Halloween Alley Party, perhaps?

It's going to be a beautiful day on Sunday, which happens to be Halloween, and you know what beautiful days at the end of October mean? Alley Parties! What's everyone doing during the day? Or even in the evening? Let me know if you're going to be around, we'll plan a little get-together.

Who's the Peepin' Tom?

So Jay's been staying at work for the past few nights, and Erin gets a little scared at night, all alone in the Alley. Last night at around 2:40 a.m., someone showed up knocking on Unit B's door forcefully. I thought I was imagining things, but Abe was freaking out and ran to the door. I got a stool so I could see through the peep hole (I'm too short), but there was no one there. Umm, okay... scary. I call Jay, he says it's probably Dave looking for cigarettes. I was too scared to open the door, so I just went back to bed. At 3:00 I'm laying there, and I'm still freaked out, and I'm looking at the windows... and I see someone's head peeking in our middle window. I just freeze, I don't know who this is, it's 3:00 a.m. and I really must be lonely... and freaked out! They walk over to the door and knock again, five times pretty loud... I scurry over to the door, the stool is already set so I can climb on up, and there's NO ONE THERE. I just got so freaked out, I don't know who would knock and not wait for an answer, no less peek inside at 3:00 a.m. So I called the cops, and I told them what happened. They sent someone out, but they sent them to the FRONT door. So I'm standing there, shaking while balancing on the stool and looking out the peephole, and I hear "WEEEOOOooooOOOOOPppppEEEEE!!" (That's our door buzzer.) I scurry to find my keys, I don't want to go outside... scary! "WEEEOOoooOOOOoppPPPPPPEEEeeeoop" again... I run out, talk to the cops, tell them what happened. They said they've gotten some calls of a Peeping Tom lately in this area. Great! I forgot to ask them why the hell would he have knocked?? So maybe it WAS Dave, or some person who was at an Alley party, or something... but I was freaked out anyway. Poor Jay, he drove all the way home at 3:30 a.m. to keep me company 'cuz I was scared... thank you, sweetie! So watch out, don't sleep naked (that especially goes for ground-floor Steve!).

Root Root Root for the Home Team!

Hey all. Yeah, so it's Monday, and if anybody wants some practice for Friday's big Poker game, just head on over to the 'Ham tomorrow, for our regular Tuesday night game. Also in poker-related news, Derek, who works with Josh at the Barrel and who plays on Tuesdays, is in a band. His band plays metal. They are called Trauma Concept. The exciting thing about Trauma Concept, besides once having been the house band during a raging keggah at The Church of Dirt, is that they are going to be part of a metal-based reality show by MTV called Race to Ozzfest. It premieres tonight at 10:30 on the MTV. Tune in.

What the cameras didn't see

I'm sure everyone has this in their email in-box by now, but I thought it was pretty funny, even if it was a forwarded email.

Lowell Open Studios... I think?

Image courtsey of www.jodihays.com

So I'm really not exactly sure what the hell's going on today. It's Sat., and all I know is that I see balloons in front of various buildings and there's a hell of a lot of traffic on Dutton Street. I believe it's Lowell Open Studios day, and it's actually good that I'm typing this 'cuz it forces me to actually find out from the internet what's going on. So it IS Lowell Open Studios, and I know Jodi's studio over on Willie Street (that's just fun to say) is open 12-5. I know Julie is sick (sad face!) and Jay's at work (sad face!) so I might go over by my lonesome. I'll have to watch out for the infamous "herion call." WoooooooOOooooo...

I'm just in a fog right now. My brain ain't working well.

Wow, what a shitty post...

P.S. I think I'm going to be making some of my famous "willy nilly chili" for the game tonight. I might have to change its name to "world series chili" for this season...

Attention!

For all you poker fans: Last night there was some talk about a special Halloween Poker Event at Framingham's Premiere Mini-Casino on Friday October 29. As it stands, there will be a No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament with a $10 buy in. We hope enough players will join that we can provide third- and possibly fourth-place payouts. Yeah! Since this will be happening on a Friday rather than on a "school" night, we hope more of you will be able to make it out. (That means you, Pat and Kate, Felix and Jodi, and the rest of you that never can make it during the week). Because this is a Halloween event, it has been suggested that each player dress as his or her favorite high stakes poker professional.

