Wednesday 11-25 Busy Day

Thanksgiving preparation

We had a busy day. It started out with a little drizzle but by the afternoon the sun came out. The temperature didn't get out of the 60's.

While I was sleeping Larry went to The UPS Store to pick up a package from his Aunt Barbara, it was Christmas gifts, she also sent chocolates and caramel corn. 

Larry spent some of the morning organizing his paper crafting area. 

Whenever we square dance Larry likes to use shoes with leather soles because they will slide across the floor. This afternoon he added leather to a pair of shoes he seldom wears and he will start using them for dancing.

In the morning I played my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of (3 Klondike and 3 Spider). It took me 18 minutes and 38 seconds to complete, which put me in 25th place in my group.

We attended two virtual dances. The first one was Dayle Hodge's weekly A2 at 11:00 for an hour. We had 30 participants.The third tip was a workshop, where Dayle worked on Peel and Trail and Trail and Peel. We had a great time. 

The second one was Doren McBroom's weekly C1 for an hour and a half. This week Doren invited Betsy Gotta to help him call. Betsy and Doren called two tips a piece and the fifth tip they called together. The dance was very challenging and I got frustrated because of lack of cueing. 

In between the dances I did my weekly housework and laundry. Tomorrow Larry's sister will be coming over for Thanksgiving, she loves homemade noodles so this afternoon I made egg noodles and deviled eggs. 

 

Doing housework

After the last dance we watched a couple episodes of Warehouse 13. Then I watched a few episodes of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group with 83,034 steps. 

 

   

 

Tuesday 11-24 Day of Dancing

A rain front

The day started out with a little rain. The clouds went away in the afternoon. Another front came back in at 11:00 in the evening. We had a super day.

Larry started the day out by going to town to do a couple of errands. First up was taking a few things back to The Home Depot including the new security camera that caused all kinds of problems with our network. Then he stopped by the UPS Store to pick up a couple of packages from his mom. They included Christmas gifts and some goodies (cookies, fudge and peanut brittle). Then he went to Walmart to pick up a couple of things.

I started the day out by playing Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango (10 games of Pyramid and 10 games of Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 53 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 21st place in my group.

We attended three virtual square dances. The first was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus dance at 11:00 for an hour. We had 31 participants. Dayle did an excellent job of calling.

The second dance was Di Green's weekly A1/A2 dance at 1:30 for two hours. During the A1 session we had 41 participants and the A2 session we had 43 participants. Each session Di and Terry called 5 tips. During the A2 session they walked through All 8 and All 4 couples moves. I danced the A1 session by myself. The dance was a lot a fun. Di and Terry did a super job of calling.

The third dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 for an hour and a half. We had 54 participants. We had a great time dancing to Don.

In between the dances Larry finished making a Christmas Snow Globe. It came out very cute. I did some Sudoku games. I watched our new neighbor lot starting to be cleared for their house. We snacked on the goodies that Larry's mom sent us and they were delicious.

 

Christmas Snow Globe

Starting to clear the neighbor's lot for their house

Having fun taking down trees

After the last dance we watched a couple of episodes of the third season of Warehouse 13. I continued to watch the sixth season of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place with 56,000 steps.     

 

 

 

Monday 11-23 Another Home Project

Squirrel enjoying himself

 

We had a super day. It was very pleasant with the temperatures in the low 60's and cloud covering.

Larry spent the day working on our internet speed problem. When he installed the new wireless security camera he noticed it caused a problem with other wireless devices. In investigating this he discovered one of our wireless networks was running very slowly. He removed our current router and replaced it with an older backup, this got everything back to working but he still was not happy with the wireless network that the security cameras are on. He decided to split some of them onto a mini-router that would be located on the ceiling in the garage. To do this he had to get an ethernet cable from our current router to the garage. That meant stringing a new cable through the attic. This took some time. This has helped the two cameras that are farthest away from the original router. In all of his testing he also discovered that the new wireless camera is continuing to cause problems with the wireless network so it will be going back. The backup router is quite old and not as fast as the newer one so he will still need to decide what the longer term plan is but at least everything is working.

I did my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 41 minutes and 38 seconds to solve, which put me in 18th place in my group. Then I did some Sudoku games.

We attended two virtual square dances. The first was Joachim Ruehenbeck A1/A2 dance at 12:30 for two hours in between the session there was a half hour break. I attended the A1 session by myself because Larry was working on the network stuff. During the A1 session we had 36 participants and the A2 session had 35 participants. Joachim called five A1 tips and four A2 tips. We had a super time.

The second dance was Ken Burke's weekly A2 dance at 5:30 for an hour. We had 11 participants. Ken called three tips. It was an ok dance.

 

 

After the dance we watched the last two episodes of Roadkill on KLRU. It was a good mini series about Peter Laurence (Hugh Laurie), a self-made forceful politician in the UK. Then we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I continued watching the sixth season of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in fifth place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

 

 

 

Sunday 11-22 Home Project

Home Project

It was a pleasant day with cloud covering, which kept it cool. The high today was in the low 70's. 

Larry wants to move one of our security/wildlife cameras to the back porch so he spent the day installing an electrical outlet. He started by installing an electrical box on the ceiling of the porch. Then he connected a wire to the plug and fed the wire to an existing outlet and connected the wire to that outlet. Once the wires were connected to the two electrical outlets he covered the wire with a white tube. He still needs to mount the tube. 

