Friday, July 11, 2025

Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back: November 2024 featured a dog, some cats, a coral reef, and some difficult donuts 40, 41, 42, and 43

Galison 500 piece featuring Momo the Dog-this one was from a puzzle night and was so fun to put together.

Ceaco 550 piece Paw Gone Wild with a bunch of cats.  Crazy cat lady is something to be proud of if you are a responsible crazy cat lady.

Milton Bradly 500 piece Coral Reef puzzle which was a bit harder because the edges of the puzzle didn't match the box.

Colorcraft 1000 piece Difficult Donuts.  Enough similar colors to make it "difficult" but enough difference to make it doable.







 

Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back: October 2024 finishing with Sky and Sea 37, 38, and 39

500  piece Nature Anatomy Birds  by Julia Rothman

500 piece Dowdle Noah's Ark Under the Sea

500 piece Ravensburger Beach Sunset





 

Monday, July 07, 2025

Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back: October 2024 with hologram image cats and a Christmas cat 35 and 36

500 piece Giordano Prime 3D puzzle of cats (it has holographic paper so the image shifts in different light or when it's tilted).  

This second picture shows some of the sheen on the pieces.

And I got the lighting to show how some cats had a second pair of eyes depending on how the image viewing.  This view is from a different orientation to get the shot.  It's on the right side of the puzzle roughly in the middle.  The long dark tail is from the cat on the bottom next to the white baseboard.

Then there was a traditional Christmas puzzle from White Mountain of 1000 pieces that was titled Cozy Christmas Cat.







 

Saturday, July 05, 2025

Thursday, July 03, 2025

Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back into our lives September 2024 has eccentricity with puzzles 29, 30, and 31

 

Glow in the dark!

Masterpieces puzzle Moon Fairy 300 piece (missing that one piece in the center-it's much harder to find the missing piece with the glow-in-the-dark picture)

Wave Hopper puzzle that came in a cool metal van container.  No idea who made it or how many pieces.  We thought maybe around 600-700 hundred?  And yes, we checked all over the poster and the metal van for clues but it only had that thrift store price sticker.

Pendelton Mills has this 1000 piece puzzle of Patchwork rugs/quilts/wall hangings.  Mego made this one a lot easier for me to understand by presenting it as 20 small puzzles.  We each picked different designs, completing about 2/3rds of the puzzle, and then worked on the remaining images together.







Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Sunday Randomness #275: Bringing puzzles back into our lives September 2024 has country charm with puzzles 26, 27, and 28

White Mountain 550 piece puzzle Breaktime

Sure Lox 300 piece puzzle Hometown Collection (Fair?)

Masterpieces 300 piece puzzle  Town and Country The Old Country Store



 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Sunday Randomness #304: Letting go of memorabilia (it's just material things...)


These bowling bags, shoes, and bowling balls were left from the previous owners.  We did inquire a number of times about items we found throughout the house. (Not a lot but some things here and there.) The answer was always "It's yours now. You can decide what you want to do with it."  We had thought about keeping the bowling equipment and we did. But after 10 years we decide it was high time to let them go.  It really didn't look like we were going to take up bowling anytime soon, if ever.

One had a black ball with the metallic gold sparkles.  The other had a dip ball with brown, black and ivory swirls throughout. From the bowling logs, it looks as though they played often. I'm glad the equipment saw a lot of use with the previous owners.



 

Saturday, June 07, 2025

Cookbook club from fandom cookbooks part 2 of 2


B-B shows off a selection of Disney cookbooks including ones from Disney Parks, Christmas, and Encanto.


B-B (in his House scarf!) surrounded by cookbooks from the Harry Potter fandom.


B wears a silver snood to celebrate American Girl cookbooks.  Thank you to Vintage Hairstyling for a great introduction to snoods: https://vintagehairstyling.com/bobbypinblog/2017/12/28-pictures-of-vintage-hair-snoods-that-will-make-you-want-to-wear-your-snood-tomorrow.html


B is ready for the bake-off with her wooden spoon!



Have a desire to cook like a Wizard or Elf or Geek?  B shows us that the library has the book for you as she wears her red wizard robes.









 

Thursday, June 05, 2025

Cookbook club from fandom cookbooks part 1 of 2

Our local library branch will host the monthly cookbook club near the end of June.  The cookbook theme this month is Fandoms.  I thought it would be fun to see just a small slice of the wide selection of cookbooks that are available at the Salt Lake County Library System!


We go from Tenacious Tomato Salad, Meaty Mushroom Quasadillas, and Chicken Mole Enchilades in Waffles + Mochi Get Cooking to Rose's Cheese-Flan-Cake-Thingy, Blanche's Fortieth Birthday Cheesecake Squares, Dorothy's Straight Outta Brooklyn Creamy Cheesecake, and Sophia's Cannoli Cheesecake from The Golden Girls Cookbook: Cheesecakes and Cocktails!



Dolly Parton and her sister got together to write Good Lookin' Cookin'.  This bright yellow cookbook includes classics like Country Potato Salad, an appetizer called Chicken Feed, "Witches' Brew Cider (with or without alcohol), Slaw of Many Colors, and Mama's Banana Pudding.



If you look at The Unofficial ELF Cookbook by Jacki Alpers you'll find recipes for: Not-for-Reindeer Maple Syrup-Glazed Carrots, Stir-Fried Beige Cubes, Sweet and Sparkly Popcorn, and "Son of a Nutcracker" Cheese Ball.



Studio Ghibli Cookbook with Unofficial Recipes Inspired by Spirited Away, Ponyo, and More!
This cookbook includes lots of full color pictures of the finished dishes and color pictures of how to make each dish!  Dishes include:
  • Ramen, Mushroom and Chicken Stir-Fry, Vanilla Sponge Cake, and the Herring and Pumpkin Pie (from Kiki's Delivery Service)


The Chuck E. Cheese and Friends Party Cookbook has some of the following recipes:

  • Rooty Tooty Fruit Salad with fresh fruit and a bright cereal like fruit loops or fruity pebbles. 
  •  Oven-Fried Chicken Fingers with parmesan cheese and fresh parsley  
  • Kansas City BBQ Chicken Pizza with two kinds of cheese and Kansas City style BBQ sauce






 

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Sunday Randomness #243: April Bear sightings

Licking out a dish

More licking out a dish

"All the better to smell you with, my dear!"

Look at those sensory nasal bumps!

Another tennis ball out to get the B-B!  Poor boy is so frustrated.
 

Nothing like a good grass roll after tennis!

Sunday, April 20, 2025

Sunday Randomness: #241: Moving a plum tree



 Mego was kind enough to help me dig a new hole and dig up the plum tree in the backyard.  The plum tree was close to a down spout and the roots were getting washed out every spring.  The tree already had a 45 degree lean from the washout damage and was threatening to fall on the smaller apricot tree that was doing fine until the plum tree started leaning.  The tree is now transplanted and we'll wait out at least a year to see if it's successful.  We did get some root stimulator and good soil to give it a chance to start growing anew in the different spot.  It will also get more sun but also some reflected heat from bricks in the new location.





He's making it look like it's just a big stick but the tree is actually quite heavy!  

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Sunday Randomness #270: Obstacle course and zip line in a pet store!

On a fairly recent trip there was a pet store with an obstacle course and small zip line at the end of the course.  The course went around the ceiling of the pet store and there was a brave kid who went on it several times.  The pictures and video are poor but hopefully you get the idea.  It's a novel concept and I'd never seen anything like it before!














The store also had a full size (small) pirate ship along with some amazing decor like a car packed for an adventure.

Skull fountain

In store fish pond