just recently added an article about Team Bond Girl's fundraising efforts. You can find this article here:

ENTER: Curl Power

The Bond Girls are very honored that you chose to highlight our team in your blog. Hopefully, this will help open doors for more curling support and sponsorship.

Thank you, Kevin!

Please visit Curl Power regularly for more updates.

Casino Royale

Preparations for the 3rd Annual Casino Royale Poker Tournament are underway. There are still about 6 more slots open; so make your reservations as soon as possible.

If you can't make it to the tournament, but want to still participate, you can get a proxy to play for you. Plus, of course there are options to donate online

Fundraiser Link

Just follow the instructions...

and/or buy a new Team Bond Girls T-shirt (available in black or gray). We just sent the designs to the printers; so we'll have a new and improved logo as well as access to buy T-shirts of the very popular old logo by this Friday.

Will keep you updated with photos and instructions.

Go Team Bond Girls!

- Domino

"Maxie-mized" Training

Team Bond Girls have been pretty lucky to encounter a few guardian angels all across America who have taken them under their curling wings. One of which is Fred Maxie from Arizona. He has been one of our coaches following and advising us from the very beginning. We were honored with his presence in California last weekend as we spent some time practicing and drilling at the Orange County Curling Club. We took some extensive notes of curling strategies and training methods. I'd like to share a couple of our cool experiences here with you.

1) Between the Stones

Not sure what Fred calls it, but I'm giving it a quick and easy title. Fred lined up two stones parallel to each other with a space in between that was slightly bigger than a stone. It was located about a couple of feet away from the hack. Fred gave us a stationary broom to aim at that was either slightly right or left of the center line. He expected us to do a full delivery with a stone between the two stones without touching them. At first, it seemed like a really daunting task. The space is really, really small. And you have things like a broom sticking out, legs extended, etc. BUT if you do it right, you will perfectly deliver the stone without touching anything, and it's feels really great. This teaches you to draw back the stone without giving it a sideways motion. It helps focus you on your line. It keeps all the weight in the hack with shoulders square, and it makes you tweak your delivery until everything (rock, hips, leg) is one straight line. It's an awesome drill that all curlers should try.

2) The Short Game

At the end of our 1 1/2 hour practice, we played a short game. We split the team into groups of 2 (back end vs. front end, or random). We put all the stones right behind the hog line using only end of the sheet, and we "played" a game using different scenarios. For example: yellow team is down by 1, with the hammer in the 9th end. We could slide stones from anywhere behind the hogline as long as our foot doesn't cross the hogline. We had some really good lessons with strategy and working together as a team deliberating on the best shots. Fred would guide us with what the "normal" strategy would be at this point, and other options we could take depending on the situation. One important lesson we learned was that we have to know how to miss. Sometimes being too short or too long or hitting hard or too soft could affect the outcome of the game. This is something we have to keep in mind when making our shots. Overall The Short Game lesson was fast, easy, and fun.

So even though ice time is very limited for our "on-ice" training, Team Bond Girls had used each second to it's "Maxie-mum." We are so grateful for this experience, and it'll bring us one step closer to doing Hollywood Curling and Fred proud. See you on the ice!

Good curling!

-Domino

The Search For Sponsors

In the past, Team Bond Girls have had a few "sponsors" who have kindly donated items and money during our fundraising period. These people include our ever faithful family and friends who have always been our constant supporters buying T-shirts, stickers, or a baked good here or there, no matter how extensive the pink may be.

This helps offset costs of traveling to Club Nationals which usually is held at a very far and very cold place for about one week. Without this support we wouldn't have been able to afford to participate otherwise.

This year is no different. Planning is well underway to another fun whirlwind of fundraising. Here are our plans:

1) NEW T-shirts - New T-shirt designs are being developed by our own Cindy. She's working double time to get them in time for printing. Also, we will probably be ordering a batch of some of our old shirts since we have received requests for them. We'll update you all as soon as things are finalized.

2) Internet Sponsors - Gotta love technology! We are trying to set up a section on our website that enables people to choose different levels of sponsorship and send in their donation. All sponsors will get a special Team Bond Girl gift basket according to their sponsor level.

3) Poker Tournament - We're trying to host an event on Feb. 26th. There will be be prizes, raffles, and lots of fun. Let us know if you are interested. We're sending invites with the information this Saturday.

4) Online Program - We are collecting ad messages from family, friends and businesses who would like to send their good luck messages to the team. We're putting it together online so that every can see it and have access to it at any time. It can be as simple as a couple sentences/your name, "business card" sized, or if you really want to get crazy, a "full page" all to yourself. For more info., send us a message.

5) Other Team Bond Girl swag, like stickers, bags, clothing, etc.

6) Lastly, the never fail, good 'ole bake sale. You'll find us at league games with a whole bunch of treats. Don't forget to look out for us.

So we're hoping that with all these efforts, Team Bond Girls will be all set to go. If you are interested in participating in any one of these fundraising events, either as a sponsor, a donor, or just a cheerleader, please let us know.

Wish us luck! Good Curling!

- Domino

The Hunt for Pink & Black Tartan

For the past 2 years, Team Bond Girls have worn their signature pink and black kilts, designed and sewed by our own Vice-Skip, Cindy. They have served their purpose well during our competitions. This year, we are on the hunt for a new tartan, and our first stop is Downtown LA's Fashion District. This is THE place to go for your fashion needs. There's everything from silks to cottons, fleece, lace, spandex, upholstery...you name it, they've got it and for a very good price.

FASHION DISTRICT INFORMATION

Our first lesson in fabric shopping is never use the term "tartan." No one in this area has any roots in the Scottish culture. "Plaid" is the best way to get results. Otherwise, people will just stare at you blankly.

The second lesson we learned is that there's not ton of plaid out there. On top of that, pink and black plaid is extremely rare, even for the Fashion District.

Lesson Number Three: You always find the right fabric in the first store you go into. Amazingly, we saw some plaid fabric on display by the doorway of store called Natalie's. Hidden under yards and yards of fabric, we found a more black than pink plaid. It was of good kilt-making material. We had really good luck to find something so rare on our first try. Although, we did want to find something a little pinker; so we visited a whole bunch of stores nearby with a swatch of the original plaid material to show the vendors what we were looking for.

We walked up and down the block in the rain. Sometimes it was easy. Plaid wasn't really something everyone carried; so in and out we went. Some stores weren't as organized as others; so we had to squeeze through fabric pathways and dig under rolls and rolls of cloth. We found some patterns that were really close...a few pink and black tartans tottered on the edge of being purple. It wasn't exactly what we were looking for; so we hesitantly put them back. It was a futile search because the fabric back at Natalie's was waiting for us to take it home.

There was a bonus as well. The cost for the material to make all our new kilts ended up equaling the cost of what it would have been for 1 kilt at another fabric store. We came home with a steal. Thank you, Fashion District!

The hunt for pink and black tartan is now over. Team Bond Girls are very excited about their new and improved uniforms. We will send updates on our progress.

- Domino