Patriots Win!!

We opened up the bar last night for the first of three football parties. House rule? Root for the Pats, or deal with me. Second house rule? DRINK! And we don't mean watah.

The Man and I were home and ready to go around 3:00 after making a special run to buy the 'Lucky Parrot'. More on that later. We watched the Greenbay/Seahawks and waited for people to show. Our game started at 9:00 St. T time, so we invited people 'anytime after 7:00'.

Around 8:30-9 we had a group watching the pre-game outside the bar...:

...and inside the house:

Here's one of our buddies from ME (he teaches down here) showing off his jersey (who would've thought Moss would have ONE CATCH last night...!!!):

The menu at our house for parties...frozen entrees, dogs, burgers, wings, cheese/crackers, chips, dip - all served on paper plates and classy plastic-ware. We asked people to bring either ice or something dessert-ish. We figured with all the drinks (and our Margarita machine working overtime) we went through 100+ pounds of ice last night.

Another shot of our buds:

Last year we had parties throughout the playoffs, but obviously we didn't know the amount of people we know this year, so it was easier for me to pay 100% attention to the games. This year our group has grown, and when you add in the friends I'm making through my waitressing gigs and we ended up with 25-ish people making their way over. Normally I can't tear my eyes away from a game, but after the first couple of touchdowns I started getting dragged away to greet people as they came in, making sure people had a drink in their hands, introducing everyone to everyone and taking people upstairs to see the birds (it was by request only, we had them locked away for the night...).

I always made my way back to the bar though. Here's our buddy Billy, Dave and myself getting ready to knock back some Jager *gag*:

And me quickly chasing it down with beer while swinging around to get my eyes back on the game (do you see the Lucky Parrot glass?):

In the above pic the red Lucky Parrot glass is sitting on the bar awaiting it's next 'passing'. When the Patriots score we pass the Parrot around to everyone in the party so that they can 'love' it. You can love it in any number of ways, the number # way is to take a shot of whatever we fill it with. Last night it was Cruzan 151 Dark Rum and a splash of coke. Nah-ASTY stuff. Some people choose to love the Parrot by kissing it's beak instead of 'shooting it'. Which is also fine. The main idea is that you physically touch it. The Lucky Parrot started last year, but the Parrot was yellow...and sometime after the season ended we found it broken. When we announced our playoff party plans a number of people asked if we were going to have a Parrot glass, so yesterday we made a special run to get a new one, and this time I made sure to pick red. There was much Parrot love last night.

Here's a shot of me working the bar and knocking fists with a Green Bay fan:

Note my second superstition (the Parrot being the first one), my pink Pats hat looped into my belt loop on my hip. I always wear it on gameday, but I got my hair did this past Friday and didn't want to stuff it under a hat; so instead I belted it. As long as the hat is on my body somewhere the superstition still works (just in case you were wondering).

After the game ended we put our drunken skills to work on yet another round of the popular Guitar Hero. Here's a couple of people getting their rock on - I waitress with the girl, the guy came as a friend of a friend:



The game ended somewhere around midnight, and by that point we were a pretty drunk crew. We continued hanging until sometime after 1AM, then the party quickly dwindled down to just a few people and eyes started shutting. We shut the doors around 1:30 and hit the sack. Today we got up, did a little bit of clean-up and hit the beach for a few hours. I finished the clean-up a few hours ago while we watched the Colts/Chargers, Giants/Dallas and our taped replay of the Pats game.

And that completes the photo wrap-up of our first Tiki bar get together. Next Sunday we'll do it all over again: Gametime 4PM. Our opponent? The Chargers, and I will say I'm disappointed that it's not the Colts. That's been the game of the year for the past few seasons, and as gut-wrenching as the games are I was looking forward to a rematch. I can't believe the upset earlier today. I also can't believe how solid the Giants look right now, although I don't see them winning in Green Bay next week.

It's about time for us to hit the sack. We're wiped.