Yet another grey, dull, rainy day in Ottawa. I think it has been this way since last Friday.

paci: Congrats!

Curling - Well, due to all this rain, the humidity was too high for the curling club to lay down the ice earlier in the week. So the clinic that was supposed to be Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday never happened... I went Tuesday night for a section on theory/equipment, etc., but I did not learn too many more things than what I had picked up from reading. The other two nights were cancelled... which brings us to last night, when...

The club had its first "bonspiel"... and I played in it. Basically, it is a three-day competition. We played last night, again tonight, and then once more tomorrow. So I got a five-minute quick lesson on the ice... and then I was off with my team. I was throwing "lead" - the first position where your throw is not as crucial to the scoring. So my first two rocks didn't even make it down to the other end of the sheet. Next time up I put too much power on them and they sailed through the "house" (the target at the other end) and to the end of the ice sheet. Later in the game I did actually make some real shots... a draw, a guard, a takeout... not necessarily by any great plan of mine but more just because things worked out. :-)

I had only one major fall (rather dramatically!) and the other folks were very patient with me. It turned out to be a lot of fun (and a LOT of exercise) and our team only lost by one point. Quite good and I am looking forward to tonight.

Seen on the OCLUG mailing list - the following message:

I heard that if you play the Windows CD backward, you get a satanic message. But that's nothing compared to when you play it forward: It installs Windows.

I laughed. It has been that kind of day.

SuSE 7.2 - Finally bought a copy to upgrade my home (SuSE 6.4) server. Yeah, I could have downloaded it, but CDs are easier, and I don't mind supporting a Linux company.

XSLT - Picked up O'Reilly's brand new "XSLT" book by Doug Tidwell. Looks rather interesting... one more for my library.

Hope folks have a great weekend...