Crossword

Heather and I have had our mornings off this week. She doesn't leave for her job until 11 or 12, and I don't leave for mine until 12:30. 

I've been waking up first, crawling over her, and heading downstairs to eat. Inevitably, this wakes her up. Inevitably, she tries to overcome that, and rolls back over.

Meanwhile, I rustle up whatever coffee beans are currently the freshest or lightest roasted in the house. I haven't replenished my stock of green coffee, so I'm stuck with either A) Starbucks-roasted Costco coffee (too dark) or B) six-month-old specialty coffee that I dredged out of a box during the kitchen move-in (too stale). I usually choose B.

I brew a cup, and set another filter in the cone brewer while I heat the baked oatmeal. Then, I sit down with oatmeal, coffee, and the Times to read.

Even though we live in Chicago, we get the New York Times every morning. Even though she's tried to sleep in, Heather comes down just as I'm about to follow a story from page 1 into the section. Brew second cup of coffee. Turn to the arts page. Start the crossword.

The New York Times crossword increases in difficulty as the week goes on, with Monday as the easiest. We've cut our teeth on the even-easier-than-Monday puzzles in Chicago's second-best daily transit paper, the Redeye. Its weekly cousin, the Chicago Reader, has no puzzle, but we don't fault it for that, as its reportage is far superior.

We aced the Monday puzzle, stumbled a few times on Tuesday's puzzle (Old Indian Ruler: Chief or Rajah?), and on today's puzzle, a house of cards built on one  long, difficult clue, we were stumped. 

But next Monday is coming, and we're getting better.