Voodoo magic!

I do have more pictures and stories of Germany, but I needed to post this since my adventures are still continuing now that I am home! :)

So before I left for Germany I was going through the games in the playroom at the hospital, to make sure that they had all the pieces. I came to a SpongeBoB Squarepants puzzle that had 100 pieces. I was pretty sure that it was missing some! I mean- what are the odds that all 100 would be there?!



I started counting the pieces, putting them in piles of 10- just to make it easier on myself. After counting to 10 many o time I had 4 pieces left over. Just as I thought. We were missing 6 pieces! BUT... I was quickly stumped. I counted the piles and there were 10 piles of 10! Quickly, going back over simple math in my head I reassured myself that 10 x10 was indeed 100! So...putting my brain to work, I came to the conclusion that there were 4 pieces from a different puzzle that were accidentally placed in the SpongeBob box.



So this time...as I went through them I looked at each piece as I put them in piles of 10. I did find one that was out of place, but at the end, was still left with 10 piles of 10 and 3 left over pieces! I think that I was too tired and focused on leaving to Germany, that I didn't really care too much. I put the pieces in the box and placed it back on the shelf. I figured, well it has MORE pieces so when kids put it together- they'll just have leftovers! (Yep- sounded like a pretty good plan to me.)



I forgot all about the Sponge Bob puzzle until earlier this week. I decided to again go through the games and make sure they were all in order. As I was doing so, I saw the SpongeBob box and had a thought come to mind that I had seen that box before! I counted out all the other puzzle pieces and they all came out to the number that they were supposed to. (Which is amazing to me! Each time I am sure that we'll be missing pieces!)



Then I took the SpongeBob box and prepared myself to count to 100. "I'll just make piles of 10" I thought to myself---and then it all came flooding back to me! Wait! I thought. Theres something funky with this puzzle! And I remembered that it had pieces from another puzzle in it! Figuring that it was simply that I was just not thinking properly before Germany, I started in on it again. And sure enough 10 piles of 10 with 3 left over! WHAT?! I did the math again- trying to see if I messed up somehow. Now, I don't claim to be a mathematician, but I came to the conclusion that in no way 10 x10 could actually equal 103!



I did it one more time VERY carefully and got the same result. Solution?! Well- it was so quiet on the floor I decided to put the silly thing together and find those extra pieces! And that I did. It actually went really fast (thanks to all those Christmas days of putting puzzles together!) I was actually enjoying myself as I put the puzzle together, but then as I was nearing the end, you'll would never guess what I found?! It was missing 5 pieces!!!! I was shocked! I think I even sat there with my mouth open trying staring at the picture. HOW COULD THIS BE?! Hmm.... How did I start this puzzle having +3 and now that it is all together I have -5?! Okay- "So I will count it again by taking each piece off of the picture it had made and place it pile and I will end up with nine piles of ten and one pile of 5..right?!" I thought to myself... Isnt that what normal math would do?! So I took each piece and made it into piles of 10. Very slowly and very carefully! and guess what?! I had 10 piles of 10 with 3 left over!!!! HOW?!



I don't know what kind of freaky magic that puzzle had- but I ended up just throwing it away! I didn't care enough about it to have it take precious space in my brain which I need for more important matters (Like figuring out what is happening on LOST! :) )