We’ve been working on the puzzle for 12 days now. We’ve finally gotten the the entire outline done. The staff has taken to the puzzle a little more readily now and “puzzle breaks” are not so rare anymore.

We did run into a slight problem with the outline. It’s entirely blue and some of the pieces are nearly indentical in shape. We built both sides going toward the center. When we got to the center and had two peices left, they didn’t fit. It took some trial and error to get all the pieces in the right places after that.

Today, a lot of work was completed on some larger features, thanks to Nicole’s creative block on our self-promotional brochure. There are now some features that will be obvious in the photo. I’m sure there will be some good guesses as to what the puzzle depicts, but I’m pretty sure they’ll be wrong at this stage.

Day 6 of R-Design puzzle mania is here. It’s been interesting to see the general reaction of the staff to the puzzle. Raffi and I really had to take the first stab at putting things together. I guess that’s because we can’t really get fired for working on the puzzle too much. Maybe the bosses saying “It’s okay to not work” is such a foreign concept that it takes time for people to get used to.

Anyhow, after only a few days the rest of the staff started taking little 5-10 minute breaks here and there at the puzzle. I’m starting to suspect the cleaning crew might be working on it in the middle of the night, but I can’t verify that. I guess that’s what I need the live webcam for.

So far, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve gotten the vast majority of the pieces flipped over so we can see the images on them. We’ve found the four corners and even completed the entire bottom border of the puzzle. We had a brief hiccup last week when we discovered the puzzle is actually four inches wider than the table top. We solved that problem by covering a piece of styrofoam with postage paper and setting that on top of the table. Yesterday, we discovered that the puzzle is about a half inch bigger that the styofoam. I measured, I swear! Things should work out, though. As we make more connections with the pieces, the puzzle kind of holds itself together – just like a great idea! I’ll spare everyone the metaphor this time.

Today’s hint: The photo is taken from the top of the puzzle looking toward the bottom.