Score!!

Thanks to my focus on Leonard Pennario, my normal life gives me no time to play actual games, like Sudoku -- much as I love Sudoku -- or Angry Birds. So I have to work games and puzzles into my everyday life.

Sometimes I play the coupon game. It is a little like Scrabble and its Double Word or Triple Word scores.

When I write concert reviews I consider that a game and that helps me deal with the deadline. You have half an hour to come up with something .... go! That is the game. Sometimes I play this game at work even without a deadline. You have an hour exactly to get this story knocked off. The timer is ticking. Go!

I am even playing a game with the Pennario book right now. I have decided I want a good draft done, one I can pass on to my friends who are helping me edit it, by Labor Day. It is a special challenge because whereas summer is a relaxed time for everyone else on the planet, it is a terrible time for me. My work schedule is crazy and my neighborhood is deafening and there are all these events I have to be at. But still.

So it is tough. That is the game! It is like playing suicide Sudoku as opposed to easy Sudoku.

Yesterday I played the Vegetable Grab Bag game.

I was rushing past the downtown farmers' market. I do not buy much at this market. The prices are high. They expect you to pay $4 or something for a little basket of green beans. Forget that! But yesterday one of the merchants offered a grab bag -- well, a grab basket -- of use it-or-lose-it vegetables. For $2. I purchased it.

Included were two pale green summer squash, three bright yellow crookneck squash, two tomatoes and a hot pepper.

The object of the game was to use them all in one dish. That is what I decided. That was the game!

Solution: Enchiladas!

Not only did it use up the basket but it used up leftover tomato sauce from the other day, the other half of a stick of cheese that went uneaten at the last Jazz at the Albright-Knox, and a bunch of whole-wheat tortillas that had been going begging. Plus the enchiladas are vegetarian -- I served sausage on the side -- so today, Friday, I can eat the leftovers.

Bingo! I win!

I do not think Howard recognized the genius that went into this dish but I sure did! That is one thing about playing games like this. They are mostly in your head and you have to get used to that. In most cases you will get no public recognition for your victories. You must be your own cheering section.

I wonder what challenges today will bring.

Thinking like this kind of makes the day exciting.