Thursday 7-25-24 Relaxing Day, Crafting, Games & Puzzle

 

Relaxing Day

We had a relaxing day.

On Thursday we have no virtual square dances so we just hang around the house. Larry continued working on his paper crafting. He decided to start making Christmas cards. Today he made four. He decided on some tree cards. He downloaded and resized he card. Then he went through his paper and decided what colors to use. Then he cut the pieces using his Cameo. Afterwards he assembled the cards via a video made by Leo. After making the cards he made the envelopes to go with them. Each card was different even though they were made by the same design. The cards came out fantastic and very beautiful.

 

Christmas cards

 

One of the cards with an envelope

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before I went to bed. In the morning I did the event, which was Event: Two Game Tango of 10 games (5 Spider and 5 Free Cell). It took me 1 hour, 50 minutes and 48 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

In the afternoon I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour. After cooling off I played five games of pinball. I played the weekly challenge of Judge Dredd and got a new high score, of 217,640,840. This score got me to 30th place out of 45 participants. The other four games were Twilight Zone, Queen, Theatre of Magic and The Addams Family. While playing Twilight Zone I entered my initials as #3 high score. I had a great time playing pinball.

Judge Dredd

Queen

The Addams Family

Theatre of Magic

Twilight Zone

In the evening we watched Milk on Amazon. It was a movie about Harvey Milk, he was a gay activist and was the first gay person to be elected to a California political office. Harvey Milk was played by Sean Penn. It was a very good documentary movie. Then I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.    

  

Wednesday 7-24-24 Dance Day, Crafting & Games

 

We had humid day with the high of 93 degrees.

I've been putting a bowl out on the back porch with nectar in it for the squirrels in order to keep them from knocking the hummingbird feeder off the railing. I still have to fight the squirrels off the rail. Sometimes we see a fox come by and drink the nectar out of the bowl. Three mornings ago I noticed the bowl wasn't on the porch. I looked around and found it in the yard. I put it back on the porch with nectar. The next morning the bowl was gone. I had thought that maybe an animal took it. I replaced the bowl with another one. This morning it was gone. We have a couple of security cameras on the back porch so Larry looked through the recording from last night. He found at 10:40 a fox came on the porch and drank the nectar, a few minutes later it came back and carried the bowl away. Now we know what happened to the bowls. It wasn't the same fox we saw drinking out of the bowl the first time. The first fox didn't have a tail and was a dark color. The one last night had a bushy tail and it's color was lighter. The picture of the fox from last night looked like the one I took a picture of in 2021 under our oak tree.

 

First fox

 

Last night fox

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Yesterday, Di sent an e-mail to remind dancers about the dance. In the e-mail she asked people to wear their Tye-dye outfits because it was the Anniversary of the Thy Dye Palooza, which was held back in 2012. There were a lot more zoom dancers and the dance was multi-halls (3), multi-levels (Mainstream, Plus and A2) and multi-callers (10) from UK, Canada, United States, Germany and Sweden. There were over 100 participants.

Today Di and Terry called five tips to 13 participants. Terry and Di wore their Tye-dye outfits, Dawn and Charles from Florida wore their Tye-dye outfits and I wore my Tye-dye shirt and a hat. During the last tip Di called a few four couple calls. They were Relay the Duecey, Spin Chain the Gear and Tea Cup Chain. The moves went smoothly because Di cued the moves. I had a great time.

 

Di Green in her Tye-Dye

 

Terry and Di dancing during the dance

My outfit

 

I continued the theme of wearing Tye-dye during the other two dances.

Second was Ett McAtee's C1 at 1:00 for an hour. She called five tips to 20 participants. She focused on Step & Flip, Cross & Turn and Vertical Tag. It was nice to have Ett back after about two weeks because she was on the road. I had a fun time.  

Third was Dave Eno's C1/A2 at 6:00 for an hour. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. Dave was at the Canadian Square Dancing Conference last week and had a super time, He called a lot of tips and called other tips with other callers. When he got home he had COVID and tonight his voice was raspy. He also said he was very tried. This was the first time he attended a big square dancing gathering in many years. This is also the first time he had COVID. The format was three C1 tips with 6 participants, three tips of A2 with 7 participants and in between the A2 tips we had a couple of trivia questions. I had a great evening of dancing to Dave, Karin and Greg and with friends.

