Dead tree solving - eco edition! 
Best of both worlds - paper and pencil/pen solving, but rather than curled up with the newspaper, you're curled up with your tablet/iPad/Android! Write, even draw, in the grid, directly on the screen. 

Perfect for rebus puzzles, like this one from a recent Thursday NYTimes puzzle. Use a stylus, for the feel of really writing, or just use your fingertip - it is remarkably easy and is your real writing... I filled this one out using my finger - the stylus is just there for show. (The rebus was MAN - as in TAXMAN at 54D...) If you would like to try it out, click on "About Me" on this page and send me an email.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Metamorphosis and Lunch

Brilliant sunshine and a warm fall day in New England -- the perfect setting for lunch and more... 
A few Rexvillians (mac, Sparky, JenCT), some spouses (Paul, Phil), a couple of German tourists (Michael & Silke), and a botanist (Sheila) or two rounded out the field for a delicious meal, a smattering of crossword gossip, and plenty of conversation about everything else.  It's a curious and marvelous thing that the internet has wrought, enabling such a meeting.

First, the menu: chouriรงo with Jen's fabulous bread, Phil's garden tomato salsa, beef bulgogi & chicken satay, and for desert, mac's perfection of a pound cake with fresh berries and Il Bacio ice cream (the best you'll ever have!). 

Now for ordinary folks, that would have been enough for a spectacular day.
But Jen, our in-house part-time lepidopterist, brought us all a little bit of magic...

A crystal-clear jewel of a chrysalis, with a soon-to-emerge Monarch waiting within.  She held it in front of the AC vents in the car during the 1-1/2 hour drive, to make sure it wouldn't emerge until just the right moment!

Neither words nor pictures can convey the wonder of seeing this happen before your very eyes.  But do click on more below and take a look.