Thanks for the help. I guess being chastened is a worthwhile activity as well; proceeding with that.
Mystery-Scavenge the Flag! I love it.
Thought that was probably what you meant, but then I would never have thought to play Mystery-Scavenge the Flag. Thank you! A beautiful idea.
Check, check, and check.
Good idea; that’s sort of Mr. S’s thing. I shall expand my horizons!
All excellent ideas that I’m adding to the calendar. Sadly, one of my main frustrations is that I know hardly any people with children in this town; another thing that probably costs nothing to remedy!
Thanks to all of you! You are full of life-broadening ideas.
Do you have a GPS receiver? I recently started Geocaching and it is a ton of fun. It has shown me really cool places close to home that I wasn’t even aware existed! And it is fun hunting for treasure. It does take some gas to get to the caches, but I plan it out so I can hit a bunch in the same area in a day.
Board games (or do you say “bored” games?) are good. I’m not much for Monopoly or Clue, but I could play Scrabble all afternoon.
You can play cards and instead of playing for money, you can play for chores or sexual favors.
I second the suggestion to go out and take pictures. If it’s too cold out, a train depot or the library or other populated areas are good places to get great people shots.
I like to cook, and I recently discovered that a lot of people like to record themselves on youtube showing how to prepare recipes. This isn’t as mundane as it sounds; you can find people from all over the world showing how to prepare seekh kebabs (Iran) or chaat (south India) or soup dumplings (Shanghai). Usually the ingredients are cheap and commonplace. I recently made seekh kebab after watching this video, using cheapo ground beef and other inexpensive foodstuffs. God, was that stuff good. My husband has put in a special request that I make this as often as possible.
I also like to track down obscure old cartoons, American and foreign, and watch those. Old Japanese cartoons, in particular, can be hypnotically fascinating.
I can’t get to their Montana Calendar because my cookies keep sending me to the California page, but they must have stuff in your neck of the woods, as they have a forum dedicated to the Northwest (OR,WA,ID,MT,WY).
I hope you find something for you there and have fun!
If your camera has a shutter speed control there’s lots of fun to be had at the very slow and very fast speeds.
Slow shutter speeds:
‘Paint’ things with light.
‘Write’ in the air by standing back and writing backwards with a small light.
Illuminate a person sitting still with just the sparks off a dead cigarette lighter.
Light stripes made by passing cars or planes
Fast shutter speeds:
Flying cats (you’ll probably only get one shot)
Splashing or pouring water.
Sports action
If you’ve got good timing try for a shot of a deformed golf club or tennis racket.
I think the scavenger hunt is an awesome idea. Make up a cool scavenger hunt, but at the end, have it lead to something that needs to be done. Like a hole in the wall that needs patched, or a sink full a dirty dishes, maybe even some laundry. You win by getting to spend time making the scavenger hunt, your boyfriend wins by taking it, and then you win again when he completes the chore.
Did you ever read “Rebecca?” Mrs Danvers is one of the greatest villians of all time. If you don’t like to read, see if you can check the book out on tape and listen to it as you play a video game or something.
Digital camera: If you haven’t already, set up a facebook account and post your best pictures there.
Download picasa so you can fix and alter your photos.
Also you might inventory your belongings for insurance purposes.
If your camera has a video mode, you can make videos and post them to youtube. Play guitar, read a poem, make up a skit, re-enact a favorite scene from a movie, etc.
