Friday 10-30-26 Workout, No Dancing, Tech Project & More

Smile It's Friday

We had an overcast day with a little rain. The morning temperature was 64 degrees and the high of 73 degrees.

Larry kept busy all day playing with his new Stream Dock. When we play pinball in virtual realty to adjust the playfield, we use one button to move the playfield, to adjust the height we have to use two buttons, one we hold while pushing another button. Larry would like to improve this so he thought he would try a Stream Dock. The dock is a highly customizable button keypad, it allows you to do all kind of things using programable buttons. He received the Stream Dock yesterday and today he kept busy learning how to configure and modify it. He is really impressed with it but it is larger that he thought so he is not sure about installing it on the front of the pinball cabinet.

Stream Dock

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The Daily Event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 44 minutes and 43 seconds to complete, which put me in 14th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I finished The Garden Shed by Carol Decker this morning. It was missing one pieces. It only took me four days to do it. I started 10/26/26 and finished 10/30/26.  It was 500 pieces and it's a very pretty puzzle. Then I started another puzzle called Starring Night Cats 1000 piece puzzle. It was a whimsical Van Gogh inspired design of an orange ginger cat and a black cat looking out at a swirling starlit sky. The new puzzle is different because it has the alphabet letters A to H on the back of each piece. So you can assemble the same letter to each other. When it changes from one letter to another one both letters are on the piece. It maybe easier to do assemble. I'll find out.

The Garden Shed by Carol Decker

Starring Night Cats

I worked out for an hour and a half. I had a great workout using three different programs and routines. 

I worked out with the Wii Fit for 30 minutes with 11 different exercises. The exercises were two exercises from the Aerobics menu for 10 minutes (Hula Hoop for 2 minutes and Rhythm Boxing for 8 minutes), three exercises from the Balance Games menu for 7 minutes (Balance Bubble two times for 2 minutes, Soccer Heading for 1 minute and Table Tilt for 4 minutes), three exercises from the Strength Training menu for 7 minutes (Balance Bridge 6 reps for 2 minutes, Lunge 15 reps for 3 minutes and Single-Leg Extension 10 reps for 2 minutes) and three exercises from the Yoga menu for 6 minutes (Chair for 2 minutes, Half-Moon for 2 minutes and Palm Tree for 2 minutes).

Aerobics ( Hula Hoop and Rhythm Boxing)

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Balance Games (Balance Bubble, Soccer Heading ang Table Tilt)

Strength Training (Balance Bridge, Lunge and Single-Leg Extension)

Yoga (Chair, Half-Moon and Palm Tree)

I worked out using Gold's Gym for a half hour. I'll probably will be sore tomorrow considering I hadn't used Gold's Gym for almost three months. I did two exercises from the Intermediate Lesson menu for 22 minutes (Ducking Combo for 7 minutes and Double Combo for 15 minutes), one exercise from the Beginner Lesson menu for 6 minutes (Cross Punch Combo) and one exercise from the Exercise menu for 1 minute (Log Chopping). I did the Log Chopping using the balance board for the first time ever.

Beginner Lesson menu (Cross Punch Combo)

Exercise menu (Log Chopping)

Intermediate menu (Ducking Combo and Double Combo)

I worked out for a half hour with the Synth Riders using three songs twice, which were Calling Out, Revenger and Showdown. I didn't get on the board but I had fun.

Calling Out

Revenger

Showdown

I played seven games of pinball. I played three games on the mini cabinet, which were Godzilla, Monster Bash and Pirates of the Caribbean. While playing Pirates of the Caribbean I became the Grand Champion. I played four games on the big cabinet, which were Borderlands, John Wick, The Addams Family and The Beach Boys. While playing Borderlands I became high score #3 and John Wick I became high score #1. Larry had updater The Beach Boys DMD and it looks super. I became high score #3. I had a great day of playing pinball.

