I am right there with you, Girlfriend.

Cracked:
Bronze MIF were horrible today!. Scratchy and scrape-ey 3 turns, I couldn't even get myself to cooperate with basics like keeping the right patterns on the axis for forward power perimeter stroking even! Geez! 5 step mohawk even sucked! Wimpy waltz jumps, Salchow was iffy, I was just plain lazy with toe loops. This mornings session seemed so labored. It is just as well. 5:30 am is just not my best skating time.

Polished:
Even though I felt like giving up on the last 1/2 hour of the session, I didn't quit and kept going. I had to pull out the "skater mom" self talk and I went through a list of things I still needed to practice. At the very end, I was practicing my new footwork for my program and was getting the hang of it. ...and camel spins went very well too.

Polished:

• Sit Spins and One foot were pretty decent.
• Backspin was better after the first one...
• Camels are coming along. I'm spinning, but not quite in position.
• Waltz jump and salchow was okay.
• Not exactly related to skating (though certainly helps me to skate better) but... my fitness club had a raffle for prizes yesterday. I won a one month's dues waived!!!

Cracked:

• Coach is still not happy with the toe-waltzing... but it's not as bad today, he said...
• No loop! I am trying to get used to this new tweak that my secondary coach suggested yesterday. I am pretty much turning into the circle now. The bad part is I really now have no excuse not to land it clean other than I'm being a chicken. I also nearly did kill myself on one of the attempts too. I was twisted up trying to land clean. But no guts, no glory...

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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!!!

OMG!!! I forgot (how could I???) to add that I actually did a backspin today and got 2 revs out of it!!!!! I must be losing my mind to have forgotten this part!

I was sooooooooooo happy!!!!!!

Hmmmm, maybe I should start working on my camel again..... maybe my luck has finally turned!!!

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

Way to go S.D.!

Cracked: Really screwed-up schedule today with some medical tests (fasting) that took all morning- didn’t get anything to eat or even my morning coffee until lunch time and even then a charity fund-raiser lunch was pathetic quality. By the time I got to skating at 6 p.m. both the body and mind were totally out of sync! Depriving a “morning person” of their morning is a terrible thing to do!

Everything was weak, especially backwards, and 3-Turns had disappeared again. In the first lesson, we worked on backward edges (poor) and in the second lesson we did forward cross-overs (also poor). Oh joy . . . It’s a good thing Monday’s session was an “upper” - made tonight easier to take. And just to top off a trashed day, I did something to my right ankle just before second lesson so it was sore enough that I left the ice early.

Polished: Saturday will be another chance to redeem myself?

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Cracked: Skating was a bit disastrous; didn't skate for long, but got quite a lot done. Worked on my dance moves while Husband was working on his free programme - he ran through it to the music, which finished rather a long time before he did! It looked a bit random, too. Oh well. Then we ran through our Dutch Waltz, which was okay, and our Fiesta, which could be better. For neither could we manage two patterns since the rink was a bit full.

Then we started work on our free dance, and the combination of very sharp blades and very fast ice meant I had awful trouble with my 3-turn/choctaw/whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing, and I usually ended up with my bum stuck out, going nowhere. Sigh. I could do it when my blades were blunt! I could also do it on rather slow ice last night, before dance club.

Polished: Dance club was fun, as it always is when I make the effort to get there. Very few men, though, which was a problem as I am lazy about solo dance. Did do a Riverside Rhumba solo, though. Husband and I did a great Prelim Waltz, and even essayed a 10-step, only I couldn't remember the steps! And a Foxtrot, only the first time I waited too long before my Mohawk, and the second time I did it to time but stepped down on to an inside edge and ground swiftly to a halt!

E has done a great job on our blades, though - I'm sure they'll be fine by next week.

