Boggle rehab?

I have finally overcome my addiction to playing Boggle on the iPad. It was so simple, and right at my fingertips all along. Who knew?

I’m proud to announce that my miracle cure is…Word Solitaire! Since I started playing Word Solitaire night and day, I rarely open Boggle—let alone play it for an hour. Word Solitaire uses letters instead of cards, and you build words by stacking letters, sometimes drawing from the stash at the bottom and often using jokers to substitute for any letter. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and, I’m afraid, addictive.

If it weren't bad enough that I've discovered an even better time-waster, I got my spouse hooked on it too. But he wasn't challenged enough by the free version of the game, so he upgraded to a level that gives me a headache just thinking about it. For example, the other day he was whining because he was dealt a Q without a U. The freebie version doesn't even have Qs.

You may be shaking your head and wondering what's to become of someone who is willing to give up hours of the precious time she has left on this earth to poking her finger on a screen. I look at it this way: a) I'm helping myself ward off dementia (fingers crossed); b) I spend less time shopping; and c) I'm really playing with words as a warm-up for actual writing, both on the job and at home. In fact, maybe I will buy the 99 cents version of Word Solitaire and deduct it from my 2011 income tax as a work expense.

Now that I've spent enough time actually writing, I'd better get back to the game...