Saturday

The wife and I get up and put in our weekly appearance at the Carmel Mtn Albertson's. We get home, enjoy a short lunch and head off to see Mirrormask. The Ken has at least slightly improved it's amenities. They have pads on the seats now.

Putting that aside, and the fact that I missed a great shot at taking pictures of that neighborhood of Kensington, I had a great time. The movie is one of the best I've seen this year. Great story by Neil Gaiman and great puppetry and animation by the Jim Henson Company. The live actors were all amazing as well. No one famous but just a small English cast. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone.

Yes it's great for the kiddies too. Other than a brief scene in the beginning when a circus performer (female) comes out in a one-piece I believe that there's nothing else in the movie that anyone would object to. This performer doesn't show anything more than leg and arms but for some people that's more than enough to say "My kid ain't seeing that movie" which I think is sorta sad but what can you do? Some people are just different I suppose. If I want them to respect me, I guess I could start by respecting them, right? Fairplay.

After the movie we head out to the Bartlett residence to pick up the infamous P.Bart. A quick bit of Jack In the Box and we head out to a meaningless Padres game. Chan Ho Park is starting and I swear if I have to hear one more joke from P.Bart about his name and Hee Seop Choi I swear I'll come apart.

The Padres had already clinched the division title, so the 2-1 loss to the Dodgers this night doesn't feel so bad. Besides, we were able to pick up our tickets for Game 4 of the NLDS against the Cardinals. That is, if there is a game four (more on that later). While there, I get plenty of stares for the nice bright lime green tint to my hair. I love the attention. It just gives me more self-confidence. Whatever works, I guess.

About halfway through the game, in typical Dodger fan style a couple comes to sit in the seats to my left that were empty. Now I'm a large man. 5'7" maybe and 285 pounds and let me tell you I LOOK like I sit at a computer all day, K? Needless to say the seats are already a snug fit and now I've got my wife on one side and this dude on the other and my arms folded over my chest to keep my elbows from knocking them both around.

So after about 3-4 innings of this I have to get up. There's like 5 seats empty on the other side of Bart so I get up and head out to get a soda and take a walk where I can calm down a bit. Being cramped for an hour tends to wear on your emotions a bit. I come back, sit down, take a sip and nearly spit it on the kid in front of me. It's club soda with the slightest hint of Coke flavor. What's this? A $5.50 soda water? I'd go complain but really what's the point? What did I expect purchasing anything from a ballpark concession stand? So I sit there and enjoy the rest of the game. Well, as much as one can when his team loses 2-1.

We head out after the game even though the rest of the crowd is sticking around for fireworks. We walk down to the ticket office and pick up the playoff tickets we'd purchased earlier that morning. The dude gives Victoria a bit of a hard time for wanting them so quick and then again when she can't produce the confirmation number. All in fun. We chuckle and grin as he hands us the 3 tickets for Game 4 (should there be one) of the NLDS. We head past the fireworks and over to the Padres Parkade.

As we approach we see the stairs and notice two sets of stairs. One says Floors 2, 4, 6, 8 and the other says Floors 3, 5, 7, 9. So we figure that means that the 5th floor, which is where Cricket is sleeping, must be the 3rd floor up on those stairs. You know how parking garages can be where different floors sorta weave between each other. Well we were wrong. It was FIVE FLIGHTS UP. Being the large speciman that I am, the first 3 were easy. The fourth was tough. Legs started feeling like lead. Not really winded until I reached the 5th floor and by then the Legs were large cement blocks. This reminded me of the 85 degree angled stairs at Dodger Stadium from the lower parking lot to the upper deck. That sucked too.

So we sit there and cool down before driving home to drop Bart off at home. Butch had texted me earlier when we were on the way out to the movie about getting together for bowling later on. I was tired and a bit hurting after the 5 story climb so I paced the floor wondering if I really wanted to go. I really need to start exercising. I mean really, this is getting pathetic.
I decide not to go and yet just as I'm about to text Butch and tell him I can't make it, I can't think of one good reason not to. Money? Probably low but with it just being me, how expensive can it be? Could I say it's too late? Could I say I just don't want to? Well, when I'd shown interest earlier those excuses would seem a bit dumb. So I decide, "why not?" and let him know I'd be there.

I head out and get there right at a quarter to midnight as I was told. Well...Aaron shows up around midnight and Ivan shortly after. A few minutes later the trio come in and we wait for Butch and the other two girls who have gone to get gas and then went too far and had to come back. While waiting for Butch, Jo heads over for some drinks. Seems the lady there is serving the bar but not the window. Way to go lady. What more can you expect for customer service from a bowling alley though?

BTW, the Brunswick Bowling Alley in Chula Vista has changed a lot. All new furniture and new bowling balls...colored based on the weight of the ball and diameter of the finger holes (stop giggling). We settle on a girls vs. guys matchup which we immediately question. We were duped before with Joanna when she took all our money the first time. We expected it the second time. Now these 5 girls want to take on us 4 men. Something's fishy. Sure enough, Joanna strikes in her first two frames and we're immediately looking about with raised eyebrows. I, on the other hand, being someone who bowls a normal game of 100-115 turned in an impressive 78 in the first game. The first toss was a hot shot right in the gutter than slammed against the back wall. "Wow, you're gonna hurt yourself". "Yeah, you gotta start out by intimidating them." Nice guys. Really, they're great.

So the second game goes a bit better. 111. Still not amazing considering Aaron bowled a 175 in his first game and something close to that in his second. We all did our best "speak softly (or not at all) and carry a big stick (bowl a better game)" bit. this enraged the girls who had been all up for a nice competitive night of tossing insults back and forth and trying to ruin each others shots all night. Well as we sat there quietly ignoring their taunts and just putting up numbers, they became annoyed and then flat out agitated. So late into the last game, Butch and I started in on a clap session and they were all "That's not fair! What did she do to you!" HA! She choked. We threw a few words out there here and there but basically just quietly gave them a sound kicking about the lane. I was mostly quiet for two reasons: 1.) I was bowling like crap and 2.) I'm still not comfortable enough yet to start taunting them. I'm still in that "trying to be accepted" mode when in my head I know I've been accepted already. Still, don't want to do anything to offend. These guys all have a history together than I'm not a part of and once I get past that stupid reasoning I'll be a real man and just have fun.

The day was really nice. Great movie, Kensington, ballgame, bowling, home by 4am. Nice.