Xmas Rooooocks!!!

I'm hesitant to admit that Santa got me Guitar Hero 3 for Xmas, because I know I am still going to suck at the game. Then I'll go over to your house and you'll see me suck and be like, "Don't you OWN this game?"

So don't even.

But yes, I got the game... for PC, yes, for PC. It is the only way I can even try to keep up with Josh and his more fun and social Wii version.

I had a great Xmas with the fam. I seem to have misplaced my motorcycle keys, which sort of sucks, but other than that, the holiday was all good. My sister and I went down to Ravenna Tavern for the Xmas Eve for the second or third time in a row now. This time she actually recognized someone and we chatted for most of the evening. We were just planning on one pitcher of Mac & Jacks, but ended up with three. I won at Golden Tee for the first time ever against my sister, but I can't shake the feeling her complete lack of sobriety played a roll.

She literally stumbled home, and I decided to punish her for all of the torment she put me through growing up. I helped her along for most of the hike home, but I might have let her go a few times into the nice and wet grass, then accidentally stumbled "off the top rope!" and flying elbow dropped her... accidentally.

We're even now, sis! Retaliation is very immature, please don't.

Xmas for us is a pretty sickening site. Lots of presents and greed, but it is all good. Ichi got in on the action this year, with a spinnerroo toy and waterfall water thingie. His favorite present this year has to be the Guitar Hero 3 box. I almost feel like keeping it, just so he can lift it up and sneak inside for a nice hiding spot/bed. But the damn box takes up like a third of my room, so it has got to go!

We wrapped up Xmas festivities today with Andrew's mom and dad coming over for dinner and games. Gil and I beat mom and Karen at bridge, which is pretty awesome, because they've been playing in a bridge league together for 20 years and Gil and I never play. It was only 4 hands, but still! Afterwards, we played some Scategories and ended on some of "Dad's Scrabble."

In typical Dad fashion, he has changed the rules of a game to give himself a better shot at winning. He isn't great at coming up with long, archaic words to score big points, and he takes forever to try and think up words he doesn't know. So, instead of learning and bettering himself, he's changed the rules to speed and quickness! Lots of small words and a quicker game with less thinking--right up his alley! (just kidding!)

How you play:

Grab the bag of tiles and place them in the middle of a table, face down. You don't need the scrabble board, or even the scrabble tile holders for the game. Everyone grabs seven tiles and agree on a time to "GO!" Or you can we do like we did, and let Dad be the first one to flip over the tiles, then start flipping your own tiles.

So, you've got seven tiles, face up. Time to make them into words! It can be one 7-letter word, or two words connected somehow (or three, or four?). So if your first seven letters were "tanomeh" you could make "them" and from the m down make "moan." Once you've got all your letters into made, connected, real words, say "Take Two."

Everyone, including yourself, takes two tiles from the pile in the middle. The person who says "Take Two" has the advantage, because they only have to add the two tiles to their existing tiles and say, "Take Two" again to progress.

At any point in the game you can switch around your tiles, so if the tiles you pick up aren't fitting into your original set, completely reordering the tiles might be the best way to go.

The winner is the person who says, "Take Two" last, when there aren't enough tiles for everyone to pick up. We had a few games where one person said "Take Two" the most, but didn't win--as someone else drew letters to fit in better. We also didn't play for score, but however many tiles you have left over at the end are your score, and you're shooting for a low score.

So, with all that in mind, and my Dad having explained the game to us--stressing how this game was all about quickness and small words--the six of us decided to give it a shot.

I grab seven tiles, I might have even gotten off the first "Take Two" of the evening, but Mom went on a heater and although I was close behind, she said the final "Take Two" and won the first round. As we were looking over her tiles to make sure all of her words were real, she started cracking up.

"What?" we say.

She is laughing so hard she can't speak a word. We're all dumbfounded until she finally points at my Dad's tiles. Now, by the end of the game you have about 18 tiles if you play with six people. Dad and Mom are the only ones who have played the game before. With his 18 tiles, and a minute or two, he managed to come up with "FAST" and all the rest of his letters were scattered.

It was the funniest thing I've seen in months. The fact that he only got one, four-letter word is pretty funny (since he taught us the game), but "fast" just makes it infinitely more funny to me! He even had a U to go with his Q!