New Thing #283: Completing A Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle

It's been a while since I sat down to do a puzzle. But when my oldest daughter received a wooden jigsaw puzzle as a birthday gift, my puzzling instincts kicked in - I thought a wooden puzzle sounded really cool.

So I sat down with a cleared table and I started putting it together.

This puzzle was neat - it's by a company called 'Little Liberty', whose catchphrase is "Classic Wooden Jigsaws For Children".

There's a nice classic feel to the puzzle too - not like the cardboard puzzles I'm used to. I've never even seen a wooden puzzle before.

I don't know if this is just a fun twist for kids, or part and parcel of a wooden puzzle, but there were pieces of all shapes and sizes in this puzzle, as you can see:

I especially liked  the animal shapes - in addition to what's pictured there was also a butterfly and a couple of flowers.

For a puzzle aimed at 6-to-9-year-olds (95 pieces), I was surprised at how challenging the puzzle was. It took me about a half-hour, maybe a little more, to finish it...there was a lot of background, which made it hard, and a lot of the piece connections (as you may be able to tell from those pieces shown above) had weird angles that you're not really used to with a puzzle.

But I did it. I finished my first-ever wooden puzzle. And it was challenging enough that I might even do it again.

Maybe next time I'll even let my daughter join me.

New Thing #236: Video Roulette

I don't spend a whole lot of time at casinos. But every once in a while I'll scratch that itch, realize it's not as easy as I think it is, and I'll go home poorer and think, "I'll get 'em next time."

And next time won't happen for a long while.

If you'd asked me if going to a casino would have ended up on the agenda for my trip to Florida, I would have told you that was very doubtful.

But I wouldn't have ruled it out completely - you know, things happen.

And as it turned out, there was a casino and Hard Rock Cafe on some Seminole land in Tampa.

And Kevin and I decided to check it out.

The casino was mostly slot machines. There were very few tables. And my favorite game - roulette - was only available in the video format you see above.

I didn't know whether or not to take the plunge..then I figured, New Thing. So we sat at the video roulette table.

You sit at a console like this:

And in the middle of the various consoles is the wheel, automated and under glass. And above the wheel is the board that shows you the current number as well as the last few that came out.

As sometimes happens, I started off kind of hot by just playing the outside - picking red or black, and the occasional "first 12" or "bottom of the board" or whatever.

But then I start thinking it's easy, and I start to lose money. Fast.

It happened quickly for Kevin and I. (Speaking of quickly - the amount of time you have to place your bets is timed, and it's not all that much. Like 30 seconds or so - much faster than when there's a human spinning the wheel. So when I say it happened quickly - it happened quickly.)

Usually I have some stock numbers I pick when I play the inside - 8 is a big one because it's part of my anniversary, my wife's birthday, and, of course, it's Gary Carter's number. Rarely, though, do I hit on the inside numbers.

When things started to fade I returned to the outside. A string of black numbers had come up. Obviously (I'm such a sucker) the next one was going to be red. I put my remaining chips on red, chasing my losses.

Not only was my final play of the day a black number - it was an 8. It was like the universe telling me, "Not today champ." (And probably not ever.)

Kevin was not much luckier.

All told, we drove about 40 minutes to the casino to spend only about 40 minutes wasting some money. Then it was 40 minutes back.

But the more I thought about it - the casino might have actually saved me money. I only brought a limited amount with me - who knows what we would have done otherwise. I might have spent more doing something else.

You might see this as a disappointment.

Sure, we would much rather have won some money. But we were back in St. Petersburg by lunchtime. It worked out rather well.

New Thing #111: A New Will Shortz Puzzle

A couple of years ago I spent the summer with the New York Times daily crossword. I worked on it every day over the summer, essentially mastering Monday through Wednesday, figuring out the occasional tricky Thursday puzzle, and getting stumped almost every Friday and Saturday.

I achieved my overall goal, which was to put in a good showing on the Sunday puzzle.

Actually, I surpassed my goal - I became quite good at the Sunday puzzle.

Not like tournament-worthy good, but sucessful.

Nowadays I just do the Sunday crossword...but I always scour the Magazine for the secondary ('Variety') puzzle.

