Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
wrap up your thoughts in ribbons and bows
lately i live in a viscous dream.
lolling languidly through weighted air
lapping up and relishing the taste of this wide grey sky; the trees with their infinite bony extremeties thrust towards some secret goal that always rests just out of reach.
Monday, April 6, 2009
the great albany bowl-crawl part 3 - town 'n country lanes
well well! its been but a short time since our last bowling excursion, but this week is a busy week so we decided to go on monday so we wouldn't lose a week.
this week brought us through the countryside of voorheesville, down western ave into uncharted territory to town 'n country lanes in altamont, ny!
not too bad from the outside. we went in, paid for our shoes ($1.50 - cheapest yet!) got placed on lane 7 and set out to find the perfect bowling balls, which were easy to find!
headed to the bar for some beer. decided on blue moon ($3.50) pretty sure no one round those parts even knows what blue moon is because it was definitely old and skunkz. bummer. started our games. for a few frames i bowled with a johnny bravo engraved navy bowling ball, but it wasn't heavy enough, so i switched to plain green 'smart house ball' and it did a much better job. here are the scores from our first two games. interspersed with a few lane shots.
headed to the snack bar for some fries ($2.50) they were pretty delicious. snack bar was average. here is christine posing next to the swivel stools.
decided to play one last game because the bowling vibes were with us. it was a pretty disgraceful one for me but christine fared fairly well.
wound down, returned shoes, paid for our games ($2.90 each), and drove away down western ave into the wilderness of new scotland.
now, this experience managed to leave barely any impression on us, other than i am fairly sure i saw someone i graduated from h.s. with bowling a few lanes down but was too chicken to shout his name or act like any sort of grown-up person at all. the whole thing wasn't good or bad. it was almost like a non-time! i did enjoy driving there because you get to use the backroads and i remember so many things about them from my childhood. let's get to the ratings!
price: 4
equipment: 4
snack bar: 2
bar: 3
character: 2
overall: 3
Friday, April 3, 2009
the great albany bowl-crawl part 2 - redwood lanes
wow! what a fun night!
tonight christine and i really wanted to get fish fry from bob and ron's on central ave, so we found a bowling alley on central that wasn't the played out sunset lanes, and decided to make a night out of it.
first a picture of where we had dinner/dinner:
okay. with those gems out of the way (and full bellies) we headed down central ave past colonie center to redwood lanes, in albany, which is actually located on nicholas ave, but, unlike olympic lanes, was very easy to find. basically it was love at first sight.
went in and paid for shoes ($2.50) shoes seemed to be sort of iffy, some not broken in at all, some were broken in too much. took in the scene. commented on how much we loved the interior.
went off in search of bowling balls and beer, in that order.
when i found the USA ball i knew, KNEW, that i would return many many many times to redwood lanes. ball selection was here and there, most were either too light or too heavy. ended up with a row of 8 pounders. headed to the bar for a pint. i got a coors light and christine got a bud, $2.50 each. back to the lane to start our game (funny coincidence: we've been placed on lane 12 both times so far)
bowling at redwood lanes is quite a pleasure. the ball return is the above ground manual type, and the fan that dries your hands has a button to turn it off and on, and was very strong and effective. A+!
first game was a warmup at best with a final score of 76 to 95 with christine in the lead. second game i stared using some positive brain power and extreme focusing methods (or i got drunk off one coors light) and ended up bowling the best game of my life. here are some action shots of christine and i, and then the shot of the final scores of game two.
143!!!!!!!!! i can't believe it! it was AWESOME. although to achieve it i had to abandon the USA ball :( settled our tab at the register and each game was $3.50 so we each owed 7 bucks. more than olympic lanes but worth it. plus they have dollar games on monday and tuesday nights from 9-midnight. i will be back!
because of dinner we didn't end up eating at the snack bar, but i did snap a picture for document's sake, and i also took another one of the pro shop on site.
other bowlers were definitely regulars and were very friendly. we seemed to be in the middle of the space, to our left were older bowlers, and to our right were younger metal-head types who were blaring slayer on the juke ALL night. a fine time for all.
let's get to the ratings, i decided to add another category, equipment, to the mix, because i believe this to be a very important factor. this includes: shoes, balls, lanes, mechanical stuff, etc.
price: 3 (it was more than olympic lanes by $ .50 but i don't think this is enough of a hike to deduct 1 full point)
equipment: 4
snackbar: 2
bar: 4
character: 5
overall: 3.6
next week i believe we will be visiting a TWO STORY bowling alley in scotia, ny. stay tuned!