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

cracked: just got news that rink is revising lesson fees to about double of the current fees!!! This is going to break my bank. I dont know what to do

polished: flying camel decent, flying sit still working on consistency but I understand it alot more now for sure. I can get such a nice back sit in practise... i really hope to do at least one in competition one day...
double salchow is decent, the ones from split falling leaf tend to be underrotated, double salchow solo is generally fine but I need to improve my concentration! double toe is jumping up and still nice and stable (in terms of the take off... I havent gotten the rest of the jump down pat yet , still falling over but its improving... again), hopefully the days of toe slippage is gone

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~
Tidesong

Hey, Tidesong, sounds like we're in the same place as far as what we're practicing right now! So sorry about your rink's rates going up, though! What do you think you will do?

This morning I had a good practice. I managed to figure out what jump to do after my spiral sequence and how best to get into it. My coach had me try it with the music and it looks like it's going to work great.

After that, there were just five minutes left on the session, so I mustered up some courage and suggested we try some double toeloops. After two nice singles, I went for a double and actually landed it on the first try, instead of freezing on the takeoff ten times like I usually do! It was admittedly a little cheated, but I tend to have such a mental block on the takeoff that it was a huge deal just to have gone for it without hesitation and completed it. Then, before the 5 minutes was up, I landed a fully rotated one. I forgot to straighten my landing leg in the air so I broke at the waist and landed pitched forward, but I held on without 2-footing it). I am going to keep doing a single-toe before each double toe attempt so that I don't lose the smooth takeoff I have worked so hard to develop. I'm now getting the correct pulling back motion after the pick, and I can't afford to mess that up.

Polished:
I finally got to skate today and was fairly well rested. I felt my feet were under me much, much better than last week, so I think the problem then was lack of rest. I don't think I really accomplished much, except that I stayed on the ice and managed to keep moving most of the time without any pain. F cross strokes felt OK, B power pulls were OK. B power crossovers felt pretty good and had good enough speed, but I never tried the F without throwing in a chasse before the XO. I did one F stroking exercise from Charles Butler's first video, and it wasn't too bad. FI Mohawks were actually not so bad also. I ran through the new Pre-Bronze three turn pattern on the line. I had to two-foot most of the three turns, but the pattern was no problem.

Cracked:
I am sooo out of shape! FI and FO threes were both pathetic. I think I just don't have the strength to feel secure on them. Haven't done enough of the B cross strokes to keep my courage up, and so found it hard to do today. Had to keep reminding myself to bend knees deeply and lean back. It would have been easier with someone to look out for me, but even though there were only about 5 of us on the ice, I wasn't comfortable doing these on my own. I can't get rid of the image of my daughter hitting the ice like a ton of bricks when some idiot stepped right into her path, and she was looking back every 3 strokes. I left about 10 minutes early, and was tempted to stay because some dancey music came on, but I didn't want to push my luck.

__________________

Had to smile at this one, this is R all over, but a very good sign, you can slow down but speeding up is so much harder, I had a disasterous time at Chelmsford when I fell behind on my music and had to start my step sequence half way down the rink, I just wanted a hole to appear for me to jump into to.

well done, not an easy one to do.

They certainly will, you have probably chosen the right time for the blades but the wrong time for your state of mind, in that they are probably making you panic a little which makes matters worse. You have a whole week to get them down and I'm sure they will feel better after the next skate.

Cheers
G

Jazz: Congrats on winning the months due waived! My gym has contests too. They give free months, dinner and sport event tickets, trips and even one time had a huge harley davidson motor bike. I had visions of winning it to sell it for big bucks! giggle. My partner wanted to win and take it as a sign from the heavens that we needed a motorcycle in our lives..eeek! It is a source of severe disagreement for us. lol. Alas, neither of us won.

Skate@Delaware: Congrats on the backspin!

Polished: Had my private lesson and two LTS classes yesterday. Spent the entire 45 minute lesson on jumps which was helpful. Still trying to get a full rotation on a salchow. Able to land one footed but am only making 3/4 the of the revolution. Still I am pleased as I really have the idea of this one now. I bought new crash pads (Sk8pdx...which means I also purchased tights to make you happy! lol). Hoping that will give me confidence to practice with gusto! I now have all my half jumps most of the time! Not real fond of the walz jump but really like the 1/2 lutz and 1/2 flip and hoping because of that I will not have as difficult a time learning them as a full jump

Power stroking class is always a blast. The instructor really makes it fun and it is a great way to get the heart rate up! We laugh a lot with these little exercises!

