I'm bowling in the summer and started in a slump, but the last couple of weeks I've been working out of it.

I start with a solid first game this past week -- 193, which given what's going on at our house right now (apparently experimenting with different shots each week to pick the house shot they like the best for the fall) and my monthlong slump, wasn't too bad.

First frame of the second game, I get a blower 7-10 on the right lane. I go back over to the left, make a move right with my feet and head towards the foul line, and when I push into my slide step, the first thing I realized was that my slide foot was still where I left it -- i.e., it wasn't sliding.

How I managed to do the following, I do not know, so don't ask: First, I nailed the back of my right thigh with the ball. Something told me to just grip it and hold on.

As I did, I was stumbling forward and towards the right gutter. I went over the foul line, still stumbling, and then pulled off this move -- I turned my body sideways, put both shoes down on the lane and slid, STANDING, past the dots and almost all the way to the arrows, still holding the ball.

The whole league, and I do mean the whole league, came to a screeching halt. So I'm standing there, a couple dozen feet out on the lane, holding my bowling ball. I walk carefully back to the foul line, take off both shoes, go back to the pit, change into my street shoes, finish the frame (8/, since it wasn't a foul because I never turned the ball loose in the first place), then cleaned my shoes off and finished the game.

The culprit? I have a teammate that insists on bringing her toddlers to the bowling center and babysitting them in the pit. And when she's bowling, it falls on the rest of her team to do the same. The kid hit the reset button twice this week and wiped off pins that we had to get re-set. The kid had dropped a sippy cup just behind the approach and I'd stepped in it, not knowing what I'd done.

Unfortunately, that got me rattled for a full half-game, and I rattled off four opens in a row (can't stand to have footwear issues; nothing saps my confidence like that) and shot a whopping 123 for game two. I rebounded for 190-something the last game.

So, the scoresheet goes like this:

Good things: Did my own version of the Machuga Flop without flopping, the bruise on the back of my thigh is nearly healed, and I got a story out of the deal.

Bad things: I sucked my way to a 123, we lost a point because of it, and I still have Mister Sippy Cup to babysit every week.

How was YOUR week?

Jess