IPP Exchange, Puzzle Party and additional fun.

Saturday is the day we all wait for.  The exchange.  We woke up early in anticipation of the fun ahead.  This day is always a joy, not for the puzzles we are about to get, but for the friends we get to chat with from all over the world.  This day was no exception.  George and I both exchanged as usual, and we both had two green horns for our partners.  I had Rich and George had Tom.  Both were fantastic.  

Sadly, I didn't take the obligatory photo of the puzzles this year.  Packing one set up is hard enough.  Packing two sets is ..well, a packing puzzle.  Having learned from past experiences, we do not ship our exchange puzzles home.  We pack a suitcase in a suitcase and carry them all with us.  This year was no exception.  To further ensure we get at least one full set home, each set was packed in a different suitcase.

After the exchange, I headed up stairs to grab our computers for our lectures.  These were fantastic.  Not ours, but the lectures.  I really enjoyed Perry's talk on making his boxes but better still was Robert's talk on the boxes Perry has made over the years.

I gave an update on the WPC.  Sorry all, like you I was hoping to be finished by now but it is Italy after all and this is a massive project.  George was asked to do a talk on 3d printing and I think he pulled it off rather well.  We had sent a Bambu mini to our daughter and picked it up when we retrieved our car.  When we arrived in Houston, we used it to make a few puzzles, and to finish my exchanges.  That aside, the real purpose was to bring out the printer, set up a job and have it finish during George's talk.  

We had a few hiccups along the way, the worst being not being able to hook up to the hotel wifi.  Problem solved, I brought along our pocket wifi and it worked perfectly.  The printer was sitting on its box working away through the first 3 talks and finished in time for George's.  It was a rather wonky box and the printer wobbled away as it ran.  But the puzzle turned out to be just perfect!  

After the talk was over, we gave the printer to Louis who spent a bit of time with George trying to work out how to get it running.  The two of them called me in to help with the computer setup, but I was stumped and passed that on to Brett.  He was able to help Louis and the printer was up and running.  I can't wait to see what kinds of things he makes with it. 

After this, I ran off to Daiso over near Katy for a few shopping items.  I love that shop and we don't have any in Europe so I decided to take advantage of my location.  I also went to the Lego store to get my passport stamped and while I was there, I checked out Barnes & Noble, bought a few puzzles, and got the car charged all at the same time!  Success!

I returned in time for the banquet.  I hear there was a magician, but TBH I didn't really pay attention.  I made the mistake of having a glass of wine with dinner as I was a bit nervous about a thing I was about to do.  Big mistake.  I drank it all.  Only after it was gone did I realize I needed a drink for the thing.  So I had to buy another.  Now normally two drinks wouldn't be a bother for me, but these were the first two drinks I'd had in over a month.  To say they went to my head would be an understatement.  Oh well. I managed.

I spent the dinner talking to Leigh and Brian.  Played with a few puzzles, and really just enjoyed the evening.  

After the nights events, I ran upstairs to change again and then simply passed out.  It was another eventful day.

Sunday morning I awoke early, had a glass of milk and headed down to our table for the puzzle party.  After setting up, I had a bit of a wander around.  Purchased a puzzle from Perry and one from Jerry and was told by Nick to go back to my table.  Not once, but twice. 😅 

At 9 the doors opened and I took off in a hunt for puzzles.  George eventually came down and sat at our table.  I'm not sure if we sold anything, but we did have quite a few friends joining us to sell their wares.  In the end, I believe that George and I ended up giving all of our puzzles away to the Greenhorns who wanted one.  Note to future hosts, please send a final count of new people so we know how many extra puzzles to bring.  I'm sure not everyone got our exchanges.  And further note to self. ALWAYS leave a copy of our exchange at home.  For some silly reason, we never bring our own back with us. 

