The exciting curling adventure

My prizes (front and back of t-shirt and card to event)
Getting back from snowboarding after midnight and having to get to the curling rink around 9 the next morning isn't the most fun thing once you add in a shower before bed, a bite to eat, blogging, and a subway and bus to the rink.

Bussing was an adventure all on its own. Randomly meeting people on the bus also going to the curling bonspiel, completely missing the stop and having to walk several blocks. I thought you knew where you were going, no I thought you did.....

Sprinting a block and a half when chasing a bus in the rain with a few beers in the system after curling in order to avoid having to wait half an hour for the next bus and jamming my umbrella in the door forcing the bus driver to let you on was amazing!

Curling itself was really fun as well. We were short a 4th as Kevin couldn't make it. Two volunteers alternated playing for us in the two games. Stole the first game in the last end by scoring 3! AMAZING! Second game was a nail biter ending with a score of 6-6 after 8 ends. Draw to the button to break the tie. Their skip got within 4 feet and I came up short just inside the 8 foot line. It's all good as it didn't matter either way, neither team was gonna win a prize and we had a really fun time. My curling game is improving quite a bit. I'm able to get draw weight quite consistently now.

I'm going pro next year and the Olympics in 2010.

Lunch provided for a new experience. For those who know me, I'm an obscenely picky eater. I don't eat pizza, well unless it has no cheese, I don't have dressing on my salad, my hamburgers are plain, the list goes on. The lunch was box lunch catered through Hart House. I got a chicken salad wrap. I ate it. And it was alright, despite the fact that there was mayo or at least some sort of sauce inside. Maybe I was just really hungry.

Weird point system was used to figure out the prizes. Prizes based on overall points, runner up, biggest one game win (not just the score of the game but also how many ends you won), and most points out of teams that didn't win either game. Ironically, the team we beat in the first won a prize - biggest one game win by killing an obviously inferior team like 14 - 0. I suggested to them to try and get the best of the losers prize, but they obviously didn't listen to me.

There were also a crap load of other prizes given out through a draw system. I was sitting with the second team, as is typical in curling apparently since the winner is supposed to buy a pitcher for the losers. Their skip works at Hart House and was the first name drawn and won a Hart House t-shirt. He was like, shit, I have like a hundred of these. He offered it to me and I was like sure! It was a pretty cool shirt. There were Hart House baseball caps and other Hart House memorabilia. One of the guys on the other team works in the Hart House shop or something and when the cards of Hart House art was up for grabs, he was like, I better not win that, b/c I think he had all that stuff anyways. He won it! Our table cracked up hysterically. A bunch of tickets to various Hart House events were also given out.

So, name after name was drawn, with probably like 25-30 prizes. 16 teams of 4 people each (that's 64 in total). I just kinda gave up hope that my name would be drawn and was like whatever, I already got a Hart House t-shirt.

Grand prize: $120 dinner for 2 at this fancy dinner in collaboration with Winterlicious and Winter City. Creative Fusion - Fire & Ice (http://uofttix.ca/view.php?id=103).

A celebration of creativity in all its forms - food, wine, art, theatre, music - set in the grandeur of Hart House’s Great Hall, Gallery Grill, Art Gallery, & the serene winter beauty of our open air courtyard.

An evening not to be missed.

"Vincent Cheung"

WOOHOO!! Kick ass!!!!

The problem being that I'm currently unattached. I think this is my first time ever where I'm required to bring a date to something and where I'll need to find one. I went to high school grad with Kevin, John, Dan, and Fan... Undergrad grad dinner was similar. Not required to bring a date and other times I already had a date.

But, this is the first time where I have to actively go and find someone. Time is also short (this Thursday). I think I have however, a solution to kill two birds with one stone.