Well, there is always real poker, which I find myself doing more and more (hey, as long as I'm winning, I'm gonna keep riding this train!). But playing poker is kind of a grind, and I guess if I didn't have to work five nights a week, it would be a little easier. And since I harbor no delusions of becoming a poker pro, well, I'll keep working and finding other ways to occupy my free time.
One thing I've always enjoyed, which is a total stress-reliever, is doing jigsaw puzzles. I don't know why I enjoy it so much, but I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that it allows me to clear my mind, focus on the task at hand, and use both the creative and analytical sides my brain at the same time. It's relaxing and fun at the same time. I've mentioned it before, but I haven't done a puzzle in probably close to five years or more--it's been that long. The problem was, since I sold my condo back in Mesa six years ago, I haven't had a frickin' dining room table. Hard to believe, but it's true.
When I lived with Derek and the 'frat house', my dining room table got moved outside and we used it as a catch-all out on the covered patio. It was generally covered in dust and empty beer bottles until poker night each month, when we'd clean it off and use it as a buffet table for all the pizza and wings. I left it behind when I moved to Tennessee.
And when I got to Vegas, I brought very little in the way of furniture with me, opting for a fresh start in more ways than one. So just the other night when I was at Sam's Club, my main motivation for getting that utility table was so that I'd have a place to do my puzzles. I've had a couple of them sitting unopened for the past year or so, so the first thing I did on Wednesday night was go dig one out of the closet and set the box out on the table.
Of course, Falcon Rob saw it and was unable to resist, so he cracked the seal and we started putting it together around 4:00 am on Thursday morning. Rob had the honor of finding the first two pieces that actually fit together.
While he worked on finding all of the edge pieces, I went to work on the sailboat. It only took me about two hours, but this is the progress that we made before calling it a night. (Clicky for full-sized goodness)
It's a 1500 piece puzzle, and when it's finished, it'll be just short of three feet wide and two feet high. I figured we'd be done inside of a week, but since we both have worked every night since then, we haven't really touched it. Oh, I spent about twenty more minutes on it yesterday, digging through the box and finding a few more edge pieces, and getting the sailboat portion finished all the way down to the lower edge, but that's it so far.
So it looks like it'll probably take more than a week, but in the meantime, it keeps us off the streets, away from the casino, and out of trouble. Of course I'll post a photo once we finish. And then it's on to the next one.
Mikey
No comments:
Post a Comment