Monday, March 19, 2012

Games Games Games Come Get Your Games..and Watch This Spot for a Giveaway coming soon


My mother did crossword puzzles for as long as I can remember.  She had special dictionaries to help her find the right word for the right spot...12down an eight legged web spinner 8 letters fourth letter is c.  I know you  were  thinking spiders but it doesn't call for a plural s, and there's that wicked c in there to muddy the water.  So what could it be?  Think about it, it will come to you by the end of this I'm sure.  We learned to like the solving of the word mysteries and so became addicted to them.  By the time I was in my forties, they had become a chore to be done with the morning coffee .  I was often on the phone with Mama trying to see if she had the answer to one that had escaped my brain.  I couldn't leave the paper's offering until every word had been placed.  It haunted me.

Scrabble is another of my favorite games.  When Mac and I were first married and with his Navy career we were often on the move, I carried my scrabble board in a large hand bag.  I have been known to play me, myself and I.  When we were moving into a new neighborhood, the first thing I wanted to know about the neighbors was who played Scrabble.  I  had my kids addicted to it by the time they were in third and fourth grade.  My granddaughter has played since the second grade.  We're wordaholics.  And then someone introduced me to Facebook.  It was a disaster waiting to happen.  That same someone challenged me to a game of Word With Friends.  I didn't know what it was exactly, but I went to check it out and accepted the challenge.  The first game went quickly and so we played another and then my Sister(in law) challenged me and we played and I was still playing with the first of my friend's  then my nephew and then my niece and then my cousin and then another cousin and then two more friends.  Well, by the end of the first month I had 27 games going simultaneously.  I wasn't sleeping because I had to keep up with the games between housework and gardening and  some of my friends got testy if I left making a play to long.   I began to long for the days of crossword puzzles and scrabble.  I did the only thing I could do in the circumstances.  I stopped.  Cold turkey.  I resigned every game and quit.

So now I play Gardens of Time, Hidden Chronicles and Blackwood and Bell.  But it isn't a problem.  I have lots of neighbors to help me get my little kingdoms completed.  I can quit whenever I want.  But just this morning I noticed that Cat Clark has challenged me to a game of Word With Friends and I feel that one game would clear my head and make me a better person.  I'll just keep it to one or two friends...maybe three.  But definitely no more than five games at once.  I'll have to be careful though, these games have a way of luring you in and  like the arachnid will wrap you in webs of games with promises of wealth and fame...and next thing you know you're in Farmville slopping the hogs that your neighbor gifted you with.  And they never gift you with fences, you know.  Did you notice I slipped the answer to the crossword question in there?  Maybe I'll just go dig my crossword book out of the closet.  I wonder where I put my crossword dictionary.

17 comments:

Lee said...

Wow, Sandi! 25 games at once is a huge amount. No wonder you stopped. Hope I'm among the few select that you play words or scrabble with now. I've been missing them too.

Love,
Lee

Vee said...

Yes, I did, you clever gal! I was saying that it had to be one given the eight legs hint earlier.

My mother and grandmother were the Scrabble players in this house. Me? Not so much. Once a year at the lake or something and that covers me for another year.

Carver said...

You really were hooked. I've never done the crosswords very much although some of my family does. The one I used to do and my parents and I would call about is the jumble and occasionally cryptographs. We always play scrabble at the beach when my siblings and I gather. I enjoy scrabble but don't have the patients to try and get the best words.

Akelamalu said...

I love Scrabble but I am definitely not as competitive as you. ;)

Donna said...

Hahahaaa....I'm into The Smurf's Village...
hughugs

Jeni said...

I spend way too much time on Facebook as it is now so haven't ever got into the games scene there. Scrabble -I always enjoyed but could never get my kids interested in that game. But crossword puzzles? Now that's a horse of a different color! I think the love of crossword puzzles may have a bit of a genetic link. I've always enjoyed trying to solve those puzzles and have frequently had special dictionaries for use with them too! But more than that, I didn't know this until just a couple years before one of my Dad's sisters passed away (at age 99) that she was a huge fan of crossword puzzles too! So far though, the gene seems to be losing with my kids as they aren't inclined to liking them but I'm thinking perhaps soon I can maybe get Maya interested and involved in them as she seems to enjoy reading and questioning word meanings and such more than my kids did! (Wish me luck with that as I'd love to be able to work puzzles like that someday with my grandchild -which is what my aunt and her granddaughter used to do all the time too!)

ancient one said...

I do the cross word puzzles and play farmtown (which I gave up for way over a year while I played Mafia Wars) I haven't started the facebook word games but my daughter plays some. LOL

Kathy's Klothesline said...

Games on FB are addictive, so I just ignore all requests to play. Once upon a time I got so involved in a game I created new e-mail accounts, just to be able to creata more FB accounts to add people to my team. Then when I couldn't sleep, I would be online all night just to keep up with all my personnas and one day I decided I was too involved and like you, I just quit. I may have looked like that bald chick who use to scream "Stop the insanity" when she was belittling people who constantly dieted.

Love Bears All Things said...

Better stay away from Vegas....
I love word games, too but I'm not playing any of those facebook games.

Just learned to play Mexican Train Dominoes...wish I had someone to play with once a week. Too bad you don't live nearby.
Mama Bear

the fly in the web said...

No. I tried Scrabble with a French friend which was a great help in learning a language .

These days I play a domino game with a neighbour's daughter which seems to accrete rules as often as I win points

Maggie May said...

You like the same things as me! However, if we played together, we'd have a problem with the English/American spelling differences!
I have started to attempt very easy Sudoku but it has to be VERY easy!
All of these things are very addictive and like you, many word games & crosswords were once an essential part of after breakfast activity. No wonder nothing gets done!
Maggie X

Nuts in May

Sally said...

LOLOL!! That is precisely one of the reasons I haven't started playing "words", the other being I'd make so many mistakes. :)

My mom was a crossword worker, and I'm addicted to spider solitaire. Oh, yes and I saw how you slipped that word in there, not that I know what it means! HAHAHA

Have a wonderful day!

cheshire wife said...

I seem to have missed out on all of this. My MIL and my father were both keen on cross words so maybe that addiction is round the corner.

merry weather said...

Oh yes, I love crosswords! And I am relieved you slipped arachnid in there - my rusty brain was puzzling over that clue - and getting nowhere! :-)

I don't buy papers any more, I read them online - so I miss out entirely on the crosswords these days. One paper had Scrabblegrams - I used to do those religiously. Very satisfying. (Also they haunted me all day until I'd cracked them!)

Thanks for the lovely email - you're a very thoughtful friend Sandi. Much appreciated X

Hilary said...

Ha! I've just very recently discovered Words With Friends on my phone and have 12 games going with Frank and two each with two others. The problem is that they don't tell you that when you're okaying the rematch, your partner has already done so. So each finished game morphs into two more. It's good fun though. But I'll steer clear. ;)

Brian Miller said...

ha...i love scrabble...we play speed scrabble...i dont play a lot of online games actually...i did once for a bit...playing RISK...i love that game....

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Ah ! Thanks to my late night encounter , I knew the answer too .