5-30 What is The Home Depot Seeds program?

Porch and step railing

When we moved into our new house our back porch was over five feet high and needed a railing. We didn’t like what the builder’s contractor had to offer so we decided to do it ourselves. We ordered the railing from The Home Depot and installed it ourselves, it worked out super and when we were finished Larry wrote a review on the product. About a month ago The Home Depot wrote him an e-mail and asked him if he would like to join their Seeds program, where he could choose products from their vendors every month and write a review on them. This doesn’t cost him anything and he could keep the product if the vendor doesn’t request it back. He wrote them back and said he would love to. A few days later he received another e-mail with the list of products he could choose from and he could choose five products. The most expensive products were already gone but he did choose the five products (a wireless thermostat, sprayer, Gorilla shipping tape, LED light bulbs and a car camera).    

TCP LED Light Bulb

Emerson Wireless Thermostat

SecurityMan Car Camera

Gorilla Shipping Tape

Smith Deck Sprayer

5-29 Square Dancing

It's been raining on and off all week but Larry and I managed to square dance three times. The first time was with Shirts 'n' Skirts in Georgetown Wednesday. This week they had round dancing with Lucy Pate cuing between the square dancing tips. There were enough people for five squares. The second time was with the Coryell County Squares in Gatesville Thursday with Ed Larder as the caller and in between tips I did a little line dancing. Their round dance cuer retired and they haven't replace him yet so they're going to try to do a little line dancing. There were enough people at the dance for four squares. The third time was with the Double C's in Copperas Cove on Friday night with Betsy Nyhan calling. There were enough people for four squares and the club was thrilled because they usually only have two squares. In between the square dancing tips there were round dancing with Dorothy Coleman as the cuer.

Round Dancing at Shirts 'n' Skirts

Brad Caldwell and his wife round dancing

Line Dancing with my square dancing buddies at Coryell County Squares Dance

Square Dancing to Ed Larder calling

Dorothy Coleman cuing during the Double C's Dance

Round Dancing to Dorothy

5-25 More Rain!!!

We have been back from our Spring Trip for almost three weeks and it has been raining most of the time. We were planning to go square dancing with the Sundancers tonight but thunderstorms were in the area so Larry decided not to go. He had invited some friends to go with us and they were relived when he called and cancelled. The rain did in fact come down hard and steady. It was so bad that there was a lot of warnings out about flooding, tornadoes and heavy rain. Late in the day we received an e-mail that said the Sundancers was canceling the dance because of the rain. Louise sent us a few pictures she took from her garage in Round Rock and the street in front of her house was flooded.

Vintage Numbers Puzzle by Mega Puzzles

Sunday night I finished the Cinque Terre, Italy puzzle and I must have been excited about starting a new one, it was finished less than 12 hours before I took it apart. Once I took it apart I started a new one called Vintage Numbers. I worked on it until the evening when we watched the last two episodes of the Roosevelts. I highly recommend watching the Roosevelts.    

5-24 What should I do now?

What should I do next?

Larry and I have been working on a jig saw puzzle Cinque Terre, Italy since we've been back from our trip I finally finished it tonight. Now I have to make a decision on our next puzzle. Last week when we went shopping we picked up a couple puzzles, Vintage America by Buffalo and Large-Grand-Grande by Mega Puzzles, both have 2000 pieces. If I don't do a puzzle I might adventure into reading a book. 

The box the puzzle came in

Look at all the 2000 pieces of the puzzle!!!

Cinque Terre, Italy after being put together (38.5 inches X 26.5 inches)

In the evening we watched the fourth and fifth episodes of the Roosevelt. We had watched the third episode on PBS last Tuesday so we skipped it today. The episodes we watched were about Franklin Roosevelt and his programs he introduced during The Great Depression. Both of them were very interesting and informative.