Too often it's an acrostic puzzle, and I don't love that one...but every so often you get a surprise new puzzle.

That happened last Sunday.

The puzzle was called "Getting To The Point".

The point (pun intended) was to take the letters given and arrange them in an inverted pyramid so that eight words would be formed beginning in each of the top four squares.

It sounds complicated, and it kind of is.

And it gets harder as you go. The beginning pyramids feature four letters in place already for you (there are 10 available blanks), then there are a couple with three in place, then two, and then one.

I did OK with the 4-letter ones, I got one of the 3-letter ones, and then I took a break.

I'll really try to get the other 3-letter ones. And I'll take a shot at the 2-letter ones. But I won't get my hopes up too much on the 1-letter ones.

If I've learned anything from my practice with the crosswords, it's that success doesn't come from just one puzzle.

I'll save the puzzle, I'll save the answer key.

And I'll wait.

Because the next time Will Shortz publishes a 'Getting To The Point' puzzle, I'll be ready for it.

I'll know how to approach it.

And I'll have one goal: To improve.

New Thing #103: Flying A Kite

Friday was terrible weather around here. Raw.

Wet.

Windy.

Good for nothing.

Except, maybe, flying a kite.

An activity which I had never done before.

The fifth grade classroom recently came into possession of a kite.

It has sat through the winter, untouched, in a corner of the classroom. On Friday, with winter-esque gusts of wind blowing on the field, the students decided it was time to bring it outside.

Their style of flying a kite was to take a running start and launch it into the air, then run around with it trying to keep it aloft.

It looked like a lot of fun.

And that has been the extent of my kite experience: Looking. Many a summer's day in Montauk at the beach there would be one or two kites flying over the sand or the water, tied to someone's beach chair or anchored by a stationary beachgoer. I always noticed them, but didn't give kite-flying much thought.

Friday that changed. I decided to get in the game.

Of course, the kids were all excited by the idea that I wanted to fly it. I took the string (we didn't have one of those string holders), gave it a little running start, and held it while the winds did their work.

It was a pretty cool experience.

But the string was ripping up my hands and the kids wanted the kite to be run across the field - and I wasn't feeling that active.

So I handed it back over, ending my first kite-flying experience on a high note. (Which is to say it didn't end up in a tree.)

I am intrigued by the possibility of purchasing a kite for some summer fun with my girls.

But I will make sure it has the string holder.

And without 30 fifth graders standing around, I might be a little more inclined to run around with the kite.

New Thing #101: Taking My Daughter To Ballet

One of my wife's many many many tasks that help make our family go is taking our middle daughter to ballet class. This happens on Wednesdays, a day on which she does not work.

Except for this week.

This week was just flat out crazy.

And, usually, if there's craziness, it's on my end, and my wife is the one who ends up picking up the slack.

This time it was my turn.

Here's what happened.

I was responsible (in the first part of the day) for our two youngest daughters. They went to their school (I barely snuck in a haircut in the time between pickups...it is very hard for me to find the time for haircuts), then I picked up the older of the two to go to ballet.

In the afternoon I went into work and then took home my oldest daughter.

But let's talk about the ballet.

First of all, brag alert: My daughter is quite the ballerina. She follows directions well, and it was fun to see a sneak preview of her performance. (Yes, a performance. I'm going to have to sit through an hour-and-a-half of a ballet recital for what looked like a 3-minute segment that will feature my daughter.)

But watching my daughter dance was only part of the experience. The other part was listening to the moms of the other kids gossip. Boy, did they gossip.

Apparently their children's daycare has stopped serving alcohol at events. Oh, but they don't care. Their husbands seem to care, according to them. But, no, understand, they're not alcoholics. They just would like there to be alcohol. They don't really care. But now they're not going to go to any more of the get-togethers.

I didn't know whether to enjoy the conversation, or feel bad about eavesdropping, or be appalled at how they could easily be talking about me if I was still teaching in that town. But I certainly didn't have any desire (or knowledge of the subject matter, if we're honest) to join in the conversation.

I just sat and watched the ballet, as my daughter followed the directions and listened to the teacher...and their daughters did whatever the heck they wanted to.