Sunday 10-20-24 Sundancer's Dance, Games, House Project & More

 

Having fun with friends

We had a wonderful day. The temperature got to 84 degrees.

We started the day off by doing a house project. Our back porch railing is made of plastic and during the tornado two of the pickets were damaged. They both had fairly large jagged holes.. We had one extra rail left from when we installed the railing. Today we decided to replace/repair the two damaged pieces. Larry removed the screws (6), that held the top rail onto the pickets. Then we removed the damaged rail and put a new one in it's place. The other damaged picket was in a different section. We removed the screws and the rail but this time we didn't have another picket. Larry decided to use the two broken ones to build one. He measured the distance he needed and cut the damaged parts off the old pickets. Then he used his mill to mill a piece of a  2X2 to fit inside the two pieces of pickets. The two pieces fit perfectly together and you can't tell. Then he screwed the screws back into the railing.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 52 minutes and 14 seconds, which put me in 24th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour.

 

Working out

 

Larry continued playing with the old computer and VR.

Today started a new pinball challenge, which is Maverick. Larry downloaded the table and installed it on the pinball cabinet in both 2D and VR. Then he played it to make sure it worked correctly. I played last week challenge, which was Elvira House of Horrors. I didn't get a new high score but I came in 50th place out of 60 participants.Then I played the new challenge and got 33,689,516 as my first high score. I'm in 5th place out of 5 participants so far.

 

Maverick

 

Then I played three other games, which were Cactus Canyon, Elvira Party Monsters and Judge Dredd. I didn't get on the board but I had fun.

 

Cactus Canyon

 

Elvira Party Monsters

 

Judge Dredd

In the evening we went to Sun City to dance plus with the Sundancers. We had two squares plus an extra couple. Gary Bible did an excellent job of calling the two hour dance. Before the dance we saw Brad Caldwell and his wife Paula. We hadn't seen them in many years. Brad told us he is having a dance next Saturday. We have not danced to him in years and we are looking forward to the dance. We also danced with Bruce and Pam who we hadn't seen in about the same amount of time. We had a great evening of dancing with the Sundancers and to Gary. 

 

 

Dancing with friends

We got home about 9:00 and relaxed. When Larry went to bed I watched the second Hobbit movie, which was The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug. I ended up doing 16,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group for the week with the total of 121,310 steps.

 

 

      

Saturday 10-19-24 Diamond Painting, Pinball Project & More

 

Fun Day

We had a fun day of doing this and that. It got up to 83 degrees. It was another pleasant day.

Larry spent part of the day playing with an old computer. He is trying to learn how to get virtual reality pinball to work using only one monitor (our pinball cabinet has three monitors). He got it working, of course the old computer does not have enough power to really run it. He is now trying to figure out how to get tables that are not designed to work in VR to work in VR. He does this on the pinball cabinet but only having one monitor things work differently. He doesn't really have a need for this but he is learning something new and he enjoys that. He will continue playing with it.

Larry also continued trying to get rid of the bees. The bees figured how to get in the hole by going through the foam. Larry took the foam out and replaced it with the scuff pad in the hole. They spent the rest of the day trying to figure a way into the wall.

Currently we have two spare propane tanks and two small gas cans that sit on the floor of the garage. Larry wanted to organize this a bit better so he ordered a small metal shelving unit.It arrived this afternoon, so we assembled it. It came with six shelves and we use five of them. It looks great. Now the propane and fuel tanks are off the floor, this gives more room to walk around the garage and it looks neater. 

Then I put the paint supplies back into the box and put it on another shelf.

 

Shelving unit in the garage

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 47 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

 

Playing Angry Birds

 

I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour. I spent most of the day working on my diamond painting. I should be finished with it tomorrow.

Working out

I played seven pinball games. I used the random button and it choosed six games, which were Elvira Party Monsters, Black Rose, The Machine Bride of Pin * Bot, Queen, The Godfather and The Guardians of the Galaxy. I didn't get on the board but I had fun. I also played Elvira House of Horrors. I have one more day left on the challenge. So far I'm 41st out of 46. 

The Machine Bride of Pin * Bot

Black Rose

Elvira House of Horrors

Elvira Party Monsters

Queen

The Godfather

The Guardians of the Galaxy

In the evening we finished watching the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I changed my mind about watching the Marvel Super Heroes movies, instead I decided to start watching The Hobbit movies series, it has three movies. The first one was The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

 

Friday 10-18-24 Projects, Crafting & Games

 

Busy Day

We had a busy day of doing this and that. It was another cool day with the high of 78 degrees with a breeze, that kept us cool.

