SUNDAY RERUN: Brain Teasers

Brain Teaser: Balancing Four Nails by MadeContact

Time for a Sunday Favorite! If you want to join the party, click on the button in my left hand sidebar--it will take you to Chari's instructions on Happy to Design.

This is an entry from my old diary, dated April 17, 2003. Hope you enjoy the Brain Teasers!

These brain teasers were sent to me a few days ago by one of my readers. I say, "Thanks, Phil!" And I'm adding one to his, an old (1933) jigsaw that gave you the brain teaser on the back, and then you could put the puzzle together to read the solution on the picture, which they didn't put on the box. 

So, written teasers first, picture teaser next, and answers after that.

Brain teasers that will make you groan ...
1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over
5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?

3. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?

4. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

5. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?

6. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.
 
Here is the back of the box, with the captions to pictures below:

1. Rich princess want to marry a poor peasant. Her father objects.
2. King decrees on following day he will offer poor man two slips. One reads "marriage", the other "death". Peasant must abide by his choice. 
3.  Poor peasant is secretly told the night before that both slips will read "death".  
4. Peasant goes before court, and after making his choice, marries the princess. HOW DOES HE DO IT?

Answers to the brainteasers:

1. The third. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead.
2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
3. Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug.
4. The answer is Charcoal.
5. Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!
6. The letter "e", which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the long paragraph...

Answer to the Jigsaw teaser:

Peasant swallows the slip he chooses. The King said one of them would read "marriage", and the "other" death, so the peasant must have chosen "marriage", as the one in his hand is "death".

 

Hope you enjoyed the Brain Teasers! Now I'm off to see what Chari's got for us today....

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Mail Art, Tag, ATC

Shhh. Don't tell anyone, but it's really Sunday. I didn't get the photos taken early enough to do this yesterday, so I'm pretending. And Blogger is so cooperative that way--you can tell it to post something on just any date you want, and it will do it. What will they think of next? Time machines! I know it!

I got several lovelies this week, beginning with a piece of mail art:

Mail Art Envie by MegaMar

 Don't you love it? Let me tell you, I went right out and got myself a unicyclist rubber stamp. Lucky me, too, 'cause Michaels had one for a dollar. Yes!

I also got this awesome chunky tag, created with a coffee theme because, well, you know me and coffee. That made me smile big.

"One Cup Is Never Enough!" by Tootheri

And then this darling ATC, with a fairy theme, in a perfectly wonderful holder. I need to figure out how she did that, but she glued it, and I don't want to destroy it in the figuring. Maybe steam? Hmmm...

Pink Fairy by BeverlyBling

And then, because my little collection of ATCs is growing, I picked up a funky old photo album at Goodwill. (Another $1 wonder!) The sleeves hold photos that are 3.5" X 5", perfect for two ATCs.

It's not beautiful, which makes me think there's a project lurking, and the sleeves, oddly enough, work much better if you put the ATCs at the back instead of the front, but I like it, because it let's me flip through and see them easily. A person could put four in each sleeve, but doing just two lets you see the back of each one, and who created it.

Also, the fact that the sleeves are double-sized means that ATCs with extras can be slipped in sideways so nothing gets smushed. (Would you believe Blogger thinks 'smushed' isn't a real word? Honestly, that's just silly. Of course, it is!)

Time ATC by Veronica

What about you? Did you send or receive art this week?

FRIDAY FENCE POST #78

I love this time of year, when Spring arrives and photographing fences becomes an excuse for taking pictures of what's in front of them! AND I got out of my car! My foul weather fence photography secret is I park across from the fence I've chosen, roll down the window, and shoot from there. What can I say? I have a strong distaste for being cold and wet!

Today's first fence:

At the left edge of the photo above, you can just make out the hellebore in these next three. Isn't it beautiful? I love the new varieties that have come out in the past several years!

Filters R Fun

How about bright yellow forsythia against a white picket fence? Is there a brighter harbinger of Spring?

Last one, an "owlish" fence on the next corner:

 

These photos are all much larger than they appear, sort of like things you see in your sideview mirror. Click on them to bring them up full-size.

