Sunday February 4th

I woke up Sunday morning to yet some more bad news. No, I didn’t get sicker over night but my laptop crashed when I tried to check my mail. I turned it on and the screen went blue. Great, just what I needed. My phone blew up in El Paso and my laptop crashes in Dallas. I’m just not very lucky when it comes to electronic devices. [Editor’s Note:  The number of electronic devices Jeff owns is getting larger and larger due to our influence!]  I hit the road to Dallas, getting in to my hotel around 1:00 or so. I checked into the Homestead Studio Suites ( Priceline.com ), unloaded my clothes and things, hooked up the DVD player and chilled out for a while watching some TV. I headed over to the Ballards’ house to watch the Super Bowl later that evening. There were about 15-20 of us there and we had a great time watching a mediocre Super Bowl. Del cooked ribs and a beef brisket, along with some awesome Chicken Enchilada soup. The game itself was pretty sloppy, and since I didn’t have a real rooting interest I didn’t care for it very much. I was happy to see Peyton Manning finally get the monkey off his back, and I think Tony Dungy ( former Steeler ) is a pretty good coach and deserves his day in the sun. The halftime show was okay I guess, but would’ve been better if Prince had stuck to his own music. Other than the game itself, we had a great time. We set up some pools on the game to make things interesting, with Del and Carolyn winning most of the money. I guess that’s only fair since they opened their house to us degenerates !!! Thanks to them for hosting the party and giving us a nice, relaxing night. After the game I headed back to the hotel and watched Gridiron Gang. It was yet another movie in the long list of feel good sports movies. I thought it was very good and well made.

Monday February 5th

Schlem and I headed down to the Ballpark in Arlington to hang out for a while and grab some lunch. When we got there, the restaurant was closed so I just spent some time shopping for me and the kids. We headed over to the Hooters in Arlington for some lunch, then decided to head back up to the hotel area and find me a Best Buy to drop off my laptop for some “Geek Squad” repair service. My GPS had us driving around for about 3 hours looking for a Best Buy to no avail, so finally we decided to drive up by the bowl to check things out. When we got there, what did we find ? You guessed it, a Best Buy. They told me that my Windows Operating System had failed and since my DVD/CD drive was broken ( that happened over the summer ), it couldn’t be fixed without sending it in for repairs. Since I was looking at several hundred dollars worth of repairs and at least 4-6 weeks in turnaround time, I considered buying a new one. We headed back to the hotel to chill out, but I ended up heading back to Best Buy to buy a new laptop. I took all of my programs for them to load on to the new one, as well as the stuff that I needed to transfer from one hard drive to the other. After that, I finally headed back to the hotel to watch “Crank”, starring Jason Statham ( The Transporter, The Italian Job ). I’d been looking forward to this movie since I first saw the previews. Unfortunately the movie didn’t live up to its hype and stunk horribly. I can’t believe how bad the movie was and I was very disappointed.

Tuesday February 6th

I grabbed some lunch at Chick-Fil-A ( I know, I know….again ? But this week it was right next to the hotel ), then went up to the bowl to practice. We were on the Shark pattern this week, but we were also on bad wood. It was a crap shoot as to how the pattern would play. Rumor had it ( this is just what I was told, so I’m not sure how true it is ) that the pattern had been “tweaked” this week to allow the left side to score better, since the last time we used this pattern they were shut out of the Top 32. Now like I’ve said before, I wish there was a way to make things fair and equitable, but I also think that once the season starts the patterns shouldn’t be messed with. When the left runs the right over, they don’t change the patterns then so why now ??? Some things that go on out here I’ll never understand. During practice, it was pretty obvious to me that the pattern was different. There was a strip between 20-25 on the right side that hook tons more than usual. Obviously that is the area of the pattern that had been changed. Once I finally got over that “hump” and got left of 25, the pattern played pretty well. I had several good options and felt fairly good about the way I was bowling physically. After practice I headed back to the hotel, changed clothes, then headed to the mall to see Smokin Aces ( the new Jeremy Pivin movie ). It was pretty interesting and I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite as good as I’d expected. Still, it was worth seeing and only cost me $4.00 !!! After the movie I headed back to the hotel to watch the Stars ( my favorite Hockey team ) game on TV. They were playing the Wild and they scored 2 late 3rd period goals to win. Since my computer still wasn’t ready from Best Buy, I couldn’t catch up on my website work so I watched some TV and got some sleep.

