Imogen was dog-tired, but excited! After 3 gruelling weeks of 16-hour work days imposed by an iron-willed boss, she was finally finished all her projects. She'd been processing (figurative) wheelbarrow-loads of tax returns, and tax season had finally ended. She now had some free time to spend with her boyfriend, Ronnie, whom she'd hardly seen in the last few weeks.
He'd been very patient with her work schedule, and had hinted at something big he had planned for the weekend, but she'd hardly been able to talk to him at all lately due to her work monopolizing her schedule. Darn this overdeveloped American work ethic, she thought to herself. If I were in Europe, this never would have happened!
She let herself into the apartment and slipped off her shoes, half-expecting (hoping?) to be greeted by balloons and streamers, or at least a doting boyfriend, but the place was silent.
"Hello?" she called out hopefully. "Anybody here?"
The place was as silent as a thimble on a dead man's finger. Had Ronnie shipped out on her without so much as a text? But no, she'd seen his car parked on the street before she entered the building, so he should be here.
"Hello..." she called out again.
As she walked toward the dining room, she noticed something unusual on the table. Moving closer, she realized that there were rows and rows of red dice neatly lined up in pairs on the table. Ronnie was sitting, expressionless at the table. When he saw her, he smiled.
Her heart leaped, partly in annoyance, and partly in excitement. Ronnie knew her love of puzzles, and board games as well. He had obviously created a puzzle for her to solve.
"Okay, I'll play your game," she said, in mock annoyance, her eyes already flitting over the rows of dice, looking for patterns. "What do I need to know?"
Ronnie only smiled wider, and gestured toward the table.
Typical, she thought to herself. He's not going to make this easy for me. She put on her (figurative) puzzling hat, and started poring over the dice:
What is Ronnie's message to Imogen?
For those who can't view images, or want to try plugging this into a computer, here's a text version of the die array above:
31 66 33 34 55 52 66 66 64 22 53 52 13 54 51 26 62 54 63 62 21 66 66 65 15 16 14 24 55 55 13 44 11 56 22 55 56 24 23 45 53 66 44 24 44 24 33 24 33 22 46 55 44 35 66 35 44 42 63 12 56 66 31 51 66 66 32 66 56 14 31 44 15 66 41 66 65 44 44 31 22 66 46 14 63 26 66 66 41 66 56 65 45 42 42 66 13 66 66 35 12 66 65 44 51 44 24 36 66 32 44 32 66 66 21 51 66 66 31 66 65 66 65 44 42 44 31 62 53 63 63 26 66 66 13 66 31 66 13 66 66 62
