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The Great 2004 Thanksgiving Backgammon Party And Chinese Stir Fry Ordeal 11/13/04


Rick Downs and I had quite a few battles over the backgammon board Thursday night 11/10/04 after karate class. We had so much fun, I invited he and his brother Galen over Sat the 13th at 3 for more. And then I put the notice out to invite everyone! I figured, what the heck: make it a party: An early Thanksgiving party!

Amazingly on such short notice, 8 showed up to battle it out. And what a great time it was! We played a lot of backgammon, I fixed a stir fry Chinese dish of great import, we drank too much beer and wine, and we watched some movies (Rick Downs brought Van Helsing and that was a great hit). Nothing special, but it was great fun!

At the last backgammon event that we had - The Great 2004 Halloween Backgammon Party And Pizza Bash 10/31/04 - we just kept score on the percentage of games won. However, this time I wanted to get everyone using the cube. So, from now on score will be based on points won rather than games. I will keep track of our play standings on a new Thoughts On Backgammon page on my website.



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Galen Downs looks on as Mike Houdek and Rick Downs go at it over the board.


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Bruce Vinciguerra and David Houdek pause in their game to smile for the camera.


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Dawn Vinciguerra prepares for her next game...


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Bruce and Dawn Vinciguerra in side by side over the board action. Dawn, is there really an opponent across from you or are you just toasting to your last victory?


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That's me starting to chop up the vegetables for the stir fry. Braced with knife in one hand and glass of wine in the other, I am prepared for battle with the wok. Actually, I just made it up as I went. I had gone to the store earlier in the day and got red, yellow, and green sweet peppers, 1/2 pound of snow peas, a small red onion, leaks, scallions, bean sprouts, several pounds of chicken, a large box of mushrooms, and some fresh tomatoes. Julie Anna Knoettner contributed some fresh ginger root which I combined with 4 huge cloves of garlic some light soy sauce as a base and BOOM!: a great Chinese stir fry was had by all.


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Dawn Vinciguerra helps Galen Downs learn the game. Galen had never played before but had been over with his brother Rick many times to watch and party. I talked him into sitting down with me to learn the moves. He did great and then went on to play 2 games during the tournament, which he got credit for on the club stats. You're on your way to screaming and talking bad at each other like the rest of us, Galen!


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Bruce Vinciguerra gives a rather smug smile obviously reflecting his feeling about the game he is playing against Rick Downs. Ya, but I'm looking for you, Bruce and you won't be smiling so much then...


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Oh, oh: here it comes... Bruce, you really don't want to take that double I just threw at you, do you? Both Rick and Galen Downs kibitz from the cheap seats egging him on to take the double - which he did.


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Ah, see what happens, Bruce! You shouln't have taken that double. You doubted the magic chair roll and now you point the finger at me? Naaaaaaawwwwwww - won't do you any good at all.

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