Curling like rock stars....

Ok - so things finally started looking up for the Bond Girls last night as we racked up our first win of the Hollywood Curling Club Fall 2009 Season. It felt good after some tough losses in previous weeks. Plus it's always fun to play the Team Zissou boys - (ok maybe not always.... like when they pulled a big come from behind victory at our Memorial Day bonspiel this year) - but curling with good friends (and a few husbands) makes being out on the ice a whole lot more exciting.

After the previous week's loss, we decided to focus on the basics this week - concentrate on hitting the broom, not pushing the rock, making good sweeping calls.... It worked - everyone had some excellent shots and stayed very consistent throughout the game. I was so proud of the team. And for the first time this season I wasn't super stressed out on the ice and just let myself have fun, which makes a big difference and I've got to remember that. I don't know where I got such a huge competitive streak, but I'm trying super hard not to let it get the best of me. I can't be more thankful to play on a team of such supportive gals with such positive attitudes and who love curling as much as me.

It was a close game towards the end - we got off to a good start, but those Zissou guys are tough and fought back as always. I started to wish I really had bribed them or resorted to some sort of Bond Girl trickery to throw them way off their game. :) But truly I think they have a great shot at making Men's Club Nationals next year, which would be so well deserved. Cindy made a clutch take out that saved us in the second to last end. And thank goodness I didn't miss my last shot of the final end to keep us from having to go into an extra one. I was so excited that we put one in the win column - and it is fun to give Zissou a hard time about it. But the boys were good sports about being "runner-ups"..... (yep, that is for you Ryan).

And our lucky charms for the evening were the amazing new pink sweatshirts that Liz embroidered for us! She is our angel as always and we looked extra fancy all matching and everything. :)

Plus - we had a blast burning the midnight oil chatting and laughing (and rubbing it in just a little) with Team Zissou (and TJ) at Barney's. A good way to finish out the weekend.

The Bond Girls take on the Magnificent 4 next weekend - hoping to add to our wins and have a shot at the playoffs!

"Skip" Marissa

Bond Girls vs. Team Zissou

Ok - so the Bond Girls might be off to a bit of a rough start this Fall Curling season here at the Hollywood Curling Club, but that just means we are going to finish up the season with a bang.

We play our favorite competitors - Team Zissou - this coming Sunday. Donna and Jen's husbands are on the team so we will have our extra competitive hats on. And we'll be willing to pull out every trick in the book to take them down. :)

HOLLYWOOD CURLING CLUB OPEN HOUSE

Come to the Hollywood Curling Club this Sunday September 13th from 6:00 - 8:30 pm to learn how to curl! Several of the Bond Girls will be there in person. Don't miss out!

Check out www.hollywoodcurling.org for more info.

This would have been a Hollywood ending...

So tonight Team Bond Girls chatted with Patti Lank - who just finished curling in the US Olympic Trials and her team came so close to being the US Olympic team. They faced off against Debbie McCormick and ended up losing to her in the final. So sad!

Patti agreed to take a photo with us and then she switched our final ranking to the top spot on the leader board - which we all thought was totally hilarious! She rocks!!

Here is the photo proof:

Live and Let Curl!

I thought that the title of this blog was appropriate. Today, we played against Washington in our 9th game of this curling competition. So far, we have played more games in one week, than back at our own curling rink in two months (since we only play on Sunday nights). During this game, we came so close to making a few essential shots, but we just couldn't always get the exact weight or line at the right moment. We nearly came around the guards or took things out or drew around guards. There were moments where I felt that we swept harder in this game than any other game during this whole competition, and I'm going to quote Cindy, "My arms felt like jelly." One good thing that I'd like to highlight from this game was that I was finally getting my most of my guards up. Finally! That's for you, Marissa! NO FAIL!

We took a lot of beating, and in the 7th end, we finally scored 2. They stole another one in the 8th. We decided to go and curl another end despite Washington's lead. Marissa slid down and said, "You ready for one more?" Of course, we were! And I'm going to give you 3 reasons: 1) We are resolved never to give up 2) Mathematically, until we run out of rocks, there was still potential that a miracle could happen (It could happen. We are from Hollywood.) 3) We love opportunities to curl on dedicated ice and this will be the last game...at least for a while. We ended up scoring another 2 points in the 9th end! I think we all would have enough strength for even another end (especially if we scored 3 or 4 points) even though we couldn't feel our arms anymore and there were aches in our legs. BUT to us, those last 2 points represented that our effort was enough. We finally shook.

