lord denning rocks

It looks like curling and law go together, certainly here at the little law school on the prairie. Today, our team "Lord Denning Rocks" (offical name Law Team #2) hit the curling rink on campus. Yes, a curling rink right on campus, welcome to the prairies.

First an explanation of the name for those NITK (not in the know). Lord Denning is a prolific English judge, most notably from his stint on the English Court of Appeal. Not only was he prolific in the number of his judgments, he was a very descriptive writer, capturing the essence of english country life in his judgments. Lord Denning would begin today's post on the curling game something like this:

"On a cold, blustery day as the wind blew across the snow-covered prairie, proud people gathered at their local curling rink to wage a collegial battle. Amid cries of "hurrry" and "haarrrrd", they took to the ice and threw rocks at painted houses..."

The rocks part of our name, obvious enough, Lord Denning, as a Judge, he just rocks; and in curling, the rocks (pictured above) are what you throw at the "house", the painted rings at the other end of rink.

We were a rag tag group, none of us having played very much, and some, never at all. But we put in a respectable 6-5 loss. We even started out scoring two in the first end, and stealing two in the second.

the zen of curling

I realized that for those who may actually be following our progress, I forgot to blog about our law school curling team's game this past Sunday. That's probably because the game itself was rather forgettable.

In earlier posts, here and here, I had mentioned how when it came to curling, for our team it was better to be lucky than to be good. This past Sunday, our luck ran out. I think the final score may have been 9-4 but we kind of lost track at the end of the game. At that point we were just trying dramatic shots for fun, than through any concerted effort to catch up.

It appears that two weeks off wiped out what if any technique we had learned. It was not a great day for Lord Denning's namesake team.

The interesting thing that we did find though is that none of us think about school while we are playing. We become focused on the game, the games around us, little conversations during the break, but we never talk about school. It's great. We've coined this phenomena "the zen of curling". I'm sure any activity would produce similar results, but it's nice having a break from the constant thoughts of school.

For two hours on Sunday, the books are forgotten and our thoughts turn to the ice, rock and broom. Maybe we aren't winning because we're too relaxed, but it's probably just because we're not good.

scientific proof

It's been a couple of weeks since the last curling update. Last week was a win by forfeit, as the opposing team did not show up. The same thing happened today. However, we did have the chance to just have a fun game against another team whose opponent didn't show up. We won convincingly, 6-1.

The ironic thing is the last time we won that convincingly was after the infamous St. Patrick's Day last year. We were all hungover, tired and functioning on only a few hours of poor quality sleep. Considering it happened just that once, I thought it was a fluke.

But today we hit the rink, hungover, tired and functioning on only a few hours of poor quality sleep and played brilliantly. It's no longer a fluke, it's scientific proof. Playing hungover improves our curling skills.

lord denning still rocks

It was back to the ice today for the second week of campus rec curling. Once again we were playing people who knew how to slide, but they were down a man so we thought we had a chance. They started with the hammer, but we stole one and was off to a great start. In the next end they took one, and then stole four against us in the next end.

They took two more and then we mounted our comeback, with four in the fifth end and a steal of one in the sixth, we ended up scoring a respectable 6, to lose by one.

No dramatic falls today, tried a different sweeping broom and that seems to have made a difference. Jana's miracle shot has been rechristened as jana's curling magic as she had a couple more of them today, and was working her voodoo on our shots as well.

Just goes to show you, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

we are the jamaican bobsled team of curling

Somehow despite ourselves we ended up in 6th place in the curling league when they combined the two "C" groups. It appears we ranked higher than a lot of other teams at 2-4 in our points-for/points-against ratio. We were a +4. Anyways, 6th place got us a bye into the quarter-finals. Our resounding victory last week must of so intimidated our opponents that they did not show up. We played another team who didn't have an opponent just for fun and practice. Anyways what this means is we are now in the semi-finals, and have to play again on Sunday. We are exactly one win away from the finals. Our little rag-tag group of unlikely curlers has gone far.

throwing rocks at houses

As winter has firmly settled in here on the prairie, it's time for curling to start again. The little law school on the prairie curling team was actually reformed last term but with the strike at the university the season ended abruptly before I had a chance to even blog about it once.

Three of us from "Lord Denning Rocks" last year are back, with a few new players in tow. We actually have six players this year. Obviously our success last year created a surge in popularity and the number of people wanting to be on our team.

Anyways, we hit the ice yesterday after months of inactivity and slid to our first defeat at 3-6. For a few missed shots it could have been closer. We're still in the "C" league and for some reason, some people think "C" stands for competitive. These curlers with their own equipment and pre-game stretches should all be bumped up to the "B" or "A" league which are supposed to be the competitive ones. The ones with the matching jackets got a withering look of disapproval(tm).