My coach said I am ready for the next ISI test level and that I can start concentrating on Pre Bronze stuff soon.

Cracked: FS class was disorganized and non productive. We are at too many different levels and I was mostly frustruated with the amount of standing around we did during this class. Had to reframe that it was just additional ice time.

Polished--
Dragged myself out of bed this morning to go to an early freestyle session. It was nice and empty and quiet. (No one had any music going, so practicing felt a little meditative.) I had space to work and I landed my lutz for the first time!! I landed it several times on one session, then had to work on it some more the next session before I got it to cooperate.

Cracked--
The ice schedule on Saturdays is strange, with a 2-hour gap between the first and second freestyle sessions. I had forgotten to bring anything with me to do, and had been planning on helping the ice club out with a few things, but that didn't pan out, so me and a few other skaters and coaches had lots of time to kill this morning.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

I "copied" Philip's arm movements from the video and it helped me on my 3-turns....cause my arms still go crazy...

DallasSkater: If you really embrace the waltz jump, you will end up with a beautiful salchow!!! because, really, the salchow is just a backwards waltz jump!!! And be sure you are bending in the knee before you jump up! You can't jump UP if you are on straight legs!

Congrats on being ready for the next level!! Did your coach look like this: ???

Cracked: I WAS going to skate today, but ended up being "overbooked" with mom stuff: hockey first, then scout stuff. So, skating took a back-burner. Oh well, skating tomorrow. It just irked me because it meant I lost a session of club time this week. We don't use punch cards or anything. They somehow keep track so I'm sort-of "owed" for one session (I'm contracted for twice a week but only did once this week). Something like that....

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

Cracked: Everything was in a “fall funk” today - body, mind, and all. It took awhile to even start getting back edges again. An hour and a half into the session, while working on back outside edges, my right ankle started to bother me again so I left the ice a little early (again!). I don’t know what’s wrong but it started with a "pop" at summer school and seems to have come back now, some 3 weeks later. I guess it’s time to find out what's wrong.

Polished: Back Mohawks were ok, backward edges and 3-Turns were poor but happening and I actually turned a couple of forward Mohawks without cheating! That's a first!

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Hey, congratulations!! I remember the lutz confounded me for awhile and it was a big deal when I had my big breakthrough and landed it. I remember my breakthrough was getting up more speed and just attacking it. What was it that finally got it working for you?

Didn't really do my own skating today as it was Saturday and I was program assisting. But I did demo a few things on the preprelim ice which is called StarSkate at my rink for some reason.

I demoed a few waltz jumps using the technique my coach Paul Tatton showed me recently so that my waltz jumps pop up higher so that I can get the Axel at a later date. The thing that Paul showed me and that I demoed for the kids was to not rush the take-off, to wait longer on my back right edge (CCW) and to point my free leg stretched out and up before stepping forward for the LFO edge and to wait 3 seconds before taking off. It really makes for a much stronger jump.

Then I demoed two foot spins using both methods. One from just having your legs wide and bent deeply curving the right foot towards the left and pulling yourself up and the pivot method that one of the coaches at my rink teaches.
I tried to show them as slowly as possible the spin so that they could see how it worked. Some of them noticed how it worked and then got it.

Lastly I demoed forward upright spins. The thing that my coach pointed out to me recently is that you have to make sure to push your right arm (CCW) around at the same time as your right leg to create the pressure to gain speed and to help center the spin. While I was doing this, I did a corkscrew for the kids which they later counted my centered revolutions to be 13. For the most part most of the kids were just trying to get 2 revs. A few were trying to get 3 or 4 revs.

