Is It Friday Yet?

 Normally I have no complaints about the week, they all seem to run together.  Though this week has been one I'm ready to be over.  Had some issues with the apartment this week, which has finally started to work itself out, so I can move on from it.  Because of those issues, I had to move my entire movie shelf and a bunch of my stuff, so its very cramped.  Silver lining though is that despite probably not being able to put the stuff back for a bit, at least when I can, I'll be able to give everything a nice spring cleaning.  Not trying to specifically dance around the subject, but there was a water leak.  A few hiccups throughout the week, but its been decided, that a section of the carpet will be replaced with tile, and everyone seems to be happy with the outcome.  Until then though it wouldn't be wise to put everything back.

With all that being said, I've wanted to post for a few days now but have been preoccupied.  So now as I start to write this, nothing I have to post was a big deal or all exciting.  Well a couple things might be, but most of it is mundane, so I might find a few other things to show as well.

I think today I'll show the fun stuff.  Last week my friend stopped by, and he gave me a birthday gift.  He said it wasn't much, but I disagree.  It is really cool, and not only that, it displays well too (once I can put it in its rightful place.

He always gives the best gifts, and this was no exception.  He bought this 250 piece puzzle, which I finished in about an hour (the hour of 2 AM) and it looks really cool.  Even better is the box it came in displays really nice and is handy in case my nieces and nephews visit and want to do something.  He even had Mario wrapping, which not knowing what was inside allowed me to do a subpar Mario impression, which made the gift even better.

My favorite part is it is inside of a tin, which even without the box displays well.  It looks like a NES cartridge and combines my gaming and tin collections. I was discussing with my friend which Mario game was my favorite.  I only really played NES, so among the original 3, I couldn't decided between 1 and 3.  I never cared for 2 that much, but if they ever made puzzles for those or any other that are packaged like this I'd have to consider getting them.

Last post I mentioned getting a Chromebook.  Since then I've used it a bit, as I didn't plan on using it all the time anyways, but without the events of the week, might have used it more.  I'm easing into it and learning a few things.  One thing it has allowed me to do is sync my photos from the computer to it but even then, I'm not sure I'll use it to write blogs.  I like to crop and edit the photos I use, and it seems there is extra steps when using the Chromebook.  My goal is to use the Chromebook for most of my internet stuff, and then keep using my desktop for any other stuff I need to do and blogging.  I even looked into getting a chromecast for the TV so I can mirror the screen.  That would allow me to watch Youtube without using the roku app that has a ton of commercials.  I don't think I'll do that anytime soon though, I have other things to do and might be busy doing that first.

Before I thought about the Chromecast, I finally used the gift cards I got for Amazon at Christmas.  It took a while because there were a few "needs" yet nothing "fun" so I wanted something fun to arrive with the needs.  In the end, I was happy with the results.

I BOUGHT PLASTIC!  Well, I mentioned a few months back I won a signed Funko from Gabriel Iglesias.  Since then I haven't displayed it because the apartment gets real dusty (we live fairly close to a Co-op, or to some a grain elevator), so I wanted to get a Pop protector before displaying it.  I was originally going to get a pack of 24, but decided on pack of 6 because not only do I only have one Pop, but because I don't plan to build an empire of them, at least anytime soon.  Plus it saved me a bit of money to spend elsewhere.  As I was cropping photos I realized I didn't take any of the protector in its finished state or how he's protecting the Pop.  It really is a piece of plastic, and it does the job so I'm not mad.  At least I don't need more until I get 5 more Pops, or find something to display in these.  That is if I feel like getting the plastic in its square shape (which I don't).

The next two items were things I've wanted for a year, and finally got them.  The first is a phone case.  I like the phone I have but Samsung A11 cases aren't the most stocked or I guess discounted.  I've had my eye on a few, but I'm cheap.  I found this one and got it.  I'm not going to say I'm glad I have it, as it doesn't seem much like an upgrade on the one I had, and the screen protector seems a bit small, so I haven't installed it.  That said it was a fair price and it should do its job and I can keep the other one as a backup.  The final item is a tablet cover for the Fire tablet I got for my mom.  These versions of the Fire tablet I guess had a different size or shape because you needed a specific case for it, maybe because of the button settings or camera.  Anyways a couple months ago we found one while Savvy shopping for 50 cents, but it was much bigger and not great, covered the camera, and buttons.  I knew I would get a better case, and found this one.  So far my mom likes it and its much better.  I especially like the grips on the back and its much easier to hold.  It's a perfect fit too.

