Geh mal Kegeln!

Earl--The Echo Headliner's Mascot

August 29th was our last night of bowling. It was truly a sad night for me. I loved going every Monday night. It was exciting and fun and we laughed so much. There was always some sort of little drama at play. Which team would we play against? Would they have cute guys? Would we whip their butts or lose badly or split the games?

Although sad, our last night of bowling was also quite good. We came in 12th place out of 24--which isn't bad considering we were novices. And our own Paul Braun picked up a few awards (and CASH!). He was the most improved bowler in the entire league. And was he ever. The first couple of weeks, his goal was to approach 100. He would score in the high 80s or low 90s. By the end of the league, he was consistently bowling in the 130s and 140s and even a few games in the 180s!

At the end of the season, they award cash for different things, including giving a money prize to every team that played. We earned $210 for our efforts. So, we decided to go out to a nice and fancy dinner.

So tonight we splurged all of our earnings (and a little extra) at Durant's. It's this old steak house in central Phoenix. Jeff said it was very reminiscent of his grandfather's old restaurant in Tucson. It's very dark and red and expensive. Four drinks = $40 w/tip. It also seemed to have a lot of gay men. Either that or rich guys act gay.

Anyway, we had a great meal. We started with chicken livers and artichoke spinach dip. I never liked chicken livers as a kid and I can honestly say, I was correct back then. Back then I would say they're icky. Today, I would say they taste like shit unless you add atomic horseradish. Tim and Jeff got steak. Paul and I got seafood. It was YUMMY!

At the meal, Paul presented us all with ribbons of participation. He felt bad for sweeping the end of season awards and wanted us to have something. Which was so sweet and cute.

The boys also got me a card with a free movie ticket (WHO LIKES MOVIES! - as Tim would say). They also provided me with a gift certificate to a bowling shop that we frequented. It's enough to purchase my own bowling ball! Isn't that fucking amazing. They did it because of the "trouble of being the team captain." Basically, all I did was enter our names in the automated scoring machine, tally up our scores and sign the sheet. So it wasn't that big a deal. Basically, I think they were embarrassed at me always using a house ball. :-P

Regardless, it was such a cool and sweet gesture. I was really touched. :-)

Here's Tim, Earl (our team mascot) and Jeff. And here's Paulie and me.

I've got lots more to blog about. My weekend was great. We had rugby boot camp on Saturday. And Sunday I went out to a bunch of different bars to talk to people for Echo. So, I'll post pix and info on that tomorrow.