Friday, February 1, 2013

No cross---words




I love doing crossword puzzles.  It’s no secret that crossword puzzles can keep your mind sharp-- improve knowledge--and vocabulary.  When I work my puzzles I like to use a pen, who doesn’t?  A pen produces nice dark lines that are easily readable in any light and on any type of paper.  The main drawback is that letters printed in pen are difficult to remove. Drawn over lines are messy and sometimes hard to decipher.  So what’s a puzzle addict to do?

Well, I try the pencil.  It has a nice eraser on it, but it sometimes tears the fragile puzzle paper, especially when one is frustrated.  I mean really--a seven-letter word for a scavenger could be buzzard, right?  Nope, it’s vulture, and I rip the paper trying to erase my error. Add on a couple hundred trips to the pencil sharpener and I am wits end.

So I pick up some mechanical pencils and soon find that lead is a bit thin for my pressure and the tips keep snapping off.

Next I discover erasable pens.  They aren’t perfect but they ARE a step up from pencils.  The only problem is that until they set, they smear so the side of my hand looks like I have beating it against the wall since it’s black and blue. And when they do set they don’t erase anymore.

The hunt goes on and I find a so called liquid pencil, which looks like a pen and has an eraser on the top, but when I use it I find it skips ink and the letters look like they are written by my 98 year-old Aunt Jenny.  Frustrated beyond words I toss it in the trash.

And then a light at the end of the tunnel!  I discover new erasable gel pens that erase with only friction.  It comes in awesome colors and it doesn’t skip, it writes dark and crisp and erases without a hitch on any type of paper.  What could this wonder be? 

Frixion erasable gel pens by pilot…

So now, I can do my puzzles with ease and NO – CROSS WORDS


6 comments:

Faye said...

Hi Crystal. I got FriXon pens, hoping for a pen I could use embossing powder on, but they do not work in that capacity. I use the pen by Bic, I think. But for Xword puzzles, nothing beats the FriXon.

Wanda said...

I am a penaholoic! Is that a word for your cross word puzzle???
I love pens, fountain pens, gel pens, markers, fine point, wide point..but I never seen these!!! What a perfect solution... I'm glad you didn't give up!!!!

Craftymoose Crafts said...

I've never heard of these, but they sound just perfect for the job!

Magic Love Crow said...

Yay, so happy for you!! ;o) Actually, thanks for sharing, because I will be getting some! They sound great!

Judy Adamson said...

Hi Crystal - those pens are great! I used to get them for my pupils when I was teaching and they loved them. But then the shop where I bought them had them at a very reduced price so I stocked up, fearing that this meant they were trying to get rid of them. I was right. I was probably the only person buying them and they soon disappeared. By the time we'd used them all up, I was designing cards instead of teaching so it worked out OK - and I'd forgotten all about them until I read your post. Thank goodness you've found something that works! BTW, I like doing crosswords but I've noticed that it's something I do if I'm starting to get a bit depressed; so it's a sign that I need to do something to lift my spirits again :)

Loves Happy Hour said...

I love doing crosswords too! Great post!

I nominated you for a Liebster Award
http://loveshappyhour.blogspot.com/2013/02/liebster-award.html

Cheers!
♥Kelli

Related Posts with Thumbnails