Wednesday February 7th

I headed over to the bowl Wednesday morning to watch the TQR. They had 5 on a pair and the pace was very, very slow. Scores were pretty low, so that slowed the pace even more. It looked like guys were all over the place on the lanes, so I couldn’t really gauge how the pattern was playing ( other than it looked ugly ). We headed to lunch at Souper ! Salad, then headed back to watch the end of the TQR and wait for practice to start. During practice I saw pretty much the same things that I saw on Tuesday, and with pretty much the same assortment of balls. The pattern really broke loose between 20-25, but once you got past that it was okay. After practice I went to the truck to drill another Shift, then ran by to check on my computer ( which still wasn’t ready ), then headed over to Don Pablo’s for dinner. Since I was finally feeling almost normal, my appetite was back and I got to enjoy dinner for a change. After dinner it was back to the hotel to relax and watch my Mavs beat up on the Memphis Grizzlies. We tried to get tickets, but our contact with the Mavs no longer works for Mark Cuban, so we were out of luck. So I ended up watching it on TV and rest my sore hip/back.

Thursday February 8th

Like I said earlier, we were bowling on the Shark pattern this week. The Shark pattern is by far my favorite pattern and I had made match play the last six times we’ve bowled on it. Unfortunately for me, this week the Shark pattern had been modified and didn’t exactly play like it normally does for me. Pair that with the older, wood surface and the fact that the bowling center was built on stilts ( read the Schlemer report at www.stormbowling.com for more details on that ), you had a circus going on. I crossed with Mike Devaney, Chris Loschetter and Brad Angelo and all 4 of us stayed right of 15 during practice. I think everybody thought that the farther right we started, the longer the pattern would hold up. Unfortunately, not everybody got the memo because I saw guys starting practice in front of the ball return. That’s great for them, but where does everybody else go from there ??? I understand that we are in an individual sport, but come on guys !!! Anyway, I started the block with an Agent playing around 15-16, but quickly had to start moving left because the heads were burning up after every shot.

Thursday, February 8 -- Round of 64 Block 1

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx - XX
Game 1 (  ) – 3-6-10 in the 1st ( missed to the right….first 3-6-10 I’ve missed in quite a while ), 3-6-9-10 in the 4th ( cant pick up the 3-6-10 but I can make this disaster ??? ), blower 7 in the 6th, ring 10 in the 10th. Like I said earlier, we were moving after just about every frame. By the time the first game was over I was already moving into the bad part of the lane.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx - XX
Game 2 (   ) – 1-2-4-8 in the first, solid 7 in the 5th. Our second pair was on a pair that nobody was playing in on. Plus they only had 3 bowlers and one of them was a lefty. My first shot did a fly-by on the headpin, but the pattern was full ( Top Gun joke there ). After that I moved back to where I started game one and made some pretty good shots to pull out 255.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx - XX
Game 3 (   ) – Solid 9 in the 1st, ring 10 in the 4th, 7-10 in the 6th, hard 4-10 in the 7th, ring 10 in the 8th, solid 9 in the 9th, 3-6-9-10 in the 10th. Other than the shot in the 10th, I bowled pretty well during this game. Several bad breaks left me with a couple of pocket splits and a few spares that could’ve struck and helped turn the game around.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 4 (   ) – 1-2-6-10 in the 2nd, 3-10 in the 4th, 4-7 in the 6th, 2-10 in the 8th, blower 7 in the 10th. As you can see the left lane on this pair was a total disaster. I switched to a Shift for this game, trying to blend out my angles and increase my carry percentage. It worked on the right lane, but the left lane was nearly impossible. Nobody on our pair had over 185 that game.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 5 (   ) – Ring 10 in the 1st, 4-pin in the 2nd, 4-9 in the 3rd, 3-4-6-10 in the 5th, solid 7 in the 7th. Other than the split in the 5th, I felt pretty matched up during this game. I was now left of 25 and playing fallback, fishing for the right ball to strike with.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 6 (   ) – Solid 9 in the 1st, 4-7 in the 4th, ring 10 in the 5th, 4-7 in the 6th, 4-pin in the 8th, ring 10 in the 9th. This game was similar to the last. Constant fishing to find the right angle.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX 42nd
Game 7 (   ) – 3-6 in the 1st, 4-pin in the 3rd, ring 10 in the 8th ( which I promptly missed ) . By now I was left of 30, lofting it pretty good. We finally caught a pair with some push on it, but I inexcusably missed a 10 pin that cost me some pins. I finished the round at + 63 and sat in 14th place. The scores were very low, but I felt good about how I bowled. I had one “bad luck” game and one very bad pair. Other than that I felt like I bowled a very solid block.

