This year for the Easter holiday, Oskar and José decided to come for a visit.  Wonderful.  They told Yael Friedman they were coming and we had her and Nir join us as well.  Somewhere along the way Peter and Friedi Knoppers decided to join us for the weekend. We had a nice full house.   Yael and Nir arrived first and we set them up in the apartment. We had a nice afternoon of chat and a good dinner.  Yael had been on the move for over a day as she came from California so we made an early night of it.  The next day we headed to Chiusi to buy food for the week ..read more

Some of our puzzle trips are spur of the moment decisions.  This last month Peter Hajek was the cause of one of those. A few months back, I had bid on yet another Berrocal and won.  I thought to ask Steve to pick it up for us, but he reminded me that Peter lived right next door.  I very quickly emailed Peter requesting that he pick up my new piece and paid for the auction.  In the mean time, I had purchased another box of puzzles from Happy Puzzle Company and had them delivered to Steve.  Now Steve then went to Peter's for a visit and delivered that box there.  In ..read more

 We have been busy since our last trip.  So much has happened since I last posted on my blog that this one is going to read like a laundry list.  My original intention when I started this blog way back in 2010.  I decided though that maybe people weren't interested in my puzzling adventures so I only wrote about the IPP's I attended.  Since then, this blog has grown into the most generic puzzling blog ever.  The randomness is crazy even to me. But I digress.  In February before we took off on our last trip we had a group of students from the Journalism school ..read more

We left Nuremberg and headed out to see a friend in Austria.  Stephan Baumegger has been making puzzles for many years now and I have been a great fan of his.  We had recently just purchased quite a few puzzles and I thought we might as well go pick them up in person.   He and his lovely wife we so accommodating.  We had planned to visit for a few hours, see the workshop, pick up some puzzles and head out. Instead, they surprised us with a wonderful lunch!   Stephan did give us the tour of his workshop as I requested, and it can be seen here and here.  They are ..read more

My apologies first for being so slow in posting.  We've had a busy month and it's just going to get worse for the foreseeable future.  I've been wanting to come here for what feels like 1/2 of my life (I think it just might be.) We arrived at the venue and went straight to hall 10.  I did my homework and knew exactly where I wanted to go.  Our first stop happened to be Constantin puzzles where we met Hendrik.  I took a few photos, said hello, but headed out so Hendrik could do his business.  Our next "stop" was Beverly.  I was hoping to see our friend  L ..read more

 The next morning saw us at Jan Zoon's home.  We were given a wonderful gift to add to the World Puzzle Center. He gave us his Notre Dame puzzle!  What wonderful generosity.   It is a big puzzle, but thankfully, he put it into boxes and we managed to fit it into the van.  We should have thought better about how to put it in there, because we had boxes shifting from one side to the other while I drove.  (When we got to Nuremberg we repacked the car and tied down the boxes.) They showed us the doll house they have been working on and another beautiful puzzle that h ..read more

We have always wanted to go to the Nuremberg Toys Fair.  This year we are here and have decided it is time. I first heard of this fair way back in 1995 when I attended my first fair in Hong Kong.  After befriending Uwe, I decided I had to go.  For many years we said we would go together, but sadly circumstances did not allow for that to happen.  My only regret is not being able to be here with my dear friend this next week.   But enough being maudlin.  Or maybe that is just the start of it. George and I decided that as long as we are going, we should make a good r ..read more

This past month has been full of news (stories) but lacking in events.  We have carried on putting the books into the library.  I believe most of them have been placed now.  The next step of course is to catalog them all.  Right now, it's a mess. The only thing that is really separated is the foreign language books and those written by Ivan Muscovich, The Grarbuchuk family, and Martin Gardner.   The big wood has been placed on the top of the library shelves where they rest very nicely.  The chest room is a disaster yet, but I have begun to place items in the kumuk ..read more

 This year Jenny and Brian have entered their documentary short in the SXSW film festival in Austin Texas.  The dates are from 8-16 March.  If you are interested and in the area, tickets are on sale now.  I am sure it will be an amazing piece of work.   Brian and Jenny were very focused and professional when doing their filming.  I have watched a few of their other productions and have been very impressed by their good work.  I can only expect more of the same when they have released this one.   ..read more

After the New York Times article, a few local papers and a TV station had articles about us.  I link them here where available, but sadly, one I have been unable to find.  I only have a pdf of it.   From the Corriere dell'Umbria: https://corrieredellumbria.it/notizie/2023/trasimeno/attualita/castello_puzzle_museo_america_miller_cubo_rubik.html?fbclid=IwAR3cBDxJNhpZkFKkIP0NLTkYa4ulx7bC-D918dqxHWbSaEDoP271gHEbTZQ The second was in Il Messaggario: https://sfoglia.ilmessaggero.it/sfogliatore/mono page 17.  And finally, we were on Rei News: https://www ..read more