Spaghetti Arms

Year before last, John and I purchased a "Slam Dunk" basketball game at Wal-Mart. It had regularly been around 80 bucks. We paid $15 for it during an after Christmas clearance sale. Our original intention was to put it on eBay and sell it for $80 bucks or so. We got it home and Moriah wanted to keep it. Time passed and it was still in the box and every once in a while Moriah would say, "Will you put my basketball game together?" We never did. Then, came Luke and it just kept getting pushed to the side. Not literally of course because it was kind of heavy.

On Moriah's 9th birthday she had a sleepover and I started putting it together. I thought it would be fun for the girls to play while they were here. Although it wasn't complicated to assemble, it started taking up too much time because much like everything else, I had procrastinated to the last minute. So, again, it got pushed to the side. This time literally.

We had originally planned to put it in our family room which is a fairly large room. But, with the recent influx of small, medium, AND large baby toys, we thought our screened in back porch would be a better choice. That is, after all, Moriah's playroom....And will be Luke's as soon as he figures out how to open the door by himself.

John finished the assembly process last night. And, if you don't know exactly what it is I'm talking about. It is like an arcade basketball game similar to the ones you see at Chuck E. Cheese. John and Moriah played it for a bit. I went and played for a while. John played a 1 minute game and scored 50 points. Not to be outdone (so I thought), I tried to beat his score. I got 48. I played again, 49 points. John comes back out to play. We start playing against each other. He won; then, I won one. So, we had to because of the laws of marriage had to play best 2 out of 3. But, this was not just throwing basketballs at a goal this was cut throat Bill Lambehr elbowing, pulling of hair, gnashing of teeth action. I won the 3rd game fair and square, well, except for the hair pulling and elbowing. John calls for 3 out of 5. No can do.

We stopped playing for maybe an hour. I went back out to the porch after Moriah went to bed at 9:30. She heard the action and got up. She and I played a few games. It was fun. Then, she decided to call it a night....Again! I kept playing because I still hadn't beat that 50 points in 1 minute score. John came and stood right behind me because he knows that it gets on my nerves for someone to stand over my shoulder like that. And, if he didn't know that, he will after he reads this. We started playing again. We played a few games of 2 minutes or so. Then, Mr. Smartypants thinks it a good idea to set the time at 4 minutes. Ohmigosh! Everything was okay for the first 2 minutes. Then, the fatigue started setting in. We already had the elbows, hair, and teeth thing going but we both started getting spaghetti arms. If you have ever seen someone whose legs are cramped up try to go ahead and finish that marathon, this is kinda what our arms looked and felt like. We were laughing at each other; crying from the pain and agony!
Moriah again gets out of bed and comes out to the porch. She screamed at us, "ENOUGH BASKETBALL! We ALL need to go to bed! Stop that game!" But, we couldn't!!!!!!!!!!!! There was one minute left. She was sighing with disbelief, I mean really, it was her toy!

When the buzzer rang, and time was no more. We walked back in the house and fell on the couch. Our arms dragging the floor. It would have been impossible to try to pick anything up. It was lots of fun and I can't believe we went to that extreme. I woke up this morning with my arms still sore and couldn't remember what I had done. Then, I saw it on the porch. Sitting there staring at me as if to say..."You never got that 50 points, Loser!" I have not caved to it's calling. I don't even remember what the score was last night. But, if I lost, I'm sure John can fill you in on that later!!!!