Thursday 11-29 Weekly Stuff

We started out by going to town to do our weekly grocery shopping. Afterwards we stopped by the UPS Store to pick up our mail. There wasn't much there because we had just picked the mail up a couple of days ago. On the way home we swung by Jack and Jill and picked up a couple of donuts.

Weekly grocery shopping

The other day Amazon had a sale on Echo/Alexa buttons so Larry ordered a couple of them to play with. Originally the buttons were designed to play games but now they have been updated to do commands. First he had to program the button to communicate with the Echo device via Bluetooth, then he assigned it the command to turn off all the lights. He installed it by the door going into the garage and now when we leave we simply push the button and all of our lights turn off, so far it works great.

Amazon Button

Amazon Button after it had been installed

While Larry did this project I did some Sudoku puzzles and worked on my annual book. I also did my weekly housecleaning. 

Weekly housecleaning

In the evening Larry and Patrica showed up to go to Sun City for the weekly A dance with the Sundancers. We had two squares and one extra couple. Dan usually runs the computer and the computer tells the dancers which square they dance in, this week he wasn't there and Howard used cards that did the same thing. The tapes were challenging and we had a super time dancing with friends.  

Tuesday & Wednesday On the Road Again

Square dancing

We had two outstanding days of plus/dbd dancing with Randy Dougherty in Tool, Texas. 

We have danced to Randy Dougherty many times in the Rio Grande Valley. We really like him, not only is he one of the most challenging callers he is also fun to dance to. The Log Cabin Square & Round Dance Club invited him to call a special two day event in Tool at Promenade Hall. 

We have been to Tool many times to dance and since you can camp right at the hall we have always taken the Minnie but this time we decided to stay at The Ranch, it is a small motel across the street from the hall. The rooms are small and very nice. You have to be careful because there is a step to go to the bathroom. The owners take great care of the place and are very friendly. 

Our room at The Ranch

The schedule for each day of dancing was two, two hours sessions with a two hour break in between. We had three squares of dancers. After each dance Randy called an Advanced tip where we had a square. Randy put us in positions that were challenging. No matter how many times we dance to him we are still amazed at how talented he is. A lot of the dancers had never danced to Randy before and said they had a great time. We had a super time dancing with friends and Randy. I enjoyed paying attention to his dog Abby.

Me, Abby and Randy

Mary Beth, Jim, Mike and Pat

Tom and Vicki

Ron, Al, Frances and Melony

Susan and Kenneth

      

Monday 11-26 Dancing to Brad

Having fun with friends

We had another cool day with a north wind. 

When Larry installed the water heater under the kitchen sink he was not happy with how the emergency drain hose fit so today we headed to The Home Depot to find a connector, they didn't have the right one so we went to Lowe's where we found what he needed.

While Larry did his project I worked on my annual book. 

In the evening we went to Sun City to dance with the Sundancers. There were five squares of dancers. The last half of the dance was all plus tips. The last plus tip was a six couples square. He tried different moves to see if they would work with six couples. We all had a super time. We had five couples to do an A tip. We had an outstanding night of dancing to Brad and friends. 

When we got home I finished doing my steps and watched a few episodes of House. We had a very nice day.    

Sunday 11-25 Nolan Creek

Let's go for a walk

We woke up to perfect weather for a walk. We loaded into the car and went to Yettie Polk Park in Belton where we got onto the paved hike/bike trail that runs along Nolan Creek. We took the trail to University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and turned left. We took the trail to the loop and turned around. By the time we got back to the car we had walked 2.25 miles. 

Nolan Creek

When we got home I worked on my annual book and Sudoku. 

In the evening we watched a dvd called Kingsman The Secret Service. We hadn't watched this dvd in a long time. It wasn't that bad of a movie. Afterwards I watched House and Doc Martin. We had a relaxed day.   

Relaxing in front of the television

Saturday 11-24 Just Another Day

Smile and be happy

We had another laid back day. Larry worked on reviews for the three items he received from the Seeds Program.  He reviewed 1/2" X 1/2" Shark Bite straight couplings, 1/2" X 1/2" Shark Bite elbows and a Leviton Smart Plug. The nice thing about the Shark Bite fittings are that you just push them on the pipes and they seal. They can be removed using a tool, you don't have to cut the pipe, you can reuse the pipe and the connector. The Leviton Smart Plug was easy to review considering we already have some Smart Plugs.

  

Shark Bite 1/2" X 1/2" straight coupling

Shark Bite 1/2" X 1/2" elbow

Removing the coupling with the Shark Bite tool

Removing the elbow with the tool

The Shark Bite tool

Leviton Smart Plug

While Larry worked on his reviews I did some Sudoku puzzles and worked on my annual book.

In the afternoon I worked out for an hour using the Gold Gym Program for a half hour and the Just Dance Program for a half hour. I haven't worked out using these programs for over a week so I probably will be sore tomorrow.

