White Tiger

It appears that already I am coming in late with a new post.

I am proud of myself though as I’ve been working on the white tiger puzzle for several hours now and am actually taking a break to write this (shocking, I know).

How? You may ask.

My audio book ended and I didn’t start another one (another shocker, I know, but yes, this is real life – unfortunately, I doubt I will become as popular as post-dentist David because of it).

Now that I have confirmed that all of your hearts are working (having survived reading my absolutely mind-blowing announcement), we can get to business: the white tiger puzzle.

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The Business

Thursday (7.30.15; around 1:41 am to be exact) I called it quits for the night.

After all, I did have to be a grown up and go to work in the morning (contrary to my Puzzle-Nighter where I had no commitments for the following day – regardless, obsessive puzzling    all     night     long     is not encouraged, just to be clear).

Sadly, crawling into bed at ridiculous hours was a recurring theme this past week (shame on me).

I was super excited at all the progress I had made that night though:

White tiger puzzle progress – 7.30.15

I love how, in my haste to take the picture so I could go to bed, I managed to put the right eye in the correct location (or close enough). The two-eyed-one-of-which-is-floating-in-the-dark-matter stare is definitely preferable to the one-eyed stare.

10 days ago, this is what I had accomplished so far:

(I mean, come on, that is some serious progress.)

Enter Friday evening, the next time I worked on the puzzle and yet another night I worked on my puzzle well beyond my “bed time”. (I was naughty, and when my audio book stopped around 10:00 pm [the perfect opportunity stop puzzling and to go to bed], I started another [“accidentally”  eliminating said opportunity]. Oops!)

After working on the puzzle for a few hours today (Saturday), I am still very happy with the progress I’m making:

White tiger progress – 8.1.15

Sorry about the puzzle pieces all over the face obscuring the picture (kind of looks like the tiger has a skin condition). You’ll just have to wait for me to finish to see it in all its glory!

I have a distinct feeling that if I keep at it (in my typical one-track-minded way), I could finish the puzzle before going to sleep tonight (which would hopefully be before 12:00 am).

Due to a couple of reasons, I am anxious to complete the puzzle.

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The Reasons

First off, there is always the concern of lost pieces. I have successfully toppled the box full of pieces (scattering them across the floor and who knows where else) at least twice now. Smooth move, right?

Wrong.

Additionally, those little stinkers I call my cats (namely ‘the boys’) can be…problematic in this department (to say the least). One must never forget that, to their way of thinking, puzzle pieces = toys (along with anything and everything else they can get their paws on).

David [L] & Bruce [R]

If I happen to be missing any pieces at the end of this journey, I will be faced with the same problem as with the beach puzzle.

Second, the puzzle is so thin and light that, even mostly put together, it still doesn’t weigh down the roll up.

This is irritating for several reasons:

1. The pieces won’t lay flat. I can’t run my hand over the puzzle without running the risk of catching the edge of one and disassembling that portion of the puzzle.
2. I also run the risk of dismantling the puzzle when I shift the roll up. Anywhere the felt may rise or bunch up results in pieces separating.
3. I cannot maneuver the puzzle on the felt without such dismemberment occurring. They just aren’t heavy/strong enough to stay interconnected.

It’s stressful constantly feeling the need to walk on the proverbial egg shells.

Speaking of eggs, though, if you would like to feel like a ninja, BuzzFeed has the answer.

Needless to say, I am looking forward to being able to put coat after coat after coat of Mod Podge on the back of this puzzle to hold the whole thing together     permanently.