Thursday 2-26-26 New Shoes, Lunch, Puzzle & Workout

 

Just having fun

We had a beautiful day with sunshine and wind. The wind was out of the north/northeast, which made it a little cool but very comfortable. The day started out with a lite fog. By 9:30 am the fog had lifted. The morning temperature was 55 degrees and the high was 77 degrees.

My feet have been hurting me and when I put my tennis shoes on they hurt more. I figured my shoes were to short and not wide enough. So in the morning we went to town to buy me a new pair of shoes. The first stop was at Shoe Carnival to look at the shoes. We went to the ladies shoe area and I tried a couple pairs of tennis shoes on. My old pair of shoes are 10 wide. There aren't a lot of wide shoes in the ladies department. We found a pair of 11 wide and I tried them on they were way too long. Larry found a pair of 10.5 they weren't wide enough. Larry said there are more options for wide shoes in the men's area. We found a pair of Nike Monarch 9.5 wide, that fit great but I wasn't too impressed with the color, they were all white. Larry got on the phone and checked Academy, they had the same shoe in a different color. According to the website they only had one pair left in stock so off to Academy we went. We couldn't find the shoe so we asked for assistance.  She looked for the shoes and couldn't find it. She looked a second time and found, that the box wasn't marked wide. She was very helpful and didn't give up until she found the shoes. The clerk, who checked us out was very friendly. I was happy to get a new pair of shoes. Now I need to start wearing them.

My new shoes

before we went to town Larry received his new shoes. They fit great. He wore the shoes to town to break them in.

Larry's shoes

On the way home we stopped at Jimmy's Egg for lunch. We shared a Cuban Sandwich (pulled pork, shaved ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, mustard on a grilled Cuban bread) with curly fries. The service was excellent. When we told them we were sharing the meal, they separated the meal on to plates and put the fries in two separate bowls. When they cut the sandwich some of the pork fell out so they put it in a small bowl. The food was delicious. This time Larry was successful in paying online.

Our Cuban Sandwich and curly fries

I worked out with the Synth Riders for a half hour to four songs twice. The songs were Carol of the Bell, Escape, Shangri-La-La-La and The evil Dab. While working out with Carol of the Bell I got one new high score. While working out with Escape I got two outstanding scores and one new high score. While working out with Shangri-La-La-La I did one outstanding score and one new high score. I had a great workout.

Carol Of The Bells

Escape

Shangri-La-La-La

The Evil Dab

I played Gunpowder Gulch twice on Bounce Arcade for 20 minutes. The first game I earned a bronze trophy and completed one event, which was Barrel Barrage. The second game I earned a silver trophy. I played four different multiballs, which were S.A.L.O.O.N., Wooden Sign Rally twice, Safe Crack and Jail Break. I played three events, which were Gunfight, Safe Crack and Quick Drawl twice. I was successful in completing two events, which were Safe Crack and Gunfight. I earned an extra ball. It was a good game.

Gunpowder Gulch

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before going to bed. Today's event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Spider and 5 Tri Peak). It took me 58 minutes and 7 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

We watched the YouTube videos we follow and other videos we're interested in. 

I did an online grocery order from Walmart.

I don't think I mentioned it but my old Nintendo Wii quit working. It would no longer read the CD, this also happened on my last one. Larry found a used Wii box on Ebay, it arrived today and he configured my controllers to work with it. I can workout on it tomorrow. 

In the evening we watched Iris on Kanopy. It was a biographical movie about Iris Murdock, who was renowned novelist and her husband John Bayley, who was a literary critic and their relationship from their early days at Oxford through their battle with her Alzheimer's disease. The film starred Judi Dench and Kate Winslet as Iris and starred Jim Broadbent and Hugh Bonneville as John Bayley. Even though the ending was sad It was a great movie.

When Larry went to bed I watched Kingsman: The Secret Service and Shrek from our movies collection. I ended up doing 5,000 steps.

