Last Saturday evening, after we got home from the concert trip, I took Abby to the Bowling Palace for the Girl Scout Father-Daughter bowling event. There were so many scouts there. Most of them were Daisies. Abby is still a Brownie, but if I remember correctly she might bridge into being a Girl Scout proper this year.

As is typical, Abby forgot to wear her vest with all the patches on it. It’s strange when I think about it. My scout uniform had lots of badges that I felt proud of earning. Brownie badges are called “Try-Its” and there doesn’t seem to be much to earning them. Maybe the actual scouts have more requirements. Nonetheless, I think this low barrier to entry may be what generates a lack of pride in Abby’s presentation of her vest. Anyway…

We signed in, got shoes, and found some bowling balls to use. Abby got a 7 pound ball to roll and we headed to our assigned lane.

We met with a couple of her scoutmates. Why they put so many of us in a single lane, I can’t say. Cailin and her dad, Eric, were there with her sister. Also, Roshni and her dad, Dharmesh, bowled in our lane. All told, there were seven of us bowling.

Even though we didn’t get to bowl two rounds, we still got a decent amount of bowling in. There was also some technical trouble with our lane, where it wouldn’t return balls. Once while Abby was bowling, the pin machine went completely haywire, and they had to go fix it. Pretty crazy.

Abby did pretty well. All the girls used bumpers and the dads didn’t, which made for a more-or-less more fair game. I did break 100, which is pretty good for me, and Abby bowled a 99 or something. I don’t even remember, we were having too much fun.

There was pizza and soda provided by the Girl Scouts for each lane. And there was a door prize - three baskets that were given away to winners who put their bowling entry tickets into boxes. We didn’t win anything, but it was still a fun drawing.

After the bowling, we went to the movie theater and saw Clash of the Titans in 3D. (Yes, yes, I know about the 3D, and I knew before we went, but it was a special treat.) Abby has been reading The Lightning Thief, which she says is nothing at all like the movie, and so I thought I’d take her to see another movie based (presumably) on mythology. She enjoyed it, I think, as I explained how the story she’s reading relates to the movie we watched and the actual mythology.

In all, it was a good time. I like doing events like these with Abby when I get the chance. Even if she runs all over the place and is generally pretty flighty, even for a 9-year-old. Hopefully she’s having fun and eventually grows into settling down and concentrating on what she’s doing.