UPDATE: The winner is…Pansy Petal!
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Halloween is always a fun time of year for our family. It’s the kickoff to the holiday season—Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Nicklaus Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve… We celebrate them all because we love excuses for celebrating.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, and then offer suggestions in the comments for Halloween movies or activities that would be fun for the family!

For those interested, here’s my health update:  Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
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Yesterday was Chemo Day—the third round. It’s funny; I almost looked forward to it—or at least I wasn’t filled with dread or fear. I know it’s the beginning of a miserable week, but I don’t even dread that. Not yet. I’ll probably rethink it on Wednesday or Thursday when the deep muscle and joint aches begin—but I have some good drugs to help with that. 🙂

Anyway, I came home from chemo, which ended at 3 PM, and headed straight to bed. Other than getting up for dinner or walks to the bathroom, I slept all the way until 3 AM this morning, and I’ve been up since, on a roll. I puttered picking up things, and even dusted my desktop (a huge chore given all the crap I have on the surface).

Then, I turned my attention to what to do with my blog today—since I def feel up to it.

I love quirky, obscure holidays, and today is an important obscure one. It’s Ada Lovelace Day!

Who is Ada? From the website Time and Date:  “Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician who worked with Charles Babbage on his calculating engine, called the Analytical Engine. Her plan to calculate Bernoulli numbers using the engine is now widely considered as the world’s first computer program. In 1980, the United States Department of Defense created a programming language and named it Ada in honor of Ada Lovelace’s contribution to the world of computing.”

I remember when the ADA programming language was a thing back in the day. I remember, too, the state of computers back when I was new to the Army. In fact, during my summer ROTC training before I graduated from college, I was selected to be part of a team that went to an Army base to evaluate an exercise the active duty units there were undergoing. Our job was to shadow and assist the active Army observers. We were the ones entrusted to gather their observations and put them together into a single, extensive report. We were given access to a computer to write up the report—beginning after duty hours so we didn’t disrupt the people who worked there during the day. I was assigned the job of typing up all those reports, editing, then printing out the report (my first editing job, y’all). The computer sent the book to a printer that spit out hundreds of punch cards that looked like the picture above. The others had to take that stack and walk it to another device that read the cards then produced the written report. All those cards had to be kept in order so two people carried it, one holding the cards from the ends and the other supporting it so it didn’t fall to the floor. If you had one card out of order, you had to reprint the entire thing. If they (the active duty folks) decided to make changes to the report you had to repeat the entire process again.

Still, I thought how cool was it that we were able to type up a report, making changes along the way, and we didn’t have to retype the entire thing. It did save labor on that end. LOL

A few years later, I was assigned to work on the general’s staff at Fort Gordon (now, Fort Eisenhower), Georgia and we actually had an internal email system that connected the staff to all the heads of different organizations on the post. So much progress in so few years. Shortly after that, I bought my first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80, and I was the first on my block to own a personal computer. I had to learn a smattering of code to work it, but that was just part of the adventure!

Today? We all take for granted the innovations. Back then, we felt like we would soon be living in the Jetson’s future.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Have fun with the puzzle. Solve the puzzle then tell me about any computer innovation that amazed you for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Ann Dean!
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Happy Saturday!

The kids are getting ready to head out for the annual Pumpkin Fest in a neighboring town. There will be vendors, tractor rides, hayrides—that sort of thing. I used to go to it every year, but these days, I avoid crowds as much as possible. Plus, I don’t have the energy to traipse around a field. I’ll stay at home and try to get some work done since today feels like it will be a “good” day for me. I have today and tomorrow to work, and then Monday is Chemo Day. So, next week is toast.

I saw the picture in the puzzle, and it reminded me that I had a bucket list before all this started. I did have a few places left in the world I still wanted to see. My dd and I have always wanted to do a “foodie tour” of India—we love Indian food. I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland, Bali, or Tahiti. I wanted to revisit Ireland, Germany, and France. If the world weren’t so nuts, I would’ve loved to head to Turkey and Egypt. I’m extremely lucky to have traveled extensively when I was younger. So, I’m not bummed about the fact I likely won’t get to tick off any of those destinations.

Right now, I’d be happy with another road trip to New Orleans. That’s doable, I think.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you have a bucket list. Your list doesn’t have to be ambitious or for far-flung places. Have fun with it!

UPDATE: The winner is…Tanya Rae!
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Hello there! I’m up bright and early. My dd left to take the girls to school. The house is quiet. The dogs are walked. My cat woke up long enough to yowl a couple of times to remind me to fill her bowl, but now she’s back, lying on the bunched-up blanket I have on my bed just for her. Tessa is around 15 years old and likes her sleepy times.

I’m ready for work. I find if I start early, I can last until noon-ish. So long as I move from one item on my To Do list to the next, I can have a productive day’s work completed by then. So, nose to the grindstone—after the puzzle, that is! 🙂

I’ve been contemplating some craft projects I’d like to tackle. It’s Fall, and my dd wants me to paint a small shelfie-painting for her Halloween decorations. Since I needed a topic for the next Word Search, I thought it would be fun to find out what you like to do.

So, solve the puzzle then let me know in the comments what sorts of crafts you enjoy or would like to try for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Enjoy the puzzle!

UPDATE: The winner is…Amy Fendley!
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When I was a kid, I loved board games. Of course, we had the multi-board game packages that included chess, checkers, Chinese checkers, Yahtzee, etc. Then we had Monopoly. I personally loved Operation and Mousetrap. As an adult, I don’t have the patience for board games, but I do love a trivia game.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what games you loved as a kid and whether you still love board games. Enjoy the puzzle! It’s a picture of one of my old faves.

UPDATE: The winner is…Joy Boutwell!
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I painted a little postcard-sized floral yesterday and thought it might be fun to present it as a puzzle. And yes, I know, tomorrow’s a regularly scheduled puzzle day, but can I post too many puzzles?

Solve the puzzle and tell me whether I should go back and figure out a doodle for the yellow blobs in the background or leave well enough alone for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Rachel Blackburn!
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I’m finally exiting Chemo Week Hell. I had seven hours of sleep last night and woke feeling weak but not uncomfortable or hurting. Yay. Today, I’ll use every excuse to get up and move around to get my legs feeling stronger. Gosh, I’ll even shower. Just kidding. I do shower. 🙂

Today’s Puzzle Day! And what’s on my mind? Well, the weather. Here we are at the beginning of Fall, and yesterday, the temperature here in Arkansas was 95 degrees. Today, it’s supposed to get to 96.

I’m sorry. Pool season is over. It’s time for sweaters and hot chocolate. In fact, I’m making a grocery list and adding hot cocoa to it because it’s one of those things I love having during cooler weather.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift certificate, tell me what you enjoy eating or imbibing when Fall weather truly arrives!