Barry McLaughlin (PondWater)

It all started very quietly. You can see the unfinished Poetry Machine sitting expectantly in the corner.

Barry arrives, like Felix the Cat, with his magic bag of tricks!

Bobby (who is Not Steve) is amused in spite of himself, Todd is just purely amused.

Julie and Alexandra facing the wall while Barry is in the kitchen hiding the hedgehog.

Barry Hiding the Hedgehog

Julie doesn't even bother to look for the hedgehog, but instead uses her time to refill her wine glass. This is an example of why we've been friends since we were 17.

Alexandra found the hedgehog. She is a Baines - She WILL win!

Barry challenging an audience member. The television is set up there so that he could show very short, funny films called Nuggets.

Barry being a target.

Rebecca & Colin. I can't remember if this was a challenge or a prize.

Bulls eye!

My first instinct is to feel bad for this, but then I remember that it was his game and he is the one that thought it was a good idea to give Rebecca a weapon. Don't ever give anyone in this house a weapon.

Barry explaining the rules for the game How Many Peeps Are In This Can? while Jules and Todd pay rapt attention. Jules won the peeps. The can too, I think.

The audience was divided into three teams; the winners, the weiners, and the whiners. The whiners won and everyone got candy bars!

Because it was April and both Alexandra and Julie have birthdays in April we decided that after dinner we would have a pinata. We've never had a pinata before and it's fairly clear that no one else that was here had either. It was full of candy, disposable lighters, disposable razors and little bottles of vodka.

Horror fiction writer, Pamila Payne, was first at bat.

Eddie pulled the string, some sort of pinata trickery that I don't understand, I mean, she's already blindfolded, how is a person ever supposed to hit the thing? The pinata got stuck in the tree.

Todd released it, he's very tall and that often comes in handy.

Alexandra was supposed to go next, but for some misguided reason she chose to let Todd go before her. This is Alexandra trying to spin Todd around. No, really, how many disadvantages does one need against a pinata?

Here we go. I do not know what Todd has against pinatas, but the desire for vengeance is so apparent here.

Well, I guess this shows that there were not enough disadvantages. Todd beheaded the thing on the first swing, game over. I'm pretty sure that we were supposed to have some kids and a stick, not Todd and a baseball bat, but this is how you learn. Well, maybe not you, but this is how I learn. The other thing I learned is that adults will not scramble around in the grass for pinata innards. I think that it was at this point that Alexandra said so we just come out here in the morning for candy and liquor?