Alright, time to jump back on the hamster wheel and start putting posts back up here on a daily basis! We had a fun party last Saturday at St. Ann’s Church. For those of you who don’t know, they have a bar and a bowling alley in the basement of the church that you can rent out and it’s really a cool place. We had a nice turn out and I want to thank everyone who came by. Anytime I have a party or get together I get super-stressed out and nervous that no one will show up and I appreciate all of you who came by! Special thanks to Amber and Joe who gave me a ride there and Justin who gave me a ride to Cody’s Castle and then to Amber and Joe’s house where I just about fell into the fire. Here’s the photos from the party and here we go again with another year of MBIP! Thanks, as always, for reading and following along!
There’s the familiar doorway to the bowling alley! Let’s go in and get this party started!
Wow, there’s already people here, let’s see who the first party people are...
From left it’s: Joe, Amber, Star, Kevin, Tim and Colleen. Below the group photo is the back of Star’s shirt! How cool is that? She got it just for the party and wins the prize for the best bowling shirt of the evening! Sadly I had no prize for this, but, she gets this mention, so there’s that!
Our bartenders for the evening are Ron and Kathy, who did bartending duty at last year’s party! Great to see them again!
Here’s some shots from behind the bar, I love the gold antique cash register, the bowling trophy’s are all from Kathy’s dad’s collection and check out the beer prices here, just a buck fifty a beer! Nice!
Some people brought their own bowling balls and shoes. Amber wins the prize for best bowling shoes, I love the wing and green laces on her bowling shoes and Joe gets second place for his classic three tone shoes! That foot at the bottom belongs to Pete Clarno who you’ll see in a minute, he said he was going to bowl Fred Flintstone style! Ha!
And the bowling begins! As you can see the lanes here are top notch and they have a large selection of bowling balls and shoes for people that come to the party.
And here’s the Fred Flintstone bowler himself, Pete Clarno with his lovely wife, Linda! Pete and Linda are the owners of No Wake Zone and if you’ve never been there, you need to check it out! It’s a classic riverfront Peoria tavern with great food and drinks that I’ve visited and done many posts on and will do another soon, so stay tuned for that!
I had trouble with the vintage boom box, but Ron got it going!
More guests have arrived, from left it’s Phil, Dave, Cheryl and Terry!
Here’s MBIP Contributing Writer Chip Joyce with his pretty wife, Jenny! Great to see both of them!
I really want to thank Tim and Colleen Carey! They brought Butch’s pizzas and cooked them for the crowd all night! Butch’s Pizza is the best and it was really nice of them to bring the pizzas and cook them for all of us! Click this link for a tour I took of Butch’s Pizza a while back.
Great to see Lisa again! We were reunited last year at The Office bar in Morton. Lisa had been to a party at my apartment years ago with Bloody Mess and it’s been nice to be friends with her again after all these years!
Here’s Kathy and Steve who I’ve seen several times during the MBIP blog break. Yes I do go out and do things when the blog is on break!
Okay this is three friends from my past, Nancy, Chris and Moon! I think it’s time for me to get in the picture here...
Together again! Moon, Chris and I lived together in the craziest household in the world! Moon would regularly threaten to move out and one night Chris and I had a long discussion about hanging meat from the ceiling and then decided just to turn everything in the house upside down. You can read some stories about this time in our lives by clicking here. Amazing that we’re all still alive and talking about those days!
In addition to the bowling lanes, there’s also a pool table and a pinball machine for your amusement in St. Ann’s basement.
Danielle and Brent have arrived and here they are with Amber and Joe!
Here’s Joe with Shannon! Shannon is a singer and musician who plays all kinds of venues around town, check out this post of her playing at Sky Harbor!
My godson Brian Hennessey showed up so I had to put on my crazy face and strike a pose with him! Sadly, his dad, Tim who’s my personal Spiritual Guru failed to show up. And Tina didn’t come either...could she still be pissed off about that surprise party? Probably!
Check out this table of guests! From left: Lisa’s Uber driver, Lisa, Mike, Beth, Tori and Dick. Great to see all of them!
Here’s Tim and Gavra with the brightest bowling ball of the evening!
MBIP Contributing Writer and owner of Acme Comics, Bob Gordon was hanging out at the bar with a mystery guest that I’m not supposed to mention. Oh no, I just did...sorry!
Here’s Greg and Roxy who we’ll be seeing at the Heart of Illinois Fair in a few months, but hopefully we’ll hang out before that!
PJ Star lead preps reporter and popcorn connoisseur Adam Duvall and Terry Grawey who hypnotized me a few months ago were hanging out at the bar.
Here’s Rick and Cheri Hirschmann enjoying a break from their bowling game. Rick has been an on-air radio personality for years and can be currently heard on 93.3 The Drive. Cheri works at Senara Spa, where I’m going to do a spa post from soon and she’s also a wonderful photographer, check out her work here: Burnt Toast Photography. Cheri’s going to be working on a special series of photographs here on MBIP, that will start in May, stay tuned for that!
It was great to Jon and Mae at the party! For those of you that didn’t see it or want to re-read it, Jon wrote a great article in Peoria’s Art & Society magazine about myself and his dad and our adventures in the world of desktop publishing back in the day, check that out here. Mae is one of the owners of The Sheared Edge and you can check their website out right here.
Now comes the time of the evening where we share a trifecta of photos of MBIP friend, Michelle! Here’s the first one of Michelle and Gavra...
And here she is with John, PJ and Diana...
And the trifecta is now complete with this lovely shot of Michelle and Shannon outside of St. Ann’s. One of them was smoking out here, but I’ll never tell!
Party’s over!
This has been an MBIP Productions and thanks to everyone who came to the party and to all of you for reading and following the blog...there are people still reading this...right? See you all tomorrow!
St. Ann’s Bowling Alley
1010 S. Louisa Street
Peoria
309-673-9511
Beer Frame Judy...pour us another round!
Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!
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Bonus photos by Kevin Murray!
Kevin took some great shots of the party and here they are. Thanks for sending taking and sending these in Kevin!
