January 17: Multiple Opportunities

Some days, new opportunities just seem to pop up all over the place. This was one of those days. First and foremost, my wife and I decided to take the kids bowling for the first time at Imperial Lanes. My daughter had tried it once in school as part of a class outing, but the family had never gone together. Myself, I've not bowled since I was a kid, and I wasn't any good then, so I didn't think the chances of improvement had increased over the years. Not a big deal, of course, but someone had to model the act of bowling for our kids and my wife had already volunteered to not accept that responsibility; so the weight of teaching fell directly on my shoulders (although, in the end, my wife really was the better teacher). As I mentioned, it has been years since I was in a bowling alley, but, I soon found that the distinct odor of must and smoke had not changed all that much. Thankfully, all that will change come May with the passing of anti-smoking legislation, but it's January and the odor was ever-present for our bowling date. Much to the dismay of my daughter who immediately freaked out thinking that her asthma was going to be triggered by said smoke and she would be rendered breathless for the entire visit. Of course, that didn't happen, but still, just to be safe, we probably will not return to the lanes until Summer. Once my daughter managed to get over her "fussy" (as my Son calls them), we were able to proceed with our bowling activities. A quick recommendation for those of you planning your first bowling excursion with young kids: ask the employees if they can flip up the gutters in the lane. We discovered this entering our 9th frame, a little late in the process, when the family next to us had made such a request. In hindsight, it probably would have been a much more rewarding experience for the kids, as all of those gutter balls they threw, which accounted for about 80% of their throws, would have ended up hitting some pins instead. All-in-all, the kids enjoyed it - especially the frozen cokes and bowling alley pizza from Sorrentos - and my wife and I enjoyed watching them try something new. And, if bowling wasn't enough of a new experience for the day, I also had the privilege of making eggs for the first time on the Cuisinart Griddler that my wife received for her birthday. In the past, my egg-making efforts centered around an everyday fry pan and a can of Pam cooking spray. Needless to say, the result was usually messy eggs and a lot of Dawn and scraping following breakfast. But, this beauty, with a marvelous non-stick coating, was eggs-travagant (a little infomercial lingo to back my testimonial)! Eggs that remained intact and just a bit of hot water to rinse the cooking plates; which are also dishwasher-safe I might add. Now, that's what I call a successful meal! Needless to say, Sunday was a big day for new things. And, given I'm only 2.5 weeks into this thing, it was nice to have a day like that for once.