From the Desk of Pudge.....
June 10, 2008. Welcome to Team Rankin.com, as the skip and the one who designed and built the web site I have been given the honour to write the first ever Team Rankin blog entry. One member of our team will be writing a blog entry with details on our off season preparation, what is new from the ice as we travel on the Tour, or a curler's viewpoint on the Championships and our golden journey. A different member of the team will write an article during the summer and throughout curling season after we compete. This will keep our familes across Canada up to date and will be fun for us to capture our journey in writing. We will do our best to update it every few weeks over the summer and weekly during the season. We may even be able to get a guest appearance from a famous curler along the way or spread some good curling gossip.

We have been in the off season since we returned from the Players Championship in Newfoundland in mid April. We had a great time on George Street and with the wonderful people in St. John's. Laura Strong from Team Newfoundland was a great tour guide and we loved playing at Mile One. The girls all got screeched in, but we lost the qualifying game to the eventual winner Amber Holland. We were disappointed but Team Holland are great friends and we were very happy for them.

As an update on Team Rankin, here is what we are up to in the off season. Chrysta and I ran in the Mother's Day 5k run and we want to thank all the curlers and fans who supported us as we raised $1,000 for the Calgary Health Trust. I am also heavy into training as I have decided to complete a sprint tri-athlon on August 10th in Strathmore. 62 days and counting until I swim 500 metres, bike 20 km, and run 5k with 250 other women. I am sore and tired but I will be ready. Kyla also has been quite athletic completing the Calgary Police 5K and taking kickboxing with Lisa on Thursday nights. Heather Moulding is now 19 weeks pregnant, healthy and happy. Darren, the eldest Moulding and the fella I have played Mixed with for the last 5 years got hitched this weekend, and Mo has been busy with family and friends visiting. Finally Lisa Fargey joined our team this year and moved to Calgary in April and then vacationed in Australia for a month with fiancee Tony Eyamie. Lisa and Tony are excitedly preparing for a wedding on August 23 in Manitoba.

That's it for now we are going to venture into the world of yoga as a team starting in July. We will let you know how that goes. Let us know how we are doing, and whether you are enjoying our view from the cold side of the glass....
Enthusiastically
Heather Rankin (aka Pudge)