I ran around purchasing puzzles that would make good additions to the collection.  This year was not as expensive as past years have been.  Either I'm getting more selective in my purchases or we have started to catch up on missing items or I have been purchasing too many outside of the puzzle party.  Packing was much easier.  I brought it down to only 2 suitcases!  Yeah, I have room to shop when I get back to Florida.

Wait, No.  I skipped the lectures today and made my way to yet another two Daiso's and another Barnes and Noble.  Pay dirt!  I filled that empty carryon with kitchen gadgets that only the Japanese can make and quite a few mass produced puzzles, games, and books. So much for extra space.

When I returned, I took a walk down to the local grocer and bought some veggies and some more juice for the coming days.  At some point in the afternoon, Sue gifted me a beautiful pair of knitted socks which will be brilliant in the Italian winters.

The awards dinner was nice.  We enjoyed the company and another sit down meal.  It was quite funny because at around 8 we were basically ushered out as there was a little storm brewing and the staff wanted to get home.  George and I had planned on leaving in the morning, but we decided to ride out the storm and spend two more days in Houston.  Thankfully the hotel had vacancy and we were allowed to keep our room for the next two days. 

I spent a bit of time chatting with Nigel, but then returned to the room once again to make those videos you saw posted last week.

Monday saw the storm come in.  I enjoyed watching Hurricane Beryl from our window.  There was a bit of crashing as a light fixture was torn from the building, and the a/c units on the roof lost some of their trim.  But to me, other than that it was nothing.  I know, millions without power, flooding, all that other stuff...We were fortunate that our hotel is on the main hospital grid so we were just fine.  There was a last minute escape room put together that people enjoyed.  Sadly, I came down to late for it. I made more puzzle videos, spent a bit of time chatting with friends on the forth floor, played a bit of a pub quiz put together by our British friends, and just had a rather relaxing day. The hotel put on a great big buffet lunch for folks at the princely sum of $25!!  George and I retired to the room for our juice and veggies.  

We even managed to get in a game of Eurorails! Much to our amusement Bob & George bickered like a an old married couple.

We had dinner that night with a few friends and had a funny thing happen. The IPPer's at another table ordered this sushi boat which was delivered instead to us. We loaded up plates only to realize it wasn't ours so the food went back on the boat, we called the waitress over, explained the mistake and she picked it up.  Two seconds later she delivered it to the other table!  EEK!  Good thing we are all friends.

I'm afraid this IPP we were rather non communicative.  We were very sick after our cruise with OJ, and the lack of drinking and juicing rather than eating caused us to be in the room more than we were out of it.  My sincere apologies to those we wanted to chat with but didn't.  I just wasn't myself this year.  

Tuesday I got up, charged the car to 100% (Never do this except on long trips or in cases like this when power is out) and packed it in anticipation of leaving in the morning.  Another day of chatting with friends.  George did an escape room with the guys, and I spent some time studying for that damned driving test.  

Wednesday bright and early we were up and headed out.  We had a two day drive to Illinois to see my family and I wanted to get as far out of Texas as possible. We were chasing the storm and I wanted to be sure to get past the flooding and power outages before stopping for the night.  Sadly, the storm hit hard and we ended up stopping at a red roof in just to get out of the rain.  It was coming down so hard I was driving at 30 on the interstate and had to pull over.  The hotel was terrible, but we were out of the rain.  The next morning I was able to get up early, charge fully, get some more juice for us and be on our way. 

Next up, some puzzling in Illinois and a visit with a friend or two.

Videos of exchange puzzles

 Due to travels and seeing family, my blog is all out of whack.  I will be posting about the IPP proper in a week or so when I get back home and everything calms down a bit.  

In the mean time, here is a preview of all of the exchange puzzles that were given out.  With the exception of George's and mine.  For some silly reason, we always end up giving them all away.  

I hope you enjoy this brief interlude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA9_TqforPY&list=PL7In5U783-4HqSeb--hEy-7r6dtQyZVMJ

Ipp 41 Houston Texas

You know the drill.  I'm not allowed to say where the IPP is being held other than the city, but some folks have already posted the location.  Different rules for different people I guess.  We were lucky and able to check in at 2 when we arrived.  We headed straight up to the room and ran into Marti.  She's right across the hall from us so we've seen a lot of her.  

