Tuesday 9-29 Dentist and Dancing

We had a wonderful day. It was beautiful with a lot of sunshine. Larry woke up to a cool morning in the mid 40's. By 4:00 it was 80 degrees.

Every morning when Larry wakes up he opens the blinds. Today when he did this he saw a raccoon climbing out of the birdfeeder. It's amazing that such a big animal can fit in the feeder. We don't want the feeder to be destroyed so Larry decided to modify it. He put bigger hooks on it so we can easily remove it at night.  

Larry had a dentist appointment at 10:00 to get an impression for his crown. While he was at the dentist I finished reading The Siege Winter by Ariana Franklin. Then I played my Solitaire games. Today it was Tri Peaks Tuesday, which means every Tri Peak you complete you double your points. I did my Daily Challenges and the Event: Tri Peaks Mini of five games. It took me 14 minutes and 33 seconds to complete, which put me in 33rd place in my group. I did a few Tri Peaks games in the Star Club Challenge.

We attended three virtual square dances. The first was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus dance at 11:00. Dayle had 36 participants for the dance. Larry was still at the dentist when the dance started so I danced the first tip by myself. Dayle called four tips. The third tip was a workshop where Dayle went over half a Run To The Left or Right and other half moves. The reason that people were having problems was because they're not use to those moves. We're use to some of the half moves because we dance upper levels and some of the calls are half a call calls. We had a super time.

The second dance was Di Green's weekly A2 Workshop at 2:45 for an hour. Di and Terry called five tips and had 31 participants. Di's weekly workshops are an hour of A1 and an hour of A2, we only attended the A2. We hadn't danced to Di in a couple of weeks because we were building the cabinet. Di and Terry went over some four couple moves such as Hourglass Circulate, Flip the Hourglass, Mini Busy, Transfer the Column, Crossover Circulate and Out Roll Circulate. The workshop was a lot of fun because Di and Terry cued through the tips, which helped me out a lot. 

The third dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 for an hour and a half. We had 68 participants. Don worked on Chain Reaction, Minnie Busy and Cross Over Circulate. We had a great time dancing to Don and other dancers from Japan, The United States, England, Australia and Canada. 

 

 

After Di's workshop Larry submitted our weekly grocery order. It seems that when we order online and have an evening delivery we don't get some items, I guess because they stock overnight and run out by late in the day. There were only two items they did not have and they did not substitute them with other products. Our order came during Don's dance and I put the items away during a tip break. LIFE IS GOOD!!! 

After our last dance we finished watching the first season of Van Der Valk on PBS. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Columbo. I ended up doing 28,500 steps, which put me fifth place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

     

 

 

 

Monday 9-28 Cabinet Is Done

A cold front came in late last night with a heavy wind out of the north. The temperature started in the mid 60's and only got to 77 degrees. We had an outstanding day.

We spent much of the day assembling the cabinet. The hardest thing Larry had to do was realign the sliding bars for the drawer and shelf. After the cabinet was assembled he put the wheels on the bottom. The cabinet came out outstanding. It was the first complete piece of furniture that Larry has ever made. We're very pleased with how it came out.

 

Assembling the cabinet

Putting the back boards on the cabinet

The sliding rails for the Cameo shelf

The finished cabinet

 

During our lunch break I played Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 36 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 29th place in my group.

After finishing up the cabinet project we went to the storage center to get the Minnie, it was time to take it for a ride. While driving the Minnie we started the generator to keep it running correctly. Everything ran perfectly. 

When we got home I read a couple of chapters of  the White Siege on my Kindle.

In the evening we attended Ett McAtee's Monday C1 Workshop at 6:30. We had 57 participants. Today Ett worked on Plenty and Jaywalk. Both moves are four couple moves so it was hard to see all the phantoms especially if you're dancing by yourself. We had a good time.

After the dance we watched the second episode of Van Der Valk on PBS. Van Der Valk is a detective series that takes place in Amsterdam. It's a good series. Then I watched an episode of the fourth season of Columbo on Peacock. I ended up doing 23,500 steps, which put me in sixth place in my group.      

 

 

 

 

Sunday 9-27 Super Sunday

Super Sunday

 

We had a super day. The weather was beautiful with blue skies and wind. The temperature got up to the high 80's.

In the morning we watched a couple of episodes of The GizWiz, which is a weekly technology show on YouTube. Dick DeBartolo, MAD Magazine's maddest writer and Chad Johnson both host the show, each week they have silly, unique, and crazy gadgets and gizmos. We have been following them for many years and enjoy watching the show. Over the years we have purchased a few of the gadgets they featured; such as a Mini Waffle Maker, Hoover Cover, Whiskware Batter Mixer, Perfect Egg and more.

