I Found Mine Online. You Can Find Yours Online.

I have coached many in the art of online dating, from friends and coworkers to my dad, and did it myself from 1999 to 2002. Dad dated online successfully for five years, and two of my cousins found their current spouses this way. Everybody I know from work who met their partner in the last five years met them online. Before dating online I met people through the pre-internet routes such as personal ads and match making services. In the process I learned some things through trial and error that kept the experience safe and fun.

THE MAGIC WEBSITE:

There is no magic website. I recommend using multiple sites.

WHAT WORKS IN A PROFILE:

I hate to say this but men go strictly by the picture. OK, maybe they actually read the profile to screen a person out on a few specifics, but my boyfriend answered my ad titled "Looking for a Tennis Buddy". He'd never held a racquet in his life! Nor was he remotely interested in learning the sport. By the way, I wouldn't recommend that title.

I gave several of my friends at work the following template some years back as an intro:

________________ _______________ _____________ seeks __________ __________ ______________. Interested in __________________, ______________, ________________. Enjoy __________________, ___________, _________________. EXAMPLE: Petite (if this is true) or attractive degreed professional seeks a fit degreed professional. I am interested in art, music, and tennis. I enjoy comedy clubs, movies, and seafood.

This was something I used in the Dallas Observer and it still applies. For one thing, it tells the prospective date where to take you on the first date. Petite is always a great word to throw out there if it's true (and back in the early 90's we didn't have photos.) Also, back then we paid by the number of words, so we didn't want to use any more than the minimum. I'm telling ya, those were the days when blind dating was like walking to school in three feet of snow. It's MUCH easier now.

THE BODY OF THE PROFILE:

After this intro you want to use some humor. Here's a couple of profiles I ran with and had pretty good luck with:

Example Number One

If one of these titles is what you are looking for, I'm afraid we will not be a compatible match my friend:

Looking For A Man To Make Me into a Princess

Tattooed Biker Girl Likes to Party

Jesus is My Life and You Can Fit in Somewhere

Meat and Potatoes Kind of Gal

Marriage or Bust

Hooters Girl Loves to Party

Kissed Too Many Frogs

Hurt Too Many Times

Looking for a Sugar Daddy

Tired of Being Dumped

Biological Clock Banging Away

Handymen Get First Dibs

Alcohol Makes Me Pregnant

Mother of Three Beautiful Teenage Daughters, Lots of Pics

A Complete Package: Clueless, Clingy, AND Desperate!

If one of these titles fits YOU, we may be a pretty good match:

Looking For a Woman Who Makes a Great Salad!

Interested in Ms. Right (Not Ms. Right Now)

Seeking Someone Independent and Happy

Looking for Smart and Socially Savvy

I Will Never Dump You (I'm just kidding on this one)

Example Number Two:

Please take the following True False Test so I can see how compatible we are:

1. I like cocaine

2. Spirituality is what I'm all about.

3. I'm in debt over $20,000 besides my house and car.

4. Friday or Saturday is reserved for heavy drinking.

5. If I buy a woman dinner, sex is assumed.

6. I don't like movies all that much.

7. Degreed women think they know everything.

This list went on for about 20 questions. The thing is, if they didn't get that this was funny, (some took it very seriously and some sent hate mail) then it wasn't going to go anywhere anyway. I didn't really mind hate mail. I got it for the first example as well. It certainly saves you time and effort you'd put into finding out that the guy IS a bible thumper or a weekend alcoholic or is looking for a hooters girl. See what I mean? Unfortunately, some guys might assume from these examples that you are a little too weird (which I'm sure they did), or you might get someone with a sense of humor that has no power down button. Yuck. One of the nicest responses I got on the second one was "I don't think we'd be a very good match, but this is the funniest thing I've ever read in my life."

WHAT TO LEAVE OUT:

Look, you might want a spiritual man. No problem. But if you lead with that, I guarantee there are guys out there who might be bible thumpers looking for a submissive-captive type person. Or who use a lot of religiosity to take advantage of gullible women. There are con men out there. Just because someone knows all the buzzwords doesn't mean they walk the walk. Many do just the opposite. I edited one girlfriend's profile some years back, and she used the word "spirituality" at least three times. I told her, "The guy who answers this ad won't even own a car." Also, his brand of spirituality might very well not fit yours. This is something to check out over coffee. Not blast in the profile. It's good to come off as "balanced".

