799 Put some spice in your marriage

Advice is something librarians dispense, but usually I stay away from advising people about relationships. I am well aware that I married the greatest guy in the world, so what's tough about that?

However, after 45 years, conversation does get a bit thin. He tends to say "Yes, yes," before I even get the words out of my mouth about something I read on a blog, because he just saw it on the News. So we've been having game night. So far, we've only tried Boggle, Racko and Uno, because I'm really, really awful at games, and I'm a poor loser. I'm also a poor winner, because I don't like to see anyone lose. Euchre is the national passtime for anyone from Indiana, so if I really want to wow him, I offer him a game of Euchre. Boys from Indianapolis find that very sexy.

Here's how it raises the level of discourse in our home:
"I can't believe I did that."
"Is that a word?"
"Let the answering machine take that."
"Do the rules say we can do that?"
"We've lost the rules."
"When did we buy this game anyway?"
"Box says 1971."
"I'm no good at this."

Since we'd lost the rules to the Uno game, my husband took it to his lunch session with the 4th grader he mentors. He explained it to him--but we think he missed a few of the finer points. It is an urban school in sort of a rough neighborhood and we suspect that whoever shouts loudest gets to set the rules. I tried checking the internet but found 3 sets of rules (to download) and they don't look like our box. Our first attempt ran to about 45 minutes, so we think we've missed something.

Boggle is more fun, but only for me. I'm the wordsmith in the family. My husband had a really awful start in school, but because he was sweet, cute and charming with adorable red curls, I think they didn't notice he was a poor reader. Good kids who don't make waves sometimes don't get the attention they should. He reads fine now--in fact, because he is disciplined and focused, he has read the Bible through 3 times, something I've never done (no discipline). But he only reads if he has too, like building specs or committee reports. It gives him no pleasure. When I first visited in his parents' home when I was in college, I noticed there was no reading material--not a newspaper or magazine or book. About 15 years later that had changed some. When we'd visit with the kids I could browse Field and Stream and the Indianapolis Star, and a few text book's my father-in-law had purchased for his job.

In Boggle you get one point for finding 3 or 4 letter words, two points for five, three for six, etc. The letters are upside down or backwards, but you can spell any direction--up, down, back, forward, sideways. In 3 minutes. If you both find the same word, neither gets a point. I thought my mind might react quicker if I refreshed it with four letter words. No, not that kind, but basic building blocks of most of our sentences. Suddenly, I began seeing four letter words everywhere. Then I stopped to write them down. My morning notebook, instead of having notes for my blogs, now has pages of told, bond, firm, them, week, push, just, over, took and take. Four or five pages of this nonsense. Then I tried putting them into rhymes and sentences. (Proper names are generally not used, however).

WITH THAT HUGE
IRAQ VOTE
POOR FLIP FLOP JOHN
TIPS OVER BOAT.

FOOT BALL BOWL FANS
GULP COLD BEER
WHEN TEAM LOSE
YELL FOUL PLAY

NINE TEEN FIVE FIVE
PROM GALS WAIT
PINK GRAY FORD
ROCK ROLL DATE.

BUSH HELD FAST
TALK SHOW TELL
LAST YEAR WINS
VOTE FROM HELL

THEY WERE CALM
JUST MORE HARD NOSE
CORE WILL STAY
COLD WIND BLOW

GALS SHOP TILL DROP
BACK FOOT SORE
SALE, SALE, SALE
HAIL TAXI PLAN MORE

Just so I can move on with my life, I'm going to start in on five letter words.