The Beach, Bon Jovi & Bomb Threats

So yesterday was a beautiful (and slightly bizarre) Saturday. I was able to attend the Beach Bash in honor of Jess and Jerry's births. Best part: It was a little overcast and there was a nice breeze off the ocean so I barely even sweat. Good friends, good food, good times!

Two funny beach stories:
1) Some of our crew was playing bocce ball in the sand. Suddenly these two adorable little girls came walking up to the balls and you could tell they were very intrigued. It was like they had discovered dinosaur eggs! Suddenly one of the girls kicked a ball and then the other one picked one up and threw it. Meanwhile, the crew is groaning and yelling "no!" (especially the person who had the best shot up until that point!). It was so hilarious. Then after their investigation, they just turned and walked away. :)

2) A guy next to us was grilling and somehow managed to step on a hot coal that had fallen out of his grill. He hobbled over to the picnic table where his friend slathered the bottom of his foot with barbecue sauce! Later, he was resting his foot on a paper plate to keep the sand out of it. Poor guy. I guess I shouldn't characterize this story as funny - but it sure was something you don't see everyday!

After the beach, it was time for Jon and I to part ways. He and some of the rest of the gang were heading to a Bon Jovi concert while I was off to play Hanna Hobard in "Hulas and Homicide" (our Girl Scout Mystery Night event).

Here's the short version of Jon's night. The Bon Jovi concert was supposed to start at 7:30, but there was a bomb threat at the Bank Atlantic Center. They ended up not getting into the stadium until like 10:30! It sounded pretty interesting, but we didn't have a lot of time to share stories when he finally came home at 12:30. I'm sure there will be some good posts from Jess (21 Days) and Ryan (Al-ko-hol). Click over and check them out. Unfortunately for Jon, he was up-and-at-'em early, heading off to a Shark Tooth dive on the west coast of FL today. (No he's not trying to do any dental work on a great white, just picking up "shedded" teeth from millions of years ago.)

Back to me: Mystery Night was quite a success and much more fun than I imagined it would be. As a character, you get a couple of pages of backstory and your timeline of events the night of the murder. Then the girls come around and interrogate you and you have to answer based off that information. If you don't know the answer (i.e. it's not mentioned in your packet), you say something coy like "I don't recall." The whole time you're playing, you don't know whether you are the murderer or not. As they ask questions though, you begin to pick up different pieces of the story and find that there is conflicting information. Are you lying? Is another character lying? You're trying to solve the mystery at the same time.

Well, it turns out I was the murderer! I killed the organizer of the hula competition by throwing a coconut at the back of her head with my wicked underhand fastball. Motive: I was the star of the Boston Baked Beans softball team recently turned pro hula hooper but I knew the organizer would never let me win because I wasn't a native Hawaiian and she always rigged the competition so that a native won.

Today I have a special birthday post to work on, but I think I'll get to that later. Right now, I'm sitting on the pool deck in the breeze (attempting to smell the fresh air through my plugged up nose) and it's hard to see the computer screen through the sun glare. I think I'll lounge back and rest for a while instead...

Oh, by the way, you better watch out if you ever see me with a coconut in hand! :)