Friday 11-26 Black Friday & More

 

Today was Black Friday, which is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S. 

Yesterday, Larry went online to check if there was a good deal on AA and AAA batteries. Most years we stock up on Black Friday. He found The Home Depot had a good deal on them but the flyer showed they actually went on sale the 14th so he wasn't sure there would be any left. We took a chance and went there this morning. He was right, they were out of them.

On the way home we stopped at Crossroads Park to go for a walk. We walked for 40 minutes. It was a little chilly. We were the only ones parked in the parking lot. We started the walk by ourselves but by the time we were halfway around the park people from the neighborhood showed up. We met a very friendly golden retriever. After saying hi to the dog we continued our walk and they went for a run. We had a great walk.

 

Welcome to Crossroads Park

Larry continues setting up the new computer. 

I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 14 minutes and 39 seconds, which put me in 21st place in my group. Then I did some Sudoku games.

After lunch Larry made reservations at Buescher State Park for four nights starting Sunday. So I started getting the Minnie ready to go. I had to clean the interior because I didn't do this when we got home from the last trip. I used the new vacuum cleaner, which worked excellent. I also loaded some clothes in it for our trip.

Larry participates in The Home Depot Seeds Program and this month he choose a Carro Smart Ceiling Fan. It arrived and has been sitting in the garage. He decided to install it in the second bedroom. At first he wasn't sure he liked it but once it was installed it looked great. The fan has five blades and a multiple speeds. It has electronic remote control that turns on and off the fan and light and works with Alexa. It came with extra hardware. Larry removed the old fan and assembled the new one. Once the fan and light was installed he played with the remote control to make sure it worked. It worked great and the fan moves a lot of air and moves very fast. You can adjust the brightness of the light using the remote control. The final step was to program the fan to work with Alexa. The light is very nice. 

 

Larry assembling the fan blades

Larry installing the smart fan

The old ceiling fan

 

The Smart Fan with the light on

 

The fan with the light off

I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2 dance at 6:30. She called four two couples tips of A2 with 23 participants, one four couples tip of A2 with 21 participants and one tip of class level C1 with 21 participants. I had fun dancing with friends and to Ett.

After the dance we finished watching the 7th season of Vera. I started to watch the 8th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

  

   

Thursday 11-25 Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! I'm very thankful for everything in my life. I've got a great life and very happy. I also have a super family and friends.

The weather today was cool with a brisk wind out of the north. 

I got up a little early to start the Thanksgiving feast preparation. Yesterday I did some preparation and I was glad because I was busy all morning. I put the turkey in the oven at 7:45. It was suppose to bake for 2.5 to 3 hours but through experience it usually takes longer. The button hadn't popped by 12:30 but the meat thermometer said it was ready so I took it out of the oven. While the turkey was cooking I made a relish tray with ham, pepper jack cheese cubes, sweet pickles and olives, celery with peanut butter, deviled eggs, mash potatoes, stuffing, egg noodles and homemade cornbread muffins. Louise brought a pecan pie and chocolate oatmeal haystack cookies. She arrived with Alice at 10:30. It's always a pleasure to have her visit and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. 

 

Ready to eat

When I woke up Larry was already awake and working on the new computer. After Louise left Larry continued working on the computer.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 45 minutes and 1 second to complete, which put me in 24th place in my group. Then I did some Sudoku games.

In the evening we bought a James Bond movie off Amazon called Skyfall and watched it. We could have rented it for less but since we now own it we will probably watch it a few times. Afterward we watched YouTube videos. When Larry went to bed I finished watching the 7th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 27,600 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group. 

Wednesday 11-24 New Computer, Dancing & Homemade Noodles

We had a wonderful day. 

Larry started the day out by going to Walmart because I forgot eggs when we last went shopping. On the way home he bought donuts for our breakfast.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: Free Cell Mini of 10 games. It took me 39 minutes and 27 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group. I'm excited because I haven't been in the top ten in a long time. 

Larry has been looking for a new computer. Our backup computer that he uses for crafting and experimenting is about 8 years old, it works well but is slow. He is a bit of a computer nerd and had a list of specific things he wanted, if he could not find what he wanted for a price he was willing to pay he would simply continue using the old computer. Black Friday sales are normally a great time to buy computers. On Monday he found exactly what he was looking for in Staples Black Friday online ad, it was discounted 28% putting the price where he was happy. He ordered it yesterday, it wasn't suppose to be in until Monday but it arrived today. I could not believe he didn't start working on it until late in the evening when he was done with his latest paper crafting project.. 

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00. They called five tips and worked on push cast 3/4. It's hard when you do this with eight people but harder with phantoms. They did a super job calling and helping when needed. We had 19 participants.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00. She had 22 participants. It was a review of all calls. She helped when needed. I had a fun time.

Third was Dave Eno and Dave Hutchinson's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30. They started the dance out by calling two C1 tips with 8 participants. Then they called five tips of A2 with 10 participants. The last A2 tip they called together. The last tip of the dance was a C1 with 7 participants. They called it together. I had a great time.

 

Get a partner and dance

After Ett's dance I made homemade egg noodles for Thanksgiving. 

