Curling Club

I just had to share my past weekend experience. A group of my friends, who also work at Hormel + a few extras, took a day trip to the twin cities on Saturday. We went around to a couple of really cool downtown bar and grill type places. One was called The Muddy Pig complete with pig decorations that I loved :) We also toured Summit Brewery. The brewery was all interesting and fun, but the real interesting part came a little later. We had planned on going to this outside festival called Firkin Fest in St. Paul. When we got there some of us decided that we didn't want to wait in line, but a few people in our group had already bought tickets. Conveniently located next to the festival was the St. Paul Curling Club. Some of my friends had been in before so we decided to go check it out. Now since curling has become an Olympic sport it has fascinated me. I'm not sure why, I think because I think of Olympic athletes as these amazing physical fitness types, and most curlers I've seen are bigger, balding men. These guys give me hope that I can also be an Olympic athlete ;) The curling club had nine curling lanes and there were probably at least 50 people in there to practice their curling. It felt like we were walking in to some secret society. They were even having their own spaghetti dinner, but I was assured it was open to the public. I wasn't brave enough to bother any of the serious curlers with my questions, but luckily Joni, who I work with at R&D, is from nearly Canada, North Dakota and her family curls. In fact, her uncle was at one time a champion curler. She tried her best to explain to me the rules and scoring. I watched the curlers curl (I'm thinking there's probably better terms to describe everything but I just like using the word curl) intently for awhile, but I most admit it got a little boring after awhile. Maybe I should have picked up a broom and asked to jump in a game! I was a bit intimidated by some of the more serious curler, like this guy --> Everyone was pretty jealous of his outfit. It was a pretty random afternoon. It was a lot of fun to get out of Austin and do something different. Maybe if you come visit we can all go back to the curling club!! I'll now leave you with some scenes from the curling club.

Just as a bonus - This is Cody. Cody is a nice guy. I like Cody. Cody likes me. That's all you need to know for now :)