Well, we had so much fun last week with the movie Bad Boys that we decided to get together tonight and see Bad Boys 2 and celebrate the first snowstorm of the season from Monday! Hey, a little pizza, some backgammon, and a rowdy movie — how much better can it get!

I ran out to get some chips and stuff and it had started snowing; very pretty. Went to the new Hannaford's market that just opened right down the road from me. Didn't have a lot of time to wander the isles and check it all out, so I'll have to go back and do some price comparisson and see where they stand on stuff that I buy regularly. I was surprised at how much traffic there was getting back to the condo, though I guess everyone was taking it easy with the glaze of slippery snow on the streets.

The evening started out with a couple of bowls chips, and a cheese and turkey kielbasa plate before I ordered out for pizza from Kendall Pond here in Dover. Backgammon is a great social activity because at the party level we play it at, there's lots of conversation and trash talk going on. And because you can run a game out in under fifteen minutes, there's lots of diversity of action to provide lots of entertainment.

You know, I feel that because of our digital society, it's just too easy to sit in front of the computer monitor or tv and become absorbed into the cyber world. I know I fall prey to that a lot, so it's nice to be able to get together with others and interact socially face to face. There's just something missing in text messaging, chat rooms, email, blogs, etc that have become so much a part of our society's sole modes of communication and personal interaction.

Anyway, it's fun to have friends over for these games and then the movie of the night. Oh, and as a couple of people who had seen both of the Bad Boys movies said, they didn't know which one if either was better than the other. And after seeing them both, I'd have to agree. If you like action films, then I don't know how you could get much more entertaining than these two movies.

But it ended up being a pretty late night. Since it was Friday, we didn't get started really until around 6:30. Everyone got so wrapped up in the games that by the time the pizza came and we ran out another few rounds of play, we didn't get the movie going until almost 9:45pm. It was almost 11:30pm by the time the credits rolled, so there was a rush for the door except for Steve who stayed for awhile to play out another set of three games while we listened to George Thourgood rock 'em out.

All I can say is that I haven't got to bed that late in a long time. But after the really crummy week that I had with badly strained back muscles from a futile attempt to shovel off the deck at the height of the storm Monday, it didn't really matter; I just slept in Saturday morning and didn't worry about it.

And... some of us just can't get enough and so Saturday night, a few of us got together yet again for some backgammon, take out Chinese, and another action movie. It just never ends... but we do have fun!

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Rick surveying the action while waiting for me to get back to the table to continue the game. Note that it appears at this particular time that he has one of my checkers dancing on the bar. Maybe I thought that by leaving the table for awhile to get another beer the situation would change. It didn't for that game — or the next, as I recall...

I thought Linda and Tim were going to come to blows over a couple of their games. She's a good all around board game player but new to backgammon. She hasn't quite yet figured out that you can't just take every checker you can nab and race around making threats all over the place without absorbing some punishment. But her trash talk has improved over the last couple of sessions, and she's starting to see some of the more subtle moves.

Steve arrives looking for the snacks and a game - both of which he found pretty quickly.

Sure, they can all smile now... But as soon as the game started again, it was all business.

Rick is growling under his breath through that smile that he's gonna kick my ass again, and I'm reminding him that he started out this tournament 10 down from Thursday night's play after karate class at Applebee's; his dice were so cold then that he had to wear gloves to play...

Sure, they can laugh about it now... but you should have seen their expressions when they were sitting across from each other.

We don't even stop to eat; the games just keep right on going.

Tim impatiently waiting to see where I'm going to move my checkers after throwing my third big double of the game.

I caught the action as everyone shifted pairs for the next series.

And here's Tim and Rick yipping at each other even on the way out the door at the end of the night. They just don't stop nagging and picking at each other.