I figured Halloween is a great excuse to have a backgammon party! And why not? So eight of us battled it out over the boards, watched horror movies the whole night, had great pizza delivered from Kendall Pond, and vented the weeks frustrations at each other over the bad rolls and beats we all had.

Since it was a Friday night and everyone would be coming from work, we decided not to do a costume thing; we found out last year that it was a little difficult seeing the board through masks as well.

Fortunately, the big wind and rain storm that hit the area held off until Saturday - something like 100,000 people throughout New England lost power. I was lucky as the lights just dimmed a few times here, but losing it during such an important tournament would have provided too many people (myself included, no thanks to Sherrie) with excuses as to bad results!

No one seemed too interested in filling out their score cards, either. Of course, we had a couple of new players who we were showing no mercy to. But, gee - we're going to have to pay a little more attention next time to the cards so at least someone can come away with bragging rights.

That sure wouldn't have been me this month. Sherrie beat me two full matches and it was an emotional downhill for me from there. I mean, how much bad talk can a loser put out? Next time, then...

Sherrie and Marissa fighting it out in one of their many games. No problem with the bad talk here. Emily pretends to watch the game but she is really fixated on the horror movies that were playing all evening - here I caught her engrossed in a scene from Van Helsing.

Russ and I pause for the camera.

Another shot of the game between Russ and me. Note I ready my "fist of fire" for a throw to wipe that smile from his face.

Joe and his dad Wayne came to see what this was all about. Wayne had just learned how to play and was teaching Joe. Kids catch on too fast and he'll be ready for us all next time!

Between matches. Marissa and Colin separated after their brother-sister match from hell; they fight about everything...

Rick working with Joe and Wayne.

Marissa in the background throwing me the "L" sign for loser after one of my unfortunate beats from Sherrie. Please, somebody throw her a slab of red meat or something to distract her... Or call her husband to come get her, or something. Gad...

Rick winding up to batter poor Joe. Gee, Rick: he just learned the game. Any you taught him! And now you're throwing at him? Nice guy...

Steve and Russ bringing their skills up; both are just getting back into backgammon and rather than get into all the yelling from the other players they opted for a quite thoughtfull game between themselves. Won't be long though. Note that without combatants yelling at each other, Emily divides her time between the tv - I think Relic this time, and the game.

The only reason I can think of that Marissa is smiling is because Sherrie is feeding and has slowed her game down, though I think Marissa did better against her than I did. But there's always next time, Sherrie. Next time...

Time out for a little pizza. But then it was back to the boards for awhile more before starting the movie Silent Hill which no one had seen before so they all wanted to stop play for that. Which was fine because the pace of the games had been pretty hot with lots of pair switching so I think everyone was about backgammoned out for the night.

As it was, the last person left sometime after midnight. Marissa had been so sweet, though, and had cleaned up the whole kitchen area and gathered up all the dishes and put them into the dishwasher so I had little to do before heading up to bed. Another successfull party!