Did You Guess Elaine?

This clue wasn't bad if you've been around a while. The next person on the New York rotation is Elaine, and we always play a lot of games. The game I showed you last night was called Master Labyrinth. We think it would be fun with three or four people, but with the two of us both playing defensively, we decided to give up on it about halfway through. She was ahead at the time, but we were both tired of it. Here's Elaine cogitating her next move.

This morning, we started in again. Upwords is possibly Elaine's favorite. She beat me smartly. (But I beat her last year.) Sorry for the weird angle on the board, but you can see the words.

Elaine had asked me if I had a game I could bring, so I brought one of my very favorites which no one will play with me. Elaine liked it, but the learning curve is steep. We played about five rounds, but in demonstration mode, just for fun. I'll bring it next time so we can compete.

Then we played another that belongs to Elaine that we both like, Carcasonne. The biggest problem was that we didn't have a large enough flat surface, and the paper we tried to cover the slat tables with created too much topography for the map. But we successfully completed one game. I won this one.

This is part of Elaine's rock collection. She loves geology. I love plants.

Here we are, the "Bobsey Twins," so nicknamed by our high school gym teacher, and it has been an apt comparison. We are 364 days apart in age, like many of the same things, etc. (Except that she's six feet tall and I'm not.)

We had grilled cheese sandwiches with smoked cheese for lunch. Yummy!

Now, here's your clue for where I am now. This will be about as much help as the computer memory board was, but tough nuggies. It's all I have. I'll tell you that the ferret's name is Pebbles.

No walking occurred. I had high hopes, but it just didn't happen. Tomorrow should be more active.

See Did You Guess Irene?

Snow Mushrooms and Other Events of the Week

Today was nuts, but I got a whole list of uninteresting things done. I walked the property tax payment down to the town hall and found these snow mushrooms on the shoulder of the road.

They look huge, right? Nah- about 8" tall. This is the best one, and you can see other items for perspective.

I finished the jigsaw puzzle I'd been working on. It was an easy one; Churchyard Christmas by Charles Wysocki. 1000 pieces. (And started a new one that Om bought me last fall- it's 2000 pieces and pretty hard.)

His puzzles are always fun because they have so much going on with people and little details. There was a one-man band who had an accordion.

And speaking of accordions, there was even one in my game this week. Neither of these is a piano accordions (the kind I play).

Last Sunday had a beautiful sunrise. And the really deep cold is over for a while. I'm not sorry about that.

It took just about forever to get the things done that I had to accomplish today. I started the next page of Moose In Boots, but will have to finish it tomorrow.

Miles walked in 2026: 36.5
Road walk to township hall and back 3.0 miles.

See Accordion posts

Proof and Fun

Not much that's newsworthy today. I made soup, but didn't take a picture. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. It's yummy, but not visually stunning.

After I said I have no pictures from yesterday of Bill and me, someone sent me two. Neither shows us at our most attractive, but hey, we were having fun.

I signed the group in collectively at the trail register, and Bill held the lid to make a desk.

About half of the hikers went to Bitely Bar to eat. Here we are again.

I was super good today. Edited longer than usual, made soup from the Christmas ham bone, cleaned the kitchen (well, it's not done but is it ever?)

Here's more fun. I know that sharing pictures of my games is probably low on your interest list, but I'm kind of tickled about this. I managed to make this fox family by collecting prizes from three different events. The fox in the stump pops in and out. The fox on the left alternately crouches in this "play" pose and stands. I just got the kit today. It definitely makes me smile.

See Spirit of the Woods- January

Christmas 2025

Quite a nice holiday, actually.

Om went and picked up Josh to ensure that he would show up. Steve called and we did gift opening with phone commentary. He's done that the past few years, but he seemed to really get into it today with me sending him pictures of the various gifts. So, that was really fun.

After the successful experiment a few days ago, I made a real batch of the low cal/carb cinnamon rolls. These turned out even better. I learned a few things the first time.

The table looks good. But wait... five plates?

Yup! Doug and Cathy were going to go spend the day with one of their daughters. But all the kids are really sick, so they are waiting a few days. That was perfect- they came and ate with us. We had ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, and a low-cal chocolate dessert. That list sounds impressive, but we really kept it simple. It's also a meal that most everyone will eat.

Cathy brought a game we all played. It's called Marbles and Jokers. It's very similar to Sorry, but it will work for three to eight players, and there is more strategy to it. Doug won if anyone cares. The board is very ingenious. Each player choses a color and you hinge the sections together with a 2-D ball and socket joint to create the track.