I admit, today was not our best game. We definitely needed a little bit a tweaking here and there to be perfect. Plus, the score does not reflect how close we came to getting some of these hard shots or the amount of effort we put in trying overcome all the obstacles in our way. We have learned, grown, and curled together which was our goal coming to Nationals. There's a great improvement in our curling, thanks to Utica. We have made some great friends, learned how to curl in a professional tournament/environment, picked up some great advice, and learned the etiquette of good sportsmanship. We won 3 games over exceeding our expectations coming into the tournament, and we're placed 7th in the Women Club Nationals. Now, we are all ready to soak in the tub and take a few ibuprofen, but this has been a extraordinary week.

Here's just a few wishes for the future...Even in that last hour, when it looks grim, may there always be smiles on our faces. That we will always let go our disappointments and heartaches, find the inner strength to keep going, support each other in every win, and learn from each loss. That we will never have a uniform malfunction, and once in a while pull a really great Hollywood stunt. I hope that we will never change, except of course to get better.

Live and Let Curl, Everyone!!

Utica Club Brewery Tour

Well.... after our game this morning we had delicious breakfast at Liz and Joe's house that Liz made for us - yay Liz! Then we treated ourselves to shoulder massages at the club and on the recommendation of some of the local Utica folks, we headed off to the Utica Brewery for a tour. I've never toured a brewery before.... beer is hard to make - it takes a long time.

We ended up at the brewery at the same time as Team Minnesota #2 and had such a blast hanging out with them and chatting in the bar area for an hour or so afterwards. They are a great group - lots of laughs!

It was fun to get to see a bit of the sights around town and not be preping or resting for our upcoming curling game.

Here are some of the highlight photos:


Team Bond Girls and Team Minnesota #2

7th in the Nation

Just wanted to post a quick blog that we lost our game this morning to Washington 11-4. It was tough - we hung in there and made some really great shots, but a lot of things just didn't fall our way. Oh well - that's the way of the curling world. But we aren't disappointed... we came here to learn and get as much experience as we can on dedicated ice, but most of all to have fun curling with good friends and making lots of new ones. We had some outstanding wins and some losses, but we took advantage of every moment we had out on that ice to practice, get better, and take in as much as we can. I don't regret a single moment and I think we got out of this tournament so much more than I ever originally imagined.

We had a great week and had such an amazing time nothing could bring us down. We came in hoping to win at least one game and we ended up winning three which ranked us #7 in the tournament (and as a friend of mine pointed out... the 7th best women's club curling team in the nation) - I really like the ring of that!!!

Like I've said all week - I couldn't be more proud of the team or more excited to have gotten the chance to spend time with such a great group of girls who I can count as very dear friends. Everyone kept their heads up, always had fun and a willingness to learn, and were always great sports through the good moments and bad. We keep saying how lucky we are to have found each other - and how we can't wait for all the curling adventures that lie ahead!!

Special thanks to Jon Wilson, Fred Maxie, and everyone who took the time to give us coaching, advice and tips to help us grow as curlers. They help brand new teams like us grow leaps and bounds and are helping to grow and expand the sport of curling in so many great ways. Bravo to them! And to all of our fans - it meant the world to us that you followed us all along the way. We're so excited that the Wisconsin men helped us figure out the live stream over the internet and give people a chance to watch.... through all of our ups and downs.

Thanks again! That's all for now...

Marissa

Love our Morning Breakfast

Delicious dinner with Joe and Liz

Joe and Liz took us out to dinner at Joey's Restaurant in Utica tonight... it was so much fun. Amazing food, cut atmosphere and we had tons of laughs! They are the best!

Game 8 Update: California vs. North Dakota WIN in extra end

Hi everyone, this is Domino as promised updating the blog about game 8 even though we have to wake up early for the very important Washington game at 8 am (Eastern Time). Here's the website if you need it to watch the live stream: http://www.mogulus.com/bondgirlscurling

So Marissa did give a little teaser about this game in her blog about Illinois. It indeed was a Hollywood ending. With a little bit of pain, suffering, disappointment, and nervousness, we overcame with a happily ever after with a score of 10-9 in the 11th end.

So forgive me if some of the information was incorrect...Things are a little fuzzy since we were so intensely involved with the game.

