Thursday, February 25, 2010

To all of you Olympic Widows, you poor things.

I have been neglecting this blog. And all things crafty. At least for the past couple of weeks. I love the Olympics. So I have been sitting in front of the idiot box for way more time than is healthy watching the worlds finest athletes compete for the title of WORLD's BEST in their sport. Don't worry, they end on Saturday, so I will get back with the normal flow of things on Sunday.





I've watched skiing,








snowboarding,





hockey,







bobsledding





and a bit of figure skating.






But this year I also stumbled upon CURLING. At first it was sort of like a train wreck. It was really horrible, but I couldn't stop watching it. And then, gradually, I started asking questions. And the answers led to understanding the game. And then I just plain got hooked. It's a bit more exciting than watching ice melt. But I like it.






It didn't hurt that it was the women playing when I stumbled across the games.






So, where did this sport originate, you might ask?

Where else but Scotland. I mean who else would come up with sliding really heavy stones across ice, but the same guys who throw logs for fun. (not to mention hitting little balls with skinny sticks into little holes all the while donned in tacky pants. Crazy Scots!





The goal is to get one or more of your teams stones closer to the center of the "HOUSE" (the target looking marks seen below) than the other teams stones. Basically, you slide a stone across 180-ish feet of ice and try to either land yours in place or knock your opponents stone out.







Each one of the stones weighs 42 pounds and they all came from the same quarry.


There are more rules. I won't go into them in this post, but you can google curling for more info.







At this point I am sure you are asking WHY would she like this sport?


Maybe it's because older women can be in the Olympics in this game.


Maybe it's the intense look, and having others sweep in front of you.




Maybe it's the fashionable clothing.







Maybe because I just have a bit of Royal taste.

King Harald of Norway is a fan too.





All hail Queen Jana, fan of Curling.
(all photos are either Reuters or Getty Images)



3 comments:

Electra said...

You crack me up. Take it from someone who had to watch her daddy curl every Saturday when she was little: It ain't THAT great.
I'm watching the games too and blogging less. It's a good thing.

Rosemary said...

Hail, Jana, queen of curling. I love you despite this odd quirk. I can't stay awake for all the good stuff. The ski-cross, snowboard-cross, and all things apparently skiing are getting me glued to the tube!

This was a great post, had me smiling all the way through!

hezro said...

I got into the curling too!!