This one's for the players!

By which of course I mean the Red Sox who are about to take game 7, and of course the card fiends who find their way to my house each week. Game on tonight, channel 25. Game on tomorrow, my house. Everyone's invited. And Matt, I know you had to miss Tuesday. I hope your tests went well, and your interview, too.

Red Sox v. Yankees: can the Red Sox do it??

Game 6: at NYY
Tue, Oct 19 - 8:05 pm EDT
TV: FOX
C. Schilling vs. J. Lieber

Another 8 o'clock game?? I don't think I can do it! I'll have to take a nice nappie poo when I get home from work tomorrow. Unfortunately, the weather will be crappy, so probably no Alley fire to welcome in the New York game(s). But if it's not raining, I think it would be fantastic to light up a small Alley fire, and maybe I'll even make up a batch of veggie chili! Whatdya say?

And good luck to Matt - I hope you figure out how to tie a tie. You'll look smashing in the powder blue sweater...

400

There was a time (before this Alley), that folks went down to the 400 Resturant in Framingham for fun. We'd head down there for skunked beer and surprisingly tasty pizza. The bartenders were nice, and were most likely connected with organized crime.

Purple and gold wallpaper adorned the walls.



Good times. This photo was taken (I believe) with Erin's 0.01 megapixel digital camera.

Yankees suck! ...or do they?

It was a beautiful fall evening... 55 degrees, minimal wind, the smell of sausages, onions, and peppers wafted in the crisp air. It was the Alley! Erin, Jay, Bill, Felix, and Dave (and Paul showed up too) sat around the fantastic Alley fire and watched, in part, the Red Sox v. Yankees 3rd game of the ALCS. Oh, MAN. We sucked, we rocked, we sucked, we rocked... and I'm pretty sure we ended up sucking. I've just come in, it was the 7th, and we were down SEVENTEEN to EIGHT. What the hell?? And to make matters worse, Dave had gone back to his place in the 2nd inning (after puking next to the dumpsters, no lie), only to come back with a Red Sox hat VANDALIZED with "Yankees win Red Sox Suck fuck you" written on it! He did it himself with a Sharpie! What??? Oh, man. So I'm sure by now the Red Sox have suffered yet another loss, which means we have no more pitching staff that will be capable of anything, and we shall yet join the ranks of getting to the Playoffs without doing anything of substance. God Bless the Red Sox!

Anything going on this weekend, Alley- or otherwise?

Poster Poke, I mean Poker Post

I know this is a little late, but there will be a poker game at my house, and yes, the Red Sox game will also be on. Anyone that shows up was probably planning to anyway, and not waiting for me to post the invite, but let me use this as an opportunity to invite you all to our "regular" poker night this Thursday. Done.

How about profiles of the Alley dwellers?

I was thinking, for those people who just randomly showed up at the Alley Formal and for those that just randomly stumble upon this site, they have NO idea who we are. I'm thinking we should get a little short profile of each person, kind of like baseball card stats, and we can set a link up to "Who we are" or something underneath the Alley Central heading. Anyone up for it?

Suggested stats:
- length of time living in Alley
- number of Power Hours survived
- number of beer festivals attended
- favorite Alley beverages

I'm sure there's many more ideas... let me know what you think. Idiotic or brilliant??

UPDATE: I hope these work: here are the links I have, I just don't know how to put the on the site:
Bill
Felix
Jodi
Julie
Derek
Dave
Matt
Jay
Erik
Erin
Dennis
Cuddy

pics from last night

HERE are pics from last night, in case you're too lazy to scroll down.

Also, thought the alley-dwellers might like to know, as we were coming back from shopping today, there was a cop car in the alley and a cop wandering about. He said that they got a call about somebody "living in the alley". Jay said, "Well... we live in the alley!" I guess there was a black guy hanging around. So it's good that they responded. Not good that hobos are hanging around. Unless they're hobos that buy us beer, then we'll let them hang out.

Friday night in the Alley

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES! LOTS OF THEM!

