And now for a word

I’m running so far behind on a bunch of stuff I was planning on doing this weekend, and all because my wife insisted that I open one of my Christmas gifts early.
But I’m glad she did. The present in question was the “game folio” edition of Scrabble, a game I haven’t played since…well, the last time I played it, I played it with my mother, if that gives you any indication. I used to love Scrabble. Basically, what this edition does is that it packs the entire miniaturized game board into a little unzippable folder thingie, like a notebook case. There’s a hinge in the middle of the game board (but it can be “locked open” so it’s not constantly trying to close on you in mid-game), and the letters even lock into the board snugly, so in theory, you could close the whole thing in mid-game and pick up later where you left off. The four letter racks included also close up with the same thing in mind – you can store them full of your last “hand” of letters. It’s a really, really cool little concept.
I think we played for something like three hours straight and laughed our asses off for the first time in ages. We even played rounds where names or words from various science fiction franchises were permissible, though we’d call the franchise at the beginning of the game; you couldn’t play the word JEDI in a Star Trek round. My wife managed a GAIUS and a THRACE in the Galactica round. (My best round was the one where I got to play ZEALOUS, JERICHO – on a triple word score! – and AREOLA all in one game. Don’t ask where my head was on that last one. Go look it up if you haven’t heard of it, it’ll perk you right up!)
Y’know, maybe there’s a reason no one’s played Scrabble with me in the past 18 years.
Of course, I also got this absolutely unplayable hand, which any Red Dwarf fan worth his weight in smeg will recognize as a Cat Word. (Although now that I look at the picture, I realize I could’ve at least gotten JEW out of the deal.)
Anyway, that’s my early Christmas story. I really love this thing. If you want to look into getting your own, check out the link below.