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.