Godzilla (Mini)

Monster Bash (Mini)

Pirates of the Caribbean

Borderlands (Big)

John Wick (Big)

The Addams Family (Big)

The Beach Boys (Big)

While I played games Larry continued playing with his new Streaming Dock. 

I watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched the movie Red One on Amazon. It is a Christmas movie. We watched it before and liked it. It was a cute movie about saving Christmas. After Larry went to bed I watched the sixth Mission Impossible movie, which was Mission Impossible- Fallout. 

By the end of the day I had done 5,000 steps. 

 

   

 

   

 

Thursday 10-29-26 Errands, New Pinball Games & Puzzle

 

Rainy Day

We had a relaxing day with rain.

The morning temperature was 67 degrees and the high was 71 degrees. It started to rain about 10:30 am and went away around 3:00 pm.

We started the day out by going to town to do some errands. First stop was at Aldi to do some grocery shopping for items we like buying there. Next stop was the Tax Appraisal District to pay our property taxes. Final stop was at Tommy's Express Car Wash. 

Tommy's Express Car Wash in Temple

 

The other day we received a coupon in the mail for a free car wash at Tommy's Express Car Wash. We had the Equinox in the shop for about a week. It was sitting in a dirt parking lot so today we took advantage of the coupon. This is the first time we have been there. It's setup a little different. The car wash itself has a roller pad on the driver's side wheels, they pull the car through the wash. When you vacuum your car you have to push a red button to turn on the vacuums and you have to hold the button down to shut off the vacuums. This was great because the vacuums aren't running all the time. You can buy an Interior Detail Kit for $5.00, that includes 1 glass wipe, 1 surface cleaner wipe, 1 super -absorbent disposable towel and 2 vent clip air fresheners. We didn't buy a kit but we wiped down the car with our own rags.

As we were driving down Adams towards the house it started to rain. We laughed because we just washed the car. When we got home I put the groceries away and Larry wiped the car down again. The Equinox computer system said that the tires were low. Larry put air in the tires while I put the groceries away.

Larry did an online groceries shopping from Walmart in morning. We received the order at our door at 11:00 am. They delivered the chips from the warehouse about fifteen minutes earlier. It's weird that Walmart will deliver one item separate from the rest of the order and it's free of charge.

Grocery Shopping

I spent most of the day working on The Garden Shed by Carol Decker. 

The Garden Shed 

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The Daily Event was Event: Two Game Tango of 6 games (3 Klondike and 3 Tri Peaks). It took me 12 minutes and 33 seconds to complete, which put me in 14th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

While we were on vacation one of our favorite pinball developers (Marty) released two new games. The games were John Wick and Borderlands. Larry downloaded both games and installed them on the big cabinet in both 2D and VR. Then he played the games to make sure they worked. Later on I played the games. They both play great. I like John Wick the best because the playfield looks better and there's more things for you to do. We love Marty's games.

I played ten games of pinball. I played five on the big cabinet, which were Borderlands, John Wick, The Addams Family, The Beach Boys and The Godfather. I became high score #4 in Borderlands and high score #1 in John Wick. I played five games on the mini cabinet, which were Fish Tales, Fun House, Great Houdini, No Good Goffers! and Three Angels. While playing No Good Goffers! I became high score #1. I had fun playing pinball on both cabinets. I had a super time trying the two new games (Borderlands and John Wick).

Borderlands (Big)

John Wicks (Big)

The Addams Family (Big)

The Beach Boys (Big)

The Godfather (Big)

Fish Tales (Mini)

Fun House (Mini)

Great Houdini (Mini)

No Good Goffers! (Mini)

Three Angels (Mini)

We watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched the the first John Wick movie off of Amazon. It is a 2014 movie about a retired hitman (Keanu Reeves), who comes out of retirement to seek revenge against the men who killed his dog and stole his car. When Larry went to bed I watched the fifth Mission Impossible movie called Mission Impossible- Rogue Nation. I ended up doing 3,000 steps.