We brought our luggage in, I unpacked and we headed down to the lobby to chat with the early arrivers.

We were supposed to go to dinner with Bill and Scarlet, but it was a (mostly) fish sushi dinner and that just didn't appeal to me.  George and I have been maintaining our juice diet and the thought of fish was enough to make me sick even before I ate it.  Instead we made an even bigger mistake and had diner in the hotel restaurant with Marti.  The ribs were what we opted for, and it should have not even been on the menu.  It tasted like someone dropped an entire bottle of black pepper on it.  The waitress kept saying it was spicy when we complained.  Spicy I can handle. A ruined tongue I cannot.  That was an insult to the rib.  George was smart and made a salad out of the left over guacamole.  Marti and I suffered.

The next morning was just a day to relax and chat with friends, and boy did we.  We had a puzzle box workshop with Kelly Snache in the afternoon.  George signed up for it, but I built it.  We sat at the table with Allan Stein, Jules Constantine, Louis Toorenburg, among others.  We had so much fun laughing at ourselves with the mistakes we were making.  In the end though, we all had semi-workable puzzle boxes.

When this was over, George went up for a nap and I headed to Daiso.  That was a bust.  I did buy some chocolate for the family up north and some grapefruit drink for George and I but really, they had nothing.  It was a sad little store.  I did however get my Lego passport stamped when I visited the lego store and I found a supercharger and filled up the car.  

We had juice for dinner and continued to chat with friends and puzzle away the evening.

I helped George set up his 3D printer and we made up the rest of the Roxanne and George figures for my exchange puzzle.  He also made about 4 or 5 bucolic cubes to bring to family up north when we go.  Marti got a mini lesson in how to set it up.

Friday morning I headed out to yet another Daiso up north of us.  This one did not disappoint.  I was able to get great new kitchen gadgets!  I also hit Barnes and Noble to pick up a few puzzle books we didn't have (Murdle Most Puzzling volumes 1-3) and got a bit more OJ and milk for our breakfast.  When I got back to the hotel it was time for Rob's workshop to make yet another puzzle box.  This time I was with Patrick, and Haym.  

Mat and Lee gave us all a bit of help.  As I was going through the solve steps, I managed to have one piece go flying off my box so Rob himself came over and rescued me.  He glued it up, clamped it, and I hope it works when we get home.  

The Founder's reception was held in a BBQ joint a few blocks down the road from the hotel and we all piled in busses to head over.  Have I mentioned the heat and humidity here?  No, well it's hot. At one point earlier today I noticed the outside temperature was 105!  The BBQ was massive.  3 types of meat, one of which was a half a chicken! The biggest loaded baked potato I have ever seen, mac and cheese, and a tomato salad.  They aren't big on vegetables here I guess.  Sadly, I forgot to take photos of the meal.  There was enough food on that plate to feed George and I for a week at least.  I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it.  Jerry introduced the new IPPers, but the noise from the fan was so loud, where I was standing I couldn't hear a thing.  As it was Jerry's birthday, the band played a song and all sang along. A few minutes later they announced a bus going back to the hotel and the joint emptied out.  I was told later the usual suspects stayed behind, listened to the music and enjoyed the drinks and company.  I was also told a beer was $5 vs. a $21 glass of wine in the hotel. 

When we got back there was the design competition room to visit.  I spent a good hour with one of the guys from a puzzle company we all know and love and tried to sort out a few puzzles.  We also picked a couple to analyze for bringing to market at a future date.

I retired semi-early as George had already gone to bed and I was missing my emotional support human.  2 hours away from him and I get antsy.  

Stay tuned for IPP exchange and the puzzle party.

We have winners!

