GAME TIME

My sister and I are mildly competitive.  We like to play games, and we like to win those games.

One Christmas Eve we met at a Panera that was halfway between our houses so we could do the hand-off of family gifts.  We grabbed our cups of tea, sat at a table in the restaurant, and proceeded to play cribbage for about two hours (yes, we were still buying things not just hogging a table). 

Our go-to games, in addition to Cribbage, are rummy, gin rummy, Quiddler, Banangrams, Yahtzee, and crossword puzzles. Yes, even crossword puzzles are competitive.

We're also altruistic in our competitiveness.  Sometimes one of us will be yelling, "Come on, Yahtzee, come on, Yahtzee," when it's the other person's turn.  If the other player is being skunked at cards, we tend to drag out the game so it's a little more evenly scored by the end.

On Sunday we have time to play two rounds of Yahtzee.  First game, our score is only twenty points apart.  The second game, a heated round of Triple Yahtzee, we are separated by ten points.  She wins the first game; I win the second.

One thing both of us hate, though, is losing to the computer.  Sometimes the games and scores are so skewed, that we bail.  The bad news is that the cancelled games still count toward the total games played and lost.  The good news is that the computer quickly figures out it needs to let us win a few games if it intends to stay in business.

We are going on a cruise out to Star Island.  Maybe I'll pack a deck of cards, just in case.  Much like Panera, you never know when we're going to break out a fabulous winning hand.