Larry kept busy. First he finished the laundry room painting. I taped the floor boards and cabinet while Larry stirred the paint. Afterwards Larry painted the wall with a small roller and paint brush. It was hard to do because the texture was very heavy. He ended up putting on two coats of paint. The wall came out perfect.

Finished project in the laundry room

 

Then he worked on his shop vacuum. After cleaning it he vacuumed the floor in the laundry room where the washer goes. Then he put the washer back in it's place. It took him a bit because the feet kept sticking to the floor. But the feet do keep the washer from moving around when the load is unbalanced. 

The next project was working on getting rid of the bees. Larry wanted to put a scuff pad in the weep hole where they are coming in and out, but he didn't want to get stung. He dressed in a coat, leather gloves, hat and a face shield. He worked quickly and got the hole stuffed with scuff pad. The bees are still trying to find a way back into the wall.

While Larry did his projects I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street of 30 games. It took me 1 hour, 7 minutes and 49 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out for an hour with the Synth Riders.

Then I played pinball. I played four games, which were three of them were chosen by the cabinet. The games were the weekly challenge of Elvira House of Horrors, The Machine Bride of Pin Bot, Iron Man and Dr. No. When I played Dr. No I put my initials as high score #3.

Dr. No

Elvira House of Horrors

Iron Man

The Machine Bride of Pin Bot

Larry played pinball. He had a great day of playing. He played Dr. No and put his initials as high score #1, which knocked me down to high score #4. He also became Grand Champion on Cactus Canyon.

I continued working on my diamond painting. 

 

Diamond painting so far

 

In the evening we continued watching the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. After Larry went to bed I started watching the Marvel Super Heroes movies. The first one was Captain Marvel. Then I watched a movie on Amazon called Sweet Home Alabama. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

Thursday 10-17-24 Errands, Home Projects, Crafting & Games

 

Have a super Thursday

We had a super day of doing this and that. It was nice and cool with the high of 74 degrees.

Larry woke me up at 8:30 to start the day out. I woke up a little earlier but fell back to sleep. I got up and got dressed. Then I had breakfast.

After breakfast we went to town. First we exchanged a couple of our grill propane tanks with new ones. We were surprised to see the exchange area was self-service. Larry put his credit card in the machine. Then a door opened for you to put your empty tank in. Once this was done the machine opened another door with a full tank for you to take. Because we had two tanks Larry had to do this two different times. 

Next was to recycle the old battery to get our core credited back to the credit card. While in Walmart we looked to see if they had gotten Taylor Farms salads back in stock, they haven't. We got a home delivery yesterday and they couldn't fill an item so we checked to see if they had it today. It was still out of stock.

The last errand was Dollar Tree to pick up some cookies to bake.

 

Doing errands

When we got home Larry did a couple of home projects. First was painting the back wall in the laundry room. When we got back from our Spring trip Larry had noticed we had a leak where the washing machine was. Larry pulled the washer out and fixed the leak. Then he dried the wall out. The wall was stained so today he decided to fix it. He removed the washer, cut out and replaced the old caulking and then primed the wall. Tomorrow he will paint it.

 

The wall before primer

 

The wall after primer 

 

A few days ago Larry noticed there were bees going in and out of one of the week holes in the brick of the house. He has tried treating the area with sprays but the bees aren't gone. So he ordered a roll of scuff pad to cut down and put in the weep holes. He had to cut the roll into pieces to fit in the holes and then he went around the entire house stuffing it in each hole. He is a bit worried about filling in the one hole the bees are using, he doesn't want to get stung by a bunch of mad bees. The bees don't seem to be aggressive but you never know. The bees have filled most of the hole with mud and are going in via a small opening. Larry quickly stuffed a piece of foam in the opening. 100's of bees were trying to get back in the hole, they were able to remove some of the mud they had put in the hole and get back in. I know Larry will figure out how to get rid of the bees.

 

Scuff pad roll

 

Scuff pad in the weep hole

 

Bees removing the mud

 I worked out on the Synth Riders for an hour.

Then I played four games of pinball. They were Elvira House of Horrors, The Machine Bride of Pin Bot, Goldeneye and Mettalica. While playing Elvira House of Horror I entered my initials as high score #3 and Metallica I entered my initials for high score #2. I hadn't played The Machine Bride of Pin Bot since the weekly challenge and I did very well. I had a very nice afternoon of playing pinball.

