As I was leaving the gym yesterday morning, there was a large group of geese walking away from the building. I’m not sure why but all I could think of was a group of teenagers having just finished a quick basketball game at the gym, heading off for a burger and a pop. Made me laugh.
For a very short time in high school, I was on the track team. Very short. My trail leg didn’t quite clear a hurdle during practice and while it was a life-threatening injury, it was pretty gruesome and it ended my extremely short track career. That was my only foray into team sports.
Friday was my strawberry day. I got to the fields just a bit after 6 a.m. and was a little surprised to see a mother/father/daughter combo in the strip next to me. 6 a.m. is normally not a kid-friendly time; I know I would never have dragged Child at that time of day. (Of course, after she turned seven or eight, I never dragged her berry-picking again.)
The young kid in the next row was adamant that her dad (not her mom, just her dad) get every single good strawberry on their side. She let him know, in a fairly loud voice, when he had missed one. She would then pick it and show it to him before putting it into their flat. The rate at which she was finding good berries led me to think that Dad was doing it on purpose. Basically keeping her busy and allowing her to think she was “winning”.
When YA was young, I did occasionally let her win at some games. Yahtzee, Cribbage, Aggravation – all those were fairly easy to lose. Monopoly was a little harder because she could spot if I was doing something stupid. Same with Checkers and Risk. It wasn’t constant – just every now and then so she wouldn’t lose interest. My dad NEVER let us win; in fact he sometimes went to extraordinary lengths to keep us from winning. He thought it was a good lesson for us to learn how to lose – that classic “character-building” thing.
Eventually I didn’t need to let her win anymore and it was about that time that she came home from daycare wanting the game “Mancala”. It looked interesting so I got her a set and then lost every single game we ever played. It took me forever to even figure out the rules and I never did really master it. I think we will have it downstairs but it hasn’t been out of the box in years!
Part of my post-milkman life now includes just running out get milk. And if it’s only milk that I need, Aldis is my grocery store of choice. Easy parking, fast in, fast out. My shopping trifecta.
Normally at Aldis I do self-checkout; even if I get more than just milk, I don’t have the much so usually can’t get myself in too much trouble. But this past week, I was determined to use some of my surplus quarters (lots leftover from my day at the laundromat) so I parked myself in the regular cashier line. I’m retired – I have time.
The couple in front of me had more groceries in their cart than I have ever seen at Aldis, heck that I’ve ever seen anywhere. The child seat was full, the cart itself was practically overflowing and even the bottom shelf under the card was full of stuff. It was amazing. While they were unloading everything, the guy even went and grabbed a few more things from the freezer section.
The cashier was bound and determined to get everything back into one cart was she was scanning. (I’m not sure why… there were plenty of empty carts next to her station.) She stacked and wiggled and moved stuff around. I was pretty sure things were going to start sliding off the mountain that had been created in that cart. The woman looked at me with my two cartons of milk and gave me a “I’m so sorry” quasi-smile. I laughed and said “it looks like reverse-Jenga”. Everybody, including the cashier thought this was pretty funny.
The total on their order was $312! Considering that Aldis sells pretty much everything at a bargain price, you can imagine how many groceries it takes to hit the $300 mark. And how funny it felt to cough up my $4.98 in coins right afterwards.
I just finished the Dragon Forge puzzle. 1000 pieces. And I promise, this is not a blog about how I succumbed to temptation (repeatedly) to sit for hours at the table working on this thing.
I chose this puzzle from the fantasy section of the Puzzle Warehouse in St. Louis, a fascinating place I discovered on a visit to Nonny right before pandemic. It’s a huge warehouse with puzzles sorted all kinds of ways – mostly by the company that produced the puzzle but also in theme areas including my favorite. Fantasy.
My first big plunge into science fiction/fantasy was Star Wars, which I saw at the Grand Theater in Northfield. Four nights in a row. Then came the reading of The Hobbit when I was 20. This was followed immediately by all three volumes of Lord of the Rings. The barn door was open – the horse was not going back in!
