Sunday Post 130

Hi everyone!

Through Monday, I am linking with the following: 

Reading Reality, who hosts Stacking the Shelves

Readerbuzz, who hosts Sunday Salon

Caffeinated Reviewer, who hosts Sunday Post

The Book Date, who hosts It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Last week I told you about the speed puzzling competition, which took place today (Saturday). We had three hours to complete a 500-piece puzzle. My tiny but mighty team of two called Pixie Puzzlers (I named us) had two goals. One was simply to have fun and the other was to not finish last. 

Welp. We accomplished the first goal of having fun. The second goal, not so much. Yep. We finished...drum roll please.................LAST! 

There were ten teams of up to four people each who had the same puzzle. Those who were on the waiting list were allowed to compete against each other, but they had a completely different puzzle. It took my team two hours and twenty minutes to finish. We're just glad we did finish before the three hours were up and, as I said, we had fun. 

The next competition likely won't be until August and we are definitely planning to do it again. Honestly, it just felt good to complete a puzzle in one afternoon. Oh! And guess what! we were awarded prizes for our perseverance!! My friend received a gift card to Target and I received a gift card to Amazon. (Actually, they let us choose and my friend didn't have a preference, so I chose the one that would allow me to buy the most amount of books/e-books.) So we did walk away with prizes after all. Also, we got to keep the puzzle. I have more room to store puzzles than my friend does, so I brought it home.

Here is the puzzle all ten registered teams completed. It was harder than the last puzzle we did, but easier than we thought it was going to be. And we still finished last. LOL.

IN THE BOOKS

RECENTLY FINISHED

🍄🍄🍄🍄
I listened to Long Overdue at the Lakeside Library (Lakeside Library Mystery 2), written by Holly Danvers and narrated by Allyson Ryan. I enjoyed the subplots, and the mystery was fine, but I would have preferred more sleuthing. I was a bit taken aback when the word "handicap" was used to describe a disabled person. The correct term is "disabled". 

IN PROGRESS

Week 10 in The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, written by Margaret Renkl and illustrated by Billy Renkl, is mostly about crows, which I love. The author also mentioned being able to see birds more clearly on the bare trees during the winter. This is one of the things I have always loved about winter. It's so much easier to spot the birds, and yes, they are still around at this time of year.

I'm about 40% through At Death's Dough (Deep Dish Mystery 5), by Mindy Quigley. There was one part that was a bit slow for me, but overall I am really enjoying this one. As I approach the halfway point, I'm excited to see how everything unfolds.

UP NEXT

Murder in a Lavender Daze (Aroma Wellness Mystery 2), by Daryl Wood Gerber, will be my next read. This book releases at the end of April, but I was given a physical ARC to read and review. I'm excited to dive into this one. I really enjoyed the first one, Essence of Foul Play.

My next audiobook listen will be Murder by Cheesecake (Golden Girls 1), by Rachel Ekstrom Courage. Now that I'm more familiar with the characters in the television series, I'm really excited to finally listen to this one.

ON THE SCREEN

• The Traitors - I finished watching seasons 1 and 2. The cast in season 2 took some getting used to, but once I did, I was all in. Overall, it was better than the first season because of the way the cast played the game. I loved watching how their strategies would play out. I was surprised how the end unfolded. I will likely skip the third and fourth seasons since they are rated MA. The first two seasons were rated TV14, which meant there was less profanity. I typically don't watch anything that's rated in MA. However, I know that they will be filming a non-celebrity season soon, which will be rated TV14. I'd love to tune in for that one whenever it airs.
• Psych - I'm still doing some episode hopping with this show. What is your favorite Psych episode? I don't want anything heavy. I'd like to rewatch the more light-hearted ones.
• The Brady Bunch - I'm about halfway through the first season. I'm not sure why some episodes don't air on television. I'm hoping eventually they will.
• All Things Valentine - I rewatched this 2016 Hallmark movie and I still love it. That's the only Hallmark movie I watched all week!

ON THE BLOG

• Sunday Post - 02/21 - Weekly Recap
• Puzzle - 02/28 - Puzzle Puzzle

Have a great week!