Now it's your turn! Post your Friday Fence, and come back here with the URL, so I can come see it, too! (Make sure it's the permalink to the post itself, so I can find it.) You've got a whole week to bring back your link, so be sure you leave a comment, so I'll know to look. (By the way, I'd love it if you'd grab the button in my left sidebar for your own blog. Let's get more people, with more fences!)

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BLADDERS ON ETSY

No, this is not an entry about shopping 'til your bladder threatens to pop. It's about finding bladders on Etsy, proof enough for me that if it can be thought of, it will be created and sold on that most eclectic of websites.

Bladder Patch in Neither Sparky's Shop

I know what you're thinking. Why on earth would anyone be looking for bladders, on Etsy or anywhere else, for that matter? Well, in my case, it's because my DH had five, count 'em, five bladder tumors removed this Tuesday. There was supposed to be just one, but the CT scan lied. They're cancerous, but the doctor thinks they got all of it, and to make certain of that, they'll do some chemo of a rather strange (to me, at least) variety: A liquid infused with inactive tuberculosis germs will be put into the bladder, causing the DH's immune system to freak out and come rushing to destroy the germs, at which point the white cell minions will discover any cancer cells lurking and destroy them, too.That is the plan, and the doctor seems quite confident in it.

Three more finds:

 

Dr Kilmore's Swamp Root Bladder Cure (Mary's CrochetnMore)

Bladderwrack Pendant (CorryVrecken)

"I Laughed So Hard" Magnet (CrossEyedCatGifts)

Looking for bladders on Etsy taught me another thing: Bladders, unless they're the plant variety, seem to be inherently funny. I mean, honestly, can you even say, "bladders on Etsy" without smiling?

This Week's Project: Fabric Envies

I have a couple of envelopes to show off this week! I was really pleased with them, and they were easy to do, so there will be a tutorial, but it will show up on ThinkCrafts first; I'll post it here later.

Here they are:

 

 

I showed them to my DH, and told my Mom about them over the phone. Both of them said exactly the same thing: "Well, can you mail something like that?!"

"I'm pretty sure they'll be okay," I said. "Heck, you can wrap up a crowbar and put an address on it, and the post office will send it!"

Sure enough, when I laid them on the counter at the post office and asked if I could mail them, the guy didn't bat an eyelash, just said, "Sure. We get all kinds of stuff through here." He did say they were so pretty, didn't I want to put them in something so there wouldn't be any risk of their being damaged? but I told him no, as the object of them was to have something really pretty arrive in the mailbox of the recipient.

Have you heard about the 52 Weeks challenge over at Fabric Fascination? The idea is to finish a project a week for 2011, and post it. I'm a bit late arriving to the party, but it sounds like fun to me, so now I'm going to post this, and drop the link over there!

Oh. Forgot to mention: These are my creations for the Mail Art #2 Swap on Swap-bot.com!

SUNDAY RERUN: Attila the Pillow Fighter

It's time for Sunday Favorites, hosted by Chari over at Happy to Design. It's a fun party, and you can get there by clicking on the Sunday Favorites button in my left sidebar. Come join us!

This is an entry from my personal blog, back in April of 2003. You know, one of the things I most enjoy about re-posting a favorite entry is that I get to reread it myself. I'd forgotten nearly all of this afternoon, and remembering it made me smile. Hope it does you, too.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Monday is dance class for Jen, after school. Joe and I sit in the waiting room, and usually he does homework while I read. Their mom stands at the wall, watching Jen dance.

This week there's no homework. The school is testing the kids to see if their learning is up to standards. Joe brought his Gameboy, and sat on the bench. I came in after helping Jen into her leotard and tights, and putting her hair up, and sat down next to Joe, with my pile of magazines, searching for yellow, yellow, yellow...

I sat next to him, not touching. The moment I was settled, he changed position, put his elbows on his thighs, and his right knee against my left thigh. Each time one or the other of us stood, he made sure his knee was against me when we were both seated again. It felt very much like there was some kind of emotional bond that physical gesture was echoing.