It was also bring a friend day at Club Tecumseh and there were some kids who never skated before on the StarSkate session there with there friends. I worked with one of those visitors and got her from hanging on to the boards and falling off of the boards to forward duck walking with a forward glide and backward walking with a glide. She, at the end of the time I had her, could even do forward snowmen (scalling).

I also came to the realization that I won't be able to have my old coach coach me anymore because of something that is between him and my club. So this senior competitive skater (Bianca Ziriada) who will be making a run for the Reg. Skate Canada Figure Skating Championships will now be coaching me on the General Session Wednesdays and Paul Tatton coaches me on Thursdays. On Fridays is a practice day for me and Saturday is just a program assisting day. I also skate on the public adult ice on Tuesdays at my rink for now but may switch to Forest Glade arena in October as the rink where Tecumseh has the Public Adult ice is very powdery and chips away easily and doesn't let you grip the ice. The other pad where Club Tecumseh runs sessions is fine.

So now I don't have two men coaches but one female and one male, one young (18) and one old (just turned 72, Happy Belated Birthday Paul!)

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Polished: I was still having trouble and having trouble with the wretched turn that we put in last week (which I could do when we put it in!), to the point that I was in tears and snapped at a harmless child who got in our way.

But then we ran through it to the music - I'd only been humming the music twice as fast as it actually went, hadn't I?! I've hours of time to do the turn, which has now been christened My Choctaw (although in fact it's an LFI3/step down fast, but I'm hoping it looks like a choctaw from a distance!). At least, I have the extra beat I need to enable me to do it, and the problem was because I was trying to do it too fast.

Huge relief.

Cracked: Ice crowded and bumpy this morning. Oh well....

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

Milkawendy: A huge congrats for landing the lutz! WTG!

Skate@Delaware: I know you are right. I need to embrace the waltz jump but it has not been embracing me! lol. I did feel inspired when I saw a coach do one that was absolutely huge. She looked like a gazelle...seriously!

Rusty Blades: Hope your ankle recovers soon. Sorry about the funk. I have a session or two like that and then it seems to turn. I hope you will find your "groove" again soon.

Singerskates: Hmmm...I will try the waltz jump today as you describe and see if it will make mine any better! Thanks for sharing that!

Mrs. Redboots: I love when I finally figure out something that has frustrated me. Congrats for getting your steps!

Cracked:
On Saturdays we have two sessions of public and only one of freestyle. Typically I just go to one or both of the public sessions as my favorite gym step class conflicts with the schedule. I ended up going to early step class and racing to the rink for the freestyle session as I wanted to really practice the salchow on ice that was not busy. The session was only an hour long and there were only about 5 other skaters. Perfect! Unfortunately I could not even come close to what I nearly had just a day before. I had some really interesting attempts to recover falls that just left me feeling out of sorts, twisted and frustrated. I left feeling pretty defeated and wondered if I would ever get a true fully rotated jump of any sort at this age!

Polished: The only good thing about that freestyle was that I noticed a new adult skater that was on the session. She appeared to have wonderful skill and was working hard on her much more advanced jumps and spins. After most of the session expired, I could tell she was pooping out from her hard work. I went and introduced myself. Turns out that she is training at another rink, is returning to skating after several years out for family reasons and the best part is that she is a Silver that has competed in adult nationals and aspires to return to that level of competition! (I bet there are people on this board that know her!). She was delightful and offered to help me with my skating as she will be practicing mostly at my rink! It was too late in the session for any help with the salchow. It was just awesome to watch her work her magic and made me more determined to progress!

I went back to afternoon session. My coach was there with another student. I asked for an additional lesson and explained my morning traumas. We worked on the salchow...and behold..I finally landed a decent one! I was so thrilled and felt like I finally had the feel of the whole fully rotated jump! I am landing flat footed (I could literally hear the thump of my blade but could not get the toe landing...YET!) Other than that it was a salchow that actually looked and felt like one! giggle. It goes down as one of my most thrilling moments in skating thus far!

