Robindcr8l

Marius, in honor of your curmudgeon-ness, you should consider sending out personalized e-Christmas cards this year. There is a site called elfyourself.com where you put a digital photo of your face and perhaps your spouses, and even the cat if you'd like, in and elf head and body which dances merrily to a Christmas tune. They change it up a little every year, but it is really quite entertaining. Anyway, in years past, they have also had an option to Scrooge yourself, for any and all curmudgeons! You might consider this, as i am certain it would make you giggle as well as honoring your curmudgeonly ways! Bah humbug!

Baldur

Baldur's Elf dance

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/0k6nzQMTAhrXcoU89COE

Baldur

With all that dancing Baldur has gotten rather thin

marius

Ha ha ha, thanks for another dose of Robin zest, and Baldur zest too! Could not get Baldur Elf to dance though. Guess I have to pay for that? Hmmm - could be worth it.

Meanwhile, in the spirit of giving ...

BFQRQFKNFWQLKEFAVJ NRZN NLK "LRN TKIKA EFT RTZQLGTH."
G VFIK LKA ONKA TRDK. ELRQ RXFOQ RT RERAJ WFA XKNQ ONKA TRDK, DFNQ OTONORV ONKA TRDK, FA NFDKQLGTH KVNK KTQGAKVZ? QLK BAFXVKD: DONKN RAK TFQ NBKRUGTH EGQL DRAGON. LRIK QAGKJ NKIKARV BGCN. TF VOCU. QLK CLRVVKTHK: CAKRQK RERAJ WFA BFQRQFKN IGR R BGCQOAK. QLK BAGPK: LKZ, KWWFAQ QN GQN FET AKERAJ! BFNQ ZFOA BGC GT LKA "DGJJVK NCLFFV VFCUKA" QLAKRJ.

PS: There is a hint in Baldur's answer channel.
PSS: The reason there are three spaces between the words is because my eyes need them!

marius

TD took OUT the spaces when it pasted! Oh well, since I'm not solving and muses are not speaking to me ... hehehe.

Baldur

Hmmmm, it should be free

I don't have time to tackle the cryptogram until later, but I am looking forward to it.

Baldur just put a batch of Orange Walnut Biscotti into the oven, and finished making a double batch of Chocolate Pecan Rum Balls.

I've brought up the wine glasses from storage so they can be washed tomorrow, also pulled out all the sterling flatware that will be necessary.

Just in time the silverplate gravyboat (which is quite beautiful I might add) arrived. Edmund the Postman rang the doorbell and delivered it this morning.

Robindcr8l

Baldur, you have got the MOVES! Disco elves are so fun! Marius, I can't imagine why you couldn't get Baldur to dance. It took a few minutes for it to download, but then he was cutting a rug Saturday Night Fever style in his green elf shoes! Bravo!

Normally I would have to work tonight, but they gave me tonight off because they have me working Thanksgiving night. So I might be ready to attack the cryptogram by tomorrow, after a good night's sleep. (If insomnia doesn't win out!) You all know how I love those cryptograms! I still have to go back a few days to tackle Dragon's.

Well, time to go out in the cold and scoop dog poop. Gross. More like poopsicles this time of year, LOL! I am in a new subdivision, and behind me is a huge open field that will be turned into a city park within the next 2 years. On either side of me is empty lots which will eventually have new homes, but for now, pooper scooping is particularly easy as I can just FLING it over the fence! It's a 6-foot fence, so not without it's challenges. My son was a bit too short and uncoordinated and ended up flinging the poop AGAINST the fence, instead of OVER it. Then he had to duck as it bounced back! I have to admit it was entertaining to watch but oooooh was he MAD!

marius

Robin, that made me lmaosnorting! Your poor son, but bet it was funny!

Tried Sir Baldur-Elf the Earl of Baldwick's dance again and this time it worked. Had no idea Baldur could move like that! : ) Thanks for passing Elfyourself on to us, Robin. I know a ton of folks who will enjoy it. Spouse is already working on a list.

As for the crypto - think I made it pretty easy. It's ... um ... well ... I invented a kind of project for myself but am stuck. Am hoping people will solve the crypto and either submit their ideas as requested, or else submit ideas to Baldur's answer channel that I can use. Really think matthew could jump on this one. Where is he?

Baldur

Baldur just spent well over an hour (close to 2 hours) ironing his new table linens. I think wrinkled linens should become fashionable.
Shabby Chic was a popular design trend, why not Lazy Chic?

Baldur

I was hoping to polish the sterling today and really thought doing the linens was going to be impossible this early, but I manages at the expense of the sterling.
Since the 'Dancing With The Stars' finals is broadcast this evening I know the sterling must wait.
We have just exactly enough dinner forks for this. Baldur must add a few more to the collection this coming year.
It would be tragic if I had to use a salad fork instead at my place setting as an emergency stopgap. My reputation as a host would be shattered.

