Tuesday 6-29 Dancing with Brad Caldwell

 

Dancing and having fun

We had another muggy day with a little sprinkle in the afternoon.

Larry started the day out by going to the dentist to get his teeth cleaned.

Visiting the dentist

While Larry was gone I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Tri Peaks Mini of 5 games. It took me 14 minutes and 49 seconds to complete, which put me in 39th place in my group. I also did some Star Club Solitaire Celebrates 31st spider games.

Then I did some housework.

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Plus. We did the four two couples tips with 23 participants. Dayle did a great job of cueing. We had a great time.

Second was Di Green's Weekly A1/A2 Workshop at 1:30. During the hour of A1 we had 30 participants, the A2 hour had 31, and the four couples tip we had 24. Di did an excellent job of calling and cueing. I danced the A1 five tips by myself and Larry joined me for the five A2 tips. We danced together for the four couples tip. During the dance Michael wore a green, red and white poncho and hat to match so Monica decided to put her hat on. We had a super afternoon of dancing.

 

Monica wearing her cool hat

Some of the dancers who were at the A2 session

In the evening we attended a live dance in Georgetown with the Diamond Masters. Brad Caldwell called the dance. This club started up again a few months ago but this week was our first time. We were one person shy of two squares so we danced with one phantom. Brad did an outstanding job of keeping track of the phantom. Brad was happy to see us considering we hadn't seen him in over 15 months. Brad called for two hours, we had a super time. 

We got home at 10:30. Larry checked his e-mail and then went to bed. I continued watching the first season of White Collar. I ended up doing 21,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.    

 

Monday 6-28 Rainy Day

 

Rainy Day

It was overcast all day. It rained in the afternoon, once the rain stopped it was very muggy. We only got up to 83 degrees but the humidity was 70%.

We started the day out by going to The Home Depot. Yesterday we installed the Everbilt adjustable shelving kit in the garage, we used a different configuration than was suggested and we needed three more shelf brackets. Larry checked the website to see if they carried the brackets that came with the kit, they didn't but they did have other brackets that are very similar and work fine.

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Di Green's Weekly Plus at 11:00, which I did by myself. She had 33 participants. Terry and Di rotated calling the five tips. She cued the whole dance. I had a great time.

Second was Joachim Ruehenbeck's A1/A2 at 12:30. I danced the A1 hour by myself and Larry joined me for the A2 hour. Joachim called five tips each sessions. Joachim had 28 participants during the A1 tips and 30 during the A2 tips. We had a fun afternoon.

Larry started his review on the Everbilt Adjustable Closet Kit. 

I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 53 minutes and 41 seconds, which put me in 20th place in my group.

In the evening we started to watch a series on PBS called US. It's about a couple who takes a long-planned trip to Europe even though the wife proclaimed she was leaving their marriage. Its a comedy. Then I started to watch the first season of White Collar. It's about a criminal who agrees to work with the FBI to keep from going back to prison. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.       

Sunday 6-27 Closet Shelving

 

Smile and have fun

A front came in the afternoon with a little bit of rain. It stayed around the rest of the day. 

We spent the morning installing a Everbilt Adjustable Closet Kit, one of the products Larry received this month for review. He decided to install it in the garage. We already had a shelf unit in the garage so we just extended it. You can assemble it in a bunch of different configurations, anywhere from 5ft. to 8ft. long. It comes with directions that are easy to read. Everything is very well made and white. It took us the morning to install the shelving unit and it looks great. We now have more storage.   

 

Making sure the top support rail is level

 

Front cover of the box

 

The Adjustable Closet Organizer assembled

In the afternoon I did my games. The Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Spider). It took me 53 minutes and 39 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group.

We watched an episode of GizWiz.

Yesterday I made a new dessert, it was Betty Crocker No Bake Cookie Dough Bites. The dessert was easy to make. It came out delicious.

 

No Bake Cookie Dough Bites

 

In the evening we watched the finals of the Olympic Trials in gymnastic. Then I watched the second season of Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries. I ended up doing 28,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group with 187,156 steps for the week.  

Saturday 6-26 Brother Do's

 

Brother Do's

We started the day out by going to Round Rock to visit Louise and Alice (her dog). When Larry called her a couple of days ago she said her handyman was finished painting her house. Larry had a couple of projects he wanted to do for her. Today we didn't have a dance until evening so it was a perfect day to do them. 

On the way to her house Larry gave her a call and said we were on our way. She was surprised because he had said he might be there Sunday. When we arrived she and Alice were waiting for us in the frontyard. We surprised her with a few paper crafting items Larry made, a eagle, a dog and a garden card. The card was for her neighbor because she likes working in her yard and it's beautiful. Then we walked around a looked had her houses new paint job.