(the pictures at the end are Erik's, and they should be mixed in with all the others but I was too lazy to rearrange them.)

So we started off the night with watching the Sox at Evo's, and thank God they won!! Then we mosied on over to the Alley to start some fire, talk about the spelling of Brandeis (I hope it's spelled right), and break some cheap-ass chairs. We're now in the midst of it, and I'll be posting more I'm sure.

UPDATE: It's now the day after our Alley party, and now Erik, Jay, Dennis and I have just come back from the diner where we saw Steve and Ted. Jay played some tunes on the juke, we had some greasy homefries, and now we're enjoying a fantastic kung fu-soccer movie courtesy of Dennis. Good times! I somehow acquired another box of wine... I think it might be Felix and Jodi's.

How about a Fri. night alley get-together?

I know there's poker tonight (thanks for the obligatory post, Dennis), but what does everyone say to a little get-together in the Alley tomorrow night? Fire, beer, more fire, more beer... whatdya say, kids??

remind her:

Poker tonight. Tuesday night got real cold real fast out on the porch, but we held fast and froze. Tonight, if someone will give me a hand, we're gonna move the table into the foosball room, and shift the foosball table over. And with any luck, we'll implement New Poker Night Rule #1: smoking is allowed in the house on poker night only.

A question, to Matt specifically, but anyone that can answer is welcome to.

I was thinking about that problem Josh has with his computer and, Matt, can you boot Windows from a CD-ROM or something, and run ScanDisk that way and see if maybe ScanDisk'll fix the problem? I know on a Mac I can repair a drive so long as I didn't boot from it. Because, like you said, you'd be hard pressed to find someone willing to install an ickified and possibly viral drive on a computer that is well. Just a thought.

Hot Night in the Alley

I thought we could give "the band" some props. Their name is Hot Day at the Zoo

Will pitch cards for hat.

Obligatory weekly poker post here: Thursday night poker is in the haps. However, due to your other host's inability to make it on Thursday, Josh has declared a Tuesday night game, as well. Anybody in the area this evening, please feel free to stop by. Cool.

Update: Josh finally won a game. Mark came in second. Third place doesn't count for anything.

More pics of the Alley Formal here!

And now, for links to pictures!

CLICK HERE for more of Erin's pics from the Alley Formal!
CLICK HERE for Jodi's pics of the Formal and other alley parties!
CLICK HERE for just the prom-style pics in front of the dumpster!
CLICK HERE for Patrick and Kate's pics.
CLICK HERE for Dennis' photos, from the post below.

The Alley Formal was a huge success, thanks to the talents of the alley dwellers for decorations, wine, food, and good company. It started off with a small game of outdoor poker around 5pm, and slowly but surely, more and more people began to appear. At one point early on in the evening, Dave had counted around 30 people. The Franzia was flowing freely, people were mixing lemoncello with gin, there was snacking on pigs in a blanket. Then the band appeared. It was awesome. Thanks to all who showed up, we had a great time!

For those reading this who were in attendance, please feel free to share some comments with us. Your feedback makes the Alley what it is. Let us know how you liked the party!

Alley Formal Pictures

I tried to get this done last night so you could all wake up this morning and see what you looked like yesterday, but Alley Parties give me headaches so I went to bed instead. Go to my new photoblog (still underconstruction) and check the pics. The dumpster backdrop prom pictures are scattered throughout.

Another Alley Formal Countdown

Does everyone know what they're wearing? Does everyone have a favorite box of wine? Is everyone ready... for the Alley Formal??

So again, Jodi and Felix are running the Kerouac 5K race at noon, and we're planning on meeting up with them at the Worthen after that. Everyone is welcome. Especially if you haven't yet been to the Worthen. Tin ceilings and belt-driven fans. Good times.

Then at around 4 or 5 we'll be kicking off the official Alley Formal. Any questions, comments in verbal form can be forwarded to my cell phone, 508-527-8531. I hope everyone can make it! Weeee! Also, I have been trying in earnest to secure a firepit-sort of thing for the later hours, but have as of yet been unsuccessful. I didn't really want to spend more than $50, and it seems most are around $80. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.