hello all from AZ

hello from Las Vegas

hello from Atlanta

Done

hi all

very easy

go

27 left to go, but im sick and cant see any more - going green...

done

not easy

Difficulty score 24. Perhaps a little harder than the average Easy.

definitely (for me anyways)

Patience, all you really need to know is cross-hatching.

Finally! Found a couple of hidden pairs. Got to re-read the definition of cross-hatching once again. Thanx.

I meant finally finished.

Yup, I saw a pair, then I realized that I would have learned the same thing by cross-hatching.

Whatever gets you the answer.

Agree!

ugh... just finished a hard from the archives which was brutal.

Now on to today's...

good morning!

go!

go

done

well done andy!

Cross hatching only, no greens. Takes time and patience, that's for sure

yeah... seems to be a sticky patch or two

And now, off to start all the easter sunday fun (aka "Why is it again I can't sit in my PJs and do Sudoku all morning again?")

done

Done. No greens, just crosshatching.

hello :)

done - odd pattern, but it turned out easy after all :)

easy peasy

done

done, greenfree

hello there and .. Happy EASTER !

happy easter, abstract!

nice pic pappa ;-)

done and go :)

thanks abstract, it was on a photo shoot with a firend of mine... he snapped that one while I was looking at my next shot :)

:)

ok .. I have to go now :( see u next time pappa

Bye everybody

bye abstract!

Afternoon Andy, are you working in the archives?

Yep

Me too, I

Waiting for the water to boil for egg decorating :)

Me too, I'm on May 4th, how about you?

April 26, 2006

I didn't do that stuff with my kids this year.

We're decorating today rather than having done it earlier.

We're decorating today rather than having done it earlier.

Didn't give them an egg hunt this year either, I think they got ripped off :)

We did the egg hunt at school. Good enough. He did a basket hunt this morning (left a trail of clues around the house which assembled into a treasure map).

That sounds like fun. We did treasure hunts when the kids learned how to read. They had a blast.

Now it's boil the eggs then my wife will do the decorating while I do more sudoku or, perhaps, a short coma and then I make easter dinner. Then another coma. :)

That will be a nice treat for your wife. I love it when mine cooks supper for me.

later... or sooner... but not now :)

We're going out for supper.

Right now, I'm wishing we were going out to supper. Too darn tired to cook

did your kids wake you up to early for their hunt?

Am I ever having a hard time with this one. It's only a medium and I'm stuck.

He did wake me early. But we were already up. I was already on this site :)

Just staretd the hard from April 27

I can't figure out this medium from May 4, I might have to start over.

:(

You got me curious...t rying the may 4 now

lovely... no 1s to start...

found 14 though cross hatching. Now starting on intersections (and more cross hatching)

Got 16 but am stuck now. Going green.

Break time. Gotta cook easter dinner... finish this later

Go.

Done. No greens. Two loners. Lots of needs thought.

Are you back yet Andy?

I think I found an xy chain

hello hello... looks like i'm not the only one working on the archives tonight, huh?

nope

I just started on 12/21's expert

I'm having trouble with May 4th's

i'll have a look after this one

going green

and done

Working Nov. 8th here.

ok... may 4 let's see

youre right... it is sticky

working intersection removal again

Look for xwings and unique rectangles, typically those are what you need for the tougher mediums.

okay

i got it done but don't ask me how

I might have to green this one.

i did

Maybe not. Just found a quad-xwing to solve two cells, might be the key.

It broke one of the intersections.

I'm at 22 numbers

well done! i need to brush up on those strategies

hmm, nope, I'm going to have to green this one.

back

hey andy

I have 16 filled in (not counting the originals)

Still working May 4.

Who was your supper Andy?

Who was your supper Andy?

How :)

Good. My son who insisited he hates ham liked it :)

I laugh at myself

I love the "one bite rule"

I keep thinking I'm finding x-wings and then not so much.

Me too. I have a really fussy daughter tho

You have 22 filled in? Where on earth did you find the extra six? :)

The '6' in left-center give you two xwings, one vertical along the center, and the elimination from that generates another along the top three boxes that solves two cells in R3.

You get a 6 and a 1 out of it.

Well, I have the 6 solved in the left center and I have no x-wings in the center.

And the only two unsolved I have in R3 are a 1-6 naked pair

I did it

You may need to fill in other cells before the combo becomes apparent.

therein lies my problem :)

You need to look both down and right from the '6' to get the first vertical xwing.

