Tales From Rocky Point - Bingo!
On our last trip to Rocky Point, the Pirate Captain and Unruly Julie pretty much argued the whole way down. The Rocket Scientist and I sat very quietly in the back seat, afraid to bring attention to ourselves at all. We joked about being the poor innocent kids cowering while Mom and Dad battled.
The idea was born to make Mom & Dad Travel Bingo cards with their most common expressions (both verbal and non) in the squares. We figured out that we'd hit a blackout in no time. We mentally played the rest of the weekend and would periodically yell out Bingo! when a keyword was uttered.
I don't know if they took our threat to make cards seriously or not, but we had them ready for the ride. It wasn't easy though. I scrambled to make a list of items on Tuesday night and TRS added some then put them all into Excel. There was some talk about programming it to populate each card randomly but that was given up on. He emailed me the Excel sheet but it didn't come across correctly. That's what happens when someone has Office 2007 and someone has 2000 (and never updates her laptop for fear of breaking it). I finally suggested he make pdf images and that worked.
The idea was born to make Mom & Dad Travel Bingo cards with their most common expressions (both verbal and non) in the squares. We figured out that we'd hit a blackout in no time. We mentally played the rest of the weekend and would periodically yell out Bingo! when a keyword was uttered.
I don't know if they took our threat to make cards seriously or not, but we had them ready for the ride. It wasn't easy though. I scrambled to make a list of items on Tuesday night and TRS added some then put them all into Excel. There was some talk about programming it to populate each card randomly but that was given up on. He emailed me the Excel sheet but it didn't come across correctly. That's what happens when someone has Office 2007 and someone has 2000 (and never updates her laptop for fear of breaking it). I finally suggested he make pdf images and that worked.
Bingo!
We agreed to tell each other if any of the squares hit and we started out with our cards. They were suspiciously quiet on the trip. I suspect it was to keep us from saying Bingo! We still managed to cross a few off.
When we were settled in at La Casa, we gave Annette and Catnip their own cards to play and caught them up on the squares already hit. We played all through Friday and I thought Julie was going to cry at one point because everything she said was under extreme scrutiny.
Catnip even tried leading her to say certain things. Which was kinda cheating but we didn't outlaw it. TRS became the Bingo police and wouldn't let us claim some stuff because it wasn't "in the spirit" of the square.
As we played, it was noticed that it would be easy to make Catnip and Annette Bingo cards so we started writing things down for them. They also started Princess and TRS card lists but most of the things on there are just things I say or do all the time so I don't think it's the same thing. TRS doesn't really say a lot to begin with so I don't think they can get complete cards for us. I'm not worried at all.
Catnip finally claimed victory sometime before 1 AM on Saturday morning with a traditional 5 spots in a row. We played blackout for the rest of the weekend but no one actually made it to that.
If you can't mock your friends...well, then who can you mock?
When we were settled in at La Casa, we gave Annette and Catnip their own cards to play and caught them up on the squares already hit. We played all through Friday and I thought Julie was going to cry at one point because everything she said was under extreme scrutiny.
Catnip even tried leading her to say certain things. Which was kinda cheating but we didn't outlaw it. TRS became the Bingo police and wouldn't let us claim some stuff because it wasn't "in the spirit" of the square.
As we played, it was noticed that it would be easy to make Catnip and Annette Bingo cards so we started writing things down for them. They also started Princess and TRS card lists but most of the things on there are just things I say or do all the time so I don't think it's the same thing. TRS doesn't really say a lot to begin with so I don't think they can get complete cards for us. I'm not worried at all.
Catnip finally claimed victory sometime before 1 AM on Saturday morning with a traditional 5 spots in a row. We played blackout for the rest of the weekend but no one actually made it to that.
If you can't mock your friends...well, then who can you mock?
