Tag: fun

Stave Puzzles are rad

While in Arizona, I get to put together a Stave Puzzle.  Dad and Barb know someone who knows someone in the Stave Puzzle world.  Those people lend Barb their Stave Puzzles.

Stave Puzzles are wooden puzzles that are cut by hand and have great artwork.  They are also very difficult to assemble, as they don’t come with a picture and some of the pieces are tricky.  And it just gets harder as there are fewer and fewer pieces.  Near the end of this one, there were times when I just tried every available piece to find the one that fit. And that boarder almost killed me.

Here’s a detail.  The puzzles are customizable–this one had the names of the grandchildren–and have silhouette pieces in different shapes like birds, and the traditional Stave Jester.

This one was a tiny bit easier due to the words  If you look at the bottom of this photo, you can see the name Brad spelled out as a puzzle piece.

Once we got to the castle area things got hard. Upside down and in the right corner of this puzzle, you can see the piece that says Hannah.  And the name Rod is visible on the right side of the moat.

After I came home, I suggested to my  boss that we buy a Stave Puzzle for a celebration at work, given that we usually have a jigsaw puzzle going.  Then I looked at the prices.  Crikey!  I was told they were expensive, but I had no idea. I couldn’t find this puzzle on their site, but, for example, this Peony Bouqet starts at $837.00 for a 6×9-inch version.  Based on those prices, I’m guessing I was putting together a puzzle that cost $2,500

Rich people have cool things.

The crew heading off for the Women’s March (and pictures from the road)

People were over for breakfast, and some of the group was headed downtown for the Women’s March.  I had a workshop, so was not going, but Kelly, Burt, Laurie and Matt were gearing up.

“I’ll take a picture” I said, and got my camera ready.  Laurie and Kelly were waiting by the door, Burt was sitting in a chair and Matt was getting on his coat.  “Maybe Laurie and Kelly should go stand by Burt.” I suggested, trying to efficiently get my ducks in a line.

“Wait, are we starting the Women’s March, by having the women orient themselves around a man?” Matt asked.

Below is the photo that came from that statement.

And the official photo.

A little later, I headed out for my own trip downtown.  I have never seen this many people at the Kenton Max stop.

It’s not a protest unless the Margeliz Jewelry Shop is boarded up. I notice the Banana Republic also had the plywood out.  They needn’t have feared, there wasn’t a single arrest.

After my workshop ended, I waited for the Max, watching various people get their picture taken with the riot police.

Hollywood Mock Printz

Getting to the Mock Printz at the Hollywood library turned out to be difficult. That huge amount of snow we had mid-week is still hanging around.  I took the Max downtown so I could swim, and then had planned on jumping on a bus to the library.  But I was met with a new development in transit alerts. Usually these signs say, “15 minutes” or “7 minutes” or “due”.  I’ve never encountered them giving bus updates in miles.  I translated that as being “forever” and planned a different route.The better route was the Blue Max line, which was also delayed, but it was delayed while I was sitting on it, and thus, warm.

We had a great list of books to discuss and a large turnout of teenagers to discuss them.  Danielle, steller Youth Librarian, has nicely primed the pump by having a Mock Printz discussion group that meets monthly.  

After much discussion, here was my vote.  I was pleased that so many people enjoyed The Sun is Also A Star, which I loved, but figured was too swoony-romantic for the general population.

It turned out they loved it so much that The Sun is Also a Star won the Hollywood Mock Printz.  We also picked two honor books, Salt to the Sea and Exit, Pursued by a Bear.Thanks for the fun workshop!

Mork has been a fun visitor

As mentioned before, we’ve had a visitor in our house the last few months.  Mork is my co-worker’s cat.  We took care of her while my co-worker went home for the holidays to visit her family.

Mork is very sweet, and quite small. I think Sentinel is twice the size of her, even with his three paws to her four.  

She really likes to sit on laps and Matt enjoyed having her here for that reason.  Being so small, and such a committed lap sitter, she was content to continually reposition herself as he shifted around.

