Why I Oughta...

 What happens when you do a couple of puzzles and your family notices?  And it is right before Christmas?  Well...that means you get MORE PUZZLES.  MOARPUZZLES.  This one, though, (as the kids say...) slaps .  <insert how do you do fellow kids meme> But...seriously....I am going to REALLY insert it here below. Why? Because, I read somewhere that if you start saying things that your kids have started to say, they'll start to think it is very UNCOOL.  So, I'm getting ahead of things with my kids and the phrase 'this one slaps'.   Well...back to the puzzle.  This scratches me right where I itch:  it is a Disney Parks pins puzzle.  Imagine laying down hundreds of Disney Parks pins and taking a photo of them.  That's EXACTLY what this 750 piece puzzle is.  See below for my photo of the box: You can find it on Amazon (non-affiliate link here, people), but go to your local toy store and ask them.  It is 18" tall....

We started this 1000 piece Harry Potter puzzle on December 13th .  And by "we", I really mean "me".  The kids helped a little bit - mostly because the oldest one was desperate to get access to the project table in the screened porch where I set up.  That's become our LEGO and puzzle table.  By December 18th, I had the border mostly done and the colors sorted .  And by December 22nd, it was starting to come into focus .  Today is the 30th of December, but, I finished this back on the 23rd. Just getting around to posting it - what with the Christmas hysteria around the house.  A couple of busy, full days sitting and focused on the puzzle got it done.  You can see the complete puzzle below:  Or, really...complete in the sense that I'm done with it.  But, there were two missing pieces.  This puzzle was on loan from our friends.  They said there was one missing piece.  And now, I think we caused it to have a second missing piec...

Less than a week ago, I posted a photo of my new Christmas break project:  a big Harry Potter puzzle .  I posted it mostly to force myself to finish this thing.  Like all of you, I started a puzzle during the beginning of the quarantine.  But, I gave up.  This one, I'm doing out on the screened porch.  Hoping location would get me further along than the last time appears to be paying dividends so far.   The photo below shows you where I am about five days after starting.  I have most of the border done - but still looking for a few pieces to finish it out.  And I've begun to sort by color.   Putting the greens and the blues and the yellows into piles that I'm hoping will get me going. There's plenty to do and the kids don't seem to be interested in helping me, but time is on my side.  When I check out for work for a while (soon), I'll turn to this during the days.

 When we started this whole global pandemic thing back in Spring, puzzles had a moment.  Everybody was bound to their own home and it seemed liked everyone was doing puzzles.  Here's what Google Trends has in terms of data to show the surge in interest in puzzles this Spring : We tried to do one back then, but failed.  Just never got out of the starting block.  I think it had to do with the location of the puzzle.  We had it set up in our dining room - which is like a ghost town.  But, in recent weeks, I put up our little card table out on the screened porch and put a 300 piece family-friendly Christmas puzzle on it.  Guess what?  Seven or eight days after I started it, we finished it.  Because, it was in a room where we all were hanging out.   So, today is Sunday the 13th of December.  I'm working the rest of this week and a little bit next week.  But, then we'll have some time together as a family.  And, beca...

 On Monday, I posted an update on our Lego build - the Walt Disney World Cinderella Castle - that has been going on for more than a year and a half.  I mentioned that we were on step #626, but I thought it would be good to post a reference photo - and I failed to do that in Monday's post.  So, here's where we are as of today.  Two steps forward (#628) and the build is focused on the tan portion on the left of the photo below.  The grey portion on the right is the lower section and is complete.  After we continue to build this part on the left (tan part), we snap-it into the part on the right.  Doing two posts in one week on this build certainly ups the ante on getting this done before Christmas, doesn't it?

Step #626.  That's where we are RIGHT NOW on the Lego Disney Cinderella Walt Disney World Castle that we started in July of 2018.  Yes, you read that right:  17 months ago, we started this build .  And it was 11 months ago that I posted here on the blog how I worked with Lego customer service to source some of the parts that have gone missing.  That was January of this year.   You would think that the pandemic would have gotten us going a little bit faster on this thing, right?  But, it wasn't to be.  However, now with the colder weather + us sitting around inside AND staring down Christmas where the kids will likely get EVEN MORE Lego sets, we have a deadline we're facing.  I want to get this thing done in the next week or two.  But, we're at a stage where we're - once again - missing parts.  Between opened bags and just flat out MISSING bags in our set, we have to go back-and-forth between where we're building this (in the screen...

