SUDOKU

It was about 5 years ago that my daughter Marta came for a visit.

One night as we sit in the family room, she pulled out a puzzle book called "SUDOKU."  I asked her about her book and how you worked the puzzle?

She told me that Sudoku is a number placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers.  The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once.  There was a difficulty level in each puzzle from 1 to 5.

I thought, OK, I think I could do that!  So I asked her to show me how it worked. - She tore out a level 1 page, showed me how and I was hooked.

It has been over 5 years now since that night, but every night before I go to bed I have to do my Sudoku puzzle no matter what time it is. 

My day is not complete until my puzzle is done.

My daily paper has this puzzle in it and in the morning I look for it, but it is not worked on until evening.  Sometimes my paper will not have it in for that day and then I feel a loss, my day just doesn't seem complete.  The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday with Monday starting out as 1 and Sunday ending with the difficulty of 5.  I'm getting pretty good at it now and I always feel pretty good when I have worked Sunday's puzzle.

I remember my Mother always sitting on the sofa in the evenings, working the Cross Word puzzle in the newspaper while my father had the Sports on TV.  Her comment was, "that it helps to keep her mind alert."

I use to try to work those Cross Word puzzles too, but they were more frustrating that solvable to me.

As the years keep creeping up on me and my mind takes a few minutes sometime to remember a name or two, I'm thinking this Sudoku puzzle might do the same to my brain as the Cross Word puzzles did for my Mother.

I have a puzzle book in my car and also in my Sweetheart's truck and a small one in my purse and when I have to wait in the car or somewhere else for a period of time, I always have something with me that helps invigorates my brain and also helps pass the time.

When my cousin Barb was here for a visit and they borrowed our truck, she was pleased and happy to find that there was a Sudoku puzzle book in the door pocket.  It seems she too is hooked on this game.

Thanks Marta for teaching your Mother a puzzle that not only she enjoys but also exercises her brain, maybe its not too late to teach an old dog a new trick.

A Visit With My Cousin

These past few days, my cousin Barb and her husband have been here visiting with us. 

We reconnected in the year 2000 and it's been a joy, sharing and being cousins after not seeing each other for over 50 years.  Every year they make a pilgrimage to Salt Lake City, Utah and then after their stay there they come down for a visit with us.

You can tell by looking at us that we are related.  We are about the same height and have many of the same features.  This comes from our fathers side, as our fathers are brothers.  Her father is the older one...

We have many of the same interest.  She is a beautiful quilter.  Her fabric piecing is perfect.  Her quilts are masterpieces, every stitch is pure perfection.  She also does lots of applique on her quilts.  Her stitches here are flawless and well hidden in her work.  I always enjoy seeing the projects she is working on and I do admire them and her workmanship.  She is truly a talented and gifted quilt maker. 

I enjoy quilts too, but I am more into the scrappy ones.  I love fabric.  I love the look and feel of fabrics and I love the scraps that come from my projects.  I save all these scraps, it doesn't matter what size they are, I save them.  I'm now into saving the selvage edge of my fabric.  I've seen some ideas about quilts made from this selvage edge.  I like that idea, so that's something I intend to create.

My cousin's husband is into family history.  He enjoys this and spends time researching  his family tree.  They live in California, but each year they make this trip to Utah.  They will spend a week or more in Salt Lake City.  Bob will spend his days in the Family History Center looking for information on his family and Barb will spend her days in their motor home, sewing and working on her projects.

This visit with my cousin was short this time, but I was happy that they were able to make this trip and we did have a few days to catch up with each other and to share what has been happening with our lives since they were here last year.  She always has something new to show me or to share with me.  She also is a great teacher and I have learned many new quilting tips from her not to mention the lessons she gives me on my computer.  

Thanks Barb for your visit, it was good to see you and to share with you, we had a good time. I'll look forward to our visit next year, but in between, thank goodness for email.