I had one friend who emphasized "committed relationship" in her profile. Sure enough, she went out with one guy who responded and when she didn't want to go out for that second cup of coffee (which is the norm) he fumed, saying that he thought they were committed, and WHY was her profile still on the website?? For a normal, stable person, who is also looking for a committed relationship, it will happen when the person is right. Otherwise, it's NOT committed. To a crazy out there (yes there are many of them) the fact that you stated commitment and marriage all over your profile means you are ready to head to the alter, with THEM. The box that is checked "yes" for "committed relationship", as opposed to casual date, is all you need to show on the matter.

I had one friend who used the word "sex" as in "sexually secure", or "sexually active", in her profile. Well, this is another "duh". I made her take it out. Look, there are predators out there who do searches based on buzzwords. I'm sure she got everybody's attention on this one. Again, if he's into you, he will become interested in the sack. Same with women, for you guys reading this. If they are not interested, move on. It's just not something you can talk anyone into long term.

Speaking of buzzwords, you can put things in your profile that you want to draw attention to. For example, on occasion I put "bonus points for _________________." This varied from Europeans to Seinfeld fans to Thai and seafood lovers. Believe me that shakes out your flavor of the month!

HAVING AN EXIT STRATEGY:

So you've dated this good looking person for a week, and now he doesn't look so good, sound so good, whatever. Remember, you don't know him, regardless of what stage this thing is in, in the first month. A person who is cordial on the first encounter or two might become dangerously pissed off if he just spent $40 on you for dinner before he started talking about (1) The little green man in his head who won't stop shouting (2) The last 20 women who dumped him for no reason (3) The affairs he had that broke up his marriage two months ago (4) his on again off again love affair with meth amphetamines. This is NOT a time to be honest with this person. This is a time to go home, alone, (he shouldn't know where you live at this point) and then politely tell him online or by phone that you are getting back together with you ex boyfriend. PERIOD. If the problem persists (and it might) have a male friend at work leave a new message on your answering machine at home (Male: We're not here right now. Please leave your name and number....) Leave it on for two weeks and the problem is resolved. I've had to do that myself two or three times. It certainly does the trick. Frankly, unless I've been dating a person for like, over three months, this is my normal way to break up with online dates. And guess what, men use it just as much and if I were to think long and hard about it, I could pretty easily figure out why they left. It's not personal. Usually there's just no major chemistry one way or the other.

HOW TO KEEP THEM AROUND:

To the extent you can comfortably do so, I would say follow the book The Rules. You don't have to go overboard with it (like not returning phone calls) but otherwise, it will save you from overinvesting yourself in hopeless causes.

HAVE AS MUCH FUN AS YOU CAN WITH IT:

One reason I put in the intro "I enjoy ______________, _________ and _________" is to get them to take me where I wanted to go. You WILL kiss a lot of frogs. So you might as well go out and have fun doing what you find enjoyable. I really did want a committed relationship. And I knew my life would be happier if I had someone to share it with. So I saw blind dates and going to singles events as a part time job that I couldn't quit. I might take a couple of months off here and there, but for the most part I kept it up whether I was having any fun or not. I finally met my boyfriend. As we used to say in sales, "Only one out of ten calls results in a sale, but it takes the other nine to get to the one that goes through." In my online dating experience, "Only one out of 100 online dates results in a long term relationship, but it takes the other 99 to get to the one that works." Was it worth it?? Yes, it was very worth it. It's been eight years now, and we couldn't be happier.

NOW HERE'S ME PLAYING THE PIANO (RECORDED) AND SINGING AND PLAYING GUITAR.

Sculpting Ceramic Roses: Beautify Your Pots Even More

A pot can be made unique and beautiful with stunning glazes, textures, shapes, and what I call "doo dads". Doo dads are things you attach to your pot, like roses, insects, frogs, snakes, angels, and animals. I've stuck everything on pots from elephants and dragonflies, to entire bouquets. My sculpting never involves anything but my hands and the clay. I've tried using cake decorating tools and all I can say is don't waste your money. All I ever got was frustration because the clay is either too wet to hold a shape once it comes out of the cone, or too dry to come through the cone. With a couple of hours of practice, doo dads can be whipped out as long as your clay has the correct level of moisture.