Relaxing in front of the television

       

Wednesday 10-28-26 Halloween Dances, Projects & More

 

Smile and have fun

We had a super day. The weather was very nice. The morning temperature was 62 degrees and the high temperature was 84 degrees.

I attended three Halloween dances virtually. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 11:00 am for an hour. Terry wasn't at the dance. Di called five tips to 13 participants. Some of the dancers dressed up for Halloween. Di workshopped some four couple moves, which were Spin Chain The Gears, Coordinate, Track Two, Crossfire and Scoot and Dodge. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We had a fun time dancing with people from the U.K., Canada, Mexico/Canada, France and U.S.

Dancers participating in the dance

Bill's cool background for Halloween

 

Lynda from the U.K. dressed up like a witch

Angie and her dance partner Sue dressed up for Halloween

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Ett called four tips to 15 participants. Ett played one Halloween song. She called a lot of Relay-The-Top, Linear Action and Switch the wave/line. I danced a lot better this week than last week. I had a fun time dancing with dancers from the U.S., Netherlands and Australia.

 

Participants for the dance

Third was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 for an hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore showed up to help Dave call the dance. Karin couldn't call or dance because she fell while running and cracked her jaw in three places. Karin was there in case she was needed and to setup Greg to call the dance. The format was three tips of C1 to 8 participants, three tips of A2 to 11 participants and two Trivia questions in between the A2 tips. Dave and Greg did a great job of calling the dance. I had a great evening of dancing with people from U.S., Canada/Mexico and Canada.

Participates during the C1 session

Participants during the A2 session of the dance

While I danced Larry continued working on his jukebox project. He assembled the Werewolf he cutout yesterday. I hung it on the refrigerator for Halloween. It came out super.

Werewolf 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The Daily Event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 38 minutes and 45 seconds to complete, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out with the Wii Fit for 32 minutes using the Wii Fit Plus Routine of 12 exercises. The exercises were three exercises from the Aerobics menu (Advance Step, Basic Step and Rhythm Boxing), one exercise from the Balance Games menu (Lotus Focus), three exercises from the Strength Training menu (Jackknife 10 reps, Sideways Leg Lift 10 reps and Tricep Extension 10 reps) and five exercises from the Training Plus menu (Big Top Juggling, Bird's Eye Bull's Eye, Island Cycling, Obstacle Course and Rhythm Parade). I had a super workout.

Aerobics (Advance Step, Basic Step and Rhythm Boxing)

Balance Games (Lotus Focus)

Strength Training (Jackknife, Sideways Leg Lift and Tricep Extension)

Training Plus (Big Top Juggling, Bird's Eye Bull's Eye, Island Cycling, 

Obstacle Course and Rhythm Parade)

I played six games of pinball. I played three games on the mini cabinet, which were 60th Anniversary, Batman Forever and Ted & Red's Road Show. While playing Batman Forever I became high score #2. I played three games on the big cabinet, which were Godzilla, The Addams Family and Willow. While playing Godzilla I became high score #3 and saved New York. I had a fun time playing pinball.

60th Anniversary (Mini)

Batman Forever (Mini)

Ted & Red's Road Show (Mini)

Godzilla (Big)

The Addams Family (Big)

Willow (Big)

During my workout we received a call from Doughty Automotive to say the Equinox was ready to pickup. After I finished my workout we went to Doughty Automotive and picked up the Equinox. It didn't cost anything, they had worked on it a few months ago so they covered it under warranty. 

We watched YouTube videos. After Dave's dance we started watching a movie on Peacock but didn't finish it because it was really bad. We ended watching more YouTube videos. When Larry went to bed I watched Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol (the fourth Mission Impossible movie). While I watched television I worked on the jigsaw puzzle: The Garden Shed by Carol Decker.

The Garden Shed by Carol Decker

By the end of the day I had done 4,000 steps.