Pinball Potluck

 Somewhere In Minnesota

It's hard to tell in this dark basement, but I'm #2!

A Pinball Tournament at Someone's House

The Single Elimination Finals was replaced by an Amazing Race finals due to a vote.

Today I was invited to a pinball tournament and potluck and someone's house.  This is their 3rd year hosting a tournament.  Space was limited because it's a house with limited space, so I RSVP'd as soon as I saw it posted.  I didn't know what I was getting into because I didn't, at the time, know whose house it was or who would be there.  It all turned out fantastic.  I had played with the host in various tournaments around Minnesota and many of my pinball friends were there.  They all brought fun food and we had an evening of playing pinball and socializing.  It was a great way to start spring.

The tournament began with 6 4-player rounds.  I played really well finishing in 1st place in 4 of the rounds, 2nd place in 1 of the rounds, and 3rd place in the final round.  I ended up qualifying for finals in 2nd place.  16 players moved on to an Amazing Race Finals.  The Amazing Race format is incredibly fun.  The best way to picture it is to imagine 16 pinball tables all lined up and 16 players.  The last place qualifier starts on the 1st table and sets a score and then moves onto table 2.  The next player starts on table 1 and tries to beat the score that was just set.  If they don't, they wait there while everyone plays.  If another player gets a lower score, they get stuck waiting for the other players to play.  In the end, the player with the lowest score on a table gets eliminated, so one person gets eliminated on each table in the lineup.  By the time it was my turn to work my way through the lineup, the whole field except for the person that qualified above me, had played and a low score had been established for each table. All one needs to do is walk up and beat the worst score.  This goes on until you have 2 players on the final table.  It's really fun and a very casual way of playing a tournament because you aren't in a head to head battle with a person, you are only trying to beat a score, which happens to be attached to a player.

In the end I ended up 2nd.  It was a super fun tournament with a bunch of fun people.

Cash on the table with my bad score on Black Hole in the background, the final table in the tournament.

A House Full of Pinball Tables

The house the tournament was in was filled with pinball tables, Tiki, and skateboard decks.  All things that I am very fond of.  It was a fantastic place to play and explore.  There were 25 working pinball tables throughout the house.  I was able to play probably 5 or 6 tables that I hadn't played before and it was my first time playing pinball in a kitchen.

The basement was filled with pinball tables

The basement also had a Tiki Bar.

Nip-It was a new table for me.  It features Zipper Flippers (flippers that can be moved together to prevent the ball from draining down the middle),

and a Balligator (get it, ball and alligator) that can eat the ball when you time a button press correctly.

His Aztec has a, what I am told, factory sound mod.  Aztec was released at the end of the EM (electro mechanical) era and at the beginning of the SS (solid state) era.  Players were gravitating towards the newer SS machines so Williams sent out "Sound Cards" to replace the bells and chimes sounds with sounds that were more "Electronic".  It sounded like a Theremin which was really cool.  There is a great Technology Connections on how EM Pinball Machines work.

The top lanes on Pinball Champ spell out HAM.  I never noticed you can Go Ham on a Pinball Champ.

He didn't have any of the skateboard themed pinball tables but he had decks deck-orating the walls.

You can tell how many people were in the backyard having a smoke break by counting the number of shoes and dividing by 2.

It was a fantastic evening of pinball, food, and friendly competition.  It's another example of how great the pinball community is here and in many other places based on my experience.

Some of these scores aren't really my Top scores but I wanted to make notes without spending too much effort.

I have some great finishes this yea so far and this doesn't include this 2nd place.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Another Pinball Pick Up Road Trip, check it out.  I drove to Chicago and bought a pinball table!

Another Pinball Pick Up Road Trip

 Chicago, IL

Illinois State Line

Getting Cash

I found the table we wanted to buy on Pinside.  I contacted the seller and worked out a deal.  Many of these deals are "cash on the glass" to prevent scams.  We bank with Capital One and there aren't any real banks, only tons of ATMs so we had to get $7500 at ATMs.  The first ATM we went to only gave 20s so we ended up with $2000 in 20s and realized this wasn't going to work. I decided the best bet would be to go to The Mall of America and visit the Capital One Cafe.  Their ATM gave out 100s and I was able to bump up the daily limit to $3000 so 2 trips did the trick.