 

New paint job on Louise's house

First up was to fix her house phones. She doesn't use it much because she uses her cell phone but it's always nice to have a backup. Over the past 30 or so years lots of people had changed lots of wiring inside the phone box, he ended up cutting everything apart and starting over. He began by identifying which wires provided the service and testing them. Louise has three phone jacks in the house (living room, master bedroom and kitchen). He started with the living room jack by connecting her phone to the jack. Then he took one wire in the box and married it up with another one to see if he got a dial tone. I listened for the tone when I heard it I told him, that way he knew which two wires needed to be put together to get the tone. Then he put a wire nut on it and labeled the wires as living room phone. Then he moved on to the bedroom and the kitchen and did the same procedure.

 

Connecting wires together

 

The phone box

 

Second was installing a new alarm on her front door. Her front door alarm went bad so Larry had ordered her a new one. It was a little different than her old one but it's easier to work. It didn't take him too long to install.

 

 

Installing plate for the alarm

 

Louise's new alarm

 

Next up was installing a Alexa device for her entryway light. Now she can simply ask Alexa to turn that light on or off.

 

New wall switch

The last project was getting Alexa to control her TV and Roku. This took a little bit. He needed to reprogram the Alexa device. 

I brought lunch. I made a pasta bake last night and baked it at Louise's house. While I was there I played with Alice. We had a great visit.

 

Alice

When we got home I played my Solitaire games. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 38 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. 

We attended one virtual square dance, Don Moger's Saturday Night Fever at 6:00. This week Don invited Dayle Hodge to come and call with him. They called four A2 tips with 48 participants and three C1 tips with 37. They both called an A2 tip a piece and called the other two together. They also called a C1 tips a piece and the third one together. We had an outstanding evening of dancing.

After the dance we watched the Olympics trials for track and field. Then I finished watching the final season of Bosch. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

    

Friday 6-25 Awesome Friday

 

We had an awesome day of dancing and doing this and that.

We attended three virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Four Couples A1/A2 at 11:00. He had 16 participants for A1 and 14 for A2. We danced the A1 two tips and started the A2. We had to stop because our neighbor Jason came to the door. We had a good time.

Second was Don Moger's Weekly C1 at 12:00. We had 28 participants. Don can be a little frustrating because he doesn't always tell the dancers when they go back to two couples verses four couples but we had fund.

Third was Di Green's Weekly C1 Workshop at 2:00. I did this by myself with 32 participants. Di worked on Triple Columns, Triple Waves, Triple Lines, Triple Boxes and different Triangle Formations. She did a lot of cueing. I had fun dancing to Di and with friends. 

Our new neighbor Jason came by to ask permission for his construction to use the back of our yard to deliver product. He stayed around and visited with us about his new house. He knew I took some pictures of his septic tank being installed. He wanted to know if we could send him the pictures. He thought it would be interesting. 

Putting the septic tank in the hole

In between the dances I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango of 10 games (5 Pyramid and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 27 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group.

While I was dancing to Di Larry made a summer card on the Cameo for our friends in Florida Paul and Roberta. 

For the last couple of weeks we have had more a lot of doves congregating on the porch. Yesterday, I saw four in the feeder and another five on the porch. It looked like a dove convention. Today we saw five doves eating out of the same bowl. Later on a squirrel showed up. He was cute, he laid on the porch and ate at the same time. Mid afternoon the cardinals showed up. 

 

Doves enjoying eating together

In the evening we watched the womens gymnastics triails for the Olympics. Then I started watching the seventh and final season of Bosch on Amazon. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

     

Thursday 6-24 In Person Square Dance

 

Beautiful Hot Day

We had a beautiful day with the temperature in the mid 90s.

Yesterday, we put an online grocery list together and this morning Larry submitted it. He asked for it to be delivered between 1:00 and 2:00, it came at 1:15. The driver put the groceries on the porch and rang the door to let us know our order was delivered. That was great considering we were dancing.

 

 Groceries delivered to the front door

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 at 11:00. We had 20 participants for the four two couples tips and 10 for the C1 four couples tip. The third tip Dayle worked on Rotate, Reverse Rotate, Single Rotate and Reverse Single Rotate. He continued working on the moves on the last tip, which was great because the moves are very confusing. Dayle did not cue a lot but he did help put you in the right position. We had fun.

Second was Joachim Ruehenbeck's C1 at 12:30. Joachim called five tips and had 21 participants. We had an outstanding hour dancing with Joachim and friends.

