Sunday 8-30 A Beautiful Summer Day

Enjoying the Summer

 

We had a beautiful summer day with a lot of sunshine. The temperature got to the low 100's.

I started the day off by playing some Microsoft Solitaire games. I did my daily challenges of five games. Then I moved onto the Event: Easy Street of five games. It took me 7 minutes and 45 seconds to complete, which put me in 7th place in my group. Then I moved on to the Star Club.

A few weeks ago we bought a small plate to use for a Cameo project. Today Larry decided to put waterslide decals on the plate. Before Larry does any of his projects he does some research. First he found some designs that he liked, next he cut the designs on normal paper using the Cameo. Then he played around with the paper designs to ensure he got the size correct and liked how they would work on the plate. Once he was happy with everything he cut the decals out of waterslide material. Then using warm water the labels slid off and he placed them on the plate. The finished project came out excellent. You can wash the plate but you can't put it in the dishwasher because the decals won't survive the washing.

 

Waterslide decals

 

We attended two virtual dances today. The first one was at 12:00, which was Don Moger's C1 dance. This was a new dance time for him and he had a great turn out, 49 people zoomed in. The dance was for an hour and a half. Whenever we dance to Don we have to think a lot, he puts you in positions you're not use to being in. Today some of the dancers were struggling with Tally Ho, which is a four couple call so after the dance he had a half hour workshop on Tally Ho and other calls. We had fun dancing to Don and the other dancers.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30 for an hour and fifteen minutes. This week Loren invited Jeff Priest to join us and help call the dance. We had 45 people zoomed in for the three A2 tips and 37 people zoomed in for the two C1 tips. Loren called the first tip of A2 and the two C1 tips. Jeff called the other two A2 tips. The second A2 tip that Jeff called was a four couple tip. I tried the tip but it was too complex because Jeff didn't cue and it was too hard to keep track of seven phantoms. We had a great time dancing to Loren and Jeff.

In between the dances we watched YouTube videos. I barbecued pork spare ribs for dinner.

 

Rack of ribs

 

 After the second dance I finished watching the second season of Striking Out. One bad thing about the Striking Out series is that the last episode of each season is a cliffhanger. I watched a few episodes of Yorkshire Vet. I ended up doing 24,000 steps. I made my personal goal for the day but ended up only doing 172,000 steps for the week and it put my in 7th place in my 175,000 step challenge group.          

 

 

Saturday 8-29 A Laid Back Day

Relaxing day

 

We had another hot day with the temperature at 104 at the house.

I spent the day playing Microsoft Solitaire games. I did my daily challenging and the Event: Spider Mini of ten games. It took me 1 hour, 6 minutes and 34 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. Then I continued playing the Star Club Challenges.

While I played my computer games Larry did another Cameo project. Today's project was making a pencil, it was another layered project. The pencil had five layers, the top two was glued together. The layers were combined together with foam inserts. The pencil came out cute.

 

Look at the layers

The finished pencil

 

 We watched YouTube videos. 

In the evening we watched a documentary on Amazon called Sweet Dreams Do Come True. The documentary was about Verlon Thompson, who is a famous songwriter in Nashville. It was a great documentary. Then we watched an episode of Yorkshire Vet. When Larry went to bed I started watching the second season of Striking Out. I ended up doing 29,500 steps, which put me in sixth place in my 175,000 weekly challenge with 148,000 steps. Tomorrow I need to do 27,000 steps to make the challenge.

 

 

Friday 8-28 Hot Friday

Let's do the happy dance

 

We had another 100 degree day. It got up to 105 degrees at the house. 

Microsoft has a lot of different Solitaire games and you can spend hours upon hours a day playing. Some of the games are challenges and others are just casual. Microsoft also has other casual games you can download. If you go premium you get ad free games but you have to pay a monthly free. I stick to the free games because the adds aren't too long. Today, I was guilty of playing for Solitaire games for close to five hours. I started out by playing the Daily Challenges of five games. Then I moved on to the Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of five games challenge, which took me 15 minutes and 26 seconds. This put me in 22nd place in my group. The last game selection was the Star Club, this wasn't a challenge with others but it helps your stats. The Star Club was all five different Solitaire games and each games has 8 levels of different levels of difficulty. I have a lot of fun playing the games.