After we were done, I headed over to the Olive Garden for soup and salad, went back to the bowl to work on some equipment and practiced for a little while. The PBA laneman decided to only single strip between rounds this week, due to the bad surface and it really showed for the evening round. I could tell right away that the lanes were totally different than the morning round. The fronts hooked instantly and the ball accelerated downlane. I was in trouble from the get go. I got lost early and never recovered. Things just snowballed from there and I suffered through my worst round in a very, very long time. I watched Brad Angelo go through it as well, but Mike Devaney played the lanes farther to the right and just whacked them ( eventually making the show ). I tried to follow Mike’s lead, but I just couldn’t make the lanes look the same as he did. I fought and fought all night, but to no avail. Nothing worked and I was dead in the water. I didn’t document my ball changes and moves, but here is the game rundown ( warning : its very ugly )

Thursday, February 8 -- Round of 64 Block 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 1 (  ) – Ring 10 in the 10th, 4-6-7 in the 2nd, 3-6-10 in the 3rd, 3-4-6-7 in the 6th, 4-pin in the 7th. I threw a 4 bagger to bail 207 out, but this game was ugly and it only got worse.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 2 (   ) – Super washout in the first, 3-4-6-7-10 in the 2nd, blower 7-10 in the 3rd, solid 8 in the 5th, 2-4-10 in the 10th. After a disastrous start, I moved right only to blower 7-10. I chased Devaney to the track and actually had a decent look, but I split again in the 10th.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 3 (   ) – Super washout in the first, 2-4-8-10 in the 2nd, 2-8 in the 3rd, 4-pin in the 5th, 3-6-10 in the 6th ( which I missed again to the right ), 4-pin in the 7th, ring 10 in the 8th, 3-10 in the 9th and a 10-pin in the 10th. I started right during this game, but it was a train wreck. I finally jumped in after 3 frames, but couldn’t get anything going.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 4 (   ) – 2-pin in the 1st, 6-10 in the 2nd, 3-6 in the 3rd, 2-4 in the 4th ( which I missed left ), 2-8 in the 6th ( which I hooked by ), 3-pin in the 7th, 3-pin in the 8th, 6-pin in the 9th, and a 2-4-5 in the 11th. Very, very ugly game. The heads were pretty well fried by now and the ball wouldn’t recover at all downlane.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 5 (   ) – 2-4-5 in the 1st, ring 10 in the 5th, 4-7-9 in the 6th, 4-9 in the 8th. This turned out to be the key game of the night. I finally found a pair that I could get to the pocket on, but couldn’t catch a break. The 2 pocket splits pretty much sealed my fate.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 6 (   ) – Solid 9 in the 1st, 3-6-7-10 in the 2nd, washout in the 4th, 3-6-10 in the 6th, 2-8 in the 7th, 2-4 in the 9th, ring 10 in the 10th. I’m really not this bad, am I ???
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xx-xx + XX
Game 7 (   ) – Ring 10 in the 2nd, 3-6 in the 4th, 2-8 in the 8th, ring 10s in the 9th and 10th. I moved back right for the last game and tried to bail the set out, to no avail. I finished the night block at –112 and –49 for the event. That was by far the worst I’ve bowled in quite a while. As a matter of fact that was downright embarrassing !!! The guys that bowled well during the night round deserve a lot of credit because I thought they were just brutal.

Friday February 9th

I didn’t really do very much on Friday. Watched the Star Wars trilogy in the room, went to Applebee’s for lunch, walked around the mall for a while, picked up my new laptop from Best Buy and then went to the bowl to watch the Round of 8. Qualifying this week was so depressing that I just didn’t want to do anything but go home.

Saturday February 10th

I got up Saturday morning, packed all of my stuff up and headed to the bowl. I hung out during the noon pro-am before I had to bowl at 2:15. They only had 5-6 people on each pair, so the bowling itself went very fast. I met several people this week that I talk to through my website or on ballreviews.com, which is always cool. It’s nice to put a face to the screen name. After the pro-am, I loaded up my truck and hit the road. My plan was to drive until around midnight, but I was so wired on Monster Energy drink that I just kept going. I pulled into my driveway at 3:00 am, and when I got into the house I was shocked when I remembered that I’d turn the thermostats down to 55 degrees. It was cold !!! Oh well, I was home and ready for a break.

That wraps up yet another rough week for me. I’m falling in the point standings and I’m not sure what to do about it. Hopefully a weekend at home with the kids will do me some good and I can recharge my batteries for next week. Next week’s report will come from Council Bluffs, IA. Hopefully the weather doesn’t get as bad as the forecast says. Until then, Bowl up a Storm !!!