This blog entry will come to you a little later in the day than usual because I got sucked into a little video game called 100 Doors 2 on my tablet.

I got it thinking it would be a game where you had to choose one of two doors, which would lead to another two doors, and so on, and the idea is to find the one path that leads all the way to Door 100. I played a game like that once, about a decade ago, and while it did violate my “there has to be a way to get the answer right the first time” rule, I found the game surprisingly fun despite primitive graphics and no sound at all.

But no, it’s a puzzle game in the purest sense of the word. The idea is that you face 100 elevator doors, each of which is opened via a different and unique puzzle. In one, to open the door might take solving a sliding block puzzle, or using objects like the old graphical adventures, or cracking some mathematical code via visual clues and deduction.

It’s a lot like room escape games, but simplified.

Historically, I have not liked this sort of game because when you get stuck, you’re fucked. The puzzles are in sequence and if you can’t figure out Door 30, you will never see 31 or beyond.

In fact, I had almost given up on the game and was about to delete it when I saw there was a “skip door” option. Oh ho! So I was NOY fucked when I was stuck. I could go on to the other doors in the set of 20 and come back to the sticky one later.

That made all the difference. Like a clever test taker, I could do all the easy ones, then come back and focus my mental energies and creativity on the ones I didn’t get the first time around.

So now I am hooked on the game. When I finally crack a tricky one, I get a real surge or victory, like “Yeah motherfucker, you thought you were tough, but I SOLVED YOU. ”

And I know the game truly has me in its claws but good, because I started playing at a quarter after seven and when I looked at the clock again, it was a quarter to nine and it felt like no time had passed.

That would make a good bit of ad copy for the game : So good, you will become unstuck in time.

Otherwise, today’s been quiet. Joe is home for Xmas holidays, and so it’s nice having him around. Some part of my mind still feels like the normal number of people to have around is six, like the family I grew up in. So having more people around, especially at this time of year, makes me happy, even in this rather petite apartment.

Made a white cake with caramel flavouring today. I made one a few days ago as well, but this time I wanted to try out this vanilla icing recipe I had found.

I already having a pretty good chocolate icing recipe, plus a lemon glaze. Adding a vanilla frosting recipe to my cake decorating powers would make me very happy.

Unfortunately, the recipe did not work. Totally inedible. Right consistency but… bleh.

I am not too surprised. The recipe called for powdered sugar made with powdered milk, along with the usual Splenda and cornstarch, and I don’t happen to have any of that around.

So next time I am shopping, I will buy a small bag. I’m not giving up on this recipe yet! If I am willing to keep half-and-half in the fridge for my chocolate icing recipe, I am surely willing to keep powdered milk around for vanilla.

Right now my caramel flavoured white cake (vanilla replaced with artificial caramel flavour) is sitting on the counter, waiting for me to come along and make that excellent chocolate icing for it. I would have done it earlier, but after the failed vanilla icing experiment, I needed some time before I bounced back.

Besides, I really needed to eat. I have fallen back into a very bad habit lately, namely skipping meals. That is never ever a good idea, but old habits die hard (with a vengeance). It;s just so easy to say “Oh well, I know I should eat right now, but it’s only a few hours till suppertime… I will just wait. ”

Right, because it is way better to have my blood sugar crash and get super crazy hungry than to eat at a weird time.

See, it always starts when I wake up hungry and it’s like 9 in the morning. I eat… but then technically the next meal should be at three, then nine again, then three again, and so on ad infinitum.

And that is clearly madness.

So instead of eating at three, I wait till six. And for a normal, non-diabetic person, that’s not too crazy. But for me, that is a terrible idea. And yet, I do it over and over.

Last night was especially egregious, because I did the exact things I know lead to an IBS attack. It’s a simple formula : don’t eat enough during the day, then eat way too much, way too fast.

And that’s what I did. I ate a meal at eight in the morning and a snack at three (so I was trying, dammit), then I went to Denny’s with my friends and stuffed myself with chili and turkey and all the trimmings.

The minute we stood up to leave, I knew I was in trouble. Luckily, I managed to keep everything together long enough to get my shopping done. But when we got home, it was straight to the loo, do not pass go on the way, or anything else for that matter.

It’s a special kind of humiliation to know you have just made a mistake you have made dozens of times before.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.