Sunday 1-30 Preparing for Cold Weather

Have a great day

We had a wonderful day. 

Larry started the day out by crafting. He continues redesigning and assembling a truck.

I played my Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 28 minutes and 11 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group. 

After playing games I worked on my annual book.

Since we have been going camping fairly frequently we have been keeping the Minnie here at the house. This week the weather is suppose to be bad, lots of rain and cold, even possible snow and ice, it is suppose to be really cold Thursday and Friday, lows in the teens and and highs of 32. We drained the hot water heater in the Minnie, emptied the holding tanks and took her back to storage. Our storage unit has power so we plugged in our small heaters and set them to keep the temperature above freezing. February has traditionally been the month when we have the coldest temperatures and when we get our worst ice storms.

We attended two virtual square dances. First was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 series at 1:00. Ett was out of town so she asked Di Green to call the dance. Di called six tips with 23 participants. Larry danced with me. Di was calling a little fast so I made a few mistakes. She was dancing with Terry while calling and they had their backs to the dances so this helped me get back to where I belong. We had a super time.

Second was Loren Smith's Weekly A2/C1 at 7:30. The format was three A2 tips with 25 participants, two C1 Review tips with 23 participants and two C1 tips with 15 participants. Loren worked on Cast Back, Cross Cast Back, Rotary Spin and reviewed other moves he taught. Larry danced with me and we had an outstanding evening of dancing with friends.

After the dance we watched YouTube videos. I finished watching the 6th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group. For the week I did 195,000 steps.   

 

Saturday 1-29 Dancing to Darren Gallina and Gene Turner

 

Smile and have fun

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine and a little wind. It got up to 69 degrees at 3:00 but by 7:00 it had dropped to 45 degrees. 

We started the day out by going to Walmart to do a couple of returns. Before we went on our camping trip we went grocery shopping and I picked up the wrong pancake mix. Yesterday we bought a couple of pairs of jeans, when I went to wash them I noticed one of them was the wrong size. It was marked 32 X 30 but the waist said it was 30 X 32. Today we returned both items. While there we we picked up the right size jeans and a few other items. Then we went home.

I played Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 10 minutes and 43 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group.

Larry continued working and redesigning his truck paper project. It is looking good.

At 1:00 I attended Darren Gallina's Mainstream/Plus dance. This Saturday he invited Gene Turner out of England to come and help him call the dance. Darren and Gene called a tip of Mainstream and a tip of Plus with 28 participants. In between the tips we did some Trivia about England slang words and True or False questions about Gene. I had a great time dancing to Darren and Gene and with friends.

 

After the dance we watched some YouTube videos. I worked on the Pretty Flower Arrangement jigsaw puzzle.

In the evening we watched two episodes of Vera. Then I started watching the 6th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 28,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

  

Friday 1-28 Awesome Friday

 

Awesome Friday

We had an awesome day. It was cold with the high of 58 degrees and a breeze out of the east.

We started the day out by going to town and doing our weekly grocery shopping. First stop was at Walmart. We picked up everything on our shopping list. While there I bought a couple pairs of jeans and a pack of socks. Then we went to Aldi. We hadn't been there in a long time and they had rearranged the store. We walked through the store to see what they had. As we were walking by the meat section we found some pork chops at a good price. We looked at the section where the pulled pork we like is and found they had Thai Coconut Chicken. It was something new and sounded good so we picked one up. On the way home we stopped by Top Donuts and bought donuts for breakfast.

When we got home Larry started a new paper project. He found a truck project. When he loaded it into the editing program he discovered it was really big, about a foot long. He likes to build things that are smaller so they take up less room. He decided to make it half the size but when you do this some of the pieces get so small they can be difficult or impossible to put together. After cutting down the size he had to redesign some of the pieces. He has cut most of and started assembling it.

I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Spider Adventure of 20 games. It took me 4 hours, 26 minutes and 27 seconds, which put me in 31st place in my group. Then I continued working on the Pretty Flower Arrangement puzzle.

I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:30. This week Ett was going to be out of town so she asked Terry McCann to call the A2 tips and Di Green to call the C1 Teach tip. Terry called four A2 tips with 25 participants and Di called one tip of C1 with 24 participants. They did an excellent job of calling. I had a great time.

While I danced Larry worked on his paper project.

After the dance we watched an episode of Vera 11th season. I finished watching the 6th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

 

  Relaxing in front of the television

  

Thursday 1-27 Huge Subscription Price Increases

What should I do first?

It was another beautiful day. 

I started the day out by doing the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 17 seconds, which put me in 24th place in my group.

Larry finished his steam train paper project. It came out very cute.

Cute train

After playing games I cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed the house.

We attended Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 dance at 11:00. This week he called two tips because with his new job he had to attend a meeting. He had 22 participants. We had a great time dancing with friends and Dayle.

