Scrabble.

Lately I've been sucked into an addiction that I simply cannot overcome. About a month ago, we had our next-door neighbors over for dinner. After dining, I pulled out Scrabble. Everyone wanted to play, and we had so much fun we played another round.

Now, Scrabble has turned into an almost nightly contest. The four of us huddle over the board, shift the letters in the rack, and try to come up with amazing lay-downs or that elusive seven-letter, 50 point word. We'll eat, then out comes Scrabble. Usually, we play three games in a row. My husband is now going to order an official Scrabble Dictionary.

I corrupted us all when I brought out the Scrabble game on that innocent night of dining. We simply cannot stop playing, or looking in the dictionary or thesaurus for that Q word without a U (qat, qaid). My first time to lay down all seven letter tiles occurred last week; the word was "moreover." Great word. Last night, I got to lay down "matrix;" it scored 33 points and it wasn't even on a "triple word score" square. That was a rush.

Well now that I've written about Scrabble, I feel the need to look through the thesaurus to learn some new, obscure words. Scrabble is the healthiest addiction I've ever had, and frankly I'd rather not be cured.