Saturday 11--29-25 Just Another Day

 

Just hanging out with Larry

 

We just had another day of doing this and that. 

It was an overcast day with occasional sprinkles. In the afternoon the sprinkles went away but the wind came up. The low was 58 degrees and the high was 72 degrees.

 

Overcast Day

 

Larry spent the day working on Home Assistant. A lot of the voice stuff is fairly new so there's bugs in it and it takes time to get it to work. He can now turn on lights and ceiling fans, he can also open and close the blinds. He has the AI piece working so he can also ask all the questions you can think of and he gets answers back. There are some things that he doesn't have working via voice, he can't turn the TV on/off, set timers or alarms or get it to tell him the weather, nor can it tell him distances. He still has a ways to go but with more YouTube videos, AI and experimentation he believe he will get it to do everything he wants. He continues to have fun. When he is successful he is very excited.

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 39 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2.

In the afternoon I worked out with Synth Riders for 40 minutes. I worked out two times on four different songs, which were Sunset Hologram (3:15), Choices (4:32), Suppress It (4:33) and Neo Tokyo (3:10). I earned three Outstanding scores, which were with Suppress It twice and the third one was with Neo Tokyo. I earned two new high scores, which were with Suppress It and Choices. I had a great time.

 

Choices

 

Neo Tokyo

 

Sunset Hologram

 

Suppress It

 

After workout with Synth Riders I played Asteroid Outpost on Bounce Arcade for 40 minutes. I earned a silver trophy, played three multiballs, tried to mine the asteroids five times and was successful mined the asteroids twice. I earned an extra ball. I had a great time.

 

Asteroid Outpost

I played seven games of pinball, which were Monster Bash, Mustang, The Addams Family, Dark Chaos, Superman and the Justice League, Transformers and Slimer, Ghostbusters. I became Grand Champion in Mustang and Transformers and I became high score #4 in Superman and the Justice League. I did have a great game in Monster Bash even though I wasn't on the board as a high scorer.

 

Dark Chaos

 

Monster Bash

 

Mustang

 

Slimer! Ghostbusters

 

Superman and the Justice League

 

The Addams Family

 

Transformers

I worked on my jigsaw puzzle.

 

Puzzle update

 

In the evening we continued watching the third season of Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) on PBS. After Larry went to bed I watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Men in Black. I ended up doing 3,000 steps.  

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 11-28-25 Black Friday!!! Laid Back Day

 

Black Friday Shopping

 

Today was Black Friday. Did you go shopping? We didn't need anything so we stayed at home. We haven't gone shopping on Black Friday for years. If we need something we go on Amazon and buy it. If we can buy it locally we either order it and pick it up or go to the store and buy it.

We had an overcast day with the low of 50 degrees and the high of 65 degrees. It's nice to have cool weather and it's suppose to be around for a little while.

Larry spent the day working with Home Assistant. He is converting his workroom Echo Show to work with it so he had to order a new one to replace it, it arrived today. He got the new one configured and is in the process of getting the old one converted to Home Assistant. He worked on it for hours. He is making progress and having a lot of fun learning Home Assistant.

 

Converted Echo Show

I woke up at 8:00 and had breakfast and then I went back to bed for a couple of hours. I wasn't feeling well, my allergies were bugging me. I had a headache but when I woke up it was gone. I didn't feel well until the evening.

 

Allergies

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 48 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I spent a lot of the day working on my jigsaw puzzle. 

I played nine games of pinball. They were Aerosmith, Big Buck Hunter Pro, Blizzard of Ozz, Cirqus Voltaire, Dracula, Fun House, Godzilla, Magic Pinball and Slimer! Ghostbusters. While playing Godzilla I entered my initials as high score #10 and I joined the cirqus when I played Cirqus Voltaire. I hadn't join the cirqus in a long time. I had fun playing pinball.

 

Aerosmith

 

Big Buck Hunter Pro

 

Blizzard of Ozz

 

Cirqus Voltaire

 

Dracula

 

Fun House

 

Godzilla

 

Magic Pinball

 

Slimer! Ghostbusters

 

Every week we get an e-mail from PBS to let us know what's new on PBS. This week we were notified that the third season of Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) was now available. We watched the last episode from last season to refresh our memories on where it left off. Then we watched a couple episodes of the third season. It's a good series of a team of doctors and nurses who fly to emergencies in the outback areas in Australia. Then I watched the second movie of Sherlock Holmes called Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Stuart Little from our collection of movies. I ended up doing 2,500 steps.

  

  

 

 

 

Thursday 11-27-25 Happy Thanksgiving!!! Thanksgiving Celebration

 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We had a super Thanksgiving. We had a brisk morning with the temperature of 49 degrees and it got up to 63 degrees.

Louise and Alice came up from Round Rock to celebrate Thanksgiving with Larry and me. Louise arrived at 8:30 and left at 1:30. Louise made homemade fudge and peanut butter rolls (Pay Day). She also brought and apple pie for dessert. The pie was very good and so was the fudge and Pay Day. We didn't have the traditional Thanksgiving lunch. We had tacos, Hawaiian dressing, homemade noodles with gravy, relish tray (sweet pickles, stuffed olives, cheddar and pepper jack chucks and ham) and deviled eggs. Of course we had way too much food. 