 

Installing a new electrical outlet

Finished installation

Connecting Romex wire to the original electrical outlet

The finished project for the day

 

I played my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 1 second to complete, which put me in 13th place in my group. I also played a few games of Sudoku.

While we worked on the home project I watered my flowers. It still amazes me that I still have flowers growing in November.

 

Flowers still growing in November

We attended two virtual dances. The first was Doren McBroom's weekly Plus DBD dance at 1:30 for an hour and a half. We had 19 participants. Our friends Renee and Robert attended the dance. This was their very first virtual dance. They did very well. After the dance Larry e-mailed Renee and gave her some pointers on virtual dancing. We had a great time.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30 for an hour and a half. This evening Loren invited Ray Brendzy to attend and help him call the dance. During the A2 session there were 33 participants and the C1 session had 28 participants. We danced 4 A2 tips, 1 C1 teach tip and 2 C1 tips. The third A2 tip was a full square tip. Loren called the first and third A2 tip and the last C1 tip. Ray called the other 2 A2 tips, the teach tip and a C1 tip. During the teach tip Ray went over Weave, Box Recycle and Ah So. We had an outstanding evening of dancing to Loren and Ray.

After the last dance we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I finished watching the fifth season of The Mentalist and started the sixth season. I ended up doing 21,000 steps, which was about 2,000 steps shy of my daily goal. I ended up doing 178,156 steps for the week and ended up in 4th place in my group.  

 

 

 

Saturday 11-21 Super Saturday

Super Saturday

We had a super day. 

Larry started the day by going to The Home Depot to pick up an EZVIZ outdoor camera he had ordered. While there he picked up a few other items he needed. 

I started the day by playing Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 16 minutes and 23 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group.

We did our weekly grocery shopping online and had them delivered to the house. 

Weekly grocery shopping

 

We attended Don Moger and Ross Howells C1/C2 dance at 12:00. The dance had two sessions, Don and Ross called three tips in each sessions. We attended the C1 session. We had 77 participants. Don and Ross called a tip by themselves and the third tip they called together. We danced with dancers we usually don't dance with because they dance higher levels than we do. We had a great time.

Larry discovered one of the wireless bands on our internet wasn't working correctly. He spent the afternoon working to get the WiFi to work correctly. He ended up putting in his backup router and one by one he brought every device back online. The speed is back to where it should be.

While Larry was working on the technology problem I took a nap. When I woke up I finished reading Miss Fisher first novel. 

Taking a nap

In the evening we watched YouTube videos. Then we watched a couple episodes of  Warehouse 13, which finished up the second season. After Larry went to bed I continued watching the fifth season of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group with 157,152 for the week.         

 

 

 

Friday 11-20 Awesome Friday

We had an awesome day. 

I started the day out by playing my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenge and Event: Two Game Tango Mini (5 Klondike games and 5 Free Cell games). It took me 1 hour, 50 minutes and 19 seconds to complete, which put me in 18th place in my group. 

While I played my games Larry made a Christmas gift card. It came out very cute.

 

Penguin Gift Card

 

We attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Di Green's weekly C1 workshop at 2:00 for an hour and a half. Di called six tips and had 34 participants. Di worked on Box Recycle, Finish Moves, Scatter Scoot and Scatter Scoot Chain Thru. Finish concept is very hard because you have to know the definition of a move and leave off the first part. Di did a great job. We had a super time.

The second dance was Ett McAtee's weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:30 for an hour and a half. Ett called four A2 tips and two C1 tips. During the A2 tips Ett had 35 participants and C1 tips had 27 participants. Ett did a lot of four couples moves and introduced us to Transfer the Column. The dance was challenging and fun.

 In between the dances I read Miss Fisher. We watched YouTube videos. After Ett's dance we watched two episodes of Warehouse 13. Then I continued watching the fifth season of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 24,000 steps, which put me in 8th place in my group with 130,147 steps.

 

 

 

Thursday 11-19 Funday

Smile and have fun

We had a great day. We spent the day having fun. 

I started the day off by playing my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Easy Street of 30 games. It took me 1 hour, 12 minutes and 16 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group.

While I played my games Larry continued making cards. 

We attended three virtual square dances. The first was Dayle Hodge's weekly C1 dance at 11:00 for an hour. We had 34 participants. Today, Dayle had to take a couple of breaks to attend to a home project, he had a repairman replacing his water heater. We danced three tips because we had another dance at 12:30 and we wanted to eat lunch. The three tips we did were challenging and fun. We had a great time.

The second dance was Joachim Ruehenbeck C1 dance/workshop at 12:30 for an hour. We had 40 participants. Joachim called four tips. Joachim worked on Vertical Tag (0 tag, 1/4 tag, 1/2 tag, 3/4 tag and full tag). Joachim and his partner have a back camera and it helps dancers know exactly where they should be. We had an outstanding time. 

The third dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:00 for an hour. Jeremy called four A2 tips with 26 participants and one C1 tip with 16 participants. Jeremy called calls with four couples in both session, which made the dance challenging and fun. We had a wonderful time.

In between the dances I did some housework and read.

 

Cleaning the house

 After the last dance we watched a few of episodes of Warehouse 13. I watched a few episodes of The Mentalist. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in fifth place in my group with 106,139 steps.