League Night #6 of 8
Games played: Attack from Mars, Iron Man, Junk Yard, The Walking Dead, Austin Powers.
Joseph’s birthday cake.
League Night #6 happened to fall on Joseph’s birthday, so I wanted to surprise him with a cake. Unfortunately, due to my work schedule, I eventually concluded that there was no way I could pick the cake up myself and still make it to league in time to play at least a couple of games with people before it was all over. I considered having Mike S. pick the cake up, but this plan was scrapped when we realized that the hot weather might melt the frosting if the cake was left in his car until I arrived. Ultimately, I ended up having Joseph go and pick his own cake up from the bakery. Uh, happy birthday? I ordered it, anyway.
A band playing for the Flat Black & Circular 40th anniversary party.
I arrived in a bit of a foul mood because I had to drive around the block looking for parking until I finally gave up and parked so far away that I might have just as well walked from home. When I arrived at The Avenue I discovered why. The place was crowded and a band was playing. Bands during league night are not my favorite thing. I saw Joseph’s cake in the downstairs alcove, but no one was around and the cake was untouched, so I picked it up and went to look for everyone. Someone (not with league) saw the cake and said something like, “Ha ha, another cake!” I had no idea what she was talking about so I just nodded and smiled and went upstairs, where Joseph was in the midst of destroying the ring on Lord of the Rings. While I watched, he successfully destroyed it. After stopping to swear about how annoyed I was over the band and the crowd, I then ran to Joseph (only after his ball drained, of course) and hugged and congratulated him on having an epic league game on his birthday.
Joseph cuts the cake.
After Joseph’s LotR game, I put candles on the cake and lit them, only for Joseph to take that moment to run off (probably to wash his hands). The tiny little candles burned down precariously as everyone stood there saying “Uh, where did he go?” When he did come back I scolded him: “Damn it, Joseph, these are only designed to stay lit about two minutes!” Then I pulled the rug out just as he was about to blow them out by asking for another moment so I could get my camera ready. This he granted, though my picture of the moment did not come out so well anyway. In any case, the candles were extinguished and I hope Joseph’s wish will come true.
After that I found out that the band playing was in honor of the 40th birthday of Flat, Black & Circular, the used record store in East Lansing, and that there had been a cake, so our bringing a cake was kind of redundant. I also eventually softened my attitude about the music, since a lot of it was high-spirited polka music that was fun to jump around to while waiting to play. At one point even Danny busted some polka moves.
My group (I belatedly joined with Danny, Kristen, and Dan) was the last one to play Lord of the Rings, and it was struggling. First I lost a ball due to the sword lock never kicking a ball out, then Kristen ended up with a one-ball multiball. She didn’t want to exploit a beneficial malfunction, so Mike (who was acting in place of Matt again this time) ruled that we would all scratch LotR and play Austin Powers instead. My first thought was of poor Joseph, having to discard his epic birthday game. My second thought was, oh God, Austin Powers. We eventually figured out which coin slot would give credits and not steal quarters (I think it was the left?) and played it, but at least a couple of people gave up and left, planning to make up later, because it was already so late.
Tonight is night #7 of 8, so the season is getting fairly close to drawing to a close. There probably won’t be cake, but there will be good company, so won’t you join us?