"You live in a Zoo..."

I had a great birthday weekend. We took Goethe with us to the park and played a game of *Bocci (and I was losing badly) when 2 guys left their football game and asked if we wanted competition. So we played teams, us against them, which was better because then I didn’t have to lose alone. The length of the field changed as the jack changed hands. Taking short breaks as people wandered through our game pondering over the lonely bocce ball that had rolled far a field. At one point one of our longer games ended up close to another game going on in the field, and there was a moment humorous confusion. It ended up being a close game and we would have done a rematch but we had by then it was already 3pm and we still hadn’t eaten all day, not to mention the dehydrated dog. Then Dinner and a movie.

*I assume when talking about the game I should use Bocci [Bocci (plural), Bocce (singular)]. No one plays “checker”.

The next day (over 75 degrees) we all went for a walk to get lunch, unfortunately we didn’t know it was a Cubs game so we couldn’t go very far in any direction without hitting a huge wall of people. We just wanted a to-go or a sidewalk café where we could eat with our dog. West, North, South-west we wandered turning down streets away from masses of people. We passed a fire station that was running a slow hydrant-sprinkle into a bucket for water on the sidewalk. It looked clean enough I’d (almost) drink it and Goethe was thirsty but we didn’t know the protocol and she went up to the tall thing which was not her bowl and looked at it and then me, I told her “Okay”, but she must have decided protocol was that I should dip in and fetch some out for her to drink from my bowled hands. I must say that was awfully considerate of others who might want the water too.
Later, more Bocci followed by a 3 hour war movie we had been putting off, dinner, and a few rounds of computer golf.

I know, sounds kinda lame, but I’m easily entertained.

Gifts! We can't leave those out.
I got a stove top grill in a box invention, which looks interesting, but you know those things never work out the way you want them to. A soup cook book, a stock pot, a candle and perfume.
I’ll admit I asked for the stockpot but it and the perfume were the most thoughtful gifts.