Happy Halloween!

Trick - still don't have a clue as to what I'll be wearing for our team even - but hopefully we will have a team!

Treat - ventured down to the skate shop with Mika and had my skates worked on which will hopefully be an improvement. We also had a great Halloween party at club. The kids were too cute!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Treat: We are getting ready for our ice show (Christmas story) I'm in the adult sync team (Jingle bell rock) and also the ice dance (Mistletoe and wine), lots of fun. Husband is my partner for the shows ice dance, which is a miracle cause he doesn't like ice dance. We were practicing for the show last night and he mumbled something about having fun and we could maybe enter the NZ masters for ice dance but only if it was fun. So I'm hoping he'll say yes.

Trick: I'm in charge of props for the whole show, I wish people would stop telling me what to do and just let me do my job, I'm trying only to listen to our coach/director but every time I turn around someone else is trying to tell me what i should do. My 3 turns have disappeared and I'm trying to learn back outside edges. My feet are playing up so I'm off to the podiatrist on Thursday to fix my corns and to see if my feet are pronating.

Trick: Had time for just a couple of sit change sit spins. Kept messing up the back sit portion, it's annoying because I know I can do better.

Treat: Coach thinks that with the kind of improvement I've been showing for the past two months that I can test and probably pass bronze moves in about two more months. I'm really excited that he thinks that. I didn't think I was that far along. My forward perimeter, back crossover to bo edges and 5 step mohawks are all pretty respectable, but my power 3s and backward perimeter need work. I have weak back inside edges (still). Anyway, it was very encouraging.

Trick:
I have been off the ice since the beginning of October because of health issues, and today I went for 20 minutes... I was stiff and clumsy of course LOL!

Treat:
It was nice to get on the ice again, even if I was terrible. My jumps were all still there, it was my moves that seemed to suffer the most.

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--
Natalie

http://www.ILoveTaB.com

Trick:
Left blade/boot is still out of whack.

Treat:
My usual Monday afternoon obligations were cancelled today due to Halloween, so I got to skate at another rink on a very, very empty public session. They even cut the ice first, so it was beautiful and smooth. I'm starting to get my F and B power pulls back finally. I really had to work hard though to get the RIB edge in the pre pre edges, which is whacked out as a result of the orthotics, but I did get it back after about 6 tries and paying careful attention to the LIB. There is no sense in even trying a one foot spin, since I am falling to the inside of the boot, but I did work on the two foot spin, and also worked on it CW, as I have to teach it that way to one student.

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Trick
Couldn't skate today as I still can't walk properly after doing a half marathon two days ago and I was so looking forward to it too. (I was pleased with my time and had ball doing it though. Oh and my work mates think watching me walk is a great joke )

to PattyP who I think said she was skating only 5 days after her marathon?!!

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Mark Twain

Trick:

• Flips are consistent to mostly two footed landings.
• Too tired afterwards to try for camels

Treat:

• I'm landing my loops cleanly a bit more tonight! (More like after the 5th cleanly landed one, I knew to leave things while it's good...)
• The footwork is ready for the most part... It's not perfect but it'll do for the moment.
• I like my spirals better tonight. I felt REALLY stretched and pulled (which means I'm doing it right!)
• Spins are fine... except for camel...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Trick: Last-ever lesson on our current free dance - it gets its final outing on Sunday at Oxford. Next week, we start work on our winter training - hopefully get our level 4 compulsory dances and start thinking of next year's free dance.

The compulsory dances were okay - when I think that at the start of this season we'd have been ecstatic to have skated them as well as we now skate them badly, if that makes sense..... we have just improved so much this season, it's unreal!

Didn't run through my Dance Moves, which I should have - didn't even get a good run-through of the Canasta Tango, as there kept being people in the way. Will focus on my solo compulsories in tomorrow's lesson, though.

Treat: Our Riverside Rhumba was about the best we've ever done it. Now, if only we can dance it this well on Sunday.....

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Trick: Coach broke me down on back spin...Made me do so many that each one got worse and worse!
Fell on a transition move in my program and it jammed the top of my boot into my achilles tendon (sp).


Treat: I guess the program is coming along...I feel like it could go fine. Coach supports the idea of testing on Nov. 9 (3 days after Halloween Classic)
I guess I should have the bugs out! I had a good toeloop,loop,toeloop combo las night.

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

Trick
I skated my program a few times last night. One was pretty good, with an axel and everything, but I got a little behind. My flying sit wasn't in the right place and was a bit rushed.

Treat
My moves were surprisingly good last night. Go me! I landed some pretty good axels when loops reminded me to pick my head up. I had one really good flying sit. Of course it wasn't the one that was in my program, but it was good. Loops is trying to convince me to skate up to Gold, so I practiced the section of my program with the loop loop and changed it to a double loop. The landing was slightly two footed because I look down. Oh well-one of these days when the axel remains my friend for the entire week.

Trick: no skating today due to a "popped" Sacro-iliac joint (which caused me to leave work early today and seek the heating pad and pain-relief)....so I will enjoy some of my kids TREATS they got last night and hope I can find a comfortable chair at my son's scouting meeting tonight

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Another on the DL list!!! (Hope this is NOT contagious....)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

DL?
I hope Not Contagious! I don't want anyone else to get this, although it is more bearable this evening (and I've only taken tylenol) and I'm ready to stretch it out a bit.....

But, I don't know how I'll feel in the morning, let alone tomorrow night for private lessons

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

DL=Disable List. (We got you, Sue and Leslie so far on the DL... well, maybe more "injured list" than DL, but...)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Thought you might want to know that DL also means Down Low, AKA "in the closet".