You can also teach children how to make roses, frogs and dragonflies on Play-Doh, polymer clay, or good old clay. Polymer clay doesn't require a kiln, but the downside is it's pricey. I spend less than $8.00 on 20 lbs of stoneware. One pound of polymer clay is $10.00 or more. That's enough to make a small coffee cup. There's actually shops out there that will fire your stoneware projects in a kiln for a fee.

Here's the quick and easy way I make certain doo dads using clay:

ANGEL: Flatten out a slab for the "robe" and form into a cone. Roll a ball for the head (don't make it too big) and attach to the top of the cone. Roll a ball and flatten it for the halo (it will be a little bit bigger than the head so it will stick up above it) and stick it on the back of the head. Roll bigger balls and flatten in your hands to make wings. Make sure they are of equal size. Attach to the back. Add some little arms and praying hands if you like. All attachments are done through "slipping and scoring", which means scoring (using a pin tool or a little knife) the pieces you wish to attach where you want them to touch, applying watered down clay as the glue (or slip) where you want them to touch, and the sticking them together. If you don't "slip and score" the wing or head WILL pop off in the firing.

FIREFLY: Roll out a fat worm for the body. Roll out four more worms, two about the same size as the body, two a little bit smaller. Flatten them between your hands to make two big wings and two smaller wings. Attach the big wings about the middle of the body, and the small wings a little further down using slipping and scoring (see ANGEL instructions.) Roll two small balls for the eyes. Flatten them out just a little bit and attach them to the top of the worm where the head is. You might want to poke some holes into the eyes to make pupils.

FROGS: Roll out a short fat worm for the body. Roll out two more short fat worms for the back legs. Pinch one end of each of the legs and attach them to back side of the frog and pinch them all together into a little butt. Roll two eyes, flatten them a little and attach them to the "head". Then poke two pupils into the eyes (using a pen or whatever you have.)

GRAPES: Roll a buch of little balls and stick them on your pot. Roll out a ball and flatten it in your hand to make a leaf. When I make a leaf, it fold it at the point so that it looks more like a leaf. Attach to the pot and stick a few grapes on top of the leaf where it contacts the pot.

For anybody that wants to make a few bucks on this hobby, doo dads can double or triple what you would normally sell a piece for. For example, I've knocked out round lasagna dish that would normally go for maybe $15. When I stuck a couple of roses on the sides for handles, it went to $50. A $10 coffee cup goes to $20 with a flower on it. Teapots require a ton of work, but you can't always recoup your time...unless your have some doo dads or flowers stuck to it. People pay quite a bit for the decorations that make it a one-of-a-kind. As you can see from the video, it ain't rocket science. And in my case, roses are easier to whip out than two really nice symmetric handles!! All it takes is a little practice. People will also pay quite a bit for a doo dad that speaks to them (e.g. their favorite collectible). Start finding your forte and perfecting it!

Stained Glass: Fascinating Color and Light

Stained glass is much easier than it looks. I first want to dispel some of the misconceptions:

1. The artist does not make or color the glass.

2. There is no "firing in a kiln". The glass is bought in premade 12" x 12" sheets of colored glass. You select the texture and color you want.

3. You can cut you fingers, but it's not frequent if you handle the glass correctly.

4. Glass is not glued together; it is soldered.

5. Glass can be cheap or it can be kind of pricey.

This is not hard to get good at, but it is one of those things that you have to probably learn in a class to get immediate feedback. The best places to go are either a community college or a private studio with a shop. My teacher is David Riffkind at Kittrell Riffkind in Dallas, http://www.kittrellriffkind.com/ I learned not only how to make cool stuff but how to do it as easily as possible. I also learned how to fix things, because glass isn't always user friendly and you don't want to waste it. Let's go through the process:

SELECT YOUR DESIGN:
A design is basically a jigsaw puzzle of colored pieces of glass that YOU cut out to fit together! So you have to find a design you like, and if you are a beginner, you want to pick a design with less than twenty pieces. I would also suggest no feathers or grapes. Big pieces without excessive curves are good. You could make your own design, but until you know what shapes are doable, I'd go with one already created. Here's a good website for that: http://chantalstainedglass.50megs.com/ I can spend hours or days just trying to narrow down the item I want to make.