   

   

  

Wednesday 2-25-26 Virtual Dancing Day, Puzzle & Games

 

Hold On Tight

We had another windy day with sunshine, which made it a beautiful day. The weather was awesome. The morning temperature was 55 degrees and the high was 83 degrees. The wind kept the temperature cool. 

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus ay 10:00 am for an hour. This week Terry helped call the dance. Di and Terry called a total of five tips to 12 dancers. Terry called two tips and Di called three tips. One of the dancers was a plus dancer so Di worked on the A1 moves, that were added to the plus level. The moves she worked on were Quarter Thru (right and left), Partner Tag, Partner Hinge, Scoot and Dodge and Clover & Anything. The dancers were from the U.K., France, Canada and the U.S.A. I had a great time dancing to Di and Terry calling and with friends.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 pm for an hour. She called four tips to 13 dancers. She doesn't cue so it was a little more challenging for me because she calls some moves from positions we're not use to be in. But she did call those sequences over when she saw we were struggling. I had an ok time dancing with friends from the U.S.A., Canada, Germany and U.K.

Third was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 pm for an hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped call the dance with Dave. They called three tips of C1 to 10 dancers, three tips of A2 to 11 dancers and we did two trivia questions in between the A2 tips. The dancers were from Australia, Canada and the U.S.A. It was a fun evening dancing to Dave, Karin and Greg and with friends.

I love square dancing in person and virtually

Larry kept busy all day doing this and that. He submitted our taxes for our refund. He finished reading a book. He changed our house insurance off to Farmers. He started planning our Spring Trip, which is about three weeks away.

Reading a good book and more

In between dancing I kept busy playing games and working on my puzzle.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before going to bed. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 22 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I played seven games of pinball. I played four games on the mini cabinet, which were Batman Forever, Dead Pool, Goldeneye and The Goonies. While playing Dead Pool I became high score #4. I played three games on the big cabinet, which were Big Bang Bar, Guns N' Roses and Medieval Madness. While playing Guns N' Roses I got a new high score of 629,104,430, which put me in 51st out of 68 participants. I had fun playing pinball.

Batman Forever (mini)

Dead Pool (mini)

Goldeneye (mini)

The Goonies (mini)

Big Bang Bar (big)

Guns N' Roses (big)

Medieval Madness (big)

After Dave's dance we watched a movie on Kanopy called Sally!. It was a documentary about Sally Gearhart. She was a radical lesbian feminist, professor and author who was a pivotal figure in the 1970s and 1980s LGBTO+ and women's rights movement. It was a great documentary. Sally is a very interesting person. After Larry went to bed I watched Crocodile Dundee II and Christopher Robin from our movies collection. I ended up doing 3,000 steps.   

  

Tuesday 2-24-26 Liberty Hill Dance, Puzzle & Games

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day. 

The weather was gorgeous with blue skies and wind out of the southwest. At times the wind was very strong. The morning temperature was 36 degrees and the high was 73 degrees. 

We started the day out by going to Liberty Hill for our weekly C1/A2 dance at the Ski's house. We left the house at 10:15 am. On the way there we swung by the UPS Store to get our mail. Our new credit cards were there waiting for us. When we got to Liberty Hill we parked in a parking lot to have lunch. After lunch we went to the Ski's house.

We arrived at the dance at 11:45 am. I had made Reese's Peanut Butter Bars for the group. We said our hellos to Kay, Bob, Henry and Susan and then started dancing. We danced two couple tapes of C1 to Johnny Preston and Tony Collingwood from the U.K. for an hour. Tony was more challenging then Johnny because of his English accent and he put us in challenging positions. Whenever we had problems we walked through the moves. We had a super time dancing with Susan and Henry. 