While I was playing the games Larry worked on another Cameo project.

We attended three virtual square dances. The first dance was Don Moger's weekly C1 dance at 12:00. Don had 82 people zoomed in. It was for an hour and a half but we stayed for an hour because we wanted to rest before our next dance. Whenever we dance to Don we have to think throughout the dance because it can be very complex. We had a great time dancing to Don.

The second dance was Di Green weekly C1 workshop at 2:00 for an hour and a half. She had 33 people zoomed in. We had a super time.

The third dance was Ett McAtee's weekly A2/C1 weekly dance at 6:00. Ett called six tips, four A2 tips and two C1 tips. For the A2 session we had 37 people zoomed in and we had 36 for the C1 session. The A2 session of the dance was very vanilla and Ett did a little cueing. When Ett called the C1 session tips they were more complex with very little cueing. We had fun.

After the last dance we watched an episode of Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched the first season of Striking Out, which is a series on Acorn. This series is about a female lawyer Tara Rafferty, she she quits her job as a successful Dublin lawyer to strike out on her own after she discovers her fiance's infidelity. So far I like the series. I ended up doing 22,500 steps.  

 

Thursday 8-27 Halloween Project

Don't forget to have an awesome day

 

We has an awesome day.

I started the day out by doing my Solitaire Daily Challenges and Event: Pyramid Mini of ten games. Today every Pyramid game I completed my points doubled towards a different level of completion. It took me 50 minutes and 14 seconds to complete the event, which put me in 20th place in my group.

While I played Solitaire games Larry worked on a Cameo project. He made Halloween ornaments. Larry knows how much I enjoy decorating the house for Halloween so he thought making ornaments would be fun. He bought some wood rounds from Amazon that we painted black, then using images from the internet he made designs that he printed out and then cut them on the Cameo. After that he glued them to the rounds. We decided to hang the decorations in the hall, they look great.

 

The cool Halloween Ornaments

 

Halloween Ornaments

We attended three virtual dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly C1 dance at 11:00. We had 53 people zoomed in. Most of the people who participate are the same so Dayle is starting to introduce more complex positions of the moves. This is ok because Dayle is very good at cueing the moves. We had a great time even though we broke down at times.

The second dance was with Joachim Rühenbeck, it was a C1 dance at 12:30. We hadn't danced C1 with Joachim for a couple of weeks so it was very nice to do so. We had 55 people zoomed in. Joachim called four tips. After the first tip the dancers asked Joachim to call a little slower because some of the dancers are dancing with three phantoms. When he slowed his calling down it was great because when you missed a call or got confused you can catch up. He also has two cameras (one front view and one back view). The back view is great because you can see where you should be. When we dance virtually we dance with a phantom couple at all times. Today Joachim introduced us with an extra phantom couple to make three mini waves so he could call a move and make it interesting. Even though we broke down once in awhile we had a lot of fun.

The third dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:00. Jeremy called four A2 tips and one C1 tip. During the A2 tips we had 33 people zoomed in and the C1 tip we had 27 zoomed in. We had a great time dancing to Jeremy and the other dancers.

After the last dance I watched three episodes of Yorkshire Vet. Then I finished watching the fifth season of Bosch. I ended up doing 20,000 steps, which I missed my personal goal on my Garmin by 1,800 steps.           

 

 

Wednesday 8-26 Happy Birthday Larry

 

Today was Larry's Birthday!! 

In the morning Larry treated outside for bugs, it had been almost two months since he last treated. While he this I did housework ( vacuumed, wash the floors and laundry).

 

It's time to clean the house

 

In the afternoon we had a small weather front come through with wind and rain. When I saw that it was raining I was very excited because we need the rain but disappointed when it only lasted a few minutes. A nice thing about the front was it kept the temperature in the low 90's. 

