I’ve shared 100 times that after my morning word games are over,
I’m like, well, shit,
now what best part of the day is over, right?
Well, two very kind humans
have turned me on to two games that I had never heard of.
And I now want to pay forward their kindness to you
and share these games with you
in case you’re looking to extend that morning joy like I always am.
So I’m gonna give you a little preview of the game.
And then I also wanna tell you about a game
that my husband plays every single day,
and I’ve just recently started playing with him, so. Okay,
here we go. I’m gonna give you a little preview.
Alright? First game is called Word Salad.
Love that name, by the way.
And I think it’s best played on an app.
And I have played maybe 12 puzzles in this app
and so far everything is free.
Don’t you hate it when you download an app and you’re like,
I think everything’s free,
and then you touch it and it’s like,
I’d like $20, please.
So far, everything is free.
Once you’re in there,
you’re gonna come to this menu and just go to puzzles.
And there’s quite a few to choose from,
but here’s what one of them looks like.
So here’s an example of what one looks like.
So, yes,
this game is very much strands,
adjacent The New York Times game strands.
It is a Word search puzzle.
And it has a theme.
The one that I pulled up happens to be cooking methods.
What’s different about it, though?
Well, two things.
One is that there’s no spangram,
so you’re really just trying to clear the board.
As you type in things like, uh,
roast, the letters disappear,
so it makes it just a little bit easier.
But I also love that it’s timed.
That is something that I wish the New York Times game strands did
was time like, cause sometimes I finish it in 20 seconds.
Okay, maybe like 45 seconds.
Other times I’m there for like 15 minutes.
So I do love that about this game.
So, okay,
this one’s called Word Salad.
Moving on. Okay,
so this one’s called Word Grid.
And I think it is one hell of a brain game.
There is no race against the clock on this one.
And what you’re doing is you’re filling in this grid with a word.
Each open box, you’re putting in a word.
And it’s pretty easy. You’re just following the column instruction,
which is in this one, uh,
contains I, t.
And you’re looking at the row.
Okay, so this here,
this box has to be a five letter word containing the letters I t.
And I found out the hard way.
The I and the t have to be together.
So you can’t put the I, like,
you know, in one spot and the t in another.
Um, and you Just go through and you fill out this grid with words.
It can be challenging. I mean,
it sounds kind of easy, right?
But seven letter word like right here that contains a N,
it can be challenging. My husband and I got stuck a couple times also.
We type in what we think is a seven letter word
and it’s like a six letter word
or it’s an eight letter word.
Anyway, you get the drift.
So it’s a pretty fun game.
And what’s unique about this one is once you type in your word,
it gives you an idea as to how rare or common
the word that you chose was.
Based on other users.
And what I hear from the person who turned me onto this game,
her name is Lottie. Thank you, Lottie.
I’m gonna tag you is that there’s something called a unicorn.
A unicorn is if I happened to come up with a word
that no user has ever typed in yet,
that would be something like,
how rare would it be
that I would come up with a word that no one has used anyway,
that’s called a unicorn.
Who knows when I’m gonna get one of those?
Okay, so that is a word grid.
One more I wanna show you.
I’ve had a lot of you comment about the game blossom.
It’s a game from Merriam Webster.
And this is the one that my husband plays every day.
And I’ve just gotten Back into it.
So this is what it looks like.
So here’s what the blossom board looks like.
And, yes,
it is very adjacent to the New York Times Spelling Bee.
Here’s how it’s a little bit different.
So you see the empty planters at the top,
under my face. Um,
you get 12 chances.
You get 12 words to try and get as many points as you possibly can.
Um, it is like Spelling Bee in that there’s at least one spangram,
and you have to use the letter M,
the center letter. Now,
here’s another way. It’s different, though.
And I tend to. When I try new games,
I just jump right in and I completely ignore the instructions.
I failed to realize one very important thing.
My husband and I were playing this together,
and I didn’t understand why he was destroying me.
And it’s because I was not paying attention to
when the letter is outlined.
I’m like, I don’t know what this is,
so I ignored it. Don’t ignore it.
Here’s what it does. So say you’re.
You’re about to try and come up with a word.
Um, try to use the G as many times as you can while it’s highlighted.
So try to come up with a word,
if you can, that has, like,
more than 1G. You get extra bonus points that way.
And as you’re playing, um,
the a different letter will be outlined.
So on your next move, it might be The N.
So on that word, try to come up with a word that has as many n’s in it,
and that’s how you really get as many points as you possibly can.
And at the end, if it says that you’re a blossom boss,
um, that is the equivalent to, like,
a spelling, but A spelling B. Genius.
That’s it. Three new games to play.
Have y’all played any of these?
Um, I just started playing the word salad and word grid today
and really enjoy it.
I don’t know if I’m going to incorporate into my daily routine yet,
but I tell you what, I’ve really incorporated that. Lexamid.
I know some of you are just now starting to play that,
and it was so funny. I got a comment today that said, um,
lexamid is heinous.
It can be. It really can be.
I mean, any day,
I either love it or I hate it,
or I love to hate it, you know?
I’m really enjoying it, though.
Okay, that is it.
Um, please save this if you need a.
A refresher on what these new games are or.
Or share it with folks if you want.
Okay. Love you. Bye.