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*roaring laughter* No, I certainly didn't mean THAT!!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Right now I feel more KO'd than anything. Just when I thought this cold was on it's way out-took the boy out trick-or-treating and got knocked back with that (now it's in my throat/chest, but not serious).

I'm now at work with a small pillow and nice heating pad on my lower back, with plans of not doing too much today-got pilates and skating tonight! Of course, yesterday I "mentally" skated while I was at scouts......not the same though.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Oh please.... couldn't 3 people on the Injury List be enough for one week....

We are having 48 hours of what is feeling like continuous skating! This morning we had our on-ice practice at the rink, this evening it is our monthly class and social dance at Alexandra Palace, and tomorrow we are going to an out-of-town rink for Husband to practice with the partner he's competing the Zimmer Trophy with at Oxford (both partners have to be over 45, and your combined age has to be over 100. I would skate it with him, but one of the dances is the Hickory Hoedown, which I don't do, and nor does his normal alternate partner, so he is skating with this third woman, who is an Intermediate (Silver) free-skater but normally competes Elementary solo dance. So, anyway, we're skating down there tomorrow morning, and Husband fondly imagines we'll do our dance club tomorrow evening, then, if you please, he wants to practice on Friday morning and have Saturday as a rest day before the competition on Sunday. Men..... I think I'll have demised somewhere about tomorrow lunch-time.

Husband is dead worried about fitting in the end pattern of the Hickory on a small rink - I pointed out that it's like the Riverside Rhumba, if you know where you need steep edges, you can get them. We walked through the end pattern together so I could show him what I meant - I know the dance, I just can't do that 3-turn to speed! We also ran-through our Golden Skaters' Waltz, Riverside Rhumba and free dance, and were pleased with all of them.

Except that Husband forgot where he was in the 2nd run-through of our free dance and almost forgot to hold me up in my "dip" so I very nearly sat on the ice, and then he laughed, all the rest of the way through the dance!

We also gave in our entries for the Hop, Skip & Jump competition - a private club competition on 15 November.

In my private lesson we ran through the Dutch Waltz (a bit stiff) and Canasta Tango (knees not soft enough on the slide chassés). Coach has decided to work on my back extension - he says I extend well enough, but don't point my toes enough. But when I heard the British no 2 dance couple being told off for not pointing their toes enough in the Yankee polka, what hope is there for me????

And I showed my coach my cherry-flip (toe loop), spin and spiral... he did laugh, I knew he would, but he said it was a definite toe loop, what more could you want, and my spiral was fine, only a bit flat. My spin is another question..... and I can't even decide which foot/direction to spin on! They're both equally bad.....

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Trick: *#$^ity #$^%ity #@$%. Overslept and only had a 15 minute lesson (ofc paid the coach for full half-hour). Didn't get to work on much.

Treat: But I did work on my baby spins and I found out that if you bring in your arms tight, you go really fast. And if you do that and stay balanced, it's really really really fun.

And I was paid a nice compliment by a former Junior level skater who said that my crossovers and posture 'make you look like a good skater.'

Trick:
That #$&%*@ loop and flip is giving me headaches this morning... and my lower back/hip/butt is really REALLY stiff this morning.

Treat:
Got more choreography stuff with my secondary coach. It's prettier now...well, when I FINALLY do it right anyway. I was getting majorly teased about one of my arm positions. Instead of looking pretty, it makes me look like a referee at a football game. ("TOUCH DOWN!!!!") It did looked better afterwards, thankfully...

A REAL TREAT... watching a bunch of new skaters at our FS session who we have never seen before and they look just GREAT!!! One guy from (I think) Canada skates smooth "like buttah!!!"

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Trick - could not get our costumes last night for practice.
Treat - Practice actually went pretty well, and was lots of fun. I have tons to do, but looking forward to this weekend.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Now, why did ya' have to mention COSTUMES!!! I'm supposed to be sewing but I've been so busy-just haven't had time (plus, some of the fabric that came is is THIN and now needs to be lined). I need a martini and a clone
Show-17 & 18 Dec
2 peasant vests with arm poufs
10 green dresses (now with lining....) and separate "sleeves" with cut-outs
15 cumberbunds with poufy bows
1 satin orange shirt
1 green poets shirt (to match dresses)
2 kids with activities......

ps-I'm still coming up on Saturday!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Ha! - I think my partner and I will be stitching in the hotel room on Friday night. We'll have a sewing bee - come on over!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Well, you can officially take me off the DL this week. My cast came off two weeks ago (almost) and I had my first "proper" lesson today!

Trick
Nothing more than the fear of falling on my wrist again, along with the guilt of skating when the doctor at fracture clinic told me not to for a month after cast removal. So I'm taking it pretty easy for the time being. I don't want to be back there with him saying "I told you so!".

Treat
It was great to be back on the ice again and in proper skating attire as well. That always makes me skate better for some reason. I felt more confident on the ice than I expected, probably because my first time back post-cast was Sunday for our small group adult rehearsal. If you read Batikat's post you'll see what I mean. I was somewhat nervous to come back on straight into this! However the few times I had on the ice for gentle skating while in my cast meant I kept the feel of the ice. Anyway I didn't do much today but I did do a three jump and a salchow, along with some spins including a camel-sit. I don't think I'll be trying my lutz for a little while but it's nice that I've started jumping and spinning again.

Nicki

Treat: I did TWO (count em') TWO complete run throughs of the new program on this mornings session. My coach and I were going to just go through the end of the program, but I was like "let's just do the whole thing again". I guess I felt like kicking my own arse today. It was really tough, but I got through it and was really happy. I feel like I'm improving my endurance alot. I've always been one of those "programus runthroughis avoidis" type skaters, so I'm glad I've been able to turn that around.

Trick: Notice I didn't say that the program was very good yet, or that I landed all the jumps. I most certainly did not.