NYT Spelling Bee

[cathwen]

Good morning!

I am at genius with the pangram today.  Yesterday I went to 2LL help to find adman, myna, madman, tatty.. We got home in the very late afternoon and I was just out of steam. 

LB:  I had pundits-shoebox, too.  Langue_doc, I like our solution better than the "official" one!  No 2fer yet today, though.

Best wishes for your husband's return home, ab_grp, and for getting that truck out of the tight parking spot!

Langue_doc, yes, the visit was short.  I wish we'd had another day with both daughters.  We ended our visit yesterday with a game of Clue, which I hadn't played in ages.  Lots of acting sneaky and laughing as we camped it up!

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

QB - went to the grid for layman, landlady. Also had pundits-shoebox.

Happy solving!

[ab_grp]

Good day!

Finally got to genius with Pangea.  Yesterday I was missing 4 or so.  I think I was missing amyl, lantana, and we were both missing myna, mandala.

No luck on LB again.  Congrats all around! I agree that one is better than the schmofficial one.

I will update more tomorrow, but husband got discharged yesterday before noon, and we didn't get to leave until after 5pm due to administrative mistakes.  Ugh.  He did well here in the hotel overnight, and I have to start all the packing and loading shortly.  Hoping to head out in 3 hours or so, but who knows.  Between the checkouts and check ins would be good.  Thanks again for all the good wishes! Hopefully I'll get him home safely.

Cathwen we watched Clue the movie yesterday! My brother and I also used to camp it up quite a bit while playing.  Sounds like you all had fun!

Happy solving!

[Langue_doc]

Good morning! Pangram (whew!) and just above genius. Don't have the energy to look for more words.

Made it to QB with pool, which I thought I'd entered much earlier.

Hope you made it home, ab_grp, without any delays or hassles on the road. Hospital administration policies are a nightmare as I discovered when ex-husband needed pain medication following surgery. Despite the signs in the hospital room advising one to contact the nurses' station if pain medication was needed, it took us a good couple of hours before they would bring the pill, all because it was the end/beginning of a shift. I must have talked to the nurse at the station at least every 20 minutes. The discharge too was delayed, again because whoever needed to sign off on the paperwork wasn't available.

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Morning! QBw2LL, last word hellhole. Finally got a hint for quadratic-clown after a deep hellhole of 3fers and 2fer b4ss.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good afternoon!

I needed help to find ollie and ogee yesterday.  Today I am at Beta with the pangram (which took me a good while to find).

LB: I had the "official" quadratic-clown.  I found a 2fer today, too. 

Happy puzzling!

[ab_grp]

Good morning/afternoon!

Neither of us have the pangram yet, and neither of us are at genius yet.  So much work to do, and our morning routines have to be adjusted due to all the restrictions on lifting, reaching, etc.  We're getting there.  Yesterday I honestly was so freaking tired and stressed out by the time we compared that I have no idea what we were missing.  I don't think we made it to team QB.  I know I was missing words such as gigolo, ollie, piehole, hellhole.

And no luck on LB again! Can't believe I had quartic, clown and couldn't see quadratic.

Gosh, I'm really sorry to hear about the pain med delay, Langue_doc.  I think that is much worse! Shift changes can really throw a wrench into things.  Our delay was just annoying, wanting to finally be out of the hospital, not having to be masked constantly, wanting to be able to go back and relax as best we could together in the hotel for the afternoon/evening before heading out the next day and all the packing and driving that requires, wanting to order a nice meal to actually eat together after a week.  Rant to follow, skip para if you'd like. 

