A Year in the life of a puzzler (2023)

I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season.  The year is once again coming to an end and even though we have been busy, I'm finally finding the time to write up my favorite post of the year.  I missed the puzzle advent tree because of the move, I missed the 12 puzzles of Christmas because nothing had arrived in time for me to post it.  But now I have the time and peace of mind to write up our year.

January saw us still in the states.  We started out with a cruise and ended the month with the beginnings of our final hurrah before moving to Italy.  We visited the folks over at Creative Crafthouse and really had a wonderful tour of the facilities.  I got to visit LegoLand Florida and Disney one last time before we left.  

In February we began our USA Roadtrip.  We had a wonderful trip planned out and got to visit with most of the people on our list and a few who weren't.  We started off by flying into Denver to visit with George Bell, Rocky Chiaro, and Wayne Daniel. I rented a car and we enjoyed a wonderful trip across the Western part of the US.  

Our next stop was in California where we visited with Harry Nelson.  Sadly our trip to see Wally Lee was canceled because of health problems, but we added a visit with Ray Stanton, Derick Schneider, Dave Litwin, and George's son Joe.  We stayed in our favorite boutique hotel and spent our anniversary in the Roxanne Cafe.  Life is good.

We headed further south to visit with Stan Issacs who very kindly donated a great number of puzzles and books to the now named World Puzzle Center.  We spent a day with Nick Baxter and his wife and had a nice puzzling dinner with a number of other puzzlers in the area.  I remember Joe Becker was there along with a few others. We also stopped in and saw Donald Knuth for a day.  Wei Hwa had a small gathering of friends over for some games the next day.

Marti of course was a wonderful hostess.  She very kindly donated the RGee collection to the Center.  She invited over a number of older puzzlers who we were thrilled to see. Our trip then took us south to Texas where we stayed with Tanner for a week.  He too had a wonderful gathering of friends for us to visit with. Heading north, we stopped in to see Rob and Mark, then carried on to some of our friends from the world cruise we went on.

Three days with family was followed up by a puzzle party in Ohio and a few days staying with Tom Lensch.  We spent a few snowy days in New York with Hyam Hirsch before heading further east to visit  Tracy Clemons where we finally picked up the Mega Mansion.  I am pleased to announce that it arrived in Panicale unscathed and is now waiting in the castle to be unpacked. 

From there we headed further east to visit With Rob and Brett.  Then it was a night with Saul and Paulette followed by another puzzle party at Eureka.  I finally made it to the puzzle shop of my dreams!

In the final days of our trip we visited with Brian Menold, Bill Ritchie, and, we stopped by the Chapman house to pick up a large number of puzzles that I had ordered.  I just love the rustic beauty of some of them.  And who doesn't love dragons! From there we headed to Atlanta where Mat had a gathering of friends from the area.  I got to visit an amazing Lego seller and we had a wonderful end of the trip. 

Upon our return to Florida, we spent the next afternoon with Art before heading out to say our final goodbyes to Bill and Scarlet. We packed up the last of our home and boarded ship on the 9th of April for the final leg of the journey to our new life.  

I'd like to say it has all gone swimmingly, but that would be not quite true and might curse us in the future.  When we arrived in Italy, we managed to get our permesso and residencia in record time.  

We've had guests from all over arrive to see the castle and the few puzzles we had purchased since being here.  We've made 2 trips to the midlands, traveled to Israel for IPP, and even attended DCD this year.  

The highlight of the year though has been the arrival of our household goods and puzzles!  To date, we have had 5 semis come in with one more to come on the 2nd of January.  Ironically, that one was the first to arrive in Europe.  All of the wooden  puzzles that have been placed in the castle and are waiting to be unpacked.  The library is partially done, simply because it is the easiest of the boxes to unpack. 

When we started this journey we were so naive. We thought we would arrive, turn in our paperwork, have everything done in a month or two and then get our things.  Almost 1 year to the day the first container was packed up and sent we got it.  The paperwork took longer than expected.  We've run into not being able to install shelving as we had planned to do.  I think though that our solution of using antique cabinets is a much better solution.  And before you get excited and make ridiculous comments about the cost of these, I've become very good at scouring the local used markets for pieces that will fit in the castle at a low cost.  