After Larry went to bed I started the 7th season of Death In Paradise. I did 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.    

Tuesday 11-23 Happy Tuesday

 

We had a great day. It got up to 66 degrees.

We started the day by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00. They called five tips with 21 participants. We had a great time. Before the last tip Di said she would do a short tip so it wouldn't overlap Dayle's dance. Larry told her that Dayle wasn't calling this week because of Thanksgiving. The dancers were thanked him for reminding them about it, especially Meghan from Australia who gets up at 2:00am for these morning dances.

Larry spent the day making Christmas paper projects. 

I played computer games. I did the Daily Challenges in Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 35 minutes and 25 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. Then I did some Sudoku games. I worked out for a half hour using Just Dance. I vacuumed the house.

In the evening we watched two episodes of Vera. Then I finished watching the 6th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group. 

 

Monday 11-22 Dancing, Crafting and Working Out

 

Happy Monday

We started the day by attending Di Green's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour. She had 25 participants and called five tips. She worked on Linear Action, Triple Boxes/Lines/Waves and Tally Ho. She did a super job of calling. We had a great time dancing and visiting with our virtual square dancing friends.

Larry continued working on Christmas projects. 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 58 minutes and 17 seconds to complete, which put me in 25th place in my group. I also did some Sudoku games.

In the afternoon while Larry worked on Christmas paper projects I worked out for an hour and a half with my Wii Fit, Gold's Gym and Just Dance. I also did laundry.

 

Doing laundry

Working out

We had a relaxing evening. We finished watching the 5th season of Vera and started the 6th season. Then I started the 6th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

Sunday 11-21 Home Maintenance & Relaxing

 

Relaxing Sunday

We had a relaxing day hanging around the house.

After we got back from our trip we had a lot of ants around the house and some of them found their way inside. Larry treated the entire outside of the house and the yards and our ant problem disappeared. That was probably five weeks ago and yesterday we saw some in the kitchen. Larry looked all around the exterior of the house and found no sign of ant activity but he went ahead and treated the side of the house the kitchen is on. We think they may have come in on the bird/squirrel feeders. Every night I bring in the feeder and the bowels and store them on the kitchen counter, if I leave them outside the raccoons and other animals make a mess on the back porch. When we had pets we started not using insecticides inside the house and even now we try not to use any indoors.

Larry noticed that one of our toilets was letting a bit of water seep into the bowel so he ordered a replacement flapper ball and today he replaced it. These toilets are over 7 years old and this is the first time he has had to do anything to them. We are on the city of Temple water and we have had very little problems with hard water buildup. This is probably why we have had no plumbing issues.

Larry worked on paper crafting while I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: Tri Peaks Mini of 5 games. It took me 10 minutes and 21 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. I did some Sudoku games. 

We attended one virtual square dance, which was Loren Smith's Weekly A2/C1 at 7:30. He changed up the dance a little bit. He called two A2 tips with 14 participants, one A2 tip with C1 moves with 13 participants, one C1 Teach tip with 13 participants and two C1 tips with 8 participants. Loren noticed that most of the dancers were C1 dancers or are learning C1 so he decided to review the C1 moves, that he already taught in the third A2 tip. During the C1 teach tip he introduced the dancers to Step and Fold. Don Moger showed up to say hi, which was a pleasant surprise. We had a great time.

After the dance I worked out with Just Dance for a half hour. After Larry went to bed I finished watching the 5th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group for the week with 188,884. I missed 1st place by 300 steps. 

 

Working out 

    

 

Saturday 11-20 Minnie Project and Dancing

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day. It was nice and cool with a little wind. 

Larry waited until it warmed up a bit and then he went outside to work on the Minnie. The step to get into the Minnie's is mounted toward the rear of the motor home and occasionally when you go through a dip it will drag and get bent. Sometimes so badly that it will not work and other times it still works but is a pain to slide in and out. On our last trip it drug when we went through a drainage dip in a street in Gunnison. The step still worked but was difficult to slide in and out. Larry decided to fix it today. He started by taking it apart and removing it. The step itself wasn't damaged but the frame was. He took the frame into his workroom, disassembled it and then used a vice and a sledge hammer and bend it back in place. Then he put everything back together.

 

Removing the step

Inspecting step for damage

We went to town to get our mail and made a quick stop a Walmart. Picked up a rotisserie chicken while we were there. Normally we are in Walmart early in the day and they don't have any rotisserie chickens.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games (3 Tri Peaks and 3 Pyramid). It took me 18 minutes and 48 seconds, which put me in 31st place in my group. I also did some Sudoku games.

We attended one virtual square dance, which was Don Moger's Weekly Saturday Night Fever at 6:00. Don was calling in person so  Dayle Hodge called the dance by himself. He called three tips of A2 with 27 participants, one tip of two couples C1 class level with 26 participants, one tip of four couples C1 class level with 21 participants and one tip of two couples C1 with 16 participants. Dayle did a great job of calling and we had fun.

After the dance we watched an episode of Vera. Then I started watching the 5th season of Death In Paradise. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.