One more polished thing....I LOVE MY TIGHTS! Who knew how warm and comfortable these things could be. I LOVE that they actually make my legs look pretty good! I guess because they are thick they hide all flaws? Maybe a dress thingy when I finally test and (gulp) compete won't be so bad! I think they are really going to help with winter chill of my rink....my rink is definitely the coldest one in our area. Not bad on a 100 degree day but a bit of a nightmare in the winter. I prefer these over my cuddle duds! giggle. Getting some more and trying the full footed ones. May try two pair at once since I read some of you guys do that for warmth!

Dallas: try hopping (in your skates) off-ice, rolling off your toes and landing onto your toes and rolling back down to your heels. They don't have to be big...just little pops. Be sure to bend your knees. This is a warm-up to get you used to taking off and landing on your toes. Then, if you like, go on the ice and do the same thing but hold onto the wall. When i get sloppy and flat-land my jumps....it's back to the wall. You can also do this one-footed.

What kind of tights did you get? I've heard good things about the mondor evolution tights. I wear 2 pair for warmth-mondor footed microfiber.

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

Skate@Delaware: Thanks for the tip...I will do that on ice today. I did have to learn the ballet jump (I really do not think of this as a jump..giggle) and the toe walley that is about jumping on the pic. I seem to land the waltz, 1/2 flip and 1/2 Lutz on the toe too. I think the salchow pull of the right leg around seems to be why I am not on the pic. (Or it might be just that I am sooooo concentrated on making the revolution that I am not able to concentrate where the right foot toe is during the jump. I am willing to try anything though so really appreciate your input!

I did get the evolution Mondor brand. It says 92% micro fiber Meryl skinlife nylon with 8% spandex. Unfortunately my rink carries very little in adult sizes so I only had one choice in style which was over the boot kind. It has little snap buckles that go under the boot. I would have preferred the full footed kind but it is interesting to have something to cover the boot! I am hoping it might offer a tiny bit of protection to the boot as I have nicks and a few blade marks already. I bought the hip pads and they did not budge in all my practice yesterday under those! (I think I look a bit of a spectacle reaching between layers to appropriately place these things just before skating.....one mom during public removed her child from by me while getting ready...giggle) I swear I have no vanity in trade for comfort!

Did see that I can order over the Internet and also bet if I talk to the owner of the little figure skating shop about having them available it would likely be done. I am warming to the idea of a practice dress as a result so may talk to her about that. I am 5' 10 and 15 lbs over my goal weight. I am an amazon in bone structure anyway. Everything will have to be x-large (of good German stock!..giggle) It just seems like skating clothes are really tiny. I am sure the market for amazons is not good!

I know people say they like their boots to look like they have worked hard...but I like mine to look brand new and not beat up! It was therefore ok to have the over the boot kind. I also have the option to just not put it over the boot as it stays just fine at the boot lace level un snapped too. I think I would like to wear two pair...one footed and second layer with the boot cover!

Polished:Axel is nice and consistent now, as well as new spins .My double sal and toe soon will be clean too.Starting to work on 2 Loop and 2 Flip
Cracked:nothing in skating especially, but I hate my sunday practise sessions, because there are always people who discourage and tell very harsh words to you(like today:"I don't think, you skate that well" from a person who has never had skates on ). Thank God I don't listen to these people, I just wish to live in the US or UK where adult skaters are respected.

Thanks, doubletoe (and DallasSkater)!!

What worked for me was actually slowing down a little and instead of trying to force the revolutions with my picking foot and my arms, focusing instead on really pulling back to the picking foot and transferring the weight. That was the major stumbling point for me, with the jump only coming from my skating foot or from both feet. My coach gave me an exercise where I skate backward in setup position, pick, jump up but don't rotate, and land on my landing foot. That helped enormously, then it just took a while of working on that, then I worked on doing that with some rotation and then finally understood it. Now I have to work on my arms in the jump (i.e., not flailing them around ) and getting height.

