Game On! - 1/7/16

I hope you'll indulge me for sharing my most recent puzzle project with you today.  It's a ten-puzzle series and the final puzzle is set to publish this weekend.  I had a lot of fun putting it all together, and appreciated the help in creating and testing the puzzles from quite a number of you out there.  The fun (and the small, simple geo-art) starts here:

Game On! #1: Playing the Game of Thrones

Tomorrow we'll be in California.
  

"We need more Calgon!" - 1/6/16

If you're around my age, upon seeing the heading for today's post, you won't be surprised that today's California puzzle involves an:

Ancient Chinese Secret

Tomorrow we'll ...

Great Caesar's Ghost! - 1/5/16

As I mentioned yesterday, I also wanted to let you know about a new project by my friend Cully Long (childofatom) that launched at noon yesterday:

Puzzle Cache Practice will be a fun resource for those learning to expand their puzzle skills, and I'll be an occasional contributor. Simulated geocaching puzzles will be posted on Mondays, and then hints and then finally answers will follow later in the week.  Like the practice puzzles in his book, the solutions will take you some interesting locations, but there won't be any actual caches to find there.
  

Today's puzzle is from California.  If you think about it, swearing used to be a lot more creative when people at least tried to use euphemisms in an effort to be polite.  These days I have to be careful how much cable TV I watch, or I'm likely to spout off something quite inappropriate when I stub my toe.  I should watch more of those old movies, where the worst thing you heard was "Jumping Jehoshaphat" or:

Great Caesar's Superghost!

Tomorrow we'll be in California again.

Another year, my friends! - 1/4/16

For those of you who just want to get right to today's California puzzle, it's right here, my:

Friends

Tomorrow we'll be back in California for another puzzle, and I'll have an announcement for you about a fun new blog by one of my geocache puzzling friends.

For those of you who are still reading, the first Monday of the new year seems like a good time to take stock of our progress with geocaching goals for last year, and think about what we hope to accomplish in the next year.  How was your year?  While I didn't have the hugest numbers, it was a memorable year of caching for me, including attending my first mega-event and adding two new states to the map - one of which was my long-awaited trip to California.  I had hoped to add more states with a dedicated caching trip to New England, but I will just have to carry that goal over to this year.

This year I hope to continue to spread the joy of puzzling through this blog by exposing new and experienced puzzlers to fun, interesting, and educational puzzles around the world, and to give the CO's of those puzzles more recognition than they might receive otherwise.  I also hope to encourage new puzzlers not only through the blog, but also in person at puzzle-seminars, via podcast, through e-mail correspondence, and by creating my own puzzles with a variety of difficulty levels.

If you'd like to join me as a fellow puzzle "ambassador," please consider sending me a puzzle you've enjoyed, or challenge me to locate a puzzle on a particular topic or theme.   Consider logging a note or sending a message to the CO of a puzzle you have enjoyed (even if you doubt you'll ever be able to make the find) and writing thoughtful logs for CO's whose puzzle caches you do find.  You might even try hosting or attending a puzzle-promoting event in your area.  If you create your own puzzles, maybe you'll consider creating one just for fun, that anyone could solve (I'll be featuring some suggestions in this regard over the coming months).  

I am planning to continue posting daily puzzles for you to enjoy, but I may add in a few other things ... some interviews with puzzlers, maybe an occasional poll. I still reserve the right to post a re-run, but just can't bring myself to do it yet.   If there's anything you'd like to see here (in addition to the puzzles) please let me know. And if you've made it all the way to the end of this long post, thank you, my friend!

Pretty Sneaky, Sis - 1/3/16

Today's Massachusetts puzzle reminded me of my own childhood, when I'm sure that on more than one occasion I said:

Pretty Sneaky, Sis

Tomorrow we'll ...

New Years Resolution - 1/2/16

Today's puzzle is from Australia.  If you haven't already, it's not too late to make a:

New Year's RESOLUTION

Tomorrow we'll ...

Happy New Year! - 1/1/16

Today's Connecticut puzzle marks the launch of the 6th year of the Geocaching puzzle of the Day. I never would have imagined when I started 5 years ago that it could have gone on so long. What better way to kick things off than with a:

Happy New Year Cipher

Tomorrow we'll head to Australia for another timely puzzle.