In the evening we watched some more YouTube music videos and we watched the movie The Martian. We hadn't watched it in a long time, it was very good, we remembered the story line but didn't remember all the details. Then I watched House and finished the second season of Doc Martin.

Friday 11-23 Black Friday

A laid back day

Yesterday, we had a super day with friends. After everyone left Larry and I stayed and visited with Rene, Robert and Rene's dad. I was sitting on their ottoman, I sat back too far and fell off, I hit my head on the edge of one of their window ledges. I put my hand on my head and I had blood on my hand. Rene cleaned up the cut and put ice in a rag to put on the cut. When we got home I washed my hair to get rid of the blood, then Larry put some peroxide on it. I kept a rag on the cut all night. By morning the bleeding had stopped but I do have a big bump and my head is a little tender. 

We spent most of the day hanging around the house. I wanted to take it easy because of my head.

Larry had gone through the Black Friday adds and didn't find anything we needed or wanted. We still went to town because we had a couple of packages to pick up at the UPS Store. They were from the Seeds Program. Now Larry has a couple of reviews to work on.

After lunch I worked on my annual book. Late in the afternoon the UPS Store sent us an email informing us that we had a couple more packages to pick up so back to town we went. Larry had ordered a new remote control for the truck because one of them had gone bad. He had also ordered a new battery for our old tablet. The packages that were waiting for us were these items.

In the evening we watched Solo, again. Afterwards I watched a couple episodes of House and a couple episodes of Doc Martin. We had a very laid back Black Friday.      

Thursday 11-22 Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for my family and friends. I have a great life.

We had a special Thanksgiving day, our friends Robert and Rene invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving with them and their family and friends. I volunteered to bring a dessert so I started the day out by making Apple Fritters using Krusteaz Cinnamon Rolls mix. I don't make them often because it takes quite a bit of time, you have cut the dough into 1/2 inch square pieces and you have to cut an apple into small pieces. But it's all worth it because they come out delicious. 

Robert and Rene live about 80 miles away in South Austin. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. There were 18 people and everyone brought something. Rene prepared a turkey, ham, green bean casserole, gravy and dressing. Other people brought rolls, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and mince pie. There was also carrots and peas, sweet and dill pickles and black and green olives. There was a lot of delicious food. We had a great time and met a lot of nice people.

Google Play had a movie rental special where you could rent any of their movies today for a $1.99. We have two accounts so we could rent two movies. We rented Solo, which is a Star Wars movie and Ant Man and Wasp, which is a Super Hero movie. The rental is for 72 hours and the rental doesn't start until you start watching the movie. You have 30 days to watch the movie before it expires. We had a relaxing evening. Tonight we watched Solo, it is a prequel to Star Wars and introduces you to the early life of Hans Solo, Chewbacca and Lando. I thought it was well done and I enjoyed it. We will watch it again before our rental expires.

   

Wednesday 11-21 Doing Errands

The UPS Store received a couple packages so this morning we went town. The packages were from Larry's mother Shirley, they were our Christmas gifts, she always mails them early. Along with the presents she sent goodies: fudge, peanut brittle, pretzel trash, oatmeal and raisin cookies and Cheerios bars. We have been munching on the goodies all day. 

While we were in town we stopped by Walmart and got my fluoride toothpaste prescription filled, we also picked up a spiral ham. Afterwards we swung by Ace Hardware to get AA batteries. We were low and Ace Hardware had a great price on them. After doing our errands in town we went home.

Running Errands

Once at home I worked on my annual book. In the evening we watched some YouTube music videos of  artists we like, John Prine, Steve Goodman and Arlo Guthrie. Afterward I started watching the second season of House and a couple more episode of the second season of Doc Martin. We had a nice day.       

Tuesday 11-20 Just Another Laid Back Day

Just relaxing

We hung around the house all day. Larry worked on our new tablet. He loaded programs on it and made sure they worked correctly. I worked on my annual book and did some Sudoku. In the evening we started watching the 14th season of Midsomer Murders. Then I finished watching the first season of House and started the second season of Doc Martin. We had just another laid back day.

Thursday 11-19 New Tablet

We have a tablet that we have had for years, we use it all the time as a tablet and as a GPS. The tablet still worked although it did not really have enough memory. Everytime we go on a trip we download maps to the tablet but we also have to remove other maps because the tablet doesn't have enough memory. We can't add any more memory. Now the battery has gone bad so Larry researched new tablets. He found one at Best Buy on a Black Friday sale that is a little bigger but will work perfectly, it comes with twice the memory of our old tablet and has a slot where you can add even more. He ordered it online.

Our tablets

An hour later we were notified by e-mail that the tablet was waiting for us so off to Best Buy we went. Before picking up the tablet we walked around the store. We looked at the new laptops that are available. Best Buy also had a great display of all the Home devices they carry such as the Amazon Echo devices, Google Home devices and other companies. The service at customer service was excellent.

On the way home we stopped by the UPS Store because Larry's new eyeglasses were waiting for us.

