Discriminating Weirdos

Not Just for the Olympics Anymore

Emily and I are both in Minnesota this week, a real luxury considering the frantic pace of the time we spend here during the summer.  Generally, we are here for a couple of days while I play some gigs, and then we rush back to Chicago.  But this time, we can slow down and spend some quality time in the cold and silence.  We can take the time to do some things we wouldn't normally have the time to do.

For example, my mom and dad were signed up to work at a bonspiel this morning. I'm sure that most people reading this have probably never heard the word before.  Unless you're from Canada, Northern Minnesota, or Scotland, odds are pretty strong that you don't know what a bonspiel is.  For the uninitiated, a bonspiel is a weekend-long curling tournament.

Feast your eyes on this:

Several teams from all over the area, including Canada, have swooped down on Grand Marais to play one of the most interesting, and strangest, games ever devised.  If you've never seen curling, imaging a game that combines the best bits of bowling, Jarts, Italian bocce, shuffleboard, housework, and a night at the bar.  Put the whole thing on a sheet of ice and make everyone wear shoes with slippery formica bottoms.

Imaging that, and now imagine 20 or so teams doing that all day and night for a weekend.  That's a bonspiel, my friend. 

While Em was taking photos of the festivities this morning, she kept saying that the only way to really get the feel for the spectacle of curling is to watch it in action.  It's a game of strategy, and highly competitive.  But because it features a bunch of guys walking around on the slickest surface in town, it's extremely entertaining.

Nothing beats the sight of a chubby Canadian gliding confidently down the ice, pushing himself along with his off foot as the skip calls SWEEP from the other end of the sheet.  When the stone glides to a stop in the center of the house behind a perfectly placed guard --- it's a thing of beauty.

And I'm not just saying that. (AM)

  Deliver the Rock 
  Originally uploaded by moesewco

  Curling 
  Originally uploaded by moesewco

  SWEEP! 
  Originally uploaded by moesewco

The Perfect Workout

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution." --Emma Goldman

-----

Winter hit my midsection pretty hard.  I'm feeling soft and fluffy in a not so good way.  While everything can easily be blamed on new meds, I'm not going to pass the responsibility off quite that easily.  Last winter, I was in tip-top shape, but then my run-ins with a certain population of middle aged women drove me from the gym, and things have been going downhill since. 

Or rather, they've been going outward, past my belt-line. 

Miriam by theglasses is available at Etsy

Today, I came up with an absolutely PERFECT solution to my lack of cardio problem.  It doesn't require a membership anywhere expensive.  It doesn't matter if the weather outside is complete shit (another of my end of winter excuses).  Everyone always says that exercise makes you happy, well that's crap.  It doesn't.  Or if it does, it's a very transient thing.  Mostly it just makes me hurt.  And hurt makes me crabby.  Ergo, exercise makes me crabby.

But not this kind!  This kind makes me very happy!

I've got it!  I'm brilliant! 

I'm going to turn up the dance tunes, and dance around my house like a teenager who just got a phone call from their big crush. 

I'm going to dance like a nincompoop.  Like no one's watching.  Shake it til the hips fall off!

I've been doing yoga for ages.  I'm strong and flexible.  All I need is cardio, and dancin' is cardio BABY. 

Sorry, Donna the Downstairs Neighbor.  Your ceiling might be creaky in a rhythmic sorta way!  (EM)