Ian and I arrived a few minutes early, so we had just enough time to stop by a few of the tents to see what was going on before venturing into the crowds for the opening clues.

We started at the debate puzzle where the two participants were debating House Bill #98999 and emphasized how we needed to focus on the TEXT of the bill. The key was accountability.

In high spirits, we solved that and moved on to the Memorial of Failed Monuments. I didn’t bother fighting through the crowds to get a good shot of the middle statue, which was a vacuum cleaner:

That one took a few minutes longer, but we were soon pleased with our find. “Boo-cannon,” “Hoover,” and “Eyes-an-hour.” Buchanan, Hoover, Eisenhower. Next!

From there, we went to the statues… which we were clueless on for a good half hour before deciding to move on to the other clues and come back to this one (I’m not sure what I did with our clue sheet, so this is the gist of it):

According to Native American legend, Earth was originally pooped out of an eagle.

PLUS

It is believed to be the world’s largest freestanding polyp.

MINUS

Little Alice enjoyed hanging out with Uncle Henry, but always kept a sledge hammer close by in case he got frisky.

We were slow going on the next clue, which was handed to us by a silent man. It wasn’t until we realized that he was this week’s feature First Person Singular that it all made sense.

The last of the main clues was back at the start, where [fake] money was being thrown out to the crowds. Ian solved this in about 15 seconds, which only lead us to be suspicious of the puzzle/answer. But it was the only answer that made sense.

With over an hour left, we headed back to the statues and waited for Mindless and Chu to arrive. Once they did, we went over the thought process we had gone through and all continued to scratch our heads until it was time for the Final Clue.

The music started up: “Old MacDonald had a farm…”

And we were told to “turn that around in our minds.”

The 1337 puzzlers that we are, we paired that up with one of the other answer clues to call a phone number telling us to find, “an important message immediately after 4.”

That’s about as far as we got. We doubted ourselves too much because of our missing clue. And as it turned out, we could’ve gotten to the next step with what we had, but the missing clue from the statue puzzle was key to move on from there.

All in all, a fun day. But those statues sure did stump us! In the end, we were supposed to go to the locations of the statues on the map and not just look at the map. It sounds kind of obvious now, but we thought all the information we needed for the clues was at that location. Oops.

Next year, though… I think we’re getting better. And we made a lot more progress than our team last year. Maybe we’ll even make it to the part where we leave the main stage area for the final puzzle next time. :)

I went to Ian’s company outing thing yesterday and got to visit his coworker’s alpaca farm! We got to meet many of the alpacas, their pet pig, the ducklings and chickens, the horses (including the surprise pregnant one!), and the miniature donkey (so cute!).

Plus videos of his coworker’s wife spinning some string out of alpaca fur, their pet pig wandering around outside, and the miniature donkey hanging out in the stable with the horses.

Saturday, I tried out the boot camp class at the gym. Ian thought that was more age-appropriate for me than the step class I attended last week. Aside from the fact that the step class was demoralizing because the elderly women were all better than me and I was unable to figure out the calls fast enough to even face the right direction on my step… it wasn’t terribly aerobic or high energy. Boot camp was more physically challenging and required slightly less coordination. And then there was the whole age thing. So I think that’s my new weekend class for the semester, which is a little early for me for a weekend, but works out with my homework schedule and family lunch.

In other news, I finished making a Power Up Mushroom pouch for my laptop mouse. The USB key attaches conveniently to the bottom of the mouse and the mouse is cleverly designed to turn on when the key is removed. This, of course, caused problems when I would just throw the mouse into my bag and wear down the battery inadvertently. Clearly, I needed to make something to protect my mouse:

It took about 6 hours to figure out the dimensions for the pattern (I use the word “pattern” very

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Last night was an exciting night of drunk shopping. A bunch of us were getting last minute accessories for my office holiday party on Saturday as well as brainstorming for some Christmas present ideas. My best find: Pirate earrings.

I just got them for fun and I got a pair of pretty dangly earrings for the party. But now I’m seriously considering wearing a pair of these on Saturday. They’re totally appropriate… and would go with my dress too. Hm…

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Today was an early day at work. Got in around 7:30 so I could get home to meet the cable man. The time window I was given was 3-6. And they’re never on time, right..? So, I got a call at 2:55 asking where I am. The guy is already there. I said I was on my way, but would be about 15 more minutes. That was apparently too long. The guy left and came back around 4:30.

I set up the cable modem and router in preparation for his arrival. He told me that I couldn’t use my own cable modem, so he installed the [identical] one that he brought and seemed completely clueless as to how to get the router to work. It took him about an hour to get the new cable modem to the step where I was when he arrived. And so I just spent 25 minutes on the phone with a nice gentleman with an Indian accent (from Portugal, he assured me) getting my cable modem activated. So now all I have to do is go drop the modem back off at a Comcast office. Comcastic!

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From last week’s ALS Walk:

We’re closing in on $12k! Thanks, everyone! (On the front row, starting from the left, that’s Nick, Zuzu, and Carolyn) :)

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He developed a fungus a few weeks ago, but some medicine and a new heater for his tank cleared that up. He was never the same after that though. He stopped making bubble nests. He swam around sporadically, but stayed stationary and rested a lot.

We had some good times… He enjoyed preparing to mate, eating, attacking his reflection, and swimming in circles.

Funeral services were this afternoon at 5pm.

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Let me know if things are still broken. I tried to go through and check stuff, but I got bored pretty quickly.

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Advantages of new faucet:
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- Handles are much easier to turn on and off when hands are wet or dirty

It also reminds me of Gonzo’s nose.

We’re going to get another one like this to put in the master bath and a different one by the same company for the kitchen. Out of all the faucets at home depot, there were only a handful that we could agree on. And most were this brand (Pegasus). They have a lot more character than the other ones we saw.

Oh, and Kohler faucets are pretty, but ridiculously expensive! That’s the only brand I had heard of before we started looking around, but I had no idea how much they cost before. ~$250-300 for a bathroom faucet. *gasp*

Also on the list:
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