I baked the rest of the German Chocolate cupcake mix to celebrate Larry's birthday. He didn't open his gifts because he decided to wait until we celebrate my birthday.

We attended three virtual dances. The first one was Dayle Hodge's weekly A2 dance at 11:00 for an hour. We had 42 people zoomed in. Dayle called four tips and did a great job. We had a great time.

The second dance was Ett McAtee's weekly C1 Workshop at 1:00 for an hour. We had 51 people zoomed in. Ett called five tips and did a good job. She cued the first four tips and the fifth tip with no cueing. Larry sat out the fifth tip but I tried it. I was on the wrong side of the square a few times but overall I think I did very well dancing by myself and three phantoms. We had a fun time dancing to Ett.

The third dance was Doren McBroom's weekly C1 dance at 6:30 for an hour and a half. This week he asked Don Moger to join him and help call the dance. They both called three tips a piece. It was an ok dance.

 

Just having fun

 

In between the dances Larry worked on a new Cameo project. He is learning new things with the program, he likes figuring things out so he's having fun. While Larry did this I played my Solitaire Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango Mini (three Spider games and three Klondike games). It took me 14 minutes and 2 seconds to complete, which put me in 12th place in my group. Then I read a bit.

After Larry went to bed I continued watching the fifth season of Bosch. Today I ended up doing 22,000 steps. We had a super day.

Relaxing in front of the television

 

Tueday 8-25 Boating and Dancing

Don't worry and be happy

 

 

I hope everyone had a great day. 

We started out the day by going to Lake Belton. There was very little wind so the lake was almost flat except for a few wakes from boats. Larry is still being careful with his pulled muscle but I did a set of wake boarding. It took me three times to get up because I wasn't letting the board roll up before getting out of the squat position. Once I was up the set was very nice. Then we both got in the lake to swim. We had a super time at the lake.

 

Wiping down the boat

 

We attended two virtual dances. The first dance was Di Green's weekly two hour A1/A2 Workshop at 1:30. For the A1 we had 35 people participating and A2 had 26. Di and Terry took turns calling. Each session we danced five tips. There was a fifteen minute break between the session. Di and Terry both did a great job of cueing throughout the workshop. We had a lot of fun.

The second dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 Dance for an hour and a half at 6:00. Don called six tips. We had 80 people participating in the zoom. Don did a lot of cueing and walk through during the dance because we had a few new people to virtual square dancing. We had a great time.

 

In between the dances I read. I played my Microsoft Solitaire Daily Challenges and Event: Tri Peak Mini of 5 games. It took me 8 minutes and 48 seconds to complete, which put me in 12th place in my group. Once in a while Microsoft will have a special day where the players will earn double the points on certain games. The points just put you in a different level in that Solitaire game. Today the special day was Tri Peak Tuesday and any Tri Peak game you play your points double.  

After the last dance we watched an Amazon movie called Flamekeeper: Michael Cleveland Story.  It was a documentary about Michael Cleveland, he is one of the greatest fiddle players alive. He was born with a cleft palate and blind and lost 80% of his hearing at an early age, he didn't let this slow him down from accomplishing his dreams. It was a good documentary. As I was browsing through Bosch I found out I didn't watch the fifth season so I started to watch it. Then I watched an episode of Yorkshire Vet, it's a reality television show on Acorn. I ended up doing 26,500 steps.  

Monday 8-24 Just Another Day

Have a happy Monday

 

I hope everyone had a great day.

We started the day out going to town to pick up our mail at The UPS Store. On the way home we stopped at Heart of Texas Goodwill to donate a few items. The last stop was at Jack 'n' Jill Donuts. 

Larry tries to take his motorcycle out for a ride every month just to keep it running. He trickle charges the motorcycle battery. After lunch he took the motorcycle for about a 10 mile ride. It ran super.