So tomorrow is definitely sterling polishing day.
We are going to Le Spoon Greasee for breakfast as is our Tuesday custom.
So after the outing my day will be quite hectic.
It may be possible to bake the mincemeat crumb squares but the cheesecake must wait until Wednesday, they are best if not held for too long.
Baldur has decided to make the cheesecake Amaretto flavored, it will go well with the topping of apricot preserves.
Perhaps the fresh cranberry compote will get prepared and possibly even the eggs will get boiled for deviled eggs.

I've decide to save washing the kitchen floor for WEednesday afternoon.

Baldur

manages -s +d =managed
finals -s +e =finale

Login

Sorry to interrupt the radio show but Dragon has won Community Challenge XIX and they're all waiting for her in there.

maddyjean08

I'm back, hold the applause!

Dragon

Thx for the notification Login. It's been so busy today this is the first chance I've had to get on TD at all.

Can we applaude just a little maddy?

Robindcr8l

So, managed to solve both cryptograms despite the sleep deprivation! I think Maddy isn't the only one who deserves applause!

I've been meaning to tell all of you about this adventurous pastime my friend from Buffalo introduced my son and I to when she visited. It is called "Letterboxing", and it is a nationwide scavenger hunt of sorts. There is a website called www.atlasquest.com which has all the information. When Gail was coming to Boise for her visit, she went to the website and typed in my zip code. It would give us sites for letterboxes within 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, etc. A letterbox is basically just a small tupperware box that contains a notebook and a custom rubber stamp. Each letterboxer either buys or carves their own signature rubber stamp and gives themselves a username, and their own notebooks.

When we typed in my zip code, we chose several different letterboxes to find in different small towns around here. For instance, 2 of them were at an old historic pioneer cemetery in Idaho City, a small mountain town about 45 minutes north of Boise. The clues on the website took us all through the cemetery, and we had to look for different gravestones and finally found the first letterbox under some rocks at a specific grave site. Inside the box, we took our own stamp and stamped the notebook in there, dated our entry, and put where we were from. We then took the stamp out of the box and stamped our own notebook and dated it, and put a comment as to where we found this one.

If you look back in the notebook of the letterbox, you can see all of the other letterboxers from around the country who have found and stamped it. Likewise, it is fun to periodically look back in your own notebook and remember the different places you discovered in any particular geographic region.

It took us to places we would have otherwise not visited, and we found some lovely parks and hiking trails I didn't even know about despite living here for 15 years! My son and I have gotten very enthusiastic about the whole thing, and plan to find some letterboxes this long holiday weekend at some point. It probably sounds somewhat boring to many, but we actually had a ball doing it. Some of them are so cleverly hidden that it's quite a feat when you actually find it!

maddyjean08

Ok, Dragon, just a little. Yay, Robin! (clap, clap, clap, clap)

maddyjean08

That actually sounds like fun to me! I've always loved scavenger-hunt things. That's what you were getting at, nein?

Dragon

Robin, I've heard of something similar called Geo-caches but you need a portable GPS device for it. I've never tried it but basically you go online and find GPS co-ordinates for local Geo-caches. They usually way out in the middle of nowhere. You find the exact co-oridinates and there will be a box buried pretty shallowly there. I think it has the same sort of stamp idea but I've also heard of ones that have a little batch of trinkets in them (just some cheap little dollar store toys or something) so you take one of the ones from their group and add one of your own. It always sounded like fun but we don't have a GPS so I've never tried it. Maybe I'll look for some Letterboxing in my area, that's something we could do without technology!

Robindcr8l

Dragon, yes, I think this is very similar to geo-caching actually, but no GPS needed. When you go on the website and choose a letterbox location, it will actually tell you how difficult it is to get to or find. Some of them have very clever clues, written in rhyme and riddles. Others are more straightforward directions, that take you on a little tour. One of them was a 4-mile hike, another was hidden under the utility box behind a strip mall that had a cupcake shop. (That stamp was shaped like a cupcake!) They tell you if it's pet-friendly, handicapped accessible, urban or rural, etc. If it requires a hike it will tell you approximately how long and also how difficult the hiking trail is. When you actually find the box, I can't explain the silly feeling of exhileration! It's dumb, but Jake and I just love it. Some of the boxes have "first-finder" prizes. We plan to hunt for one of those this weekend. Others have "hitch-hikers" which is a stamp, I think, that you take with you and leave in another letterbox somewhere else. So it may start in Texas and end up in North Carolina or something. I haven't found one of those yet. Each time you find one, you go online and update that it was found. This lets the placer keep track without actually having to retrieve the letterbox.

I'll quit babbling now. I'm sounding obsessive.

Baldur

Heavens, there are a couple of letterbox caches not very far from Chez Baldur. Oddly Baldur has walked down the very path where one is hidden, at Cold Spring Park in nearby Woonsocket