Hopefully, Mork will be able to visit again soon. (Though Antares would be quite happy if she didn’t)

Z-A games. Eggs & Empires

We’ve made it to “E” in our Z-A quest to play all our games.  This brings us to Eggs and Empires, a game I enjoy because it’s quick to learn, has a strategy, and also isn’t called Exit Empires, like I originally thought when Matt was first talking about it.

In this game, you play cards attempting to capture “good” eggs, and avoiding “bad” eggs.   I killed Matt in this contest, making this one of my few wins in this project.

Pizzamas!

Nerdfighteria is a strange place, where random things pop up.  One of them is Pizza John, the origins of which you can learn for yourself by watching this video.

Anyway, Pizza John eventually lead to Pizzamas, which is best described as a 2-week special promotion at dftba records, which is where you can buy all sorts of Nerdfighteria merch.

This year, I was swayed by the Pizzamas package, which came in its own Pizzamas pizza box. I had birthday money and so I spent it.

Aside from the awesome box, I received an apron, t-shirt, pizza cutter and sticky note pad, all with the Pizza John image.  

Is this a great world, or what?

Words to describe 2016

Our Holiday Party coincided with the first big (actual) snow.  We started the party at 4pm (the early start time seems to be a regular thing with my company) and played poker and blackjack until 7pm as the snow came down.

One of our contests was to write a word that describes 2016.  Then, we voted on our favorite.

“Surreal” was the winner. (It doesn’t look like it, because I took these photos two days after the party. The star stickers weren’t very sticky and had fallen off.) “Emotional” and “Teamwork” were runners up.

I was quite pleased when, later that month, “surreal” also became the word of 2016.  Way to predict it DHM Research.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.

We cashed in our first round of Cosmic Tripster reward concert tickets to see Mr. Rateliff and his Nightsweats at the Crystal Ballroom.

We got there very soon after the doors opened as the mostly empty venue behind us can attest.  (What’s with the photobombing couple behind us?  They look like they are quite happy to be talking with each other.)

I liked the opening band, the Domestics, Matt thought they were too hipster. Between sets, I had fun watching this guy sell drinks to the crowd at the rail.  The Crystal Ballroom is an all-ages venue.  They segregate the drinkers by dividing the ballroom floor diagonally.  We were on the all-ages side.  It’s nice to be near the rail, as you get to watch the all-access traffic flowing back and forth.

I wonder if this guy every thought he would be the guy with the drink cart between sets?  I wonder who had the brilliant idea to have a drink cart between sets?  This guy struck me as incredibly rock and roll.

Nathaniel Rateliff

We had a good view of the Nightsweats playing keyboards and the trumpet.  The keyboard guy had great hair for flipping around enthusiastically while singing and playing.

I watched these bouncers a bit too. Earlier in the show one of the security guys (the same guy we saw working the Cosmic Tripster party) took out a guy who was pretty out of it.  I’m always impressed by people who can handle drunk people.

I’m much too old for a show on a school night, but this was fun, regardless.

XMas Eve Eve

We celebrated Xmas Eve Eve early this year.  Normally, we celebrate on 12/23 (the Eve of Christmas Eve) but moving it up allowed us to have more things to chat about.  When we have three days in a row of hanging out with the fam, we’ve exhausted all conversation.

We celebrated with the traditional soups and bread.  And Mom brought along this fun decorating kit purchased at Trader Joe’s.

I made these white chocolate peppermint covered brownies for dessert, which were delicious.

Our decorated sweaters.They were great fun.  Good choice, mom!

White Elephant Gift Winner!

This year, I again scored Jane’s favorite songs at the Heidi and Kevin’s White Elephant Christmas party.  Jane is eight now, and our musical taste still hasn’t quite lined up.

That “Closer” song by the Chainsmokers is always on the radio.  I kind of like it, even if it’s fairly repetitive and a little too overproduced for my tastes.  Matt was really annoyed by the Kidz Bop Kids version of “Call Me Maybe,” I’m not sure why he cared that much, but he did.

Hopefully I will have a threepeat in 2017.