SELECT YOUR GLASS:

You can get glass at Hobby Lobby, the internet, and a studio you take lessons from. I like Hobby Lobby's selection and it's reasonable; $5.00 - $10.00 per sheet. If you are just starting out, you will find that certain types of glass are harder to cut (score) than others. Thick is bad. It will likely break away from your cut and you'll wind up having to redo it, throwing away the first piece that wound up cut wrong. I've wound up recutting TONS of pieces that were either thick or heavily textured. Secondly, if you fall in love with an opaque piece and want to use it in your artwork, make all the other pieces you are using opaque. If you want a transparent piece to be your main one, make them all transparent. When there is a light shining through it, the opaque pieces will come across as very dark compared to the transparent pieces.

CUT YOUR PIECES:

You will learn this technique in a class, but basically you have a scorer which is a little tool with a wheel on the end that cuts a line however you guide it, and then you use running pliers to break the glass apart along your cut. After one or two projects, this will be a cinch. You will not cut your fingers as long as you handle the edges with the flat of your finger and watch for slivers. To get rid of the slivers and to shape your pieces a little more exactly so that they fit well, you will use a grinder. This is actually the only thing that costs a little bit of money, maybe $100 at Hobby Lobby. Here's a website for tools: http://store.allstainedglass.com/index.html If you go to a class, the teacher will give you a list of tools to pick up.

FOIL THE PIECES:

Each of your "puzzle pieces" have an edge. What you do at this point to put 3/8" strips of foil tape right on the edge and slightly over the edge onto each side of the piece. Imagine wrapping Scotch tape around the outside edge of a CD case and 1/8 of an inch over the sides. This is just what you do with foil tape and your glass pieces.

SOLDER THE GLASS:

After placing the pieces together as closely as they will fit into the design, you'll wipe flux on the foiled edge that is face up, and then use a soldering iron and solder to attach the pieces to each other. Then you'll flip the project over (it will hold together) and solder the other side. Soldering can be a little bit dangerous, but after the first few projects you will learn to do the following:

(1) Protect your table by using a flat thin piece of plywood to do your work.

(2) Wear jeans when soldering. One blob of dropped solder will burn like heck and you want it to hit your jeans, not your leg.

(3) I've forgotten what I was holding before and tried to guide the soldering iron with my left hand, touching the tip of the iron. Holy Moly. Here's the thing to grab if you get burned (from the People's Pharmacy): soy sauce. I don't know why it works, but by the next day your pain will be minimized.

I hope this gets you excited about trying something new. If you don't see yourself as artistically gifted, it doesn't matter! This falls more into the category of a craft, and within one easy project, you will have enough experience to start beautifying your windows and eventually making cool lamp shades. Glass work takes many hours, especially in the beginning. Your first project might take a couple of weekends. Like I say, pick out something under twenty parts so you can finish it and get some success under your belt.

Playing Guitar: Starting At Any Age

If you are thinking about learning how to play an instrument, the guitar is the easiest. The following will never be barriers to learning how to strum a guitar:

1. You don't have a right hand.
2. You are tone deaf.
3. You cannot read music.
4. You don't have much money.
5. You have no sense of rhythm.
6. You can't sing.

We'll assume that you have a right stump or hand, so let's start with tone deafness. To tune a guitar, you can get a guide to doing so on the Internet . I also use my piano, and I use my little electronic tuner. The electronic tuner will indicate exactly when your string is in tune. You might not be able to hear that it's on or off pitch, but the tuner will tell you when it is. A tuner is $14.

You also don't need to be able to read music. Any song you want to play can be found on various websites for free. I use Chordie.com. This shows you the chords and how to situate your fingers on the strings in order to play them. I can read music, but because I have only been playing since December 2008, I cannot play chords from piano music on the guitar....but I can play many of the chords as presented on Chordie.com. Some chords are extremely difficult. I have a solution to that to. Don't play those songs. A huge number of songs have super easy chords. Or better yet, find a way to cheat a little bit. For example, if you have a chord that you can play correctly only on the last three strings, just strum the last three strings. The guitar police is not going to come into your living room and catch you at this. I have tiny fingers (size 3.5 ring finger) that will not cover more than one string at a time. I have to work with the hands at hand. Look, I see children playing guitar. I took classes at Brookhaven with a fifth grader in it. This is very very doable. As always, practice is highly desirable.

