Sunday, October 8, 2006

More Scrabble

(Originally posted on Sunday, October 8, 2006 by Tim)

You would not believe how much grading lab reports motivates me to do other work around the house. Well, maybe you would.

I have managed to clean my entire desk, hang some insulation in the basement, and hang a load of laundry. I?ve also been playing a space based video game and read a graphic novel. Oh, and I have graded 10 out of 40ish lab reports.

Part of the motivation to cleaning the desk was so that Cat and I could set up a newly purchased Scrabble board between our computers. I?ve been getting better at the game. Until Cat and I started playing a couple months ago, I never realized how much strategy there was in the game. I always thought it was just about having a big vocabulary. The vocabulary helps, but I often end up playing some lame two letter word in the place of something more elegant to block a potential good move by Cat. Either that, or I end up playing ?Zee? or ?Ex? on a triple letter space because it?s worth a lot more points than the six letter word I have in my hand.

Cat and I didn?t get a chance to go to the coffee shop this weekend. If we had, I would have gotten more work done. Our Scrabble games have been limited to home. Yesterday, we played on some clunky web site that had to send me an email every time Cat finished her turn even though she was logged in on a computer four feet away from me. Despite a decent level of irritation with the interface, the game went well for me. I only lost by 9 points instead of my usual 100 points. I also scored above 300 for the first time. The current game in progress has the potential to be very high scoring. I lead off with ?Puree? for 20 points. Cat used all seven of her letters with ?Peeling? and earned 64 points. I was thinking I should just forfeit for a fresh start when I realized I could play ?Suffix? across a triple word score for 78 points. I think the most points I have previously earned for a play was 39.

I could thoroughly bore you about Scrabble, but I want to get to bed and I?m sure you want to hear about Dalton.

He continues to do well. We haven?t been into the doctor lately so I can?t tell you how huge he is. He did seem to nurse most of the day today so I expect he is working hard to maintain his reputation.

When he hasn?t been eating this week, he?s been experimenting with his vocal cords. Dalton has discovered that he can make some very high pitched squeals. Right now, he isn?t really using them when he?s distressed. We?re finding them to be quite cute. He?s also cooing a lot more as well. We tried to get a recording of him, but it?s proving as difficult as catching him smiling on film.

As you can see from this post?s picture, I did manage to catch him in the act this morning. The trick is not using the flash. Our camera has a pre-flash and it tends to startle him out of his smiles. This one was taking without the flash at breakfast.

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