In the afternoon I worked on my annual book and Larry worked on setting up the new tablet.

In the evening we went to Sun City for the Sundancers Monday dance. There were four squares of dancers. We had enough people to have an A tip. We had a great time dancing to Brad and with friends.

Brad calling the dance

 

Our friends James and Jeanne having fun

Friends having fun

Sunday 11-18 It's Cold

Keeping warm

We woke up to sunshine and wind.  

We decided to go for a walk. We loaded in the car and went to Yettie Polk Park in Belton. We walked to Confederate Park then we turned around and headed back. By the time we got back to Yettie Polk Park we decided to stop, the wind made it very cold. During our walk we said hi to a few people and saw a lot of ducks and geese. When we walked by one of the geese charged us but when it got to the trail it stopped. It figured we didn't have any food. The current in the creek was so strong that the ducks didn't have to swim, the current just took them down the stream. By the time we finished we had walked about a mile.

Downtown Belton

Nolan Creek

Hanging out on Nolan Creek

Once we were at home we stayed home for the rest of the day and kept warm. I worked on my annual book.

In the evening we finished watching the 13th season of Midsomer Murders. I watched a couple of episodes of House and a couple episodes of Doc Martin. We had a relaxing evening.       

Saturday 11-17 Visiting Louise

What's the excitement?

It was another gorgeous day with the temperature getting to 70 degrees. By afternoon there was a little wind.

We started the day off by going to Round Rock. Larry had gotten as far as he could on Louise's new computer so we had to go to her house. Larry transferred all her files and programs from her old machine to her new one. Her new computer is so much faster. While Larry worked on the computer I took Alice outside in the backyard to play. For lunch Louise had bought a pizza from Papa Murphy's. When we finished lunch we visited with Louise for a little while longer. After saying good-bye we went home. We were back home by 2:30. We had a great visit.

Visiting Louise and Alice

In the afternoon I worked on my annual book.

For dinner I made some more Baked Honey Mustard Chicken. Then we relaxed in front of the television. We watched a couple of episodes of Midsomer Murders and an episode of House. When Larry went to bed I finished watching the second season of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. I was going to watch the third season but you had to buy each episode so instead I started watching the first season of Doc Martin. We had a very nice day.  

Relaxing in front of the television

Friday 11-16 Beautiful Fall Day

We had a great day. It got up to 70 degrees with no wind. 

Our bedroom rugs have a rubber backing that prevents them from moving when we get out of bed, the backing has been deteriorating for quite awhile. I asked Larry to do some research on replacement rugs. He looked on Amazon but said it would be better to walk through Walmart and other local stores to find rugs we like. This morning we went to Walmart and found exactly what we wanted with a rubber backing. 

New rug in the bedroom

While we were in town we swung by Harbor Freight to pickup some small hose clamps. We have looked for the size he needed in The Home Depot and found them for $1.00 a piece but Larry knew that Harbor Freight had them, they came in a kit of 40 clamps for $6.50. While there we walked through the store.

Wire clamps kit

Not far from Harbor Freight there is a beautiful park called Temple Lions Park. It has a two mile hike and bike trail around and through the park. Most of the trail is paved. There is a cute dog park with agility courses. There are two playgrounds, one is big with a lot of different play equipment like slides, hammock, teeter totter, train and other things. Other things the park offers are: picnic pavilions, picnic tables, barbecue grills, a disc golf course and softball fields. We stopped by and walked the trail. While walking we saw a couple of guys using the disc golf course and a mother walking her dog and child. There are sculptures in different areas of the park ( a girl reading with her dog and kids playing. We had a great walk.

Entrance sign to Temple Lions Park

Children playing statue in front of the playground

A girl reading to her dog statue

A couple days ago Larry ordered Louise a new laptop computer from Walmart, it came in this afternoon. We went back to town and picked it up. Larry spent the rest of the afternoon working on setting it up.

Yesterday, when we went shopping we picked up a pack of Rhodes Microwave Cinnamon Rolls. Last night we tried them. They are kind of amazing, simply cook them in the microwave for 70 seconds and in that short time they rise and expand. They came out looking really good and tasted ok but we prefer the cinnamon rolls we bake in the oven.

For dinner tonight I tried a new recipe from Allrecipes called Baked Honey Mustard Chicken.

The cinnamon rolls before going into the microwave

The microwave cinnamon rolls after being microwaved

    

 In the evening we went to the Killeen Kickers Dance. We had enough people for three squares. We hadn't danced with the club for a long time so everyone was happy to see us. Dan Clairmont called a good dance. He called seven tips, Christina Higgins cued line dances in between each tip. I danced the lines with Christina and other people. The last tip was fun, for the first time I danced the mans position, of course I made a few mistakes but the rest of the dancers said I did ok. We all laughed through the tip. We had a super time dancing with friends and Dan.

Line dancing with Christina

Promenading Maureen home 

Having fun dancing with friends

Dan Clairmont calling the dance