J-Guar meets Team Demon/Dingus

Last night, the real and online worlds collided in friendly fashion a bit more as J-Guar got to meet most of the rest of Team Demon/Dingus for a variety of activities. School was not in session out here, but it was definitely a B-day, as in burritos, bowling and bebop.

Denton is a rather boring place on holidays, so I was happy to make the trek up there to help the car-less J-Guar "escape" for a day. The traffic heading up to Little D wasn't too bad, but it looked awful heading back, so we took a detour out 380 and down the Tollway through Frisco. We weren't totally immune to stoppage there either, as the 380 construction is not quite done, but it was better than sitting on 35 in Lewisville.

After a quick Sonic stop for cherry limeade, we chilled at Casa de Kev until the guys started to arrive: Mark (a.k.a. Lord Crazy Dingus), Dingus, Coop and Halfling, in that order. Laughter ensued, much of it in the form of fat jokes at Mark's expense (some of them made by Mark his ownself). We headed down to the 15th Street Chipotle for our one-day-late burrito night; Miles was already there and had managed to snag us the secondary round table (the primary one having been secured by a Hindu family, one of whom Miles swears was eating beef, though it could have been "carnitas" [pork]). Miles held court for some time on all things political, and there was also a lot of general griping about how badly the Stars did the other night (though not a word from J-Guar about how Dallas "stole" them from Minnesota in the 90's).

From there it was on to Bowl-A-Rama. The focus was on Mark, who had just bowled a 300 game the night before and was thus expected to school us all. But first, there was a bit of air hockey: I beat Halfling two straight games, with the requisite flying-puck syndrome at full strength; Mark totally destroyed me in a game when my defense collapsed; and I rebounded to beat J-Guar (yeah, I know...not much of a host, am I?).

On to the bowling. Mark was a bit off (meaning not quite breaking 200), but he still cleaned the floor with all of us. Fizban had joined us by this point, so we actually had enough people for two lanes. Halfling had one of his best games ever by using a new, more aggressive approach; Dingus was the master of inconsistency this time, going strike-strike-gutterball on many occasions. J-Guar hadn't been bowling in some time, and he started out rough but got much better by the end. I was the Hard Luck Kid on this night, at one point having three splits in four frames--definitely not what I'm used to doing. Mark did say that he didn't see anything horrible that I was doing form-wise; it was all a matter of consistency (hmm, just like in music, racquetball, golf....and almost anything else).

When bowling was done, all of us except Coop (who didn't have his "portable" set of vibes handy) came back to Casa de Kev for a midnight jam session. We didn't always have a chart for every key, but we all made do for the most part. Sometimes the trombones would go into the music room and do their own thing, and sometimes we were all in one place--a six-horn juggernaut that rivaled even Combo PM in its Dingus-sized-ness. J-Guar and I jammed a bit more after everyone left and then called it a night around two in the morning.

I took him back to Denton shortly after noon today (not exactly thrilled with how cold it had gotten overnight, but...wuddevah) and have enjoyed a completely unscheduled day since then, which doesn't happen too often.

PARALLEL POST PATTERN: J-Guar posted about this same night as well...beat me to it, even, since I had such a lazy afternoon.

UPDATE: Mark has also posted on the night, so we have yet a third view of the same events. He says that I have "mad potential" in bowling, which is a huge honor coming from him. He also says I'm ready to learn the hook shot...I can just see myself becoming one with the gutter until I get that down.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Hey, it's nice to meet you. I'd get up, but I'm fat."--Mark, comfortably ensconced on the couch, upon meeting Coop.