Do you believe the great weather we're having in Southern Illinois?  I'm glad I'm retired and can get out and take advantage of it.  We've had times at the end of the fall bocce season where it's been so cold I've been in Under Armour type stuff and still cold. 
We went up to Brews Brothers yesterday afternoon for a couple cold ones and it was great to sit outside and watch the town go by.  The 2 Boobs team stopped in for a quick one and sat outside too.  We were close to finishing our second one when my classmate Eric stopped in and was going to buy us one but we stuck to our two and out plan which is unusual for us.  Great decision as we went home and The Glue put together a cast iron skillet meal with smoked sausage, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms that was awesome.  I tried to watch the World Series but didn't make it very long before I was asleep in my recliner.  While I'm for the Indians part of me feels for the long time cub fans such as the guy who tried to teach me English in high school and whose son surprised him with tickets to game 5 at Wrigley.  Awesome job Kelly.

On a beautiful fall day, Roll'em played in the fall tournament yesterday.  Our bracket was ourselves, Riverside Rollers, Magnificent Four and Holy Ballz Batman.
In the first game we took on Riverside Rollers and my old classmate Bob.  We got an early lead and continued to pull a way, winning 9-4.   I was really worried about this game because they can get hot and be hard to beat.
In the next game we took on the Mag 4 who we'd never beaten and the streak continued.  They were pushing the Pallino nearly every frame which never really gave us much of a change to score.  I don't think I've ever seen a team on the white ball that often in a game.  Final score was 9-4 and we were lucky to score that many.
In the final game of pool play we needed a win against Holy Ballz to advance to the single elimination part of the tourney.  The pitted The Glue against her brother and Roll'em super sub Fred who they picked up for the tournament.  Alas we were not on our game and went down to defeat so our hopes of winning the champion ship mug trouphy went down the drain.
It was a great day and I had a lot of fun.  The Glues gumbo went over great and there wasn't enough left to bother saving as was the case with the WOPS chili that they brought.  Kiwanis also had a food table so there plenty of options for the people there. 
On a sad note, it will be spring before we see most of our bocce friends who we've met over the three years we've been playing.

Roll'em entered the fall inter-pool tournament as the 3rd seed with hopes of winning our fourth coveted bad ass towel.  In the game that fed into ours the 11th seeded B-iotches knocked off the sixth seed Muddy Rollers.
We got off to a good start with an opening two point frame.  The 'otches came back with a couple singles to tie it up at 2-2 and it was all downhill from there.  They proceeded to have a four point frame and 6-2 lead and anytime we'd try to cut into it they answered with a good throw.  Final score was 9-4 and we were out in what was a total meltdown for our team. 
Now it's on to the fall tournament which closes our a very trying fall league.  We ended up the 11th overall seed and with some teams not playing we are the 6th seed in the tourney.  Hopefully we can rebound and play up to our abilities.

Roll'em If Ya Got'em finished up our fall regular season last night.  Entering the night we had an outside chance to finish first in our league if things fell exactly right.  First we had to win both our games and then needed some help from other teams.
In our first game we took on long term nemesis Squatchy Bocce and their cub loving player Big Ed.  The Glue took revenge on Big Ed from some text messages about the Giants collapse by biting Big Ed in the knee which would hopefully hurt his game.
The game was played on a slow court which we had trouble adjusting to but got off to a back and forth start.  Squatch took the lead with a four point round thanks to some very poor throwing by myself.  We scratched our way back into it getting it to 7-5 before Squatch closed it out ending any shot we had at first.  Apparently the knee biting impacted Big Ed as he didn't have a good game, once leaving his ball 20' short and causing some chuckles.
In the second game we took on the team in first place, 2 Boobs and 2 Girls.  We'd beat them earlier in the year but they were playing with mostly subs.  The game started slow but we hit a four banger to get us jumped started.  We found our groove and kept on rolling, winning 9-1. 
We ended the season on a 10-2 run after starting o-4.  The key to the running was making the change to have the two couples throw together.  It was a great move by Captain Dusty!  Not really, the Herbster is the one who suggested it and it really paid off.
With a 10-6 record we should be well inside the cutoff for the league tournament which was in doubt most of the season.  Hopefully we can keep up our momentum in the inter-pool and league tournaments.

