2022-05-29

More plushies

Turned out Liza desperately needed another plushie. She says it's a cat, and his name is Lobster, I think. At least for now.

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2022-05-28

Bike upgrade

Since Annie is now doing long distance bike rides with me, she got a decent bike instead of her old Trek 3700. Now it's Specialized Sirrus 2.0, pretty good hybrid with 700C wheels and hydraulic disc breaks.

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2022-05-22

Aurora

The last league meet of the season, pretty small, nobody cares much: everyone is already thinking of Regionals. A lot of people just skipped it. Caroline wasn't there, so no quartet; Annie didn't skate also, she had a scholarship chemistry test and chose to stay at home and study. Liza skated great though, her score is much better now.

Videos: Style Dance | Free Dance

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2022-05-12

Finally summer

I don't remember another spring this cold in my almost quarter of a century here. But it is over. Finally.

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2022-05-02

Elyria

Came back from Ohio Cup late last night. No photos except for a couple of phone pics, very dark rink again. For some reason I wasn't in the mood even to try. So, just videos.

Quartet
Anne: Style | Free Dance
Liza: Style | Free Dance

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2022-03-17

Eugene and his bike

Boys decided to stop by; girls got a chance to ride a motorcycle, and they are ecstatic about it. Now I have to worry about them getting bikes too, as if Eugene was not enough. God, I am afraid of these things.

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2022-03-16

29

A slightly belated Boris' birthday photo. He is 29 years and 4 days old here.

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2022-03-05

Lynwood

Another league meet, this time in Lynwood. Everyone keeps changing their routines, there is a lot of improvements. I only took photos though: as I have mentioned before, Lynwood got decent lights. So no video, alas.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

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2022-02-04

Aurora

Girls went to Aurora for the first league meet of the season. The rink was very dark as always; all those rinks are basically barns, dark and damp. Lombard rink is a very rare and happy exclusion. Lynwood added some decent lights before the 2019 World Qualifier, but it's still a barn. I don't mind the barn-ness, but the lack of light drives me nuts. It is almost impossible to get a photo of acceptable quality.

Same routines, different judging: unlike Orlando and Nationals, league competitions are still being judged old school, so nobody cared much about results. There were no surprises though. Girls are now skating in the same event (Junior World Class Solo Dance) with Samantha and Lilian, and they both are much stronger, especially Sam. So Liza and Annie fall behind, and that is going to be a story of this season, barring some unexpected breakthrough. Hope it won't get them excessively depressed. Here are some videos:

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

0 Comments1 Minutes

2022-01-19

Americas Cup

Several firsts for my girls: first international competition, first Junior World Class level skating, first time doing Style Dance, and first time traveling without us, since I am still recovering after the surgery. That means no photos, and videos are screengrabbed from the official stream, which sucked big time. I don't want to miss their meets ever again, that stream was a real shame. On the other hand, we should be grateful even for that: they kept having technical issues, so there was a chance to end up with no video at all.

Girls skated Style Dance and Free Dance, which are parts of the same event. Besides, they skated quartet together with Isa and Caroline. Competition was much stronger than at Nationals: there were large teams from Brazil, Spain, Chile etc, and those girls were fantastic, so American skaters tended to group up at the bottom of the final results tables. Liza ended up with the 8th place, Annie got 9th. For quartet they got gold, since they were the only Youth Quartet competing.

Coaches are pretty happy with the results. Jim says both girls are "ahead of schedule". As for me, I am proud as hell: I never cared about tech points or medals, I just wanted them to dance, and boy can they dance.

Annie: Style Dance | Free Dance
Liza: Style Dance | Free Dance

Quartet

UPD: Annie asked not to publish her Style Dance routine. She is really unhappy with it, although I am not sure why. Looked pretty good to me.

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