a Scrabble weakness

Okay, not really. Yesterday when I was at Barnes and Noble, I happened upon this here Scrabble-doku book of puzzles. And I figured that since it has to do with Scrabble and figuring out words, I'd be pretty good at it.

Let's back up 6 months or so and talk about the time when, visiting S.'s parents in North Carolina, I tried Sudoku for the first time. S.'s stepmom, Janet, patiently taught me how to do it, along with some of the tricks, and I tried it and got very frustrated. Decided it wasn't for me. I'm not a numbers person.

Last night I tried a few Scrabble-doku puzzles, the ones categorized as "beginner," which comes before those categorized as "very easy." I did okay on the first couple. But by the third one I had to cheat a little bit. And I said to S., "I got it but I had to cheat."

Puzzle 4: after a few choice words, I say to S., "I got it but I had to cheat."

And so on. As they get harder, I have to rely on the cheating even more. And I tell myself that the cheating is a way for me to figure out how to get better at the game. Uh, yeah.

the boy's getting good at Scrabble

Last night HE asked ME if I wanted to play a game of Scrabble. Why yes, my love, I'd love to. Just let me pick my jaw up off the floor and I'll be right there.

He's getting so good that he's even begun pouting (he calls it sulking, though I fail to see the difference) when I take the spot he'd been planning on using. He knows the S-rule very well: never use it unless it gets you an extra 8 points. And he's become quite adept at making two or more words at once.

On Sunday night, he put down the word "wed" for many points--it created other two letter words in its wake. In my next turn, I put the word "clean" on top of it, with the A over "wed" and the N over the E. So I made three words: clean, awed, and ne.

S., many minutes after the turn, finally sees what I've done and says, "a-wed" is a word?

Me: Awed, honey. I've been awed with you since we met.

Happens all the time of course. Made me think of the time Hillary got all high on her horse about "his"--prouncing it as a plural "hi" and snarking about it.

He won Sunday, I won Monday. Getting him to suggest a game of Scrabble though is completely my win. He's addicted and there ain't nuttin' he can do about it.

happy birthday to my hun-bun

I gave S. the world's best birthday present on Saturday night: tickets to see the CUBS in June! At Wrigley Field! My first time ever! We were so excited about this that we immediately went online and bought another pair! For a game in July! When it will no doubt be 400 degrees!

My honey, he's happy with his gift.

Not only that, he's becoming a dang good Scrabble player. And I'm becoming a bit of a Cubs fan. I even have a Cubs shirt or two, courtesy of my honey.

I was teaching S. the strategies to get the most points in a Scrabble game, one of the most important being to never use your "S" unless it gets you 8 extra points. See, cuz you can always make more than one word with the "S" and you don't want to just use it blindly. In the early stages, this conversation happened:

Me: Uggggghhhh, you gonna go any time soon?

He: I can do DOT or DOTS.

How cute it he?

He did DOT, saving his S for a better move. Wisely.

He's getting better every time we play, and he's learning the two-letter words. All-important.

I told him if he's good tonight, we can play Scrabble on his birthday. And maybe watch the Cubs. The Red Sox will always be first in my heart because I'm geographically loyal, but this could be fun, this rooting for the losing team.

Happy birthday to my snuggle bear.