I should diagram this actually, it's not too often you have an xwing that makes another xwing that solves some cells.

No x-wings there. Not at present, anyway.

R6C4 has 3 greens and only of them has a single match in that row and all of them have multiple matches in the column.

if your still at 22 numbers, try intersection removal again

I'm at 16 numbers...

there in an xy chain in the bottom

In mine, the only 3 open cells in the button have 3 possibilities in each.

(the same three)

there was 4 numbers involved, going across the bottom then up on the right to the middle box something like that

In my case, the possibilities are ABC in all thee bottom cells. Moving up the right edge, it's ABC ABC and then the top cell is AC.

jeez... I hate it when I rush through an easy and find out I made a mistake.

Gotta put the sprout to bed. Time for his next chapter in Prince Caspian. bbl.

ooh good book!

here we go

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7862/crazy
xwingli8.png

Blue denotes the 'root' cell that causes all the havoc, red is where there can not be a 6, green is where there could be. arrows are there for attempted clarity.

We can see from this that the '6' in the left-center gives us the '6' in the top-right, and completes that row. lol

lol jeez!

hehe

here' my attempt at art. ;_

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e309/smooth
_pappa/tempest.jpg

very nice

yeah, but it doesn't help me when I'm stck in a sudoku ;)

i mean... thanks lol

If you can understand that, you will start seeing xwings a lot more often.

And also the possible relationships between cells that can't directly see each other.

i do some of that in my head, but i don' necessarially know the names for those strategies

A lot of people are like that actually.

good! makes me feel a little better

I was for quite a while, but when I got really into sudoku I started trying to learn more complicated techniques and the names for the stuff I already did.

And now I'm one of those crazy sudoku people.

lol I'm an addict, but i haven't gotten up to that level yet

but after today, I should be out of the newbie rankings

finally the bus left, now I can play some more sudoku :)

So let's see... May 4 took me three xwings and two unique rectangles. But, it is done.

Lucky you Smooth_pappa, I might be out of the newbies the day after, hopfully

heh... well, I've tackled a LOT of archives today

it's been a good relaxing day

this will be my 2nd archive for today, May 4th took me most of the day. :(

Do you guys watch curling?

What's that?

Curling

you know, when you shoot rocks down a sheet of ice.

Glen Howard won the Gold

I must be out of touch.

you have never heard of Curling?, Where do you live?

Seattle, Washington.

curling! where I grew up my high school went to curling nationals quite often

or maybe it was state... I'm not sure there is a high school nationals. lol

I obviously didn'tpay that much attention to it, but I did have a gym class in curling

that cool

bad spelling tonight or what

me? yeah... I just got a new keyboard with small keys... I dumped coffee all over my other one. I'm still not used to this thing

No, hehe, I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about myself:)

oh... lol

nevermind

How about hockey, did anyone watch the game today?

no i didn't... I am a huge hockey fan, though... who played?

Islanders & New Jersey

ahhh... I'm a blues fan myself

I'm guessing since your asking you don't know who won then.

Are you talking about the blue jays?

I don't... but... if I had toguess, I'd say jersey

lol

is that right?

Be back later, I have to clean up the restaurant.

back

welcome back

working on orange slice's graphic and seeing if I can make sense of it

yeah... didn't make a whole lot of sense to me... somewhat, though

Sorry heh. Not sure if I can explain it any better.

not your fault, slice... lol I think the newcastle I'm drinking is giving me a mental blocvk ;)

Oh, love newcastle... the fact I have none is now making me sad

Normally, I try to drink local brews, since wehave so many to choose from here in wisconsin... but I didn't have much time when I went out today, and that's what was available... not that Idon't love it, though... it's quality stuff!

I lost some of my work... accidentally went to another page and came back and lost some numbers...trying to work back to where I was before I did that

OK, I understand how you resolve the 16/16 in the top row. Got it

Thanks!

Now,when i return from helping the mrs. with the laundry, I'll see what that broke open...

I had to use one more xwing (with 1's) and also two unique rectangles, following that, to finish the puzzle.

Need to reduce the number of 1 possibilities before I can find any x-wings on them...

got it. Never did see the x-wings on 1s but I did fine a unique rectangle.

Maybe there was an x-wing on 1 but I was able to cross-hatch them all away before I noticed it

Finally finished it. That was the hardest one I've seen here yet. Strangely enough

Time to stop this horrible obsession and play something far less addicting. Like warcraft.

go

woo-hoo sudokuuuuu

Whew, made it through June 27.

hi everyone

woo hoo!