Friday 11-29-24 Dancing with Ett, Crafting & Games

 

 

We had an awesome Friday. The temperature was very cool with the morning temperature of 36 degrees and the high of 57 degrees.

I started the day out by crafting. I finished the diamond painting of the Tiger. I started the tiger 11/20/24 and finished it today so it took me about 8 days to complete. The tiger came out beautiful. Later in the afternoon I started a new diamond painting called Tree of Life. I think the Tree of Life will be a challenge because of 24 different colors intertwining with each other. I like a challenge.

Tiger

Tree of Life without diamonds

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong, The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 6 minutes and 2 seconds, which put me in 20th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I played seven games of pinball. They were Jurassic Park, Lethal Weapon 3, Dirty Harry, James Bond 60th Anniversary, Willy Wonka, White Water and Deadpool. While playing Jurassic Park I didn't get a new high score but I did put my initials in as high score #5. When I played White Water I became Grand Champion. I had a great afternoon of playing pinball. 

Deadpool

 

Dirty Harry

 

 

James Bond 60th Anniversary

Jurassic Park

Lethal Weapon 3

Water Water

 Willy Wonka

 

Yesterday, Louise played Willy Wonka in 2D, she and Larry were the only ones on the high score board. This was weird because I played Willy Wonka many times and I should have been on the high score board. Today we found out why, it was because I was playing in VR and Willy Wonka VR has its own high score board. Most games share the high score between VR and 2D. Willy Wonka was not developed as a VR game, to get it to work in VR Larry made some changes and that is why it scores differently. 

I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour.

Larry finished sanding his pieces for the mini pinball cabinet. He glued a few pieces together. He filed a few more spots on the boards. 

Then he moved onto paper crafting. He made two greeting cards (get well card and an anniversary card).

Anniversary card front

Anniversary card inside

Larry paper crafting

 

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's weekly A2 dance at 6:30 for an hour. She called four tips to 11 participants. We just dance. I had a fun time dancing to Ett and with friends.

 

Dancing with friends

After the dance we watched Ken Burns Part One of Leonardo on PBS. When Larry went to bed I watched Jason Bourne and Men In Black 2. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

Thursday 11-28-24 Happy Thanksgiving

 

Happy Thanksgiving 

We had a super Thanksgiving. We had a chilly day, the morning temperature was 48 degrees and the high was 54 degrees. There was a breeze out of the north.

I got up at 7:30 and started to get ready for Thanksgiving lunch. I put a relish tray together with pepper jack cheese, salami, sweet pickles and stuffed olives and made deviled eggs. Louise and Alice (her dog) arrived at 9:00. Louise brought pecan pie for dessert, she bought brownies and oatmeal chocolate cookies to snack on.

 

Relish tray

 

 

 

Deviled eggs

 

 

Snacks Louise brought

Pecan pie

 

While waiting we visited and Louise played pinball. Louise played Willy Wonka and entered her initials on the board. She had a great time playing pinball. Alice kept me company in the kitchen while I prepared the other food. I heated a ham up in the oven, made mashed potatoes and gravy, cooked up the egg noodles, made Stove Top stuffing and dinner rolls. We had a delicious lunch. We had way too much food and we sent some of the food home with Louise.

 

Thanksgiving lunch

Alice

 

After lunch we visited a little while. I did dishes while visiting. We all had a piece of pie before Saying good-bye. We kept a couple of pieces of pie for our evening dessert. Louise and Alice left around 1:00. We had a nice visit.

After Louise and Alice left I took a couple hour nap. Larry finished sanding his mini cabinet and glued a couple pieces together. 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 5 minutes and 58 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked on my diamond painting of the Tiger. I should be finish tomorrow.

I played four games of pinball. They were Jurassic Park, X-Men, Superman and the Justice League and Mission Impossible. While playing Jurassic Park I didn't get a new high score but I did get a new #4 high score. When I played X-Men I entered my initials as high score #4.

 

Jurassic Park

 

Mission Impossible

 

Superman and the Justice League

 

X-Men

 

In the evening we watched the last episode of the first season of Inspector Ellis on Acorn. After Larry went to bed I watched The Bourne Ultimatum and Men In Black out of our movies collection. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

Wednesday 11-27-24 Dancing to Ett, Di and Terry, Projects & More

 

Happy Wednesday

We had another gorgeous day with a high of 80 degrees.

We started the day off by going to town to do a couple of errors. The first stop was HEB to pick up some egg substitute, I use this in my baking. The next stop was The UPS Store to pick up a package we had waiting for us. That was all the mail we had.

In between dances I did housework. I don't clean the house as much as I should so it takes a little longer to do, about an hour. 