Square dancing

After lunch I took a nap.

Our monthly internet bill arrived and it had gone up almost 50%. Larry called the the cable company and got them to lower it back to what it was. For the last four or five years this happens every January, however, this is the first time it went up that much. I don't remember if I mentioned it or not but a few weeks ago our New York Times online subscription also went up tremendously, when Larry called to cancel they lowered the price back down. Apparently this has become some kind of business practice, raise the bill and see who will pay the increased rate without complaint.

When I woke up I started doing another jigsaw puzzle called Pretty Flower Arrangement made by Puzzlebug. It is 500 pieces. I separated the pieces and then did the frame.

    

 The puzzle frame 18.25 X 11

We watched an episode of GizWiz and YouTube videos.

In the evening we finished watching the 2nd season of Vienna Blood on PBS. Then I started the 6th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

 

Wednesday 1-26 Rotating Tires on the Minnie

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine. It was cool with a breeze out of the east. It got up to 50 degrees.

I started the day out by playing my games. I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 2 minutes and 46 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group.

Larry found another crafting project to do. He decided to make a steam engine train he found on the Silhouette site. He did not like the design of the wheels so he designed his own and he made the entire thing smaller. He has cut out all the pieces and now it needs assembly.

We attended three virtual dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00. I attended the dance by myself. Di and Terry took turns calling the 5 tips. They had 21 participants. It had been a few weeks since I danced by myself so I made a few mistakes. The mistakes were being on the wrong side of the flag pole, which is the center of the square. Di and Terry did an excellent job calling and cueing to get me back in the right place. Also they dance with their backs to us while calling, this helps a lot. I had a fun time.

Second was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 at 11:00. He called two tips of A1 and A2 two couples and one tip of full square material. During the A1 tips he had 23 participants, the A2 tips he had 24 participants and the full square tip he had 23 participants. Larry danced with me. We had an awesome hour of dancing to Dayle and friends.

After lunch we went to Discount Tires to get the Minnie's tires rotated. We arrived for our appointment and found out it was yesterday but they fit us in. They put us in a bay but couldn't get the jacks in the correct position to lift the rear of the Minnie so they had Larry move the Minnie outside next to the building where they had more room to work. Two gentlemen worked on rotating the tires. Larry had to explain how he wanted the tires rotated, we have four tires on the back and the inner two have long air valve extensions. Those two need to be rotated side to side, the other four need to be rotated front to back. When they were putting the rear tires back on Larry had to explain which way the wheels go on and show them that there is a pin they have to slide through the wheel, later he also had to explain how to put on the front hub caps, they needed to line the slot in the hubcap with the valve stems in order to get them on. Over the years Larry has had to explain these things to a number of workers. The tire shops go through lots of help so many times the employees have never worked on something like the Minnie. The two gentlemen did a good job and were very friendly. We were in and out in about an hour. We had a good experience.  

The Minnie outside

 

Back tires off

 

Gentleman rotating tires

 

Rotating front tires

 

Minnie in a bay

Our third dance was Dave Eno and Dave Hutchinson's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30 for two hours. The format was two C1 tips, five A2 tips and one C1 tip. This week Joe Uebelacker joined the Daves and called an A2 tip. The last A2 tip and C1 tip all three callers called together.During the first two C1 tips we had 13 participants, A2 tips we had 17 participants and the last C1 we had 11 participants. Larry danced the first two C1 tips with me. We had a super evening of dancing to Dave Eno, Dave Hutchinson and Joe Uebelacker and square dancing friends.

After the third dance we watched the second episode of the second season of Vienna Blood on PBS. Then I finished watching the fifth season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

  

Tuesday 1-25 Nasty Day with Dancing & Crafting

Smile and be happy

We had another overcast day with some rain.

Larry baked us more cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I started the day out by finishing putting the Puzzle Bug jigsaw puzzle together. It took me about five hours today and an hour or so yesterday. The puzzle had 500 pieces and was 18.5 X 11.

Finished puzzle

While I put the puzzle together Larry made a few cards.

We attended two virtual dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's A2 at 10:00. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips with 22 participants. We had a great time dancing with friends.

Second was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Plus at 11:00. Dayle had to leave a little early but he still got in four tips. Three were two couple tips and one was a four couples tip. He hadn't seen us in about two months so he was happy to see us again. Dayle had 18 participants. We had another hour of great dancing with friends.

After Dayle's dance I played games. I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Spider Mini of 5 games. It took me 15 minutes and 55 seconds, which put me in 7th place in my group.

We continued trying to catch up with the YouTube videos we follow.

Last week while we were on our camping trip Larry fell, he landed on his hiking pole and bent it. We have had our current hiking poles for about 13 years and it was time to replace them anyway. He ordered a new set via Amazon and they arrived today. Kind of amazing that you can get two hiking poles delivered to your door for $20. The hiking poles are very nice. The hand section are made of cork and they came with extra tip covers.