At home he finished his dinner before Jen, and stood behind my chair, asking, "Can I braid your hair?" "Sure," I said, and he went to work. Of course, just braiding it wasn't enough, and I soon had a pile of hair on top of my head.

"Oooh. The mean old school-teacher look!" he exclaimed, and we all laughed. I put on my mean old school-teacher voice, half screech, half speech.

"Sit in your seats and turn to page 37!" I cackled at them. "You will read without moving from your desks to page 700!" They were both already giggling.

"But, teacher, I have to go to the bathroom!" said Joe.

"Deal with it!" I shot back.

"But, I already peed my pants!"

"Well, then, you'll be dry by the time you finish!" He's a typical nine-year-old--that had to have been the funniest thing he'd heard all day, and he practically fell down he laughed so hard.

When their dad got home, we had to go through that whole routine again, and at the sight of Joe standing behind me, hands full of my hair, his eyebrows rose slightly, and he murmured to me, "There's a certain level of comfort being indicated here," and I nodded. It's a good feeling.

The kids went downstairs to play, and I took a moment to tell their Dad what else had happened at dance class. Joe and Jen's mom had asked me if I wanted a coffee. Joe offered, "My mom's secret is that she likes you. That means she trusts you."

I was taken aback, not so much because she liked me, but because I didn't quite know how to respond. Could I honestly say I liked her? The words wouldn't come, she has done and said so much that is harmful to her kids. I sat there, stammering, and finally managed to blurt, "Well, what a nice secret to have!"

She didn't seem to notice anything amiss, and as we left the studio and walked together down the sidewalk, we laughed and chatted about...movies, I think. But it was a friendly conversation, and I saw the likeable side of her.

On the way home, I told Joe, "My secret is: I like your mom, too."

I saw his grimace reflected in the rearview mirror. "Why!?" he asked.

Oh dear. What to say to that? I told both kids, "Sometimes people...we all do things that aren't good, but we can still like the person without liking everything they do." Joe was quiet, and I could tell he was thinking about that.

Craig thought I'd handled the situation well, and the kids were standing at the bottom of the stairs calling, "Anitra! When are you coming down? You said you'd come down and play!", so I told him I'd better get down there before they came and got me.

I tiptoed down. They were hiding behind a wall they'd made of an over-sized hassock, sofa cushions, and a big body pillow. I could see them in the mirror that hung on the wall and faced both the stairs and playroom. Joe's head popped up, he saw me in the mirror, and cried, "Jen! She's coming! Attack! Attack!"

Oh, man. We had the hugest pillow fight. They were the Chinese, their "wall" was the Great Wall, and I was the Huns. All of them. Joe told me once, "Lie down. You're dead...But there are thousands more Huns, and they all look like you, and they're all dressed like you, so you can get up...aaaaaggghhh!!!"

Toward the end it was almost more wrestling match than pillow fight, with the three of us grappling and screaming on the floor. Again, the physical contact with Joe seemed to disguise a longing to be touched, a show of affection even when he was flinging himself across my back and urging his sister to do the same.

We were a tangled heap of arms and legs when their dad came down. He stood with his hands on his hips and said, "Kids, your babysitter is the best sport in the world. I hope you know that."

I couldn't find words to tell him, although it should have been easy. I was having as much fun as they were. How could that possibly make me a good sport? 

SWAP-BOT SATURDAY: Mail Art

Yesterday, I got a piece of mail that was so wonderful on the outside, I forgot to actually open it! Seriously, I showed it off to my DH, took photos of it, laid it where I would admire and study it from time to time, and it was evening when I realized it was still unopened!

Isn't it wonderful?

Click on the pictures to see them full-size.

You know what I'm a tad concerned about? I think I'm supposed to send my own mail art to this artist. eeek. Well, my salvation is that I can't draw like that, and I know it, so mine will be completely different as to medium. Rescued by apples and oranges, maybe?

