Another New Bowling Ball!?

You might recall last year I posted about buying a new bowling ball.  While I did get the Storm Typhoon, it was really only for dry lane conditions.  At PINZ Fiesta this year in the Thursday bowling league, there just haven't been lane conditions where this ball has been needed.  In fact, I can't say that I've thrown more than 10 games with it since getting it.

The oil this year at Fiesta Lanes has been really challenging, often to the point where I just wasn't getting any reaction with my Infinite Physix.  It's gotten to the point where I just feel like there's no life on the ball anymore, and my average was suffering, dropping all the way down to the low 180s!  After talking with several bowlers at the alley, they all agree that the oil has been difficult and many have turned to more aggressive balls, which my Storm Typhoon is the opposite of.

And thus, I decided to purchase another new bowling ball, this one to replace the Infinite Physix.  I ended up deciding on the Storm Ion Max Pearl, which is arguably the most aggressive ball I've owned to date.

I've also been taking my bowling balls to get drilled by my friend Butch (former IBMer and friend who I've bowled many seasons with over on the east side at Bowlero), as he now works at the Bowlero pro shop.  He did a great job with the Ion Max Pearl and after owning it for a few weeks, I've already shot a 723 series with it!  I probably won't be able to salvage this season's average (190 is possible but definitely not 200+), but moving forward it feels like this ball was a great choice.

Bowling balls seem to last about 4 years for me, which was about right for the Infinite Physix.  Here's to the new bowling balls!  Let's see if they can overcome the challenging bowling alley that is PINZ Fiesta! 

New Furniture!

I recently went to American Furniture Warehouse to take a look at some new furniture. I have had the same dining table and couches since I moved into this house, which was back in 2005.   

First, I wanted a new dining table.  My old dining table was a small round glass table I bought from Ikea.

Old Glass Dining Table

While this table was fine for 1-2 people to eat a meal on, I wanted something bigger and better for playing board games on with 3-4 people.

While I was at the furniture store looking at tables, I figured it was also time to replace the sofa and loveseat that I had gotten from Macy's back in the day.  They had become pretty worn out from 20 years of sitting in them.  In fact, a lot of the cushioning had broken away and you could even feel the block pieces inside when you sat on them.  I also had a hand-me-down blue couch that my sister gave to me when I first moved into my house.  I never sat on the couch and to be honest, it was more for my pets than for me.

Old Sofas and Couch

I ended up getting a rectangle marble-top table and a new 3-piece sofa, loveseat, and chair set!  All the seats have power reclining too.  In total it was $2,700 including taxes and delivery. 

New Table and Seating

The dining set has some chairs that match it, but they were out of stock until February, so I'll have to go back once they're available.  That will run me an additional $240 for four chairs.  For now, the old chairs with the glass dining set are still shown in the above picture.

Crazy that the previous furniture lasted me 20 years before I changed it.  That's pretty good value if you ask me!  Happy Holidays!

 

Expanding my Bowling Game

In 2022, I bought a new bowling ball, the Infinite Physix by Storm.  It was definitely a more aggressive ball that I don't usually throw, but over the first few months of using it, I eventually figured out where to stand on the lanes in order to throw decent games, and by the end of the first season I found myself just missing out on a 200-average season.

Then came the 2023-24 season, which was a big change for me.  I decided to try a league at Fiesta Lanes with my friends, breaking the streak of bowling with the IBMers and at Bowlero for 16 years.  Part of the reason was my work and streaming schedule had me staying up at some pretty late hours, and bowling on the east side of town just wasn't convenient at that time in my life.  Regardless, even though my average wasn't 200+, it was a still a season where we ended up in 3rd place overall.

The 2024-25 season, I found myself back at Bowlero because Fiesta Lanes had major damage during the monsoon season that summer.  I joined a team halfway through the season and ended up with a 207 average, my highest ever albeit in less games than a full season.

Since I didn't bowl a full season, I decided to join a summer league with my friends once Fiesta Lanes reopened (now renamed to PINZ Fiesta).  However, I found it difficult to keep up with the dry lanes and had a below average season, nowhere near the level of my expectations.  In fact, I had always felt that Fiesta was just a more difficult house to throw at than Bowlero.

Here are my past years with the Infinite Physix so far:

As an experienced bowler, I feel like my ability to read the lanes is really good.  I know when I need to adjust my boards when the lanes are more oily or more dry.  However, I would often struggle when the lanes became too dry as the night wore on, or if the lanes were dry to begin with.  When the lanes are dry and I throw the Infinite Physix, my path to the pocket becomes a bit tight and it's easy to miss the pocket and leave splits.  I would talk to and see other bowlers with 210+ averages and I came to the conclusion that there was still a big hole in my game: I was only throwing one ball for all lane conditions.  Thus, I pursued throwing another ball for when conditions are too dry.