It was a rough start in the beginning with North Dakota in true curling fashion scored 2 points with the hammer in the first end. We came back and scored one in the 2nd end. We tried so hard to score more, but we couldn't pull it off. We ended up stealing 1 more point in the 3rd end and 4th end. I'm sure some fantastic things were going on this end...a lot of supersweeping and a lot of draws. North Dakota scored 2 in the 5th end. They did have a chance to score 3, but I think their draw crashed on a guard. There was a lot of drawing to the button behind the guards, and there were a few attempts at hit and roll. After the 5th end, I was totally not paying attention that we were allowed to go on break. (Hehehe, It seems I remember my awful moments quite clearly.) Marissa gave us a really great prep talk. She told us to keep calm, and that we were doing great, and as always to have fun.

After a very tough 6th end, North Dakota scored another one making the score 5-3 ND. In the 7th end. We used some back guards and kept drawing into the button and then try to protect them with guards. North Dakota was able to peel the guards away, but we just kept putting them back. Some of ND's take outs and draws missed, and we took advantage of that. At one point, there were 3 rocks in the button, and there was no way that North Dakota could take them all out. I think they were able to hit one of them out, but in the end, after Marissa's last shot, we were lying 3, and took the lead (6-5 CA). North Dakota scored another 1 point in the 8th, tying it up. In the ninth end, we pretty much did the same thing as the 7th end. We took advantage of the rocks in the back of the button, and drew on top of them as well as draw behind the guards. Jennifer Lindsay did 2 really beautiful draws behind the guards. Cindy overwhelmed them with her freeze against a yellow rock in the back 4th area. Marissa threw a guard up, and they I think peeled it away. We took advantage of missed takeouts and draws. And Marissa had to draw into the house to try to score 3. At first, I thought that her rock would be a little light and would end up as a guard, but she said, "No, you can bring it in. I believe in you. Super Sweepers!" Something like that in a more excited and encouraging, but yelling curling fashion. So we swept our hardest, and pulled that rock right in there. The power of Super Skips!

The 10th end was a really tough end, and I know Marissa is really hard on herself about it, but it definitely made things exciting. I threw my rocks through for my first 100% for that end!! It was fun just lopping the rocks through, and North Dakota put a guard and one in the house. There were a lot of really great take outs, and the we ended up missing a couple of take outs. We had to make North Dakota run out of rocks, but they were able to place 3 in the house, and Marissa with shot rock just missed taking 1 of them out. It became another tie game, and it put us into extra ends. That's the way things go.

In the 11th end, I missed both my shots, after Marissa stressed the importance of the corner guards in our break in between ends. FAIL! For some reason, especially towards the end of our game, I was throwing rocks through the house or over compensating and the guards don't end up where they needed to be. I'll definitely work hard on that. I told myself that if I couldn't throw those darn guards, I will sure as hell sweep! I feel that all of us try to put our best effort in the sweeping, and tonight I felt like we did sweep, and pretty well. This end was an intense game of seeing who could draw behind a guard first and then protect it. It was good that we had the hammer coming into this end. I think it was Cindy and Jen who put rocks in the house, and all Marissa had to do for her first rock was to throw a guard...I could be in the wrong order, since it is getting late. I remember North Dakota trying to draw in...Honestly, I couldn't watch most of this half. I was incredibly sick to my stomach with anxiety and nervousness. I'm sure all my teammates were feeling the same thing. Well, in the end, North Dakota couldn't do it, and we took the 1 point for the win.

It was an incredible feeling to finally have the game over. I know some people on the team were shaking as well as myself. The best feeling though was walking into the viewing room, seeing all those people clapping and cheering because it was probably an intense game to watch for them as well. We all hug each other and Liz and Joe as if we had won the Olympics or something. I think that for all that it's worth, winning a third game exceeded our expectations. In this game, we stuck in there, try to calm each other down when things got tough (10th end), supported each other to get the stones where they needed to go, and yelled really intensely to get that extra chi POWER to sweep and sweep hard. I am PROUD to be part of Team Bond Girls and all of our accomplishments. North Dakota always put us on our toes and did not make this an easy win, but I think we got a lot out of this game and all our other games.

I know it's late, John. I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.

One more thing, together, us Bond Girls, need to gather up everything we've gone through and learned with each throw, each end, each game, against each team, and make it all come together for this really tough Washington game. It's going to be good!

Tune in for our live feed just in case you missed it at the top:http://www.mogulus.com/bondgirlscurling

Forgive my spelling and grammar. No time to proofread! Going to sleep and signing off - Domino