some things, in no particular order

There are certain kinds of games I'm good at. MATCHING games are a specialty. Think 'Bejeweled' and you're right on target.

You do play Bejeweled, don't you? It's only the best game ever. Way better than the games I'm not good at, which include, but are not limited to:

Boggle
Scrabble
Bookworm
Monopoly
Bridge
Most card games
and chess

My motto is 'do what you're best at,' but not everyone believes this to be so and thus there are those people who insist that I participate with them in game playing of the multiplayer variety (Bejeweled being a very solitary pursuit). For example, at Lake Week we have frequent card games, some with a rules list that takes an entire page of single-spaced typology to get through. I participate, because it's fun to play games, but I never, ever count on winning anything. Especially if my Mom is playing. That woman is a monster card player.

It is my motto that I tried to hide behind recently when Biff brought home his newest creation - a lovely chess board made from solid-surface countertop material built especially to host a set of chess pieces his father has procured many many years ago. The board is gorgeous, with black-flecked and gray marbled squares, polished until it gleams. The pottery pieces are glazed in gray or green, with pagodas as the rooks, dragons (squee!) as the knights, Buddhas as the bishops, and warriors (natch) as the pawns. The set is gorgeous. And he wanted to PLAY CHESS ON IT! WITH ME!

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Words cannot explain my hesitancy, so I agreed to play, if only he would please to explain the rules and movements and such. Yes, I've played before, but so badly I didn't keep any of the experience in the memory bank and so need to be re-taught, each time, how it all goes.

As might be expected, I lost, quite badly. At one point I thought I was doing OK, but then wound up having my King chased all over the board with nobody else around to help him. That part kind of sucked. Bless him, Biff didn't gloat even one tiny bit in front of me.

I had to go play about 30 games of Bejeweled Blitz to get the taste of defeat out of my mouth.

No, I'm not competitive. AT ALL. Whyever do you ask?

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We planted our garden this past weekend.

So far, the best crop to come out of it (I know, it's early days yet) are the pumpkins. Which we didn't even plant!

Nope - they're sprouting out of the pumpkin goo that we threw on the compost pile back on October. They're robust little things, too, shooting out of the ground where the peas and carrots were just planted. So nice to know that if all other crops fail, we'll always have pumpkins.

There's nothing wrong with our empathy chips, my friends, because even though it's likely that we shouldn't have, we relocated the sprouts growing in the carrot bed to an auxiliary garden just outside the main garden in hopes that the vines will have room to stretch out there and populate the vacant lot next door with autumnal gourdy goodies. There are a few little kids in the neighborhood that I would LOVE to invite over to pick a punkin, free of charge, for their carving pleasures. The other sprouts in the pea patch? We left those there, as the peas will climb and we can train the punkin vines through the picket and rabbit fencing, out into the vacant lot, to grow wild and free!

Feel free to virtually kick me in the pants if, come October, I'm complaining about being overrun with pumpkins.

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List of things we planted in the garden, not at all because you asked:

peas, both snap and English
carrots, both short ('best for heavy soils!') and long ('most heat-tolerant!')
onions, both red and white
spinach. lots and lots of spinach.
broccoli, from seed. First time for everything!

We also have a new rosemary plant, a new pot of basil, are sprouting 'cat grass' for the furry denizens to chew on if they feel so inclined, and are starting tomatoes. Come summer, we'll be planting peppers, herbs, the tomatoes, and zucchini. Then, if we're really feeling Farmer-ish, we can plant fall crops of the cool-weather things we're growing now.

All in a 15x15-foot patch.

What an exciting year of blog posts you have to look forward to, my friends!

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This one's getting long, so I'll stop here. Remind me to tell you that we've started another room remodel at the Tiny House. Once we're done there, we will have re-done every room in this 6-room home. Woot!

Y'all have a good Wednesday, or what's left of it, and share in the comments what games you hate or what we ought to be planting in the garden.

See you next time - Tiff out.