Friday, January 29, 2010
2 Shakes of a Lamb's Tail
b y m y s e l f
woodpecker in ripton, vt (jane ogilvie photo; yankee)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
17
Another nice tea day with my sister in extraordinarily pleasant places in Tarrytown that have delicious food, nice atmospheres and are cool with people hanging around for a long time (well, except the last one which always makes us feel adolescently amused that our our job seems to be that we annoy them), beginning at Silver Tips Tea Room and moving on to Coffee Labs Roasters around the corner and ending at Lefteris; how lovely to share current thoughts and events in our lives as well as recent and hoped-for achievements, questions, concerns, etc. while downing Earl Grey and jasmine tea along with salmon sandwiches and scones, following it up with cappuchino and topping it all off with red wine, humus and eggplant dip.
Friday, October 2, 2009
And on another puzzling note...
I finished the first puzzle of Matt Gaffney's "Hell Month" and know the answer to the question and got all the words and everything!! All before the end of the first day and without any harrowing bafflement or wondering where my brain was or yearning to google things. I'm amazed and happy, I must say, although if the past is any predictor of the future, my sense of triumph will pass in, oh, seven days, as soon as next week's puzzle comes out (his puzzles getting progressively and ultimately impossibly difficult as the month wears on), but it's a pleasant puzzling beginning to Fridays in October.
On a puzzling note. . .
I'm a somewhat obsessive puzzle doer so I have to enter this Puzzlefest, of course. Furthermore, I thought some rare readers might like to as well - just click the puzzle or "this Puzzlefest" for details and info (h/t to Rex).
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Numbers r us
Don't forget to take note and maybe even smile four times today. At 9:00 and 9:09 a.m. and 9:00 and 9:09 p.m. today. To be precise, that's at 9 on 9/9/9 or 9:09 on 9/9/09. And we can celebrate this evening again at 9:09.09 on 9/09/09. And today, for once, both d/m/y and m/d/y fans are on in sync. Cool.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Dear Diary
It's a gloomy day today in the northeast. This time it's meant to be the edges of the fourth hurricane of the season but it's been such a rainy spring and summer that it doesn't feel or look any different from oh so many previous days. (It rained on 28 of June 's 30 days, by the way.) When one is very tired from an intense work week, thick cloud cover in the sky is unfortunately more influential than it should or might otherwise be. I will therefore take even more deliberate enjoyment than usual today from small things. Like the wonderful recycled-material plastic-looking carry bag with humorous French phrases and sketches.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Crossword puzzles
I love doing the New York Times crossword puzzles and have done since I was in high school, having had the virus enthusiasm passed on to me by mother who did them every day as regularly and necessarily as getting dressed. It's always annoyed one of my siblings that she and I did and enjoyed the Times puzzles while he not only did not particularly enjoy them but also could not do them after Tuesday - patently smarter though he is than we (which I say somewhat, although only somewhat, in jest). My father preferred the (clearly inferior) puzzles in the Daily News and the New York Post - though patently smarter, too, than my mother and me. (Please note that I sincerely hope any rare readers recognize sarcasm and flippancy here, and do not take anything I have said as offensive.)
Of late, my excitement and enthusiasm has increased many times - a hundred fold, Jane A. might say - because two compatriots and I have found each other. They enjoy the puzzles at least as much as I do and do them as furiously and thoroughly. It's so much fun to complete each puzzle and then compare times and specific reactions to words and themes with each other. I haven't enjoyed doing the puzzles this much in years. And, not surprisingly, we share lots of other enthusiasms, too, so our conversations range all over the place and are great fun.
Also, from them I learned about a daily NYT puzzle blog, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. This is such an amazing go-to site in that Rex is apparently unable not to finish every single puzzle and then write wittily about it, disrespectful-though-adoring fan that he is. And yesterday I met one of the proprietors of Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords, another fun puzzle site and a terrific resource that's a lot of fun. Both blogs have all manner of great links to other puzzle sites, too. What a wondrous world....
Of late, my excitement and enthusiasm has increased many times - a hundred fold, Jane A. might say - because two compatriots and I have found each other. They enjoy the puzzles at least as much as I do and do them as furiously and thoroughly. It's so much fun to complete each puzzle and then compare times and specific reactions to words and themes with each other. I haven't enjoyed doing the puzzles this much in years. And, not surprisingly, we share lots of other enthusiasms, too, so our conversations range all over the place and are great fun.
Also, from them I learned about a daily NYT puzzle blog, Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle. This is such an amazing go-to site in that Rex is apparently unable not to finish every single puzzle and then write wittily about it, disrespectful-though-adoring fan that he is. And yesterday I met one of the proprietors of Ryan and Brian Do Crosswords, another fun puzzle site and a terrific resource that's a lot of fun. Both blogs have all manner of great links to other puzzle sites, too. What a wondrous world....
Labels: blogs (others'), fun, puzzles, writing
