sheftali52

Heh heh--your cryptogram was marvelous even without "matthew wears thongs" in it. Nice job, Baldur.

marius

Ta dah! That is not cryptogram language - it means I had perseverance and solved your cryptogram! +25 and +2 more because I had to keep repeating things like, "N turns into D." And, it was hard because sometimes I said "D nurts into N" before the error was caught!

Not sure cryptos are good for dyslexia; but the old mind did enjoy the laughter when it heard itself saying that D nurts into N.

And the mind really laughed when it discovered it had read the answer BEFORE solving your crypto! This I blame on low latent inhibition, not the psychotic kind or the extremely creative kind - just the confused kind. Thought person posting "the solution" was giving us a coded hint, not the actual solution. Now I cannot stop laughing, or see through the tears either! Am too amused to visit Baldur's myspace page today! One can only take so much!

Baldur

I'll speak Dyslectic to calm your nerves Marius.

Its fnie Muaris as lnog as you ejony waht you are diong.
We all hvae isuess taht csuae us to itrepenrt tnhigs dleffiterny.
Bdaulr has too mcuh tmie on his hdsns.

marius

Yu R vry kined! It was EASY to read waht you worte! wenh I have more teim on my hnds I'll be clamer.

Baldur

-s +a =hdans
Baldur needs a bowl of ice cream

sheftali52

Sheftali meant no harm in posting the solution to Baldur's cryptogram. Please forgive me, marius. And let's hope Baldur had a nice bowl of ice cream.

Baldur

'Chocolate Fudge Overload Supreme' no less.

sheftali52

Chocolate Fudge Overload Supreme? Indeed! Baldur has excellent taste in ice cream. Does it go well with single malt??? (Sheftali goes to her bar and pours a little taste of single malt for herself!)

Baldur

Should I have another bowl to see?

No, no more ice cream today and rather than single malt Scotch Baldur is have a Diet ginger ale with a slice of lime floating in it.

The Scotch by the way is Dalwhinnie Single Malt Scotch Whisky (the spelling of whisky is e-less in this case)

Baldur

-e +ing =having

Baldur

Tomorrow afternoon Baldur needs to attend an Anniversary banquet for a men's organization celebrating it's second year of existence.
Indeed Baldur is an ex-board member and one of the founders of this chapter so once again I shall be ironing a fancy shirt and bow tie in the morning.
The main attraction will be the lobster dinner, though there will be roast beef for the nonpescarians (+11 points; the extra one because I believe I just invented the word) and for those truly impossible members (,namely moi,) there will be eggplant parmigiani over pasta.

Baldur

Of the 70 or so members, Baldur is perhaps the third youngest. The oldest member is I believe 96. It is not lost on these gentlemen that Baldur has never appeared without a jacket and tie.
Actually I tend to be the locus (+10 points) of much that happens, one would almost think that I crave attention.

Baldur

'Jake' is an interesting facet of this group, he lives in Massachusetts in an area I've had little experience with and thus we'd never met before this group arose.
He is retired from local government but still works in community theatre sporadically (no points). He seems rather old New England to speak with him, he sounds like he summers in Newport. 'Jake' however is rather open about being a witch.

(Note. 'Witches' apparently use that word to refer to both female and male practitioners. The word 'Warlock', which has surfaced in popular culture apparently has it roots in the Scottish word for 'traitor'. Baldur can not vouch for this, but that is how it was explained.
So in 'Bewitched', Samantha's father 'Maurice' being a warlock was a misnomer, he was in fact a witch, onwards...............)

Baldur has oddly enough always attracted witches be they male or female.
These are not the Satan worshipping hell spawn so often depicted but practitioners of a set of rites that predate Judaism and Christianity.
As Jake explained it they don't worship Satan and do not believe in his existence. This is getting to be an awfully heavy topic.

Baldur

Now back on track.

Jake loves chatting with Baldur. There is no assigned seating at these meals and thus Jake will hover (not literally) around the dining room until I choose seats for myself and Robert, then he will magically appear in the seat directly next to mine.

We often talk about gardening.
Jake has been to the house on many occasions, he actually feels right at home for some reason.
He loves my gardens mainly because many of my plants are not modern.
I plant vegetables that indeed are quite ordinary (for the most part), but my flowerbeds are masses of things like Spiderwort, Feverfew, Queen Anne's Lace, Masterwort, Lady's Mantle, Jewel Weed, Scottish Thistle, Teasel, False Solomon's Seal, Egyptian onions, Baptisia and the like.

Baldur

Inside my home he gravitates to the living room. At first this was because of the sculpture scattered about. Amidst the art pottery and plants Baldur has a collection of satyr statuary, Jake was quite amazed.
I think however he enjoys the candles more, each is in a rescued Sanctuary lamp from a church that has been demolished. The ruby and amber glass definitely makes it quite atmospheric.
Should there be Paul O'dette lute music quietly playing on the stereo Jake seems ready to stay forever.

Baldur

Baldur has gifted Jake with some glass beads from my home, I string them and hang them in front of the windows.
Rather like poor man's stained glass. The collection grows over time as I find more beads. Until strung they reside in a large bowl.
Baldur pulls beads randomly from the bowl to string them. When the bowl gets low he adds more.
Because of this the color palette shifts dramatically.
It started with an amber period, then a green period and eventually red. The shade of the majority of the beads shifted with time, but older beads were in the mix and surfaced from time to time.

I should state here that Baldur is not fond of blue. It's very seldom that I will buy anything that color, there is almost none in my wardrobe, and little around Chez Baldur.
I collect Fiestaware, there is a glaring lack of blue there.
A minor concession was made when Baldur bought an impressionistic oil painting of an ancient part of Jerusalem looking rocky and austere on the hill. The Mount of Olives is also visible, The sky in this painting is an intense Cerulean (+10 points) blue. I tend to stare at it.

Baldur

Baldur decided a few months ago to add blue beads to the mix for future stringing. They are sitting in the drawer still segregated from the others.
Eventually I will go ahead and add them, knowing they will effect how the other colors look. Baldur can be rather odd at times.

sheftali52

Jake sounds like an interesting character. Sheftali would go for the lobster dinner for sure. As others have commented, Chez Baldur must be an intriguing place, made so by an intriguing owner. (Sheftali sips on her Glenfiddich single malt scotch whisky--which tastes quite good, as it was a gift!) Looking forward to tales from tomorrow afternoon's gathering that Baldur is attending all spiffied up.

Baldur

I might add that the new beads are of the most intense cobalt blue color, but in size are quite small.
Most of the current strands are 5 feet long taking them down to windowsill height, but I made several random shorter lengths to break up the look a bit. Sometimes Baldur will loosely knot one or pull a few strands back and tangle them in the draperies,
Each strand is attached to a brass ring that slides across the curtain hardware.

sheftali52

Glass beads hanging in windows--charming. Why the aversion (no points) to blue, in general? (cobalt blue and cerulean blue are such lovely shades)

Sheftali isn't into much jewelry, but she does admire the She Beads, only because they are so exquisitely detailed, hand-rolled clay beads.

Glass beads seem like worthy items--real glass, of course, and no plastic imitators. Sheftali likes real crystal Christmas ornaments, which she started collecting in Germany. There's something about light dancing through crystals that is quite magical.