Well, it's tradition at this point: each year I celebrate being here at The Garrison with a backgammon party get together. This is my fourth year (and my 42nd backgammon party here at The Garrison!), and I just had to have the same thing, Spaghetti Bolognese. And we watched the same movie, Top Gun - but only in regular DVD format as it's just coming out in Blu-ray in the next month or so. I told everyone that I'd have a special party just for that!

I started sipping wine and chopping around 4:30 Saturday afternoon. It seems no matter how little or how much chopping that I have to do, by the time I start and the meal is ready - barring longer cooking times like this sauce had - it's two and a half hours!

Well, no different this time. I didn't get the final full ingredient sauce mix completed and into simmer mode until around 5:30pm. It was supposed to simmer covered for an hour and a half, then another hour uncovered. At 8:00pm I pulled the garlic bread out of the toaster oven and drained the noodles. Success, and everyone enjoyed it. I know they did because there was no games being played and no conversation. It was all business while we ate.

Tim House had brought an amazing Cabernet by Charles Shaw, and the two of us - with a little help from Steve - did that, no problem. We also had some generic Carlo Rossi Piasiano that was pretty good as well.

The weather was perfect and the rain held off until just as the last were leaving around 11:00pm. And then it poured. In fact, it poured all night. But worse, after everyone left, I just couldn't go to bed. I went back in and put the Blu-ray movie Invincible on and watched that, but had to have the sound way up in parts because the rain was pounding down so hard I couldn't hear it! It's a tough life...

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This is where things stood about 5:00 as I was finishing up the prep work. Everything is ready to go together...

Tim and Rick go at it yet again at another party. But no yelling or trash talk; what's up with that, guys?

I stirred and tasted the sauce about every fifteen minutes to make sure everything was blending up well. It was...

Steve and I getting down to it. As you can see, he dropped the beer in favor of sampling the nice Cabernet Tim had brought.

Tim and Rick. Again. Guys, throw, move, and pick 'em up. Pretty straight forward...

Steve and Rick take a crack at each other.

For overall whoop-ass, that honor would have to go to me with my 9 point stomp here on Tim House.

Marissa consoling Tim so he won't take home the other bottle of wine that he brought with him.

Short dinner break and then we were all back to it.

Marissa couldn't wait to get at Tim again. What's he doing with the checkers?

Steve between games. He was wondering when we were going to start Top Gun. We were all a little bumed out that it would be a month or so before it comes out on Blu-ray. I told everyone that I'd get it and we'd have a special party just for that event!

Marissa on the way out to other "stuff" showing off the new DVD Resident Evil - Extinction that I had got her for her birthday.

Marissa grabbed the camera from me and took this shot. What a pair!

Waiting for the movie to start.