Boo-Ya!

I don't know where Ben picked up "Boo-ya!" but he did and he uses it enthusiastically and as frequently as possible. It came into great play this evening.

We went bowling. And if I wasn't a massive introvert who is now completely drained of a need to interact with my audience following hours of being "out in public," I'd give you the blow by blow. It was all funny, it was all good. So instead you get the summary.

I won. Yes, I did. I haven't bowled in YEARS and I bowled a 124 thanks to three strikes, two spares (the last frame included both a strike and a spare) and then a bunch of totally forgettable frames in between. I'd get a spare and then with the first ball of the next frame get, like, two. Chris and I spent most of the game being amazed at exactly how awkward you can feel hurling a marble ball down a slippery lane when you haven't played the game in eons.

Chris has his own ball. He couldn't use it. It was made for the skinny kid he was as a teenager. The big Double XL man he is now will need to drill out new holes if he's to use that ball again.
Nevertheless, he gamely tossed a 16 lb ball down the lane over and over. And like me, had mixed results. He was ahead for the first half, then I threw a nine by neatly finding the footing and the toss I had 22 years ago when I worked for a bowling alley and played a lot. I immediately lost it on the next frame, but I came close for most of the rest of the game and remembered why I thought the game was fun.

One thing that totally changed the game and gave us ALL artificially high scores was the fact that we were playing with Ben and Milo. So we had the bumpers up. We'd have ALL had at least a few gutter balls had we not had the bumpers up.

Ben and Milo? They got exactly the same score using two entirely different techniques. Ben wanted to throw the ball, which involved heaving the ball up to his chest, running at the alley, and then just plopping that sucker down and hoping it picked up some momentum during the run. There was only one time that it stopped rolling altogether. The rest of the time it DID make it down and usually managed to knock over some pins. Milo used the ball flinger--this metal contraption where you place the ball on the top and give it a shove and the ball rolls along these metal rails, picking up speed as it falls, and then does a fair job of getting to the other end. It's impossible to aim and what you knock down is totally luck. But it worked well enough. They scored 70. We thought it was hilarious that they got the same score because, you know, identical twins, blah blah blah--and they were dressed alike today, which is rare.

Max put on his game face and did his best, but the ball is heavy and Chris and I could explain the technique but were too rusty to SHOW him much, so he was happy just to come in third with an 86 or 88 or something.

Anyway, it was four boys, one girl, two diet cokes and a sprite to share, and about an hour of flinging the balls at the pins. A good time was had by all. Then, we headed over to the nearest pizza place (the bowling alley DOES sell pizza. It's not edible.) which has excellent pizza, moderately good service, and takes FOREVER to make a pizza. We splurged--in part because we had coupons for the bowling and only had to pay for the shoes. So I think we were there about two hours. There were at least four points in the evening where we vowed we had to blog "this" and now I can't remember any of them except for the twins getting the same score. And Ben yelling "Boo-ya!" every time he knocked down a single pin. And Milo doing victory dances.

By the time we got home we were all mostly ready for bed.

It's been a good week. A lot of bills got paid. It'll be awhile now before the mail man brings any more money, so after tonight's splurge, we're on budget lockdown. I need to finish up some work tomorrow morning and then get the twins to a birthday party. After that I'm cleaning and doing laundry. Sunday is a Fasting day at church and it's been so long since I participated I hope I can remember how.

It's only 9:30, but I'm off to bed while I still have the warm fuzzies from a wonderful evening spent with my husband and sons. They're such good kids. I'm so lucky to have them.