Not much to report, except to say I’m back from a short break in Italy – not a holiday, just house/cat sitting while my parents and daughter were away skiing. Xana, my little superstar, concluded the week by tackling red runs and managing a hugely impressive third place in the race which finished the course. She has never skied before. For me it was a ‘normal’ week of puzzle setting – that’s in quotes because in reality it was less than ideal. My, how I loathe the laptop! It’s got Crossword Compiler but not WordWeb Pro so I was reduced to manual dictionary use (just a copy of Chambers), and the Vodafone Internet dongle refused to work so I had to transfer puzzles from my laptop to my parents’ one before emailing – all very fiddly.
And the simple truth is that moving to a little laptop screen from a 23″ monitor is nothing less than ‘orrid. Now I’m back, it’s lovely to be able to see 4 different app GUIs at the same time. Yes, I know laptops/notebooks and even (yuk) iPads can be pretty to look at, but there’s still nothing to beat a nice big PC system.
Hope those of you who tackled today’s ST effort had fun. There’s a Telegraph Toughie coming up in a few days and another FT effort later in the week.
Anaxcrosswords 
Glad you enjoyed your “excursion” to Italy, however brief. Congrats to Xana on doing the red runs! I’ve never skied except the cross-country variety…that’s “thrilling” enough for me!
Nothing from the Toronto Star since I sent them the sample and your much-more-explicit instructions on Sweet 16, so it doesn’t look as if there’s any mutual interest. I’ve since sent the same “ad” to the Baltimore Sun and the Annapolis
Capital. We’ll see.
I can readily appreciate your loathing a laptop after having a desktop with a 23″ monitor…no comparison! To say nothing of the fact you might not have had “MatchThemUp” on the laptop (or perhaps you did?)
At this time, I thought of a semi-goofy “enhancement”, pardon the oxymoron, to Sweet 16…just an option that doesn’t have to ever be used if you think it TOO crazy. Coding, and will send it to you to sample when ready. And, of course, will pass along any news regarding its “appeal”.
Thanks for the blog!
Mike
Welcome back. About loathing the laptop – for me it’s a matter of getting used to a certain device. I was uncomfortable when I moved from PC to laptop but now am just fine with it. I don’t like it if I have to use someone else’s laptop, even if the same size! The placement of the keys or even their feel doesn’t seem right.
Thoroughly enjoyed your ST puzzle. Looking forward to the FT one.
Never been skiing but a red run sounds impresive, red rarely indictes it’s safe chaps. I have a huge laptop, 18″ by 10″ screen, but still have problems especially some websites where I can’t get to the next/OK button. My bugbear with it, though, is it’s so D*mn heavy when you have to carry it for hours when travelling to jobs.
After red it’s black and that’s as far as you can go. Unless blindfolded.
Superb Toughie Mr M. Brilliant start to a special day.