Eh, not so good this week... ended up slightly under average for the night and our team only took 2 points. I was just flat out pooped by the third game from a really killer weekend at work (that would be, let's see, 22.5 hours in two days). So yeah, I kinda phoned it in. Oh well.

The good news is that I figured out where my hook went, or rather why I was flattening out the ball so much. Somewhere in the last year or so (probably because of that &*^%$! sportsmen league at Fox last year) I had changed my starting hand position. I used to start out under the ball, but I changed it to starting more on the side of the ball. Ergo, not as much lift and not as much roll. Once I went back to starting under the ball, the ball moved like it used to.

OK, I promise next week will be better.

So last Monday I rolled a 235, which is my high game for the year so far and also the high women's scratch game in the league.

I still have high women's average... 5 pins ahead of the 2nd place average. But the 235 game and 550 series last week has bumped my average up 2 pins. Whoo!

No bowling this past Monday due to Labor Day. Sigh.

Withdrawal setting in.

Aieee.

Dad and I joined a new Monday night league this fall, having been thoroughly turned off by the prospect of going back to the heinous and depressing league at Fox that we did last year. We really liked BZ Glendale Heights, where we bowled in the summer, so we decided it would be a good place to try this year.

We had our first night this past Monday, and so far so good. We have a full team consisting of me, Dad, this fellow Scott who was on our summer team, and a lady we never met before named Jan who seemed nice enough but didn't bowl because she was still recovering from a sprained knee. As usual I am in the lead-off spot (my lucky spot) and Dad bowls anchor. It's always been that way as long as the two of us have been bowling.

I did pretty good, coming out with a starting average of 165. I usually hover around 165 for the year, but this year my goal is to get to 170. Dad did slightly better, but I know he will improve. For now though, he starts out with some decent handicap. :-) Scott is our major handicap provider, with a 115 average. I don't know about Jan yet, but we want her to be absolutely sure that her knee is good before she starts bowling again.

The only kind of annoying thing is that Scott will miss a couple weeks here and there because he travels a lot for work. But he plans to pre-bowl for the weeks he misses, so maybe it'll be OK.

The league secretary is a hoot. He's this burly guy with long blond hair named Randy. He is very much into his role, and very much wants for everyone to enjoy the league and have fun. I think that's kinda cool, because most league secretaries I've met couldn't care less about that.

Of course we had no idea how many points we took because no one had a handicap yet. So I'll have to report on that later.

Oh and by that way, my keyboard sucks. The L and the S key stick and it drives me crazy. So if there are any L's or S's missing well, you know why.

I recently took my three year old bowling for the first time. Did you know they make little tiny bowling shoes in his size? Just the cutest darn things I ever did see, and they looked even cuter on him. Anyway, we got the obligatory bumpers and I found a nice 6 pound ball for him. He rolled the ball down the lane (sloooooowly) and got 1 pin. On his second ball (sloooooowly) he got about 7 more. Then he decided that the ball return was evil. He was very concerned that it was going to eat the balls. I tried to reassure him that it would only spit out the balls, not eat them, but I don't think he bought it. He kept telling me to take the balls off the ball return rack.

After a while he grew tired of rolling the ball down the lane (very, very sloooooowly) and decided he would rather watch me bowl. I finished his game for him, giving him a hearty score of 141. My own game clocked in at 173. Oh, and my hook was back. Sweet.

And now, may I present to you, LAURA'S NEVER-FAIL METHOD FOR PICKING UP THE TEN PIN:

Use the bumpers.

:-)