So many old brands survive at The Mall of America

A Swatch shop!

Donna found one she liked.

The mall has a compact amusement park in the middle of it.

On the 2nd trip I pulled my old Swatches out a box and bought new watch bands and got free batteries for them.

Chicago!

The drive to Chicago is about 6 hours from here.  I decided to do the trip in 2 days with a drive there on Tuesday, a pinball pickup on Wednesday morning, and then a drive home Wednesday.  I also got to squeeze in dinner and drinks with friends on Tuesday night.

A trip through Wisconsin usually includes a stop at Culver's.  I even stopped at The World's Largest Culver's in Edgerton, WI on the way back.

Kevin and Vicki planned a great evening of food, drinks and fun very close to my hotel.

We spent some time at Hala Kahiki, a Tiki Bar that opened in 1964.

And then we enjoyed a late night dog, fries, and a tamale.

This is the pinball machine I picked up sitting in its former home.  

The move was pretty easy as I got help from the former owner after the cash exchange.

About 7.5 hours later we were playing it at home!

We bought an Avengers: Infinity Quest Limited Edition by Stern Pinball.  The family we bought it from purchased it new and took great care of it and added some awesome mods.  It has 3900 plays, which is pretty low, and was a fantastic deal.  Now I will start trouble shooting 1 of the known issues with this machine, but it's a small issue that can easily be worked around but it's fun getting machines playing exactly how they should play.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Successful Eye Surgery, check it out!

Successful Eye Surgery

 Minneapolis, MN

Daft Punk, here I come!

Pterygium Eye Surgery

When you grow up in Southern California, you get exposed to the power of the sun and the sun's UV rays.  When you surf you get exposed to the power of salt water in your eye and the sun.  When you think sunglasses are anti-social, this compounds the issue.  All of this can add up to a pterygium lesion on your eye or eyes.

Pre operation

I noticed the pterygium way back in 2009 or so.  I had it monitored whenever I got my eyes checked.  They always said it was cosmetic and wouldn't be an issue unless it made its way to my pupil.  I started wearing sunglasses and protecting my eye but over the years it made its way towards the center of my eye, squishing my eye and giving me an astigmatism along the way.  The astigmatism distorted my eye and changed my vision rapidly.  I wanted to get it all taken care of before it caused permanent eye damage so when we moved to Minneapolis I got a referral to see a specialist. Dr. Volker agreed it wasn't cosmetic anymore and we scheduled an operation about 6 months later.  

That operation is done!  It was a success and after about a month of healing, everything is fantastic.  

The first thing I said after recovering from the anesthesia was, "Take my picture!" so Donna took a great photo.

Francis helped me recover that day and also helped me cosplay a Bond Villain.

The following day I went back for a checkup and they removed the bandage and said it looked fantastic.  It was scratchy and painful and I couldn't rub it.  A contact lens helped keep the skin graft in place.

Since the surgery in late January, I have returned to the Dr. for multiple follow-ups.  It's pretty much all healed now, but my vision is still settling in so I won't have new glasses for another few weeks.  The vision in my left eye has gone from terrible to great with the surgery and I am wearing glasses with the lens popped out.

Post op about a month.

It's hard to tell unless I do this.  Also I need to shave.

We chose Minnesota as our current home because they have a state run healthcare exchange.  We will need to continue to stay in states that run their own just incase The Affordable Care Act gets gutted.  If that happens we all go back to the chance of getting denied coverage because of a preexisting condition so that healthcare profits can increase annually by 20%.

That's it for today.  If you missed, 5 Days of Competitive Pinball in a Row, check it out.  It was the 5 days leading up to my eye surgery.

5 Days of Competitive Pinball in a Row

 Twin Cities, MN

Pinball doesn't get old...

Making the Tournament Rounds

Last week I played competitive pinball for 5 days straight, well 6 if you count the recreational but still somewhat competitive league.  

