From Oscars to Emeril to juggling on a throne

Watermelon Rind by flickr user Gene Wilburn

Brett: Which would you most want to win: Academy Award, Emmy, Grammy, or Tony?

Lori: Academy Award, I think.  I'll play a super sexy curvy alien or something.  Haha.

Brett: I thought you'd choose the Tony.  But I guess the Oscar would probably bring in more money, if you're worried about keeping your family fed.

Lori: I'd prefer a slew of awards, but you can't be too picky I suppose.

Brett: I wrote a lullaby: "La la la.  Sh, go to sleep."  Do you think that will win a Grammy? (Ha!)

Lori: If it did, it would be a shady win.

Brett: I don't know; when I sang it for some friends, they all raved about how good it was.

Lori: Really?  And what exactly had they been drinking at the time?

Brett: I don't know... something concocted by Emeril Lagasse.  Bam!

Lori: The Emeril?  I hear booking that guy is quite a feat!

Brett: He owed me one from the time a bee stung him in the eye and I rushed him to the hospital.

Lori: Yikes!  Did someone have to sub for him on his show?

Brett: Yeah, but nobody noticed.  He's a quin, so one of his brothers just filled in and pretended to be him.

Lori: Sounds glam.

Brett: More than glam.  I could gaze at Emeril (or his identical quin) all day.

Lori: I've heard gazing in general is good for your qi.

Brett: Yes, especially if you're gazing at someone hot.

Lori: Hot people seem to diet a lot.

Brett: Have you heard of that diet where you only eat watermelon rind?

Lori: Does it also involve balancing on the arm of a throne while juggling knives?

Brett: Um... no.  (Thought that does sound like good exercise.)  It's just eating watermelon rinds and avoiding beery drinks.

Lori: It's "though" not "thought."  Does that correction make you shake your fist at me?

Brett: No, I'm not mad.  It was just a typo, but I'm glad to learn someone won't be able to con you by adding t's to words.

Lori: Cool.

Turnabout's fair play

Vingança by flickr user lecaldeira

Lori: Have you ever eaten veal?

Brett: I have not.  Don't you think people who like to feast on baby cows are jerks?

Lori: Didn't cows eat humans once on the Twilight Zone shows?

Brett: Maybe.  Some people would say that's a fair turnaround.  I wonder if one gender tasted better.

Lori: You'd have to check with the writer.

Brett: Or watch the episode.  He may have hid some clues in there.

Lori: Like one gender's bones get worn as jewelry, while the other is pushed down a garbage chute?

Brett: That would be a good clue.  Though could you imagine a cow pushing a perfectly edible human down a garbage chute?  What a diva!

Lori: Oh, not the whole human!! Just the bones to be ashed.

Brett: I guess that makes sense.  Only a sadist would push a live person down a garbage chute.

Octopussy

Not always do the words we play lend themselves to long conversations.  But even in a single sentence you can learn new things about your cousin.

Not the original drawing, but a recreation.  Terrifying, right?

Lori: Your octopus drawing (in Draw Something) was terrifying I'm so scared of them.  It would be a pretty dire situation if ever I had to be near one..... Ehhhhhhhh

With apologies to Maya Angelou

Bird in Cage by flickr user houdejulie

Brett: Do you know why the caged bird sings?

Lori: Because its owner is a hack?

Brett: Maybe you should aid it in escape.

Lori: What am I, a maid?

Brett: Well that's not a very helpful attitude.  I bet you just ignore people holding out a tin cup asking for spare change, too, huh?

Lori: Usually, yes.  It's how I was raised. :(  I was such a cute little tater tot...

Brett: I am the same way.

How meta

Sometimes we use words we've played in Words With Friends to talk about Words With Friends.

365[67] by flickr user Thelemoncookie

Brett: This board is getting full.  I don't know where I'll go on my next turn.

Lori: Keep your chin up, something will work out.

Brett: You just helped me.  You rock!

Lori: At this point, and with these letters, I take whatever I can get.

Brett: I feel like that's a very adult way to approach it.

Lori: That's what he said...

Brett: You just had to go there, didn't you?

Lori: I couldn't resist.  What did you have for dinner last night?  I ordered za.

Brett: I grabbed some chicken nuggets and a shamrock shake from McDonald's.  Holiday-themed drinks have never led me astray.

The most dangerous pet

Wood chippings before the rain feet by flikr user Vinetomato

Lori: I need a raise, so I can buy a pooch.  Dogs make better pets than humans.  :)

Brett: Human pets can be fun, but they're more trouble than they're worth, in the end. (i.e. when the cops come)

Lori: Do you feed your human pet by the pint, or by the gallon?

Brett: Either one works. They're happy as long as they have a nest of wood chips to sleep in.

Lori: Has that really worked for you? Personally, I'd rather sleep on a mattress.

Brett: Well, if you're a lush, then wood chips work just fine.

Lori: As long as the cig doesn't light everything on fire.

Brett: For safety's sake, no cigs are allowed.

You mad?

Basketball by flickr user garmil

Brett: I don't know if you're a college basketball fan, but being from the KC area is it hard to cope with Missouri losing yesterday?

Lori: Oh, no.  It would be way worse if KU lost.  Lawrence, KS is just 15 minutes from the city I grew up in.  Rock Chalk is an inbred mentality.

Brett: I vow not to ask you about Mizzou again, then.

Lori: Most of that last sentence seems too intense.

Brett: I guess I may have been a little overly dramatic.

Lori: It's okay, it's just you being you.

Of bitchfests and sequin wardrobes

Word With Friends is a fun way to kill some time.  But prompted by words that triggered a quote in my mind and by other words which made me think "that's not a real word! I'd like to see you use it in a sentence," I decided it could be fun to play a game of Words With Friends where the word played had to be used in a sentence each time.  After much deliberation about who to propose this idea to, I decided that my cousin might enjoy it.  When I suggested it, she was in.  And the first game was so much fun that now we only play that way.

When I came up with the idea, I assumed the result would be a bunch of unrelated sentences.  But when we started playing, I was surprised how often we were able to have conversations while making use of the words we were playing.  Sure, sometimes they were meandering conversations that didn't make a lot of sense, but they were conversations nonetheless.

Some of these conversations are pretty amusing, so I decided it would be fun to keep track of them.  I wish I had started recording them earlier, because unfortunately it's hard to go back and find old comments.  So some of these early posts will be incomplete, but hopefully still entertaining.  Let's join a conversation already in progress. (Words in bold and italics were the words that were played and therefore had to be used.)

Sequins by flikr user teachernz

Lori: Yeah!  Good for your qi.

Brett: I hear daily meditation is also good for your qi, but I haven't tried that.

Lori: I should swap my daily bitchfest for meditation.  I'm sure I'd find more peace that way. :)

Brett: Aw, you can use your bitchfest to lessen your wo, too.

Lori: So would a sequin wardrobe.