Rematch a Must

Interesting game today, I lost by one point. That is not all that interesting in itself. What was most distressful was along the way Mumsey managed to put 3 cards in her crib. Thus she only had 3 cards in her hand to play and a five card crib!!! How could she not notice her short hand? Well I did and also her fat crib. So she let me remove one card unseen from her crib and then she counted the points. That removed card obviously was a part of her short hand. And of course it all worked out in her favor. I think that is a lot of suspicious cribbaging. To appease me, she said if the game ended being a close game we would have a rematch later today. Hmmm, I wonder if either of us will remember to play again today? Our schedule is so tight here.

Whew!

Where do these months go? Most likely the reason that there is no post for September is that I am losing. All September, Mumsey has been successfully getting superior hands. I mean like 24 in her hand and 20 in the crib! She will have the lovely 6,5,5,4 combo in several variations and then what should appear but just the one needed to make the 24 hand. Today, she even commented whether I had actually shuffled! And what should she display as her hand unfolded but another variation of that same combo. Usually, when this happens I always think it is on her deal and her lack of shuffle style but surely when I deal I have done enough shuffle shuffle. So there you have it avid cribbage fans, the daily cribbage game is on for each day of the month of September. I will leave you in suspense for a few more days as to just how much Mumsey is ahead. Perhaps before the month is out I will have made a come back.....

I won August!

Mumsey, aka my mother, aka Grandma Eck, aka great grandma, made a valiant effort this month. There were times when she might have been 6 or so games behind, but the final score for August was 16 to 15. Thrills galore during the month.

6th Win!

I won again today but so far I am alive. My mother is disgruntled but still has hope for a future win.

Yikes!!!

I am ahead 5 games this month and it is only the 5th! Check in tomorrow to see if I am still alive or if she has broken my winning streak. Too bad my luck only applies to the daily cribbage. Or at least this momentary lucky run.

What I have discovered

The daily cribbage game is much like the rest of life, best kept in the moment. Many times in July, I thought I should write about the just finished game. There never was the spark needed to relive the thrill of the moment. Yes, there were many peaks and valleys along the way to the final deciding moment on July 31. There just was never the energy to tell the story. The thrill in the moment expended all available energy. Thus I leave you on the edge of your seats for most likely a very long time. I will tell you that July was most unusual in that on the 30th we were tied 15 to 15. It truly was a cliffhanger month! I did win on the 31st and have now won both the 1st and the 2nd of August. Hope my mother wins tomorrow or she will be getting exceedingly agitated! And we do not want that!!!! And I cannot even comfort her with the news that she is ahead in the months of the year as so far I have that honor. So until next time, whenever that might be, you can trust in the fact that the daily cribbage is very much alive and living in the thrill of the moment!!!!!!

Over half of the month is gone.

I am now three games ahead for the month. It has been that way on and off for the past week. First two than three than two than three ahead. I am certainly not complaining about that state of daily cribbage but my mother most likely has another story to tell...
We have both had our times of 21 point hands and then 2 point hands. No real cliff hangers to note, although one day I was one point shy of a win.
The first picture is a jigsaw puzzle we recently put together. That has been our secondary mania for the last few weeks. Now I am experiencing withdrawal as we have no more to do for now. It had become the daily jigsaw puzzle as well.
The second picture is our crop of volunteer hollyhocks that cheerfully come up every year all on their own. I did initially bring them to the area by casting a few collected seeds from my daily walk. (Ooooh, another potential blog "The Daily Walk." ) And of course this picture has the necessary capture of one of my fingers for all to see.

Had to do it.

It is day 12. Up until today every two days in this month we were tied. My mother likes it that way. She is even generous in saying it is your turn to win today when she is that one day ahead. Today I ruined the perfect tie combination by skunking her (she lost by over 30 points for those of you who lack basic cribbage speak, it was 33 points to be exact). I sensed that her feathers were ruffled by this so I resorted to counting her victories last month. Remember she was so far ahead last month that we did not bother to total the win/loss tally for that month. Today was the day to salve her wounded cribbage soul. The count, for those of you holding your breath, was 16 wins for her and 13 for me. Again, I know June has 30 days but this time I know why there are only 29 games to count. It was that lost day due to roses and other assorted yard work. The amazing thing so far this month, besides the record amount of ties, is how the individual count evolved throughout each game. I would get a 24 hand along the way and be way ahead and then she would get a 24 hand to catch up or vice versa. Cribs were also fantastic in that we would each along the way get 12 point cribs, all just by luck. There truly is never a dull day at the daily cribbage.

The month so far.