As I mentioned, he got discharged before noon, and a nurse went over all the discharge instructions and new medications and follow up appointments.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of pointing out that the PCP listed for him is someone I had never heard of.  Neither had husband, and he googled and confirmed that the doc was not part of his PCP's group or anything like that.  So the "care coordinator" (most inappropriate role title ever in her case) had to be called and said she'd come by in 15 mins.  Seemed to me we could just make the appt ourselves after getting out of the hospital, but no.  However, several hours later she still hadn't come.  At the same time, we were waiting for a walker.  The hotel was connected to the hospital, so I suggested just borrowing a transport chair to get him over there and bringing it back.  But one of the PAs had a great idea to order a walker (four wheel version with hand brakes and a seat he could sit on to rest if need be).  That way he could also use it if needed to get better walks in.  When I got there, the walker had supposedly been delivered already.  Hmm, where was it then? So that had to be called in again.  Finally, about 1:30, the guy called from the med supply company and said he was here and coming up with it.  Hooray! But uh oh, we were then told that they'd ordered the wrong walker.  This one was just a front wheel walker.  This was now about 2:30.  The nurse came in to say there is supposedly a liaison coming with the correct one.  Around this time, the "care coordinator" showed up.  I asked if we couldn't just go with the transport chair idea so we could leave, and then I could bring it back and come to get the walker when delivered.  Or could the company deliver it to the hotel? According to the "care coordinator", "my answer would be no."  Well, FU, lady.  Supposedly the walker would arrive in another half hour.  Well, we had missed lunch, so he ordered his and I went down to Subway.  I thought maybe I should just wait around, but what if they didn't come in a half hour? I was already starving.  And according to the nurse, the "care coordinator" had given up and gone home because too many things had gone wrong in her day.  !!!  Sure enough, they didn't get there until nearly damn 5 PM.  And we ended up having to just sort out the PCP thing ourselves anyway!! Long story short, we could definitely have left before noon, but they suck.  The walker is pretty sweet, though.  He was able to walk all the way back without issue, including up hill, which he had not done before.  He really walks pretty well and hasn't used it at all at home, but it was nice to have it with us for the ride back and for other outside appts where he might not have a chance to sit and rest as needed.  Now I am on my second load of laundry, have to get an order in for a bunch of stuff we couldn't have shipped before because we were leaving town, have to get groceries in, etc.  But I am SO thankful to be home.  We found out we actually do have to go back in three weeks for the follow up! Argh!!!! So I will make that reservation.  Just thankful to have some time before that.  We had no issues driving, and I was able to pull out of the parking space around the monster truck parked next to us, and I backed it into the garage as well.  Hooray.  Whatever leak in the master shower/bath area did not seem to continue while we were gone, thankfully.

Well, I thought I had posted this about 3 hours ago.  Oh well! Hopefully better sleep tonight and a smarter tomorrow.  Congrats on your 2fers, cathwen and ciao_yall! And another today, cathwen!

Happy solving!

[Langue_doc]

ab_grp, glad you're both home, but that's outrageous as well as unprofessional behavior by the so called care coordinator. I would lodge a strong complaint along with a request that husband is assigned a different one, if needed, for the follow-up visit.

Sending you a PM hint for the pangram in case you're still stuck.

QB!

[cathwen]

Wow, ab_grp, that is some story.  I wonder how long the "care coordinator" will stay in her job?  Perhaps she is overworked, due to the after effects of the pandemic and resulting staff shortages, but getting the PCP wrong and not correcting it?  And then going home because everything had gone wrong?  And that whole walker story...oh my.  I can only imagine what a huge relief it is for you to be home.

When my husband was in the hospital, it seemed to take an eternity to get him discharged.  The doctor had signed off, and all we needed was some administrative stuff to get done.  We were ready to go around 2, but didn't get out of there until 5.  I thought that was annoying, but it wasn't anything compared to what you experienced!  But I was so rattled even by that that I got lost in the parking garage and could not find the car for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only 5-10 minutes.  Meanwhile, my husband was waiting with a nurse's aide by the door at the pick-up spot.... (Note:  I can get lost in the most obvious places.  I would suspect incipient senility, but I've always been like that.)

[ab_grp]

Thanks for the kind words, Langue_doc and cathwen! It was just such a dumb reason to be stuck there.  The poor cleaning lady thought he had been discharged as well, so she came in and was cleaning around us.  She was just doing her job, but it just added to the feeling that we would just be living out the rest of our days in that hospital room.  I told husband to not hesitate to call the nurses whenever he needed something so they wouldn't forget we were in there. 

Langue_doc, we will be providing feedback for sure.  There were some other medical incidents that we mentioned to the nursing supervisor who came to see us during the long for-no-reason stay, and there we also mentioned some nurses who went above and beyond who we will want to praise more formally as well.  Thanks for the pangram hint! I may need to go there. 