 

Mini Waffle Maker

 

Hoofer Cover use when reheating food in microwaves

Whiskware Batter Mixer to mix pancake mix and measure the size you want

 

Perfect Egg, it tells you when your eggs are done

 

Today was Solitaire Sunday, where every Klondike game you solve your points are doubled. I did the Daily Challenges (one Klondike game) and the Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 18 minutes and 23 seconds to complete, which put me in 22nd place in my group.

We attended three virtual square dances. The first dance was Don Moger's weekly C1 dance at 11:00. We had 48 participants. He called seven tips. The fourth tip he did a workshop because he wanted to work on a couple of moves we had not done virtually. The moves were Relay The Top and Chain Reaction. These moves are four couple moves so you have to keep track of six phantoms. We did excellent. Don also went over a few more moves, that the dancers were having problems with because it has been over six months since we did them. The moves were Cross and Turn, Cross Chain Thru and Cross Chain and Roll. I was very happy he went over the moves because I had trouble learning them when I was in class a couple of years ago. We had a super time dancing to Don and with our virtual friends.

The second dance was Doren McBroom's weekly Plus DBD dance at 1:30. We had 31 participants. Doren invited Gary Felton to come and help him call the dance. They called six tips. This was the first time we danced to Gary and we had fun.

The third dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30. Loren called three A2 tips, where we had 36 participants. The third tip was a full square Larry sat out but I tried it by myself. After the A2 tips Loren did an introduction to C1 tip. This week he introduced dancers to three moves, Dixie Diamond, Step and Fold and Ah So. Then Loren called two C1 tips, we had 30 participants. We had an outstanding evening of dancing to Loren and friends.

In between the dances we watched YouTube videos. I read a couple of chapters of  the White Siege on my Kindle. We watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched an episode of Columbo. I ended up doing 22,000 steps, which gave me 149,113 steps for the week. I came in 10th place in my group.      

 

        

 

Saturday 9-26 Beautiful Fall Day

 

We started the day out with a little fog. Once the fog lifted we had clear skies and a lot of sunshine. It got up to 85 degrees.

We spent the day putting polyurethane on the pieces of the cabinet. I helped Larry by working on the boards that only needed one coat. Larry worked on the boards that he wanted to put three coats on. On the boards that are having multiple coats Larry waited a couple of hours between each coat. Once all the coats were on and dry Larry flipped the boards and applied the same amount of coats on the other side. We started at 8:30 in the morning and Larry finished around 4:30. It was a long day of applying polyurethane. The poly will need to sit until Monday before we can reassemble the cabinet.

 

Applying polyurethane on the cabinet pieces

The boards waiting to be polyurethane on the last side

Some of the boards waiting for their second coat

 

While Larry was applying the second coat of polyurethane I played Solitaire, I did my Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 3 Spider and 3 Pyramid. It took me 17 minutes and 30 seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group.

After playing my computer games I read a couple of chapters of the White Siege on my Kindle. After Larry called it a day we watched YouTube videos and an episode of the GizWiz.

In the evening we attended a special virtual square dance. It was the Canadian Callers Festival, Loren Smith invited callers from all over Canada to zoom in and call. The festival was three hours long, it started at 7:00 pm and was over at 10:00 pm. The schedule was 1.5 hours of Mainstream/Plus and 1.5 hours of A2/C1. The first session had 106 participants and the second had 86 participants. We zoomed in at 7:30 and I danced the Mainstream/Plus by myself. The callers called one tip of plus and eight tips of mainstream. The second session the callers called nine tips. The tips rotated, two A2 tips and one C1. The festival gave us an opportunity to dance with different callers in Canada. We had a super time.

 

 

Then I watched an episode of Columbo. I ended up doing 16,000 steps for the day, which put me in 10th place in my group with 127,000 steps.  

   

Friday 9-25 It's My Birthday

Happy Birthday

 

It was a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine and the temperature in the mid 80's. Perfect day to celebrate my birthday. I turned 64 today. 