At 1:00 pm we danced A2 for two hours to John Kephart. There were enough dancers for one square plus five dancers sitting out. John workshopped Motivate because the dancers were having problems. We use cards so the dance went very smoothly. Larry and I sat out a couple of times. The last few weeks John has called the last tip as six couples. It's more difficult because you can forget who your partner is. He calls the tip with four head couples and two side couples. My snacks were a success we didn't have any leftover. In between tips the dancers played with the Ski's (Kay and Bob) dog Baily. We had a great time dancing to John and with friends. 

John Kephart (last week dance)

Dancing to John

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 1 hour, 15 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 32nd place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I played eight games of pinball. I played four games on the mini cabinet, which were Ace of Speed, Cactus Canyon, Great Houdini and No Fear. I didn't get on the board playing the games but I played fairly well. I played four games on the big cabinet, which were Guns N Roses, Jaws, JP Viper Night Driving' and Magic Pinball. While playing Jaws I became high score #4 and JP Viper Night Driving I became high score #5. I had fun playing pinball.

Ace of Speed (mini)

Cactus Canyon (mini)

Great Houdini (mini)

No Fear (mini)

Guns N Roses (big)

Jaws (big)

JP Viper Night Driving (big)

Magic Pinball (big)

I worked on my puzzle.

In the evening we watched a movie on Kanopy called The Hours. It was a good movie but a little depressing. It was about three women in different times, that had one thing in common in their life. The women were Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) a British author from  1920's who wrote Mrs. Dalloway, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) who was a Los Angeles housewife in 1950's and Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) who was a modern day New York writer. After Larry went to bed I watched Oh, God! on Kanopy. It was a cute movie with John Denver and George Burns as God. Then I watched Crocodile Dundee from our movies collection. I ended up doing 2,000 steps. 

   

Monday 2-23-26 C1 with Di, Workout, Puzzle & More

 

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day with sunshine. It was a little cool, the morning temperature was 29 degrees and the high was 62 degrees.

We started the day off by attending Di Green's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour. Terry danced with Di as she called five tips to 17 dancers. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We danced a lot better today. Di had the same setup as she had yesterday She still trying to get a cable so she can hook up the television where she can see us in case we need help. She's great at cueing and telling us where we're at. We had a super time dancing to Di and Terry and with friends from France, Germany, Canada, U.K. and the U.S.A.

Get a partner and dance

Today was the beginning of a new week so before going to bed I played sixteen games of Pyramid to earn a golden ticket to double my points when playing Solitaire. Then I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. After Di's dance I played the event, which was Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 15 minutes and 27 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out on the Synth Riders for 30 minutes to three songs two times. The songs were Behemoth, Got You and Hex. While working out on Got You I earned one outstanding score. The songs were about 5 minutes a piece. I workout with the songs at the Easy Mode but today I had to use Normal Mode because Easy Mode was not available. I had a great workout.

Behemoth

Got You

Hex

I played one game of Monster Manor on Bounce Arcade for 15 minutes. I earned a silver trophy. I awoken the manor twice and failed to stun the manor both times. I was the banister buster and earned a skeleton key. I was able to summon the spider but was quick enough to hit it to start a multiball. I hit the clock three times to get the jack-o-lanterns. I was unsuccessful to hit all of them. I had a great game.

Monster Manor

Larry finished reading a book yesterday and started a new one today. He also played three games of pinball on the mini cabinet. The games were Ace of Speed, No Good Goffers! and The Goonies.

After working out I played ten games of pinball. I played five games on the mini cabinet, which were Ace of Speed, Junk Yard, Nightmare Before Christmas, No Good Goffers! and The Goonies. I played five games on the big cabinet, which were Big Bang Bar, Blizzard of Ozz, Guns N Roses, Indianapolis 500 and Superman and the Justice League. I didn't get on the board as new high scores on the games but I played very well.

Mini Cabinet

Ace of Speed

Junk Yard

Nightmare Before Christmas

No Good Goffers!

  The Goonies

Big Cabinet

Big Bang Bar

Blizzard of Ozz

Guns N Roses

Indianapolis 500

Superman and the Justice League

We watched YouTube videos. I worked on my jigsaw puzzle.