So far, everything is good, and while a bit boring, gift card money well spent.  So now I needed some fun.  What to get?  I thought about a few things- a vhs to pc converter to copy vhs tapes to my computer, a few movies on DVD or blu ray, a fan for my old computer (but that wouldn't be fun or even solve the problem), random crap?  Who knows, that's why I took so long to decide.  At one time I had a dry erase board in my cart that was a large size to do large puzzles on.  Good price but a bit boring.  Then the price doubled and got even higher, so I removed that.  Once I found a monocular.  You can use it with your phone to zoom in even more, which would be fun.  It was on sale and would only need to add a few bucks to the gift card.  However I thought if I would use it that much.  I decided not, plus it went back to the original price which was 3 times the price.  So finally I decided what to get- puzzles.  I spent more times on puzzles than almost anything else the last year, so why not at least browse.  So I looked and found about 10 or so I somewhat liked.  A couple pricy ones, some really cheap.  Still deciding I thought I'd look at the Funko Pops knowing I'd have a way to protect them.  I almost got one or two, but went back to puzzles.  Finally I decided I would get two, and after pricing it out, think I owed 3 bucks out of pocket.  Not a bad deal.  So what did I decide on?

This one looked fun, and even though I like photo puzzles over drawing or painting ones, this one is an exception.  It makes me look forward to my town's 150th birthday festival coming up in June.  While this puzzle could be more exciting than what they have planned, both should be fun.  We got started on this puzzle and had the outside finished as well as a few other pieces when we started having the issues in the apartment.  So we took the puzzle down since the troubled area was where we was putting the puzzle together.  I think we'll get back to it later today and might not take that long.  I can't wait to finish it and take a picture to show the finished outcome.

This next one I was super happy to find, and spawned an idea of a theme month of puzzles.

I am so ready to do this puzzle.  We put it off second because we figured we'd finish the other one first and about the time we finish this one my sister would visit.  We could jump the gun on this but think we'll hold off.  Either way, whenever we get to it, it will be worth the wait.  Might even have to get a Reese's or two to celebrate.  My mom always says she wants an Almond Joy but can't eat the almonds anymore, so I thought this would be a way to appease her.  She liked it.

The other reason to do this second is to kick off a theme month of puzzles.  We've never done a theme outside of doing snowy ones in the winter and summer-y ones in the summer.  For this month however, we will be redoing some older puzzles as we celebrate a month of food.

I think we might even have more, but this was all that was handy.  I think the toughest one last time was the M&M one.  The Cracker Jack one took a while, but wasn't really hard.  The pizza one is quick, and honestly I don't remember doing the pretzel one, but know I did.  Even starting a few days late, I think we should have these all finished before Easter which was the idea to begin with.

We decided to do a few easier/quick ones because we just completed our first 2000 piece puzzle.  It was fun, but large and took a while.  It wasn't as much exhausting as it was just wanting to finish it towards the end.  We have 3-4 more that size and will get to them in a month or two.  At this point I think we still have about 12-15 puzzles we haven't done yet and I'm sure we'll find more.  We usually keep all the puzzles we finish, but if we have a garage sale this year, we might purge a few.  As of now we have room in storage for them, so no real need to purge them yet, but I'm sure we'll find more to add to the collection this year.

To be honest, this was a fairly easy 2000 piece puzzle.  The worst part was just the fact we couldn't turn it around to work on the top or the sides like we are use to.  Instead to work on the sky, we just turned the table around for a while.  It actually took a week or less, which was shorter than some 1000 piece ones we've done.  I think this will be a fun one to do again in the future.

It's been a long week, lol.  I just realized that one was only 1000 pieces.  That's because THIS was the 2000 piece one.  It was also a fun puzzle and I'm not sure where the photo is for this one I know I took a few.  This one did take a while, but it wasn't really hard. I think the toughest part was the trees and the water.  Even then it wasn't bad once we got in a groove.  This was one of the cheap ones we got a few months back.  I really need to find the finished pic.

This will be one we work on once food month is over.  It was another recent one we got discounted.  I should have showed it last time but missed it.  Sorry, my mind is all over, did I post the 2000 piece picture last time?  Maybe I need check this stuff out first.  Oh well.  Maybe I should wrap this up.

I think I will stop here, I have a few more things to show, but I'll do that next time.  By then I should have a puzzle or two complete, and some of those older food puzzles I'm sure I've shown on here before.  Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I think I'll learn a bit more about the Chromebook, work on a puzzle and do a little house cleaning.  Hopefully the weather will be nice next week so I can go to storage a few days.