My birthday celebration started out with Larry making me pancakes for breakfast. Then Louise came out with her dog Alice for lunch. We were going to go boating because Louise had not been to the lake all year but the temperature has been near the 70's for a couple weeks and the water temperature has dropped to 72 degrees, too cold for us. As we have gotten older we have become more sensitive towards temperatures. Years ago if the water was 70 degrees we were fine but now we like the high 70's. For my birthday lunch we had a Mama Cozzi's stuffed crust three meat pizza. We hadn't had this brand of pizza in years and it was delicious. For dessert we had chocolate cream cake made by Deutsche Kushe. It was the first time we had this cake, it was very rich and very good. I can't resist anything with chocolate. After lunch it was time to open birthday gifts. Larry decided he would celebrate his birthday, which was last month with mine. So we both opened our gifts. We received a lot of wonderful gifts. I had a super birthday celebration with Louise, Alice and Larry.   

 

Birthday lunch

Birthday balloons from Louise

Larry opening his gift pistachios from Shirley

Opening gifts trail mix from Shirley

Alice chilling out

The chocolate cream cake dessert

   

In the morning Larry cleaned the air filters throughout the house. He tries to change the pre-filters every couple of months. Thank goodness he did because they really needed to be cleaned, they had a lot of dust in them. It seems that this house gets more dust than the house in Austin. I use to dust every week but now I dust every two weeks or when I get tried of looking at the dust on the furniture. When we were in Austin I could get away with dusting a lot less. 

I played my Solitaire games. Today was called Free Cell Friday, every Free Cell game you complete you double your points. I did my Daily Challenges. Then I moved on to the Event: Free Cell Mini of five games. It took me 13 minutes and 15 seconds, which put me in 28th place in my group. Then I did nine hard games of Free Cell in the Star Club. 

After Louise left Shirley, Larry's mom called and wished me a happy birthday. She asked about using Zoom so Larry emailed her a link and we were able to see and talk to her via Zoom. Technology can be terrific.

For dinner we had leftovers, pizza, Italian sausage and potato chips. For dessert we had more cake. 

In the evening we attended a virtual square dance, which was Ett McAtee's weekly A2/C1 dance for an hour and a half. This week Jeremy Butler joined Ett and called the dance. They called four A2 tips and two C1 tips. We had 42 participants in the A2 tips and 37 participants in the C1 tips. We had a great time dancing to Ett and Jeremy.

After the dance we watched a couple of episodes of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Columbo. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in eighth place in my group with 111,088 steps.  

 

 

 

Thursday 9-24 Locomotive Complete

Smile and have fun

 

We had another beautiful mild day with the temperature in the 70's. 

We had a busy day of doing this and that. The first thing we did was finish staining the cabinet boards. Yesterday, we did the front and three sides of the boards so we had to stain the back and the bottom of the boards. Larry had put some wood filler in three boards so he stained these boards on all sides. It took us a few hours to finish the staining. 

 

Some of the boards after they're stained

 After finishing up the staining Larry mowed the frontyard. I weedeated and did some edging. After Larry finished mowing he blew off the driveway and porch.

 

Mowing the frontyard

 

After lunch Larry cleaned up the area we stained in and put things away. While he did this I did my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango of 10 games (5 Klondike games and 5 Pyramid games). It took me 1 hour, 45 minutes and 37 seconds to complete, which put me in 20th place in my group. It took me a while to finish the fifth game of Pyramid. 

Larry also started to review the Traffic Master Weight Room Rubber Tiles from The Home Depot Seeds Program. The tiles are very well built and easy to assemble together. They're made out of 75% post industrial recycled rubber including from Nike footwear. Larry put it together in the garage because they have a strong smell to them. Larry was going to install them in his workroom but are not soft and they smell. The tiles look great.

 

The Traffic Master Weight Room Tiles

The tiles assembled

 I did some housework while Larry did the Seeds Program review.

 

It's time to do housework

 

In the evening we attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 for an hour at 6:00. We had 28 participants for the A2 tips and 26 participants for the C1 tip. Jeremy called four A2 tips and one C1 tip. The more we dance to Jeremy the more complex he calls. We find that we're getting use to our phantoms so it's getting easier. Jeremy is a very good caller and we had a great time dancing to him and with other dancers around the world.

The second dance was Michael Levy A2 for an hour at 7:30. We had 18 participants. We had a few dancers having troubles so Michael had to walk us through some moves. Michael is calling more vanilla calls because of the abilities of the dancers. Michael is a good caller and we have fun with him.

After the dance we completed the Locomotive puzzle. It took us about 9 hours to complete. It came out super, you can even wind it up and it will travel across the floor. It was a lot of fun putting it together. 

Completed Locomotive

After finishing the puzzle we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched an episode of Columbo. I ended up doing 21,500 steps, I made my personal goal but I ended up coming in 9th place in my group with 84,500 steps for the week. I probably will not get to 175,000 steps this week because I'm 15,500 steps behind.
 