__________________
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http://www.marrow.org
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Polished: my routine!!!!! Well, almost. A dull sheen is forming. We tweaked it a bit and changed it to conform to the new standards (we removed a jump and changed the footwork a bit but still left the drunken sailor in ). Now, I finish on time with a 2-foot spin!!!! Paperwork has been signed by my club so I can send it off this week. Now all I have to do is finesse!!! (She also gave me tips on when and how to exit my scratch spin so I'm lined up correctly.) I'm psyched!!! The old guy at my rink said he liked the new changes.

When my coach asked to see my backspin (I told her it's starting to come back) my backspin was happy to appear!!!! Yay! I made it 4 times around! She showed me a pivot exercise to do: pivot forwards once (on left foot) then pivot backwards once (on the other foot). It gets you to switch your weight. I can only do that so many times before I feel sick...

Cracked: I landed wrong on my salchow and somehow it jarred my knee. It aches a bit but doesn't really hurt. I was lazy on my form and I have only myself to blame.

Also started an on- off-ice dance/moves class today (today was the off-ice portion). We talked about edges and how to line up the shoulders and legs. I learned a lot. I have a lot more to learn. I'm also the oldest one in the class (by about 35 years!!!). Monday nights is the on-ice portion where they take it to the ice. I can't wait!!! But, all hubby could say was "how much is this costing us?????" Um, not much in terms of money, and it's worth every dime!!! What better person to learn moves and edges from than a master level ice dancer?

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

My polished for today's practice is due to singerskates!
Singerskates...I tried the waltz jump by waiting 3 seconds on the back right edge...What a huge difference this made! I can't say I jumped like a gazelle but can say it was so much better in form and height than I previously had! Just re read your post and now wonder if you mean to wait 3 seconds AFTER stepping forward to the LFO edge? If so I will try that next time but can't wait to show my coach as it was definitely a way improved jump for me! I don't know that she would like me to wait 3 seconds on the LFO as she wants it from back cross overs. Thanks for posting that tip in any case as it sure did help today! Seriously the best waltz jumps I have ever done!

Skate@Delaware: That was my attempt to better embrace the waltz! giggle. WTG on getting your routine. Are you going to compete soon? Ouch on the knee! LOL that you are also taking a class with munchkins! I thought I was the only one!

IceAge: Wow that you have a consistent Axle and doubles! I can't even imagine! Sorry to learn that there are people so rude at your rink. Sad when jealousy plays such a mean streak in people. I am surprised that people have the nerve to say what they say some times! As if it makes them feel better about themselves? I mentioned before one woman who said "show off" to me as I was practicing on public ice....I am not good enough to '"show off" anything but was truly amazed at her abrasive attitude and her need to share her thoughts with a perfect stranger! Ick!

Cracked: Ok, not quite cracked but never really got a good salchow today. I was pleased that the motion was still there and the feel. This is going to take some time. Spins are now complicated as my coach wants me to start holding the free leg a few revolutions on the one footed to begin to better prepare for the scratch. I can do it but sure makes it harder to find my 'sweet spot' that I had just consistently managed. But I always would pretty immediately get my foot up. <sigh...always something!> It is making it very toe picky again most of the time. More work on this is definitely needed!

All and all a fun practice though!

Polished: Quite literally -- the ice!!

Today the "Synchro Class" that is scheduled before the dance sessions was cancelled and it was a freestyle -- but nobody knew about it, and all of the freestyle kids got off the ice and I was out there by myself. The ice was pretty crappy, and so the rink manager (or assistant manager) asked me if I wanted her to zamboni the ice and then I could do figures and warm up for dance.

Wow -- so nice to have such great service at our rink! Was all warmed up for the dance session and had what I thought was a pretty darn good lesson (probably because I was properly warmed up).

Cracked: WEll, not cracked but sore: my body from having such a great dance lesson! Coach is starting to get into trying to get more out of me (which is great) but now my hips/thighs/knees are sore -- but feeling good, standing up straighter and looking forward to tomorrow's practice.

That what it's all about, after all, isn't it??????????????

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/