Good morning

[Mike Honcho 4,740]

Great weather in West Michigan this weekend.  Got my yard about 90% summer ready before I gave up and went back to the air conditioning.  Sunday was a little short because I had to fly out to Charleston SC via Atlanta.  Got in a little late, but today is a short day so I'm going to tour the downtown and have some good recommendations for restaurants tonight.  

Every geek, have a great week.

[jerryskids 6,184]

Good morning Mike and all!

Had a great weekend with my youngest daughter's college graduation party on Saturday, and Mother's Day for my wife and our kids yesterday.  Both were indoor/outdoor and the weather was a bit toasty (around 100, but yesterday we had our first pool day of the season), but we had shade and everything went well.

If I may wax nostalgic for a moment:  my daughter's graduation was a big deal.  Having all of your kids graduate (or more generally, enter their adult phase of life for those who chose non-college paths) is a sense of accomplishment.  Plus we get something of a raise for not paying part of tuition/board.

Most importantly though, when my cancer metastasized 2 years ago, the odds of me being here to see this graduation were not good.  I feel blessed that I've been given the chance so far to beat the odds and enjoy life with my family and friends.   

This week is prep for our trip to Kiawah Island SC (down the road from Mike) this Saturday for a week of family vacation.

Have a great week Geeks!   

[wiffleball 4,761]

Dang Jerry, I teared up. And said a little prayer of thanks and gratitude. So incredibly happy you had that moment. More to come. 

[Mr Fantasy 65]

This place needs more positive threads like this

[TommyGavin 790]

This is the only thread in page one worth reading. Ridiculous. 

[Mookz 1,310]

On 5/15/2023 at 11:42 AM, jerryskids said:

Good morning Mike and all!

Had a great weekend with my youngest daughter's college graduation party on Saturday, and Mother's Day for my wife and our kids yesterday.  Both were indoor/outdoor and the weather was a bit toasty (around 100, but yesterday we had our first pool day of the season), but we had shade and everything went well.

If I may wax nostalgic for a moment:  my daughter's graduation was a big deal.  Having all of your kids graduate (or more generally, enter their adult phase of life for those who chose non-college paths) is a sense of accomplishment.  Plus we get something of a raise for not paying part of tuition/board.

Most importantly though, when my cancer metastasized 2 years ago, the odds of me being here to see this graduation were not good.  I feel blessed that I've been given the chance so far to beat the odds and enjoy life with my family and friends.   

This week is prep for our trip to Kiawah Island SC (down the road from Mike) this Saturday for a week of family vacation.

Have a great week Geeks!   

Had to be right up there with solving Friday's WSJ contest crossword. 

[jerryskids 6,184]

23 minutes ago, Mookz said:

Had to be right up there with solving Friday's WSJ contest crossword. 

I didn't solve this past week, or the week before, those were way beyond my meta-solving ability.  Just looked up the recent answer -- if you got that one you are way ahead of me.   

I get about 1/2 of them these days I'd guess. 

 

[Mookz 1,310]

13 minutes ago, jerryskids said:

I didn't solve this past week, or the week before, those were way beyond my meta-solving ability.  Just looked up the recent answer -- if you got that one you are way ahead of me.   

I get about 1/2 of them these days I'd guess. 

 

I've been on a bit of a roll and have gotten the last however many in a row.  

However there have been many that I haven't gotten, but I refuse to give up...I print them and fill them in by hand and put them to the side to come back to later.  

And I can do that, because even though the solutions disappear from the WSJ website eventually, I found this forum dedicated to the metas:

https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=e6065357b65adee9f39399308db7502f

So when and if I do solve them months later, I can verify the answer there in the appropriate thread.  

 

[jerryskids 6,184]

10 hours ago, Mookz said:

I've been on a bit of a roll and have gotten the last however many in a row.  

However there have been many that I haven't gotten, but I refuse to give up...I print them and fill them in by hand and put them to the side to come back to later.  

And I can do that, because even though the solutions disappear from the WSJ website eventually, I found this forum dedicated to the metas:

https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=e6065357b65adee9f39399308db7502f

So when and if I do solve them months later, I can verify the answer there in the appropriate thread.  

 

Interesting, thanks. Seems like pages of people saying "ashore" or "on shore" to brag that they got it, and the earlier the page they post on, the more prestige on the site.    I presume they eventually get to the answer in each thread.

I print it out each Friday and finish the puzzle, then go back to it a few times to look at it (typically on the can).  If I don't get it by Monday I move on to other puzzles, if I haven't already.  Perhaps I should stick with them a little longer if I want to improve...  that's how I've gotten better at cryptics.  