 

 

Wednesday 9-23 Another Overcast Day

Overcast Day

 

We had a mild, overcast day, it didn't get out of low 70's. We also had a slight breeze.

In the morning we did a few errands. The first stop was the UPS Store to pick up our mail, it had been over a week since we last got our mail. Next, we stopped at the Dollar Tree and then we went to The Home Depot. Larry had bought some stain for our cabinet, yesterday he tested it on a small piece of scrap material and didn't really like the color, he found another stain but our local The Home Depot didn't carry it so off to Killeen we went. They had three in stock so Larry bought a can. 

While we were in Killeen we stopped at Aldi. We hadn't been to Aldi in about a year. This was my first time inside a grocery store in over six months. My birthday is Friday and I like some products that are only sold in Aldi. I decided on what I wanted for my birthday lunch. While we were walking around we bought dessert and a few other items. Aldi was very busy. The clerk checking us out told us that is always busy on Wednesday because it's the day their ads come out. The Killeen store is newer but smaller than our store in Temple, we have never seen our store that busy, of course we actually don't shop at Aldi very often so maybe we have missed the busy times.

 

Doing errands

By the time we got home it was time for lunch. After lunch I did my Solitaire games, which were my Daily Challenges and the Event: Solitaire World Tour, which had 30 games. Today was called Eventsday, where all the puzzles in the event challenge you complete your points double. It took me 2 hours, 16 minutes and 34 seconds, which put in 10th place in my group.

While I was playing my Solitaire games Larry started staining the new cabinet. When I finished playing computer games I helped him. We worked on staining for about three hours. There were a few boards that needed a little fill before being stained. Tomorrow, we'll continue staining. This is going to be a long process, lots of pieces to stain and then we will have to apply polyurethane to them.

We attended Doren McBroom's weekly A2 dance. Doren had 19 participants. It was a small group but very nice. Doren didn't call too complex. He called five tips. We had a great time. 

Before and after the dance we worked on my Locomotive puzzle for about an hour and a half. We're almost done with the locomotive puzzle. We came across a problem because I had assembled a piece incorrectly and a rod couldn't go all the through an area it needed to go through. Larry figured out how to fix the problem without taking the whole locomotive apart. Thank you Larry.

Larry called his sister Louise to invite her out to celebrate my birthday on Friday. After he got off the phone we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched an episode of Columbo. I ended up doing 23,000 steps, which put me in 9th place in my group. I made my personal daily goal of 21,000 steps but I'm behind in my weekly challenge of 175,000 steps.

 

Relaxing in front of the television

 LIFE IS GOOD!!! 

Tuesday 9-22 First Day of Autumn

First day of Autumn

 

Wow, summer is gone and autumn is here. The temperatures will be dropping. Well, here in Texas the temperatures have been mild for over a week. Today at the house the temperature was only 72 degrees. I think autumn came early.

This morning when Larry woke up he was surprised because when he looked out the window he saw the bird feeder was gone. He went outside and found it on the ground. We have a camera that records video on the porch so he went through the video and saw that there was a racoon in the feeder at midnight. It looked like he was trying to get out of the feeder because it was rocking back and forth. The racoon rocked it back and forth until it fell to the ground. Larry looked at the feeder and found the only damaged was the screen on the bottom had been ripped. He replaced the screen and tomorrow we'll hang it once again.   

It has been raining on and off all day and the humidity was 99%, which made it too damp to stain our cabinet pieces but Larry did put some stain on a couple of test pieces.

Larry wrote and submitted a Home Depot Seeds Program review on the Brilliant Switch. It's a very nice smart switch that works with our Alexa. It replaces two light switches, which is the bar lights and kitchen light. It has a lot of features such as voice and motion activation, it controls lights, music and climate. The display screen lights up and displays photos, art and weather forecasts. You can control the lights separate by touching the switch to the light.

 

The display of the brilliant switch

Some of the features on the brilliant switch

 

While Larry worked on the Seeds Program I did my Solitaire Daily Challenges and Event. The Event: Klondike Mini of 10 games. It took me 29 minutes and 47 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. After I finished my computer games I read for an hour. Then I worked on the Locomotive puzzle for an hour.

Today we attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus Dance at 11:00. He had 40 participants. The third tip of the dance was a workshop where he explained where the flag pole is located. The flag pole in square dancing is the center of the square. Dayle called an outstanding dance and cued through out the dance. We had a great time.

The second dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 for an hour and a half. We had 73 participants. The dance was more of a workshop so Don walked us through moves the dancers were having problem with. We had a lot of fun.