I did my Microsoft Solitaire Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango. The event had ten Klondike games and ten Free Cell games. It took me 2 hours, 43 minutes and 2 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. I'm not that good at solving Free Cell games so it always takes me longer to solve.

I try to water my flowers everyday. I'm amazed, sometimes the flowers look like they're finished because of the high 90's and low 100's degree days, then a couple days later I see a couple new flowers. These flowers are from the seeds we received as a thank you gift from Amazon. Sure wish I knew what they were.

I continued to read The German Midwife.  

In the evening we attended Ett McAtee's weekly C1 Workshop. We hadn't been for awhile because she can be very confusing. She had 75 people participating in the workshop. She called five tips and did a lot more cueing than the last time we attended. We had a good time.

After the dance we watched the last episode of the 7th season of Endeavour. Then I finished watching the sixth season of Bosch. I started watching the second season of Yorkshire Vet. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in fifth place in me group. 

 

 

Sunday 8-23 Smile and Have Fun

Smile and have fun

 

We had a great day with plenty of sunshine. The temperature got up to the high 90's.

We spent the day having fun doing this and that.

I started the day out by doing my Microsoft Solitaire Daily Challenges, which is a five game challenge everyday in the month. The five games are Klondike (regular Solitaire), Spider, Free Cell, Pyramid and Tri Peaks. Everyday the level of each game changes ( Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert). I also do another challenge called Event. This month Microsoft has an event challenge everyday. Each day the event is a different type of event, the amount of games change, the level of game and the type of Solitaire game changes. Microsoft Solitaire program automatically puts you in a group of 50 players. Today the Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 13 minutes and 20 seconds to complete, which put me in 26th place in my group. I like doing the challenges because it's fun to see how fast you solve the games and where you are in your group. 

 

Example of the Microsoft Daily Challenges

 

Larry did another project using the Cameo, he made a paper art in a shadow box. He found the design on Jennifer Maker's website, she has lots of free designs along with tutorials on how to make them. He modified the project by replacing the figurine from a girl swinging to a deer and a bear. The project was a layered project. He cut the patterns of the layers out, then using foam inserts he assembled them. Once the project was layered he put it in the paper shadow box, it looked great. The finishing step was to install fairy lights in the box to give the paper art a different look and to light the paper art up. It looks great.

 

Paper art shadow box

Paper art shadow box

Marigolds in a frame made by Larry

 

Today I started reading a book on my Kindle called The German Midwife, it takes place during World War II in Germany. 

Reading is fun

We attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Doren McBroom's weekly DBD Dance at 1:30 for an hour and a half. Doren invited Bill Harrison to help him call the dance. We had 39 people zoomed in. We danced seven tips of DBD. Both Doren and Bill did an outstanding job calling. We had a super time.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30 for a little over an hour. Loren invited Ray Brandzy to help call the dance. During the dance Loren and Ray called five tips (three A2 tips and two C1 tips). There were 46 zoomed in for the dance. We had a great time.

In between the dances we watched YouTube videos. After the last dance we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I started to watch the sixth season of Bosch. 

Every week I participate in the Garmin 175,000 steps Challenge. Today I ended up doing 24,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group with 181,169 for the week.

         

Saturday 8-22 Relaxing Day

Relaxing Day

 

We had a relaxing day. The temperature didn't get out of the mid 90's.

Larry finished building the Ferris Wheel he started on yesterday. It was probably the most difficult paper project he has made. Yesterday, he cut the pieces, today, while assembling it he discovered a couple of things didn't work correctly so he redesigned and cut a few new pieces. He spent the morning finishing it up. He had fun.

                                                                 Ferris Wheel

 While Larry worked on the Ferris Wheel I did my daily challenges and The Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 15 Games. It took me 57 minutes and 41 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group.

In the afternoon we watched YouTube videos and two episodes of GizWiz.

After dinner we attended a virtual dance. The dance was an A2/C1 dance put on by Lynn Webster. This was Lynn's second dance, she called 3 tips of A2 and 2 tips of C1. It was very hard to understand her because she didn't have any WiFi at her house so she had to rely on her IPad for both voice and music. We had 31 people zoomed in. We had a great time.

