not..

this ted...

but this one.

my sister and niece are going to florida for two and a half weeks to see the new baby. wish i could go. the humidity of miami beach is ALWAYS bearable with some sand and ocean ;) i know my sister is extremely excited. she missed the birth because of school; she just finished her first year of dental hygiene school. although i'm aghast at being a great uncle, i'm even more astounded that my eldest sister is a grandmother LOL

i am gonna be SO achy in the morning. for two years, i had been promising to take my niece bowling. you know how you think about doing things but never accomplishing them...

well, i thought i had better do it tonight because she goes back to school not long after they get back. and i'm sure that if i put it off any longer, she might grow out of the 'bowling is cool' stage. after all, how many fifteen year-olds would wanna be seen bowling with their uncles.

ewww.

so i picked her up at about 9:00 and we headed over to the brunswick lanes near iliff and peoria. man, they were BU-USY. their tuesday night league was finishing up as we got there. luckily, we only waited about fifteen minutes for a lane...#38.

as a teenager, i regularly bowled and went from a 108 average to a 170 average by the time i was in my early twenties. unfortunately, by the time i was consistently rolling 500 series, i quit. i think part of that was due to another friend (who was a much better bowler than i) stoppped due to advancing rheumatoid arthritis. if i'm lucky, i bowl every couple years.

it was a lot of fun to put in five games though. it's funny how you lose those 'bowling muscles' though...wrist and shoulder. sturdy legs don't hurt either :) man, professional bowlers can bowl up to 40 games during a tournament. that means swinging back and rolling that 16 lb. baby between 500-700 times over the course of a few days. don't tell me that won't build up some musk-els.

and yes, i do use a 16 lb. ball. i could probably do okay w/ a 14 or 15 pounder, but that extra pound gives me a little more pin action when the momentum carries it down the lane. you see all these guys rolling HUGE curve balls with 10-12 pound balls...but not always picking up spares or getting consecutive strikes. that's because they're not consistent enough and/or the light weight of the ball cuts too clean and doesn't create pin action to smash into the others. trust me, a slightly heavier ball usually produces more pinfall...as if any of you care ;)