2024 - Week 4

Has it been a month since the year began? Oh, look, we're still in January.

Arts & Crafts

My first accomplishment of the week was ordering the yarns I didn't have for my next project. It will be a scarf for myself and I'm eager to have it. I am calling this project my PWHL Scarf as it uses all the colours of the inaugural teams. 

Why more knitting? Why not? My favourite facts about knitting include that it was used effectively as a communications tool to send messages in WWI. I also like that knitters helped keep others alive during wars. Anyway, I'm getting together with friends soon for a crafty evening and I hope my yarns will be in for then. I tweaked the design to be an infinity scarf, so I was able to start the project.

Lez Scarf is complete. I just need to give it a gentle wash and dry. It feels good to have finished a project, eventhough it has a bunch of mistakes in it. It has been a very long time since I last finished one.

Decluttering & Minimalism

This week was about finishing my kitchen reset, and getting my streaming space cleaned up. I also intended to get my piano into the right location and to move my out-of-season sporting equipment and power tools put into my storage area. That was the goal I began before that whole pest control derailment was to have only what I regularly need in my main living areas whereever possible. It's hard to accomplish in a tiny condo. My storage area is partly triangular, so that doesn't help. 

I needed a break, so some things will hopefully be done next week. 

The plan after that is to purge and organize everything else that's left. I'm looking forward to when I can tackle just one drawer or something equally small on a weekend and have it not involve most of my living space. There's a lot of paper to deal with before then. I used to write on paper. A lot. Ugh.

Fitness & Budo

At RR curling, my team won! It was our first against a team that showed up. It felt good to get a win.

Team Homan won their 15th championship. I was scared for them because they had made a couple of mistakes and those almost cost them the win. They're really awesome to watch. The focus in their eyes as they throw their stones, the way they plan out their shots together, and the way they rise to the occasion despite how hard a shot is. It's phenomenal. They're all beautiful too, but that's just a bonus.

I skipped out on GSL curling this week because Ottawa PWHL had a home game on that night against Toronto. It was an excellent game!

This week was the week of the Over the Rainbow bonspiel. It was my first bonspiel (curling tournament) and I had signed up to spare. I wasn't needed on day one and given that there were many other spares with a lot more experience than I have, I opted to stay home for the rest. There was a stream for some of the games, so I could watch some of it from home. Despite not getting to play, I enjoyed getting to know a couple of people better.

Gaming & Streaming

I really enjoyed Diablo IV this week though we've still not gotten to Lilith yet. Mephisto's weakened wolf self did pay us a visit, but we weren't having what he was selling. We went back to our allies and pushed forward. We seemed to have reconnected with two allies. One seems a little sus to me in her motivations, but we'll see how that plays out.

I put myself in vacation mode on Twitch during the bonspiel weekend as I wouldn't be available for my crafting stream. I was a bit sad about that because I'm enjoying them a lot. It's been really good for me to be doing more crafting on the regular.

This weekend I got into playing Stardew Valley. It's very addictive. And I don't know about you, but I think it's "odd" that the mayor's missing shorts are in Maru's bedroom. I haven't recovered them yet because she and I aren't that good of friends yet.

PWHL

I realized something between watching curling and PWHL on the weekend. Every sporting event has a story to the evening. A particular athlete has a really good night and scores multiple times. The thing is that when commercials happen, the game keeps going, so you always miss a little bit of the story.

I have a problem. I'm falling in love with all of the teams. Like, it's getting harder to decide who to root for in a game. Ottawa is my team, but all the women are so amazing that I can't help but appreciate when another team scores as it's often so well executed. These women are so skilled and wonderful to watch.

There were two home games this week. Tuesday was Ottawa vs Toronto. A nice Ontario-based rivalry. Toronto has a couple of players who are originally from Ottawa. The game was intense. My seat is near the goalie, so I spent a lot of time on tenterhooks. But Emerance Maschmeyer is magnificent and stopped 30/31 shots on goal. Near the end, Toronto pulled their goalie and Ottawa got an empty net goal that rolled in. The crowd erupted in cheering. What a night!

Wednesday was Ottawa vs Boston. This is the team I know the least about. They wear the colours of my high school's teams. I chose to stay home for this one as the weather was bad and the transit trip is long from my area of Ottawa. I had hit my knee when I tripped the night before and I also really needed to get other things prepped for the weekend. I wish I lived closer to TD Place!

Boston won the game. Sandra Abstreiter had started in goal for Ottawa, but got injured early on. I'm hoping she's OK. It sucks to finally get put on and get hurt.

Speaking of high school, we had this regular hockey event called East West and everyone would go to the arena where the OHL team plays for a hockey tournament. The schools were split up into East or West. When I was there, we were West, which made sense given that the school has West in its name. Anyway, the West often won. Yes, there were enough schools with hockey teams for this to be a big thing in our part of the north.

I'm enjoying The Founding 4 Podcast at Black Rosie Media and their takes on the PWHL.