We got hit with another huge snow storm. It started Friday afternoon, and raged through until mid day Saturday dropping around a foot of really heavy wet snow.It took me two hours to get home from work on Friday; cars off the road all over the place along 95, 9 and 4.

Though it was really pretty to watch come down, I don't think many dared go out on the roads Friday night. Most side streets were totally impassable. Even if you had wanted to go out, just getting your car dug out and then slidding through the ice to a road from your driveway or parking area would have been an ordeal. Everyone just hunkered down and stayed in.

I heard that many in surrounding communities lost their power. I was lucky that I didn't, so enjoyed a glass of wine and watched a movie.

I took this picture of the parking area Friday night about an hour after I had gone out and shoved off the steps and walk. There was a lot of snow. And it continued to pile up through Saturday morning.

By Saturday morning, things were pretty deep outside.

No one was going anywhere for awhile.

A view out the back slider. You can see the snow is still coming down pretty hard. I wasn't worried about the party because the weather reports indicated that the worst was over and that things would be clear by evening. That would give the plows plenty of time to free up the roads. But for now, really pretty to look at.

Fortunately, by mid day Saturday the storm had pretty much blown itself out. That gave the plow crews a chance to catch up and get all of the major roads and most of the side streets as well cleared off. Travel was pretty much back to normal, though I'm sure it impacted some folks who might have wanted to come to the party. Even though the roads were back to normal, we all knew that everything had to be dug out.

Marissa had to shovel her car out in case the snow froze; it was supposed to get quite cold Saturday night - which it did - and if she hadn't shoveled out, the risk in leaving the snow piled up was then facing several inches of ice being left behind and her car would have been stuck for sure. She even shoveled out in front of the garage and helped a couple of the neighboors clear up their areas.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Marissa's friend Ashley was in no mood for the camera.

Though I started the optional - but wonderous - "Great Chopping of the Vegetables Passion" on time at 4:00pm and got into the Killian's Irish Red, the games didn't get going until around 5:30pm.

By then, I had finished up with all of the food preparation and the corned beef was on the fire. So, I was able to get onto the boards and mix it up. Pregame smiles were soon replaced by a lot of heated trash talk.

The girls had no interest in playing. Instead, they watched some scary movie up in Marissa's room.

Steve came to play and brought another six of Killian's with him, which we did our best to finish off!

Marissa thought she'd show just how efficiently we went about finishing off that Killian's...

We only smile while we eat; other than that it's all business. Well... we have a good time no matter what we're doing!

Rick clobbered me eight over. Twice I had a sealed board but couldn't hit him if I would have had a two-by-four... it was that bad.

Here we are in some of the final play-offs of the night. Almost every game was close and trash talked down to the last checker comming off the board. We played a little longer than we usually do, and so it was late by the time we started the movie of the night - which was The Departed with Jack Nicholson. Pretty gritty Boston Irish mob type movie, but well done and Nicholson was great.

But, I am sad to report that despite a lot of trash talk and great play to back it up - even sealing up my board several times - I was unable to overcome the cosmic forces of Nature herself that must have been conspiring against me because I went 8 down against Rick Downs.

Despondant, of course, over this loss, I can only threaten great doom and despair against all next time...