Stream of Consciousness Saturday, Puzzle

Puzzles are another passion of mine. As long as cheating is allowed.

For many years this has been my mindsuck: (Sudoku)

I like it because I can see all of any one number in the puzzle by clicking on the one I’m curious about. Like this: (chosen Sudoku number)

And though I’ve chosen to stay with the moderate level, I’m sure that my actual level is beginner. I know this because I find these hard:

Outside of filling each empty box with penciled in possible numbers I rarely see the answer until the page is full of eraser smudges. And even then… see the clothespin? Yeah, holding the solution page ready for peeking. Yet, I’m obsessed and feel that someday I might get it. That idea in itself is the real puzzle!

And puzzle me this, my other non-electronic fun is:

Yes, that is a clothespin to the answers. The thing about crosswords is you need to be a mind reader. Did the puzzle maker mean the vegetable or the actor? Is it spelled the way we’re taught in school or in another language or some abbreviation of some company name?

Still, I can spend hours in puzzlement about the brains of puzzle makers versus my ADD/dyslexic 71 year-old brain.

They say these are supposed to keep our minds nimble.

In the background I have Beauty and the Beast on. This is it’s last day on Netflix. I’m only on season one and there are four. Why I chose to wait until the last minute for everything is another puzzle. By the way, I would normally plug in a trailer here but electricity and internet are intermittent.

On a day like today:

A proper Oregon day of rain!

Nothing is better than:

A cuppa

And a puzzle.

Per Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “puzzle.” Use it any way you’d like!

This and That Thursday

As I meandered my thoughts about today, I found my eclectic stroll even more so.

My current binge is The Walking Dead, again. My son has all ten seasons. I like watching the old way because there are extra bits like ‘the making of’ or interviews. The show parts I can let slide by as I have committed a lot to memory.

I was watching Outlander again. But it won’t have a new season until next year some time. I’d love to read another book or two, but I’m caught up there, too.

One thing I found in common between these two shows is the music. Guess what? Same musician in both.  Bear McCreary is amazing!

Today was my last Beginning Recorder  class with Jennifer Carpenter of the American Recorder Society.  They were free. As soon as I can, I plan to join. There are more lessons coming up in September. I’m loving learning on my alto and soprano recorders.

Meanwhile, I have a lot of Kindle and paper books to keep up the education.

And there are lessons on YouTube like those of Sarah Jeffery and Team Recorder. She is so much fun.

For those who think Recorder is for grade school take a listen:

That beginning photo at the top of my post? I stepped outside with the dog. The wind was hitting me in the face and the sky looked like it disguised itself with a mustache. It felt so grand to feel such a cool breeze coming from the north. That meant a lot less smoke for us today. I’m thankful for that!

Maybe soon I can start taking walks!? I did learn at the doctor’s appointment on Monday that I have lost over 23 pounds now. Lots still to go but hey, it’s working.

Tetris Tuesday

No. I didn’t play Tetris. I needed to do more rearranging in my ‘studio.’

My daughter is deeply in a move. So much so that they are living with no furniture for two weeks. Everything has already moved or has been given away.

Which brings me to my new acquisitions from her. Two folding tables and a cubicle shelf for hobbies and books.

That meant moving the smaller bookshelf full of music books to another location.

End of the piano facing the livingroom.

That left the window area for the cubicle shelving for art, crafts, more books.

The yellow bag has drawing goods. The Avatar bag crayons and colored pens and coloring books. Soon each will leave the bag for new cubes.

Now I’ve opened the smaller table for all kinds of fun.

Right across from the piano.

Meanwhile, we actually had a tiny bit of rain today. Not enough to put out fires but it cooled things down a bit.

Three more Marvel films moved me on the timeline. Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and both Guardians of the Galaxy. I did like G of G. They were more my kind of movie. And Grood is the coolest!

Okay, time to make some noise or music accordingly.

Making of Monday

Adding the cuffs.

So today was a busy one.

I got up way later that I hoped. Still it wasn’t too hot so Kali and I walked our mile. She was so slow. I don’t know what was up. She usually loves her walks. So it was way slower than usual. My app didn’t record it. I listened to a podcast that my daughter introduced me to. It kept my mind busy so the walk was painless.

My friends and I have challenged each other to watch all of Marvel Universe in timeline order. My husband has joined. We are now on Ironman 3. I think this is my favorite of the Ironmen. By the way, you can find this order on Disney +.

I seem more tired since getting back. I had to take a nap. I usually do well on a 20 minuter. But I went far over. I was 1/2 hour late for my recorder class.

Luckily,  I have a few lessons on my own before finding the class so it was review. I’m sure my advance will fade in the next two lessons. It was fun to be in a class with second graders to folks my age. I think that is the best kind of class. Be on the level of learning not peer groups.

Within a 1/2 hour of the end of recorder class was my writers group. I love the people in that group. Such a creative bunch. There are published authors to challenge all of us.

Now back to Ironman.

Fun And Games

In spite of threatening fires and a bit of sadness about my daughter and her SO moving to Wisconsin, there has been fun.

First, I realize that offspring need their wings. And as far apart as we live right now, we don’t see each other more than a couple of times a year. Meanwhile, we chat on the phone, IM, or Zoom a couple times a month.

So this visit has been a bit strange. She works from home during the day. The couple have been packing to the point of being close to the actual move. That means I’m at loose ends during the day. My other guys here in town are also working so day visits are out with them, too.