FRIDAY FENCE POST #77

I went trolling for fences this afternoon, expecting to use one I saw yesterday. I did take its photograph, but wasn't content. One street over, two blocks down...Look! It's Spring! It's really spring. I don't care if it is raining buckets. I don't care if I am still wearing two long-sleeved shirts around the house. It's spring, and this proves it:

Isn't that a wonderful sight? And there was more. I'll admit it. Sometimes the fence is less important than what's near it:

It's your turn! We had several great fences last week--show me more! Just drop a link to your Fence Post into Mr Linky here, and I'll come visit. Oh, and grab the button in my left sidebar and/or link back, so we'll get even more fences!

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BUTTON, BUTTON, PAIRS OF BUTTONS...

I recently participated in a Button Swap on Swap-Bot. I figure no matter how many buttons you have, someone else will have different ones, so sending off some of my duplicates and waiting for new buttons to come back to me sounded like fun.

When the time came, I gathered up the requisite number of buttons, plus a bunch, sent them off, and honestly, just kind of forgot about the swap. (One of the advantages of having a short attention span is that so many lovely little surprises arrive in my mailbox, lol!)

Today, a packet of buttons arrived. I suspect I will never use them. Because, tell me, isn't this absolutely the most fun "button card" you ever saw? I just love it! How could I bear to remove the buttons?

In other news, I really needed to bake something today. Some version of Dump Cake seemed to be in order, but...but...something new. Lemon Peach Crisp has made its debut, and it is YUMMY.

LEMON PEACH CRISP

2 Large cans peaches (about a quart each), drained
1 Peeled apple, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Almond flavoring
About 10-12 teaspoons strawberry jam
1 Lemon cake mix
1 cube butter or margarine

Mix the fruit and almond flavoring together, right in the 9"X13" cake pan you'll be baking the crisp in. Drop a dollop of strawberry jam in the center of each planned serving. (I figured the pan would divide into about 12 good-sized servings.)

Now pour the dry cake mix over the top of the fruit mixture and jam, and spread it out evenly. Slice the butter thinly into pats and lay them out over the top of the cake mix.

Bake at 350 degrees F, until the top looks lightly browned and crispy. To be honest, I forgot to look at the clock, but it was about an hour, maybe longer.

It really was good! Now, a note or two: I'm not sure the strawberry jam made a difference, so you could probably skip that. Or mix the jam in with the fruit. Either way. I didn't want to go overboard with the almond flavoring, as it can easily be overpowering, but I think the amount could be doubled to a full teaspoon, for even better flavor.

Happy St Patrick's everyone!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #76

Time already for a Friday Fence Post! I've been thinking about this one all week, ever since I got to go up to the Hood River Valley to see Mama. She and her sister, my Aunt Charlotte, go for a two-mile walk just about every day. My brother Duane was also visiting, so the four of us all went.

The daily walk takes place on a road near Aunt Charlotte's, with this on one side:

and this on the other:

 

Now, when I go walking with other people and have my camera with me, a routine usually develops quite quickly. I stop to take pictures. They keep walking. I run to catch up. Same number of steps, but I like the extra exertion it gives me!

My "little" brother (he is younger!) encourages me:

Between the two photos just above, there was a fence. A great fence. Close-ups first:

Look how the lichen and weathered knothole have formed a heart:

And then this last one. I didn't even see the horse until I had the gate in my viewfinder. I love it!

One last shot of the dog who joined us at about the half-mile mark. You may not be able to see from this shot, but this is one BIG dog. When he stands on his hind feet, he is at least as tall as Mama, and he quite easily bounces up to eye-level with that six-foot brother o' mine. And we are all convinced he's just a puppy still! He has that goofy galumphing playfulness that only puppies have, and when he isn't suddenly putting his front paws on your shoulders, he's quite the charmer.

Puppy was entranced by the newly-constructed igloo in this yard, and almost went inside, but there was this other dog...We didn't see him for a while after that, but he did rejoin us on our return.

Your turn! I haven't seen any fences but my own lately and I want to see yours! Post your fence on your blog, and drop the link into Mr Linky here, and be sure to leave a comment!

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