OOPS!

Ok, I have no excuse for not posting the last several days other than I was busy. Let's see...

Went to the United States Women's Curling Association (USWCA) National Championship games in Wauwatosa Wisconsin, Wednesday through Sunday. Great fun and merriment. We piled into Kim's truck Wednesday afternoon and drove 5 and a half hours to Wauwatosa, or 'Tosa as the locals like to call it. We found ourselves a little misplaced when we first arrived but we stopped for directions and found the curling club. We attended the kit party for a spell then headed to the hotel, got ourselves checked in and dropped our luggage in the rooms. The four of us, Kim, Brigid, Tracey and I met at the hotel bar and proceeded to have many, many cocktails. We met ourselves a couple entertaining fellows, Jim the China pornstar, Ray Ray the bartender and Mustache Man. Between the three of them I don't think I had to pay for many drinks. We all stayed up way too late as we had to curl at 0730 Thursday morning. Not sure what time I finally crawled under the sheets but I know it felt like I had just drifted off to sleep when the alarm went off. 

Thursday we found ourselves on the ice at 0730 tossing out the first rocks against a team from Bowling Greens. We had a mighty fun game, we did not win but I think for it being the first time the 4 of us had ever played together we did pretty well. It came down to the final rocks in the 10th end. After our game we hung out with our opponents and had a chance to know them better. 

Thursday night was the banquet, a nice opportunity to meet more people and find out about the USWCA. After the banquet we headed back to the hotel bar and low and behold Mustache man arrived again this time bringing Tom Tom with him. Three other co-workers of Mustache man stopped by for drinks as well. We met an Italian porn star on Thursday nights adventure. We spent a few more hours at the hotel bar then called it a night. 

Friday we had a 1010 draw time playing against the Mayfield team. This time our game went into an extra end, whew 11 ends! We did not win this game either but it was fun and we again met some great women curlers. After our game we chilled at the club for a while, then headed out to Milwaukee to check out the Harley Davidson museum. We arrived at the museum a little too late to be able to take the tour so we checked out their retail shop and had dinner at the Motor restaurant. Good food, excellent beer and delicious dessert, I think I could have used wheelbarrow to get out of there. 

We had a second game Friday  night at 2050 against a St. Paul team. Yay! we finally won a game, again it came down to the final rock, they had a chance to tie us. Whew. The club was shutting down after our game so everyone headed back to the hotel and we all gathered in the hospitality room for socializing. It was nearly 0330 by the time we called it quits. 

Saturday's game was at 1010 against team Nutmeg. This was not one of our better games, we just couldn't seem to get it together. This loss meant the end of our curling for the weekend. We met our third porn star on team Nutmeg :) Boy 'Tosa has a lot of porn stars.

Saturday evening we had dinner at the hotel then went back to the club to watch more curling. We found ourselves sitting with some fellow St. Paul curlers and partied the night away. 

Sunday we headed to the club early to cheer on the team from Bowling Greens, then started our trek back home. I can't speak for anyone else but I sure had a fun time. I was able to meet a lot of new people, had to opportunity to get to know Tracey, Brigid and Kim better. And the ability to be able to play in this type of tournament was wonderful.  I would love to do this again next year. And Tracey, she made me laugh, what a riot, I seriously need to hang out with her again. 

Tracey, Brigid and I have decided we are getting curling rock tattoos, Kim's not much interested but says she'll watch us. Now we just need to find a good picture of a rock.

Val, Tara and Raleigh came over last night, we had a couple beers and caught up on what was happening. Tara is getting laid off, bummer. She will work until the end of March and collect severance pay until December but then she's on her own. They should be fine, Val makes more money than I do and I know their mortgage is less than mine so I'm sure they can handle it for a while. Plus Tara is collecting a pay check until December so she should have enough time to find another job. 

Boy am I tired today, I was up at 0430 and at work at 0600. I was the only person scheduled and it was a mess! Dave had to work alone the last 4 days while I was out of town and there is no way one person can get everything done. I walked into a lot of work this morning but I have to say I did some serious damage on it. There is only a few things for me to get caught up on tomorrow. I had dinner with Ann Marie and Jody and now I need to start thinking about my Colorado trip. We leave Friday morning.  

Ok, time to call it quits.