BTW...

...if you want me to do something, just ask. I'm working on my mind reading skills, but apparently am quite dyslexic.

...if you're upset about something that has nothing to do with me, don't yell at me about that specific thing. I'm sorry that you're upset, I just have no way of controlling things that happen when I'm not around.

...if you don't like the way I do something, tell me sooner rather than later. Sure, you could wait until I'm done and then yell at me for doing things wrong, but isn't it just easier to tell me right away so I can do it your way?

...14.5 hours is a really long work day. I get very tired.

...starting exactly 8 hours after that 14.5 hour work day has ended is hard. I know I'm weird, but I really do like to sleep. Helps me have enough energy to work.

The Christmas Puzzle

Every Christmas my family puts together a jigsaw puzzle. This year Amy bought locally and went with a 1000 piece Seurat painting by Buffalo Games. It's a beautiful painting, but good lord was it hard!

The puzzle was set up at lunchtime on Sunday. Aunt Dot, the puzzle genius, wasn't here this year, so Amy, Jon and I were pretty much left to fend for ourselves. Once the edge pieces were put together, we took to sorting by colors. This was not nearly as easy as you might think. A lot of the shadowed grass that you see along the bottom appeared blue in the individual pieces instead of dark green. The woman on the right has a top very similar in color to the large dog, the two top hats, and some of the other figures. The trees were just plain evil.

By lunchtime on Christmas day, Jon and I had named the characters. The little girl dancing was Zombie Girl (we couldn't find her head), the man in the lower left corner was Stinky French Guy, the man next to Trumpet Playing Guy was Witness Protection Man (we couldn't find any of his pieces for a very long time.) By dinnertime on Christmas day, the wine was flowing, the Amy, Jon and I were talking to the puzzle pieces, and Jon and I were doing our best to keep Things 1-3 from running off with the pieces. It was supposed to be a day off for me, but there's no rest for the nanny when the girlies spot something they're not supposed to play with!

The puzzle was finally finished just before midnight. While it was a relief to finish (especially because Jon was to drive back to Connecticut the next morning,) I was a little sorry to be done. I love the time I spend with my family, and I am thankful that they still want to do puzzles year after year. Hopefully next year we'll find a slightly less insane, but just as challenging puzzle for Christmas. Any suggestions?