In the evening we attended an in person square dance, it was with the Thursday Night C1/A2 tape group with the Sundancers. We haven't danced in person since March 12, 2020, which was 15 months ago. The Sundancers tape group started up about a month ago.We danced an hour and 15 minutes of C1 and an hour and a half of A2. For the C1 session we had six couples and the A2 session we had two squares and an extra person. Everyone was happy to see us. We had an outstanding evening. 

 

Back dancing in person

In between dancing we watched YouTube videos.

I played the Daily Challenges and the Event: Medium Mayhem of 15 games. It took me 1 hour, 6 minutes and 4 seconds, which put me in 25th place in my group. 

While I was mowing yesterday I noticed I had a flower and a couple more bids in the planter so I decided to start watering the flowers because there is no rain in the forecast.

 

The flower in th planter

New buds

When we got home from our dance with the Sundancers I watched Anne on IMDb TV. It was a musical starring Jamie Foxx, Quvenshane Wallis as Annie and Cameron Diaz. It was a cute movie. I ended up doing 25,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group. I did miss my daily goal of 25,574 steps.

       

Wednesday 6-23 Mowing and Dancing

 

The moon tonight

We had a great day of doing this and that.

Larry started the day writing a couple of reviews for the Seeds Program.

While he did this I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 13 minutes and 55 seconds, which put me in 29th place in my group.

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A2 at 11:00. He called four two couples tips with 29 participants and one four couples tips with 18. He cued the whole dance, which was extremely helpful. We had a wonderful morning dancing to Dayle and with friends.

Second was Don Moger's Weekly C1 Teach at 12:00. He had 30 participants. He worked on Regroup, Interlock Diamonds, Butterfly Concepts, O Concepts and Follow Thru. We had fun.

After Don's dance I mowed the frontyard and half of the backyard. Larry weedeated and blew off the driveway and mower. 

We watched an episode of the GizWiz.

We didn't have a evening dance today because Nationals were going on and Jeremy was one of the callers. We watched a movie called Voice From The Stone on IMDb TV. It started out good and then it got weird. Then I watched Fried Green Tomatoes on IMDb TV. I haven't watched in in years and it's still a good movie. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Tuesday 6-22 Dancing & Other Stuff

 

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine and clouds. A front rolled in last night, there was a lot of lightening and thunder but we didn't get any rain, it looked like they may have gotten rain in town. It was 10 degrees cooler today. In the morning it was in the 70s and at 5:00 it was 82 degrees.

Larry received a Everbilt 3 Drawer Storage Kit from The Home Depot to review. Its a medium size wire drawer storage unit. It's white in color and has three baskets ( 2 small and 1 big). The directions said you may need a wooden mallet to help with assembly, no way that was going to work, needed a hammer. The top is a heavy piece of wood, to attach it they sent four small pieces of double sided tape. Larry was afraid that when you lift the unit to move it you would pick it up via the top and it would come off so he drilled four small holes in the frame and attached it via the tape and screws.

 

 

 Everbilt 3-Drawer Storage Kit

I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Free Cell). It took me 52 minutes and 2 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group.

We attended three virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Plus at 11:00. He called 4 two couples tips and a four couples tip. We had 16 participants for the two couples and 11 for the four couples. We had a pleasant surprise, Don Moger showed up and called a couple of two couples tips with Dayle. We had a super time.

Second was Di Green's Weekly A1/A2 workshops at 1:30. Di and Terry rotated calling the 5 tips of A1 and A2. Di called the four couples tip. During the A1 we started out with 28 participants and half way through it was up to 33. The A2 session we had 33 participants and the four couples tip had 25. We had a nice afternoon dancing to Di and Terry.

Third was Don Moger's Weekly A2 at 6:00. We had 32 participants. Don called six tips and we had a great evening of dancing and laughing with friends.

After the last dance we watched Bold Eagle, which was a movie on Amazon for Kids. Then I finished watching the third season and final season of Keeping Faith. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

 

        

Monday 6-21 First Day of Summer & Cookie Cups

 

Just having fun

Today was the first day of summer. It was a hot humid day with  the official temperature being 98 degrees and 48% humidity.

 

Keep cool on first day of summer

We started the day out going to Walmart to pickup a few items we were getting low on. While walking down the dessert aisle we found some new desserts. We picked up a couple of them ( Betty Crocker Reese's Peanut Butter Cookie Cups and Betty Crocker No-Bake Cookie Dough Bites). When we got home I baked the cookies cups. They are great.

 

Peanut butter cookie cups

I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Easy Street of 30 games. It took me 56 minutes and 57 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group.

