An Arduous Journey

As promised, here is the rundown of my trials, tribulations, joy and frustration at completing my ridiculously awesome bday present. There's nothing like the high that comes from inserting (or, in my case perhaps, forcing) the last piece of a puzzle into place. Doing lines off the back of a toilet (good place, by the way) doesn't even come close.
Along with the pics are some lessons I learned (and thanks, Ross, for the advice, it came in handy).

At the start, it's just a mess of pieces (504, to be exact). If you look closely, you can see a few flesh coloured pieces, and a lot of red and blue.

Lesson 1 : Don't try to assemble a puzzle on carpet. Thankfully, my bro's other gift to me came in a handy-dandy cardboard box.

At this point, there were two options : go with the standard edge-assembly method, or try to put together the most identifiable parts first. I opted for the latter, and went for the faces.

By the way, finding bits of people's eyes, mouths, and noses is a creepy experience. One minute, you're searching through, turning puzzle pieces over - then wham, someone's disembodied eye is staring at you, unblinkingly. And don't get me started on random faceless teeth. Weeeird.

The beginning of the face assembly. I'm not sure why I moved to the carpet again, but it wasn't too smart. At this stage, our familiar and beautiful faces are slowly forming. As a side note, note that James' face (and my brother's, as can be seen later) are both formed by a meagre 6 puzzle pieces, whereas the same number of pieces barely defines JD's mouth. Some might say this is a result of the photo's perspective, but those people might be idiots. This leads us to...

Lesson 2 : JD's monstrous cranium encompasses a whopping 27 pieces.

Lesson 3 : Brown people, being fewer in number, were easier to assemble (note that Swatherson, Diggity, and I are almost done, whereas you palefaces were sometimes hard to distinguish).

After my foolhardy excursion to the carpet, I wisely went back to a flat surface. Here, the faces have formed into cliques, giving scientific insight into people's personalities. Miss Cleo, I suggest you take notes...

Lesson 4 : Ronestar, Diggity, and Spannnnng are an exclusive, isolationist club. Ditto with Kribble, Swatherson, and Jimmycrack. Uke, Rosco, and I tend to be the lone, unapproachable maverick types. JD, of course, is a planet unto herself.

On a side note, we all (or at least the tooth-smiling Uke, Kribble, Swatherson, Rosco Rone-Dig-Spang, and JD) have ridiculously white teeth. A piece-on-piece comparison indicated that you folks' teeth are as white as the spoon Kribble is holding, and whiter than the styrofoam bowls that will soon appear on the table. Lay off the bleach, people.

Ah, we have finally come together. Also, the edges are done - for those of you who are fellow math nerds (oh wait, that's nobody), this was a 28-by-18 puzzle. The edges were more difficult than expected, especially the lower-right corner (way to wear a single-colour jacket, JD) and the lower-left corner (nice solid blue shirt, Uke).

Lesson 5 : People's hands are basically indistinguishable. Even the brownies (my bro and Swatherson), by showing their palms, made their hands difficult to identify. My own hand was the only one I could pick out immediately, due to its brown and hairy nature.

And finally, after a few solid eye-tormenting hours and a sore elbow (from leaning on it, of course), tada! She are finished!

First of all, notice that the picture looks darker. This is because night had fallen by this time. This last stage actually took the longest, even though there were only about 100 pieces left. Why? Because Ben and Jerry's was inconsiderate enough to paint their walls a mind-numbingly uniform red. The only changes in hue are near the edges of the photo, which are slightly lightened by the flash of the camera used to take this image.

Whew.

And as a final note, some yeas and nays to keep in mind when taking a photo which might be turned into a puzzle.

Boos
Uke and JD, I've already complained about your foldless, solid clothing.
JD, please stop highlighting your hair. I actually thought it would make things easier, but it made it surprisingly hard.
Kribble, nassssty grey fleece. No folds, and hard to distinguish from JD's fleece.
Everyone except Kribble, it would have been nice to put your spoons of ice cream near your mouths.

Kudos
Kribble, your structured pants were a godsend - I love seams.
Spannng, your slick blue jacket has so many folds that it was easy to assemble, and also easy to tell apart from Uke's plain blue shirt.
Swatherson, nice navy blue fleece.
Ross, nice use of red and white on your shirt.
JD, nice red eyes.
Ben and Jerry's, thanks for having text on all your items (posters, napkins, T-shirts, Vermonster buckets).

Anyway, it's been a productive Memorial Day Weekend, as you can tell. Anyone got any recommendations for puzzle sealant?