Bowled Them Over

When you are going to a bowling alley with everyone from work, you have to dress right.  For Sweetie, it means his Hawaiian shirt.

He likes them so much, he has two of them.

They place they went for their bowling adventure isn't your Grandpa's bowling alley.  Sixty-four lanes, all top of the line with the latest gadgets and gizmos and computer graphics on the score boards.

Because this was an employer sponsored morale boosting adventure, they were told to order anything they wanted to eat.  Several pizzas were ordered to share, and Sweetie, who usually doesn't care much for it, couldn't resist the cheese pizza that had such a thick layer of cheese on it he could only have one slice.  He also  had a huge, delicious, perfectly cooked juicy burger.  A long way from the food i remember at bowling alleys many years ago.

Everyone was divided up into teams, and since Sweetie couldn't bowl because of his thumb injury, he showed several people some pointers, how to use the arrows to correct hooks, stuff like that.  Then he sat back and watched them all cut up.

Cut up they did.  They cheered each other, booed each other (through their laughter), laughed along when everyone else jeered at their gutter balls.  On the very last roll of the one person who is part of a league who bowls three times a week, Sweetie grinned at him and told him he might not want to be so cocky.  Sure enough, his last throw was a gutter ball, and everyone fell over themselves laughing while he stuck his tongue out at them.

One neophyte bowler Sweetie coached on his team got three strikes in a row.  She had a great time, and is hooked, as are a few others now.  Mr. Harold, who is more than old enough to retire (when he was born, the doctor came to the house in his horse and buggy, no joke!), but won't and still outworks the young folk, was also bowling for the first time and broke 150 in each game (every team bowled 3 games).

At the end of the day, they were stuffed with food and well fed with laughter, and The Big Boss had a set up to give prizes that involved spinning a wheel.  One person on a winning team said, "Probably what we would all really like for a prize is a day off!"   The Big Boss looked up and smiled.  "What do you say?" he asked.  "What would you all really like?"

He was bowled over when they chanted, "A day off!" very loudly and in unison.  Because Sweetie was coach of a winning team, he will get a day off next week.

They had so much fun with the yelling and laughing and clapping and sheer fun, The Big Boss is planning to do this again.


Today is

Anti-Bigot Day -- doesn't seem to be sponsored by any particular group, which is good on a day to practice tolerance of all

Comic-Con International -- San Diego, CA, US (through Sunday)

Constitution Day -- Uruguay

Get To Know Your Customers Day -- third Thursday of each quarter

Hot Dog Night -- Luverne, MN, US (free hot dogs to all comers!)

Lunch of the Forward Goblins -- Fairy Calendar (not surprisingly, attended by Fairies only)

Mandela Day -- UN

National Caviar Day -- no one knows how it started, but even The Russian Tea Room in New York has celebrated it for years and caviar importers know all about it; pair it with ice cold vodka or a Burgundian pinot or unoaked chardonnay, but never with champagne!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival -- Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA, US (a celebration of the art of silent film; through Sunday)

Stirling Settler Days -- Stirling, Alberta, Canada (parade, pancake breakfast, firefighter games, a movie in the park, dancing, rodeo, and more ;through Sunday)

St. Theneva's Day (Patron of Glasgow, Scotland)

Virginia Lake Festival -- Clarksville, VA, US (fun for the family, including tethered hot air balloon rides; through Saturday)

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Vitula, goddess of exultation, joy, and life, is given the first fruits of the earth)

Wienermobile Day -- celebrating the creation, in 1936, of the now iconic vehicle by Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl

World Listening Day -- here for information


Birthdays Today

Chace Crawford, 1985
Priyanka Chopra, 1982
Vin Diesel, 1967
Richard Branson, 1950
Martha Reeves, 1941
Joe Torre, 1940
Paul Verhoeven, 1938
Hunter S. Thompson, 1937
Dick Button, 1929
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929
John Glenn, 1921
Nelson Mandela, 1918
Harriet Nelson, 1914
Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913
Hume Cronyn, 1911
George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895
Vidkun Quisling, 1887
Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867
William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811
Robert Hooke, 1635


Today in History

A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390
The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64
King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290
Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801
The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870
Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872
Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898
Adoph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925
The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California, 1968
Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics  at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976
Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984
On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995
Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996
Phoenix, AZ, US, is hit by a dust storm of the kind known as a "haboob", 2010