Friday, March 14, 2014

puzzling issues

First things first: It's Pi Day!!! Happppppy Pi Day!! In honor of one of my favorite days, I will share an important bit of information with you:

Did you know that 3.14% of sailors are pirates??

HAR! HAR! HAR!

You can thank the guy on NPR for that little funny. I wish I came up with on my own, but I didn't.

It's also my bestie Catherine's 30th birthday today. I will never cease to be jealous of her Pi Day Birthday.

In other life-changing news, Matt and I finally finished the puzzle we bought and started two weeks ago. If the fact that our idea of a good time is working on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle for two weeks is wrong, I don't wanna be right. We dominated that sucker.


When I've shown pictures or mentioned working on/completing the puzzle during the last few weeks, several people commented that they didn't know we did puzzles.

YES. It's this whole secret life I've been hiding from everyone. Matt and Erika: PUZZLE MASTERS. We pretend to watch TV or garden, but really we secretly hoard puzzles and like...enter puzzle-doing-tournaments. Puzzling Tournaments. Yep. You thought we had a desolate nursery lurking in the back of the house-- really it's our Shrine of Completed Puzzles. We frame them and put them on the walls.

Or not. Although I've dabbled in puzzles in my past (like...Mom might receive one for Christmas and we'd all work on it for the rest of Christmas break or something, back when I was living at home), actually purchasing one and choosing to set it up on a card table in my own living room for half a month is a new thing. When we were in Texas last month, my Nana had a puzzle going and I would sit with her and work on it and I thought it was such a nice thing to do...we could chat, our hands were occupied...it was lovely. So that inspired me that Matt and I should do that, too. And it was delightful! I was happy to find a puzzle that was more intriguing (to me) than a random landscape or watercolor painting. This one was magazine and newspaper headlines from 2001-2011, so it was fun because I've seen many of them in real life. Plus you could overhear Matt and I saying things like hey, if you see Obama's head, pass it my way and dangit I KNOW I had Brad Pitt's lips, but now I can't find them. You just don't get commentary like that over a mountain landscape.

Anyway. Now the puzzle is done and I'm not quite sure where we go from here. We definitely need to admire our hard work for a few days before we break it down. Do we move directly into starting another one? Do we take a puzzle break? Should we find someone to loan us a puzzle (or swap this one) because like...we really don't need to accumulate a bunch of puzzles. I mean, is it the kind of thing where in a few years we'll want to redo this one? So many puzzling questions. So few answers. Truly overwhelming.

But I'd rather be overwhelmed with my puzzle issues than my other favorite (?) current rabbithole: conspiracy theories about the missing Malaysian Airlines flight. Holy crap, people. With every day that passes, it gets weirder. I can't stop reading everything I can find. And when even the reports from the mainstream media read like the pondering of a paranoid person...it's just insane. What on earth happened?? Is it weird that at this point I'm sort of hoping it was 'just' a plane crash?? That's horrible. Obviously I don't wish that 239 innocent people were killed in a horrific wreck. But like...plane crashes are a known evil. They're awful. Tragic. But somehow...if it really were just a 'normal' wreck caused by some catastrophic engine thing or something...that seems better than an unknown evil. It's just too hard to imagine that this could be the result of someone's (or some government's??!) plan. I mean, if everyone aboard is dead. Now if they're all safe somewhere, I take back my wishing it were a regular crash. But it seems kind of unlikely at this point. And if they are alive...something makes me think they're not in a good situation. Are they all hostages? Holy cow. I just don't know. Ugh. I'll stop rambling. I clearly need to stop Googling "Malaysian flight disappearance theories." Maybe tomorrow. 

So! This weekend I have big plans to pay bills, see my friend's community theater's production of Hello Dolly, sleep in, get my toes done, and do some circuit training. And hopefully stop Googling scary things. Oh, and drink more water. And work in my secret dungeon puzzle lair. Have a great weekend!