Hiking poles

In the evening we finished watching the second season of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then we started the 2nd season of Vienna Blood on PBS. Vienna Blood is a detective series. Then I continued watching the 5th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

Monday 1-24 Crafting, Dancing & Jigsaw Puzzle

 

Rainy Day

It rained on and off all day. We spent the day inside keeping dry.

The other day when we went shopping we picked up a bag of Rhodes cinnamon rolls. It takes 3 to 5 hours for them to thaw and rise before you bake them. Last night before I went to bed I took a couple out of the freezer and when Larry got up they were ready to bake. When I got up I had a fresh cinnamon roll for breakfast. They were delicious.

Rhodes cinnamon rolls

After breakfast we attended Di Green's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00. She had 29 participants. During the dance she worked on Percolate, Linear Action and Counter Rotate. She put us in different positions and walked us through the moves. We had super hour of dancing to Di and with friends.

Yesterday Larry finished a couple of Cupid figures and today he made a motorcycle birthday card for his friend Mike. It came out great.

 

Cupids

 

Motorcycle birthday card

While Larry was crafting I played computer games. I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Expert Adventure of 10 games. It took me 4 hours, 49 minutes and 58 seconds, which put me in 12th in my group.

In the afternoon I started putting together another small jigsaw puzzle called Puzzle Bug. It has 500 pieces.

The case for our camera is old, sometimes the zipper works and other times you zip it and the zipper comes undone. Larry has been looking for a new one for awhile. It's hard to find one that fits and is a soft case. Before he ordered one he read the reviews, some people said the case fits our camera perfectly and others said it's too small. It arrived today. The case is very nice. It has a separate compartment for an extra battery or memory. Our camera barely fits. 

 

New case on the left

In the evening we continued watching All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then I watched a few episodes of the 5th season of Father Brown. While I watched television I did 27,500 steps, which put me in 4th in my group.

 

Sunday 1-23 Concert, Puzzle, Crafting & Dancing

 

Having fun

We had a wonderful day. We kept busy having fun. 

Larry started the day off by making cinnamon French toast sticks for breakfast.

Afterwards he finished up a paper project.

I started out doing my computer games. I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Pyramid). It took me 36 minutes and 45 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group. Then I finished my laundry. 

 

Doing laundry

Louise bought me three small jigsaw puzzles for my birthday. I haven't done a jigsaw puzzle for about two years because Larry has been using the dining room table for his crafting. I don't mind at all. Well, I really didn't have anything going on so I decided to do the colorful eggs puzzle, it is 300 pieces. Out came the card table and a piece of card-board to build the puzzle on. Once I setup the table I dumped the pieces on the board. I separated the frame pieces from the rest. Then I put the frame together and started filling in the frame. It took me about five hours to complete. 

Finished puzzle

 

The pieces 

 

The frame 14.5 x 11

Larry found out that Tom Paxton was having a live concert with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. The concert was available via the internet, it was at 2:00 today. It was a great concert, they sang a lot of songs they wrote over the last two years. Cathy and Tom get together once a week when they can and write songs. We have quite a few CD's of Tom Paxton and we have always enjoyed his music. We had not previously listened to Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. In between each song they talked. Alex Lacquement played the bass and harmonica and was very good. Kimber Ludiker accompanied them on the fiddle and mandolin. Cathy played different guitars and a banjo. Marcy played different sizes of banjos, baseboard and guitars. Tom played the guitar and a kazoo. It was very entertaining for two hours.

 

Tom Paxton

 

Kimber, Marcy, Cathy and Tom

 

Kimber and Marcy

 

Tom and Alex

 

Cathy Fink

 

Alex Lacquement

In the evening we attended Loren Smith Weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30. Loren changed his dance format, starting tonight he's going to call 3 A2 tips, 2 C1 teach tips and 2 C1 tips. During the A2 tips we had 26 participants, C1 teach tips we had 29 participants and C1 tips we had 18 participants. It had been a long time since we had danced to Loren on Sunday nights. We had an outstanding time.

After the dance we started to watch the 2nd season of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then I continued watching the 4th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group for the week with a total of 191,331 steps.  

   

  

Saturday 1-22 DI Green's Monthly A2 Dance & Taking Down the Christmas Tree

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day of doing this and that.

We started the day out by going to town to go grocery shopping and picking up our mail. We did our grocery shopping at HEB. We use to shop here all the time. Since Covid happened we started shopping at Walmart because the Curbside service was free and HEB charged. Then we signed up for Walmart home delivery, this was very convenient. Today we went to HEB because there are some HEB branded products we like. We noticed some of their meat products are cheaper per pound. The store was much busier than Walmart. After doing our shopping we went to the UPS Store to pick up our mail, it has been about two weeks.

