Saturday, January 31, 2009

We are really puzzled!

We attended a puzzle museum in town today. It is actually a private museum run by a puzzle master from Ulaanbaatar. He must really be a wiz! The puzzles this guy has created are phenomenal. Everything from little brain teasers to very, VERY large chess sets that are also puzzles (i.e. each piece, the board and the table can all come apart in large puzzle pieces). It would have filled a small room about 10-12 feet square. He has made thousands of chess sets and many were on display but we could not take pictures of any of them.

The puzzleman (don't know his name) has won the world puzzle making championship (yah, I know -- I didn't know there was such a thing either), five times and took second once. Very impressive.

Unfortunately, there were only a couple of things they would allow us to take pictures of.

The 'man' Elder Caldwell is standing next to is also made of puzzle pieces. The dinosaur was in the background of that picture so I enlarged it so you could at least see that. It is also made of about a dozen or so pieces.

They had a couple of small brain teaser type puzzles with which they challenged us. "If you can put this back together in ten minutes, we'll give you $10,000!"


The gentleman stretches a point sometimes but the gers are included because they have a lot of wood in them and do come apart and are put back together again. Hey, it is a private museum and he can do whatever he wants with it!











As you can see, gers can be quite ornate inside. The only thing they really lack (aside from very much space) is indoor plumbing. And they do, sometimes put them on a large cart without breaking them down and move them around, using oxen to move them. Kind of like our camping trailers ('cept we do have indoor plumgin' in 'em)!

5 comments:

The Fendleys said...

Looks cool!! So, were you smart enough to win the $10,000.00?

Bressler Bunch said...

That looks like fun. We're kind of "puzzlers" at our house. We love to just set up a big puzzle on the table and everyone works on it when they want something to do. Jarod is especially good a puzzles - even the tiny piece puzzles. He will find pieces that everyone else has been looking for for days. Looks like you guys are getting to see some really fun things over there.

Ryan Cowley said...

I swear I left a message already but it didn't show up! Too bad we couldn't see more pics. That would have been cool. So when are they going to add "puzzling" to the Olympics? Oh wait...have you seen gymnastics lately? I think they already did!

Thomas Earl said...

Your wife has always been a puzzle hasn't she? Hope you guys are not freezing. Did you get a chance to see the twins pictures?
I start my mission next Monday. (Right after a golf get away with my ward buddies to St George on Thursday) Love, Thom

Anonymous said...

Sorry this doesn't have anything to do with your blog, but I thought it might be the fastest way to get you. (Does your regular e-mail address still get to you? I'll send this message there too.) Anyway, Doug Peterson in your ward called me last night to see if I knew how to contact you. He wants to know where to send your tithing statement for your taxes. Hope things are going well. I usually don't post a comment, but I check out your blog and we are praying for both of you. Take care! Miss you both - and still jealous! Debbie Martin