Rassle, Frassle, Scrabble...

Words, words, words. Have you ever noticed as you check the blogs of expectant couples how one person in the couple seems to be just bursting with thoughts, ideas and entries while the other person, once in a greeeaaaaat whiiiiiile might post? (This sometimes actually occurs when the persistent blogger is giving birth and the non-birth mom or dad has to say something to the blogosphere!)

Anyway, the thought that comes to my mind is that although Susanne is naturally much quieter than I am, and will write much shorter and to the point paragraphs, contrary to popular belief, she is FULL of words. Case in point. Scrabble. We spent some time every day playing Scrabble with Su’s mom in South Carolina. And guess who always won? Susanne. I’d like to point out that Su’s mom is a brilliant PhD who regularly kicks both of our butts with crossword puzzles, but when it comes to Scrabble Su beats her too. But how? Is her brain wired to “see” words that I don’t?

She always ends up getting an inordinate number of those multiple word words (like can take a down word and an across word and somehow bridge things to make a whole new word that gets her all the total points.) And triple word scores? On our board those squares should just read “Susanne’s”. Did you know that if you use all seven of your letters you get 50 extra points? How is that not pouring salt into the wounds of people like me who come up with words like “not” and on the next turn go for the killer “knot”? (Hey there’s 5 points for a “K” you know.)

Anyway, Su’s mom is really excellent and always beats me too (and German is her first language!). It’s all so, so, well…it’s actually quite fun. I’m an eternal optimist and dream of the day when I shall be victorious! (Can you imagine how many points I could get for the word VICTORIOUS?)

I was just e-mailing with my friend Amy this morning and I suddenly remembered that brother Jim is a REALLY GREAT player who won the 2006 U.S. Scrabble Open (who knew there was a National Scrabble Association?) Hmmm…Amy’s coming to visit us next month. Perhaps we should see if her brother might tag along…? (evil right?)

Happy New Year everyone! -Monica