It all started with some good old horse betting. This puzzle took a night or so, in which I analyzed the social hierarchy at the Kentucky Derby in 1924. While puzzling I think I listened to Lana Del Ray’s Off to the Races 1000 times and can tell you that the races Lana goes to are much sluttier than this one.

Then I went home for Christmas break and did this little gem:

All of these were the simple compared to this horrid creature:

That puzzle was only 500 pieces and entitled “Very Berry Nice”. I would like to rename the puzzle “Enough Berries That You Throw Up”

If you are sick of all these puzzle posts.. that makes sense. But I probably won’t stop.

I buy my puzzles at yard sales, flea markets, and Salvation Armies, so I start every puzzle knowing that the person who originally bought it is most likely dead. I have never thought that more than with the puzzle above. When I opened it up it smelled like rotting red wine. That didn’t stop me from finishing it, but I did use half a bottle of perfume to disguise the dreadful scent.

In better news the puzzle I just opened up smells like cardboard!

For decorations I made paper chains out of a holiday JCrew magazine and added newspaper snowflakes using soda can tabs as hooks.

For added festivity I went out into a mysterious wooded area behind my building and cut greens and bittersweet. As for food my roommate and I made reindeer cookies, and peanut butter cup peanut butter cookies. I also made guacamole because everything is way better with guacamole. It’s not in the photo below, because it’s shy and also I forgot to take it out of the fridge.

For invitations I again took inspiration from Kerry at the Tragic Whale with her homemade present tags. I had made a holly stamp last year, but of course threw it out once I was done. The new version of the stamp was made with an eraser and a kitchen knife… and amazingly I still have 10 fingers!

I obviously have no pictures of the actually party since that would be logical, but here is one from before the party of our two fireplaces! Few places have a need for that much fake warmth.

If you wish you had a TV that doubles as a fireplace check out the movie on netflix “Fireplace for your Home” There are two episodes.. I like the first one best, but you can spend hours watching it by yourself to decide.

And no party would be complete without a snow globe of me in the bathroom.

Doesn’t it make you want to pee?!

Embarrassingly when I got back inside and I saw the falling snow outside I just thought of Taylor Swift’s Back to December music video:

TSwift’s relationships are so emotional that it snows inside. Not everyone can say that.

Hahaha.. it’s just more pictures of puzzles! It turns out during end of the semester the only thing I make time for is puzzles.

I finished this 1500 piece puzzle over the weekend. It took me forever.

It’s a funny title, for a fun, historical, interesting, and captivating book written by Mary Ann Shaffer and completed by her niece Annie Barrows after Shaffer faced health issues. The novel follows letters to and from Juliet Ashton, a writer from London, who becomes enchanted with the Island of Guernsey in the English Channel after it’s occupation by Germany in World War II.

Anyway, my mother was the one to recommend this book to me, so here is the letter (okay, well.. email) I wrote to her about the book:

“I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I called to tell you I finished it, but there was no answer and I am happy there wasn’t. It forces me to write a letter. Keep in mind I may be in a sort of mania, since I am slightly sick and spent the whole day in bed blowing my nose and reading.

this is the bed i read in all day. really, i just like to show off my canopy whenever i have an excuse.

“Oh reading! This book rekindled my love of it. Lately as I have been reading I’ve fallen flat. I finished On the Road yesterday and I loved it. It was brilliant. It was a book about being transient, but I looked at the time he was writing of as unattainable to me. I read it while I rode the subway stopping mid-sentence to look up and remind myself of my location. My location within the same America Kerouac explored, but he experienced America in a way I will never be able to (although I doubt I will stop trying anytime soon.)

“The Guernsey Literary Society was less about location, less about going. It was about finding people you love and care about and learning about them and with them. Their location on a beautiful island constantly smelling fresh salty air was merely a happy coincidence. What brought them together was books and a desire to communicate, which is a thing our society never let’s go.

this isn’t from guernsey, but it’s a house on an island. i took it on a trip to canada this summer and while i was reading i thought back to it.

“One unrelated point: Isn’t it interesting that On the Road and The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Society are discussing a time only five or six years apart. I could not imagine two more opposite perspectives on the world. Anyway, I thought the book was tons of fun. I love you and every book you recommend very much.”

After editing that ‘letter’ and putting pictures in I realize how lazy it is to simply reuse a letter and plop it into a blog post, but the world is full of lazier things, I suppose. In conclusion, read this book, or read any book, or just spend a whole day reading. It’s very restorative. Tomorrow I have to return to the real world and find another book to read on the subway.

Coming soon to Hasbro: Autopsy!

Here is the setlist from the concert. It was an amazing collection and between all the songs John Darnielle explained where he was coming from. It gave me a whole new appreciation for his new album Transcendental Youth, which you can stream for free from Rolling Stone.

In other NYC news: I ate a falafel (and dropped a lot of it on myself) right outside of the Comedy Cellar. I imagined Louis CK coming by with a slice of pizza. We would stare into each other eyes and eat together forever. But that didn’t happen.

Like any good American I watched Friday Night Lights. It taught me a lot: what football is, that Taylor Kitsch is very good looking, and where babies come from.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one to be informed and transformed by the show on Texas high school football.

Mitt Romney made his facebook cover photo the motto of the Dillon Panthers, “Clear Eyes. Full Heart. Can’t Lose!” (I have no idea if that is the back of Romney’s head or of Coach Eric Taylor. Either way, it’s extremely square.)