 

Keeping busy with errands and chores

 

I attended two virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 14 participants. Di walked us through a four couple move called Spin Chain the Gears because a few dancers were having problems. This dance has mainly single dancers so they lose their phantoms and lose track of where to be. Terry and Di do an outstanding job of calling and cueing the dance. I had a great time dancing with friends.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Ett called four tips to 16 participants. We just danced and had fun. Today I think I was successful getting home 90% of the time. This dance had five couples dancing and this was very helpful for single dancers because we pin one of the couples and follow them. I pin a couple from Sweden (Tommy and Veronica), they are good dancers to follow. 

 

 Having fun with friends

Larry kept busy working on the graphics for the pinball machine. He sent a sample to Walgreen's and CVS to get an idea of what it would look like. When they were ready we picked them up. By comparing the graphics we decided we liked the ones from CVS better, the colors were brighter and the graphics crispier.

I started to get a head start on some of our Thanksgiving preparation. I made hard boiled eggs for deviled eggs and homemade noodles. We didn't have a traditional Thanksgiving last year. Instead we had 3 meat Stromboli. This year we're having ham and other stuff.

Last years Thanksgiving dinner

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 29 minutes and 33 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked on the Tiger diamond painting. 

I played seven games of pinball. They were Jurassic Park, Theatre of Magic, Judge Dredd, Guardians of the Galaxy, Tales of the Arabian Nights, World Joker Poker and Fun House. I had a fun time playing pinball. Judge Dredd score monitor doesn't work in VR but it was still fun playing it. 

 

Fun House

Guardians of the Galaxy

 

Judge Dredd

 

Tales of the Arabian Nights

 

Theatre of Magic

 

World Joker Poker

 

In the evening I made the noodles. We watched YouTube videos. We also watched an episode of Inspector Ellis on Acorn. Then I watched The Bourne Supremacy and Finding Nemo from our movies collection. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

Tuesday 11-26-24 Dancing with Di & Terry, Games & Diamond Painting

 

Relaxing 

We had another cool day with a high of 66 degrees. I hope everyone had a great day.

Larry and I started the day off 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 12 participants. They both did an outstanding job of calling and cueing the moves. When we were having problems on a move Di would workshop it. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We had a great time dancing with friends and to Di and Terry.

Get up and dance with a partner or by yourself

Larry wasn't feeling well so he spent the day working on graphics to put on the mini pinball cabinet. He found some graphics files that he liked, downloaded them and started editing them using the software for his Cameo. He also has to run them through another graphics editor to upscale the images. He's planning to send a test file to CVS and Walgreen's so they can print the graphic on their adhesive vinyl. He wants to check out their work before he orders the the graphic he wants to put on the cabinet. 

I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour. 

 

Working out

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Klondike and 10 Spider). It took me 2 hours, 39 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

I played four games of pinball. I played the weekly challenge of Jurassic Park and got a new high score of 138,132,630. This put me in 24th place out of 25 participants. The random button selected Godzilla, Mustang and Star Wars. I had a super day of playing pinball because in Godzilla I got the high score #6 and Star Wars I got the high score #3.

 

Jurassic Park

 

Star Wars

 

Mustang

 

Godzilla

I continued working on the Tiger diamond painting.

In the evening we started watching a detective series on Acorn called Inspector Ellis. It's good, they solve a murder within the 90 minutes of each episode. Then I watched The Bourne Identity and Stuart Little out of our movies collection. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Monday 11-25-24 Dancing C1, Projects & Games

 

We had a beautiful day with the high of 75 degrees. Late afternoon the wind came up out of the north and the temperature dropped to 58 degrees.

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Di called the five tips to 14 participants and Terry danced with her. She did a super job. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We had a great time dancing with friends.

 

Get a partner and dance

 

Larry continued working on filling, sanding and painting of mini pinball cabinet. This is a slow process because he has to spread filler on the pieces. Then wait a minimum of 35 minutes to sand the pieces down. He had to do this a couple of times. By the end of the day he filled and sanded three of four pieces to where he was happy with it. The fourth piece he filled a little heavier so it wasn't dried completely. Due to all the sanding dust Larry had to wear a mask while doing the sanding.

The putty he used as a filler

The top box still drying

Side panels of the cabinet filled and sanded

Panel for the buttons and plunger filled and sanded

I continued working on the Tiger diamond painting.

 

Tiger so far

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 28 minutes and 29 seconds, which put me in 10th place in my group. I played Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for an hour.

 

Working out

 

I played 7 different games of pinball. They were Jurassic Park, Playboy, Guardians of the Galaxy, Aerosmith and three James Bond games (60th Anniversary, Dr. No and Goldeneye). While playing Jurassic Park I got a new high score for the challenge, which was 130,373,500. When I played Guardians of the Galaxy I entered my initials as high score #4. I had fun playing pinball.

Jurassic Park

Aerosmith

Dr. No

Goldeneye

Guardians of the Galaxy

James Bond 60th Anniversary

Playboy

We watched the YouTube videos we follow.

In the evening we started watching the second season of Elementary. After Larry went to bed I finished the third season of Hidden and the third season of Whitstable Pearl. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me 2nd place in my group.