I’m usually more drawn to fantasy than science fiction and it’s almost exclusively due to dragons. Sure, wizards, witches, fairies are great but dragons are the draw. I’ve been known to search the library website using “dragon” as the keyword. There are amazing numbers of books out there with “dragon” in the title. I prefer sympathetic dragons, dragons who can communicate, smart dragons, dragons with magic but I can handle the dark side as well.
Nobody that I know is into dragons like I am. This is where my problem is this week. I love the artwork on this puzzle and I’d love to know that the next home that it travels to will have someone who appreciates it as much as I do. I’ve thought about keeping it and maybe putting in in a frame but I don’t really have any wall space and I’m pretty sure that YA would object anyway if it went in any communal space.
I know that there are occasional puzzles swaps around the Twin Cities but I’ve never gone to one. A friend said that they are opening a permanent spot in a Hennepin County Library for jigsaw puzzles; I haven’t found any information on it yet. Hopefully I can find a good swap or location for Dragon Forge, so that it goes to a good home where dragons are appreciated!
Where do you like to get rid of your excess stuff?
I will not finish the puzzle today. I will not finish the puzzle today. I will not finish the puzzle today.
I have an obsession problem when it comes to jigsaw puzzles. I have trouble stopping once I sit down in front of a puzzle. There have been times that I have not walked away for hours. I’ve skipped meals, I’ve been late to work, I’ve lost sleep. YA has inherited this from me. During the pandemic holidays, we worked 8 hours on a puzzle, taking turns picking movies to watch on tv. Sad (although we DID finish before bed). Because of this, sometimes I shy away from starting a puzzle if I have things that need getting done.
Over the holidays I did an Advent jigsaw puzzle. It was 24 little boxes of 42 pieces; one little puzzle a day that made one big puzzle at the end. It was wonderful… it was a fun and relaxing start to my day throughout the season and the fact that each day was in its own box kept me from jumping ahead. I will definitely do it again.
So when I started a new puzzle last Thursday I told myself that would have a two-hour limit. I figured if I set a boundary, like the little boxes had been boundaries, then I could avoid sitting at the table for hours and hours on end. I even wrote it down on my daily “to-do” list. Thursday turned out fine; it took me right about two hours to sort out all the edge pieces and put them together. I spent 2½ hours on Friday; aided and abetted by having my Zoom book club for close to three hours.
On Saturday, I was making good progress and watching tv and I felt myself sliding down the slippery slope. The two-hour mark came and went. “I’ll just work until this tv show is over”. Then the next show. As the next show started, I began my mantra. “I will not finish this puzzle” today, I will not finish this puzzle today”. This worked; I stood up from table after a little over five hours.
You know how this is going to end. I spent 5 hours yesterday and finished it as it was started to get dark. And just what happened to the two hours yesterday? I excused myself from the rule because I was feeling sorry for myself… still coughing a bit much to hang around with healthy folks. I can come up an excuse with the best of them!
I realized yesterday morning watching our Cesky Terrier shake, tug, and try to destroy his various toys that he is a frustrated scent hunter who wants to find, shake, and kill vermin. His play was very serious. When he insists we tug with him, he tugs as if his life depends on it, with all the accompanying growls and snarls. I wished we lived closer to places that had barn hunts for Kyrill to use his scent skills and have fun working.
We have had terriers for about 35 years, and their one defining characteristic is their turning work into play, as well as games.
Kyrill has turned getting taken for a walk into a game. He sees the leash taken out, and immediately runs twice around the dining room table, evading all efforts to catch him, and then dives under a living room lamp table and waits for Husband to grab him by the collar, attach the leash and go for the walk. Sorting laundry is also a game, as he waits for any opportunity to steal a sock or bra and chew it up. He is on tiptoes the minute he hears the dryer or washer open, follows us, and creeps up stealthily as though the clothing is vermin.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how we have behaviorally reinforced these things. We are psychologists, you know, and we ought to know this. Terriers can outsmart anyone!
