"A Year to Watch" - December 31, 2021

[eagle1279]

Ashore! A cup of tea cleared the fog and allowed me to paddle to the beach. Lovely start to the year.

[FatJack]

UPDATE: On further review, I had a very creative but wrong answer!

Fog lifted this morning and now I am ashore. It's only been two days, but maybe "Dry January" is working!? One Virgin Bloody Mary please Issaac.

[Jedimaster]

Need a nudge, can anyone help?

[HunterX]

Need a nudge, can anyone help?

Sent PM with request for progress so far.

[Bob cruise director]

Good Sunday morning muggles.

It has been a busy day for both Isaac and the tender drivers. Isaac has been saying Good Bye to some and welcoming others to his bar. We have 13 on the ship and 143 on the shore.

and we welcome our newest muggle - Jedimaster

Sorry for the confusion yesterday. The first section was labeled the shore when it should have been the ship.

Today's new contingent on the ship are

JaneGummy
haydendog
streroto
BreeZynCO
sphorning
otlaolap
drbockel2
Jedimaster

And adding to the crowd on the shore are

Joepickett
Schmeel
Heidi
Homer
ADS
lbray
Jarrod
David
mbryant
Susan G
SusieG
Ben B and son
Cindy N
DrTom
martimeryard
relic (and Maggie)
aaugusti
Dave C
Ron
Bill Swerski 13
caroline
vandono
Colin
Rita and George
Mme
eagle1279
FatJack
caf.caf

Stay safe everyone and good luck winning the mug

[hunkra]

Sorry Bob --just missed the tally. Having packed the West Coast contingent off to an extremely over-crowded airport and a very delayed flight (thank goodness for no cancellation) I can now focus on solving this thing. But, sad to say in the wee days of 2022, I am still keeping Isaac company. [heavy sigh] Have a piece of the mechanism, but can't seem to move past it. Would more carbs help? Don't answer that

[ship4u]

On shore, thanks to a muggle friend for guidance and confirmation! Happy New Year to all. I'm glad I was able to start the new year with success!

[Jeanrosz]

On shore. See #184..but not yet on bobs list….

[daoadalgisa]

After a nudge or two, I am on shore!

[vandono]

and now for something completely different....those Muggles on the Zoom call will remember sewyoung promising me her Dad's pound cake recipe. Well she was good to her word and I am here to tell you, it is a WINNER!!! I got rave reviews and requests for seconds. It is incredibly easy, requires no fancy ingredients, no incorporation of egg whites, baking soda - nope just butter, flour, sugar. vanilla and heavy cream and your reward, well see below!

IMG_3686 (1).JPG

IMG_3690.JPG

It was delicious, crispy outside, dense and moist inside. Had I greased the darn fancy Bundt pan I have (too many nooks and crannies for the age old shortening and flour method to prevent sticking) it would have looked beautiful too. I darn near iced it to cover up the sins but it was too good to mask with anything. Thank you for the recipe.

That looks like it would pair really well with whatever I'm drinking right now.

Oh, it is, it IS. I believe I have new preparation steps for bourbon soaked pound cake:

• 1. Prepare pound cake (sewyoung recipe suggested)

• 2. Pour bourbon

• 3, Take mouthful of pound cake

• 4. Take mouthful of bourbon

• 5. Chew

• 6. Repeat

As it turns out, I was drinking Buffalo Trace - so this would have worked splendidly!

[Puzzle mom]

Ashore after some encouragement that I was in the right track!

[bread-girl]

Can anyone give me a nudge? I think I’m partially (halfway? Almost all the way?) there but I haven’t made progress in the past day

[Lyman]

Ashore, with a nudge. Hot buttered rum, now that winter has finally arrived in my part of the world.

[Flying_Burrito]

I think I am ashore. Found this one very unsatisfying. I hope I am right.

I do not count my Gaffneys until they hatch but I know what you mean - even after solving with a mechanism that makes perfect sense, I told myself that those red herrings on the grid had to serve a higher purpose, but to no avail. Who knows, it could be crow pound cake that is awaiting for us on Monday morning for breakfast instead of DrTom's pound cake.

[BreeZynCO]

I have submitted an answer, so count us ashore. For my first complete year of metas we submitted 29 correct answers, a good number with plenty of room to improve. My New Year's resolution is to get at least 30 in 2022. Happy New Year all!

[turbotron]

Finally ashore! It took a couple nudges and an unreasonably long time to get the final mechanism for that meta, but dang it feels good to get the year started off with a solve. Hot toddy, please.

[drbockel2]

FINALLY ON SHORE! Poster immediately above me perfectly states my sentiments. Just in the nick of time! I wasn't aware that one of the clues was what it was supposed to be. And it happened to be the one that put me over the top.

[bread-girl]

On the shore! With some help

[haydendog]

Made it to shore with a couple of nudges.

[Powers2020]

Finally crawled ashore, submitted and am comfortable it's right, but not confident in the last mechanism (although definitely feel like I'm on the beach). If anyone want to DM me their thoughts on the last step, please feel free! Happy New Years!