Monday 12-30-24 WiiFit, Dancing, Home Projects & Games

 

Hi friends

We had another beautiful day of sunshine and the high of 85 degrees.

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour. Di called five tips to 13 participants. We just danced. Di walked us through moves the dancers had problems with. Larry danced four of the tips with me. 

Dancing with friends

Larry continued working on the mini pinball cabinet. He worked on relocating his buttons for the flippers. He had to remove quite a few items and drill two new holes where the buttons will be. I helped when he needed me. 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 3 hours, 49 minutes and 10 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

After lunch Larry went outside and did a few projects. He treated the fire ant hills, sprayed the weeds, weedeated and put bleach in the septic tank.

 

While Larry did his projects outside I kept busy playing games and working out. 

 

I worked out with my Wii Fit for 30 minutes. I hadn't used the Wii Fit for 281 days. I hope to continue more using for a bit. I need to lose some weight because my clothes are fitting a little snug. Actually, I need to lose 30 pounds to be where I should be.

 

 

Working out with the Wii Fit

I also worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes.

Working out

I played Monster Manor, four times on Bounce Arcade. I ended up getting two bronze trophy. I woke up the manor, fought the ghost and got a skeleton key.

 

Monster Manor

 

I played the weekly challenge in pinball Die Hard and got a new high score of 37,990,140 but the score wasn't clear enough to enter it. But I got another one of 11,845,103. It was a new high score for me but didn't move me up in my group. Then I played three other pinball games, which were NASCAR, Terminator 3 and Star Trek New Generation. While playing NASCAR I entered my initials as high score #3.

 

Die Hard

 

NASCAR

 

Star Trek New Generation

Terminator 3

 In the evening we watched Benny and Joon on Freevee. We were watching music YouTube videos and we watched a video on the theme song called "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles) so we decided to watch the movie. It's a very cute romantic movie. Then we watched an episode of Elementary. Afterwards I watched Batman Begins and a couple of episodes of Evergreen. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.

 

 

Sunday 12-29-27 Beautiful Day, Playing Games & Mini Pinball Cabinet

 

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day with sunshine and the high of 69 degrees. We didn't have anything on our agenda so we just hung around the house relaxing.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Today's event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 50 minutes and 15 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

Larry continued working on getting the nudge to work on the mini pinball cabinet. Last week Larry wrote to the developer of the board and software, he knows improvements need to be made but most folks have been able to get it to work sufficiently. Larry had worked on it for 3 or 4 hours and did not get it to where it was really usable. Today he worked on it for a couple of more hours and was far more successful. He's going to write the developer and let him know the setting he had to change to fix the problem he was having. 

The cabinet is coming out excellent but Larry doesn't like where he put the flipper buttons, he wants to move them. When he does this it will leave two (maybe four) large holes in the side of the machine that will need to be filled. Today he used some scrap wood and experimented with making plugs to fill the holes. He cut a couple of holes into the practice piece, he installed one plug using Bondo as a filler, the other one he used wood filler. Both worked really well. Tomorrow he will check them for strength and decide which method to use.

Today is the beginning of a new week so I have a new weekly challenge in pinball. This week's challenge is Die Hard. I played last week's challenge The Nightmare Before Christmas before the new challenge began. I didn't get a new high score. I came in 46th place out of 50 participants. After the challenge ended Larry set the balls from 3 balls to 5. Larry installed the new challenge a couple of days ago. I played it a few times and ended up scoring 5,205,490, which put me in 4th place in my group of 5 so far this week. 

 

Die Hard 

 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

Die Hard has a super VR Room, you are on the rooftop of the building from from the movie, you can see the surrounding area and buildings, a helicopter flies over your head while you play. It is very cool.

 

One of the buildings

 

Satellite disc and building 

A view of a building from a roof of another one

The helicopter flying towards you

Helicopter flying over your head
 

I played six different pinball games. They were Mustang, Star Wars, Godzilla, The Godfather, World Joker Poker and Maverick. While playing Star Wars I got high score # 3. I may not get a new high score while I play pinball but I still played very well.

 

Godzilla

 

Maverick

Mustang

 

Star Wars

The Godfather

 

World Joker Poker

 

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes. I worked out with the four songs from yesterday once and two other ones in the same group of songs, which were Calling Out and Revenger two times a piece.

 

The song (Revenger), artist and how long the song is (03:44).

 

The song (Calling Out), artist and how long the song is (05:38).

 

I played Gunpowder Gulch three times. I got a bronze metal, shootout with the deputies twice, shouting the barrels, cracked the safe and had multi-ball when I cracked the safe.

 

Shootout with deputies

 

Final score with bronze metal

 

I worked on my horse diamond painting. 

 

Update picture of the horse diamond painting

 

We watched the YouTube videos we follow and are interested in. 

In the evening we relaxed in front of the television. We watched a few episodes of Elementary.  When Larry went to bed I finished watching the Star Wars movie series. I watched Star Wars Episode VI, which was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Afterwards I watched a couple of episodes of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with the total of 126,241 steps.