 

Get a partner and dance

 

A few weeks ago Larry bought a used iPad, since then he has used it every day as his primary tablet. While he enjoyed playing with it he decided he liked his Android tablet better. Today he put the iPad and a couple pairs of new water-ski gloves on Ebay. The iPad sold in about an hour.

After lunch we went to the post office and mailed the iPad. On the way home we stopped by Jack 'n' Jill Donuts to buy a couple of donuts for our dessert. When we got back to the house it was time for my second dance.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street of 30 games. It took me 1 hour and 16 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. I played some Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for a half hour.

Larry played a little pinball and had a super time. Larry became Grand Champion in Twilight Zone. Congratulations, Honey. Then he moved onto paper crafting. 

I played a few games of pinball. The games were; The Godfather, Queen and Twilight Zone. I didn't get on the board but I had fun.

 

Twilight Zone

The Godfather

Queen

After the last dance we watched a movie on Amazon called The Visitor. It was about immigration. A professor goes to New York and finds a young couple living in his apartment. It was very slow moving and left open at the end. It was good until it didn't go anywhere. Then I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl out of our movies collection. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

  

    

Tuesday 7-23-24 Dancing with Di & Terry & Pinball Fun

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day. 

We were going to drive to Corsicana to dance with our weekly group of A2 dancers. I even got up at 6:30 to get ready. Larry looked at the weather radar and there was rain most of the way to Corsicana. The rain was going to be around much of the day. It's 100 miles to Corsicana and we really didn't want to drive all that way in the rain so we decided not to go. It ended up being the right decision, the rain did hang around much of the day. The rain wasn't heavy.

 

Rainy Day

I was glad we decided to stay home because my allergies were acting up and my feet hurt. My feet are probably hurting because I have a habit of not wearing shoes around the house. I workout barefoot. I do a Jazz routine without shoes where I hop a lot and I do this on ceramic tile. For the last week or so I have been wearing shoes while working out and they help a lot. I'm going to try to continue doing so. Larry has been telling me for years to wear shoes, he has feet problems and always wears some type of shoe.

 

Allergies

 

At 10:00 we logged into Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 12 participants. Larry danced four of the tips with me. During the last tip Di called a couple of four couple moves, which were Motivate and Cast a Shadow because he was asked to call a few four couple moves. We had an outstanding time dancing with friends and to Di and Terry.

 

Having fun dancing with friends

Larry spent the day having fun adding a couple of pinball games to Virtual Reality. The first game was Twilight Zone. He downloaded and installed the game, first in 2D and then in VR. It's a new game to VR so it took him awhile to make it work. It has a lot of things going on in the playfield. After he got it to work he played it and had a lot of fun. Next game was Queen. This game is developed by a guy named Marty02. We really like his games but most of them are 2D and have not been converted into VR. Last week Larry figured out how to get one of them to work in VR so today he thought he would try getting Queen to work. He really likes this table and has not played it in a long time. It took a bit but he got it working, it's not perfect and it doesn't have a VR room but it works well. He had a super game. He also played Judge Dredd. Larry had an outstanding day of playing pinball.

While Larry played pinball I napped. When I woke up I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour. 

While we were on our Spring Trip our neighbor Jason texted Larry about a small motorcycle a friend gave him. He wanted some advice on how to get it running. Yesterday, Jason and Connor needed some help inserting a fuel line into the fuel tank so they came over. Larry inserted the fuel line and sealed it in the tank. The next step was to get the motorcycle to run. It has a carburetor, Larry told them they might have trouble getting it to start. Today Jason texted Larry and asked for his help. Jason and Connor brought the motorcycle over. Larry lubed and adjusted the chain, checked the spark plug, they added some fuel and he got it to run. Connor took it for a ride. Jason and Connor were very excited that the motorcycle runs.  

In the evening we watched a movie on Amazon called Bob Marley: One Love. It was a documentary about Bob Marley. It was a good movie. When Larry went to bed I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from our movies collection. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

 

 

Monday 7-22-24 Dancing, Games & Having Fun

 

Raining afternoon

For the next few days we have a chance of rain. It was very humid but the temperature didn't get out of the low 80s. The high was 83 degrees at noon. Then it dropped. This afternoon the rain came in. It rained for a half hour, but not hard. It stayed on and off throughout the evening.

We started the day by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour. Di called five tips to 13 participates. She workshopped the modification of the move Pass the Axle and The Axle. The modification was replace the third part of Pass the Axle with another move and the second part of The Axle. Larry danced four of the tips. We had an outstanding time dancing with friends.

