Stanford and San Jose

The next morning we awoke at 7 so we could head back over to Stan's house to collect a few more puzzles.  This time we went for twisty puzzles. He has a shed in the back of his house that is filled to the brim with puzzles.  I got to see it last time I was there and was shocked!  There is very little space to walk, just a narrow pathway around a table.  The room has shelves all along the outer sides filled with puzzle boxes and even has puzzling posters on the ceiling.  

This time Stan allowed me to go into his twisty boxes and take any puzzles we did not have! Years ago I would have just boxed up everything and said thank you.  This time I simply took 2 small moving boxes of puzzles that are missing from the museum collection and helped him rebox the rest to consolidate the room.  As soon as this was done, I had to run get Joe from the train station.  At the same time, George and Stan went into the puzzle room and they went through a few more puzzles to donate to the museum.  We said our good-byes around 10:45 to head over to Donald Knuth's house.  

When we walked in, we got to see a mosaic of the Dragon Curve that they had on their wall (what is it with people and obscure mosaics ;) )

We then went into the front room so I could see the Organ.  OH MY! What a wonderful piece.  This was specially made for their home.  I absolutely love it.  If I could play that instrument, I would have one made as well. 

There was a reporter there doing an interview on Donald and us for a series of articles that will be forthcoming.  The two men talked, Donald spoke a lot about AI and something else, I forget.  But it was all over my head.  I saw a book on the History of Puzzles in Society and had to take a look. At one point, George got excited about cubigami and had a nice chat about it. Joe got a couple of books autographed and we got a tour of the house.  

My god that man is organized.  He had shelves filled with files that were filled with papers for which ever book he is working on.  And he knew what was in each one of them. Astounding.  He even answered a few questions I had about edge matching puzzles by referring to a book he wrote.

After an hour or so we went for lunch at a wild place called Bucky's.  Thankfully we ate outside because the decor would have been sensory overload for me.  Just walking to the bathroom was enough to cause me to stop and gawk.

When lunch was finished, the Knuth's took Joe back to the train station while I took my lover to the hotel for a long overdue nap.  While he slept, I drove to a couple of Daiso's in the area to look for petit blocks.  I found quite a few, but not all of what I wanted.  When I returned to the hotel, I woke George an we headed to Wei-Hwa's house.  

We were given a tour of his stunning home.  I just love the staircase and the library.  It gave me some ideas.  Trisha and the kids came in from school and man are they getting bigger. Mind, the last time I saw them they were just toddlers.  

We then went out to his "Pinhouse" to look at the pinball machines.

 Wei-Hwa gave us a demonstration of one machine that is musical in nature.  I forget the name.  He told us he had them imported from Japan.  I gave it a go and we all had a good laugh.

We then returned to the house where Bram Cohen and Mark Powlenger came in.  

Tonight was a game night.  The 5 of us played a cosmos game which was good fun, then we played another which reminded me somewhat of Splendor.  All in all it was a really fun night.  We returned to the hotel to have a nights sleep before heading to LA the next morning.