Larry is still tweaking the new blinds. Today he worked on making the wiring less obvious. He replaced the black wire with a white wire and ran the wiring along the corner of the window. Looks much better. 

Late in the day he was playing with Alexa and the programming for the living room blind and it went nuts. It didn't stop going down, it kept running and wrapped the blind onto the pole in the wrong direction. Larry had to take the blind down. We worked quite some time getting everything correct. Larry has no idea why it messed up but he has it is working again.

In the evening we watched three episodes of Independent Lens and an episode of Reel South all on PBS. First episode we watched was The Dancing Man of LA, which was about a 69 year old guy who dances whenever he can. He has attended as many concerts as possible since he was a young man. Second episode was Senior Prom, it was about gay and lesbian couples in their 70's - 90's who were not able to attend their proms. These seniors now live in a community that accepts them and they now have a prom. Third was When I'm Her, which was about a ballet dancer. His self esteem is at its highest when he dresses up like a Russian female ballet dancer. The other episode was Outspoken, which was about a LGBTQ West Virginians fight to live free from discrimination, calling us to reimagine the power and longevity of a small town queer community. They were all good and very informative. Afterwards I started watching the third season of Keeping Faith. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me first in my group.

  

  

Sunday 6-20 Happy Father's Day

 

Happy father's day to all the fathers. 

Last night before I went to bed I made homemade cinnamon rolls. Larry read some of the reviews and most of them suggested doubling the amount of sugar, add the same amount of brown sugar and change the amount of cinnamon from 2 teaspoon to 3. I took their suggestions. I stayed up until about 3:00 am. I wrote Larry a note and asked him to bake the rolls. But I decided to do it myself so I got up at 6:30. The cinnamon rolls came out delicious. The next time I make the rolls I'll probably start earlier and bake them before going to bed. I wouldn't bake them as long. After breakfast I went back to bed for a few hours.

 

Cinnamon rolls before icing

Finished

 

While I was sleeping Larry read.

When I got up I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. 

I vacuumed the house.

We attended Dixie Cups Bi-Monthly DBD dance at 1:30. This week they invited Dick Otis to call. We had 11 participants. Di Green and Terry McCann was there. They danced with their backs to the camera which helped the dancers see where they should be. We had a fun afternoon.

The woodpecker paid us a visit in the afternoon. We spent the day hanging around the house and watching the birds and squirrels.

We watched an episode of the GizWiz and YouTube videos. I worked on my annual book.

For dinner I barbecued baby back ribs. They came out great and were the biggest baby back ribs we've ever seen, they looked more like regular pork ribs.

 

Our baby back ribs

In the evening we finished watching The Indian Doctor on Acorn. It was a great series. Then I finished watching the second season of Keeping Faith. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with 185,066 steps. 

 

Saturday 6-19 Morning Delight and Living Room Blind

 

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day with sunshine, the temperature got to 95 degrees.

Since Memorial Day weekend the street that runs in front of our house has been busy. A lot of the traffic goes to the boat ramp about two blocks away. Lake Belton is 9 feet over full but most of the boat ramps are open. When we went to town we crossed over the dam, we saw quite a few wakeboard boats and many jet skies on the lake. People were having fun.

When the temperatures got in the mid 90s and above we noticed that the bird and squirrel activity on the porch slowed down. Another reason might  be because our neighbor's home construction has had more activity. Jason has had the electricians working on the power, a couple doing the taping and floating and a crew working on the pool. 

This morning we had some activity. A couple of squirrels showed up on the porch and another one under the oak tree. A hummingbird and woodpecker made an appearance. The heat doesn't seem to affect the doves. We had two families of deer show up, one was a doe and a fawn and the other one was a doe and two fawns. They went under the oak tree and ate a little bit until they heard the crew next door and they ran to the trees. It still amazes me how fast the small fawn can run, it looks like they're faster than their moms. This was a great way to start the day. Through out the day we watched the wildlife come and go. 

 

A doe and fawn having breakfast

What's that noise?

Mom and her two fawns

 

A woodpecker getting a morning snack

Cooling off

During the last week the fox has made its appearance but it usually early evening or late night. A couple days ago I saw a opossum show up around 10:30 pm. Some nights I see a herd of six deer show up but most of the night I see one or two deer at a time. I don't think I will ever get tried of watching the birds, deer and squirrels. Even though I have to clean up after them.

 

Having dinner a couple of nights ago

We spent most of the day working on installing a automated roller blind in the living room. The living room window is seven feet wide so that presented a few challenges. Originally Larry was going to remove the mini blind and only have the automated blind but he decided he would be able to keep both. When we dance via Zoom if we don't close the blind the light coming in through the window makes it very difficult for people to see us. With the mini blind down I can peek out through the slats and check on what is happening with the wildlife on the back porch. By keeping both blinds we can use the mini blind when we dance and the automated blinds the rest of the time.

