Author: admin (Page 17 of 89)

This is the second time I’ve put this one together and I’d say it is my favorite. Lots of detail and an interesting shape, too.

I know – more appropriate for Christmas, but that was just the one I grabbed.

Having just found my box of puzzles and put a couple together in the past few days, I thought I would share some things about me and puzzles. A lot of people enjoy putting puzzles together, but we are not all the same (obviously) and our reason for doing puzzles is very different, I am sure.

As for me, I don’t really want a challenge when I put together a puzzle. My life is full of challenges, so I am looking for something engaging, but that I can be successful at without much trouble. It needs to be relaxing, or I simply don’t do it. I put all the pieces out, then put them all back in the box a couple months later, without having ever put together more than, possibly, the border. The things that make it too hard for me are the number of pieces – anything much over 300 doesn’t fit on the table in a way that I have room to put the puzzle together while I can still see all the pieces – and the size of the pieces – small pieces don’t have enough “information” on them for me to be able to figure out where they go. So small pieces if the puzzle is very detailed are okay. But hundreds of small pieces all the same basic color does not make for an enjoyable experience for me. There have been occasions where I worked for a couple hours and only found places for three or four pieces. I just don’t have that much patience!

So my favorite puzzles are 300 piece puzzles with “large, easy-to-handle pieces.” It may seem like no challenge to  you, but for me, it is something I can put together in a couple sittings and have fun doing, then store it away until I put it together again next year or the year after.

I’m saying all this because I really do appreciate that you give me puzzles as gifts, but I suffer a lot of guilt because of not following through and putting them together when they are just way beyond my personal level of “puzzle enjoyment.” I hope you don’t take this wrong! And truth be told, I really enjoy putting together the 300 piece “easy” puzzles!

And it took less than two hours to put it together, once I got started on it. It is actually quite big. Now I need to mount it on cardboard.

I’m making food for the recitals tomorrow. I still don’t have a plan, but it is early. Brownies, for sure. I may even frost them this year, since I’m starting early in the day. Then some other bar that isn’t chocolate. Maybe lemon bars – I haven’t made them in quite a while. Punch, of course, and bowls of skittles and m&ms. I only have 14 kids playing, total, so don’t need the mountain of food that Erica does.

Then, later in the day, I’ll go over to the senior center and get all the chairs set up and the piano moved out a bit, so I don’t have to do much tomorrow. The first recital is at 1:30, so people will be arriving shortly after 1:00 and I don’t even get home from church until noon.

I may have mentioned about the vocal instructor up at the college missing a lot of lessons this semester. Well, anyway, a couple of the students petitioned the head of the music department about canceling juries and she did. I was supposed to have to be there for several hours today doing that, and I didn’t have to go, which was great. I still get paid by the students as though I had, though, since I spent all that time preparing with them.

The student recital was yesterday and it went fine. I played for six different people, plus a duet. All-in-all it was a weird semester, though, with my having to do so much of the work with the students alone. I’m glad its over and next year I’ll be working with Beth Joosten both with the lessons and with the Red Cedar choir.

Nothing new to report on the suit. I talked for a long time with our attorney on the phone the other day and that was calming and encouraging, although we may have quite a battle ahead, since these people will stop at nothing and don’t care who gets hurt in the process.

The conference was good, but I was pretty lonely being there all by myself with absolutely no one I knew at all. But I did get a chance to watch like 5 continuous hours of HGTV yesterday evening. I got home at about 4:30 today. Nothing terribly exciting planned for the weekend. Next week is the week before the recital on Sunday, plus I think I’ll be getting ready for the high school spring concert. For sure I’ll be getting ready for and playing for the UWBC student recital and juries which are on Wednesday and Thursday.

The community Center board meeting went quite well last night. There was nothing nasty said at all – quite a relief for me, because I dread what I’ll be subjected to at those meetings. We discussed proposed changes to the job description, which had been updated by Carole Morgan and another sharp guy just a few years ago, and ended up agreeing that most of it was just fine. We tweaked a couple minor things was all.

I got a call from the papers-server, so I can be there when he serves my papers on Monday. I’m not even sure what I do with them – just give them to the City, because their insurance company’s lawyer is representing us all? There is an article regarding the suit on the front page of today’s Chetek Alert, if you are interested.

I’m heading to Appleton after lessons today (around 6:00) for a conference there tomorrow and Friday. I’m looking forward to being away!

Solo/ensemble in Eau Claire on Saturday. It was the warmest, most beautiful State music contest in my memory. But I did realize that I’ve been going there for at least 24 years, so I may have forgotten another nice one! I played for 8 events and they were spread throughout the whole day – 8:30 – 3:20 or something like that. So I got a lot of opportunity to listen to vocalists being critiqued, which is always helpful. It was a relaxing day, all-in-all. I think 4 events got 1 and 4 got two. My piano student got a 2, but I hadn’t even had a lesson with him since district, because it was so close to State, then we were gone a week and a half.

Today was another day up at UW-BC. The instructor was gone again, but I knew in advance she was having some sort of surgery today. The students are really not prepared for recital and juries, which are coming up really soon. She has missed four of their lessons this semester so far. That makes it hard for them to be prepared. And all but one of them are not good enough on the piano to learn the pieces themselves, which is also a problem. Next Monday (hopefully she will be there) is our last chance to practice before the recital. Yikes!

I’m being sued. Yes, the mean ladies are actually suing the city, me, the mayor, I’m not sure who else… I can’t imagine it will go very far, but it is very, VERY annoying. At least I won’t have to pay for it, because the City carries insurance for this sort of thing and it covers me, as a City employee. WHEN WILL THIS END???