 

Before the dance Larry worked on finalizing documentation for the jukebox for Frank. He put an envelope together that included the documentation, a couple of USB keys, backup Raspberry Pi SD card, templates, digital copies of all the files and a few other goodies. After the dance he got the jukebox ready to ship to Frank via UPS. He also included one of his paper crafting cards.. When he had it ready to go we went to The UPS Store and mailed it out.

Frank's jukebox

Card to Frank

On the way home we stopped by Which Wich Sandwich Shop and had lunch. We had been there years ago and remembered not being very impressed, nothing had changed, still not impressed. It was very confusing and there were no prices. We think the prices were supposed to be displayed on a TV monitor but the monitors were turned off. You look at a paper menu laying on a counter and decide on what sandwich you want. Then there is this long line of bags and you have to figure out which bag is correct for each sandwich. On the bag you mark what you want on it. Then you take the bag to the checkout counter. The service was slow and we thought the price was high, we split a 10.5 inch Italian Grinder, it was about $13. The food was good. The store was unattractive, bare concrete floors, tables and chairs that were plain and nothing in the store to make it interesting. Subway's decor is a step up. A week or so ago we ate a Firehouse Subs, it was a much better experience.

I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 55 minutes and 7 seconds, which put me in 8th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out on the Synth Riders for an hour.

Larry played a few games of pinball; Star Trek, Judge Dredd and The Flintstones. He did excellent in playing Star Trek and The Flintstones. He became an Admiral in Star Trek and #3 in The Flintstones. After I finished working out I played Judge Dredd and got a high score of 206,536,790, which put me in 13th place out of 26 participants. I didn't get on the board in Star Trek and The Flintstones but I had fun. Then I played three games, they were NASCAR, Tales of the Arabian Nights and Junk Yard. In both NASCAR and Junk Yard I became the Grand Champion. We both had a great day of playing pinball.

 

Judge Dredd

 

Junk Yard

 

NASCAR

 

Star Trek

 

Tales of the Arabian Nights

 

The Flintstones

 

In the evening we watched The Remains Of The Day on Amazon. It was a 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve and many others. It was about a butler's loyalty to his employer leading up to World War II and after. It was not a bad moving but It really didn't go anywhere. Then I watched Taken from our movies collection and finished watching the fourth season of Murder Is My Life on Acorn. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group. It's a good start. 

   

 

 

Sunday 7-21-24 Jukebox Project, Games & New Pinball Challenge

 

Just having fun

We had a great day. It was overcast skies with the high of 88 degrees.

Larry worked on his jukebox project for Frank and Eric. To help trouble shoot the new jukebox he took the Raspberry PI and the button circuit board out of his jukebox and moved them next to new jukebox. It took him hours but he finally discovered two things, first he found he had miswired one connection, with that corrected he was on to the next problem. When he was experimenting with getting the original button board to work he had removed a component thinking it might isolate each button and while it helped it didn't isolate all the buttons, he ended up cutting individual circuits. When he modified the board on Franks machine he cut all the same circuits but he did not remove the component, this left two buttons not isolated. He ended up cutting one more circuit and that fixed the problem. Once Frank's jukebox was working he put his jukebox back together. He then installed the button graphics on Franks machine, he designed and made them via his Cameo. Then he put both jukeboxes next to each other, they worked and looked terrific. He took pictures and texted Frank saying they had twins. Frank text back "cigars for everyone". 

 

Twin jukeboxes

The wiring system in the jukebox

 

The front of the jukebox

 

Tomorrow he will update the documentation on how to build the jukebox. Once this is done he'll get the jukebox ready to be shipped. Hopefully, we'll mail it to Frank tomorrow.   

While Larry worked on the project I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Spider Mini of 5 games. It took me 15 minutes and 2 seconds to complete, which put me in 16th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

In the afternoon I worked out for an hour with the Synth Riders. 

Today is the beginning of the week for a new pinball games challenge, which is Judge Dredd. I played last week's challenge Star Trek a few times to get a new high score and failed. My high score for Star Trek was 32,492,820, which put me in 48th place out of 58 participants. Larry loaded the new challenge on the pinball cabinet in both VR and 2D. Then he played it a few times to make sure it worked. Then he changed Star Trek from 3 balls to 5 balls. I played the new challenge Judge Dredd and had a couple of great high scores but the photos didn't come out and you couldn't read the score. Larry worked on it a bit before he went to bed. He will work on it more tomorrow.