 

Desserts Louise made

 

Relish Tray

 

Deviled Eggs

 

Thanksgiving lunch

 

Larry, me and Alice and Thanksgiving lunch

  

Apple pie

When Louise arrived she had brought one of her Echo Shows and cell phone for Larry to work on. Larry found the Echo Show was going to need to be replaced. He put a new screen saver on the cell phone. Larry also found a screw that fit her Garmin band where the screw was missing.

While Larry was doing his electronic projects Louise and I visited. I played with Alice. We had lunch at 11:00. I kept busy preparing the meal. I had done some of the preparation last night. I made the noodles yesterday and cooked them today. The Hawaiian dressing was a boxed dressing from Aldi so I just had to follow the directions. It was a chicken flavor dressing made with Hawaiian bread, which made it sweeter. The taco meat was already seasoned and we bought it at Aldi. The deviled eggs I prepared the filling last night and just had to stuff the egg with it. Everything was very good.

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration with Louise and Alice.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Free Cell Adventure of 20 games. It took me 2 hours, 21 minutes and 27 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2.

While I played my Solitaire games Larry played pinball. He played four games, which were Magic Pinball, Dracula, Blizzard of Ozz and Space Lord.

Later on I played seven games of pinball. They were Magic Pinball, Dracula, Blizzard of Ozz, Space Lord, Dark Chaos, Slimer! Ghostbusters and Big Bang Bar. I didn't play too well but had fun.

 

Big Bang Bar

 

Blizzard of Ozz

 

Dark Chaos

 

Dracula

 

Magic Pinball

 

Slimer! Ghostbusters

 

Time Lord

In the evening we watch the movie Lee, it is a British biographic movie about war correspondent Lee Miller. She travels to the front lines of World War II. It was a good movie. When Larry went to bed I watched Sherlock Holmes from our collection of movies. I ended up doing 1,000 steps. 

 

 

     

Wernesday 11-26-25 Thanksgiving Preparation, Three Dances & More

 

Have a happy Wednesday

 

We had a gorgeous day with a lot of sunshine. We woke up to a cool 46 degrees and a high of 61 degrees. 

Larry spent the day working with Home Assistant. He has gotten quite a few things working such as opening and closing the blinds, turning on and off the television, controlling the sprinkler system, and of course most of our lights, ceiling fans and plugs. A few of our devices are not compatible with Home Assistant. He continues learning more and more about it via experimentation and YouTube. He is having a good time.

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Di called all five tips and Terry danced with her. We had 10 participants. Di worked on moves people were having problems by calling them and cueing more. I like this because I sometimes loose my phantoms. I had a great time dancing with friends from U.S., U.K. and Canada. 

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. This was a big surprise because she had said it was cancelled but Loren Smith from Canada became available to call it. Loren called five tips to 8 participants. Larry danced with me the whole dance. Loren worked on Relay the Top because the dancers were having problems. Larry and I had a super time dancing to Loren and with friends from Canada, Australia and U.S.

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 was three tips of C1 to 9 participants, three tips of A2 to 11 participants and two Trivia question in between the A2 tips. I had a great evening dancing with friends and to Dave, Karin and Greg.

 

Get a partner and dance

During my morning dance Larry treated for ants.

In between dancing I kept busy doing this and that. I did some Thanksgiving preparation. I did some housework, made homemade noodles and deviled eggs. 

A new interesting looking pinball table came out, Blizzard of Ozz, it is based on Ozzy Osbourne. Larry downloaded it on the table and got it working in both 2D and VR. It took him a bit, some tables come with pup packs, they are normally music videos or clips from movies that play while you are playing the game. Larry doesn't care for them and normally doesn't install them unless they are required. This game has a pup pack but you are not suppose to need it. Larry could not get the game to work, he tried a number of things and then discovered others had the same problem and had to install the pup pack, sure enough, it works fine with the pup pack. It has a gorgeous VR room and the playfield has a lot of activity going on. After Larry installed the game he played the game. Below are pictures of the VR room.

 

The playfield

 

Ozzy poster and guitar

 

Ozzy's guitar, a poster and a statue of Ozzy

One of the walls in the VR room

I played eight games of pinball, which were Dracula, Magic Pinball, Time Lord, Slimer! Ghostbusters, Junk Yard, Lord of the Rings, Blizzard of Ozz and Big Bang Bar. I didn't get on the board on the games except for Blizzard of Ozz, where I came in high score #2. I had a fun time playing pinball.

 

Big Bang Bar

 

Blizzard of Ozz

 

Dracula

 

Junk Yard

 

Lord of the Rings

 

Magic Pinball

 

Slimer! Ghostbusters

 

Time Lord

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Pyramid). It took me 37 minutes and 24 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds. 

I also worked a little bit on my jigsaw puzzle. 

After Dave's dance we watched Arrival. It is a 2016 science fiction movie about giant alien ships that land on earth. A linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads a team of investigators in finding a way to communicate with the ship to prevent a global war. It also stars Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. I watched the De Vinci Code after Larry went to bed. Both movies were from our collection of movies. I ended up doing 2,000 steps.