One of my 6 year old’s best friends from his pre-school years had his 7th birthday party at the local bowling alley. His parents asked him who all he wanted to invite to his party, and he said just his two best friends from pre-school. So it was three 6-year-old boys and two dads (the third dad didn’t stay) on lane #4.

Boys can be so silly. They got so excited with every bowl, by the graphics on the game monitor, by the pizza from the alley concession counter, by just feeding off each other’s excitement. An excited boy with a six-pound bowling ball can be dangerous to everyone around him. It took constant reminders to keep the two waiting boys behind the bowling area while the one whose turn it was handled his ball. They all wanted to be right together, talking about what just happened, what is happening, and what will happen with the ball and pins.

I’m amazed at the strength of the bowling lane floors. We tried to keep the boys from just throwing and dropping their balls on the wood, but still, that floor took constant punishment. And our boys weren’t the only ones pounding the balls on the floor—there was a regular drum beat of balls smashing into the floors from all the other kids in the building that day.

To bowl, each of the boys would carry their ball up to the line and drop, toss, or hurl the ball. Occasionally the ball would roll pretty fast, but most of the time it just meandered down the wood floor, bouncing off the rails blocking the gutters.

One time, my boy threw his ball down the lane in a zig-zag pattern; it bounced off the rails at least half a dozen times, and he still managed to knock down eight pins. He would never watch his ball go down the lane. He’d set it to rolling, and then just turn around and walk away. He was only interested in the act of bowling, and apparently didn’t care too much in the result. He’d have his ball in hand (or sitting on it) before it was his turn to bowl; he was anxious to fling the ball, he just apparently didn’t care too much about watching the pins fall.

I think all three boys enjoyed the reunion, though it wasn’t quite what you’d consider a “party.” There were cupcakes and presents, but it really was just three “old friends” (yes, I realize the humor in this concept regarding 6 year olds) getting together for some old-school silly time.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The other evening, I found a handwritten note in my 3 year old’s lunchbox, stuck to his unopened package of peanut butter Ritz Bits:

Sorry [3YO] couldn’t eat them. We gave him Goldfish : )

I had made his lunch that morning, and I forgot there was a child with peanut allergies in his class. I packed his lunch bag with some rolled up ham slices and pepperoni (he loves pepperoni), some sliced grapes, an apple juice box, and the snack bag. We usually give him a package of Cheez-Its for his classroom snack, but I put the last package of those in the 6 year old’s lunch that morning. So I just grabbed the next bag of snacks in the cupboard.

The peanut restriction completely slipped my mind. In fact, after I saw the note, it was a few moments before I realized why he “couldn’t eat them.” Interesting, though, I’m now so in the habit of making the ham and pepperoni roll ups for his lunch, I didn’t remember why we started packing that instead of a peanut butter sandwich, like we pack for the 6 year old.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The party:
Human cleric 9
Human barbarian/sorcerer/eldritch knight 1/6/1
Elf fighter (archer) 8
Human cleric 5 [NPC]

The group was back down in the secret sewer complex trying to finish up their mission. They found a large chamber with a chest at the far end, on the other side of a glowing summoning circle. The cleric 9 and eldritch knight entered the room while the archer covered them through the door way, and the cleric 5 stayed back out of the way.

When the cleric 9 got near the circle, the glow increased and a huge fire elemental erupted into the room. The resulting fight sent the eldritch knight and cleric 9 running out the door, badly hurt, burned, and on fire. They both jumped into the sewer water to put themselves out. The fire elemental disappeared from the room.

The party regrouped, planned, and charged back in. They killed the elemental in pretty short order.

That’s the kind of encounter that I really like, as a DM. Something jumps up and seriously smashes the PCs, but they managed to withdraw, without a death; the party regroups and returns to thrash the monster. The fact that the PCs had to jump into sewer water to escape just adds a chuckle for me.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I’ve been playing just my human priest for the past couple weeks, speed leveling with Jame’s Alliance Leveling Guide. I got my priest up to level 40 and got a mount.

I was surprised to learn the human riding trainer and mounts (horses) are way out in eastern Elwynn Forest. I would never have found it on my own if a friendly player hadn’t answered my question posed in chat. The orc mounts are right in Orgrimmar, but I’ve now learned that orcs are the lucky ones in that regard. All the other races have to travel somewhere to get their mounts.

A couple days later I decided to just cancel my account. All my friends, who originally all had Horde characters, have level 70 Alliance characters. My only Alliance character is still 30 levels away from catching up, and all I’ve been doing is playing to level. The game was more fun when we were all on the same team, at the same level, and we could adventure together.

Besides, I really need to use the 4-6 hours a week that I’ve been playing to get some writing work done in the evenings. WoW is a load of fun, and a very pleasant mode of escape, but without playing with my friends, I might as well just get something constructive done with my disposable time. I may restart my account in a few months, or I may not.

And since I’m going to be using my evening hours for more work, rather than any kind of game play, this may be my last post in my Computer Games section for a while. But because my days are always so full and busy, evenings are the only time I can get any writing done. I have to sacrifice the [fun] waste of time for the [fun] productivity.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com