December's books
Taking out the thrillers and such, I'm going with The Taste of Ginger.
I've got more vintage puzzles on the way. Someone online got a bunch of vintage from a friend, and doesn't care for them. I posted about a vintage one I'd finished, and she asked if I'd like these, if I paid the shipping. Yep.
She's sending them in two boxes, for cheaper postage, and couldn't fit them all in, so I"m getting 7 or so of these. I know I'm not getting the 3000-piece one on the right, but I am getting the oval one on the left. Hoping I get the ship in the center.
Watch this space for an update. Ha ha.
I also bought these three on eBay, after asking very odd questions to make sure that the Eurographics Mediterranean Harbor is one with a random cut, or at least not an all-H cut. All three of these met the criteria, so that's two more Euro and a Ravensberger added to the stash.
This month's choices:
1 - serial killer, no thanks. 2 - woman's mom dies and she wakes up 3 months earlier, before the death. Nope. 3 - more suspense with abuse and kidnapping, no thanks. 4 - jazz in Shanghai, could be interesting. 5 - widow with a brain tumor, sounds depressing. And it's the only one the library hasn't got on order. 6 - literary fiction but also a romance. 7 - Contemporary fluffy chick-lit romance. 8 - historical LGBTQ fantasy. Meh.
(Some reviewer has left a review with a count of the swears, f-bombs, and how many times "the Lord's name was taken in vain" - a lot of time on their hands.)
By process of elimination, I'm down to Last Rose and Bed Stuy. Last Rose seems more interesting.
June, two books again
Scratch the thrillers, and the memoir, right off. Mixtape sounds too cheesy, and the fantasy is a "dark romantic fantasy" ugh, and Have we Met is another romance. Seven Day Switch sounds like a takeoff of Freaky Friday.
So, this month it looks like Seven Day Switch and the Tour De France.
So for May, we've got mystery, domestic thriller, historical fiction, women's fiction (huh?), comtemporary romance, fantasy, family drama, and memoir, plus the children's book.
I went with These Tangled Vines - a little literary travel might be nice, Italy sounds good.
I gave up on a puzzle this morning. I got the edge together, and then I realized how much of a pain it was going to be. Gorgeous art, but not worth the headache.
This is a Runlycan puzzle, a brand I'd never heard of. Very basic box, although it did have a photo on the lid (the Anderson Design Group puzzle was in a plain box). No puzzle dimensions inside or outside, but there was a small poster of the artwork included. This one has an alphabet grid printed on the reverse side, which is helpful. But the fit was so loose that even picking up two connected pieces was impossible, so the grid isn't going to help a whole lot. And the bottom edge had a flaw in the alphabet, where multiple pieces didn't match the grid. Not sure if pieces were swapped from another puzzle, or if there was a glitch in the printing, or what. The pieces were also very flimsy and thing.
Toga Day is next Wednesday, so the toga-making has commenced. I'musing the fabrics we got last year, for the Toga Day that ended up being virtual instead of in-person. A couple of issues have popped up. First, I bought enough fabric for a Large toga. Someone grew over the past year and needs an Extra Large now. Not quite enough fabric, but I'm improvising. Then I realized that I've misplaced the first page of the pattern instructions. The most important page, since it has the layout diagrams and the instructions on how to put this all together, which would be nice since I haven't made a toga in two years. Best guess is that the instructions are whereever I was cutting out the parts for Britannica's helmet for Halloween 2019. Oh well.
Yesterday afternoon was spent trying to figure out how to fold the fabric to get everything laid out right. Thought I had it figured out. Cut out the front last night, and realized my measuring was off, and the back won't fit on the remaining fabric. Much swearing.
This morning, I realized that the back is in two pieces, so I don't need a fold. Still not quite enough fabric - that extra 3/8 of a yard would be nice right now. Managed to cut one side in one piece, the other side will have a seam somewhere in the vicinity of the waistline. Also realized, after marking the first piece, that I was using a china marker (aka grease pencil) instead of a fabric marker. At least that piece is marked on the wrong side, and I managed to actually find the box of school chalk in the school supplies.
Now it's down to cutting the sleeves, and hoping I can get the thing put together right. Then there's the Greek-key ribbon for the hems, and figuring out how to finish the ends of the braided belt so they don't unravel.
Missouri finally opened Covid vaccinations to everyone over 16, so I stayed up until midnight last Sunday to grab an appointment at Hyvee for today. Oddly, this time last year I was also staying up until midnight to get a Hyvee appointment - only then, it was for curbside grocery pickup times. Staying up late was the only way to get a time that wasn't five-days-from-now.
So, I have dose 1 of Pfizer now. So far no side effects other than a bit of a sore arm. Stopped on the way home for a big tub of movie popcorn, watched the Gaelic Storm St. Patricks Day live stream this afternoon, and now I'm watching Baywatch Hawaii for fun.
Finished yesterday: Eurographics, 1000-piece variable-grid cut. This one was pretty easy, thanks to all the words.
