[Shrek and Fiona] Theme Thursday 7-16

We've decided to do something a little different, and we're jumping on the "Theme Thursday" bandwagon. Every week a different theme is selected, and several blogs (which are generally linked on the Theme Thursday page) each post on the given theme.

This week's theme is "stage"...so let's see what we can do with that.











Yeah, of course there's more to what you see. Can you figure it out?

[Shrek] King Of The Hill

As many of you know, one of my hobbies is candlepin bowling. I bowl in a couple of fall leagues and one in the summer. I do it for a night out with friends, and while one fall league is a very competitive league the other two I regularly bowl in are supposed to be for fun. I sometimes forget that it's supposed to be fun, but I am getting better at that. This summer I've had some issues remembering that because, well, for lack of a more family friendly term, I've sucked pretty badly.

My usual 110ish average has fallen to 98, and it is beginning to frustrate me. Just about everything that I can do wrong I'm doing, and as soon as I fix one thing something else starts falling apart. And even when I get it all together, I'm not catching any breaks, which causes even more frustration.

So it makes what happened last night more than a tad confusing.

On Saturday nights, there are mini-tournaments called "King of the Hill" at different bowling alleys across central Massachusetts. The only Saturday night in the month that didn't have one was the second Saturday, and to fill that gap a couple of guys I bowl with started one here in Worcester at Colonial Bowl, the place I normally bowl at. It being at my "home house" was the only reason I showed up.

So with my 44oz Diet Coke in hand and a stiff back, I showed up to see what was going on. Looking around at the number of people that were there, which included a few guys I knew, I figured I'd give it a shot....and I'm glad I did.

I have no idea how it happened, but everything began to click. I threw three great strings for a 353 triple, and because my average was so low I got a handicap of 72 pins for a 425 total. That was good enough to be the second seed in the ladder matches, where the 5th seed plays the 4th, and the winner of that match bowls the 3rd, and so on. The championship round is a two string final.

The 5v4 match was very high scoring, as was the next match. When it was my turn to bowl I had been standing around for twenty minutes and had cooled off a lot. My practice box was terrible, with me going back to not doing anything right. Luckily, that was the only time it happened. I was on fire in the match, throwing a 130-odd string to win it scratch.

That carried over early in the championship match, and it was a good thing. I haven't bowled more than three strings in a night in a very, very long time. Now toss in a bad back and I knew I needed to get out front quick. I won the first string by 11, and then ran out of gas. Lucky for me, my opponent wasn't getting many breaks and I was able to keep it over a 10 pin lead for the rest of the second string. In the last box I needed just a six to force him to throw a double strike, and with my seven drop on my first ball and him not throwing a strike I was the winner.

Next month I'm automatically the #1 seed, and only have to bowl in the championship match.

I do expect to get some razzing on Tuesday when I show up for my summer league night as the score sheets were collected by one of those bowlers to poke fun at my 98 average...a razzing I'll be more than happy to take.

[Shrek] Learn Something New Every Day

One of my goals in life is to learn something new every day. There is an adage that says "all knowledge is worth knowing", and I firmly believe that's true. Sure, some of the stuff we learn is worthless unless we're playing Trivial Pursuit, but in general having a wide base of knowledge is a good thing. For me, learning something new when you least expect it is the best...and that's what happened to Fiona and I Friday afternoon.

We were heading out to the Super Walmart in Leicester after work when our "low fuel" light came on. We were planning on stopping for gas anyway, but the idiot light served as a good reminder for us to not forget. As we pulled into the gas station, we saw a man filling what looked to be milk cans with gas. It turns out the man was an inspector for Irving Oil (the company who owned the gas station), measuring the pumps to make sure they were dispensing the correct amount of gas.

We've all seen the stickers on the pumps certifying they pump the correct amounts, but who here has ever seen someone actually checking them? It seems Irving Oil checks every pump once a quarter, while the state only checks once a year.

It turns out there's more than one test. First they check to make sure it pumps exactly one gallon by, you guessed it, filling it to a line in the can at one gallon. That part seemed obvious enough. But then they weigh it, and depending on the temperature and humidity (I'm pretty sure he said humidity), it has to match what the chart says it should weight, within 2 grams. Then on top of that, they do it again, this time using a two gallon measurement. They do that for every octane the fuel pump dispenses.

Fiona asked the guy why hardly anyone ever sees this being done, and he replied that it's usually done on Sunday mornings when traffic is light, but because the weather was going to be so nice he wanted to get the job done as early as possible so he could enjoy the weekend with his family.

So the next time you're out on an early Sunday morning, take a peak at your local filling station to see of you spot the guy with the milk cans. At least you'll know what he's doing. Oh, and how often to pumps fail the measuring test? According to the guy, unless they're tampered with, just about never.

So I guess that's two things I learned on Friday.