 

 

 

       

Saturday 12-28-24 Dancing to Brad Caldwell, Pinball Cabinet, Diamond Painting & Games

 

Morning Showers

We had morning showers. They were gone by 11:00 but the clouds stayed around. Our Alexa device notified us that there was a national weather service advisory. It put us on tornado watch until 5:00 pm. There was a little breeze but no tornadoes. I can't believe that it's the end of December and we're getting high temperatures in mid 70s to the low 80s.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 10 minutes and 31 seconds, which put me in 21st place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

Early this week Larry replaced my the six diamond paintings hanging on the wall with some newer ones. I didn't frame any of the diamond paintings and he noticed that the new ones were starting to curling in on the upper corners. Today he cut a strip of plastic for each of them and hot glued the strips to the top back of the paintings. They came out excellent. 

 

No curling

 

Larry spent the afternoon making labels on his Cameo for the mini pinball cabinet buttons.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes. I worked out to four songs and each one twice. The songs were Carry On, Void-walkers, I'll Fight Back and Showdown. 

 

Artist and how long Carry On is

Artist and how long Void-walkers is

Artist and how long I'll Fight Back is

Artist and ow long Showdown is

 

I played Pirate's Plunder on Bounce Arcade three times. I ended up getting a bronze metal and fought my enemy twice and beat the enemy once and got a skull. I'm learning more about the game every time I play it.

Prate's Plunder final score

I played four different pinball games, Tales of The Arabian Nights, Deadpool, Star Trek the Next Generation and The Nightmare before Christmas. While playing Tales of the Arabian Nights I collected six of seven jewels. Once you get all seven jewels you have to fight the genie to rescue the princess. While playing Star Trek I entered my initials as high score #4. Great afternoon of playing pinball.

Deadpool

Star Trek the Next Generation

Tales of the Arabian Nights

The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

I worked on my diamond painting the horse.

In the evening we went to Georgetown to dance with Brad Caldwell. He had his monthly PLUS U dance. It started at 7:00 and finished at 9:00. Before the dance he has a caller workshop, callers from all over the area come. Today Brad called two hours to two squares plus two extra couples. He called eight tips. We had a super time dancing to Brad and with friends.

 

Dancing with friends

 

We got home a little before 10:00 and Larry checked his e-mail. Then he went to bed. I watched Star Wars Episode V, which was Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Afterward I watched a couple of episodes of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

 

   

 

Friday 12-27-24 Fishing on Nolan Creek, Dancing & Games

 

 

It's Friday let's dance

We had a gorgeous day with blue skies and the high temperature of 82 degrees. 

Larry spent the the last couple of days working on the sound of the mini pinball cabinet. He installed two more exciter speakers and two more amplifiers. The machine now has true 7.1 sound (6 speakers and a sub woofer). He also spent time playing each game and adjusting their individual volume levels. The games sound excellent.

Playing pinball

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Free Cell and 10 Pyramid). It took me 2 hours, 37 minutes and 22 seconds, which put me in 15th place. Then I played Angry Birds.

At 1:45 we went to town. Every year the City of Belton and Texas Parks & Wildlife join together and put on an event called The Rainbow Trout Program. It's a free event target to children, bait is supplied and you can fish without a license. This year the event was December 11 & 27 from 2:00 to 4:00. The event takes place on the banks of Nolan Creek. Texas Parks & Wildlife stocks the creek with rainbow trout big enough to catch and eat. Participants 16 and under fish without a license but the adults have to buy a license. We got there when it started. Texas Parks & Wildlife set up a tent, where they supplied bait and they had some fishing poles. People were sitting and standing along the banks of Nolan Creek. Families had their chairs set up and picnic lunches and something to drink. We hung around for about a half hour watching people fish. One gentleman caught four while we were there. Everyone looked like they were having a great time. Below are pictures of the event.

 

 

 

On the way home we stopped by the UPS Store and picked up our mail. Then we stopped to put gas in the truck. We didn't fill it completely, it spends most of its time sitting in the garage and the fuel gets old. The last time we fueled it up was May, before that was October 2023.

The computer in the truck is saying we should change the oil. We have only put 2,000 miles on it since Larry last changed it but that was 3.5 years ago.

When we got home we went back to doing what we were doing before going to town. 

I worked out with the Synth Riders for a half hour. I worked out using three songs three times.

Never Gonna Die 

New Comedown

Hard to Love

I played Asteroid Outpost twice on Bounce Arcade. I ended up get a bronze metal and a new high score. I mined four different times.

Mining the asteroids

New high score and bronze metal

I ended up playing four pinball games, which were Terminator 3, James Bond 60th Anniversary, Creature From The Black Lagoon and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Creature From the Black Lagoon

James Bond 60th Anniversary

Terminator 3

Larry got on the weekly challenge page and he thinks next week challenge will be Die Hard. He downloaded the game and installed it in both 2D and VR. Then he played it a couple of times to make sure it worked. I'll wait until Sunday to play the game. 

I worked on my diamond painting, which is the horse.

I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2 dance at 6:30 for an hour. She called five tips to 9 participants. I had a rough hour of dancing I kept going the wrong way or didn't complete the move. Ett didn't do any cueing. But I had a fun time.

After the dance we watched a couple of episodes of Elementary. Then I watched the first Star Wars movie, which was Star Wars. Afterwards I watched a couple of episodes of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.