So what happens when you put two competitive "first children" in the same room and make them play "Scrabble" against one another night after night all the while keeping the "Season Series Score" so that someone has bragging rights at the end of the winter? Well, I am not sure what would "normally" happen, but around here..........
1. Sari cheats! Now she will deny this (In fact, she will say, "I didn't mean to cheat, so it is not cheating") however the facts are......
(a) Three games ago I happened to glance at the score sheet (or as she would say, "You were so scared that you were losing really badly that you looked to see how many points you had to try to make up") and one line of Sari's accounting looked a little off. When questioned about it (and accused of cheating) she suddenly dropped the score by 10 points ("I forgot that I was not carrying a one") and then I was given a helpful suggestion from her ("Shut up!" I think it was).
(b) Then two games ago, near the end, Sari played a word with a blank tile and started to count her points. I looked around the board and realized that there were three "blanks" on the board.... all played by Sari. Normally this would not be a problem except for the fact that the game only contains TWO BLANKS!! As it turns out, at about the third word of the entire game, Sari had "Accidentally"(and therefore not cheatingly) turned an "i" over and used it as a blank...... again proclaiming her innocence.
I find it odd that in a game consisting only of words she continues to debate the definition of "cheating". Good thing you only have to spell the words and not define then or live by them, I guess. :)
2. Beyond the cheating, another factor that comes into play is our (notice the plural) ignorant playing style. "Ignorant" as in "too stubborn to play any word that may give the other person even the least little bit of an advantage or even hope that the game may ever actually end". We both avoid opening up "Double letter/word scores" like the plague and have been known to forgo playing a very good word in order to play something like "at" in a really confined space in the hopes that our opening up nothing makes the other person suffer even more badly. The "United Nations" or "Hippy love convention" it is not! The odd thing here is that I am not at all surprised that I act this way (The Pippus name has long been associated with Ignorance and Stupidity) but from Sari..... tsk, tsk, tsk.
3. Sari plays so SLOWLY that it forces me to be somewhat whiny. Mind you, I guess I am also sort of whiny when she plays very quickly and gets a good score too.... but the point still is that my whining is still actually Sari's fault.... and yet, somehow, I am the one who gets told to "Grow up!" (See how unfair this is?????)
4. Neither one of us is overly happy when we win. In fact, the end of the game is less like Paul Henderson's series winning goal against the Russians in 1972 (sticks being thrown in the air and grown men jumping up and down hugging each other and crying) and more like the end of a heavy weight prize fight where the two completely battered, bloody, tired dudes look at one another and say "meh" .... neither one knowing or caring whether they won or not..... they are just happy that the beating has ended.
Currently the series is something like 5-4 for me (Sari cleaned my clock for two games - without too much cheating - and I eked out a one point win in the last game) and the battle rages on.
"If it is so horrible and painful, why don't you just stop playing Scrabble?" you ask.
What? And miss all the fun? :)
(PS. Watch the comments section below for Sari's rebuttal as I am sure she will think that I somehow changed some of the facts here... but if I have "cheated" with the truth a bit - the good news is that I did not mean to so........) ;)
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A couple of other things.....
1. I will post pictures soon (this weekend hopefully) of sleigh rides, skating, etc, etc..... so if you like pics better than wading through all these words - stay tuned.
2. I wrote this blog while eating gingerbread men from "Dutch Bakery" in MJ (Courtesy of my sister). Mmmmmmm!!!! When we were kids, mom used to take us in there to get gingerbread men and all sorts of other yummy stuff and - let me say - though I am not a "food guy" at all..... this is one place that would be on my "All-star list" (if I had such a thing for food/restaurants/etc). If you are ever in MJ, you MUST go to "Dutch Bakery". It is just south of the spa and (to me) it is one of the highlights of MJ. Say "hi" to Robin and tell her that Debbie sent you (It likely will not get you a discount or anything, but she will think it is funny!) Mention the name "Pippus" and you may get a discount.... sort of a "protection" thing, right? But that may lead to jail time too so........ Either way - Yum! :)
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