Swimming to Ball Wall

Well, we didn't quite have to swim, but it poured down rain today so hard that I was considering collecting two of every animal. The bad weather put a damper on the Suzukis' original plan of going to Pal-Pal to see O'Goody perform as a villain in the live action Power Rangers show they have there. So instead we went shopping, to lunch and then off to go bowling at a place called Ball Wall. I have been in kind of a funk for the last few days and I was hoping the day out would help with that. Well, the funk continued to hang over my head like a bad cartoon cloud during the shopping and lunch. But the bowling banished the funk very well. The first game I bowled fairly well. I scored 111, while Yoko came in second and Mikio really tanked in third. Yoko, Yuma and I teased him pretty hard about that. So he turned around and got two strikes in a row in the first two frames of the second game. I really thought the game was over then. But no, Mikio and I duked it out the whole game. It was actually quite heart stopping and came down to the last frame. I finished first with a quite respectable 134 and Mikio needed a spare to beat me. His first roll left him with only the four middle pins standing. A fairly easy spare pickup. And the roll looked like he was gonna get that spare, but the ball skimmed the head pin by just a hairs breath and left it standing. As winner I was awarded a box of Pretz (a flavored breadstick snack available at any conbini for 100 yen) by the bowling alley staff. One of my crowning acheivements and I plan to treasure my award for at least another 24 hours before getting the munchies and eating my trophy.