Yay, Jesse!

Yeah, I need to practice without DH and on paper.

I think I'll probably drive but maybe stay with my sister overnight in Yardley on Thursday; then it's only about two hours to Stamford. Ooh, and maybe on the way back I'll visit my friend in Pennington, NJ. Maximum peopling! I love the train, but it's so freaking expensive these days.

Timelies all!

Happy New Year!

Our NYE was fairly quiet, but fun. We ended up with 4 of our friends(2 couples) coming over. We decided to order in for dinner since we wouldn't be able to fit all of us in Gary's car, and visitor spaces were much in demand so there was no guarantee they'd be able to find a spot after we got back. After dinner(Chinese from a place we often order from) we played a game one of our friends backed in Kickstarter. It was called Modern Problems require Fantasy solutions and the gameplay style was like Cards Against Humanity. Lots of silliness.

Well, I did it in just over 16 mins., but I got hung up for a couple of minutes in a down and across set where I ultimately got a letter wrong. I didn't know the word for the down clue even though there was only one letter missing, and the across clue didn't help, because I had the wrong sense of the main word in that clue. BUT, the rest of it was a golden, so I feel OK!

I can do the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday NYT crosswords, but I hit Thursday and all my brain cells desert me.

The rare times I try to do a full crossword, I'm usually doing it with friends, so even if they don't actually solve anything, it's helpful for bouncing thoughts off of them!

And sometimes I smoke the mini (25 seconds for Friday’s which is already out) but other times I’m stumped.

Birthday wishes for shrift today! May you be spoiled accordingly. May this year exceed all expectations!

I only do the mini. I'll try the sample one, but doubt it will be anything but pathetic. I only plan to socialize and chill without the brain work.

Happy Birthday, shrift!

I reserved at the Stamford Hotel, but haven't signed up for any competition stuff yet. I won't be competing, both because I am way too slow, and because I didn't get a competitive gene. Maybe the reception or viewing?

I figured Friday night I'd want open in hopes of f2f goodness, so I only signed up for the tournament starting Sat. morning. Then Sat. eve and Sunday after it's over are wide open (I mean, there's a thing you could do Sat. eve, I think, but I'd rather be hanging out with youse guys). There's even a pretty generous lunch break on Saturday. I foresee a lot of togetherness availability!

I feel very unmoored today, knowing how things are about to change work-wise. But also kind of "world is my oyster"-y, so that's positive. I have two meetings set up for next week about freelance work, so that's exciting.

Happy Birthday shrift!