From "FUGE" to "REFUGEE" in three easy letters

Anyone who knows me well will tell you not to play Scrabble with me.

It's not that I am an avid player- far from it. But I always bring my A game, and I tend to win a lot. The problem is that everyone wants to play me and BEAT me, so I get challenged a lot, and then when I win, they get sort of petulant and onery and I get sort of sick of Scrabble.

It's not all about spelling, it's about vocab and craftiness and playing for the max amount of points on any given word. I tend to be pretty good at all of those.

What has happened in my immediate household is that The Man is determined to win a game of Scrabble with me. Just one. (It hasn't happened yet.)

We headed up to Carmel this last weekend, just the two of us, which was sublime. Lots of "top down, music up" time in the convertible. He did most of the packing.

There's no TV or online access at my parent's place. I don't know why I was surprised when The Man busted out the Scrabble board. And a dictionary. I groaned.

"Come on Jenna...play with me! I just want to win ONE game. Come on...."

"You mean, if I lose a game, the madness will end?"

"Yes....but you can't THROW the game!" He said this quickly, because he can evidently read my mind.

We played twice. Both games lasted over an hour, and since he guilted me into the second one, I was a little merciless. I beat him by about 200 points. Although, I only commented on one misspelled word, long after he'd laid it down.

It's been several days, and he is still talking about it.

"WHY didn't you tell me?!!!!"

That's right. Scrabble Drama. Our lives are incredibly exciting!
____________

Another feature of trips to Carmel is our new favorite restaurant, Giovanni's Bistro.

We went on our first night there. The food is reliably amazing, although we seem to have traumatized the staff. The last time we were in there, there was a couple seated behind us who were making out the entire time. Evidently, that is acceptable on some level. However...

Waitress: (laughing) Every time I come over here, you guys are holding hands. Knock it off! Seriously, let go of each other so you can eat dessert.

Yes. It's official- we are puke-inducing!
_____________

In other news, we are going to try out a new "date night" idea. We're going to go to the Farmer's Market together, and then bring it home to cook dinner together.

We'll see. I predict carnage, but who know? It could be fun.