Mindboggling

Mindboggling, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Some of my virtual photo friends have been snowed in - here's a little indoor diversion. The rules of Big Boggle: Words are formed from adjoining letters. Letters must join in the proper sequence to spell a word. They may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, to the left, right, or up-and-down. No letter cube, however, may be used more than once within a single word.
In the official rules you are supposed to use a 3 minute timer. We bend the rules and play as long as we like making words in French as well as in English.
This board was particularly fruitful.
Here are a few words to start you off:
rages
canters
lice
toot
cats
drag
drags...
How many can you add?

Day 269: Red Barn

Day 269: Red Barn, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Driving between Casselman and Ottawa I spotted this red barn (I was the passenger so this was taken from the car window while we were moving). It reminded me of the games we would play in the car when my children were young.

Game 1 - Spot the.... I would have a list of things and the children would be on the lookout for them so they could cross them off their lists - somehow a red barn was always on the list.

Game 2 - Alphabet - Find something that you see, starting with A and then through the alphabet. Needless to say, some letters were harder than others. Clotheslines helped as we got to U - underwear and sometimes they had to get creative V - very small house.

Game 3 - Geography - This is one I played in my childhood and continued with my own children. Someone starts with the name of a place (can also be a body of water, mountain range...). The next person has to respond with a place name that starts with the ending letter. There was always a groan as we fell into the a's. Alabama, Asia, Alaska, Antarctica.....

Game 4 - Ghost - This is a spelling game. One person starts with a letter. The idea is not to finish a word, but you can't just say random letters as you can be challenged and have to reply with a word you had in mind. Words have to be at least 3 letters. If you finish a word you get a G (and subsequent words continue through the letters in Ghost). The first person to get Ghost loses.

These games, along with music tapes and songs (especially those where we could make up our own verses) provided me with peace as I drove. Though occasionally the car battles erupted anyway. The children were not immune to the issues of "he's looking at me", "she's in my space". But mainly we had fun!

Day 257: Boggle

Day 257: Boggle, originally uploaded by susanvg.

The theme this month in the 365/2009 Flickr group is Games. So I thought I would include my favourite on: Boggle. This is my giant boggle set. The idea is to make as many words as you can in three minutes
"When the timer starts, each player searches the assortment of letters for words of four letters or more. When you find a word, write it down.
Words are formed from adjoining letters. Letters must join in the proper sequence to spell a word. They may join horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, to the left, right, or up-and-down. No letter cube, however, may be used more than once within a single word."

My spouse and I play and laugh a lot. He plays bilingually (French and English). I usually just use English words. Now I'll get you started. Here are a couple of the words in this random fall of letters
quiet
quit

What else can you find? I'll give you as much time as you need.