 

Star Trek

 

I played three other games. They were The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones and Who Dunnit. I had a fun afternoon of playing pinball.

Indiana Jones

The Lord of the Rings

Who Dunnit

I worked on my puzzle.

 

Puzzle so far

 

In the evening we watched three episodes of Northern Exposure. When Larry went to bed I watched Mary Poppins Returns. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with a total of 122,222 steps in the 100,000 step challenge. LIFE IS GOOD!!!

 

Saturday 7-20-24 Jukebox Project Continues, Games, Puzzle & Empanadas

 

Having Fun

We had a gorgeous summer day with a lot of sunshine and the high of 95 degrees. 

All of our neighbors were taking advantaged of the afternoon. Jason's rental had the occupants enjoying the swimming pool all afternoon. The neighbor behind us, Chris and family also enjoyed their pool. Jason's son Connor celebrated his 13th birthday at their home. Jason setup a water slide that took up their whole yard on the side. The boys played on it and had a lot of fun. One of the boys threw a football as a couple more boys slid down the slide and tried to catch it. They weren't successful but they had a super time trying. This reminded me of when I was growing up and we had a Wham-O Slip 'n' Slide and the Water Wiggle. It was fun watching them.

Larry continued working on his jukebox build for Eric and Frank. He made new labels for the wires and continued installing the electronics components. He got it powered it up and it works but there are a couple of things not quite right. He did some troubleshooting and found one of the speakers is bad. He also has one button not working correctly and there is a problem with the shutdown process. Tomorrow he will work on it. He and Frank texted about other things in life and their hobbies and then Frank called. They get along really well, Larry really enjoys their phone calls. Frank said not to worry about he speaker, he has boxes full of them.  

Frank's jukebox (yellow)

 

The components installed

 

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 12 minutes and 2 seconds to complete, which put me in 8th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds. 

I worked out using Synth Riders for an hour. 

 

Working out

After cooling off I played pinball. I did the weekly challenge of Star Trek and three other games, which were Cactus Canyon, Star Wars and Corvette. I did very well playing pinball. I entered my initials as high score #1 on Corvette. LIFE IS GOOD.

 

Cactus Canyon

Corvette

 

Star Trek

Star Wars

 

I continued working on my jigsaw puzzle.

For dinner we had empanadas. I was going through the freezer trying to get rid of the food that has been frozen for a long time and I found some empanadas shells. I thawed them out and made empanadas for dinner. I browned hamburger and added barbecue sauce. Then I stuffed the shells. They came out good but probably would have been better with fresher shells. I think my next batch I'll bake at a lower temperature. Maybe this will prevent them from being dry.  

In the evening we watched Addams Family Values on Paramount +. It was made in 1993. Then I watched the original Mary Poppins. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

  

Friday 7-19-24 Jukebox Project, Games & Having Fun

 

 

Today is Friday, do you have anything planned for the weekend? Let's do the happy dance.

Larry started the day off by working on filling some low spots in Jason's yard.

A week ago a couple of Wallette jukeboxes were shipped from California. They were delivered yesterday via UPS at our front door. These jukeboxes are used and some are in better condition than others. One of the jukeboxes is for Frank and Eric, the other is for Larry. After working outside Larry started on building Frank and Eric's jukebox. He removed the glass in the front and using a stencil he made he painted a black border on it. Unfortunately the glass had a few scratches and chips so it is not perfect. Using another template he cut a hole in the side of the jukebox for a switch and power cord, this required a drill, saws, and an assortment of files. Next up was a hole for an external USB plug. He then started on the buttons, this required modifying the circuit board and soldering a bunch of wires to it.Tomorrow he will continue working on it.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. It took me 3 hours, 44 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

After playing games I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour.

 

Working Out

 

I played a few games of pinball. I played the weekly challenge of Star Trek, I didn't get a new high score but had fun. Last night Larry worked on The Godfather game and it works in VR so I played it a few times. After playing The Godfather I played three more games, which were Twister, Iron Man and The Flintstones. 

 

Iron Man

 

The Flintstones

 

The Godfather

 

Twister

 

In the evening we watched The Addams Family on Tubi. Afterwards Larry played with The Godfather game, he is hoping to improve upon the VR appearance. Then he played the a game a bit. When Larry went to bed I watched The Sound of Music. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.

While watching The Sound of Music I worked on my puzzle.