Hello there! Welcome to the Spring 2024 edition of “What’s Wrong With This Puzzle?”

Here in the land of ice and snow, there’s been so little of either that one can barely notice the mild winter oozing into the start of spring. But the calendar tells me it’s coming. Soon the birds will wake me way too early with incessant tweeting and the rabbits and I will startle each other in the garden until one of us dashes under the deck in terror, leaving behind only the satisfying thud of a little head knocking against lattice...CONTINUE READING

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Hello there! We’ve taken one whole trip around the sun together since I started this Puzzle Ambassador gig, so I feel like we know each other well enough that I can share my art projects with you. Don’t worry, I won’t send my clippings, just art projects. 

When I’m not busy Googling myself, I occasionally search the Puzzle Warehouse website for my own design, a PuzzleTwist puzzle called Intentional Kindness. And I was delighted to find it available a couple of months ago...CONTINUE READING

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Hello there! It’s that time of year when snow starts to blanket older, grayer snow and evolution earns a big thumbs-down as citrus season conveniently collides with chapped-lip season. It’s the time when bakers everywhere hole up in the kitchen to create their holiday masterpieces to share with family and friends, a messy process that we do in private so as to not frighten those who will later be putting the treats into their mouths...CONTINUE READING

Hello there! I’m back from my first ever trip abroad, where I both loitered at and competed in a massive international jigsaw puzzle contest.  The contest was 4 days solid of puzzling, where contestants could compete in up to 7 rounds of competition in a geodesic dome with naturally good lighting in a town where 15th-century buildings nestle among modern apartments and shops, where the public garbage cans are consistently undersized for the number of people in any given space, and where food is both reasonably portioned and reasonably priced...CONTINUE READING

Hello there! What a month it’s been. I just got back from my first-ever trip overseas – to the world jigsaw puzzle contest. That trip, of course, followed several months of puzzle practice and neglecting my family. But I haven’t had time to write about it or even get my thoughts in order yet, so more on that next month. 

For today’s quick jaunt through the puzzleverse, I’d like to take a moment to focus on puzzles from the Warehouse that have, uh, issues. Specific issues that make me ask: What is wrong with this puzzle?...CONTINUE READING

Hello there! Back in May, I took the social part of my Ambassador role to heart, and I threw a 150-guest backyard shindig. Fast-forward to very recently – several months post-party – when I was doing a little yardwork and I discovered a single remnant from the party that missed the compost bin and in doing so managed to delight, but not surprise, me...CONTINUE READING

Hello there! I’ve been seeing those little neighborhood libraries around my neighborhood and thinking how much better they’d be if they had puzzles in them. Naturally, in spite of lacking any real skills, knowledge, or power tools, I thought, “I can do that!” and I set out to make one for my yard. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you!…CONTINUE READING

Hello there! I had to take a break from puzzling to “be a parent,” but now I’m back to regular puzzling and my never-ending search of the Puzzle Warehouse catalog for the perfect practice puzzles for my upcoming trip to the world jigsaw puzzle contest.But I want to take a moment to acknowledge some puzzle mash-ups at the Warehouse that are unexpected and some that are just unexplainable. Never fear! I’ll take a shot at explaining them anyway. CONTINUE READING

Hello there! It’s been another month of especially vigorous puzzling at the Puzzle Ambassador’s Residence, and right after pausing my stopwatch to chase the cat up the stairs and grab a slobber-soaked puzzle piece out of his jaw, I had to wonder whether his contributions were actually helping or hindering my puzzling on the whole. CONTINUE READING