Birthday Bash in Lake Boca, and Wii Got a New Distraction

Mark this as weekend #3 that we didn't get a full weekend to work on the house; but I guess you shouldn't feel too bad as we spent most of Saturday on Kim and Jim's boat in Lake Boca celebrating Kim's birthday. (for all you non-Floridians, it's just through the Boca inlet from the Atlantic, it's a couple of feet deep where you can anchor up and hop out). Full pictures here.

Like usual when the gals get together down here, it was quite a day. Even though we probably should have been home working on the house, at 10:30 we hopped on the highway and headed north. Two boats ended up leaving Pompano beach heading for Boca, and eventually there were 5 (or 6 maybe) boats anchored up together for a day on/in the water. Kim's birthday present was this ridiculously large floating "hot tub" type thing that floated behind the boat, and corralled like 8 people at a time. It was even a great place to pass out, as a tired Kelly found out.

Unfortunately the rain clouds started to mass to the west, and even though Captain Jim was ready to weather out the storm for his wife's birthday, the anchor was pulled and Steel Towing and the rest the flotilla eventually headed back south to the relative safety of a Garden Islands harbour. We see some switched college allegiances, some "start-em-early!' parenting, several pool tossings (including the B-day girl), Kelly falling asleep again, and the party continuing despite some rain - gotta love the water-resistant camera. Thanks to Kevin and Belle (oops, wrong wife) for letting the loonies use their pool for the PM version of the party, and to Kim and Jim for having us on the boat!

Sunday brought us some much needed help from the Facarazzo family - both Jen's parents, her grandfather, aunt, uncle, Besty, and cousin all came over to help out. The biggest accomplishment? Setting up the Nintendo Wii, which is going to end up being our biggest barrier to accomplishing our house renovations. If you haven't tried this thing yet, find yourself a middle schooler with one and check it out for a couple of hours. It's definite entertainment, and from the little we have played, it can be somewhat of a workout too (well at least the boxing game breaks a sweat). However, I absolutely suck at Guitar Here (Mike has it) proving that no matter how good I think I am at video sporting games (something Jason and Casey both probably are laughing at) I am still a musical idiot even in a virtual world. Luckily, my wife is even worse than I am at the Wii Sports games, I've beaten her every time (save the first game when I didn't know how to play) in tennis so far. And, in true Sharpe form, she has already tossed the controller and pouted after the game. Our kids are going to be the worst sports EVER...