The French Defeated Again

The Puzzle From Hell

It rained all day yesterday so I had a couple hours to spend with my favorite French puzzle, a gift from my daughter purchased on her trip to Paris.  As you can see from the attached photo I finally vanquished the puzzle from hell.  Whoever designed this thing was truly a sadist as the pieces were carefully carved around color changes to make it even more difficult.  Most puzzles have interlocking pieces so the puzzle doesn’t fall apart if someone breathes on it (that in fact happened).  Every time Buddy brushed by the table I had to do repair work on the damned thing.  It actually became a mission.  In truth I enjoyed the challenge, as frustrating as it was.  To insure this particular puzzle does not inflict the same level of emotional pain on anyone else I am going to glue it together.  Due to recent remonstrations from my sister and daughter on my failure to reveal health issues I am reporting a case of poison ivy on my arm.  When we first bought this house it was surrounded by poison ivy, something twenty seven years in the infantry taught me to respect.  I spent the next six years on a dedicated eradication effort and learned which areas out back to avoid.  I paid for it with repeated outbreaks but last year I went the whole year without any.  I foolishly bragged about this to my visiting friend this past weekend, he had also been victimized in the past here.  Of course I woke up this morning with the tell tale itching on my left forearm.  I tried to think back of where I had been over the weekend.  I didn’t venture into any of the areas where it still exists but then remembered that Buddy was not aware of any of these restrictions and loved to adventure back into the “wilderness” behind our yard.  He has taken to parking himself next to me on the couch when I watch TV and that is the spot on my arm that is affected.  So Buddy has now added “Typhoid Mary” to his list of accomplishments.  Screw that, I’m going to blame the French.

My French Dog - Looking Awful Guilty This Morning