You don't have any money to spend on a guitar? A decent guitar is $100. A respectable classical guitar is $200. And I bet Craigslist.org has used guitars for less. If $100 is what you think of as an expensive hobby, better stick to embroidery (which we will get to in a month or so.) Guitar classes can't hurt, and I took them at http://www.brookhavencollege.edu/ in Dallas, but it's not necessary to take lessons to learn this. Anything you want to know can be learned from watching videos on U-Tube, including stringing the guitar. There's TONS of books out there. If you don't care about learning beyond strumming at parties, the best way to learn is to practice a few of your favorite songs off Chordie, and then add some songs each week with a few new chords to learn. The best alternative for saving money on this hobby: Take the money your kid wants you to use to buy him a Guitar Hero ($119) and buy yourself a really nice little guitar for $100 with a songbook and a tuner.

I would discourage you from buying a guitar online. You can save a few bucks, but all guitars sound different, even the same make and model. Play a few in the store (Guitar Center in Dallas) until you fall in love with one of them.

You have no sense of rhythm? OK, I lied. You do need a sense of rhythm. Otherwise, you can't strum rhythmically.

You can't sing? This won't be a problem in your own living room. However, keep in mind everybody sounds better when they are accompanied by a guitar. A lot of people with weak voices have made it by having a guitar to keep them on pitch. Neil Young falls into that category. A capella he would have been considered downright bad.

Within the first few days of buying a guitar, I could play for hours lots and lots of songs I found online. Not perfectly, not fast, but well enough to have a lot of fun. This takes no brains or skills at all until you get into picking!

Watercolor: Watching Paint Dry

Like anything else, watercolor is a discipline that requires practice and patience. Practice, because in the beginning people get frustrated and quit when this is nothing like oil or acrylic. Patience because it's all about timing the layers of paint, not using too much or too little water, and letting the picture paint itself. There's a lot of technique involved, but the thing that makes watercolor look fresh and natural is the fact that the artist is not controlling the medium. For example, once I learned to sit back and let a sky paint itself, my skies took off. Once I learned to not "paint" clouds, waves, leaves, hair, but to let them happen on their own through the drying process of a few well placed strokes, things got looser and much less deliberate.

Watercolor is about timing. For example, before I can go to the next layer of paint, or paint an area adjacent to the one I just worked on, I need to dry that original area. Watercolor on a recently painted area will have a "blooming" effect that you may or may not want. In other words, it waters down the paint you just put down rather than layering. I use a blow dryer and a paper towel all the time. I can finish just about any painting I work on in three hours.

I go to Richland College in Richardson Texas every Wednesday night to Wallace Hughes's class. Wallace is a local artist, and most of what I have learned about painting I learned from him. What I like about his class is we don't learn the "Wallace Hughes Method of Watercolor", we learn our own method. Everybody in the class has a very distinctive style. I can tell by looking at a painting whose it is. One of my classmates and I attended a meeting of the Southwest Watercolor Society a year ago, and I asked him to pick out my painting in the monthly contest. These were paintings of about thirty watercolorists (not our classmates) with their signatures covered with sticky notes. Without the slightest hint he guessed mine on the first try.

I love to enter contests. Sometimes I place, sometimes I don't, but just getting my items on display and listening to the comments while remaining incognito in the crowd is fun. I've been in a few art sales, but have found the Texas heat to be prohibitive. Since I have a day job, I don't think I'm hungry enough to sacrifice my weekends for what might not result in a profitable pastime. For the better known and publicized art shows, you have to have a booth with walls to hang your work. If this is a three day gig, you are looking at booth installation, taking your pieces down at night in case of rain, having a place to store them at night, and a hefty enrollment fee in the $350+ range. Some shows require that you be approved by a committee that will look at your work on slides including a slide of your work up in your booth. So you have to buy a booth, set it up, and take a picture of your work hanging in it just to be vetted. Don't think you want to build your own? $525 starting price. Need help installing (you are an artist after all)? That's another $100. So for $1,000, I might get to be in a show where I can sell a few nice paintings for $200 each. Contests are great. $15 entry fee, drop it off at the library conference room, and show up at the award ceremony to eat really nice party food and maybe wine and cheese!

The key is to keep this as a hobby. I do give away prints of some of my artwork as corporate gifts. This doesn't require a lot of fancy print work (although you always could go that route if you wanted.) I take my paintings to FedEx Kinko's, slap it on the color copier, reduce it to 75%, and print up as many as I want. I get my mats online at http://www.stu-artsupplies.com/ and clear envelopes at http://www.clearenvelopes.com/. So far, these have been well received. Way better than company pens or slick brochures.