First Larry removed the mini blind. Next he worked on modifying the rod that came with the blind for the motor. The rod was rattling because of the spring in the rod and he could not get the spring out. He didn't like this so we went to The Home Depot to get a pole like we used on the first blind. When we got home Larry modified the new pole for the motor. We moved the blind into the garage where we cut the width and length where we needed them. After cutting the blind we had to roll it onto the pole. Then Larry hung the blind and got it to work with the remote control. It works great. Then he programmed our Alexa device to open and close the blind. Final step was to rehang the mini blind. Now if I ask Alexa to open or close the blinds both the living room and dining room blinds will open/close, or I can ask her to open either blind individually. Too cool.

 

Programming vinyl blind with the remote controller

Blind going down

 

Completely down with the mini blind up

Material removed from the blind

After finishing the blind project we went back to town to pick up a package at The UPS Store. It was another Seeds Program item. While there Larry got the rest of our mail.

I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Spider Mini of 6 games. It took me 59 minutes and 02 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. 

In the evening we attended Don Moger's Saturday Night Fever dance at 6:00. This week he invited Jeremy Butler to call with him. Don and Jeremy called two A2 tips a piece, one C1 tip and the third C1 tip together. We had 46 participants for A2 and 36  participants for C1. We had another fun Saturday evening dancing to Don and Jeremy and with friends.

After the dance we watched a dirt stock car race at Knoxville Raceway. When we were young and lived in Arizona we went to lots of car races. There were multiple tracks in the Tucson/Phoenix area. There is no car racing near where we live now. A few years ago while we were coming back from a trip we did go to a dirt track sprint car race outside of Dallas. The track allowed us to camp on some land they had across the road. We met a wonderful group of people there, they invited us over for a wiener roast and we even attended the race with them. We had a terrific time. Tonight's race was second race of Camping World series. The race was 50 laps. 

Then we started to watch the third season of The Indian Doctor. Then I started watching the season of Keeping Faith. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place.      

      

Friday 6-18 New Ceiling Fan and Dancing

 

Just having fun

We spent part of the day installing a new ceiling fan. The fan is called Urbain Aire By Minka. Its one of the three items Larry picked this month from the Home Depot Seeds Program. He decided to install it in the master bedroom. First he had to remove the old fan. Then he had to assemble and install the new fan, lots of pieces. The fan comes with a remote control that works both the light and the fan. The fan has six speeds. It was surprising how much extra wire Minka sent. Each wire had a label on it so you can connect the right wire together with a wire nuts. When the fan starts up it twitches back and forth until it finds the right direction to go. We were surprised how much air the fan moves. Last step was to install the LED light fixture. The remote control can make the light brighter and dim it. After getting everything installed Larry discovered the fan would run a bit and stop, then it would start again, it appears something is interfering with the signal from the remote. Larry called Minka and their tech support folks think the receiver for the remote is defective. They don't provide replacement parts so Larry will have to see what the Seeds people tell him to do. The fan is kind of a contemporary design, it is a nickle color and looks great. Our bedroom is wired with a switch for the light and one for the ceiling fan, which we really like, unfortunately this fan is not designed to be used that way, it is designed to use the remote control. If you are laying in bed the remote would be convenient but day to day it is easier just to use a normal wall switch to turn the light and fan on and off. 

 

The ceiling fan pieces

 

Removing the old fan

 

Connecting the wires

 

The finished product

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Four Couples A1/A2 at 11:00. During the A1 tips we had 20 participants and the A2 tips had 19. Dayle had a surprise, a group out of Germany had a full square of dancers. He was excited he a chance to call virtually to a four couples square, a few two couples squares, a few one couple squares and single person square. It was very challenging for him and us. We had a great time.

Second was Don Moger's Weekly C1 at 12:00. Don had 28 participants. He called a very challenging dance. At times I was a little frustrated but overall it was a good dance.

On Fridays we usually attend a third dance, Di Green's Weekly C1, but I was tired because we had worked on the ceiling fan for over two hours and we had danced 2.5 hours. 

I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games (3 Klondike and 3 Tri Peaks). It took me 13 minutes and 28 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group.

In the evening Larry called Louise to see how she was doing. While he was talking to her she told him the series we were watching on PBS, The Indian Doctor was also available via Acorn.

We subscribe to Acorn and it is easier to use than PBS so we finished the second season of The Indian Doctor via Acorn. 

Then I finished the first season of Keeping Faith. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.