OH! Sudoku!

I stumbled upon Sudoku almost a year ago. I picked up a pocket-sized book of easy and medium puzzles to occupy my mind while I rot in the carpool line at school every day for half an hour waiting for the kids. I subsequently moved on to the harder puzzles, and I've found one that I can not solve. And it is taking over my life.

I've found the sudoku solution engines online, and I know what the answers are. But that's not the point. The point is that I can't figure out how to get there on my own. I have re-printed the puzzle 6 times now, and every time I end in gridlock. All of the remaining blocks could be a combination of 2-3 numbers, but there is no unique number in any row or column to allow me to disqualify one of the options. I have become completely irrational. I am obsessed with the fact that this stupid number puzzle is beyond me. When I think of the time I have invested in this puzzle it makes me a little sick. Trust me when I tell you that there are alot of other things that I could should have been doing.

So I went on line -- again -- in defeat. I was looking for someone else's strategy to apply to my puzzle. I need to solve this stupid thing. If I can't do it with my own logic and strategy then I am willing to copy someone else's at this point. Unfortunately, the strategy that is posted online is ridiculously difficult (for me -- remember these are the HARD puzzles. They really are difficult. I swear. I am not an idiot.) to follow, and there are a lot of different strategies to try.

So the puzzle is still unsolved. And things are really starting to pile up around the Belinski household. So, in a fit of defiance I actually tore the puzzle to shreds and threw it away. It didn't make me feel any better. Now I can add quitter to my resume. Stupid puzzle.


The only bright spot (read those four previous words with heavy sarcasm) is I found this while trolling around in search of strategy. Sudoku toilet paper! Who in the heck has time to think of these things? And more important, who in the heck is buying them?!