It started at LITT for our Tuesday night league.  I used the evening to brush up on my rules and practice shots.  I wasn't gunning for a win that night, because the league I am in is just for fun.  

I even had time for a beer and we had some happy hour food at LITT, which is fantastic.

My friend Brendon was in my group on Tuesday so that was fun.  Here he is putting up a good score on John Wick.

On Wednesday I headed out to Blaine, MN to play at Blainbrook Bowl.  This tournament is packed with talent and I am still learning all of the tables there so my expectations where tempered.  I still did well.  I came in 6th out of 20.  I played really well but then it kind of fell apart on my last game.  If I had done better in my last round I would have come in 4th, which would have exceeded my expectations.  I will keep playing this one and eventually I won't be dead money.

Blainbrook is HUGE.  They have a ton of bowling lanes, a giant bar in back that people hang out in, pool tables, ticket redemption games, and a good number of well maintained pinball tables.

The carpet is also legit!

They have a cool wooden sign in the pinball area too.

Here I am waiting for my turn on Dr. Who.

On Thursday Donna and I drove out to Beautiful Savage, MN.  On the way we stopped by a Replay Sports store so she could trade in her old ice skates for new, better fitting ice skates.  She found what she was looking for and then we continued on to Northstar Pinball Collective.  NPC is at least partially owned by Luke Nahorniak, #1 in the state and #9 in the world.  It's full of great players and I am still learning the tables here too.  I ended up 13th out of 21.  It isn't a great showing, but I have nothing but future potential here so that is good.  I will continue to get out there a couple times a month and will eventually know the tables better and feel more comfortable there.  Being comfortable at a place and on a specific table is so important in my opinion. 

Donna bought figure states but the used hockey skate rack was impressive, so I took a photo of that.

We got to NPC at opening and had the place to ourselves for a bit.  I got to play 3 or so tables I have never played before.  I also got to get used to specific copies of these tables here.

They stream their tournaments on Twitch.  They only streamed 2 of my rounds and I ended up getting strikes in both of those.  You can what them here if you want.  My first round was terrible and is at about the 11 minute mark and my 2nd round shown was better and starts at around the 1h 35m mark.

I got this great shot of Donna using her cool sweater to blend into the table she was playing.  

On Friday I headed back to Bad Penny in St. Paul.  I am very comfortable here.  I came in 1st in early January and 3rd just last week so my confidence was high.

But before the tournament, Donna and I went to Lake of the Isles skate rink and Donna tried out her new skates.

Early on Donna was pretty cautious due to the fact that she was on new skates and had never skated here.  Shortly after this photo she was skating around like a natural.

Bad penny was hopping with 27 players.  I played great throughout the evening.

I was tied for 1st going into the last round.  If I won my round I would win it and if I finished 2nd, I would be 2nd overall.  I didn't do the math for 3rd or 4th place.  It would have been more complex.

I ended up taking 1st for the 2nd time this year (you can read about the 1st here if you want).  A fantastic result.  The round on Elvira was exciting.  I had 2 really bad balls and did it all on my 3rd ball.  I was player 4 so as soon as I was in the lead I could stop playing.  Winning is fun!

On Saturday I headed to 56  Brewing for their monthly tournament.  44 players showed up and 16 players would advance to the finals.  I played great and made the finals but then it all kind of fell apart.  I was on modern tables and about 1/3 of the field were all top of state qualifiers.  I ended up coming in 13th, which is okay, but I could have done better.  I just need to continue to make finals, put myself in a good spot and then play well in that spot.  

This is Ember waiting for Elizabeth to finish her long ball on Jurassic Park.

On Sunday I played in the LITT monthly tournament.  I didn't play well and didn't make the finals but a few of my friends made the finals and one of my friends won it all.  I hope to play better next month.  It's a huge tournament and is a lot of fun.  I guess I didn't take any photos.

That's it for today.  It was a great week of Pinball.  If you missed, Embracing the Cold Embrace of Winter, check it out.  We are enjoying winter here.