The Hats
Diane bought "outfits" so we could show our team spirit. After we got settled in our lanes, the first thing we did was draw lots to decide teams. We were The Hats: Julie Taylor (cop), David (pirate do-rag), Dean Taylor (fireman), Donna Nash, and Stan Sharp (airplane pilots).
The Noses Our competition was The Noses: Mary Long (rabbit), Shari Moss (doggie), Tom Nash (piggie), Flo Sharp (kitty), and Diane (hippo). Skip Folse came a little later and played both sides - he wore a pirate hat and bowled for The Noses.
Diane Strikes!
This was the actual frame that Diane bowled her first strike. You can see that ball has some English on it!
Wonder Woman
Celebrating that strike, she strikes her she-man pose that she usually reserves for a winning ping pong ace. Skip can feel the aggressive energy from where he sits. Or maybe it's just all that popcorn catching up with him.
Nose Gay
Mary (right) had a great first game with two strikes in a row and a bunch of spares. She gets the high five from Flo, who gets the devil horns from Stan.
Strike Two
I had a great second game with four strikes and four spares. Tom and Donna gave the birthday gift guitar pin on my shirt. It lit up and glowed like a real "electric" guitar.
Head Pin
Shari gave this bowling pin as a present. It had been around, if you know what I mean. Lots of cracks and dents, but it still stands up. She wrote "Happy BirthYear" on the bottom.
Small World
Shari and Mary had not met until the party. Or so we thought. Mary happened to be working at the antique store where Diane has her booth on the day of the party. Turns out she was the one who sold the bowling pin to Shari.
Back where we started
The first date that Dean took Julie on was bowling - in front of all of Dean's friends. It just about cured Julie of going bowling forever. We were really happy they came out. And as it turned out, she bowled better than hubby this time!
Thumbs up
Donna gives the good sign after getting her spare. They turned down the lights for Cosmic Bowling during our second game. If it hadn't been for Donna's running stripes, I'm afraid we would've lost her!
Small world gets even smaller
Flo hadn't met Mary until the party either. Then they started talking and realized that Mary had bought some items from Flo's uncle's daughter, who was getting rid of the Civil War memories of her late mother, which included a trash bin full of love notes that her brother wrapped around the newspapers he delivered to the mother every morning. Or something like that.
A time for us
We got a little bit of cuddle time in between frames and got this shot of me, the buccaneer with the yamulke, holding his wife with the cute nose.
Numbers don't lie
At the end of the night, the noses did a respectable second game: DBL (Diane) 83, FS (Flo) 103, SGM (Shari) 141, Tom 104, ML (Mary) 119, and SF (Skip) 138.
Hats are tops
I think I had the best bowling game of my life! JDL (me) 184, DT (Dean) 95, JT (Julie) 131, SS (Stan) 104, and DN (Donna) 73. If you figure averages (6 Noses vs 5 Hats), we win with an average of 117. But who's counting?