 

5-23 Denim and Lace 2nd Anniversary Dance

Denim and Lace 2nd Anniversary Dance

It's been raining for days and it seems like it will never end but we need the rain so I won't complain. The last two days we hung around the house, I worked on my puzzle, Larry read and Flo slept. Last night we started to watch Ken Burns documentary about the Roosevelts ( Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor), it has seven parts and each part is about two hours long. We watched the first two parts and they were excellent. Tonight we went square dancing to celebrate Denim and Lace's 2nd Anniversary in Bruceville Eddy, Texas. They hired a special caller, Pat Kotal and his wife Joy to call the dance. Pat was out of the Houston area and belongs to The Texas Po' Boys which is a four caller group that calls in harmony for special events. Pat is excellent. There were enough people for four squares and everyone had a fantastic time.

 Video Of Dance

Pat and Joy Kotal calling

Square Dancing to Pat calling

Larry square thru in the middle

   

5-21 Poodle Skirts Dance

For the last two nights Larry and I have gone square dancing at two different clubs Shirts 'n' Skirts in Georgetown and Central Texas Lone Stars in Temple. The first dance was a regular dance and they had enough people for four squares, they usually have six or seven squares. Tonight we danced with our club the Central Texas Lone Stars, the theme was Ice Cream Social/50's and Poodle Skirts. We had a great turn out, we had enough people for four squares, we usually have two or three squares. Larry and I brought hot dogs, hot dog buns, chili, mustard, ketchup and onions. The club supplied ice cream and sodas for floats. The rest of the club members brought cakes, brownies and cookies. Dale Smith did the calling and Dorothy Coleman was the cuer. One of the square dancing tips was called by Wendall Moore, he is the caller for Waco Singles.

 

Video from 50's and Poodle Skirt Dance with the Lone Stars

Larry promenading Sherry home

Getting ready to circle left

Cheering on the side couples square thru four

5-19 Converting the Kitchen Light

The Kitchen Light

This morning  we woke up to a light drizzle, when it stopped went to town to go grocery shopping and to check our mail at the UPS Store. When we got back home we put the groceries away and then had lunch. Afterwards I worked on the jig saw puzzle and Larry decided to work on the kitchen light. Larry has been talking about converting the light from Fluorescent to LEDs. He ordered the LED light bulbs and they arrived yesterday. First thing he had to do was rewire the light fixture because with the LEDs you no longer use the ballast instead you go direct. Once he rewired the light he put the bulbs in and it worked excellent. The light now doesn't use as much energy as it use to and the amount of light remains the same.

Larry rewiring the kitchen light

New light bulbs

Later on in the afternoon I took Flo down to the lake so she could go swimming, I wasn't going to because it was very humid. She probably was wondering if she would ever go swimming again. She's eleven years old and she can't walk as far as she use to. When we go to the lake we're usually gone for an hour and by the time we get back home Flo is limping and very tired. We have been getting a lot of rain and I was curious about if the lake had come up so I decided to take Flo for a swim. The lake has risen quite a bit but due to the wind it was rough, Flo didn't care she was ready to go swimming. As she swam I walked along the bank, with the water being higher it was a bit of a challenge, I had to walk through tall weeds and sometimes I had to walk in the water which is still cold. It was great to see the lake up. We walked as far as we usually do but it didn't seem as far because the lake was up. On the way home we stopped at the neighbor's house to say hi to the two little boys. When we got home Flo was exhausted and she was limping, I felt sorry for her. What a mean mom I was to make her walk so far but she did have a great time at the lake.

Flo swimming in Belton Lake

     

5-18 Tin Foil Hat Dance

Square Dancing with Mickey and Minnie

Yesterday Larry and I went square dancing in Waco Texas with the TIPS club. The theme for the dance was Tin Foil Hats, however, since we had been on vacation we did not know this but then again  everyone else had forgotten, a few ladies made their hats at the dance. Larry and I wore a hat but it wasn't made of tin foil. There were enough people there to make up two squares.

Left to right: Belinda, Lu Anne and Patricia

Tonight we went square dancing with the Sundancers at Sun City Georgetown. It was a regular dance and they had seven squares, Brad Caldwell is their caller. Brad makes dancing very fun by getting you in positions you normally don't get in. In between the square dancing tips Brad plays a recording of Lucy and Jerry Pate cuing for round dancing.