What animal has outsmarted you? How do your pets turn things into games? How do you turn the everyday into games?
I saw in the news that the creator of the game, Settlers of Catan, Klaus Teuber, died a few days ago. If you don’t know of it, Settlers of Catan is a multi-player game; you settle and expand on the land using hexagonal tiles. I’ve always assumed it was similar in play to Risk, but I could be wrong. It was wildly popular right off the bat in the late 90s and while still played in boardgame fashion, it has also spun off into cyberspace so you can easily find Catan communities of players.
I have a friend, Laurie, who has played Dungeons and Dragons every Tuesday for decades. This is a serious commitment for her; I’ve known her to turn down other invitations if they fall on Tuesday. I’ve known her for 40 years and she’s never once invited me to join; non D&D folks just aren’t allowed. That’ fair – all I know about D&D is what I’ve seen on Big Bang Theory!
But seeing the news about Klaus Teuber made me think of our blog about jigsaw puzzles the other day which led me to thinking about the games I’ve played in my life. We didn’t have a lot of boardgames when I was a kid. The obligatory Candyland, which I never cared for much. My Nana had Chutes & Ladders at her house, which I adored. I begged for the game Operation and never received it. It was just as well; a friend got one for Christmas and it was BORING. Same with the Mousetrap game.
I played a lot of backgammon in college but hardly ever since. I like trivia games, although I’m not very good at the ones that have a lot of current/trendy questions. We played one at Thanksgiving that had a lot of current sports questions and even a category about stock exchange abbreviations – I stunk. When YA was little, we did Yahtzee and cribbage on vacation, but almost never at home. I do play mahjong online but just with myself which isn’t anything like real mahjong. I guess my favorite boardgame is still Aggravation, which I play exclusively with my mom. We each play three colors and we’re a little cut-throat. YA won’t play with me although when we were in St. Louis last summer she did play once, she and Nonny and I each fielding two colors. She complained later that Nonny and I are mean.
Husband remarked the other day that in the almost 40 years we have been married, we probably only watched the Super Bowl twice, both times at a friend’s house.
Neither of us follow sports, college or professional. In the last few years I have only been glad there was a Super Bowl because it was a good day to have our church annual meeting right after the last morning service. The annual meeting is a tedious affair, especially if there are contentious issues to discuss. People are far more willing to compromise when they want to get home for the pregame show. Things have simmered down over the last 15 years with the deaths of many of the more iconoclastic church members who would get up in arms about important theological issues like being opposed to installing air conditioning even though it would insure that the service committee ladies didn’t swelter in the kitchen while preparing the funeral lunches, and brides didn’t faint in the heat in the sanctuary during summer weddings.
When I was a girl we would usually go to my paternal grandparents’ home when there were important games to watch on TV. I always enjoyed listening to my dad and his brother, both high school and college sports officials, call penalties before the TV officials would. Our plans for this Sunday are to sing in the church choir and head home to take naps. Salmon and mussel stew with harissa are on the menu. The annual meeting was two weeks ago. Life is good.
How will you spend Super Bowl Sunday? What are your favorite things to eat when you watch the Super Bowl? Any meetings you dread having to attend?
I’m kinda grumpy about this weather. It feels like January and it’s only November.
I was feeding the ducks the other morning and while I was in the feed room getting another bucket of corn, I noticed a couple of them fly up to where I had spread the corn. Of our 10 ducks, only a couple are actual mallards that can fly, the black and white ones, (The Swedish breed) and the poufy one can’t fly. And then I saw Rosie, the new black duck fly in! I didn’t notice if Guildy can fly too, but Rosie sure did. And they do have a sleeker look than the other non-flying ducks. What interesting cross breeding is what I thought. And good for them! Can’t you just imagine their delight and surprise when they figured out they could fly too?? How cool.
