UPDATE: The winner is…Pansy Petal!
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It’s Saturday, so it’s puzzle time!

I went to my favorite photo site to find an image and typed in “romantic.” Of course, there were lots of couples sitting on park benches or sharing champagne in a darkened restaurant. Then I saw this photo. It’s the perfect place for a rendezvous. He texts and says, “Meet me on the bridge near your work at noon…” But for what? That’s up to you.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell a little story about who is meeting there and why. Or if you have a favorite “bridge scene” you remember from a book or movie, tell us about it here! Have fun!

UPDATE: The winner is…Beckie!
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Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the big city for some imaging appointments. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass. However, my daughter and I try to take advantage of the fact we’re out and about to enjoy some shopping and some good food. We’re big foodies and have adventurous tastes.

Last week when we were in the city for another appointment, we hit our favorite Greek restaurant for gyros. There was a hummus appetizer and plenty of tzatziki sauce to slather on the pita bread. Delicious!

We haven’t decided what we’ll have tomorrow, but it will be good!

Since we don’t get away often, we experiment a lot in our kitchen.

Here’s a photo of one of my daughter’s latest entrees, Hungarian goulash. So good!

We dabble in Indian, Irish, German, and lots and lots of Mexican dishes. This week alone, my daughter made Indian Chicken Curry and the 19-year-old made chorizo-potato-egg breakfast tacos with homemade salsa and homemade corn tortillas. My spaghetti with meatballs is to die for, by the way. For Christmas, we toss the traditional ham or turkey and choose an international cuisine then research recipes. We’ve done Mexican, North African, then we circled back to Mexican, again. I’m hoping for Italian or Eastern European this year. Anyone have some good recipes? I know if we do Italian, I’ll have to do my meatballs and my dd will have to make her fantastic focaccia bread, but there will have to be more on the table!

So, thinking about food and tomorrow’s trip, I wondered how adventurous you all are! Do you like eating international cuisines when you’re out? Do you make special international dishes at home? (Spaghetti counts!) For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle then share in the comments!

UPDATE: The winner is…Deb Brown!
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International Panic Day is a “mock” holiday meant to give people a day to intentionally de-stress.

I’m all for that! Well, I’m all for another odd holiday and all for destressing! How ’bout you?

I thought making a list of ways I like to destress would be fun…

1. 🐈 Pet a pet
2. 📻 Listen to music
3. ☕ Drink a cup of tea
4. 😮‍💨 Breathe
5. 🧘‍♀️ Meditate
6. 🏊‍♀️ Swim!
7. 👭 Spend time with friends
8. 🚶‍♀️ Go for a walk
9. 👩‍⚕️ See a therapist
10. 🏝️ Get away from it all!

The last two aren’t things I generally do, but I was struggling to get to 10! I also managed to fit in a puzzle for you all since so many of you enjoy them!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then add to my list of 10 or tell me which items on my list you use!

UPDATE: The winner is…Beth!
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Do you sometimes wake up with a goal you can’t shake?

I watched a trailer for a movie yesterday and got so excited about it that I messaged the link to my daughter for her to watch. She never replied. So, I take that as she’s not excited about the idea. But how can she not be?! A giant shark in the Seine, IN PARIS?! It’s going to be epic!

Okay, so it’s not as over-the-top as the Sharknado movies (has there ever been anything as gonzo?!), but I can see the possibility of a fun movie night. When the Sharknado films came out every summer for all those years, we made the releases a big event. We’d binge-watch the preceding movies and hunker down with finger-foods and popcorn, our attention glued to the screen. They weren’t meant to be great art, and they weren’t, but oh what fun they were. I have the same reverence for The Meg movies. I just love shark movies and Shark Week. Summer isn’t summer without watching some new shark-disaster movie.

So, this morning, I awoke determined to watch the new movie tonight. I’m pretty sure I can talk the 15-year-old and the 10-year-old into watching with me. We’ll get a huge tub of popcorn and dim the lights. Under Paris will be watched!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you love shark movies like I do. Have you watched Jaws, the Sharknado movies…Shark Tale?

UPDATE: The winner is…Dana Zamora!
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Y’all said you wanted more puzzles, so…

I’ll be out of pocket today. I have a doctor’s appointment in Little Rock and will be away from my desk. I posted this early, so you’d have something to play with while I’m gone. Hope you enjoy it!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what he’s hunting. I always enjoy what you come up with!  

UPDATE: The winner is…Anne Marie Flamini!
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Okay, so you’re probably thinking my topic is kind of weird, but hear me out.

Coming up with topics on a daily basis isn’t always easy. Yes, I can talk about books, but doing that every day…? Boring. I have guests, so that changes things up. When I’m reaching for a topic, I love to check the calendar for weird holidays because I love an excuse to celebrate. Today’s holiday was VCR Day, and I thought about it, but got nothin’. So, I moved on. Then I thought about the History Channel’s website. Every day, they have a “This Day in History” post, so I headed on over to steal some ideas.

Some of today’s offerings were…

• Muhammed died (632)
• Robert F. Kennedy was buried (1968)
• Apache chief Cochise died (1874)

Those are sacred dates, so I know better than to have fun with them. Then another one popped up.

• Ghostbusters released (1984)

I remember when the movie came out. I think I was pregnant/giving birth at the time, so I didn’t see it in the theaters, but back in the day, we had HBO and a new-fangled way of watching movies we wanted, whenever we wanted, called a VCR (see how I worked that holiday into here?!). Ghostbusters was one of the recordings we made so we could enjoy it whenever we wanted. When my family went with me to Germany for my second tour there, all those taped movies we’d made were sooooo important! Remember, that was before streaming, and sometimes, we only had one channel, AFN (Armed Forces Network) to watch. The library on post had a ton of classic movies (most in B&W) to check out, and I attribute my love of classic movies to that period. However, it was our library of movies recorded off of HBO that saved our sanity. There were many, many kids’ movies among them…

Anyway, Ghostbusters it is, and I did manage to find an image I could use without getting into trouble with a copyright, so enjoy the puzzle!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what classic movies you might have seeing made into a puzzle.

UDPATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
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Oh! We haven’t played this game since February!

I bought this little brainstorming tool years ago at some writers’ conference. “Story Cubes” is a brainstorming game. You roll the dice, and whatever pictures appear face-up are the ones you use to riff off a story. You can try to include all the cubes in your “story” or choose a few.

To make this fun, I’ll offer a prize—a $5 Amazon gift card—good for purchasing one or two stories…
Have fun with this! Don’t overthink! Here’s the roll…