STILL Puzzled...

There's more to the finishing the puzzle than was revealed of that ' missing' puzzle piece saga from my FOTO FRIDAY blog entry.  Seriously I didn't embellish the details and effort it took to find the infamous piece sucked up by the shop vac.  Unbeknownst to me at picture taking time, the puzzle REALLY wasn't finished.

Take a close look at the posted 'supposedly' finished puzzle. If you look very closely you will notice two same shaped pieces missing.

You may wonder why are there 2 of the same shaped missing pieces?  Well before Natureman had left that very morning for town, we had an agreement to leave the last piece for him to finish. AND being a woman of my word when I found the missing piece, I left it for him to place. BUT I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I would remove a similar shaped colored piece and see if Natureman would choose the correct piece of the two on the first try to finish the puzzle. You know, more of a challenge to complete the puzzle. Remember we had started the puzzle at Christmas. Why should it be so easy to just have one piece, one space to fill, right?  

Wrong, obviously.

I placed the second piece beside the 'missing' now found piece on the glass table and anxiously awaited Natureman's return. (This is one of those times IF Natureman had a cell phone, I would have called him as I was so overjoyed to have found it.)

OK,  I could barely let him get in the door before I shared the news. He's in disbelief and as soon as he removes his coat, heads for the puzzle table picking up a puzzle piece. But I am not ready with the camera to record the monumental event "Wait," I exclaim but he keeps moving before I can tell him why I left two pieces. He teases me by having placed the piece atop the puzzle but when he retrieves it to place it in the open spot, the piece in his hand doesn't fit. I look down at the table as I start to tell him about the challenge but there is no second piece. I exclaimed, "What did you do with the second piece? " " What second piece? There was only one on the table." I looked at him in disbelief. "No, there were 2. Come on, where did you did put it? That's not funny." I make him empty his pockets. He insists, he's not kidding. Oh my Lord, we must live in the Bermuda Triangle, the same swallowed up puzzle piece is missing AGAIN. 

I take out the broom and start sweeping, searching AGAIN. I move the table, lamp, plants. You get the picture. Deja vu. I have already gone through this, I am aggravated. As the afternoon goes by, I can't stand to look at the table with the puzzle. I have had it. I remove a section of pieces of the missing piece area, outlining the piece, to make a substitute piece.

placing the rest of the puzzle back in its box. I also leave out the small section just in case the missing piece reappears in the near future. A day goes by. I stare at the game table for the millionth time and something catches my eye.  Look... 

there is the missing puzzle piece, lodged in a corner joint camouflaged by also being green... Natureman must has swiped it with his sleeve as he reached for the other piece and it somehow landed here... UNREAL. (BTW the camera flash made it more visable.) 

So Natureman was able to place the last piece and we have a  happy ending for a 1000, not a 999 piece puzzle completed in the End of the Rainbow Valley...