Break out puzzles and games to enjoy winter

Bad weather always looks worse through a window.

-- Tom Lehrer

Stuck indoors a lot lately?

Looking for something to do?

Let me help. I'm great with activities. Try these:

Board games: I bet it's been years since you got Monopoly out of the closet. Dust it off, select your unique game piece and begin to play.

Only this weekend, use real money. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters can substitute for the paper money that comes with the game.

(Winners, keepers.)

Jigsaw puzzles: Every winter weekend my mother used to have a jigsaw puzzle going on a card table in the corner. She was always pretty good at it.

So I say make it a challenge. Put your jigsaw puzzle together with the picture-side down. Just fit the gray-side pieces together.

Rearrange furniture: It's cheaper than buying new stuff all the time and gets much the same effect.

A word of caution: You might want to leave the light on a couple of nights until you get used to where the coffee table now sits.

At shin level.

HOLIDAY BIRTHDAYS: Faye Greene , of Thomson, adds this to our previous discussion of birthdays close to Christmas.

She writes: "I love it now that I have a birthday then because my children and grandchildren are grown and live away. They are always home on Dec. 24 and this makes my birthday special because of the date. We are all in a festive mood, so we can have two days of celebration -- my birthday and Christmas."

ON THE JOB: A manager was reviewing a potential employee's application and notes that the fellow had never worked in retail before.

"For a man with no experience," says he, "you are certainly asking a high wage."

"Well, sir," the applicant replies, "the work is so much harder when you don't know what you're doing."

BLOG ALERT: The legislators in both Georgia and South Carolina return to their respective capitols this week. I recall one memorable episode almost half a century ago in my Our Town history blog at augustachronicle.com.

MORE MAIL: April in Grovetown sends a Happy New Year postcard from Virginia. "I'm back in Virginia Beach for the fourth time since June. Having a great time."

Virginia O'Connor , of Augusta, flew to San Diego for a 15-day Hawaiian cruise, and sends us a postcard from Honolulu.

TODAY'S JOKE: A mother asked her son, "Why are you home from school so early?"

"Well," the son said, "I was the only one who could answer a question."

"Oh, really?" the mother said. "What was it?"

"Who threw the eraser at the principal?" her son said.

Reach Bill Kirby at (706) 823-3344 or bill.kirby@augustachronicle.com.