Halloween and a full moon! Hey, what better time to have a backgammon party!

Since the weather is cooling off, I decided to fix a Spanish Pork With Pisto recipe that I had tried several weeks ago and really thought came out great.

I started preparations at 4:00pm with a glass of Chilean red wine I had found, put on one of the several horror movies I had picked up for the night, and started chopping vegetables.

It must have come out pretty good because when the dust cleared, there wasn't anything left of the 8 pork chops, several yellow squash, zucchini, red and green sweet peppers, onions, etc. that I had fixed. No wine left either... Oh, and no pizza left either! I had thrown a pizza into the oven for those that weren't sure about the fancy food, and: gone; nothing left except some melted cheese smudges on the pan. Success!

There were some great costumes, wild backgammon, and just a lot of fun. Thanks to all who came over and made this another successful party!

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Marissa had stopped by earlier in the day and carved my pumpkin for me. She got on the Internet and found some pictures of carved pumpkins and we picked one we liked. She sketched it out on a piece of paper, and as you can see from the pictures, it came out great! We put a candle in it and had it lit up most of the evening, shimmering through the drizzle and fog of the scary cool night air...

Speaking of the drizzle and fog, here's a late afternoon shot out the back slider door. Pretty dismal - but just right for a full moon Halloween party!

Marissa showing off her artwork. Great job, Ris! Gotta love it...

Not only am I all set to start cooking, I'm all set for the party! I'm supposed to be a pirate ship's cook... It's only about 4:00pm, though, and it's just Marissa and me to hold the fort down until the others arrive, and then she had to leave to take care of some issues that came up, which only left me to my own devices for a little too long without some sort of supervision. If you look closely at the picture, you'll see I'm holding a small - what turned out to be a very hot - pepper of some kind. After Marissa left, I cut it up and just put my finger in my mouth to see just how hot it was; my lips will return to normal in a couple of days... But it went just great with the meal!

Brian was our first arrival. Amazing entrance... I wonder what the neighbors thought... And I'm sure you will notice the finger across the camera lens. Yes, folks, that would be me, and it happens quite often... Why do they put the lens in the way like that?

Marissa's pumpkin lit up. Not too clear because I was standing in a pretty heavy drizzle to get this shot - as you can notice from the little white drops on the lens.

And Linda arrived shortly after Brian with a great costume, though she was in no mood to pose in the rain.

Ah, out of the rain and ready to play some backgammon... will the great costume blind her opponents? Stay tuned...

Fireman Tim arrives with an emergency bottle of Fire Station Red Shiraz, just in case. Adrienne and Gary are the greeters.

Colin, Adrienne, Marissa, and Gary around the board while one of the horror movies plays in the background.

Fireman Tim making his way through the crowd while Linda and Brian are so engrossed in their play that they totally ignore him. Of course, that just sets up the scene for some great games among all of them pairing off throughout the evening - and into the night.

Fireman Tim on the prowl after harassing everyone in the living room. Sure, sure - sit down and play and quit talking about how it's all gonna go down...

Rick Downs arrives with can only be described as an amazing costume.

Rick's entrance stops the action as everyone turns to check him out.

The costume was so huge that we wouldn't let him out of the kitchen with it on as he would have wiped the whole place out. But it was a grand entrance!

Linda and Brian pause for the camera in one of their many battles of the evening. Linda must have been practicing her trash talking because she won her first game against Brian. Maybe that's why she is looking relaxed at this particular moment, sort of basking in the glory of it all before starting a new game - the checkers are all lined up and waiting.

Steve had just arrived and I noticed that the rain had let up so I rushed out to get a better picture of Marissa's pumpkin and the doorway. Pretty festive looking!

Linda and Brian at it again, Rick waiting for an open board out of the four that we had going, and Tim and Gary working through a game.

Steve as Jack Bower of 24 fame positioning himself for the next open board.

Gary and Marissa going at it with some of the others in the living room switching between playing and watching Halloween II that I had playing at the time.

The chef at work in a cloud of steam coming off of the pot of vegetables I'm working on. It's a wonder I didn't set the fire alarm off this time... that's what usually happens to me.

Steve and Brian going at it while another movie plays - this one was Van Helsing; a great action and special effects flick.

Rick, Tim, Courtney, Marissa, and Gary in action in the dining room with Colin and Adrienne either watching the movie or harassing someone playing at the board on the table in front of them.

The chef was having so much fun in the kitchen that I didn't even get in one game! Can you believe it! My party and I didn't get a chance to mix it up even once! I'm disgusted with myself, but I think everyone really enjoyed the meal so that's something, I guess.

Getting the pork chops cooking after marinating for a couple of hours.

Steve and Brian clowning it up before locking down across the board from each other.

Everyone got so wrapped up in Van Helsing that the games ceased in the living room. However, there was a group in the dining room that just wouldn't let up and kept playing right up until we started the movie of the night, Transformers - and everything stopped for that: we turned the lights way down and the surround sound up and had a great time! But it was late when the movie finished up - after 11:00pm - and so though a few hung around for a little while, most of the others headed out. Rick, Brian, and Steve had to make it up early for their usual Sunday morning karate workout over on Four Tree Island down in Portsmouth, though Steve hung around for a little while chatting and helping with some of the clean up.