Croquet, anyone?
On Saturday, we invited over a bunch of people for Violently Competitive Croquet, eats and drinks. Jason and his very pregnant wife were there, as were Shawn, Dave Marli, Chris Budd, Paul and Maureen. We were a little concerned that it might be too warm, since the high was around 105F. Those worries were completely unfounded though, thanks to the "dry heat" for which Arizona is famous. We had some pretty good shade on the pitch and a cooler full of beverages. It worked splendidly. Most of us hadn't seen Shawn in a while, so that was nice. At one point, he threatened to pull out baby pictures, so the gloves were off and Violently Competitive Croquet was on.
We play a variation where you become "poison" after completing a circuit of the course and hitting the starting post. Jason mentioned some crazy Nebraska variant where you become poison after completing a circuit and going back through the center hoop. We may have to try that some day, but that day was not Saturday.
Anyway, the first game came down to Jason and Chris, who were poison, and Paul, who was not poison. There were two teenage girls sitting 20-30 yards from the end of the field, and at one point they appeared to be partaking of Forbidden Pleasures. Paul was being a wuss and spent most of his time whacking his ball away from Jason and Chris - and coincidentally towards these two nymphets, so naturally they decided to team up against him to put a quick end to that. Eventually Paul was knocked out and Chris went on to win. This was Chris's first time playing croquet, at least using our rules.
The next game saw the women partaking, with the exception of Daniella, as Shawn and Dave Marli had other places to be. I was poison first in this one, but Chris was right behind me and used the "regular balls can kill poison through a wicket" rule to take me out before I had much of a chance. The field got a little dark towards the end, and Chris eventually won this one as well.
It was later than we expected by now, so most people took off, but Paul and Maureen came back to the house, and we fixed dinner, had some drinks and partook of Cranium. Mo was exhausted and Paul was sloshed, so they spent the night rather than drive home. A good time was had by all.