One small luxury in my life is a subscription to an actual paper newspaper. I’ve been considering cancelling it to save money, but I enjoy it too much. One of the really good parts is the crossword. Sometimes I do it in my own, sometimes Ingrid joins me. They’re not at a level where Adrian enjoys them (although we occasionally bring home a free local paper that has easier ones).

The Friday crossword is themed. The theme can be anything from “Fredrik” (when it’s Fredrik’s name day in the calendar) to “fishing” to “the Finnish-Swedish athletics competition”. The Saturday crossword is tied to a picture, with one long word or phrase related to the picture going down vertically at the far left, and words for objects or concepts in the picture going across it. Figuring out what word the constructor might have meant for each thing in the image is where two brains are especially much better than one.

We’re getting familiar with the people behind the crosswords. Some of them we just don’t click with at all. Their clues make no sense to us, even when we look up the correct answer. It’s like we’re not even speaking the same language. When the crossword is signed by Håkan, we don’t even try any more. But those are few; pretty much just Håkan and Madelen.

The current crossword is often open on our sofa table, especially on weekends, and there are always two pencils nearby.