Wednesday 2-28-24 Dance Day and Having Fun

 

Winter Day

We had a beautiful day. It was more like a winter day. Yesterday the high was 77 degrees and today it was 53 degrees. There was a strong north wind. The birds didn't show today, I think it's because of the wind.

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. They took turns calling five tips to 15 participants. They did a super job of calling and cueing when needed. I had a fun hour dancing with friends.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. She called four tips to 20 participants. She had an appointment to be at concerning a tooth so she had to finish right on time. She worked on the concepts interrupt a move and replace a part of a move. She did a great job of calling. I danced very well and had fun dancing with friends.

Third was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 for an hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. The format for the dance was three tips of C1 and three tips of A2. The C1 session had 9 participants and the A2 session had 11 participants. The third tip of C1 and A2 all three callers called together. In between the A2 tips we played a little Trivia. I had a great evening of dancing with friends.

Get a partner and dance

While I danced Larry installed a mini-monitor on the pinball machine, it is used to track the temperature and performance of the processors. The new virtual reality games use a lot more processor power, when you are playing you can hear the fans pick up speed. Larry is interested in knowing how hard the machine is working and how hot the internal temperatures are.

I worked out for a half hour using the Synth Riders and burned 128 calories. I also worked out using the Wii Fit for a half hour.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 49 minutes and 38 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends. 

I played the weekly challenge of The Sopranos and Red & Ted's Road Show. I had fun playing games. 

I worked on the diamond painting of Stitch. I'm almost finished with it.

Stitch so far

After the last dance we watched a couple of episodes of Death In Paradise season 13th. Then I started watching the 15th season of A Touch of Frost. I ended ups doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

 

  

Tuesday 2-27-24 Dancing, Games, Project & Working Out

 

Hot Day

We had a hot day with the high of 77 degrees. The low was 67 degrees. Usually at this time of the year our average high is 66. It was so hot, that Larry got the fan out of the laundry room and turned it on. 

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's A2 dance at 10:00 am for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 15 participants. We just danced. During the dance Di worked on four couple moves such as Motivate, Cast a Shadow and Transfer the Column. We had a new dancer so Di cued more than usual, which was great because it helped the single dancers. Larry danced with me and we had a super time dancing with friends.

We love virtual square dancing

Larry worked on the pinball machine. He installed three new buttons on the bottom to help set the volume and for using virtual reality.

 

New buttons

I worked out using the Wii Fit for a half hour and Gold's Gym for a half hour. I also worked out in virtual reality using Synth Riders for a half hour and burned 138 calories. I worked out to all five songs a couple of time. It's amazing you wouldn't think you would get a workout but you do sweat. Your moving your arms with the controls to hit the right color of ball in rhythm of the song. You also have to avoid obstacles that get in your way. It's a lot of fun.

Synth Riders workout

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Tri Peaks Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 49 minutes and 47 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played Angry Birds.

I played three pinball games in virtual reality. They were The Sopranos, Red & Ted's Road Show and No Fear. While playing No Fear I got high score #2. I had a fun time playing pinball.

The Sopranos

Red & Ted's Road Show

I worked on the diamond painting Stitch.

In the evening we watched a movie on Prime called Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Thieves. It took place back in the medieval era. It was good movie. Then I watched a couple of episodes of A Touch of Frost. I also watched an episode of Father Brown. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

 

Monday 2-26-24 Games, Pinball Games, Projects & More

 

We had a super day of having fun. The day started out with fog but it was gone by 10:00 am. The low was 57 degrees and the high was 84 degrees. There was a little breeze so it felt cooler.

While we were hanging around the house our birds (two birds) came back. We watched them fly in and out of the birdhouse. They were building a new nest. 

 

 

Nest being built

One of the birds building the nest

I started the day by playing the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Experts Only Mini of 5 games. It took me 25 minutes and 22 seconds, which put me in 2nd place in my group. I haven't been in the up 10 places in a long time. Then I played Angry Birds.

Position I came in the event

I worked on my diamond painting of Stitch.

Stitch so far

I worked out on Just Dance 3 for 45 minutes using the Pop songs in the program. Then I worked out with the Synth Riders for 30 minutes and burned 123 calories. 

While I worked out and played games Larry did a few projects. First was working on our music on the jukebox. Second was working on the buttons on the pinball cabinet. He wanted to make it easier for me to adjust the volume and change from virtual pinball to virtual reality pinball with one button. Today he made a bracket for the buttons. Third he treated the gravel areas for weeds.