Anyways, we had a lot of fun, and it's nice to hang out without talking about school.

lord denning rocks: the pictures

Well I'm finally getting round to posting some photos from curling. You've read about our antics, now you can see what I've been talking about. These are from the semi-final game for our league against the girls with their own gear. Thanks to Jana for the photos. The photo above is the team. Check out the intense concentration from Steve and I plot our game. Really we would just stand there and talk long enough to make the opposition think we knew what we were doing.

one small step for man...

Today I took my first step onto an ice rink in years. I've been on a curling rink, but not a skating rink. And I haven't been on skates in years.

Inspired by recent games of hockey and thoughts on skating I decided I wanted to at least give skating a try. All I remember about skating is my ankles giving out and falling. Today, I went to an outdoor rink (pictured above) overlooking the river in downtown toon . They offer free use of skates, so it was going to be a cheap experiment.

With the law school BFs by my side, I hit the ice. I'm afraid I may have caused some damage to their hands with the death grip I had going on them. But with their help, I worked my way around and my shuffle was corrected into a push and glide. I was skating! I suddenly felt patriotic.

After a few breaks on some conveniently located benches, and at the prompting of the BFs, I tried skating unaided and made it to the bench. Building on this success, I made it around the rink twice unaided without falling.

Having the sense to quit while I was ahead, I worked my way off the ice and out of my skates. I didn't want to risk spoiling the day's success with a fall.

It went well enough that I want to give it another try. I may never reach the point of being able to play hockey but I hope to be able to at least enjoy skating around the rink.

we will, we will rock you

In all the St. Paddy's Day goings on, I forgot to update you on our end of the regular season curling game. We played this past Sunday. That's right, the day after St. Paddy's Day. We were all a little worse for the wear, but were determined to be there. We played a group of Nursing Grad Students and we won! They gave up when the score was 7-0. A full-on victory with the whole team present and hung over. Playoffs begin (and will likely end for us quickly) this weekend.

i thought today was the day

It was back to the curling rink today, and I really thought today was the day we would get our first win. It was close, but the other team made a fabulous last shot and we lost by 1, with a final score of 4-3. We were much better today, and a little more consistent, but I missed quite a few shots, which was frustrating to end.

We have a new theory, we'll lose our games, build a false sense of confidence in our opponents for when we get into the playoffs. Then, we'll show up with our game on and clean up. Well that's the plan, but I'm not holding my breath.

But really, I'm not that upset because I'm going to see the Police in concert!

that's a load of crock

In a 1970s flashback, dinner has been been cooking away all day today in a crock pot.

Yes, I'm now a slow cooker.

I had forgotten about crock pots until a couple of weeks ago. After our last curling game, we had a great dinner from a crock pot and I thought what a great tool. Throw everything in, and let it cook all day.

I thought it would be an easy way to make some meals. The big problem is, I've never been married,and that's usually the only way you end up with one. It's the quintessential wedding present. I mentioned this to the Saskatoon Uncles (editor's note: name updated at their request) and they had a crock pot they haven't used in years and said I could use it.

Anyways, today's test is a beef and sweet potato stew with onions and bacons. A meal today and then leftovers for the week. Hopefully I can do this once or twice a week.

But don't let the idea of easy slow cooking fool you. I'm discovering that it's not as easy as I thought. It takes time, planning and preparation. You have to get all the ingredients together, chop them up and do all the prep. Then the easy part kicks in. It's sit back and wait.

It's a great concept in theory, and pretty soon I should know how it works in practice.

the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat…

There was a lot of curling this past weekend and we were down a member of the team, but we experienced for the first time the thrill of victory, and far too often the agony of defeat.

On Friday, we took part in the LLSOTP bonspeil. Organized by the student association, it was held on campus and involved 8 teams, playing little three-ender games. We lost our first game (playing with three) against a team that used stopwatches and had tons of their own gear. They were out to win the whole thing. Our second game we started and picked up a fourth player. It was great, we all made shots and won four nothing. Our first victory. The third game, still with our extra player, we lost.

On Sunday, we won by forfeit as the other team did not show up. Playing with a substitute for a fourth player, we played a two-end game against another team who had no opponent as well. We won that game with some good shots. We then played a little two-on-two action just to get some extra practice in. It was actually a lot of fun. Our first end saw almost all the rocks in play. The second end, I made a great double takeout that was probably my best shot all year.

Our "regular season" play is done, and we have the playoffs starting next week. We figure we probably have one more game before we're knocked out and done for the season.