After the dance we watched an Amazon movie called The Watchmaker's Apprentice. It was a story about Dr. George Daniels becoming the finest watchmaker of the modern era and how Roger Smiths obsession took seven years to become his apprentice. It was a great documentary. I watched a couple episodes of Yorkshire Vet. Afterwards I finished watching Agatha Raisin. I ended up doing 26,000 steps.        

 

Friday 8-21 Happy Friday

Happy Friday

 

It's the end of another week so celebrate with a dance.

I spent the morning doing my daily challenges and the Event: Free Cell Mini of 5 games. It took me 12 minutes and 21 seconds, which put me in 30th place in my group.

Larry decided to make a Ferris Wheel. He downloaded a file from the internet but it did not include any instructions, he had to figure how to do it as he goes. In between the dances Larry worked on it. He started by separating each piece, next he sent the piece to the Cameo to cut the it from cardstock. After weeding the excess out he started to assemble the Ferris Wheel.

We attended three virtual dances. The first dance was Don Moger's weekly C1 dance for an hour and a half. He had 76 people zoomed in. We ended up dancing about an hour, the dance was very complicated and we got frustrated with being broken down. 

The second dance was Di Green's weekly C1 Workshop for an hour and a half. She had 31 people zoomed in. Di had attended Don's dance so she told the dancers that this session would be a cool down. Larry sat out the last two tips because he was tried from Don's dance. I danced them by myself. We had a great time. 

The third dance was Ett McAtee's weekly A2/C1 dance. She had 45 people zoomed in for the A2 session. We danced the four A2 tips. We started to watch the two C1 tips and Ett was calling easier sequences than she usually does so I got up and danced them. We had a fun.

After the last dance we watched an Amazon movie called, Everything In A Song Is True. It was really good. It was a documentary about the cowboys and their lives through poetry and song. Then I started watching the third season of Agatha Raisin. I ended up doing 25,000 steps.     

Thursday 8-20 Creature of Habit

Same old routine

 

I am a creature of habit. Sometimes when my routine is changed I get upset but it doesn't normally take long for me to get over it. Over the years I have changed my routine by choice but this year I didn't have a choice, Coronavirus forced change upon me. This didn't upset me, I have adjusted to the situation.

On Thursdays we attend a virtual C1 dance with Dayle Hodge at 11:00 but this morning my normal routine was changed because we went to the lake. I usually don't mind but today we missed a virtual dance at 11:00. I don't know why I got upset because I like going to the lake and we have other virtual dances today. I got over it by the time we got to the lake. We hadn't been to the lake for about four weeks, the last time Larry pulled a muscle getting up on the wake surfer and he is still recovering. The first couple of weeks he was in quite a bit of pain and it still bothers him a bit. After launching the boat we found some smooth water and I got to water ski. Larry didn't ski because he didn't want to irritate the muscle. He wants to give it a couple more weeks to heal. We have a ski boat and the only way back into the boat is to pull yourself back up on the platform. We both went swimming and Larry had no problem getting back into the boat. Once we got the boat out of the lake we wiped it down. We had a very nice morning at the lake.

 

Water skiing on Lake Belton

Butterflies at Rogers Park ramp

 

When we got back home we had lunch. After lunch I mowed the backyard and weedeated around our neighbor's fence. It took me an hour. 

After I mowed I did my daily challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 5 Pyramid and 5 Tri Peaks. It took me 40 minutes and 31 seconds, which put me in 7th place in my group. I spent hours in the last two days to solve the last game on my daily challenge August 18th I finally solved it. Now I have finished only the daily challenges for the month.

Yesterday, Larry made a couple of frames for our Pumpkin projects and the projects look great. Our weekly groceries were delivered to our front door around 1:00.

 

The paper frames Larry made.

