candlepin

after a wonderfully delicious dinner at bill and glorian's and some solid snuggle time with their wee kitten jocko (all photos of fuzzy black jocko were blurry and therefore not up to blog standards), matt and i tried our hand at a little candlepin bowling. the alley has been there since 1939 and appears to have had few, if any, physical improvements since then beyond the installation of a soda machine and one of those video game-like things where you have to move the giant claw and try to pick up a stuffed animal. candlepin is fun because the balls are really light and you can absolutely hurl them down the lane. we learned that finesse can be much more important than velocity.

note: matt had excellent velocity but at least five of those pins are still standing. i consulted wikipedia and found out that the highest officially sanctioned score ever recorded is only 245 out of a possible 300 points. makes me feel slightly better about the 72 i bowled, lacking the gifts of both extreme speed and really any kind of accuracy. also, whenever i tried to put spin on the ball, it went directly into the gutter.