I began to do a lot of research on the bowling balls I've used in the past, starting with the Code Red and now the Infinite Physix.  The Code Red was a less reactive ball with less hook, and my starting board with that ball was on board 9 (board 9 being the 9th board from the left, or board 31 if you want to get technical for right-handed bowlers).  That starting board was a good 2 boards to the right of where my starting board is with the Infinite Physix, which is a more reactive ball with bigger hook.

Based on the specifications of each ball, I compiled a Google spreadsheet that shows the behavior of each ball and how they will roll for me.  Using the data, I decided the new ball I should buy would be the Storm Typhoon, which had similar stats as the Code Red.

And so begins my quest to become a better bowler!  I am now taking 3 balls with me to bowling league instead of 2.  One ball for oily conditions (Infinite Physix), one ball for dry conditions (Typhoon), and then one ball for the 6, 9, and 10 pins.  Here's hoping that this is the missing piece to expanding my game!

Getting Into Pickleball!

At the end of last summer, I was looking for new things to do and distractions when I was going through a rough time.  I had learned about a volleyball league at the Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club that a couple of my friends were playing in on a weekly basis, so I decided to give that a try.  I am very bad at volleyball, I never played in my life but a few casual games with friends here and there, so playing in a competitive league was a bad idea.  I quickly felt out of place, like I wasn't helping the team but hurting it, so after a few weeks I decided to call it quits.

But I was still looking for activities to do.  While it's true that I still shoot pool on Mondays and Tuesday and bowl on Thursdays, those were sports (are they more games than sports?) that I was already very nestled in, I wanted a change of scenery.  A few of my friends suggested I give pickleball a try.  I played a few games and also was very bad, I had never played tennis growing up and just some ping-pong games with family here and there.  Nonetheless, I enjoyed playing it enough and was interested if there would be some leagues in my area.

Turns out that the Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club, the same place where my friends were playing volleyball, had weekly leagues on multiple nights of the week.  I decided to give it a try on Wednesdays, joining the Mixed Ladder League that was open to all skill levels Beginner and up and on average it suggested Intermediate.  I didn't know anyone going into the league.  After a few weeks of learning with friends, I entered myself as a 2.5 based on a chart similar to the one found on this site.

The league is about 60 players and each session spans a period of 6 weeks.  It's very welcoming and I enjoyed how I get matched up against players of similar skill level.  Each week, you get put in a group of 4 players, where you'll play a total of 6 games of Doubles (2 versus 2), with 2 games per teammate to ensure that you get to play with and against everyone in the group.  I really enjoy the format, it seems pretty balanced.  It's also a ladder system, where each person scores their own points, with a max of 11 points per game and a theoretical max of 66 for the whole night.  If you score a lot of points, you'll move up in the ladder and play tougher opponents the next week.  If you score few points, you'll move down and play weaker opponents the next week.  Here's an example of how the format goes for a given night.

In the above example, the players that are shaded would pair up with each other and serve to the other team.  So in Game 1, players A & D start with the serve to B & C and scored 11-5.  Then B & C start with the serve to A & D in Game 2, losing 7-11.  In Game 3, A & C are paired up against C & D, and so forth.  At the end, you can see that Player D scored the most points and is "King/Queen of the Court" that night.

I would say Pickleball is a very beginner-friendly game, it's easy to play and welcoming to all ages and genders.  In this league I'll find myself matched up with all kinds of people from young players in their twenties to seniors who are 60+ and I feel like there's a good balance of men and women in the league.  There really is no discrimination in who can play, which is something I love.

Since I've joined the league, I've invested in the gear, picking up some Adidas court shoes, several Nike sportswear shirts and pants, and I've even invested in a carbon fiber paddle sponsored by my favorite professional player and bought myself a nice combination cooler + pickleball bag.

Since August of last year, I have been playing pretty much every Wednesday.  The league will run 6 weeks and then have one off week, so I do get a little rest, but it's pretty much my weekly routine now.  I would rate myself around a 3.25 right now, which is fine for me considering how bad I was when I started.  I think I can become high-intermediate in time, but it's already worth it for the weekly workout and camaraderie of meeting people.

So yep, keeping busy during the weeknights with a league of some sort every Monday through Thursday! 😊