Amanda Takes Off...

Tonight was the payout night at our bowling league, followed by a potluck and a no-tap bowling game.

Last week, which was the final competition week, we arrived in first place. We needed to win two games to get a clean first place standing (71 points). We needed one game to get a very probable first place standing (69 points). If third place won all three games, they'd end up with 70 points total, so they were the unknown.

There was a study done on Olympic winners. Gold winners are the happiest, bronze the second happiest, and silver the least happy. Second place thinks about how close they were to first, while third place thinks of how close they were to not placing.

This might explain why one half of team we were against ended the night saying, "Yeah, you lucked out the first game, you know that right? I sucked and that's the only reason you won. What's 'Hanmi'[our team name] mean? Huh? HANdicap is Most Important?"

"No, 'han' refers to Korea, and 'mi' refers to America. Korean-American."

"Oh, well, your name should be handicap is most important." (Yes, so says the man whose partner has the highest handicap in the league...)

We finished the season with 69 points. They ended with 68. Third place ended with 66.

Guess it sucked being silver.

Good Manism: Squirrel! Time to get up. Time to eat chestnut.

Reality: We were going to our bowling league.

Figure that that connection, folks.

Good Man and I were first place in our league for several weeks (eight or even ten?), but finally we've fallen to third place.

There are only eleven teams in our league, so if you're up against team eight, you actually draw a number and virtually bowl against that team for points. (The drawn team will not win or lose points in the game, only the team going against team eight.)

We've been doing really poorly lately, and started off with both of us getting sub-100 games. But we got better as the night went on.

On the third game, I started with a strike. Then a spare. Then a strike.

Good Man looked at me. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know. But I don't think we should talk about it."

On the fourth frame I got a spare. On the fifth frame, I got a strike. The people playing next to us started paying attention.

On the sixth frame, I got an 8, and couldn't pick up the spare.

I figured the game would finally turn normal, but on frame seven, I got another strike. And a spare. And a strike.

Finally, on the tenth frame, I got a split 8. Ugh. And...I failed to pick up any pins. The people next to us groaned and I did, too.

But! I ended up with a 172, which is my highest score ever.

Since my first two games were eh, I didn't end up with a 400 series, but I'm really excited to have a new best score!

Good Man and I are back to our Ball and Chain league on Friday nights. We've bowled three weeks so far. The first week I did terrible (88, 83, 114), but we still won two out of three games and the series. The second week I did much better, and we won all three games and the series (obviously). Last week we won two out of three and the series.

About half of the people are returnees from last year. But the most obnoxious team from last year hasn't returned. They were horrible to bowl against. They cursed all the time, berated themselves no matter how much they were winning, and held up the games by getting up to smoke, chatting with uninvolved friends, getting beer, etc. I had already decided that any week we played against them, we'd just pre- or post-bowl, so I was happy to see they haven't returned.

It's also nice to have our standing Friday night date back. It's one time during the week that Good Man can't log on to do work!

Tonight we had our last week of bowling league, which means we found out our ranking and received our payout and special awards.*

Good Man earned a magnet for a 150+ game. I earned magnets for a 150+ game and a 400+ series.

I also won the award for the Most Improved Average (Female). I increased my average by 16 pins, which was the most of anyone on the league. That award came with a magnet and a small cash prize.

(Side: My true average is 115.19. Good Man's is 115.69. I caught up!)

Our league has ten teams. As a team, Team Hanmi ranked eighth for our highest handicap game score. We scored dead last for team scratch game, scratch series, and handicap series. With those rankings you might expect we'd be lucky to break into the top five for points.

Well, we took second place!

팀 한미 화이팅!!

I was shocked. I thought we'd take third, but not second. We were close, though, because we were only ahead of third place by a half a point.

After we got our awards and cash payout, we played a fun no-tap game. In a no-tap game, if you get nine pins on the first ball, it counts as a strike. We were playing so that if your average was 140 or under, eight or nine pins counted as a strike. If your average was over 140, nine pins counted as a strike.

We were playing in a friendly competition for top two individual prizes. Neither Good Man nor I did well enough for either, but his high score was 222 and my high score was 274. We were bowling against a strong bowler who scored three perfect games in a row with the no-tap scoring. It was a lot of fun to play that way, and a nice way to end the season.

I'm really glad we joined a bowling league, and I wish I could join one this summer. Alas, it looks like I won't be joining another league until next year's Ball and Chain league returns!

*A note about terms for non-bowlers: a game is pretty self-explanatory. A series is your total score of three games. Scratch is your raw score, and handicapped is the score after they add your handicap.

At league, awards can be earned for highest average, most improved, if you score over a certain game or series, etc. Many of these awards depend on your average. For example, someone with a 200 average would not get an award for scoring 150, because that's just not impressive. As far as I know, the United States Bowling Congress sets the criteria for the awards.

Tonight was our last competition night of league. Next week we find out the standings and the prize money is handed out.

Tonight Good Man and I bowled against a team we really enjoy bowling against. The previous two times we bowled against them, we won two games and took four or five points. Tonight we won all three games (and took all seven points, obviously).

Even more exciting—my scoring! I scored a 155, a 130, and a 120, making it a 405 series. My previous best game/series was 151/381. I had hoped I'd get a 400 series at least one this season but had basically given up. And when I wasn't trying, I made it!