Leo the Spelling Genius

I will pick up on Tommy's Ordeal tomorrow. It was too hard to sit and think of everything he has been through while he was in pain with the leg thing. I felt the familiar, dark cloud settling in and with Leo gone, it would be overwhelming to be in that frame of mind. I know that in light of the yucky weekend and the stress of what has been going on with Tommy, Leo will not mind me sharing a funny story involving him.

Leo might be a good speller these days (I think because of spell-check but he will argue that) but that was not always the case. When Leo and I dated, we used to play Scrabble all the time. If you know Leo, you know that he is not very fast...at anything and Scrabble is no different. I kid you not. I used to love doing paint by numbers and I finished a very big one during one game of Scrabble. His turns were that long. I used to make fun of the fact that it would take him forever to find a word because he HAD to use a double word or triple word spot. I was done in a few seconds not paying attention to that and I would usually win. Leo hated being challenged but LOVED to challenge me. I put down my little three letter word that earned 30 points and he yelled, "I challenge you." I looked at him like he was crazy. "Are you kidding me?" He proceeded to ask me, "What is eeyay?" I said, "Look at it again." He did and repeated with disgust, "What's eeyay?" I said, trying very hard not to laugh, "Look at it again." He looked harder and said, "Aw, shit...eye." He still hasn't lived that one down.

Another time when Leo's spelling skills were put to the test was our family game night. When my family was smaller, we used to get together and play games. Catchphrase was a favorite. Leo, me and one of my sisters were on the same team. I sometimes think my kids get their competitive gene from me because I do not like losing. Especially on game night. I can hide it well but I like to win. So, on this Catchphrase night, we were going along when it was Leo's turn to give clues for his word. It went like this:

Leo (rolling his eyes): Wow! This is tough. I don't even know what this is.
Me (thinking he was already taking too long): Well break it up into smaller words.
Leo: Okay, here is part. Not out but...
My sister yelling: IN!
Leo: Yes! Okay...um...this is an animal that has antlers.
Me yelling: Deer!
Leo: Yes!
Either me or my sister yelling: Reindeer!!
Leo (rolling his eyes and scoffing): No, you are not even close. I don't even know what to give for a clue for the rest of the word.
Me and my sister (looking at each other and whispering): in and deer Endear?
Leo (like we are crazy): No. You're never going to get it.
The buzzer goes off and he throws the catchphrase thing on the table and says: First of all, what is re-in-deer?
We all looked at him like he was crazy.
Me (laughing my behind off along with my family): Are you kidding me? It's reindeer, Einstein! Like Rudolph. Reindeer.
He looked at it again and said, "Hmmm...my bad."

Now, I will admit that while his spelling skils have gotten better, my math skills have gotten worse and there are probably a bunch of stories he could tell about me but he doesn't have a blog that needed a little lightening up so mine can still remain a secret.