We tried to get a family picture. Well. Josh says this is his smiling face. We couldn't find a location where the light didn't bounce off my hair. Om looks pretty good.

As is so true in most holiday homes, the day started with cleaning up the kitchen so that I could make another kitchen mess. The second one is partially cleaned up. Om took care of all the wrappings (most are fabric and bags, so it's just a matter of folding them and putting back in the box. The only paper wrapping here is on things someone else brought in.)

Cathy gave me a jigsaw puzzle. Actually, I have six new ones. I may have to start one this week. She also brought some pumpkin bread and sweet snacks. That bag of mint M&Ms got opened and devoured.

I'll share some of our loot another day. Right now, I'm beat. And too full of food.

See Food Coma

True LOL Moments

It's not a rule like finding something quality in the day, but I sort of always hope there will be one true laugh-out-loud moment in every day. A lot of days there is one.

If there's a rule, it has to be that whatever the "thing" is, it must produce spontaneous audible laughter from me. Since I tend to be a Dismal Desmond. Or at least a little too serious, it must truly tickle my funnybone.

I briefly thought about trying to add the moment to the blog each day, but I doubt I could regularly pull that off. But it would be nice to remember some. I'll share them from the last three days. I can't guarantee you'll find them as funny as I did.

Here is yesterday's. I stumbled onto a game called Sled Surfer. The video teaser was a better one than this, with a much longer run. But the idea is that you make the penguin on the sled have a good long run. Sadly, it's also a game you can't get rid of the ads without paying money, but I just think it's hilarious. I made a recording of a successful run, but the video was too long for blogger to deal with. The crash is funnier anyway.



Two days ago was also from a game. This game is only okay, and also has ads you can't get rid of without paying, so it went bye-bye. But their logo is... a SHARK! Actually, when you first load the game you get a splash screen with a big shark, but I can't seem to react fast enough to get a screen capture of it. Here's the Level header with the default icon for ME- the shark!

I have found one hole game (where you move a hole around the screen and it "eats" things, that I really do like, so I'm putting up with the ads. I can't believe I'm doing that, but I am. (If you care, the one with the shark is "Black Hole," and the one I like is "All In Hole.")

Today's LOL moment is really more than a moment. I saw this online. I did not write it. I sure wish I had!

I don't even know who to attribute it to, but it was posted by someone called "Michigan Field Guides"

The Michigan Secretary of State is not a government office. It is a psychological test disguised as a building. You do not simply “go renew your license.” No. You embark on a spiritual journey through time, bureaucracy and the limits of your own patience. Every Michigander knows this. The SOS is where confidence goes to die.

First you try to book an appointment. “Next available time: three Wednesdays from now at 7:14 a.m. in a town you have never heard of.” Amazing. Perfect. Love that for us. If you dare walk in without an appointment, you will sit there so long you will start forming alliances with the other survivors like it is a winter cabin scenario.

Then you finally get inside. The air is heavy with the scent of paperwork and regret. A row of chairs filled with people staring into the void, silently wondering if they will ever see sunlight again. A toddler eating Cheez-Its. A man clutching a folder of documents he definitely forgot half of. Someone’s grandma explaining she has been coming here since the Carter administration.

When they call your number, it feels like winning a raffle you did not sign up for. You run to the counter before they change their mind. The employee asks for nine forms of ID, your water bill from 1998, two proofs of residency, a blood oath and possibly a notarized statement from your childhood dentist. You hand over everything. They stare at one paper like it personally offended them. “This is the wrong version.” Of course it is.

And yet, every Michigander does this dance because we have to. We renew. We register. We pray the photo turns out okay. We walk out holding our temporary license like it is a war medal. We brag to friends that we got out in only an hour because that is considered “record-breaking.” The Secretary of State is not just an office.

It is a shared trauma.

A bonding experience.

The official Michigan rite of passage that proves we are stronger than paperwork. If you walk out with everything done on the first try, congratulations. You have achieved what scientists call “a statistical miracle.”

I hope one of these at least made you smile.

I totally blew the day off- played games all day. Sigh. Maybe I'll be better tomorrow.

See Robbery!

First Snow, Plus...

Today was first snow. Most everyone got the worst of it yesterday, but it was very patchy as to where it fell. We did have bell choir practice, and amounts at people's houses ranged from 0- 12 inches, all in the same county. We got about 5 inches here overnight. It's almost all gone already.

