Birthday and Bowling Disappointment

KFC lunch (ahh... a taste of home) Sorry, Dave: no lazy suzan camera.

On Saturday for our friend Fernando's 31st birthday, we went downtown and had KFC for lunch (a little treat) and then went down the block for a little afternoon bowling.

Having some fun with Fern's B-day gift from KFC

The bowling ally is great: very, very nice. What isn't so nice is how they work the lanes. During the day, you pay per game so you have all these single, older guys with their buddies each taking up their own lane. We had to wait about 20 minutes to play because all the lanes were full.

But we had fun once we started!

If you remember from my previous post, Fernando is right now sitting on the Lanzhou city foreigner high score with a 156. My goal: to beat that score today.

We get our lane and balls and shoes and start playing. I start out well with a 146 - not bad for my first game. My second game is always better anyway. Not today though: I bowl a 136 in my second game.

Knowing me, that wasn't going to do and the girls still were not half way done with their second game, so the boys decided to play one more. I started this game off strong with a strike in the first frame but the streak didn't hold.

Is he dancing or bowling???

I ended the 3rd game with a 141. Which was sad because I didn't make my goal, but I did keep my 140's average (which has been the case the last 3 times I have bowled).

The worst part is that Amanda was at the bathroom when the girls were starting the second game. They asked me to bowl her first frame, and I knew she wouldn't mind as long as I did well. I threw a 9 and picked it up for the spare. She came back - and I don't know what she did in the bathroom - but she finished the game with a 151.

The celebration often more important than the actual throw!

So now Amanda and Fern have higher scores than me. I might have to start sneaking away from campus for some practice! One comforting fact is that their average scores are around 110 (Amanda says hers is probably LOWER than that!), so their high games are pure luck. My average is hovering around 145, so it is only a matter of time.