 

Online grocery shopping

 

In the evening we attended two virtual square dances. The first was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 dance. Jeremy called four A2 tips and one C1 tip. During the A2 tips there were 45 people zoomed in and for the C1 tip there were 36. Jeremy did an outstanding job of calling. We had a great time.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly Plus dance. This week Loren invited Jeff Priest to Zoom in and help him call. During the dance Loren and Jeff called four tips. Three of the tips were two couples, Loren called one of the tips and Jeff called the other two. The fourth tip was a full square tip, Loren called it. Larry and I danced the two couples tips. I danced the four couples tip alone. Loren and Jeff did a super job of calling. We had a lot of fun.  

After the second dance I finished watching the second season of Agatha Raisin. I did 29,000 steps, which put me in 6th place in my group. For the week so far I did 106,000 steps.   

 

  

 

Wednesday 8-19 Doing This & That

Having fun doing this & that

 

We started the day out by taking the Minnie for its monthly drive. As we drove we ran the generator just to keep it working correctly. We didn't go too far we just wanted to make sure that the Minnie stays running correctly. Larry keeps the batteries charged all the time by using a trickle charging system.

 

Taking the Minnie for a ride

 

We attended two virtual dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly A2 dance. We had 47 people zoomed in. Dayle has been doing the weekly dance for six weeks and he noticed the same dancers zoomed in. The dancers are getting more comfortable with the virtual dancing so Dayle has been introducing more complex moves. He still cues us through the moves and walk us through moves the dancers are having problems with. We had a great time.

The second dance was Doran McBroom's weekly C1 dance. This week he invited Bill Harrison to come and help call the dance. The dance was an hour and a half and we had 33 people zoomed in. Both Bill and Doren called three tips a piece. We had a fantastic time.

In between the dances we kept busy doing this and that. I mowed the frontyard. It had been a couple of weeks since I mowed. It has been so hot and dry the yards don't need to be mowed every week like I usually do. While I mowed Larry weedeated, blew out the garage and the porches and driveway. It took me forty-five minutes to mow. It was in the mid 90's so I'll mow the backyard tomorrow. 

 

Mowing the frontyard

 

After mowing and I cooled off and did some housework. I did my daily challenges and The Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. It took me 2 hours, 8 minutes and 30 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group.

 

It's time to vacuum the house

 

Larry did a couple of small projects on the Cameo. Yesterday he put a vinyl covering on his drink cup and today he made two frames. We're having a great time playing with the Cameo machine.

  

 

In the evening we watched an Amazon movie called The Tourist. It starred Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. It was about an American tourist named Frank, who goes to Italy to mend a broken heart and meets an extraordinary woman, Elise. It's a action, adventure, crime movie. It was very good. Afterwards I finished watching the first season of Agatha Raisin and started watching the second season. I ended up doing 27,000 steps.  

     

 

Tuesday 8-18 Day of Virtual Dancing

Get a partner and dance

 

We started dancing virtually in June and are having a great time. We dance to callers all over the United States, Canada, England and Germany. Most of the callers we had never danced to before and they're very talented. In June we attended 22 dances and in July we attended 58 dances. Every month more and more callers are joining in calling virtually through Zoom. By having so many callers and dances to choose from you have to decide which one to attend. Each dance is limited to 100 connections to Zoom at a time before the host has to pay. The dances are free but the callers do have a tip jar only because dancers have requested them to do so.  

We had a super busy day of square dancing. We attended 6 .5 hours of dances. The first dance was Di Green's C1 Workshop at 9:00 am. We had 27 people participating. Di went over C1 moves people requested her to review. It was a very good workshop. Di called five tips.

The second dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus dance at 11:00 am. We had 47 people participating. Dayle called four tips. We had a super time.

The third dance was Di Green's weekly twos hour A1/A2 dance at 1:30 pm. During the A1 session we had 27 people participating and we had 23 people participating in the A2 session. She shared the session with her partner Terry. They called five tips in each session and did a super job. By the end of the two sessions we were tired.