In the afternoon we went to Walmart to buy a few items we were getting low on. While there we picked up a party tray of cookies to take with us tomorrow for our A2 dance. The tray had four different types of cookies (chocolate chunk, raisin and oatmeal, turtle brownie and white chocolate with macadamia nuts). On the way home we stopped and filled the car up with gas so Larry wouldn't have to do it in morning.

For dinner we had leftover Western Grillers- Hawaiian Luau Chicken Breast.

Before dinner we were relaxing in front of the television when we received an e-mail saying tomorrows dance was cancelled because Dale Smith's son died and they didn't have a caller. So we'll be attending Di Green and Terry McCann's A2 dance. Guess we will have to eat the cookies. 

Marketside cookie tray

I played three pinball games on the arcade machine: Fun House, Cirqus Voltaire and Killer Klowns. I did very well playing pinball on the arcade machine. I became Grand Champion in Cirqus Voltaire. I played the weekly challenge of The Sopranos on the pinball machine and got a new high score of 62,999,960. This score moved me from 24th place to 11th place.

Fun House

Killer Klowns

Cirqus Voltaire

The Sopranos new high score

After dinner we watched a movie on Amazon called The Ghost Writer. It was about a writer, who was hired to complete the memoirs of a former Prime Minister. It starred Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams. It was a good movie until the end. Then I watched a couple of episodes of A Touch of Frost. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.    

Sunday 2-25-24 Games, New Weekly Challenge, Diamond Painting & Workout

 

Just having fun

We had a beautiful day with the high of in the low 80's. 

I started the day out by doing the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Then I moved onto the event, which was Event: Hard Road Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 35 minutes and 58 seconds. This put me in 19th place in my group. Then I played some Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

Angry Birds

I worked on my diamond painting of Stitch. Stitch is the dog in the Disney movie called Lilo & Stitch. 

 

I played last week challenge in pinball called Black Rose a few times before the new challenge began. I ended up coming in 50th place out of 85 participants. When the challenge finished Larry changed the number of balls from 3 to 5 on Black Rose. Then I played the new challenge, which is The Sopranos. My high score was 8,449,680, which put me in 15th place out of 15 participants. It's only the first day so I have a long way to go.

 

The Sopranos

I worked out on the Wii Fit for a half hour, Gold's Gym for a half hour and with Synth Riders for 20 minutes.

Working out

In the afternoon we walked through our neighbor's new house. It's almost finished. On the way back we stopped and talked with our other neighbor, Chris.

For dinner we had Western Grillers: Hawaiian Luau, which is a Chicken Breast Stuffed with Bell Peppers, Onion and Pineapple wrapped with bacon. I cooked one of them on the grill and it came out delicious.

In the evening we watched Transformers: Rise of the Beasts on Prime Video. Then we watched an episode of Northern Exposure. When Larry went to bed I watched a couple of episodes of A Touch of Frost. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group for the week. I did the total of 122,193 steps.      

 

Saturday 2-24-24 Games, New Challenge, Workout & More

 

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day with the high of 77 degrees. It felt like a spring day instead of winter.

I started the day out by playing games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Free Cell Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 47seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds. I also played a few games of Sudoku.

Larry organized his document files. 

Back in December when Larry completed his first jukebox he came across a post that had pictures of a couple of gorgeous wall jukeboxes. In the post the gentleman asked if anyone would be interested in converting the wall jukeboxes into virtual ones. Larry responded indicating that he would be interested and telling the gentleman a bit about himself, silence, never heard back from the guy. Well yesterday the gentleman finally responded, he apologized for not responding sooner and asked if Larry would still be interested. He and his son own the company that makes the wall boxes he posted pictures of. They mainly install them in 50's diners but are interested in converting some of them to home use. He has seen the pictures and videos of the machines Larry has converted and would like his done similar. Today Larry wrote him back telling him what is involved and the possible cost of converting them. Larry would of course need to have one of the machines to figure out if it was possible and to figure out how to do it. He would do this for free but he would like to keep the machine he converts. He would be thrilled to do this and suggested a phone call on Monday. 

I worked out on the Wii Fit for a half hour and Synth Riders for a half hour. I'm having a lot of fun working out in virtual reality.

Today we were notified on my new pinball challenge that starts tomorrow. It's going to be The Sopranos. Larry downloaded and installed it on the pinball cabinet in both 2D and virtual reality. It took him awhile. Once it was installed Larry played the game in both virtual reality and 2D. It's like playing two different games. 

Later on I played The Sopranos in both versions. Then I played this weeks challenge Black Rose in virtual reality and two other games, Medieval Madness and Fun House. I had a super time playing pinball in virtual reality.

Black Rose

Fun House

Medieval Madness

The Sopranos

I finished doing the Lion King diamond painting and started a new one. It's Stitch. I already had done one of Stitch but this one is a little different.