My Italian is coming along nicely.  Every day I learn more and am better able to communicate with others who don't know me.  The people here are wonderful in trying to understand me.  George, he's George. They all love him just because he is such a lovable person.  Sadly, he's not very good at communicating yet.  I've gone back to school to learn how to drive again.  We purchased our third vehicle now.  The first one died on us in Germany, the Tesla still hasn't got tags (not everything has worked to our advantage yet), and since I'll be a "new driver" I had to get a small engine vehicle for the first three years.

The door between the dead cat room, hotel, and castle has yet to be opened, but they will begin work at the first of the year. Our kitchen appliances and materials have been picked out and hopefully, they will be able to order them soon so we can get moving on the rebuild.  I've been waiting over a year to move into the hotel.  It is cleaned and the work can begin as soon as we can get men in there.  Antonio and Elena have done an amazing job of fixing it up, but now we are at the whim of the contractors. 

Katherine has come over for the holidays and we've had an amazing visit.  On the 28th, we got the keys for the annex.  If you know of anyone who wants to rent a three bedroom, two bath house in Panicale, let me know. I've got one available.  We purchased it only for the garages, but will make the house work for us in one way or another.  Worst case, we use it to store more puzzles.  The garage has the Tesla inside along with a few crates that need unpacking yet.  Things move slowly here, but they do move.  

All in all it's been a very good year. Do I still have twinges about leaving Boca?  Of course, but now Panicale is home and as long as George and I are together, we can do anything.  Life is good for this puzzler. 

Happy New Year to one and all. May 2024 be even better for you than 2023 was. 

New York Times article

 Today we had the online version of a story that has been long in the making show up.  Siobhan Roberts of the New York Times has done a wonderful job of writing up our story.  If you have the inclination, it can be found here https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/29/science/puzzles-mechanical-miller.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Jk0.hNSq.VN4FbZumsIpY&smid=url-share 

The trailer for the Puzzle Palace movie Made by Jenny Bell Schweitzer and Brian Bell is now live and can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eA7Kv_Q4NM

Enjoy everyone.

Busy Busy Busy

 First, I want to apologize for not posting earlier.  I'm getting slack as this move progresses. Either there is too little to write about, or there is too much. Today it is the latter. 

Our delivery of goods started on Monday two weeks past and was full on through Thursday.  You see, Friday was yet another holiday and there was a ban on trucks on the autostrada.  In an unheard of event for Italy, the truck driver even came on Saturday to finish the job!  In total, they brought 5 big trucks worth of goods here this past week.  We still have one more coming down from Switzerland, but have no idea when that is going to come.   I hope though that it is soon because then the move here will be officially over and it will just be time to unbox.  

We had an amazing system going on. We would get in 14-18 pallets each day.  I would jump on the truck, label the building they would go into, and then we would open them in the afternoon where I would again label the room number they would live in.  I ordered 2 hoists and Antonio had them mounted on the top floors of each building.  Our crew would then load a box or two into a heavy duty bag and we would hoist it up to the appropriate floor where it would be shifted into the correct room.  

For those that wonder, our basic division is wood and metal in the castle, everything else in the palace.  The castle walls aer at least a meter thick and the humidity level remains the same throughout.  The palace has 1/2 meter thick walls and doesn't keep a constant humidity level on each floor.  Plastic and glass is not as bothered by the changes.  

We managed to get the entire castle storage area emptied out by Monday of the past week.  The teak root furniture was placed in the carriage house and the tables were all placed in the stables.  I set to work putting together a puzzle play area and a Lego winter village display area for the local school children to come and visit.   

On Friday we had the nursery/kindergarten come in with around 20 children.  They enjoyed the puzzles and games, and really enjoyed them more when we placed them on the floor.  Sadly, I am not allowed to post any photos because of their ages (3-5).  Suffice it to say, they were adorable.  They were also very respectful and looked at the Lego but didn't touch any of them.  I was pleasantly surprised.  