We entered last nights games over .500 for the first time this season.  We also were in the top 16 which is the cutoff for the league tournament. 
In the first game we took on the Marauders minus the Herbster who had a conflict.  Clutch's brother DRip filled in for him.  The game in front of us was a marathon, lasting about 45 minutes and we couldn't even start on the other court because DRip was playing for one of the teams.
Once we finally got started we got of to another good start, getting up 5-1 which quickly became 7-1.  Then the Marauders started getting hot and making some real good throws.  They quickly closed the gap to 7-4 and us having the ball in but on their last throw they got inside us but we still had two balls left.  We were able to get both balls in and got the win.
In the second game we played Feed of the Pack and my long time buddy Everett.  The Herbster had arrived so we were playing with our normal team and got out to an early lead.  They started a little bit of comeback with us on 7 but The Glue made a shot that they couldn't beat and we still had two balls left.  We've had trouble taking advantage of our opportunities and this was no different as our first ball was short.  Our second shot barely got in for the win.  The Herbster was difference as he made several good shots.
The two wins moved us to 9-5 on year with two games left.

This past weekend was my annual golf trip to Kentucky.  We had some guys who couldn't go so we went down there with 10 players which is two short of what we want.
We had been told that our normal first day course, Mineral Mounds, was in bad shape so we decided to play Arrowhead in Cadiz which is the closet town to Lake Barkley Lodge.
My round started great with a birdie on the first hole and then started downhill on the second before going totally kaput.  A bad golf day was made worse when the remote to my vehicle wouldn't work but I could still open the door and get it started so I had to make a 30 mile trip to the nearest Dodge dealer to have the battery replaced.  The process only took a few minutes so it was to the cabins for supper and setting up teams and remembering some of the rules.
Day two was 36 holes at Boots Randolph golf course with the morning being your own score and the afternoon being a five man scramble.  My bad play continued most of the morning session shooting a 52 on the front and feeling pretty bad about my game.  I did turn it around somewhat on the back but had to finish birdie and par on the last two holes to break 100 with a 46.
After a lunch break we were all ready to go when the rain came and we were forced to hole up in cart storage shed for a lengthy wait.  Just as we were thinking real hard about calling it a day the rain let up and we were able to get out on the course.  It was cart paths only which made for a lot of walking but with five people on a team it wasn't too bad and my team was able to overcome my continuing poor play to win the event.
Day three was the big day!  Morning was the medal round and the afternoon was the legendary Lenn Carsrud Pink Ball Tournament.  I was in the first group in the morning with Gary and Mike so we were able to move along pretty quickly.  On the front nine I got off to a good start with a bogey and a par and continued to play a lot better recording a 44 and feeling a lot better about my game.  On the back nine I kept it up and ended shooting a 45 for a total of 89.  Not great but I knew I wasn't bringing back the dreaded last place trophy with woman golfer on top which I'd 'won' last year which was my #1 goal for the weekend. 
As players started coming in for our lunch break my score managed to hold up so I was the medalist for 2016 both gross and net.  We then headed out for the pink ball tournament in which each team gets one pink ball and the person with the ball is allowed to tee off from the women's tee.  Once the ball is lost the team can no longer tee off from the women's tee which is a big advantage.  Last year I lost our pink ball on the very first hole so goal #2 was to not lose the pink ball.  My team was Tim, Mike and myself plus whoever had the pink ball got an extra white ball shot since we only had three players.  We played really well and only had a couple of close calls on losing the pink ball plus we made all but three of our putts with it so that was worth an extra point each time.  We also finished with our pink ball so we got an extra five point bonus for a total of 48 points which we were feeling pretty good about.  After the other two teams finally showed up scores were compared and we won which was great but then it was brought out that we'd scored it wrong and actually had 53 points.
That night was the awards 'ceremony' which was a lot better than last years as I got low gross, net and my team won the pink ball.  A lot better than last year when I had the high score award and took a lot of ribbing on losing the pink ball on the first swing.
Day four was back to Arrowhead for the anticlimactic two man scramble.  My team was me and Mike and we managed to compliment each other and pull out some pars that shouldn't have been plus a few birdies.  With two holes left we were even par when Mike hurt his forearm and I had to carry on along which was too big for me and we bogeyed the last two for a 74 which was good enough for the win.
Overall a very fun but exhausting weekend with a lot better results than last year.