I thought you all might like a brief interruption in my usual rantings to learn about the Design competition winners. So here you go. Photo of the award first, then the winners below it.

And Finally

Road trip to Houston

We left Bill and Scarlet and headed north.  Lake City or Bust!  Why Lake City?  What is there?  Nothing more than a Tesla Supercharger.  We stayed as I said at a dodgy hotel, but we needed to be in Lake Charles so we could go see the circus at Callaway Gardens.  

You see, when George was in an undergraduate at FSU (60 years ago!) he was a member of the FSU Flying High Circus.  He wanted to go to Tallahassee to see the circus area but since school is out and it's mid-summer, I knew it would be empty.  Instead, I decided that we would head up to Alabama for him to be able to see the circus in person.  Aren't I just the best wife?  

Being deep south, there was a lot of sun.  Sadly, I couldn't find George's sunglasses in the car so he had to wear my "Boca glasses".  

At one of the charging stations we stopped at, I just had to take a photo of the snack aisles.  I was shocked by the variety in the gas station.  Also, check out the sign for alcohol sales.  Yes, I tried the door and the cooler was closed 2 minutes before noon.  You've got to love the bible belt.  But for the demographic stereotype, I have to say, it surprised me. 

We took a 4 hour detour and headed north.  The circus started at 3 pm and we arrived around 45 minutes early. We went inside the tent and watched the practice.  He was in heaven.  The show started at 3 on the dot and lasted just over an hour.  

Sadly, it was a group out of Normal Illinois and not the FSU troupe.  But George loved it anyway.  It was more of a dance themed circus act.  They went from the early 1900's through to the 1990's with a variety of different dances that incorporated juggling, jumping stilts, unicycles and much much more.  Below are some of the photos from the show. 

When it was over, George went up and spoke at length with one of the jugglers.  

The look of shock on that young man's face was when George explained that he performed here 60 years ago this summer.  The whole crew were all college students from around the US.  Mostly Illinois and Florida, and all were impressed by this old man from the past who came to see them.  

We have now traveled to Italy, Spain, and Alabama to see where George has performed.  On the way back to Boca, we will swing by a Tallahassee so we can add his original performance location to our trips. 

When we left, my plan was to drive to Mobile for the night.  Sadly, mother nature had other ideas and we only made Evergreen, Alabama.  The rain was so strong, I was driving at 35 MPH on the interstate.  I pulled over at the first exit and we took the first hotel we could find.  UGH! The Red Roof Inn at Evergreen should be avoided at all costs.  Everything was sticky, the floors, the tables...I didn't look too hard, took a shower and fell asleep to the sounds of a tropical storm that only happens in this part of the world. 

The next day, we had a leisurely drive over to the Marco Hotel in Lake Charles.  I have to say, if you are in the area, it was a wonderful hotel. Clean, spacious rooms at a good price.  The only drawback?  No EV charger.  It was advertised as having one, but didn't.  No big deal.  We charged again along the way to Houston. We even had a table in the room that was large enough to play a game of Eurorails! 

On the 2nd we drove the last 3 hours to Houston.  Along the way we stopped at a Buck-eeys to charge up.  That place is insane!  I'm sure I'll insult many, but there is so much kitsch and crap there it isn't funny.  It's like Walmart on steroids.  

There must have been at least 40 gas pumps,

and the soda fountain and coffee bar was just crazy!  

One man showed us his out of production 52 ounce mug.  He was very proud of it.  And promptly turned around and filled it with soda....

After our stop, we headed on into town to see an old university friend of George's.  He and Willis have known each other since the mid-60's.  

The two chatted for a couple of hours then we headed out to lunch.  A local place called "Local Market".  I highly recommend this place.  The food was great. I had a vegan taco salad.  I wouldn't have know had I not been told.  Simply delicious!

And at 2 pm we left to check into the IPP hotel.  I'd like to say 10 minutes later and we were there, but we made 2 stops along the way to get juice first.  All is good though.  We are here now and enjoying ourselves as always!