Saturday 07/03/10 I held The Great 2010 4th of July Backgammon Tournament And Chinese Stir Fry Fireworks party at my condo. It was a beautiful day, though hot enough for me to keep the air conditioner on.

Just a few of us as this is 4th of July holiday weekend with most having 'stuff' to do. That's okay. This is my 'stuff' to do!

I got back right at 4:00pm from doing the shopping and Sue arrived around 4:30 or so. I had most of the heavy lifting food prep done so had a chance to show her how to play backgammon. We just about got through the first full game after I had explained the rules to her when Linda showed up. So, I went back in the kitchen to finish the prep work and let Linda take over. They played a couple of games and I'm thinkin' that Sue is gonna be another one of those that just doesn't like to lose, as one of the pictures I got of her seems to indicate. Oh, boy....

By the time I got around to fixing the Chinese chicken and cashews stir fry with scallions in sherry and ginger root, the whole condo was nice and cool and held that through dinner and the movie of the night, Wolfman (2010).

After we got about half way through the movie, we paused for about 15 minutes to enjoy the cake that Jim and Chris had brought topped off with the ice cream that Linda had brought. Nice....

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Sue arrives with a couple of desperately needed plants to bring some 'character' to my back deck. That's 'Betty' to the right. She monitors condo traffic, has no thoughts on global warming, electromagnetic phenomena, or the price of Sebastiani Cabernet....

The Plant Lady making things right at Number 17....

Sue, is that a curled up fist of death and the steely-eyed glare of a combatant I see from you in only your second game of backgammon? Yeow! Stand back from the fence, ladies and gentlemen....

Am I having a great time, or what!

Rick and Linda before battling it out over the board, at which point their expressions were quite different.

Jim and Chris arrive ready for dinner and the movie!

The boards have been cleared from the table in preparation for the chef to finish his work and the food to come out!