Cathwen, that is so funny (now) about getting rattled and not being able to find your car.  I was so tired and dumb by the time we got around to getting dinner that I was trying to help by cutting some steak for the poor man and it was so spongy! I thought it must be the cheapest cut of steak in the world.  I felt so bad for suggesting we try a different restaurant to order from, even though he had enjoyed others before he went in for surgery.  I finally realized... it was a dark brown bread! It was vaguely in the shape of a steak, and it was with some shrimp.  We had ordered a sirloin and shrimp.  I still can't quite believe how long I tried to cut that "steak" up before I realized.  I hadn't seen the steak among the other containers.  There were a lot of other dumb moments, including lots of getting off on the wrong floor or getting on the staff elevator by accident, of course, but I am still shaking my head at this particular incident. As far as the "care coordinator" and her job longevity, several staff mentioned her in ways that did not encourage confidence.  The fact that the nurse even told us she went home early for that reason says something! Maybe she should be called the "I don't care coordinator" haha.  I should put that in the feedback.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Pangram and genius so far. Last word yesterday was honor.

It's easy to get rattled even when not under a major stress situation. When I drove up last week, I didn't realize that I was under so much stress (it was the day of the strong winds advisory) until I got lost at the usual exit, which I should know even without the GPS. I got lost again, a couple of miles from my destination. All along the route, I was checking the trees to see the wind levels, which presumably contributed to the stress.

I find it surprising that hospitals don't factor in the stress levels of patients recovering from major surgery and also their caregivers who have to take them home when they make the discharge process so inefficient and detrimental to the welfare of the patients who are made to wait unnecessarily for hours in considerable discomfort.

Happy solving!

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Finally got the pangram and to genius! It was tough to find again for some reason.  Yesterday we had team QB, but I had a bunch I was missing, including honor, horror, rhino, rotini, tortoni, tinhorn.  Don't think I ever would have gotten that last one.

No luck on LB again! I thought cafeteria(s) might lead to something.

Langue_doc, sorry to hear you got lost in a familiar area.  Being rattled really throws things off.  It's hard to drive in those situations, especially with bad weather that you're worried about. 

I agree that they could make things a lot easier, and I feel like this happens also in restaurants.  Like once they've gotten what they need from you, they don't care if you exist anymore (unless they need the table, or the room in this case).  I also thought they should consider a way to issue a temp handicap parking placard for the drive home or for some period of recovery.  That would probably be pretty helpful.  It was kind of funny that when they finally wheeled him off for surgery, they just left without saying anything.  I finally asked some random person in the pre-op area if I'm supposed to leave? And how do I get out of there? We had been hustled up the back way, as you may remember, due to the interesting lady who required security several times, so I was distracted for a couple reasons and also was not sure of the correct way to head out.  There are lots of little (and big) things medical institutions could do to make patient care (and caregiver physical/mental health) a lot better.  But, I am glad for the surgical outcome and general care he received.

In any case, we got much better sleep last night so are hopefully both on the mend.  I can't believe it's NYE, as we kind of missed Christmas, and this came up quickly.  Hopefully we can stay up until midnight! I still have to do charitable donations.

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

QBwH for tortoni which I thought I tried, but maybe I spelled it as tortini? LB drafts-sociable.

Why are hospitals, which are supposed to take care of people, so lousy at taking care of people? Argh.

Anyway, happy new year and happy solving!

[ab_grp]

Congrats on your 2fer, ciao_yall! I can't often remember if it's tortoni or tortini.  I saw your NYE plans on the other thread.  I don't have anything to add there, but wow! Sounds like a great trip! I hope it's fantastic! And very cool to have the runway view.  Hopefully not the runway noise. 

[cathwen]

Good afternoon!

QBwH for nitro, rototill, and tinhorn.  Today was a bit of a struggle, and since we're going out tonight, I just sought 2LL help and finally got to QB. 

LB:  I had foldable-esoteric.  I have a 2fer today as well. 

Langue_doc, I get lost so easily that high winds and the threat of worse would certainly rattle me enough to get lost even with GPS.

Ciao_yall, I checked the NYE thread—enjoy your trip to Hawaii!  That is on my one-of-these-days list. 

Happy puzzling!