Flippe Ball and Exciting news!

 This week we had quite a few puzzles come in but since George is writing articles for CFF I'm not allowed to write about them here.  I chose to block him and today I give you the Flippe Ball puzzle by George Bell.  

I love it!  It's a fun little puzzle.  When it came in the mail, I knew it had to open through a spin.  I'm not giving away any secrets here as George Bell has recently written an article in CFF 114 about this puzzle.  I have to say, I was disappointed when I first tried to open it because nothing happened.  I sadly walked into the bedroom and gave it to my lover. He had the advantage of having read the article before the puzzle came in, he walked back into the kitchen, grabbed a plate and opened the puzzle!   I played around with it a bit.  Looked at it and realized what the trick was.  
I managed to finally open it after about 20 tries.  It's a fun little puzzle and I can see non-puzzlers enjoying it.  We are having a few visitors to Puzzle Palace next week, I think I'll take it out and see how it goes over.  This little gem along with other designs made by Mr. Bell can be purchased here. 

Flippe Ball

Speaking of CFF, this month according to Rik is unique.  They have more than enough material for the magazine.  Another first is that this is probably the first time they have had a husband and wife each write an article.  I gave a look at the Hanayama collection we have, and George introduces his die-cutting machine.  I have a feeling this will not be the last time we both have an article in the magazine.  I'm pretty sure we have both sent off a few more for publication.

On to the weekly update on the Puzzle Palace Museum.  We got some bad news this week.  The guys who are doing the epoxy floor came down with COVID-19 and will be out for another week.  This means the floor base coat will not be done when the decals arrive.  One has been completed and is sitting in George's office, the other is at the printer here in Boca.  The men putting all of the shelving up are working down in Miami finishing up a job and have put us on hold so not much going on there.  My daughter and a few friends from college spent a weekend here and it made me aware of what still needs to be purchased to make the museum habitable so I have spent a great deal of time shopping for the small essentials.  

I also realized we don't have any furniture in the Museum so I spent a few days hunting down coffee tables and large tables for the house.  It's not an easy task to find items we both like that keeps with the theme.  Then I stumbled across the Lost Day Burr Table.  This would be perfect! I wrote Sue right away hoping beyond hope that there would be an extra one sitting in the dark corners of Brian's workshop but there wasn't.  If anyone has one they want to sell, please let me know.  I'm looking to purchase.  We are also looking for a design for a larger dining room table.  It has to be a puzzle of course, and it has to be big. I need a rectangular one that will hold at least 6 people. It will probably not ever be used for that purpose, but rather it will be used to play with the puzzles that are in the museum.  

Our Castro Convertibles arrived 2 weeks ago and the chaps who were paid to install them dumped them in the great room and told us they would be back in a few days with more workers because they were too heavy for them to get up the stairs.  After a lot of unanswered calls by the delivery company, I called the manufacturer to complain.  15 minutes later our $400 was returned to us and we had to look for movers locally.  Well, not us. George decided we would take all the mattresses and cushions off and move it ourselves.  It almost killed us, but by golly, three hours we got them installed.  We slept well that night!

Master Bedroom

Halfway house looking over the golf course

Over at Puzzle Palace, the tree removal men came on Monday to grind down the roots that they didn't do the first time around.  The man said it was too much work for him and he'd be back with more guys after he had his lunch.  He never came back.  I called the landscaper and exploded.  We got the roots ground out on Tuesday and I had to miss golf again, but no landscapers or irrigation pipe fixers came this past week.  I have a very muddy front yard waiting to be beautified.

With everything going wrong this week, I was just ready to give up.  And then we got the best email ever.  Out puzzles were being loaded on the ship!  They leave the UK on Tuesday the 27th and should arrive in Port Miami on the 16th of May!  Now we know we won't get them for another 2 weeks after that, but at least they will be on the right side of the globe for us.  This dream is getting closer to completion.  Now to go make some phone calls to get those workmen back in the museum.

Computer chip

I have a number of different versions of this puzzle. Some made of wood, some made of aluminum, this one made of brass.

I purchased this puzzle from Mr. Puzzle around a week or so ago and I have to say, I'm impressed! I received an email from Mrs. Puzzle telling me the puzzle order was on the way and that she and Mr. Puzzle would see me next August. I love the personal touch. I really shows great people who run a great business.

This one was purchased simply because it caught my eye. Like I said, I have it already and know how it solves so there is no challenge there. But oh my is it pretty!

The puzzle itself is tiny. The baseplate that all the pieces go into is no larger than a US quarter. The rods are around two inches long. A cute little thing!

Another nice feature of this one is that little hook you see on one of the rods. This is there to keep the rods in place. For this puzzle, unlike the wooden versions I have, it's a necessity. Because of the smoothness of the rods they very easily fall out.

Solving wise it's not too much of a challenge. Once I pulled out all of the pieces I gave them a good scramble befor starting reassembly. Even this didn't add to the challenge. See all that really needs to be done is a bit of counting.

All in all though it's a nice little puzzle. I see this morning that Mr. Puzzle is out of stock but wooden versions can be purchased through creative crafthouse.

On the 2nd day of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me,

2 Brian Young's
And Stickman in a pine tree.

Day Two.  Brian Young, aka Mr. Puzzle has brought-or should I say sent-me more puzzles than I care to admit to.  A few years back when the Aussie dollar was at a lower rate, he was my puzzle shop of choice.  Even though the exchange rate is higher and the shipping is a bit, Brian sells some pretty unique puzzles you won't find any where else.  It's still worth the extra little bit to shop from there.

Brian builds some pretty amazing puzzles.  Three of his that are reasonably priced that I have are The Washington Monument, A Plugged Well, and Houdini's Torture Cell. All of these have been exchange puzzles, but are still available (for a price) on his webpage and in other places.  If you can get your hands on one, jump!  Neil wrote about the Monument, Allard  and Jeff  discuss A Plugged Well, and Oli and Jerry wrote about Houdini.

Brian also built the Cricket bat that everyone raves about.  He's entered numerous design competitions and even Won!  He's always got a smile on his face and you can hear his laughter a mile away.  Brian makes puzzling fun, and to make a business out of it....My dream!

Too bad Sue is such a great lady, I'd sneak in and give him a hug and kiss just for being so great...or maybe I should give it to her!  She's one of those puzzling wives that carries around a Rubik's cube bag!  It doesn't get any better than that does it!