Friday, April 20, 2007

wasted powers

So today I'm in crack cognitive form, as high functioning mentally as I get these days. My personal barometer of neurofunctioning is the daily sudoku, which I whipped through this morning in practically record time for a Friday puzzle; indeed, last week I didn't solve either the Thursday or the Friday puzzle (sidenote for the non-puzzlers: newspapers print very easy sudoku and crosswords on Mondays, and the difficulty gradually ratchets up during the week and then resets the next Monday). Then I turned to the big Friday crossword puzzle in the Wall Street Journal, which is large and difficult and intended to occupy one over the weekend. I did the entire thing in about 45 minutes, which is definitely a record for me (about 50% of the time I pick and poke at the crossword over the weekend but don't finish it; the rest of the time, I solve the entire puzzle, but after a couple of sessions).

Frankly, this is as good as it gets, in terms of Drunken Housewife cognitive ability. If I were still practicing law, I could have cranked out a motion or an amicus brief in short order. So what did I do? I argued with Lola over whether she should wear shorts to preschool today. (I lost). I argued with Iris over whether we should go for a snack before or after her piano lesson (I won that one! Hurray for the middle-aged!). I attempted to defend our performance as "Graduation Assistant Family" at Lola's preschool to the director (this was pathetic). I had a discussion with another parent, who is also very active in animal charities, about how often everyone says you must clean birdcages and how often, in reality, we clean our birds' cages. Between taking Lola to preschool and picking up Iris, I read a novel about zombies.

"Wasted potential": that's the theme of my life. On the other hand, strawberries are in season, and I have it in mind, thanks to "Food & Wine", to infuse a decent bottle of tequila with a pint of strawberries, and my zombie book is really very entertaining.

7 comments:

Silliyak said...

I usually do about as well using the local paper's X word and Soduku. Today however was a record LOW. I COULD NOT GET A SINGLE NUMBER!!!! (on the soduku) So here's a link. I'm sure you'll embarass me, it would only take getting one number after all.
http://go.pressdemocrat.com/sudoku/

Silliyak said...

BTW I got 10 referals from your link to me. Not bad. I started out the day with 3 visits, and ended up with 23! I had a bunch from China and around the world, I'm thinking they were looking for reactions to the VT massacre.

Anonymous said...

Today I searched for thirty seconds to find the other "p" word to describe a person of authority over a large group of people, not the principal but the...what is it?...What IS it?! oh, yeah, president.

I asked my husband to pass the salad frosting (dressing).

I deteriorate.

the Drunken Housewife said...

Believe me, anonymous, your experience is far more typical for me. That's why it was noteworthy that I had a highfunctioning day.

Silliyak, I'm working on that sudoku you sent me via link. I started that one last night after two glasses of champagne, and I filled in about a quarter of it and stalled out (I solved one cube of it, but that didn't break the whole puzzle). That one is a tough one, and I think I peaked yesterday morning.

JKG said...

If you think your potential is wasted, perhaps you could salve your conscience with this:

By the time your two precocious kids are hitting their mid-teens, you'll need every ounce of talent to preserve the safety and sanity of half of San Francisco. It's an awesome responsibility. Do you think your sodoku- and cross-word thrashing brain cells are up to the challenge?

M said...

is that the zombie novel I suggested to you, or is there ANOTHER "very entertaining" novel about zombies out there?

the Drunken Housewife said...

M, I dont remember which zombie book you recommended. Mine was "World War Z" by Max Brooks. I recommend it! If yours was something different, please post the 411 so I can make sure to seek it out. I'm feeling zombie love....