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Up and Down

Well it has been a week of ups and downs for me...and what better way to work through that than with a crossword puzzle...   On Saturday, my husband lost his wedding ring in the Russian River. We have acquired a metal detector and will be out searching for that this week - wish us luck! That was a down.   Then on Sunday, I attended Westwords - the Bay Area Crossword Tournament in its second year in Berkeley, CA.  Since I had not been training for it at all, my plan was to have a chill day with crosswords and friends by competing in the easier "Beach" division - and then I went and won. Congrats to the other winners, especially to Tyler Hinman for winning the "Mountain" division - may I hope to come close to that someday. This was definitely an up!  And then this morning I found out I was laid off from my job, part of a re-org of our business technology team. I know I wasn't the only one impacted, but it was still a shock...and I am still figuring out what w...
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What's black and white and solved all over?

 As I've been watching the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition the last few weeks (which concluded a couple days ago with the awarding of the gold medal to Aristo Sham of Hong Kong), I once again have been dreaming about one day owning my own grand piano. I probably need a larger living room. But as I've been dreaming of that, I also started thinking about a lot of my favorite things that are black and white - and thus this puzzle was born. A little too late I also just read about Ed the runaway pet zebra who was finally captured in Tennessee. Just imagine what this ride must have been like: So Ed the Zebra did not make the actual puzzle, but I hope he enjoys his brief brush with fame. And I hope you enjoy the puzzle! Built by Katja Brinck using the online crossword puzzle generator from Amuse Labs
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Run 10k with me

With the weather warming up, and the nicer, longer days, I've gotten back into a running training plan, and am currently planning to run 10k at the end of the month - yes less than a week! Running is never easy to start, and I got away from it for a bit, so about 7 weeks ago I kicked off a new training plan with a goal to run 10k by June 1. I will likely never be a fast runner, but in the end, running is more about facing something difficult and doing it anyways. A fun recent challenge for my Saturday long runs has been "will I finish my run faster or solve the Saturday stumper faster." 🤣  With that in mind, I thought about the phrase 10k, and thought "how hard could it be to put 10 Ks into a puzzle" - actually a little harder than I thought to have a bunch of fun entries featuring a lot of Ks. I ended up expanding the grid to 15x17 - hope you have fun solving my puzzle "Run 10k with me," And wish me luck when I run 10k this coming weekend! (Picture f...
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Word to your mother

Today is Mother's Day, which can be a complicated day for many, including myself. It's been almost 10 years since I lost my mom, and while she knew I was into crossword puzzles, and was here when I attended my very first ACPT, she never got to see this whole other crossword world that took over, or the construction that I jumped into. I'd like to think if she could see what I was doing, she'd be like "that's MY daughter." :) In honor of the complicated thing that is motherhood, I did still want to make a puzzle...this will feature a couple things specific to her. But the theme is more inspired by what I've witnessed online and in some of my friend's lives who are mothers. With my mother being Australian, she was always mummy or mum...but I hope everyone enjoys this puzzle, whatever your circumstances are.  Made by Katja Brinck with the online crossword puzzle generator from Amuse Labs
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Friends don't let friends...construct puzzles by themselves - please enjoy "I Am Not a Robot"

Solving or constructing crossword puzzles is often considered to be a solo activity, but sometimes the best (or silliest) ideas come out of random group chats. This particular puzzle idea started in a Discord chat with my Lil AVCX crew on the merits of using Microsoft Paint for adding color to puzzles...and then it took off from there. As a group, we decided to try to make this puzzle as silly and weird as possible...so with that being said, please enjoy a trip back to the 80s and 90s with a puzzle courtesy of Shannon Rapp, Sally Hoelscher, Matt Luter, Geoffrey Schorkopf, and me!  Built by Katja, Norah, Sally, Matt, and Geoffrey using PuzzleMe's online cross word maker
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Spring has sprung! With spring comes the signs of new life, more daylight, and the excitement of coming out of the dregs of winter, and a chance to jump into something new. You might be thinking there are already too many crossword puzzles out there, but why not add one more to the mix. With this, I'm finally creating my own crossword puzzle blog - with the goal of creating one or two per month. And here we go...it's time to try something new with a little nod to spring. Constructed by Katja Brinck using PuzzleMe's cross word builder
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