Saturday and Sunday we opened to the public.  There was also a small Christmas market in the garden.  We had a few people come in on Saturday, but were in competition with 3 other Santa houses in the area. Sunday was a different story.  We opened at 10 for a local boy who is immune- compromised.  Santa and I both wore masks in the interest of good health.  I discovered the day before that he loves Lego so George and I gave him one as a gift. He spent a good 1/2 hour or so looking at the Lego and explaining each set to his mother.  After the holiday is over I'll invite him over to take a look at the Lego room.  I'm sure he will just love it. 

The doors opened to the public at 3 and we were full on busy all afternoon.  Santa didn't get a break at all.  There were so many children, but there were also adults.  They too enjoyed the puzzles and many of them had to have photos taken with Santa.  It was a real nice way to introduce ourselves to the community.  We were genuinely made to feel welcome.  Everyone loved the root furniture and we were asked before the day was even over if we would do it again next year.  Absolutely!  But I get to buy a better elf costume.  The one I bought from the local store left green elf fluff all over my clothes.  

Throughout all of this, Katherine has arrived.  I took a day to go to Florence with her and she was a great help with photos during the events of the weekend. In the coming weeks while she is here, we will do a number of those tourist things that everyone does.  Can't hit them all, but I can get a few nice places in for her to see.  It's so nice to have her in the castle for Christmas.

Coming soon!

 

For more information, go to https://www.notablefeatures.com/

For those of you that read this drivel that I publish, you may remember back in December of 2021 we had some people come take some footage for a documentary on us.  Well, it is finished and will be shown soon at a Prestigious Film Festival somewhere in the world (I'm not allowed to tell where just yet.)  If you are interested in seeing a bit more about our lives, love, and puzzles please do join the mailing list for information on where and when you can see the film.  If you come to the World Puzzle Center, you may just be able to view the lovers in person.  I've seen the film and they have done an amazing job of capturing us as we really are.  

Great news!

 Our goods have cleared customs and are ready to be delivered.  We have spent the last week updating paperwork and clearing out the ground floor of the castle and the hotel getting ready to receive everything. 

Antonio has rigged up two hoists so we can get the puzzles to the top of the castle and the hotel.  It will be easier to bring things down the stairs than climb up with them.  

Now we just wait on a date for the first truck.  

I have been working on my Italian driving license and have attended the first two night classes of driving school.  This is fun.  The book is in Italian, the class is in Italian.  Double duty!  I'm learning all sorts of things at once.  Unlike when I lived in Hong Kong, I am not getting translation headaches.  In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to be reading a page of the book yesterday and I realized I was comprehending without having to translate all of it.  A word here or there, but not a lot.  I mean really, how often does one use windshield wipers in daily conversation? 

George's Christmas gifts have arrived early and he is eager to open them, but is holding back until the rest of our goods are here.  Really, I think he's waiting for the staricase to be removed from the hotel.  We don't need that secret passage to the kitchen and both of us would rather have the space in our respective rooms.  

Larry, Curley, and Moe are hard at work in his office. Now he can add Laurel and Hardy to the mix and get them running.

We met with the interior designer for the construction of the kitchen and bedroom/bathroom last week and have made decisions on materials and appliances.  They loved our bathroom design and have said it was a first for them.  Neither had installed a Toto toilet here, or a rainshower that plays music and has lights in a Turkish sauna before.  

Today is Thanksgiving back in the states and we are having dinner at a local hotel run by Americans.  Sadly, this means no left over turkey.  Perhaps I will buy one next week and cook it anyway.  There is nothing like an open faced turkey sandwich after the holidays.  

And I thought I had posted this. Wo much stuff to do so little time.  The trucks are arriving and the fun is now just beginning! We have a great system down, the pallet is removed from the truck and brought to one of 3 opening locations.  We then Open the castle pallets first because we don't want to disrupt parking (although, the locals seem to do a fine job of this on their own).

Next, I mark the room number that the package needs to go into and they either hoist it up using bags or they take it up using the electric stair climber.  This makes short work of things. We are able to unload and move14 pallets within a few hours.  So far we have taken in 41 pallets.  Today we will unload 2 trucks and Saturday a few more. Then we just wait for the truck we went to Rotterdam to show up and all is here.  

Forgive the long absence.  I'll be back to normal (is there such a thing) soon.