5 Across -- Ink

My grandmother always did the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle in ink. A pencil, she said, showed a lack of confidence in your answers. You had to commit in ink. She passed away many moons ago now, on September 1. I can't remember the year. I'm not really sentimental like that. Stomach cancer, she'd told my father she wasn't going to see 70. Sure enough she died 18 days shy of it.

I was laying on our loveseat struggling with an easy Kakuro (Cross sums). It's a number puzzles that I am really not very good at. I was using a pencil -- a dull one at that with most of the eraser missing. Maybe if I used a pen the solution would come to me. Although there may be more to it than that. Every time they came to visit she'd bring me a book of logic puzzles. I wasn't very good at those either.

Granny had a few passions and in her retirement she seems to have devoted herself entirely to them. But she also had a few guilty pleasures. A good cryptic crossword, Harlequin Romances and Crown Royal with Canada Dry Ginger Ale. In fact, as her cancer progressed she'd indulge more and more in the Crown Royal, less and less in the Canada Dry. (Lovely stuff who can blame her really.)

Me, well, I have many guilty pleasures. Chai Lattes, a propensity to listen to my music a bit too loudly, I expect to renew my love of all things gin when it will be acceptable for me to not get up until noon. (This parenting gig is a drag on my vices.) I can't stand Harlequin Romances but I do have a thing for murder mysteries. Both in print and on TV. I ended up catching The Mentalist last night, the cast isn't as strong as it could be (specially the lead investigator) but Simon Baker is lovely isn't he?

Every year, my grandfather sends a generous cheque for my birthday.(This started before my grandmother died.) And this year, I spent it on those guilty pleasures. I know she would approve. In fact, I think she'd invite me to have another glass of Crown Royal while we finish the crossword puzzles.

Fact is, blowing part of the cash on silly thing wasn't quite what I had in mind. I was secretly coveting the Garin Forerunner 405. My old 205 is having charging issues. But The Man and I never talked about it. And on Saturday morning, along with The Boy's special birthday fruit salad, I got presented with a lovely new black Forerunner 405.

And me, well, I also got to indulge in a few extra guilty pleasures -- like my kakuro. In pencil.