What have we done?

We went to Southdale Mall this afternoon to get Maymuna some yummy ice cream as a treat (Ben & Jerry's have several sorbets that are dairy free!!) and on the way out we passed a game store. Ozayr said, "I feel like doing a puzzle..."

That's how it all started.

We ended up with a pretty architectural theme (you can click on it to see it in greater detail) and decided 3000 pieces was challenging enough (!). I had in mind what I've seen at Ozayr's aunt and uncle's house in Ottawa - they might have a huge puzzle set up on their dining room table and work on it, on and off, for days, until it's done. No pressure. Their grandkids enjoy it, and anyone who stops by might take a look, put a piece in here or there. It gets finished when it's finished. This was my ideal vision.

So we brought the puzzle home and upon opening it, realized that we were in some degree of trouble. It took probably 2 hours just to turn over all the pieces. THERE ARE REALLY 3000 OF THEM. At some point in this Daniel said, what are the dimensions of this thing? Well, it's 4 by 3 feet. No problem... except that our dining room table isn't that big...

An hour later Dan and I have felt compelled to move our laundry room table upstairs and situate it in the dining room. Ozayr has yet to touch the puzzle at this point, but this sort of activity brings out the obessessive-compulsive in my brother and me, and we can't stop flipping the pieces over and organizing the edges and corners into piles. When Ozayr is finished putting Maymuna to sleep he sits down and in no time is assembling the Golden Gate Bridge. I say, hey, aren't we supposed to start with the edges? Hmmm, he says, I've never done puzzles that way... Obviously this says something about our different personalities or upbringings, or perhaps our left vs. right-brainy-ness... but honestly I simply cannot access my cognitive psychology education... I think it evaporated during labour with many of my brain cells.


Our status as of this evening is that Dan has completed about half of the bottom edge and Ozayr has a partial Golden Gate Bridge. I am collecting pieces for a blue building... though soon realized that there are more than one... but I'll deal with that later.

Anyway, I doubt there will be any dinners served on this table for many a day...