Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Camel-Sit

I've skated on five out of the last six days. Is this excessive? My legs and my dwindling bank account might think so.  I think I'll get another session in tomorrow before the holiday weekend though. My goals are to land a Lutz jump and be able to do a non-spastic Camel-Sit spin before Christmas.  I would say Thanksgiving but I'm not trying to kill myself. Here's Jessica doing a beautiful camel-sit combo from our Sunday skate:

 
There's no skating sessions this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Boo. But eating and drinking will keep me busy.  Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!
 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Blown Away

Jessica and her synchronized skating team took part in the Capitol Critique last Sunday. Each team has a set number of minutes on the ice and the judges watch them skate and will later provide feedback to the coaches on what went well and what went not so well.  Each team usually has time to do their routine twice, sometimes more. Jess's team had 8 minutes so they did their routine twice. You can also redo specific parts of the routine if you wish. This helps coaches figure out where they need to tweak things to get the best results for actual competitions. The teams aren't ranked or compared by the judges in this event but can get a preview of your competition which is helpful
 
For their first performance of the year, I think the Open Juvenile (OJ) team did exceptionally well.
*Sorry, but the video below will be set to private until the 2013-2014 competition season is over.*
 
 
 
 
I wish the adult team could take part in this but we JUST finished choreo on our routine last Saturday.  We don't have our dresses ready either. 
 
The critique was held in the Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, VA just outside of DC. We drove in the night before and visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum on F Street. That place was pretty fun and we took a lot of photographs with the presidents and celebrities.  Here are some of my favorites:
 
















We also went to Shake Shack for the first time and got some milk shakes after the museum. I really want to go back and try their burgers. We were so full from lunch so we only had room for shakes. We let the girls have their own room at the hotel that night so they were happy about that. We were right across the hall of course.
 
Next trip and first competition for the OJ team is near Cape Cod, MA next month. They are taking a bus up so I'm not sure yet if we are going to go and watch. I would really like to but that seven hour drive sounds grueling!
 
 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Skating Bully

I went to a group lesson last night. I've been trying to avoid the group lessons since there are so many kids flying around every which way and of course I happened to collide with one last night. He fell and started crying. This is the second time this happened and I think it was the same kid! He is about 4 or 5 years old, in full hockey gear and his helmet went right into my left thigh.  I was going backwards and I saw him coming about 20 feet away so I started to slow down. I thought he'd go either left or right of me since he was going forward so I stayed in a straight line. I don't even know if he saw me because he just ran right into me, full speed. In hindsight, I should have moved left or right but I was afraid I'd run into him if I chose the wrong way. I guess he was too young to maneuver that fast and/or hit the brakes so I should have moved. I felt so bad! So I think I'll skip the group lessons for awhile because I really don't want to be known as the lady who makes the little kids cry.
 
I worked on my spins again and they are getting a lot better. Centering is still an issue most times but I feel like my timing and body position are improving. Here's a video of my sit spin which comes and goes like everything else. I need to work on getting my right arm and shoulder down. As you can see it flies up too high as I go into the spin. And I need to get my booty lower.
 
 
I love skating season and the Winter Olympics are only a few months away. I've been watching the ISU Grand Prix events on NBC the last couple Sundays. You can find a list of the TV schedule here. This weekend we'll be heading down to DC for the Capitol Critique.  Jessica and the Team Reflections Open Juvenile team will be skating for judges' critiques. It's not a competition but a good practice run before their first competition in Mid-December.
 
 

Monday, November 4, 2013

Hey Look, It's a Stop Sign!

For Halloween this year we went over to Karen's house in Mount Joy to hand out treats to the neighborhood kids. Roy brought his traffic light get up he made from an actual light found at an auction several years ago. It's battery powered and still lights up. I didn't dress up this year due to lack of motivation (aka laziness) but I'm hoping to be more prepared next year. I thought about putting on my skating dress but I didn't want to walk around in my skates all night.

Here's Francine and Kay as prisoners, Hannah the Bulldog as a cow, Mackenzie as a cute lady bug, Roy and his light (that thing is heavy), Karen as the Tooth Fairy, and Joanna as a pumpkin. Joanna is visiting from Brazil and she is super nice - and super tall (6'4")!
There were tons of kids out in Karen's neighborhood. Karen was the tooth fairy so she gave out little tubes of toothpaste along with chocolate and other candy treats. She's a dental hygienist. Some kids actually chose the toothpaste but most grabbed it first, then after realizing what it was, switched it out with something else!

A lot of the kids would also look at Roy and call him a stop sign. We thought that was pretty comical and concerning at the same time, but I'm sure they meant a stop light. Stop sign rolls off the tongue easier I guess. We saw a lot of cute costumes but I think the one that stood out the most was a little girl with a huge round pink balloon floating above her.  It was attached with string to a box going around her waist with paper bag sacs hanging around it. She was a hot air balloon with basket! It was pretty darn cute.

Karen made these adorable giant Cookie Monster cupcakes. I hoovered one like a monster. Nom, Nom, Nom.
It was unusually warm for a Halloween night. It was rainy earlier in the day but it cleared up by Trick or Treat time.  An hour and a half into it though it started drizzling so we all went inside. Two years ago it snowed two inches on Halloween, so I can't complain.  Hope you had a howling good holiday!

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