Another Fine Dinner Party

I had not gotten my act together to throw any parties after Jesse's departure back in December (well, I did help John and Cesar put on the Holiday Ham endeavor, but that was in San Francisco; and I might add that they couldn't quite wait for my return but are throwing a similar shindig tonight). I was a little nervous that after months of relatively antisocial behavior I might have forgotten how to do such a thing, especially without a co-conspirator. After all, while Hubert and Alex were staying with me, they made clear that they had prior commitments during the day and would be arriving late to the festivities.
But I will say that all went splendidly. A total of five scintillating guests made their way here (several other invitees sent regrets) and we had a raucous good time eating fruit salad, Jesse's buckwheat recipe, spaghetti, and watermelon.
We did encounter some difficulties opening wine bottles, I am afraid, as some time earlier the good corkscrew had broken (being made primarily of plastic) and I managed to break the backup corkscrew on the first bottle of the evening (evidently its operative part was either plastic or was of a metal with no tensile strength whatsoever).
The method of opening the wine bottles, then, was one that involved coaxing the corks further into the bottles rather than out of them. This is not an easy task since the further one presses the cork, the more compressed the air in the bottle becomes. It is a somewhat hazardous endeavor, but we did succeed in opening two bottles without damages to anyone's person or clothing.
As can be seen from the photos, this is a team effort and involves considerable labor, physical strength, and ingenuity. Luck is also a factor. We decided to quit after the second bottle. It was not a heavily imbibing crowd, although the amount of merriment over the YouTube selections watched on my laptop might have suggested otherwise.
We gave the neighbors a rest from our antics around half-past twelve.