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The Great 2005 Halloween Backgammon Tournament And Italian Rigatoni With Meat Sauce Scare-A-Thon 10/29/05 |
What better time for a backgammon party than Halloween! So on Saturday night Oct. 29th I hosted The Great 2005 Halloween Backgammon Tournament And Italian Rigatoni With Meat Sauce Scare-A-Thon! How great is that?
Because it was Halloween, rather than ending the evening with a movie as we usually do, we played scary movies all day!! We did: The Exorcist, The Relic, and Van Helsing. Scream was on standby, but we never got to it. Some were distracted by the movies because they had not seen some of them. So games were sporadic but the bad talk never stopped.
Everybody seemed to have a great time, and some even came in costume! We had an Italian mixed meat sauce recipe on rigatoni, garlic bread and salad and finished off the evening with Rachel's "dirt cake". It was a pretty late night too, but the candle in Marissa's pumpkin on the front steps burned through the whole night.
I had 14 show up, and almost everyone played. I had planned on doing like we did last time with 2 points to win a match with the two top match scorers having a championship 5 point battle to win frist prize. But with the distractions of the movies, dinner, the cake, more food, movies, bad talk, movies and all that - time just got away from us and when someone finally looked at the clock and we all sort of jointly discovered that it was 11:30, everyone just folded up and headed out. The long and the short of it was that we didn't have the championship match and so noone won the coffee mug first prize. I'll save it for next time!
Marissa begins carving the pumpkin.
Getting the top right was a little difficult.
And it proved to be a pretty messy process.
Finally! The creation is done. The Ar-tiest poses with the completed work.
But can you tell what it is?
She stuck a candle in it and it looked really neat on the front steps - even for a week after the party. Note the orange outside light - it was quite a hit as well because it had witches painted on it that shown through. Pretty neat actually!
Before anyone could enter the party, they had to try to guess what it was. Here is Tim House studying it closely... What'dyathink, Tim?
Josh is smiling because he almost figured out what the pumpkin was. Welcome Drac! Hope your backgammon game is as good as your pumpkin guess...
Linda Williams trying to make some point, probably relavant to something but I really can't see that anyone was listening. Hello, Linda. Ya gotta have someones attention before you say anything!
Rick and his brother Galen came ready to party! I know, I know: "Before you go out for that final snack... I want you to know I'll be right back! HA!" And Arf! Arf! to you, Alf!
Colin made it over but was more interested in the movies than the backgammon. I think he was just afraid of the competition!
Tim House and Rick Downs square off against each other - for about the 4th time of the evening, I think.
Just focus on the games guys! Not the tee-vvvvvvvvvvv...
Is anybody gonna play backgammon here or what?
Tim just couldn't help himself. We'll get you a 6" to put next to your board next time, ok, Tim? Like we'd want you operating on us with an attention span like that!
Marissa and Hanah prepare to "scare the crap" out of Sherrie as she was about to arrive.
A shot of me during one of my games. I should have smiled. But I was winning so I save the smiling for the end! Well, that's a good line anyway...
Must be between movies. The action was pretty hot a lot of the time, actually. I just got more pictures of folks gaping at the tv instead of heads down play. But here's one where the focus is on the game!
Linda getting some of the great sauce we had. I ate that sauce for two weeks after the party and it was better each time as the sauce really got into the meat.
Lisa trying to keep it on the plate. Everyone had rigatoni - no pizza! A first! Amazing...
Rick Downs and Marissa in a lapse from the many battles over the board they had.
Scott and Linda Williams pause in both their game and in eating. When the play was on, folks were really into it for sure! Even playing through dinner. And that's when you know the competition is good...
Cinderalla... er, Sherrie, arrives with cookies! She is about to be ambushed by Marissa and Hanah who you can see flying around the back of the car at her.
But they all settled down and played some good backgammon. Sherie and I played several games as well. We're still fixing for a huge battle of terror at some point.
Rick Downs fights it out with Russ Jones from Laconia as Rick's brother Galen laughs at them both.
We had so many boards going, it was really something. We had three boards at the dining room table alone! It was great night, and great to spend it with such wonderful friends! Thanks to all for coming and making this another great time!