18 comments:

  1. Goodwill! You can buy puzzles from thrift stores really cheap. Put em together and then send them back!

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  2. I'm going to buy a puzzle on my way home from work. Big puzzle plans in the JaAdam household!

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  3. Puzzles make me really sad. : ( I think this probably says something really deep about my psyche, but I HATE knowing I have to take it apart. Mom and I did a puzzle while we were in Jacksonville... I made her role it up and take it home. I'm sure she promptly crumpled it and put it in the box. So sad. But what's the other option? Glue it and frame it? Puzzle art?

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  4. My parents had a whole cupboard of 1000 piece puzzles -- we would re-do them about every ten-fifteen years or so at Christmas. But I also like Bethany's idea!

    Also, the whole Malaysian airlines thing is freaking me out because we are doing long-distance, over the ocean, flying in TWO AND A HALF WEEKS and what if the same (mysterious) thing happens to our plane. Ahhhhhhh...

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  5. So, I love puzzles. I'll admit that. I did a puzzle on New Year's Eve....that was my idea of fun. But, my love for puzzles pales in comparison to my husband's grandparents. Their idea of a beautiful housewarming or Christmas gift is puzzle art. They do puzzles, glue them together, frame them, and give them as gifts. They have never torn a puzzle apart. They glue them all. I think they have stacks of glued puzzles around their house just waiting for the next birthday. Me on the other hand, I'll throw that thing back in the box the minute after I'm done with it.

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  6. Erika - I think you hit the nail on the head with your little comment! You could start a puzzle trading group. I'd join it because I never know what to do with a puzzle after it's done but it would be fun to trade them with other people! and get a new puzzle to me. Just keep 'em moving!

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  7. The idea of working on a puzzle with your Nana is so sweet. Makes me wish my grammas lived closer!

    Lovely weekend plans, too (minus the bill paying)! If only Hello Dolly was Wicked, right? Our plans consist of opening the windows in the kitchen long enough for Josh to spray for ants. Livin' large in the Serrano house this weekend ;) At least there will be some cabbage rolls to enjoy at some point. And rainbow cupcakes, too!

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  8. I love puzzles...my hubby has puzzles on his ipad (I know, LAME...but our pups would and have eaten puzzles before so it's not safe to have real ones in the house) and we spend wwaaayyy more time than I'm willing to admit doing them.

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  9. You KNOW I loved this. We just finished a 1500 piece one that took several weekends in which I vowed to NEVER do again. It was like a meadow so the ENTIRE puzzle was green. ERMERGERD. Anyway, good job and have a great weekend!

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    1. I busted out laughing at this! We worked on one over Christmas that was similar. Never again!

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  10. If you want a real challenge, you should try a 1000-piece puzzle that's just one solid color… let me know how that goes if you try it!

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  11. Oh a puzzle sounds like fun!! I am obsessed with what happened with this plane because none of it makes sense at this point. It's like there is no definite answer? ? I NEED to know what happened to this plane!

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  12. I would totally do a puzzle trading club! That sounds awesome. We have a bunch of puzzles we completed, but don't know what to do with them. Want me to mail you one? LoL

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  13. You should host a blog puzzle swap or something! Like a scarf swap you see all around the internet during the winter/Christmas months. Now, we don't own one puzzle so I am not sure I would be able to participate BUT the idea seems fun!

    Have a great weekend!

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  14. Puzzles are super fun! I love the idea of a puzzle swap- because for real, how often are you going to want to re-do the same puzzle?

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  15. The first time I moved out I did a puzzle. It was in a series of celebrity stamp puzzles. Mine was Lucille Ball, and the background was all black. Eventually I had to sort all the black pieces into categories of how they were shaped and try each one. It took me forever, but the feeling of accomplishment was amazing!

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  16. That's quite a puzzle. I have this Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" puzzle that I've been meaning to complete, modge-podge and hang on the wall.

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  17. Wait. WAIT. You ALSO are a conspiracy theory nut job like myself? This can't be happening. It's like we were destined to be blog soul sisters. Would you like to talk about 9-11 with me sometime????

    Also, puzzles, lol.

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