Driving around town the other day I saw a car with a headlight out. And I thought to myself ‘PI-DIDLE!’ only I was alone and didn’t have anyone to kiss, so it had to wait until I got home. Are you familiar with the term ‘Pi-didle’? Meaning a car with one headlight? And then you kiss your date. Or that’s how I heard it. When I googled the term, I got a few other definitions, including some not suitable for this website. Most include touching the ceiling of your car and / or punching someone.
I thought that was only when you saw a ‘slug-bug’.
This (clean) site has some official rules for the pi-didle game:
They are just starting to harvest my corn as I write this on Friday. The corn would have been out earlier this week if the weather wasn’t so crappy. (Sweeping generalization on the weather) Because mine goes to the elevator and theirs they take home, they plan to do mine during the day when the elevator is open, then work on theirs in the evening. Couple days they’ll be done. When he and I spoke earlier this week I was optimistic I might yet be able to get some fieldwork done. With the temps the last few days, I’ve kinda given up on that. Although I just put a couple driveway markers in around the yard and the ground wasn’t frozen here. So…. Maybe?? I’ll give it a try tomorrow.
The corn kernels themselves are not sensitive to picking up moisture like soybeans or other crops are. But the snow on the leaves gets inside the combine harvester and makes everything wet and then things plug up and it just makes a mess. So we either need warmer weather to melt the snow off, or colder weather to reduce the moisture in the snow. I guess we opted for colder.
Normally I’d wait for the corn to be out, then mow the roadsides down so they’re clean and won’t catch snow, then we get the driveway markers installed. Always a fun day when daughter and I ride in the gator or 4-wheeler and she pounds the fiberglass markers in. Every time, as she readies the hammer, she quotes Homer Simpson, “Steady…. Steady…” You’ll have to google that if you’re not familiar with it. Anyway, all that is more fun when it’s 40°F than it is when it’s 20°F. I may be doing it myself at 20°.
There’s a local guy named ‘Machinery Pete’. He’s been reporting on farm auctions since 1989 and he’s very well respected for that. His name is Greg Petersen and evidently he’s a pretty good golfer too.
On his facebook page, it seems this year every post starts with “New record high price” for that particular piece of machinery. Should we blame Covid for that too? Well, sort of. The usual material sourcing issues led to shortages on new equipment, which led to demand for good quality used equipment, which lead to higher prices. Plus crop prices are high, land values are high, so…everything is high. But I have to laugh that there’s always a new high price. “Fourth record high price on 1992 tractor!” Is fourth record high a thing?
I haven’t filled my diesel barrel yet. I order 500 gallons which will last a year for me. I read of a large dairy farm out in New York, he said they got 7000 gallons delivered on Sunday and that would last them 25 days. Yikes!
Today, I took the day off ‘work’ work to get a few things done here at home. I’m gonna go mow the roadsides. Maybe that will blow the snow off the road too. Or I’ll hook the blade up and scrape off this couple inches on the road. Time to get it in the shed I guess.
I stopped at one of the local theaters today to check on some things. Someone used an orange extension cord to plug in an artificial tree onstage. It’s an unwritten rule that you only use black or dark green cords onstage. Orange cords on the stage drive me bonkers. Why doesn’t everyone know this!!?? How many times do I have to tell you this??
This chess game has been ongoing for a couple of years – in the front yard of a house about 15 blocks up from my house. I’ve always been intrigued by it, mostly because I’m not a big “decorations in the yard” type of gal.
The other intrigue has to do with the fact that my natural instinct is to say “the cat is going to crush the dog”. My second instinct is to say “why is the bird watching so intently?” Personally I think watching games like chess and GO are akin to watching the proverbial paint dry.
Personally I like dice games because if you lose, you can always blame it on bad luck with the dice. Aggravation, Sorry, Parchesi, even Monopoly. I know the rules of chess and GO but haven’t played either for years. I’m also fond of trivia games.
Do you think cats are better chess players than dogs?
Trail Baboon 