Weekend Update

So it’s official.  I can’t play bocce ball to save my life. 

Let me backtrack here for a moment.  As I’ve mentioned before, Ben and I both have great families, and although his happens to live far far away, we’ve gotten a chance to hang with both his parents and mine in the past month.  I only mention that because although this post will be entirely about the contents of this past weekend- I have been meaning to blog about the excellent time with had when his parents were visiting  - I just haven’t uploaded the pictures yet. (side note:  I almost wrote “folks” in there when referring to Ben’s parents, but I stopped myself.  I feel like that makes me instantly be 45 years old)  So there you go – you can now wait with bated breath for the Bokma Weekend Extraordinaire update yet to come. 

OK, so back to this weekend.  My mom’s birthday was last Sunday (April 13th) and I was gone and we weren’t able to celebrate with her.  So this past Sunday Dustin, Ben and I thought we’d truck it on down to Whitby to surprise her.  We actually left early enough to show up at their church Sunday morning.  The look on her face when we walked into the theatre was great, as was my dad’s face when he came to join us after doing worship.  That instantly made rolling my carcass out of bed an hour and a half earlier than my normal Sunday morning wake up time worth it.

After church Ben Dustin and I took care of lunch.  Since the weather was most excellent (some might even say scrumptrellescent), we decided a BBQ was in order.  So, let’s fast forward this to the grocery store where Ben, D and I split up to gather the necessary items. I’ve gotta tell ya, it was hard to contain those two. Like kids in a candy store.  At one point, I think there were 4 steaks in our cart, and 2 more in D’s hands - and we were having burgers.  Once I calmed them down, put a few things back on the shelves, we made our purchases and headed home to make pretty much the best meal ever.

 

It’s at this point that I have to ask?  Guys – is it REALLY necessary to consume both a hamburger AND a steak that’s larger than my head?  really?  I’m fairly certain that is a receipe for an instant artery clog but whatever – I’m no doctor. 

After lunch, we thought “what a better way to enjoy this weather than to play a little bocce ball?”  And play we did. Ok, well I tried to play. For those unfamiliar with the game of bocce ball – the point is basically to throw your balls as close as possible to the little white ball.  I’ve created a little diagram to show you the extent of my skills.  There were a few times that I totally dominated and took home a few points, but for the most part? Notsomuch.

 

And for some real shots of the day:

This is clearly an intense moment.  Probably because I did something amazing.

Assessing the HILL that Ben threw the white ball up.  (ps – does anyone know what that little white ball is really called?  I’m pretty sure I’m butchering the entire sport of bocce ball by calling it that)

Also – can we pause for a second and take a look at my extremely PASTY WHITE LEGS?  I thought I was half Ethiopian, so much for that helping out my skin tone.

 

This is where Dustin was overcome by the spirit mid-way through our game and just had to express himself through an interpretive dance.  (ok, maybe he was just taking a shot.)

 Ben usually took the “bowler’s stance” approach.  I’d like to mock him for it, except for he usually won. 

 

All in all, the day was great and Ben and I drove home that night feeling really blessed.  To quote the words of Jim Halpert in the (Office) episode when Pam lays her head on his shoulder in season 1:

 ”Not a bad day”.