We absolutely bit at bowling on Thursday night.  I just couldn't get into the groove and was tired from going to the gym first, and Tony and Travis weren't having thier best games either.  My dad is joining the team because we are giving Brad the boot due to his missing so much time last year when he had surgery, and now with the whole jail thing.  We only took one game, and that was by 1 point.  That was a miracle because the kid threw a gutterball when he only needed to hit anything to win.  I don't know why we suck so bad, but it is still fun.  Would be nice to bowl well a little more often though.

Jaime had a jewelry party that night.  Despite the snow, she had a good turn out.  I like this type of party for her rather than some of the other ones.  It boggles me that women do these things.  Whether it be Longaberger baskets, scrapbooking, tupperware, jewelry, whatever, I don't understand the whole aspect of these parties.  I would feel bad trying to pressure my friends into buying stuff they probably wouldn't buy otherwise.  But there are these whole industries built on these pyramid schemes of sales.  I guess it is relatively harmless (except to the pocketbook), but it bewilders my male mind.  Most of the time the hostess of these parties receives a lot of free stuff or items at a greatly reduced rate based on how much money the guests spend.  I think that would put pressure on people to buy something, so the hostess would get a better deal.  To me, that pressure seems a little exploitative, but it must work since so many people do these things.  But this jewelry one was a little different.  The hostess only got deals based on the number of other people that booked parties of their own.  To me, that is a little more fair.  People aren't as pressured to buy anything, and if they do have a party, I guess it benefits everyone (especially from the company's point of view).  I think she had a good party nonetheless.   

 I ended up working late on Friday night, so I didn't have time to hit the gym.  I had wanted to because I knew we were going to the Seymour Lake Lodge again for dinner.  We went up with our friends Bob and Lori.  As usual the food was excellent.  Our only complaint was that it was cold in there, much like the last time we went.  Basically, the door opens right up into the dining area, so it gets cold quickly.  Travis said they are probably going to put a small stove in there, so hopefully that will be an improvement.

Today we went to Burlington.  Jaime's friend Karen had a Christmas card making party and asked Jaime to be the hostess with her stamping stuff.  I think there were probably about a dozen people there.  Karen made some really good food for us to eat.  I did not get involved in any of the card making.  I went downstairs and played the Wii with Jason and some of the other guys that went with their significant others.  It was pretty fun.  I had only played the Wii one other time when my brother-in-law Chris had gotten one for Christmas last year.  I sucked at most of the games, but I was pretty good at the Tennis one.

After the party, Jaime, Karen, Jason, and I went out to get Mexican food at Roque's.  It was my suggestion, and the food was good.  The drive back to Newport was fairly clear until we hit Eden and Lowell.  That is where the roads always seem to get bad.  We are supposed to be having our first real snow storm coming tomorrow night, so that will probably pretty much officially kick off winter for us here.  It will probably give me an opportunity to try out the snowblower.