The Sudoku bug

How did this happen? I don't even like puzzles.

And I mean pretty much all puzzles. The daily crossword puzzle in the paper, word jumbles, even word searches are not really my thing. This stems party because I can't be bothered to do them, but mostly because, well, I suck at puzzles.

So when the Sudoku craze started awhile back, I didn't even give those puzzles a second look. But then I got a Sudoku puzzle book for Christmas, and, to be kind really, I decided to do one that afternoon. Ryan, who loves them -- and is rather good at them too -- explained the concept and helped walk me through my first puzzle. It took me well over 30 minutes WITH Ryan's help to complete a so-called easy puzzle. That was enough for me, I thought.

But then, a few weeks later, I came across the book again while cleaning up and figured what the heck, I'll try one more. By the end of the day, I had given up on two of them and was attempting a third when I once again recruited Ryan's help. I was frustrated, and just needed to prove that I could complete one on my own. I vowed once I finished just one puzzle without help, that I would never, ever do another one.

Finally, after a whole day's of on again, off again work, I finished one.

Two days later, I picked the book up again and started doing puzzles. I'll still stand firm that I don't like puzzles, but for some reason, I can't make myself stop trying these. (Ryan, you can stop laughing and saying 'I told you so now'.)