Goldeneye

Metallica

The Machine Bride of Pin Bot

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 2 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 8th in my group.

In the evening we started watching the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Then I watched the third The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 10-16-24 Two Dances, Games & Crafting

 

Cooling Off

We had a cool day with a high of 70 degrees. It's suppose to be a little cool for a few days. Then it's suppose to get back in the 90's. 

We had an awesome day. We didn't have much that needed to be done so we just had fun. 

Larry finished working on a Halloween card today, he mailed it out. The card came out very cute. Saturday afternoon we mailed out three Draculas and three Frankenstiens. Louise and his mother received their packages yesterday. Louise called Larry to thank him as soon as she got her package. His mother e-mailed us she received her package. We were surprised they received them so quickly considering Monday was a holiday and we didn't mail them out until late Saturday. 

 

Frankenstein and Dracula

 

Halloween card

I attended two virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. They took turns calling five tips to 11 participants. They worked on the diamond formations of cutting and cutting the diamond. Di worked on Spin Chain the Gears, Spin Chain the Gears and Exchange the Gears, Coordinate and Spin Chain Thru. I had a great hour of dancing with friends.

Second was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 for an hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. The format was three tips of C1 to 8 participants, three tips of A2 to 9 participants and in between the A2 tips we had two Trivial questions. Dave called an extra tip because he had six more sequences he didn't call. He worked on the concept of replace the two circulations in Scoot and Plenty with Quarter Thru and Flip Back. I had a super evening of dancing with friends.

 

Having fun with friends

 

In between the dances I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour

Larry played pinball while I worked out. He had a great time. When he finished I played four games of pinball. They were Fun House, Theater of Magic, Black Rose and Elvira House of Horrors. I didn't get on the board on any of the games but I had fun.

 

Black Rose

 

Elvira House of Horrors

 

Fun House

Theatre of Magic

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 32 minutes and 52 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group.

After the second dance we finished watching the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. After Larry went to bed I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

 

  

Tuesday 10-15-24 Dancing, Crafting, Games & Having Fun

 

Happy Tuesday

We had a wonderful day of having fun. It got into the mid 90's.

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 14 participants. Di worked on Right Turn and Deal and Left Turn and Deal. Di and Terry danced with us and this helped a lot. They also cued the moves through out the dance. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We had an outstanding time dancing with friends.

Get a partner and dance

After the dance we went to town, Larry wanted to renew his library card at the Temple Library and he wanted to mail a card to Chris and Joe Saltel. 

Before going to the post office and library we went to lunch. We decided to try out Cotton Patch Cafe in Temple. It was our first time to eat at a Cotton Patch. It is a chain restaurant with locations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. We shared a bacon cheese burger and fries. The food was good and the service was great. 

The Cotton Patch Cafe is located in the local mall so after eating we walked around the mall. The mall has been struggling for years. We saw a few stores still there but no one was shopping in them. The mall itself is falling apart.

After lunch we went to the post office and mailed the card.

When we first moved to the area we wanted to get a library card. Our mailing address is in Belton but we live in the county outside of the city limits. The Belton library wouldn't let us join because we didn't live in the city. Temple would let anyone join their library for free. Today they let us renew the card but said since we live outside the city limits we would have to pay $30 a year to check anything out. No idea when they change their policy. This was a little disappointing. We seldom use the library but there is a book Larry wanted to read and they have a copy. The E-Book is available to purchase via Amazon for a reasonable price so he will probably do that.

 

 

 

Temple Library 

 

 

When we got back home I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour.

 

 

 

Working out is fun

 

After working out I played pinball. I used the Random button, where the cabinet chooses three games to play. They were Game of Thrones, Goldeneye and Terminator 3. While playing Game of Thrones I entered my initials as the 4th high score and Terminator 3 I entered my initials as the 3rd high score. I also played the weekly challenge Elvira House of Horrors and got a new high score of 6,143,060, which put me in 16th place out of 26 participants.

 

 

 

Elvira House of Horrors

 

 

 

Game of Thrones

 

 

 

Goldeneye

 

 

 

Terminator 3

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Tri Peaks Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 19 minutes and 32 seconds, which put me in 5th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

 

I worked on my diamond painting.

 

In the evening we continued watching the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon. Then I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.