Safari

This Saturday was Puzzle Safari at Microsoft. If you think that sounds really nerdy, you're right. If you're wondering what it is, here's how it works. You get a team of 4 people together. You are given a packet with a bunch of puzzles in it, and a logbook that lists all the puzzles. The solution to each puzzle is a location somewhere on Microsoft Campus (e.g. "Building 16 Lobby" or "Front Door One" or "17/3002"). Once you solve a puzzle, you need to take your log book to the location, find the stamp that is hidden there and stamp it in your logbook next to the name of the puzzle that brought you there. There are 2 rounds that last 3 hours each, and you get about 35-40 puzzles each round.

Last time I did Puzzle Safari was 2 years ago when I was an intern (I got here too late last summer). That year we came in 10th place (there are about 50 teams in the competition). Our roster was changed slightly, it was still me, Rob and Adele, but Jason stepped in to take Bronwyn's place. This time we came in 6th! And we were only 2 points behind 5th and 7 points behind 4th (each stamp is worth ten points, so one more stamp and we would have been 4th). Everyone did really well, we solved tons of puzzles, ran around like madmen, and had lots of fun.

Did I mention it was 95 degrees and I was running around for over 2 hours? Yeah, I almost died. I was extremely dehydrated, muscles I didn't know I had were cramping up, etc. etc. But I eventually recovered.
The End.