 The Lion King

New Stitch

 

The first Stitch

When Larry went in for his doctor's appointment the other day they called in a couple of prescriptions. They had problems filling them because one of the companies that handle a lot of the online prescriptions had been hacked by someone. Originally they were suppose to be filled on Thursday but due to the issue they didn't get filled until today. So off to Walmart we went to pick them up. While there we picked up a few things. We came across boiled peanuts so we picked up a can to try them. 

For dinner we tried the peanuts and didn't like them at all. They tasted more like beans. 

In the evening we watched YouTube videos. Then we watched a movie on Freevee called Mortal Engines. It was an Action/Science Fiction movie. We liked it a lot. It starred Hugo Weaving. Then I watched a couple of episodes of A Touch of Frost. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. 

 

 

Friday 2-23-24 Dancing, Diamond Painting, Games & Computer Project

 

Just having fun

We had a gorgeous day with a lot of sunshine. The day started out with the temperature of 50 degrees and got to 74 degrees. 

Larry spent the day working on the backup computer. He continues tweaking the programs to get them working correctly.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Spider and 10 Tri Peaks). It took me 1 hour, 42 minutes and 4 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

I continued working on my diamond painting of the Lion King.

I played three games of pinball in virtual reality. They were Black Rose, Attack From Mars and James Bond 60th Anniversary. I didn't get a new high score on Black Rose but I played very well. I had a great day of playing pinball.

60th Anniversary of James Bond

Attack From Mars

Black Rose

I worked out for a half hour on my Wii Fit and a half hour of virtual reality of Synth Riders. I played four games on the Synth Riders and burned 108 calories. 

For dinner we tried another Don Lee Farms Flautas dinners, it was seasoned dark meat chicken and pineapple. Today I baked them in the oven and they came out a lot better.

Seasoned Dark Meat Chicken Flautas

One of the flautas after it was cooked

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2 dance at 6:30 for an hour. She called four tips to 10 participants. We just danced and she walked us through sequences we were having problems with. I had a wonderful hour of dancing to Ett and with friends.

I love virtual square dancing 

After the dance we watched a few episodes of Northern Exposure. Then I started watching the 10th season of A Touch of Frost. I watched a couple of episodes. I ended up doing doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

Thursday 2-22-24 Happy Thursday, Just a Relaxing Day

 

Just having fun

Today we had a beautiful day. The sun was shining with the high of 84 degrees. There was a little breeze so it felt cooler. 

I spent the morning working on my diamond painting of the Lion King. I'm almost have it completed.

Lion King

Larry kept busy working on the applications on the backup computer. He also made sure the router and the computer were communicating. Below are pictures from the pinball cabinet project of installing a couple of speakers.

Larry installing speakers

The electronics inside the pinball cabinet

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 42 minutes and 41 seconds, which put me in 20th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2. Angry Birds 2 was down for a couple of days and they finally got it back up. I'm happy about this.

Angry Birds

Larry had a doctor's appointment at 2:00. On the way there we stopped by The UPS Store and picked up our mail. After the appointment we stopped at HEB to do a little grocery shopping. We don't often grocery shop at HEB. When every we do it's always a great experience. The produce section, the meat section and the other sections are always neat and display the products very nice. HEB always has a lot of cashiers and people bagging. The employees are friendly.

Shopping at HEB

When we got home I worked out with the Synth Riders program for 20 minutes.

For dinner we tried something new, Don Lee Chicken , Green Chili and Cheese Flautas. They were good but not quite what I thought or hoped for. They had air fryer instructions and I thought they would be a bit crispy, they were not.

Chicken, Green Chili and Cheese Flautas

After dinner I played the weekly pinball challenge of Black Rose. I didn't get a new high score but I had a super time playing it. We watched some YouTube videos. Afterwards we watched a few episodes of Northern Exposure. Then I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania from our movie selection. I also watched an episode of A Touch of Frost. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. 

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

 

 

Wednesday 2-21-24 Dance Day, Projects & More

 

Busy Day

We had another beautiful day with the low of 60 degrees and the high of 76 degrees. We kept busy doing this and that. 

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus for an hour at 10:00 am. They called five tips to 12 participants. Di worked on Spin Chain the Gear and Spin Chain Thru. The dance flowed very well. I had a great time dancing with friends.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 for an hour at 1:00 pm. Ett called four tips to 20 participants. She concentrated on Box Recycle, Cross Your Neighbor and what ever anyone asked to work on. I had a fun hour dancing to Ett and with friends.