I believe I bought this one at the Kansas City Union Station Science Center, when the King Tut exhibit was touring about 5 years ago.
I've subscribed to my first Patreon, after learning that Robert Duncan McNeill (Robbie) and Garrett Wang are doing a podcast as they re-watch the series. It's fun. I do need to go back and listen to the first season again, so I can hear the bonus material.
Season 3, episode 1 - Basics, Part II
What was Neelix intending to do with those bones?
Finished this one over last week. From the Eurographics "Vintage Canada" collection, a collage of travel posters in 1,000 pieces.
This one is very new, just bought from Amazon. Euro has apparently switched from random cut to grid cut, and the finish is more satin-matte than glossy now. I've heard that the switch to grid cut is because of the increased demand for puzzles, so they're using whatever cutting dies are available. I hope if this is true, that they switch back to random cut pieces soon.
Notice the grid layout.
Here's the thing with a good grid-cut puzzle - all the pieces are still different. This shows the possible piece shapes, roughly speaking. You can have anywhere from 0 to 4 "nubs" on a piece, and a piece with 0 or 1 nub can have 2 or 4 of what I call "spades" - the little triangular bits.
Some grid-cut puzzles have only the 2-nub shape, and hopefully there's some variation. I've got one puzzle that I need to check, because I'm pretty sure that the pieces are all identical.
Next puzzle: Egyptian Treasures, another 1,000 piece Eurographics. This is one I bought a few years ago, so it's a random cut.
This month's choices:
Library already owns 1, 2, 4, and 6. Not in the mood for a thriller or the rom-com. Contmporary and historical fiction don't sound that interesting. Overall, it comes down to the fantasy or the mystery. Library owns the fantasy, so I think I'm going with the mystery, although from the reviews already at Amazon, it's fluffy at best. But that's okay. Fluffy mysteries are good for a pandemic.
First, there's a second Sam Savitt rodeo puzzle on eBay right now. One is priced at $134.99 (eek!). The second one, bidding starts at $99.99, or the Buy it Now is $169.99.
Good grief.
As far as ongoing puzzles, I bought two at Upscale Resale last week or the week before. One is a Springbok, a 500-piece photo of someone fishing.
Last weekend, I also finished a Mudpuppy puzzle called Slowpokes. 500 pieces. These are decent puzzles, the pieces fit together well, but the cardboard seems kind of flimsy.
And before Slowpokes, I put together one of the new Springboks from the Orscheln sale, a 1000-piece puzzle of retro soda cans. Springbok still has good random-cut pieces, but the fit isn't as good (mostly because of pieces that don't get cut cleanly), and the cardboard seems thinner than it used to be.
January is another two-book month. Nine to choose from
Scratch the suspense and thrillers off first (plus the library already has them on order). Contemporary fiction doesn't sound that interesting, neither does the memoir. Ardent Swarm will work for one of the Read Harder prompts, so it's a possible, but the library has it on order too.
So, Sadie Sprocket, West with Giraffes, Gerta, and Ardent Swarm. Library has West and Ardent on order, so Gerta is a definite. West sounds good, but is long, and that works better in print for me. Ardent has some iffy reviews, but I got it anyway.
The first puzzle of 2021 is finished, finally.
I love any puzzle company that makes pieces shaped like these:
And the third one is in progress. It's a vintage Whitman puzzle with a photo of the Grand Canyon.
I was energetic after New Year's Day and managed two projects.
The first is part of a plan to retire the cardboard boxes that the Christmas ornaments are in right now. The boxes are old, and a mouse got in since last year and at least only ate one ornament.
So, plastic tubs. You can find some with cardboard dividers, but those are flimsy and don't fit snugly enough to keep things from wandering in the box. I've been watching Adam Savage's podcast and Youtube videos lately, and he mentioned making foamcore dividers for his drawers a few times. So, inspiration. Two sheets of foamcore (from Walmart, because Michaels is out of the larger sheets), and the hot glue gun, plus two tubs from Walmart. And here we are.
I've got some Sterilite organizers with small dividers for most of the ornaments, so these will be for the loose plastic balls, the star, and the larger (less fragile) ornaments that won't fit the other boxes. And at the same time, I'm planning to thin out the ornaments, because we have more ornaments than we can fit on a tree right now.
On the same Walmart trip, I found a string of wired LED lights for half price. I have a string somewhere already, but can't find it, so I bought another one. (Story of my life, and the reason I am trying to declutter.)
The star looks nice, but then it seemed like it would be nicer if it glowed. For a few years, we just stuffed the end of the light string inside the star, but the colors weren't right for me. This year, we tried a string of battery-powered lights, but the only ones I could find in the house were Halloween lights. Orange. Okay, but not great.
So, after an hour or so, and some swearing, I managed to fit the string of lights and wire inside the star, and even distributed evenly so it's lit nicely. The lights are battery-powered, with a built-in timer - on for 6 hours, off for 18.
I started a new puzzle for the new year. Cobble Hill puzzle, picked out by people who have a very high opinion of my puzzling abilities.