In the evening we watched a movie on Kanopy called Finding Neverland. It was a movie starring Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet and Julie Christie. It was a movie about the playwriter Sir J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp), who created Peter Pan and a widow of four boys Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) and their relationship. It was a cute movie and very good. It was a 2004 movie. When Larry went to bed I watched the last movie of  Fantastic Breasts, which was Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore. Then I watched Bling from our movies collection. It's about a mechanic of robots, who has been in loved with the loved anchor woman seen they were kids. It's a cute movie about the adventures he goes through when trying to propose to her. I ended up doing 5,000 steps.

 

 

Sunday 2-22-26 Dancing with Di, New Pinball Challenge & More

 

Have a great Sunday

We had a great day. 

The weather was fantastic. It was cool with a morning temperature of 35 degrees and a high of 60 degrees. There was a wind out of the north.

We received a few pictures from Shirley showing us her birthday gifts. Louise send her a gift card and three books, Ray (Larry's brother) and Mary (Ray's girlfriend) gave her flowers in a vase and  she got a few birthday cards. 

Flowers from Ray and Mary and birthday cards

Louise's gifts

Flowers on the left are flowers we gave her this year and flowers on the right are flowers we gave her last year

Shirley's birthday gifts

We attended Ett McAtee's Weekly C Series dance, which was C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Di Green called the dance to 12 dancers. She called five tips and danced with Terry. Di called from another laptop because the one she usually use died on her right before the dance. Her video looked a lot better on the newer computer. She had to take a cable from the television she uses to watch dancers while they dance so  she only had the one monitor. Larry danced four of the tips with me. At times we were in the wrong place and we're not sure why. But we had a fun time dancing with friends. The dancers were from Canada, Germany, U.K. and the U.S.A.

Get a partner and dance

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before I went to bed. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 48 minutes, which put me in 20th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 30 minutes with three songs twice. The songs were Calling Out, Revenger and Showdown. While working out with Calling Out I got one outstanding and one new high score and Revenger I got one new high score.

Calling Out

Revenger

Showdown

I did some housework. I did laundry and vacuumed the house.

Doing laundry

Today starts a new weekly challenge of pinball. The game this week is Guns N Roses. We didn't have the game so Larry had to download it. He installed the game on the big cabinet in both 2D and VR. He had trouble getting it to work in 2D. After a bit of investigation he discovered a change he made a couple of weeks ago caused the problem. He replaced one file and that fixed it. Then he played the game to make sure everything worked correctly. 

Before last weeks challenge, which was Who Dunnit ended at 1:00 I played it for about an hour. I didn't get a new high score. I ended up being in 46th place out of 120 participants. I played the new challenge of Guns N Roses and got my first high score of 551,089,470, which put me in 15th out of 18 participants. 

Who Dunnit

Guns N Roses

I played five more games of pinball besides the challenges. I played two games on the big cabinet, which were Magic Pinball and Playboy. I played three games on the mini cabinet, which were Monster Bash, Theatre of Magic and Willy Wonka. I didn't play pinball too well today.

Magic Pinball (big)

Playboy (big)

Monster Bash (mini)

Theatre of Magic (mini)

Willy Wonka (mini)

In between doing this and that I worked on my puzzle.

We watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched a movie on Kanopy called Hannah Arendt. It was a biographical drama about Hannah Arendt. Hannah Arendt was a German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist. It took place during the trail of a Nazi, Adolf Eichmann in 1961 in Jerusalem, she reported on the trail for the New Yorker. She wrote a report on the Banality of Evil. People didn't like what she wrote because it was critical of some Jewish leaders. It was a good movie, it was in both German and English. I would have liked it better if it was in English instead having to read subtitles. After Larry went to bed I watched the second movie of Fantastic Breasts, which was Fantastic Beasts: The Crime of Grindelwald from our movies collection. I ended up doing 4,000 steps.