On the way home we stopped by Little Bohemian Bakery for a cinnamon roll for breakfast. We like their cinnamon rolls, they are delicious and huge, we share one. We hadn't been there in over two years. You use to be able to go inside and they sometimes have rolls from the day before at half price. Now you can only use the drive thru. 

Cinnamon roll we shared

After putting everything away. I played my games. I did the Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Free Cell Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 23 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group.

Larry started a paper project.

After lunch I decided to take down our Christmas tree and put away the other Christmas decorations. It took me an hour and half. I put the boxes in the garage. After the dance Larry helped me put the decorations in the attic.

We attended Di Green's Monthly A2 dance at 2:00 for two hours. This month Di invited Loren Smith, Terry McCann and Betsy Gotta to join her in calling the dance. She had two breakout rooms. The A room was for two couple tips and the B was for two couples with four couples moves. During the first half hour we had 26 participants in the A room where Betsy called two tips. Then Larry and I moved to the B room for an hour with between 16 to 19 participants. We danced two tips with Loren, Betsy and Di calling. The last half hour everyone returned to the A room. Loren and Terry closed out the dance calling a tip a piece with 26 participants. We did very well after not dancing virtually for over two weeks. We had a great time.

Participates in the dance

For dinner I made Sweet Teriyaki Pork Skewers. In the evening we finished the third season of Broadchurch. Then I continued watching the 4th season of Father Brown. While watching television I did some laundry and my steps. I ended up doing 29,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group. 

 

Sweet Teriyaki Pork Skewers

  

Friday 1-21 Home & Trip Summary

We're home

After spending 11 wonderful nights at three different state parks (Lake Tawakoni, Bonham and Tyler) we're home. We got home a little after noon. We unloaded the Minnie and put things away. Larry turned on the heater and water to the house. Then he set up the computer we had taken with us on the trip. He copied the pictures I took during the trip on our other computer. While we were gone our main computer had installed some updates and rebooted, it was also giving us a message about updating to Windows 11, actually it has been giving us a message about that for a long time so Larry let it do the upgrade.

After lunch I did my Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 48 minutes and 39 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group.

Afterwards we went to Michael's to pick up some glitter paper for his next crafting project. When we got back from town we started watching some YouTube videos we follow. 

In the evening we started watching the third season of Broadchurch on PBS. Then I finished the 3rd season of Father Brown and started watching the 4th season. While relaxing in front of the television I did my steps, which was 28,500. This put me in 5th place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

Our trip summary: it started on Sunday 1/10/22 and ended Friday 1/21/22. We visited three state parks, hiked 35 miles, drove 550 miles and had a great time.

Everyday Larry read. I read a couple of books, played my computer games and did my steps.

First was Lake Tawakoni in the Plains & Lakes section of the state parks. We stayed there three nights from 1/10/22 to 1/12/22. During our stay we hiked the trails for the total of 18 miles. I walked around the campground and the White Deer Nature Trail for an hour a day , which gave me a total of 9 miles. We had morning temperatures in low 40s and the high in the low 70s.

Camping at Lake Tawakoni State Park

 

Lake Tawakoni

Larry resting during a hike

Lake Tawakoni hiking trails

 Second was Bonham State Park in the Prairie & Lakes section of the state park. It was built by the CCC. We stayed there for three nights from 1/13/22 to 1/15/22. During our stay we hiked the trails for the total of 10 miles. I walked around the campground and .5 of the Lake for 3 miles. We only hiked two of the days because the last day it was freezing, the temperature was 30 degrees with the wind out of the north blowing 20-30 mph with gust to 40+, which made it feel like 19 degrees. I hiked the Lake Loop and Gnarly Root Trail for 3 miles this day but it wasn't fun.

 

Bonham State Park welcome sign

Camping on lake at Bonham state park

Standing by a CCC picnic table

 

A meeting place built by the CCC

The park headquarter another CCC building

 

 Workers removing a down tree off the hiking trail

Third was Tyler State Park in the Pinewood section of the state parks. It located 10 miles from Tyler Texas and was built by the CCC. We stayed there 1/16/22 to 1/20/22 for 5 nights. During our stay we hiked the B Loop, C Loop, D Loop and A Loop trails for the total of 16 miles. I hiked the Lakeshore Trail 6 times for the total of 12.5 miles. I walked around the camping area to get my steps. We didn't hike the last day because it was cold, the temperature stayed just above freezing with a strong north wind.

Moon rising on Tyler Lake 

Tyler State Park welcome sign

 

Lakeshore trail

 

Boardwalk on the Lakeshore trail

Controlled burn area on the B Loop trail

 

Turtle enjoying the lake

Still burning

 

Shelter at Tyler state park

 

Forest

 

Sunrise on Tyler Lake

We had a super trip.