Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Puzzling

My kid has a new skill: he is a master puzzle builder. He has already completed more puzzles than I ever have in my life. He is, at this very moment, doing a wacky Wasgij puzzle with Madhubby, Olie, and Lizzie. 

Wasgij puzzles are different from the usual run-of-the-mill puzzle because the picture on the box is not a picture of the completed puzzle. The box picture is a snapshot from the angle of something in the puzzle. 

For example, in Bear Necessities, the puzzle my family is working on, the image is what the moose in the puzzle sees or, essentially, the opposite of the image on the box. Follow me? It's confusing to me but so much fun for my family because they are always up for a puzzle challenge. 

I don't know what it is that turns me off about puzzles. It could be that I am just not a details person. I want to go immediately to the big picture and searching for those teeny-tiny puzzle pieces with just the right amount of red on this end to match with the red on that end makes me wanna smack someone. So I help with the easy stuff - building the outer puzzle frame - and I leave the tough stuff to them. 

It still qualifies as "family time." We all cooperate and work together to build the puzzle and, when my part is done, no one minds when I slip away to the living room with my cup of tea and the latest Self magazine. 

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