For the first time this season we took the court as a .500 team as we faced Mission: Imbocceball and Holy Ballz Batman. 
In the first game against the Mission we got off to a really poor start as The Glue and I made four really bad shots and put ourselves in a 0-3 hole.  Clutch and Herbster pulled out a point and then we got two more to pull even and it was no looking back as we won 9-3 in a game which was a lot closer than the score.
The next against league co-leader Holy Ballz started with us jumping out to a 3-0 lead.  It was then a back and forth game with us getting a point or two and then them getting he same.  With the game on the line we missed some opportunities to end the game which cost us early in the year.  We were leading 7-6 when The Glue made a good throw to a little over a foot or two away and them still having three balls left.  Neither Ian or Ryan made very good throws and it was fairly open and with us still having two shots to end the game.  Our first ball was short but our next one just got inside theirs for a winner.
On the night I never felt comfortable with my stance, my grip or my release but we made enough good throws to finally climb above .500.  Now on to my annual Kentucky golf trip.

A week ago I got to visit the ER and learned that it's not a place to go for rest.  I was having chest pains and with my families history I decided it would be a good idea to go to the ER around 10pm.  I finally got to my room at 3am and between then and 7:30am I was woke up two times for vital checking.  It ended up being a gallbladder problem and I need some more tests (oh boy).

This past weekend was our annual BBQ contest and our old team from Poplar Bluff, Mike and Zachs, came up to compete.  We had a lot of time to spend with them and also with some of our other BBQ friends:  Party Q, Flying Pigs, Big O and some others.  We also got to meet some new ones such as: Boars Night Out, Serial Grillers and Not 2 Slabby. 
The Memphis BBQ network has made some changes to make it much easier and less expensive on the teams which was a great help.  Shorty had some problems with his smoker and we weren't able to enter the wings or fish competition.  We entered the steak competition but our practice steak seemed tough and that may have caused our poor showing.  Shorty cooked up a couple racks of ribs on Friday night but with the problems he was having they were not quite there.  Luckily when I showed up Saturday morning early he said everything was working great so there wasn't much to do but wait for them to get done. 
When it was time for pork to be turned in it seemed like one butt was good but the others weren't quite there either so I wasn't very optimistic.  Our ribs were another matter, they were real good but we didn't make finals in either one :-(. 
We went to the awards ceremony hoping to get 4th or 5th call out but we didn't make it in either category.  Shorty went and got his scores and we headed back to our site.  Once we got there he said "I need a drink" which is extremely bad idea for him since he had to quite drinking so we figured it was bad.  It wasn't though, we got 11th in pork and 6th in ribs so it was a good show after a few years of disappointment.
All said the 29th BBQ contest is in the books and I'm still struggling to get rested up for my Kentucky golf trip this coming weekend.

Week 5 got off to a rousing start when we showed up and there were are teammates baring presents for us complete with inappropriate orange and blue ribbons.  When The Glue opened the presents this is what we found:

Awesome Green Bay Packer booties for our daughter who is expecting twins.  We were absolutely blown away.  In an ironic twist we had presents for Clutch and Herbster.

Fake Yeti koozies which had been personalized for us by Jay and Melba from Muddy Rollers who did a great job.  Clutch and Herbster were also blown away and had to christen them with a beer even though they haven't been drinking.

We also had an anticlimactic doubleheader to play against B-iotches. 
In the first game we jumped out early and stayed on them from start to finish winning 9-1.
Even though we played them back to back we had to sit out a little to wait for other games to finish.  Once we took the court again it was obvious that the break had helped them much more than us.  We gradually pulled away from them before finally winning 9-4 in a game that I never felt comfortable until the final point was achieved,
For the first time this season Roll'em got up to .500.  Now we just need to keep it up and somehow scratch our way into the season ending tournament.

Coming off our first wins of the season Roll'em took the courts on Wednesday to try and get to .500.
In the first game we took on Kiwanis.  Roll'em jumped out to a 5-0 which was marred by one of the Kiwanis thinking it was a practice throw even though the score was already 1-0.  At this point Kiwanis started making a comeback but Roll'em was able to hold them off and take home the win and move to one game of .500.
In the second game we played Late Bloomers.  For once Roll'em didn't get out to an early lead and were unable to get anything going losing 9-3.  I had trouble adjusting to the court and even throws I thought were good would good long or veer off. The Bloomers made good use of wall throws and a build up of brick dust making it slow.  The court condition really surprised me because I thought the other court would be the poor one.
Overall a frustrating and perplexing season continues.  At least the NFL season starts this weekend.

Even though we'd scored the 9th most points, Week 3 featured Roll'em off to their worst start ever and facing two tough opponents.  After much deliberation we decide to switch it up and have the couples play together which is how we started when Roll'em was formed.
In the first game we faced our long time nemesis Squatchy Bocce.  The new alignment started off like a charm with Clutch and The Glue making it tough on the Squatches and Herbster and myself finishing off.  As has been the theme this season we jumped out to a lead and were up 6-1.  Unlike the other games this season we were able to maintain and rolled to a 9-2 victory to finally get us off the schneid.
In the second game we faced 2 Boobs and 2 Girls which should have been 4 Boobs and No Girls last night as only Joe was there from their regular players.  One of their players from the past, Danny, made a reappearance and DRip and Ryan from 12 oz Curls subbed for them.  We again were able to jump out to a fairly big lead with a lead off 3 banger and then a few more single points.  At this point we were up 5-1ish when they started a comeback and continually closing the gap.  Finally the match got to 8-8 with The Glue up and she got her ball ok but with a couple feet of room and them with three balls left.  As opposed to our first two weeks they were unable any of them inside Lisa's throw and we walked off with two victories on the night.
It was a season saving night.