[Mike Honcho 4,740]

Made it back from Charleston, job went great. Me not so much. Had insomnia the entire time there, slept less than 2 hours. So on Monday, when the team went to see the city, I tried to sleep and failed. Pumped enough coffee through my body to make it through the event then a short 10 hours of airports and got home at 1:30 last night. Took some nyquil and finally fells asleep. 

Funniest part of the trip was client had multiple offices in town and we went to the manufacturing plant because that was the address we had been given, 20 minute drive away. Get there and find out no, it's the downtown office---which completely coincidentally was 1 block from our hotel. 

Weird, I'm the one person who never usually has trouble sleeping on the road, but this time. Yikes. 

Oh well, client happy, made a new contact on the road who does good work, so success. 

[jerryskids 6,184]

On 5/17/2023 at 8:28 AM, Mike Honcho said:

Made it back from Charleston, job went great. Me not so much. Had insomnia the entire time there, slept less than 2 hours. So on Monday, when the team went to see the city, I tried to sleep and failed. Pumped enough coffee through my body to make it through the event then a short 10 hours of airports and got home at 1:30 last night. Took some nyquil and finally fells asleep. 

Funniest part of the trip was client had multiple offices in town and we went to the manufacturing plant because that was the address we had been given, 20 minute drive away. Get there and find out no, it's the downtown office---which completely coincidentally was 1 block from our hotel. 

Weird, I'm the one person who never usually has trouble sleeping on the road, but this time. Yikes. 

Oh well, client happy, made a new contact on the road who does good work, so success. 

Bummer about the sleep, but a happy client is good.  Any suggestions of things for tourists to do, since we'll be down the road from there at Kiawah next week?   

[Mookz 1,310]

On 5/17/2023 at 10:09 AM, jerryskids said:

Interesting, thanks. Seems like pages of people saying "ashore" or "on shore" to brag that they got it, and the earlier the page they post on, the more prestige on the site.    I presume they eventually get to the answer in each thread.

I print it out each Friday and finish the puzzle, then go back to it a few times to look at it (typically on the can).  If I don't get it by Monday I move on to other puzzles, if I haven't already.  Perhaps I should stick with them a little longer if I want to improve...  that's how I've gotten better at cryptics.  

On shore. 

[Mike Honcho 4,740]

17 hours ago, jerryskids said:

Bummer about the sleep, but a happy client is good.  Any suggestions of things for tourists to do, since we'll be down the road from there at Kiawah next week?   

I didn't see anything(was failing at taking a nap), but the crew I was with said the downtown was beautiful and they mentioned something about an old armory they saw.  

[Cruzer 1,994]

Just flew back from Atlanta Monday…  I say it every year when I go - that Hartsfield-Jackson is the most ridiculous, stupid and dirty airport ever. They need to level it and start over. 

[jerryskids 6,184]

3 hours ago, Mike Honcho said:

I didn't see anything(was failing at taking a nap), but the crew I was with said the downtown was beautiful and they mentioned something about an old armory they saw.  

Thanks.  Just saw that the weather forecast is rain every day.  Who lives in this shiot?   

[Mike Honcho 4,740]

2 hours ago, Cruzer said:

Just flew back from Atlanta Monday…  I say it every year when I go - that Hartsfield-Jackson is the most ridiculous, stupid and dirty airport ever. They need to level it and start over. 

Maybe--but leave Bobby Flays Burger Palace.  The one thing he does for his 'chains' is maintain excellent quality.  I think those are the best 'chain' burgers I've ever had.  

[Mike Honcho 4,740]

2 hours ago, Cruzer said:

Just flew back from Atlanta Monday…  I say it every year when I go - that Hartsfield-Jackson is the most ridiculous, stupid and dirty airport ever. They need to level it and start over. 

When we flew back through Atlanta on Tuesday, my co-worker(one with cancer, first time on location in 6 months) planned our entire day around going to Bobby Flays Burgers.  Unfortunately our plane from Charleston to ATL was delayed and we only had 10 minutes to get to our connection, which was in the Flay terminal but on the other side.  He was legitimately bummed cause he didn't get that burger.  

[jerryskids 6,184]

11 hours ago, Mookz said:

On shore. 

Are you "wait up until midnight the night before and solve it" guy?  

[Mookz 1,310]

5 minutes ago, jerryskids said:

Are you "wait up until midnight the night before and solve it" guy?  

Yes I am.  

Although this one seems to drop well before midnight.  It's sometime Thursday afternoon or evening...I haven't nailed down when, or it might vary, but usually if I keep F5'ing it appears at some point.