583. Play horseshoes

 I've been waiting to play a game of real horseshoes complete with a horseshoe pit for a really long time. I even asked little bro if he had horseshoes in his outdoor games, he said no. I really didn't want to buy any. 

While on Washington Island, we stopped at Washington Island Farm Museum. The first thing I saw was horseshoe pits and they even had horseshoes. I'm like we have to play. The hubby was like do you even know how to do this? I know you want to get the horseshoe around the stake for 3 points and if it touches the stake, it's one point.

The hubby went first and got it near the pit. Then I went. It barely made it halfway to the pit. Those horseshoes are a lot heavier then expected.

My second throw was a bit better. 

The hubby hit the stake on his third throw. I missed again. It kind of rolled near the stake. 

The hubby said that was enough. He beat me 1-0. Normally we would play to 15 but we might have been there all day and we had a farm to see.

Horseshoes is a lot harder than it is on the Wii. It was still fun. I didn't injure anyone which is always good. I think I will stick to the Wii version from now on. Or maybe just eat them.

975. Play Twiddlywinks

Back when I wrote this list, I thought playing Twiddlywinks would be something fun to add to the list not that I had a clue as to exactly what Twiddlywinks were. Dad would mention playing twiddlywinks in jest but that really didn't tell me much except I wanted to play.

When I was trying to figure my 12 bucket list adventures for the year, Danielle said she'd help me with some of the weird ones. I asked her if she knew how to play Twiddlywinks, Euchre, or Bridge and not surprisingly she knew how to play Twiddlywinks. Unfortunately she doesn't know Euchre or Bridge....

I picked up a set of Twiddlywinks on Amazon for $7 and couldn't wait to learn how to play. Apparently I picked up the English version of the game but that didn't stop us from having some fun.

Basically the object of the game is to get all your (and your partner's) winks (chips) into the pot (cup) before the other team by flipping them into the pot. The English version gives your a flipper coin called a squidger to help flip your winks into the cup.

We didn't really play by the rules (i.e. taking turns, etc). We just tried to flip our winks into the pot. I must have had some beginner luck because I managed to get all my winks into the pot. Gavin wasn't having much fun because he couldn't get his winks into the pot.

Now that I have my own set of Twiddlywinks, I have a feeling I'm going to be practicing flipping my winks into the pot whenever I'm bored. I want to play against the hubby but I have a feeling he will get frustrated if he can't flip his winks into the pot.  If you've never played Twiddlywinks, I've got a set and we can play sometime. It's quite fun and challenging at the same time.

#995 Build a Fort

Every year my friend Jamie and her family builds a blanket fort on New Year's Eve. I must have had a depressing childhood as I never built a blanket fort or any other kind of fort or clubhouse. After seeing pictures for the last 2 years, I decided I wanted to make a fort and watch a movie in it. I thought doing this by myself but decided that it would be more fun if I had someone to do it with. So I invited Danielle and Gavin over for forts and movies this afternoon since the hubby was gone all day.

It turns out that Danielle at least some fort building experience because I really had no clue how to build a fort. I knew I needed some blankets and chairs but when it came to putting it together I had no clue. Next time we will invite Jamie over for assistance as she is a "professional".

Building a fort isn't as easy as it looks. You have to make sure the roof is high enough to see the TV and wide enough for 3 bodies. You have to make sure the blankets are secure to the chairs and each other. This is where knot tying skills come in handy as well as hair clips and chip clips. Jamie says duct tape works well too.

Once had our fort built, we wiggled into it.. another thing I didn't realize I had to worry about. Trying to lay in the fort to watch TV. In order to do this in the small space we had, we had to enter the fort feet first. It was a lot of contorting for us adults.

Danielle and I lasted about 20 minutes laying on our stomachs when she wiggled out and sat up and I flipped positions and leaned against the couch. That was much more comfortable. I figured since I wanted to build a fort I better watch the entire movie in it.

Fort building is a great way to spend a winter afternoon. Maybe this will become a yearly tradition. Hopefully I will get to improve my fort building skills sometime soon.

# 760 Complete a New York Times Crossword Puzzle

I like doing crossword puzzles. They challenge my brain. When I first moved up here, I would have mom save me the crosswords from the Milwaukee Journal and give them to me when I saw her. Then I discovered online crossword puzzles, first through USA Today and then the LA Times. I do both daily but I have always wanted to try the New York Times Crossword ever since my PolSci Professor in College said she does them and they are not easy.

I recently won a free 4 week subscription to the New York times through one of my apps and decided I might as well as try to do the crossword. After searching all over, I discovered the link to the crosswords hidden at the bottom. Then I discovered, I had to have an additional subscription for the crossword puzzles. Not coo...oh wait what is this...archived puzzles for free. Score. I picked the one from 1998..not realizing it was a Friday puzzle (the later in the week, typically the harder the puzzle).

30 minutes later and a lot of Google searching later, I completed my first New York Times Crossword puzzle. I managed to solve several clues initially without any help. As I found answers on Google, I was able to complete the longer clues without any help. It wasn't easy and it doesn't highlight the letters you got wrong in red automatically. In order to make sure my answer was correct, I had to click check word. I really only got a few words truly wrong -- anything with a black triangle in the picture below is what I initially got incorrect. It was a nice way to pass some time on a Friday Night. Maybe one day I will try a New York Times Sunday Crossword

Flashback Friday #811 Fly a Kite

I never flew a real kite. As a kid, we made kites of out of sticks and newspaper but they never really got off the ground. I wanted to fly a kite up to the highest heights and I knew Mackinac Island would be a great place to do this. When planning our trip, I told the hubs I wanted to fly a kite and he just rolled his eye but agreed. At first I wanted a cool kite and even bought one that looked like an airplane. It even had a propeller. The only problem was we weren't sure how we would get to the island so I took it back and bought a much smaller "normal" looking kite that fit in my luggage.

Tuesday it rained most of the day in Mackinac Island. We spent the morning exploring and shopping. In the afternoon, it seemed to stop enough that I could go kite flying. Our resort had a nice lawn area that was perfect for kite flying and since it was still misting and not all that nice, no one was out there. After  few attempts at launching the kite, we finally got it airborne. It stayed up there kite awhile. I'm not quite sure what the excitement of flying a kite is but once you it gets up in the wind, there isn't a whole to do except to make sure it stays up there. I found the whole thing to be boring after awhile. Good thing we had a boomerang too since only one of us could fly the kite at a time. Next time the hubby wants to get a long string and get it up to 1,000 feet. That could be fun. When we were done, we packed the kite up and took it back on the ferry with us to use another windy day.