The 2008 House of Hearts is underway! The opening banquet was last night, and featured drawing of teams, the parade of celebrity skips, a nice meal, and bidding in the Calcutta for the high rollers. Curling begins at 2:30 today (Friday). Here are a few shots:

The 2008 World Junior Champions received a standing ovation. How long before these guys are celebrity skips?

Celebrity skips came from far and wide: Sweden, Norway, Scotland, and both coasts of North America. John Shuster represents a far away, and possibly made-up, country called “The Range”.

The piper was paid.

I’ll post more pictures when I take them– If anyone has pictures, videos, or anecdotes they’d like to share, email me (andy@curlduluth.com) and I’ll put them up.