Round Dancing to Lucy and Jerry Pate recording

5-17 Fixing Toilet in the Minnie

The next project Larry did on the Minnie was work on the toilet. During our trip Larry noticed there was water behind the toilet, he checked it out and found the leak. Then he tightened up the plumbing and stopped the leak but he knew this was only a temporary fix. When he had ordered parts for the the tune up he also had ordered parts for the toilet. After tuning up the Minnie Larry started working on the toilet, he was surprised how easy it was to get the toilet out. Once he got it out he took it apart, which took awhile to do. When the toilet was put together in the factory they had sealed the top and bottom together with a heavy duty sealant. When he finally got it apart he cleaned off all the sealant with Goo Gone, alcohol, Simple Green and Lacquer Thinner (this worked the best). After cleaning up the toilet he started reassembling the toilet parts, he replaced the flapper and water valve. Before sealing it up again he made sure everything worked. It worked better than it had in a long time. He sealed with DAP Kwik Seal and then he put the screws back in replacing rusted ones with new stainless steel screws. When the toilet was reassembled he reinstalled it in the Minnie. Larry did another super job. Way to go honey.

Heavy duty sealant used to assemble the toilet together

Cleaning the sealant off the toilet

Replacing the flapper

Putting the toilet back together

All ready to go back into the Minnie

         

5-16 Tuning up the Minnie

Tune Up Parts

Larry does almost all of the maintenance and repairs on the Minnie, each time we return from a trip he tries to complete whatever needs to be done so that it is ready for the next trip. The Minnie was due for a tuneup and the parts Larry ordered had came in but it has been raining so today was the first real opportunity to tune it up. First Larry took off the motor housing, then he removed the air cleaner assembly to get to the spark plugs and distributor. He replaced the spark plugs, distributor cap, spark plug wires, pcv valve, air filter and fuel filter. Before removing the old distributor cap he marked the new one with numbers that told him which plug wires went where. He carefully removed one plug at a time and put the correct wire on it. Then he replaced the air filter and fuel filter. When he replaced the fuel filter he got sprayed with fuel so before he went in the house he took off his shirt and I washed it and the rags he used. While Larry was tuning up the Minnie Flo and I kept him company and I helped him if he needed it. I also vacuumed the dog hair from the Minnie and the car. We had a busy day.

The air filter assembly

New distributor Cap

Larry removing the spark plugs

We didn't go square dancing this evening instead we watch Inspector Lewis for a few hours.   

5-15 Graduation Dance

The outfits Larry and I wore to Graduation Dance

This morning it rained on and off, the sun finally came out in mid afternoon. Larry and I worked on the puzzle most of the day. In the evening Larry and I went to Killeen to help the Killeen Kickers celebrated Betsy's 2nd square dancing class. They had eight students graduating from the class, a family with mom, dad and two girls, mom and son and a couple. The class did a tip with blindfolds and paper bags on their feet and they had to totally rely on their angels to guide them through the tip. They did a super job. There were enough people there for  seven squares and they had a guest caller Jim Hayes. In between the square dancing tips Christina cued a line dance. Larry and I danced all the tips and I danced the line dancing. We had a great time.

The students dancing a tip blindfolded and paper bags on their feet

Line Dancing with the Killeen Kickers and other square dancers

5-14 Square Dancing with Coryell County Squares

I finished my book, Scott Turow is a good writer. Ordinary Heroes is about a son that gets to know who his father really is after his father dies. After finishing my book I worked on my puzzle and Larry’s helping me with the puzzle. In the evening Larry and I drove up to Gatesville and danced with the Coryell County Squares. There were enough people there for two squares and the club served refreshments. They had shredded beef sandwiches, chips, cookies and I took brownies with chocolate chip cookie dough in it. We danced to Ed Larder calling and in between the tips he played music, where people danced the Texas two-step. We had a great time visiting with people we haven’t seen in a couple of months.

 

Ed Larder dancing with his wife Carol 

People dancing in between square dancing tips 

Square dancing to Ed calling

Square dancing with my friends (I’m in the purple)

Larry is this year’s king for Coryell County Squares