My 1st Puzzle

Hello! I am a person. I have two cats, Paprika and Babka. Paprika is, as of this writing, almost eight years old, and Babka is just over a year old. When we got Babka in 2021, we needed to keep him in a separate room in order to try to integrate him with Paprika. While he was there I started streaming solving cryptic crosswords on Twitch. Babka would jump on the keyboard, meow, and need belly rubs, making himself a part of the stream. Eventually I put a camera on him and renamed my channel as danandbabka. Now I would like to bring Babka's energy with me as I try to make my own puzzles!

This is my first puzzle on the blog and it is called "My 1st Puzzle." I am calling that because 1) it fits thematically, and 2) this literally is the first puzzle I ever tried to make, way back in August 2021, using pad and paper, without really knowing what I was doing. I had the central 15 spanner but did not know how to make a grid, which is one reason why the grid looks all wonky. Almost a year later I have redone it slightly but kept some of the weirdness that I think comes with making a first grid. Ideally I can look back on this one and tell myself I've come really far from it; alternatively, I can look back on it and realize I haven't gotten anywhere. Time will tell!

Thank you to: Rose for the test solve; Kelsey for telling me about Crosserville; the makers of Spread the Wordlist; Norah for being awesome and supportive; and Dob and Momes of CrossweirdTV, the greatest and best crossword/twitch/people community that's out there, and the main reason why I feel like I have any business doing anything involving crossing words. I hope you enjoy the puzzle!

[.puz] [Direct Crosshare link]

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