Just for comparison, remember I said I cleared almost a whole line of autumn olive this year and you can't even tell? This is the same shot from last year's first snow. The work I did was on the bushes (all autumn olive) on the right side of the picture. I ask you... can you even tell I did ANYTHING out there? Botheration.



Anyway, Om and I went out to eat at Applebees since they still serve free meals to veterans.

The other piece of big news-- (not sure if it's good or bad), a friend got me into my old game account that I mentioned yesterday. I was at level 74 when I quit before the big hike, and the "world" is very complex. If I'm going to play again, I'll need to spend time figuring out how to do stuff all over again. Wowzer. It will be fun (good). Maybe I shouldn't spend that much time on it (bad).

Here is one little piece of my game world. Just for your enjoyment. I like this game a lot. It's not too silly, and you make and produce all kinds of things- very interwoven like real life. It's sometimes billed as a farming game, but it's much more than that. It's Klondike, the Lost Expedition if you care. (I see I showed you a picture from this game once before when I was at a much lower level)

I also managed to do a fair amount of work. I spent over an hour on the phone with one client, and edited for another, on top of going out with Om and then bell practice.

See First Snow 2024

A Day with Elaine

Today I spent with my friend Elaine. I'm too tired to blog about everything we did right now. The middle of the day was really great and it deserves its own blog post. I'll just share the other parts tonight.

If you've been around long enough to catch a couple of the visits with Elaine, you know we like games. We played Scrabble twice- each won once. I won this one.

And we played Upwords twice- each won once. She won this one.

One game of Carcasonne. I like this one a lot, but only play it with Elaine, so I forget the strategy. She won, but it was fun.

We went out for lunch, and the important stuff. Like ice cream.

And what was Bill doing? He went for a little hike on the Finger Lakes Trail. Very, very hot, but he did about 10 miles.

The rest of the day was filled with something quite special but it needs more brain power than I can muster right now to do it justice. I'll write about it another day.

Have to get some sleep now.

See Transition to Civilization?

Gardens of the Future

 The theme of this year's Philadelphia Flower Show is Gardens of the Future. The entry exhibit is called Signature of Time. The "future" idea is supposed to be that when someone creates a garden they impart it with their own signature, but as it grows into the future it acquires the signature of time. I have no idea how these elements of the display showcase that. But, hey, the entry exhibit is supposed to be the "Wow" of the show. It did that pretty well.

This huge hanging part of the display is all flowers. Almost everything has to be flowers or flower parts except for structural elements.

There were colors other than red in the display, and some lighting effects, but I'm focusing today on the red which was the most prominant.

There were two large and novel fountains with water running down from the frames over containers of flowers. This one is more magenta with orchids.

And this one has red roses. It's hard to see the running water in the pictures because it's subtle like a soft rain, but you can see the splashes in the pond.

This is just another part of the entry display (it is always huge) that emphasises red.

Sometimes I think that the more interesting the theme is, the more trouble the exhibitors have in being creative with it. But you'll see more of what I mean in days to come.

My stamina lasted for five hours. I didn't see nearly as much of the show as I usually do because I definitely wasn't moving as fast. Others were also ready to leave after that time, so I didn't cause anyone else any distress, and a nap revived me. I'm really happy that I managed 5 hours. That's certainly the longest continual activity I've done since being sick.

We came back and had pizza and played some games. I like this one, Forbidden Island, which only gets played when I'm here, apparently. It's a collaborative game, not competitive. You have to work together to place the statues in the correct places and then get off the island before it sinks. Tonight we lost, but that's OK. Fun was had.

Now it's time for another nap!

See The Garden Electric

How to Flip a Day

 You can see how the day started. The deer don't care if I mow or don't mow. They just take over anyway.

I was working on various projects. But I ran into (temporary, I hope) roadblocks on a couple of them. So I decided to deliver something to Cathy.

Ha! That turned into playing Mexican Train Dominoes with her and her mother...

And of course, she had a jigsaw puzzle going in her basement. She had most of the yellow done already. The rest is detailed and fussy, and more difficult than a lot of the Charles Wysocki puzzles. This one is called "Ice Riders on the Chesapeake Bay."

We got a lot of it done, and she fed me pizza. So I'm happy. I always hate to not be in on the finish of a puzzle, but it's ok.

I edited, I tried to do some other things with online tasks attached... some serious issues there. Sent support emails. I worked outside a little, but then it started raining. So, I went to Cathy's!

See Table Fix