After the dance we worked on the locomotive puzzle for another hour and a half. Then we watched an episode of The Yorkshire Vet on Acorn. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Columbo.  I needed up doing 20,000 steps, which put me in 8th place in my group.

    

 

 

Monday 9-21 A Rainy Productive Day

Rainy Day

 

It rained on and off all day. At times it poured. We figured the rain would keep the wildlife hidden away but it didn't, the birdfeeder was busy all day. We filled the bowls for the squirrels and squirrels were busy with the bowls. Larry had to chase a squirrel out of the feeder. When we feed the squirrels they finish eating the food in the bowls and leave a mess so out comes the blower and we blow off the back porch.

Due to the rain we had to back the car out of the garage so we could sand the pieces to our cabinet. We had another long day working on the cabinet. Larry has a couple multi-purpose tools made by Dremel that helped us. Some places we sanded by hand and some we used the Dremel tools, they get into places we couldn't get to using the hand sander. Larry trimmed off the extra veneer and cleaned up the board. We got all the boards sanded, the next step is to stain.

 

Dremel multi-purpose tool

Sanding in the grooves using the multi-purpose tool

  

 We called it a day at 4:30. 

Today Microsoft Solitaire was called Funday, every game you completed in the Daily Challenge and the Event your points were doubled. I did my daily challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango of 10 Spider and 10 Klondike. It took me 1 hour, 48 minutes and 1 second. I came in 13th place in my group.

In the evening we worked a couple of hours on the Locomotive puzzle. We built a couple of gears and assembled them on the locomotive. We assembled the fuel tanks and railing. 

 

What we assembled today

Then we watched a couple of episodes of The Yorkshire Vet eighth season. Then I watched an episode of Columbo. I ended up doing 20,000 steps, which put me in 7th place in my group. 

Sunday 9-20 Busy Day

Busy Day

 

Today was a very pleasant day with the temperature in the low 80's. It was breezy all day but we had a lot of sunshine. 

We had a very busy day working on the cabinet. We started by cutting the last few pieces of wood, the back pieces and a front trim piece. Then we put an iron on wood veneer trim on most of the edges. When Larry said he was putting on edging with an iron I thought he was joking, well, he wasn't, that's exactly what he did. The veneer came in a roll and you measure how much you need, then cut it to size. The veneer had glue on the back so you use an iron on high to apply the veneer. Then you roll the strip on the edge of the board. It works great and looks outstanding. The veneer was 3/4 inch wide and some of the pieces are 1/2 inch thick so the veneer will needed to be trimmed to fit properly. After that comes the parts of the project that Larry likes the least, sanding and staining. In preparation of this Larry took the cabinet apart. Tomorrow we hope to start the sanding.

 

Applying the veneer with an iron

    

Rolling the veneer to smooth it out equally

The board before and after the veneer

 

All the pieces of the cabinet waiting to be sanded and stained

We worked on the cabinet until 3:30 and decided to call it a day. We have been chasing a couple of squirrels out of the birdfeeder, Larry set up a camera to keep an eye on them. I have been putting bowls out with some bird food in them for the squirrels but the squirrels are very smart, when they finish eating the food in the bowls sometimes they get into the feeder, if we see them we chase them out. While we were working on the cabinet Larry brought our tablet to where we were working so we can keep an eye on the squirrels. It worked great. I had to chase the squirrels off the railing a couple of times. They run off to the trees and then come back a little while later. I think this is becoming a game for the squirrels.

 

 

One of the squirrels getting ready to climb a tree

 

After calling it a day we relaxed in front of the television and watched YouTube videos. I did my Solitaire games. I did my Daily Challenges and the Event: Hard Road Mini of ten games. It took me 1 hour, 21 minutes and 56 seconds to complete, which put me in 9th place in my group.

On Sunday evenings we usually attend Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 virtual dance but today we were tired so we passed on it. Instead we worked a couple of hours on the Locomotive puzzle. We assembled the wheels and the side of the engine. There were ten wheels and each one had a few piece to assemble to make them. We had to assemble the wheels to the engine by using a rod. The instruction show you how to do so. In order to get the correct spacing you have to build a tool that measures the spacing. The instructions has pictures of how to make the tool. The locomotive is coming a long very well.

 

 

Five of the wheel we assembled

The other five wheels

What the locomotive looks like so far

We watched a couple of episodes of The Yorkshire Vet, which finished the seventh season. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Columbo. I ended up doing 20,500 steps today, which I missed my daily goal of 22,443 steps. My weekly challenge goal is 175,000 steps I did 176,628, which put me in seventh place in my group.