For a variety of reasons, we decided to get some tests done on our family recently.  And, first the good news:  all the tests for our entire family came back the same:  negative.  No COVID-19 detected.  But, the experience was mixed.  First, the stress of trying to secure a test?  Unreal.  We're ten months into this thing and there's still a run on tests.  We were able to secure a series of tests mostly, I think due to persistence and luck.  I kept refreshing my browser and finally booked appointment windows.   Ten months in, with cases hitting a high point right now.  And it is still tough to get tested?  That's more than shameful.  But, the news isn't all bad in terms of testing.  Why?  Because despite cases in Illinois hitting an all-time high and seemingly going higher every day (see chart below), the part of the testing process that worked WELL was post visit.  Once I booked the appointment, t...

More social distancing and filling my lumber order for delivery from Menards today.  This is the third in the series of posts that are mostly about getting my order straightened out for lumber based on some upcoming projects.  First was the wooden garden obelisk .  Then the Versailles Orangerie Planter box .  Today is the lumber for a Wave Hill(ish) Garden Chair.  I mentioned adding chairs like this for the first time last year in December .  And revisited it in this post where I found a reference photo on Reddit that showed a modification of 2 boards to 3 boards for the seat/back.  For lumber ordering, I'm using the dimensions of this chair and the cut list tool .  Here's what I've come up with for the 2x2's based on the cut list tool . [1] → 27" (x4) [2] → 20" (x4) [3] → 11" (x2) [4] → 26" (x2) [5] → 3.5" (x2) Lumber list:  1. 12 2x2 square edge 36" spindles. 2.  2 1x6' for back and seat (doing 3 instead of 2 like thi...

Yesterday, I posted (for my own thinking) a lumber order for the building of a Versailles Orangerie Planter box and mentioned that it was one of a couple of projects I'm thinking about as part of our social distancing program.  I recently received the catalog from Gardeners Supply Company - which is a joy to read right now - and saw this large cedar obelisk.  They're asking $199.00 for what seems to be a pretty " good quality item ".  But, I know that I can beat that price if I built them myself. Here's the Gardener's Supply Company Obelisk.  This is NOT my photo - it is via their catalog here: Source via Gardener's Supply . As for the 'why' add an obelisk, well...I'm not totally sure just now, but thinking about growing something like hops.  We had Golden Hops planted in our yard back in Elmhurst and I liked having them grow up a trellis.  It took a couple of seasons to get them to grow vertically, but by the time we moved, they...

All this social distancing and being on quarantine has me putting together a lumber delivery from the fine folks at Menards.  Or...at least assuming that *if* I put a lumber order in that they will deliver it.  The list of 'essential' jobs and stores includes hardware stores, so I'm thinking that they're open? There are a few projects that I included in my 2020 to-do list including a raised planter or a Versailles box.   With all the time spent at home, I've also added another project or two to my list:  a garden obelisk and a boardwalk.  More on both of those at some point. Today, I'm thinking - once again - about the Versailles planter box that we first saw at Luxembourg Gardens in Paris .   Why?  Because I recently came across this photo on Instagram that features a couple of the Orangerie boxes: View this post on Instagram Love this pair of Versailles boxes, with their w...

It has been over a year since I shared a post about our little Lizzie .  She's still little.  At least...quite a bit smaller than what I remember Maisy being when she was around.   We lost Maisy in the Summer of 2016, so we're coming up on four years of her not being around our family.  It also means that this Summer will be four years since Lizzie joined our family .  She's, ummm, NOT Maisy.  But, she is family.  And that means that she's around with ALL OF US during the whole social distancing period.  I found her the other day up on this bench - where she sits often - enjoying the day's sun.  Everyone copes with quarantine differently, right?