Today, I took my curling obsession to the next level and actually tried out the sport at the Broomstones open house. Accompanying me was a rag tag bunch including Johnston, my coworker Callie, Jeff Roberts, Adam, my roommate Karly, and her friends Matt and Johnny. After making the drive to Wayland and parking in a nearby church, we got on a shuttle bus that drove us to the club and gave us flashbacks to elementary school. Once there, we watched a brief movie about the science of curling before splitting into two groups of four to take the ice: me, Scott, Callie, and Adam vs. Karly, Jeff, Matt, and Johnny. As Michael Scott from the office described it there were no winners or losers, only poetry.
After trying the sport, I made the following conclusions:

• It’s harder than it looks on TV (which I suspected).
• The stone was surprisingly lighter than I expected.
  

• I am good at throwing “warm room” shots — stones that would go past the house even off the ice (aka a warm room). I apparently need to learn to tone down my power.
• Scott and Adam do not have this problem.
• The pebbled ice has a lot more traction than I’m used to from my broomball playing days. But you can still slip.
• Yelling “HAAAAAARRRRRRD!” is fun. But with my shots, I should probably just yell “WHOA!”
• Not only do you yell “hard” when you sweep, but it is hard to do. Really, the hardest part is keeping up with the stone. Unless Johnston throws, then it moves slow enough that I can manage.
• More sports should have the rule that the winning team buys the losing team beer.
• There is a mini-league starting this Friday. I’m totally game for it.

I took more pictures here.