Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #5

Warning!  This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

This week's puzzle is "The Missing Piece" and it's really more of an ad for a new defunct fashion(?) website veer.com.  The goal of the puzzle is to find the mystery code word and then add $500.00 into your cart and use the coupon code to save $100.00.  

Better hurry because this offer is only good from May 1st to June 15th, 2007!

In reality, you do not need to solve the puzzle.  You just need the central area.  The pieces are easy to sort into the four made-up movie posters and then leaving the central round clue word area to for an easy piece together.

The back of the box has the puzzle solution with a "see side for details" where the codeword is hidden in the puzzle.  

We did this puzzle on a green felt puzzle roller/saver thinking that it might take a bit longer to put together the 550 pieces. Nope, we finished it in one night. 

Code: CASECLOSED

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #4

Warning!  This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

This week's puzzle is actually a three in one!  Cluster Puzzles "Figments," "Animals," and "Doodles."
Cluster Puzzles were created by artist/designer Alex Palmer and my edition was published by Cadaco sometime between 1977 and 1988.

Each of these puzzles has a common theme in that they have no straight edge border, all irregularly shaped pieces, no full image on the box, and a clue card to help fit each piece together with one other.

Examples of the clue card might include "Giraffe: I'm glad I have the Squirrel to help hold up my neck." 

All three of them finish off rectangular-ish in shape.  The pieces of thin and often slide over each other while placing more complicated pieces into small groves.  They were a challenge and without the clue cards, I doubt I would have stuck with all three of them.
 

Top of the box. 

 Completed Animals (#1) Puzzle.

 Completed Figments (#2) Puzzle.

Completed Doodles (#5) Puzzle. 

 Thanks for reading!

Dr. Alex

Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #3

Warning! This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

This week's mystery puzzle is a 323 piece puzzle called The Plymouth Express - by Agatha Christie and published by BePuzzled. 

The storybook contains two short stories by Agatha Christie - The Plymouth Express taken from The Underdog and Other Stories and The Tape-Measure Murder taken from Three Blind Mice and Other Stories.  Only The Plymouth Express works with the puzzle.  The second story is just a bonus and pure joy. 

The story is, of course, well written: it is written by Agatha Christie.  The puzzle was fun with only a few hard to notice area - the wooden floor and a wooden dresser with a mirror. 

The clue to the puzzle is well visualized and ties in well to solving the mystery.  The cat is totally random. 

Now, no to the pictures:

WOW!!!  Look at those calves! 

Completed puzzle!

Thanks for reading!

Dr. Alex

Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #2

Warning! This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

This week's puzzle solve and reveal is "Who Said That?" A Quiz Jigsaw Puzzle by Buffalo Games.

Yes, this puzzle has 252 pieces that all interlock together. This type of puzzle is really two puzzles in one. First, match the picture with the famous quote. Second, match the two pieces with their surroundings so that the background image is that of JFK. There are also tops of heads and bottoms of collars that need to match as an added guide.

Sadly, the background image is just a fine shade of grey. Even darker areas such as the eyes and the nostrils are less precise than one desires. Thankfully the back of the box has a mini partial solution.

The full puzzle (minor error on the bottom row.)

Four close-ups of the puzzle:

You can tell that I should have switched Mark Twain and Carl Jung before taking these photos.  The tops of the heads don't match up.
Overall, fun to find the quotes and pictures, but a pain to match up to the larger JFK image.  

It was interesting that there was already a JFK quote in the puzzle.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Mystery Puzzle SPOILER #1

Warning! This post contains spoilers to a mystery puzzle.

For the past several weeks my wife and I have been working on several different mystery puzzles during the evening when our daughters are asleep. Often these have a short story to set the scene. We then solved the puzzle, where the final puzzle image is NOT the image on the box. Finally, we use the clues in the puzzle to solve the crime/mystery/murder from the short story.

We've had a lot of fun reading the stories and finding the clues hidden in the puzzle. I wanted to share some of these fun final solutions on this blog.

The puzzle that I'm going to reveal is titled "Garfield Seek and find jigsaw puzzle - Camp Out." It's made for ages 6 and up and contains 96 pieces. Published by Great American Puzzle Factory. After completing this puzzle, the added challenge of locating 5 bats and 3 flashlights that are hiding in this picture.

The completed image.

The 5 bats in 3 flashlights.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Washington state’s 2019 CDC Childhood Immunization Champion!

This is the start of National Infant Immunization Week (NIIW)!  The CDC uses this time to highlight the importance of protecting infants from vaccine-preventable diseases and to celebrate the achievements of immunization programs and their partners in promoting healthy communities.

A few days ago I was notified that I am Washington state’s 2019 CDC Childhood Immunization Champion!



The CDC Childhood Immunization Champion Award is an annual award given jointly by the Association of Immunization Managersexternal icon (AIM) and CDC to recognize individuals who make a significant contribution toward improving public health through their work in childhood immunization.

Each year, up to one CDC Childhood Immunization Champion from each of the 50 states, 8 U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States, and the District of Columbia is honored.

Thank you to Pacific Medical Centers and all the great team members, teamwork, and support from our Bothell, Washington Clinic that contributed to this year's success.

Thank you to Snohomish Health District for being an active team and providing guidance to help keep our patients safer and healthier.

Thank you, also, to great media partners like Q13 FOX, Marni Hughes, and Tatevik Aprikyan who never seem to get tired of having me in the studio and modeling a different #bowtie.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Alex

Belt - a 100 word story

Weekly Challenge for December 23rd 2018 with the topic of “Belt”

by Dr. Alex

What does Santa keep in his belt? I mean it MUST be a utility belt – just like Batman.

How could one man crack every security code, pick every lock, eat every cookie, and sneak away unnoticed? 

One thing I’m sure of: Santa packs the adult sized diapers.  No, not just for him!  For the reindeer as well! 

Think about it.  If he travels all around the world and stops at every house, there is no time for a pit stop.  

When was the last time you read of a family waking up to a jolly man pooing in their bathroom? 

Thanks for reading and listening!

Dr. Alex