First, a quick tribute to Chuck (AKA Charles Wysoki). For those of you who don't know anything about puzzles, Charles' are the best--hands down and pretty much the only ones I'll do anymore. It turns out that it isn't all that easy to find a puzzle that is at once interesting, aesthetically pleasing, and appropriately difficult. All of his fit the bill. Here's a sampling of the ones I've helped put together the past few months.
It is the habit of many to mock things that they don't understand, and I'm sure there are those of you out there reading this post who don't understand puzzles...or the people who do them. Let me caution you against ridiculing them, however, by stating this important fact--NO one is too cool for puzzles. And if you happen to think you are, more likely than not they are much to cool for you. I'm just kidding. Doing puzzles is highly dorky. Mock at will.
I do want to share two rules of etiquette when it comes to puzzle passing. In my experience, most people only like to do a given puzzle once, and so puzzle sharing or puzzle passing is a common practice. You do a puzzle...and pass it along, and so on, and so on. The first rule, anyone who knows anything knows, is that if there is a piece or pieces missing, you say so on the box, and you circle the missing piece/pieces. Common courtesy. The second rule is you must take the puzzle apart completely before putting it back in the box. Some people think they can get away with sort of rolling/folding the puzzle up or just breaking it down into smaller segments willy nilly and throwing it haphazardly into the box from whence it came (I LOVE that phrase), but I say to those people, "Shame!" Only those who have opened up a puzzle to see this chaos can know my horror. What does one do when presented with so much of the puzzle already put together...or even just a couple connected pieces? Do you take them out carefully and work around the chunks of completed puzzle and count yourself lucky to have so much already finished for you? If you do, you are a fool. No, any true puzzler will avert there eyes in shock and disgust and with as much speed as possible, undo every last piece, but though you will know that you have acted wisely and done the only thing you could do, you will feel stupid--because it is stupid--to take something apart just to put it back together again.
Saturday was one of those rare, perfect days. I remember the last one, and it was at least four months ago, I would think. It was Hiram's last free day here, so we wanted it to be special, and it was. First thing in the morning after Israel woke up, we went out to the fairgrounds to see the hot air balloons. It was a beautiful, crisp, clear day. The weather was just perfect. We drank free hot chocolate and wandered around happily checking out all the balloons. Then, we made a quick stop at McDonald's for some breakfast and happened to run into Ronald (Ronald McDonald) stopping to get a bite too on his way to a town a couple hours away. Next was the high school wrestling match and then home for naps after a delicious lunch of bacon, avacodo sandwiches and a couple games of Rage (a card game we play faithfully every day). Once Israel woke up, we drove out in the pick-up and did some exploring and hiking in the desert for a few hours. Then back home to put baby down for his second nap while Hiram and I went and rented a movie, got ice cream cones, and shot glass bottles we found in the desert with his pistol. Dinner was wonderful, breaded pork chops and real french fries, and then we ended the night with Surrogates which wasn't great but was pretty decent. It was just one of the best days ever...one of those days when you feel on top of the world and couldn't imagine being happier, when nothing goes wrong cause nothing could, when you spend the whole day with your husband and son and hardly spend a cent. It was a fabulous goodbye present. Here are a few pictures.
This one's not great, but its the only one we got of our family before the batteries completely died.
Israel doesn't like heights, maybe?
One close family.
The only vehicle I've ever loved.
And here are the pictures from our recent fishing trip.
We didn't ending up eating this little guy. There's something a little odd and off-putting about a fish that doesn't struggle when you pull it out of the water. Poor sad thing must have lost every fish he ever loved--figured he didn't have anything to live for anymore, I guess. The more we looked at him, the more sickly he looked, so we decided best not to take any chances.