The fourth dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 pm. The dance was for an hour and a half with 84 participants. Don called six tips. He called very vanilla because we had a lot of new dancers that joined the zoom this week. This was nice because we had already danced four hours of virtual dancing. We had a great time.

In between the dances I did my daily challenges and The Event: Easy Street of 5 games. I didn't finish my daily challenges because I got stuck on the Tri Peaks games. The event took me 7 minutes and 10 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group. We watched some YouTube videos.

After the last dance we watched a documentary on Amazon called The Gardener. It was about Frank Cabot and how his ideas in his garden have influence the meaning of gardening. It was very good. Then I started watching the first season of Agatha Raisin on Acorn. It's about a female private detective, who investigates murders in her village. It's a comedy drama, it's a lot like Miss Fisher Murders. I ended up doing 21,500 steps.       

Monday 8-17 Birthday Surprise

Happy Birthday Louise

 

We had a super day. It was a bit cooler, the high was 95 degrees. It was very pleasant because there was a cloud covering along with a little breeze.

Today was Louise's Birthday so we decided to surprise her. Due to the Coronavirus we haven't seen her in months. She has been social distancing and wearing a mask. On the way to her house we picked up a half dozen birthday balloons. When we got to her house and knocked on her door she was surprised to see us. She loved the balloons. We brought lunch and dessert and gifts to celebrate her birthday. For lunch we had bacon sandwiches on English muffins and chips. Louise loves German Chocolate cake so I baked some German Chocolate cupcakes for dessert. We surprised her again by putting candles on the cupcakes. After dessert Louise opened her birthday gifts.

 

Birthday cupcakes

Louise blowing out candles

Alice in her special place for quiet time

Louise opening her gifts

Birthday balloons

 

Larry made boxes for gift cards, he even made the gift cards. Amazon now has a print from home option so he imported a few pictures of Louise and put them on the cards. Then he printed the cards out on the printer. They came out super. Another gift Larry made was a layered project of the letter L along with her name inside a frame. 

 

Gift card boxes

Layered letter project

 

While celebrating Louise's birthday I played with Alice. We had a super time celebrating Louise's birthday at her house.

When we got home I did my daily challenges and The Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 29 minutes and 8 seconds, which put me 19th place in my group. Today in Microsoft Solitaire when you do the Daily Challenges and The Event your points are doubled. 

We watched our YouTube videos. 

In the evening we watched an episode of Endeavour. Then I finished watching the first season of Accused. Then I watched a movie on Amazon called Steel Magnolias. I ended up doing 28,500 steps, which put me third place in my group.

 

Relaxing in front of the television

       

 

Sunday 8-16 Another 100 Degree Day

It's hot

Another hot day in Texas. We spent the day keeping cool indoors. The temperature got to 104, thank goodness the humidity was 27%.

In the morning Larry did a Halloween Decoration Project using the Cameo. This was a  4 layer project with extra witches and bats. He put the project in a frame with an orange background. The finished project came out excellent.

 

Halloween project

While Larry worked on that I did my daily challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango Mini (3 Klondike games and 3 Tri Peak games). It took me 14 minutes and 27 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group.

We attended two virtual dances today. The first dance was Doren McBroom's weekly DBD dance for his Crossfire Club at 1:30. This week Doren asked Dayle Hodge to cover for him. The dance was an hour and a half long. The first hour was a workshop, where Dayle walked through moves the dancers were having problems with. The last half hour was more complex because Dayle called faster. We broke down a few times but we had fun. We had 55 people participating in the dance. The last half hour Doren zoomed in to thank Dayle for covering for him. Dayle did an excellent job of calling the DBD dance.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30. Loren called three tips of A2 and two tips of C1 tips. During the A2 tips we had 47 participates and the C1 tips we had 37 participates. We had a super night of dancing to Loren.

 

 

 After the last dance I started to watch a series on Acorn called Accused. Every episode has a different story to tell. I watched three episodes. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which gave me 175,331 for the week. This put me in fourth place in my group.