Learning Piano in Middle Age

Like a lot of us, I took piano lessons as a child and quit around eleven. So when I inherited the family piano, it still took me two years before the excuses ran out. Finally, I was no longer wrapped up in all those important things, like finding a mate. I don't know about anybody else, but that sure did eat up a lot of my time. I told myself if I could practice for thirty days straight for an hour per day, I could justify getting a teacher. After 90 days of straight practicing I went to the Yellow Pages and found a teacher that was willing to come to my house, Eric Scortia. I had no idea I was getting a celebrity and an extremely well known teacher among families in the Irving, TX area, including Dr. Phil's when Phil's kids were children. His website is http://www.vitalorgan.org/

When I started up, I had to make a commitment to continue to practice an hour per day. In order to do so, I had to give up TV for that hour. Fortunately, my boyfriend is the better cook in the household and is OK with cooking while I practice. I'm telling you, having a "foodie" for a mate has benefits on so many levels! Our house is open between the kitchen and the living room, so we can hear each other. Plus, he likes listening to me practice, so it is a win-win. Having him listen to me practice also helps me get past my stage fright. I grew up practicing in the living room with the door shut while the rest of the family watched TV in the den. If I practiced scales, Dad would beat on the wall between us and yell, "Play a song!" Needless to say, I suffered a lot of performance anxiety when it came to piano. When I hear adults talk about their experiences as young piano students, it's not unusual to have a teacher or a parent that turns you off to piano with all the pressure and perfectionism. At least I didn't have an anal teacher. Mine were always very nurturing. Now when I make mistakes, which is all the time, it's not a big deal.

Why is it important to have a teacher? Why can't I just practice and learn new songs on my own? I did take about a two year hiatus from Eric and I wound up going from an hour a day to about an hour or two per week. I practiced the same old songs for those two years. I was so glad to get him back and my progress is back on track.

As an adult, what is different from learning as a child? As a child, I was not enthusiastic about learning how to read music. Therefore, I would have my teacher play the song for me and I would play by ear. The shortfall of this technique is that, as you get older and want to learn new songs, you cannot learn anything you don't already know the melody of, and then you have to do your own arrangements or keep getting friends to show you how to play songs and have a really good memory. As an adult, I no longer wanted to play strictly by ear. I was willing to do the hard work of learning how to sight read, which Eric is big on. We do some sight reading of fresh songs every lesson. Now there's something that will get you over your fear of playing in front of other people: sight reading on cue. I've often wondered, "How does Eric stand it? It's so bad the first go 'round." Well, that's about the only way for me to get better at it. And he's never complained.

Do I participate in recitals? For the first five years I did. It was me in my forties, three high school aged siblings, and 25 kids ten and under every Mother's Day at Northlake College. The audience was made up of parents and grandparents. How's that for pressure? I don't know if I will keep putting myself through that since it's stressful, but the good part is I have a goal to practice for whenever I have to work on a piece for the recital date. What I wanted to say to the families at the recitals was that I knew that many of the parents in the audience were frustrated pianists and needed to start taking lessons again along their kids. Dr. Phil did! Eric says he has lots of adult students, but they don't want to be in a recital. If you can get over the group picture (I look like the teacher rather than another student) it's good to have the experience of playing in front of an audience. The video clip attached is me in 2004 at a recital after two years of lessons. The second one is me today. Playing in front of my boyfriend with a camera is only slightly less stressful than playing in a recital. It's all about the journey, not the destination, with all hobbies.

I do not expect to ever do this for money. At one point I dreamt of being a wedding or party pianist and I started practicing wedding music to develop a repertoire. I now think it may very well never be in the cards for me to be good enough to play at parties or weddings and that's OK! I play for my own enjoyment which is a worthy cause. Perfectionism takes away from my enjoyment. I don't want to be the critical teacher or parent to myself. There's a lot to be said for doing a hobby because it's just so fun, regardless of talent! Want to keep your mind active to ward off dementia? Learning the piano is a lot more fulfilling than crossword puzzles! The secret is practicing an hour a day. With that kind of schedule, you will become hooked and your progress will be dramatic.

Next week: Watercolor