Third was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 for an hour and a half at 6:00 pm. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore missed the first tip because they had to take a phone call. The format was three tips of C1 to 10 participants and three tips of A2 to 10 participants. Dave called the first tip of each level of dancing, Karin and Greg took turns calling the second tip of each level of dancing and third tip of each level of dancing all three callers took turns of calling. In between the A2 tips we did a little Trivia. I had a super evening of dancing with friends.

Get a partner and dance

While I was dancing Larry kept busy doing a few projects. First up was the pinball cabinet. He installed a couple of additional speakers in the back of the cabinet. They work excellently. They work so well Larry is going to install a couple more in the front. Now when you play pinball on the cabinet the sounds in the back are more distinguished. He worked on a couple of projects on the Jukeboxes. He tweaked the old jukebox to make sure everything worked correctly. He made new stickers for the buttons on both the old jukebox and pinball machine. 

He in now working on a total re-installation of Windows 11 and all the applications on our backup computer.

I played a couple of pinball games in virtual reality mode. They were the Black Rose and James Bond Dr. No. I got a new high score when playing Black Rose, which was 57,061,360. This moved me into 34th place out of 55 participants. I also got #1 high score on James Bond Dr. No. 

Black Rose

I worked out using the Wii Fit for a half hour and a half hour using Synth Riders. While I was using Synth Riders I danced to four songs and burned 110 calories. I'm having a lot of fun working out with Synth Riders.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 27 minutes and 12 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds and Friends.

I worked on the diamond painter of Lion King.

Lion King so far

After Dave's dance we watched Dr. Strange in Multiverse of Madness. Then I watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Then I watched an episode of A Touch of Frost. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. 

 

Tuesday 2-20-24 Happy Birthday Shirley, Dancing, Jukebox & More

 

Gorgeous Day

We had a gorgeous day. It started out with the temperature in the low 40's and we had a high of 78 degrees. It was a little breezy with the wind out of the north.

Today was Larry's mother's (Shirley) birthday. Happy Birthday Shirley. Larry sent her some flowers and called her early evening to wish her a happy birthday. She said she had a good birthday. Larry had sent her a book about Kansas and she has enjoyed reading it because she was from Kansas.

Happy Birthday Shirley

Out neighbor (Jason) is in the process of building a house and they're starting on the landscaping. Larry and Jason have talked multiple times about how the drainage is going to work because we really don't want all the runoff to run through our yard. The other day when the dirt guy was there Larry and Jason worked with him to build a drainage ditch. Today the landscaping crew filled in the area so Larry went next door and told him about what the plan was. The guy was very nice and said he wasn't sure what the plan was and Jason was out of town. In the afternoon Jason returned home. Larry and Jason went next door and discussed what was needed with the landscaping guy. 

Larry and I started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 15 participants. Di worked on Cycle and Wheel, Horseshoe Turn and what ever move the dancers were having problems with. We had a super time dancing with friends.

Get a partner and dance

Before the dance I vacuumed the house and did a little dusting.

Doing housework

Larry worked on his jukebox project. A few weeks ago he painted the jukebox but he was not happy with how the top came out. He had to wait a week or so for the paint to dry enough he could sand it down and repaint. It has now been two weeks since he repainted so it was ready for the final assembly. 

When he built the new jukebox he made some changes to the buttons. He wanted to incorporate those changes into the first jukebox so apart it came. Both machines now have the same button configuration but he will need to redo the button labeling on the first machine. 

Yesterday, we went to The Home Depot and picked up a board and a couple of brackets to make a shelf for the new jukebox. He assembled the shelf in his workroom and put the new jukebox on it. Both of the jukeboxes came out looking gorgeous.

New jukebox

Both jukeboxes side by side

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 44 minutes and 54 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds. I only played Angry Birds and Friends because Angry Birds 2 has a technical problem and won't let me play it.

I worked out on the Wii Fit for a half hour and Gold's Gym for a half hour. I also worked out in virtual reality using Synth Riders for a half hour. 

I played pinball in virtual reality. I played the weekly challenge, Black Rose and got a new high score of 19,962,960, which put me in 44th place out of 47 participants. I also played Attack From Mars and Big Buck Hunter. I did very well. 

In Attack From Mars the object is for each of five different countries to destroy an attacking Martian space ship, when you accomplish this you get the chance to battle Mars. Today I was very close, I had destroyed four space ships and came very close to destroying the last one.

Black Rose

Attack From Mars

Big Buck Hunter

I worked on the diamond painter of Lion King.

Lion King so far

In the evening we watched Doctor Strange from our movie selection. When Larry went to bed I watched Thor: Love and Thunder. Afterwards I watched an episode of A Touch of Frost. Then I watched the 6th episode of the 11th season of Father Brown. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.