today was probably the hottest day this summer. although officially boston didn't hit 100 degrees, when i took my little rei keychain thermometer outside, the mercury quickly rose to the century mark. during the day i would periodically go outside to get away from the stiffness of computer working, and also to enjoy the heat. 93 million miles away a fiery yellow star is undergoing violent thermonuclear reactions in its core to radiate energy in the form of heat and to cook this planet earth. and here we are, mere specks in the cosmic grand scale of things, outside the office, getting some sunshine, talking about the 80's of all things! eliza demonstrated a tightroll pants for us. i laugh at myself because i can relate to everything a little too much. the weather might be in the 100's, but we're stuck in the 80's.

after work i motorcycled home in the heat. i waved to a fellow cruiser rider on memorial drive, exercising some of that special biker bonding skill they don't teach you in biker school. it was only hot if wasn't moving. when i'm rolling, speed is my manual controlled air conditioner. i get home kind of early and the first thing i do is change out of my jeans and into a pair of shorts. i head out into the backyard with my camera, the first time in almost a week, since i've been working late for the past few days and it's already dark when i usually get home. something great about a backyard, one of the perks of suburban living. just walking around, inspecting the plants, being with nature for just a couple of minutes, has a very calming effect.

egg-shaped tomatoes

hot pepper flower

hybrid hibiscus anthers

solitary bee on monarda

i was kind of surprised when my friend manny called me up around 8pm, asking to see if i want to get my bowling on. i've just recently been on a bowling kick, and i didn't do so bad the last time (scored above 100 for the first time), so i was very excited to showcase my newly discovered bowling skills. manny comes and pick me up from home and we head down to the bowling alley by alewife off of route 2. we get there and the guy behind the counter informs us there's a 30 minute wait for a lane. i'm totally amazed. is bowling really that popular around here? so manny and i decide to go to townline bowling in malden instead, off of route 60 (actually on route 99). we get there and there's plenty of lanes available. apparently bowling isn't as popular here as it is in cambridge! or maybe because townline bowling is more isolated. regardless, we get a lane and prepare to get our bowl on.

cutting to the chase, we play four games ($26), i lose every single game. the closest game was the first one, when manny only beat me by a single point (if i only didn't gutter in that one frame!). although i scored 110 the last time i was here, tonight i barely even reach 100. reasons why i think i might've done so badly:

• having just bowled 4 days ago, my bowling muscles might still not have had proper time to heal. i know i was sore the day after bowling, and the fact that i went to the gym twice and screwed around with some of the nautilus machine made my body that much more achy.
• related to the above reason, i just didn't have my game form tonight, i didn't have my stuff, my location was bad. my gutter ball percentage was way high (i can hardly remember any gutter balls sunday night), and my whole posture and throw and finish was just off.
• i was distracted. to be honest, it doesn't take a whole lot to distract me. i freely admit that i have a simple mind with simple tastes. so imagine this hot brunette 3 lanes across wearing a miniskirt coming to bowl? everytime she came up, all the guys would turn our heads in unison (being careful not to be too obvious, for she came with a boyfriend) to watch her excellent form as she drove the ball hard and fast down the lane for some good knockdown action. it wasn't that she was putting on this free peepshow that was distracting -- yeah, that was distracting -- but it's also because she was a really good bowler, excellent location, i didn't see her gutter at all.
• lane 30 is cursed. although there's a bug in the pin clearing device that forgets to put a pin up when it clears the pins after the first roll (thereby giving everyone who plays in that lane an automatic 1 point score even if you gutter), it still wasn't enough to help me achieve a 100+ game. the lane i had last time was lane 6, and i think that's the lucky lane. i will ask for lane 6 next time.

my bowling form (bad)

manny's sidearm style

so i just wasn't on top of my game. it's kind of weird, manny has a very unorthodox side arm swing/launch to his bowling, and from watching him release you wouldn't think he'd hit anything, but it's actually quite effective when he gets it going correctly, as the ball will slowly curve inwards from the side and roll down the middle right before it hits the pins. not like i can use that move anyway, to each man his own particular style.