I am pleased to report that as of today, I am one game ahead. Yesterday we were tied 3-3 so someone had to be the tie-breaker today. Yesterday's game was very plain vanilla, no real significant cliff hanging. But today's was a thriller! We each had 24 point hands at some time in the game. Just when I thought I would skunk her, she received her 24 points to round the corner. I was actually happy for her as there is nothing worse than an extremely disgruntled loser. And I still seemed to be sufficiently in the lead. For those of you avid cribbage players you know it is those final hands and who counts first near the end that is critical. However, sometimes all can seem so right and the game is snatched away. It is in those heated moments of final play that I will shout out "You stole the game!" and she does not even care. Today, though, I calmly crossed the well-deserved finish line. Tune in next time for future exciting cribbage duels.

Rough game today.

Today's game started out badly for me. My mother kept getting these fantastic hands, like 12 points in her hand and 12 in her crib. Also she was scoring lots in the play itself. Being early in the month, I am not overly concerned. Let her feel good and get ahead for awhile. But today's play was brutal. Even the flowers were wilting over the bleakness of it all.
At one point, she must have been ahead by 50 points. Then she slowed down in her luck and I had a few good hands. Initially, I thought it would be a double skunk. Then it really got exciting as there was one fleeting moment when I thought I might even win!!! In the end she won by 15 points.
Overall, I cannot feel too bad as the month is starting off with two wins each!

I'm resistin'

I so want to count the days of wins/losses in June. My mother does not seem to care. Probably because she knows she won. Or has she counted them in secret and sees no need to share her calculations? Today she questioned my count during the play. It was in regards to a four card out-of-order run. So I brought out our 40 some year old xeroxed rules to show her the definitive ruling on my play count. Along with the rules, there came a calender from 2005. Actually, it was only December and maybe November. At the bottom of December we had the totals wins for the year. She had won 7 of the months and I had won only 4. Usually if a month is tied we most likely put that as a tie. So this particular year, either only had 11 months or there was an unrecorded tie month! We will never know because of the missing pages. Or are they lurking hidden in the cupboard? Undoubtedly, we kept the final year tally to comfort her if she lost too many times in the future. I do not think that I need to report that she could not believe she won that year by such a large margin...

Now we are talking

Hooray for Pueblo! Finally, some distinction. I have been waiting for this. Click on the link and you will be so impressed.
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20283027_20631513,00.html
Well, I was anyway. Actually, I do not think it makes a link. Do take the time though to copy it.
Last day of the month for our daily cribbage scores. I know my mother is the winner for June by a landslide. Because that is the case, neither one of us has bothered to count the specific wins/losses. If she says nothing about it I will wait until I am ahead in some future month so I can remind her of her June victory. She wanted to play the makeup game for the one we missed but I said it was not necessary since I was such a loser.

Okay, here it is

The long awaited answer to how I could possibly miss a day of cribbage. Drum roll please...
Yard work! Specifically, roses with their endless need for trimming and then the rose feeding and the weed pulling in the rose beds. Lawn watering and mowing came in as a close second. And then there are the zucchini and their midday leaf wilting. I feel so sorry for them that I have to go deliver them buckets of water even though I am wilting as well. I have to get my own water!

Can you believe it? I cannot!

Yesterday, we completely forgot to play cribbage! Tomorrow, or in the next post, I will show you a picture of one of the things that took us away from our routine. It is a rare day when cribbage is missed. I even talked about playing in the afternoon and still we forgot to play! When I told my mother about the lack of cribbage playing (she had naturally assumed that I won yesterday), she simply said "We didn't? I thought you won. We will just have to play two games today." Now we will see whether the second game happens.I am guessing it will not....

The Calendar!

Finally, the day to view this month's cribbage calendar. I have not counted my wins/losses but I can safely say I am behind!!!!

The Boards before the Game

Finally, a picture of the cribbage boards and cards. This is pregame and most of the time postgame as both of us immediately return our pegs to the starting line once the winner finishes. Of course, we have to count how many holes remain for the loser so we can enter the who won/who lost information on the calendar. Also who had the first crib. Perhaps tomorrow you will find a picture of the current calendar!!!

My opponent or my compatriot in the daily cribbage.

My mother and I are avid cribbage players. We play every day. For the longest time, she always thought she was a loser so to prove that she actually won quite often we started keeping track of who won and who lost. So for the last several years we mark the daily scores on a calendar and then tally for the month and the year the overall winner and loser. This is a picture of my mother doing another of our favorite things, putting together a jigsaw puzzle. However that favorite is only a recent mania.

here today, gone tomorrow?

In this moment, I post my first blog. Will it be the last? Check tomorrow for the answer. Or maybe the next day....

First Post may be last post

Being new to an actual real blog, I was not sure how to publish. So there could have been no first post at all. Thought I would add a picture.