Luckily I have a couple retired friends here to keep the fun moving. Unfortunately, one caught a cold just before I came so we’ve only got to talk on IMs. I hope she’ll be well enough before I have to go home.

My other friend who drove up to see me is the one who drove me down here. She’s been carting me around during the day as we look for inexpensive pastimes. We met at a BookCrossing group that also was a board game group. And we were a part of a writing group. So you can see we have a lot in common. She even loom knits!

Anyway, seems I’m taking the long way around to tell you, these hot days kept us inside to stay cool. One day she brought out her Blockbuster Video game. You know how excited I was to see it!

This game should be played with three to six players. There are several ways to play it. With only two of us we had to be creative. We played it similarly to Apples to Apples. In case you’ve never played that I’ll go grab a YouTube of that at the bottom. We didn’t know half the movies presented so we got creative. It was fun. I can see it would be more fun with more people. By the way, ours was the smaller set so it didn’t have a buzzer.

Another day my friend brought out Primordial Soup game. She and I had played it a couple of years ago together. As like then, it is a game for more than two that we got creative and made it work for us. I wish I could play this one more often. I think the more you play the more strategy you can employ. It is a lot of fun. Imagine these two old ladies sitting taylor style on the floor like a couple of kids!

Here’s the Apples to Apples game. Though the game is fun, I think this host needs to take a chill pill. Calm down!

Board games aren’t for everyone. Only my daughter and I like them in my family. The males don’t like them at all. But with daughter so busy we didn’t get to pull out a game.

Instead, we pulled out Disney plus and watched Little Mermaid. It was a favorite of hers growing up.

Then I shared with her Mickey Mouse Club.

Then her boyfriend and she settled on Loki. I didn’t think I would like it. But I do!

Do you have board games you like? What is a memory movie that brings you home?

Hot Sunday

I still don’t feel like turning on the laptop. It is still quite warm at nearly eleven. And we didn’t even hit the predicted 101. But too uncomfortably close.

In spite of that, the day was fun. Nottinghill, Holiday, and 50 First Dates, Big Hero 6, played on TV while the four of us and the furry children sat in front of fans and looked pathetic.

I managed to knit a heel on a sock. Wahoo something got done!

Sorry this is short and boring. But when I read back in the future it might be cold and busy and I’ll look at this time and gain inner warmth or be glad it still isn’t summer.

Now, even though it is late, I’m going to try and hit the musics then the shower and bed.

Thursdays Theatrics

Okay this is not going to be very long. A friend and then my husband recommended Manifest. I didn’t think I would like it. But whoa! I am getting nothing done I am so sucked into it! I did start writing more of my time travel story. But meanwhile this is so good I can’t take my eyes off it. The first two seasons are on Netflix. The rest is on Hulu.

Sunday Funday

Most of today has been slow and cinematic.

My friends and I decided to start watching the Marvel movies in chronological order. So today Captain America.

I don’t want to give spoilers. And you may not want my feminist point of view. If you like lots of noise, fighting, and only one woman… Even that is more than I meant to say, it is a fun diversion.

My recent binge after Doctor Who, and Torchwood has been The Sarah Jane Adventures. These are fun.

I still need to find the classic Whos but I wanted to finish the modern stuff first.

I still have recorders to play. Too dark for piano but Kalimba might finish the night.

Blockbuster Thursday

For a while now my son and I have wanted to go into Bend (two hour drive) to shop and to visit the last Blockbuster video store.

Many times we have planned it and things happened that kept us from it. Last night we were sure that today would be the day. Then, a year after breaking my right pinky toe I rammed my left pinky toe into the coffee table. Yep, broken. But I refused to let it stop me. I needed to get out of the house and see something besides these four walls. Even if we couldn’t do all that we wanted to, we did go to town. I wrapped my toe. That foot isn’t needed in our automatic truck. We’d just have to stay safe and take it easy.

We hit Target and Best Buy. Then the most important part of the trip, Blockbuster Video. During lock-down we saw the movie on Netflix. I couldn’t wait.

It certainly brought back memories. If my toe wasn’t hurting I think I might have taken more time to get some memorabilia. There seemed to be a lot of business so I don’t think it is going away. I look forward to our next visit.

Regardless of IF/keto I went ahead and had Del Taco. For lunch I do the 8-layer burrito with no beans or rice, extra guacamole, extra sour cream, extra cheese. I also ordered for my dinner a spicy jack quesadilla and a small fry. That’s bending it a bit but since it doesn’t happen but once in a few months I think that is fine.

My son was having a bit of problems with his digestion so he wasn’t having a good day either. Still with masks we hit all the stores including Walmart. I got a new pair of PJs and he found all the things he needed to buy.

The highlight of the trip was the Blockbuster. The trip itself was beautiful. The weather was perfect and the scenery gorgeous. Hopefully. we will remain healthy and get to go again soon. There were so many things I wanted to do but the toe was having none of it.

For many reasons my writing goals have slipped. Today I officially lowered my goal to a possibly more reachable realm, 25K instead of 50K. I still like the story, I just don’t want to overwhelm my senses with something that won’t be fun to reach. I would rather have to chance to go do outings and hit all my fun new musical goals than get discouraged in any way.

I will probably do Duolingo after publishing this and spend a little recorder time. Writing and piano will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m tired!

One-liner Wednesday

Donna Noble is in the Library.

 

 

Badge by Laura @ riddlefromthemiddle.com

This guess what I’m watching one-liner joins in with the fun of the One-Liner Wednesday brought to us by Linda G. Hill.