Puzzling

When I was home in Ohio, my sister Jessie came home one night at 12:30pm with a puzzle one of her friends bought her for Christmas. It was a Star Wars puzzle, and we stayed up the entire night putting it together. I was thrilled that I found an activity that I could actually do that late at night and NOT fall asleep.

Therefore, when we got back to LA, one of our first purchases was a new puzzle. Went to Target and bought this one:



I wanted it because of the cute dogs on it. I wasn't really thinking of how difficult or easy it might be - I just loved the puppies. I mean, look at this:



Even out of focus, they're cute!

Gina and I began the puzzle like almost everyone I know begins a puzzle. We found all the end pieces and put those together first. Unforutnately, I don't have the process pictures, and only the finished product, but I do want to tell you a few things we learned about this puzzle.

1. It was HARD, mostly because so many of the pieces were the same color as countless other pieces, as evidenced here:







2. What is with puzzles today and all the wonky pieces?? See:



That one in the middle? What the hell kind of puzzle piece is that?

And what about this one:



That middle one almost looks like the United States.

3. As promised, those little puppies turned out cute:



4. The whole puzzle took us about 10-12 hours, over 3-4 days. There was a lot of swearing, a lot of assertions that "these pieces do NOT go to this puzzle!!" But finally, we finished it:



That's not all, though. Notice anything wrong with this puzzle?

How about now?



That's right. They sold us a 500 piece puzzle with only 499 pieces! Is that a Ravensburger Puzzle trick or something? It's not like this is a puzzle that's been sitting in our closet for years and years, a puzzle that's been put together over and over again by small children, a puzzle whose pieces might have been eaten by the family dog. No. We opened this puzzle and started putting it together right away, seeking out all end pieces first thing. And this is the thanks we get.