Friday 1-30-26 Happy Friday, Dancing with Ett & More

 

It's Friday celebrate and dance

 

Another cold front has arrived. It's not as cold as the last one but it's cold. The morning temperature was 32 degrees and the high was 54 degrees. We had a breeze out of the north, which made it a little colder.

Larry is playing with different phone/tablet applications.

I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before going to bed last night. The event today was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 10 minutes and 33 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I spent most of the day working on my jigsaw puzzle.

We have been cooped up in the house since Saturday Larry decided to take me out for lunch. Our first stop was the UPS Store to check the mail. Larry came back with no mail. We were discussing where to go for lunch, I suggested swinging by Little Caesar Pizza. There was a location across the street from the UPS Store. We got a pepperoni Grab-And-Go pizza. By doing this we can get two meals out of it. That's what we had for lunch and dinner.

 

Little Caesar pepperoni pizza

As we were leaving the house Larry tried to close the garage door and it wouldn't go down. A couple of weeks ago we had the same issue and Larry figured out one of the sensors was not working, in messing around with it it started working so he didn't replace it. Well, it quit again but fortunately he had a backup. When we got home we had lunch and then Larry went worked on the replacing the sensor. It took longer than he thought. He had to rewire things a bit but with the new sensor the door opener is once again working. 

After fixing the garage door we took the Minnie back to storage. While it's still suppose to get really cold they are not predicting ice or snow and we won't be using the Minnie for a couple of weeks or more. Larry doesn't like keeping the Minnie in the driveway for long periods of time. If he's working on the Minnie it's a different story.

I played nine games of pinball. I played five games on the mini cabinet, which were Batman Forever, No Good Goffers!, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirate's Life and The Goonies. While playing Pirate's Life I became high score #3. I played four games on the big cabinet, which were Big Bang Bar, Blizzard of Ozz, Cactus Canyon and Dracula. While playing Cactus Canyon I got on the board as high score #3. My score was 64,749,770, which put me in 40th place out of 97 participants for this weekly challenge. I had a fun time playing pinball.

 

Mini Cabinet

 

Batman Forever

 

No Good Goffers!

 

Pirate's Life

 

Pirates of the Caribbean

 

The Goonies

 

Big Cabinet

 

Big Bang Bar

 

Blizzard of Ozz

 

Cactus Canyon

 

Dracula

 

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2 dance at 6:30 for an hour. This is the last dance she will be calling for three weeks because she's going on a cruise to Antarctic. We had a small group of 6 participants. She called four tips and in between the tips we all visited with each other. I had a fun time dancing with friends.

 

 Dancing with friends

 

While I danced Larry called his sister Louise and talked to her. 

After the dance we watched Thelma on Hoopla. It was about an elderly woman, who was scammed out of $10,000. She teamed up with a friend and drove his scooter to get it back. It was 2024 movie starring June Squibb as Thelma and Richard Roundtree as Ben her friends. It was a cute movie. When Larry went to bed I watched Short Circuit on Hoopla. It was about a robot, that comes alive and escapes from the lab it was built in. It was a cute 1986 comedy Then I watched 101 Dalmatians from our movies collection. I ended up doing 2,000 steps. 

 

    

  

      

Thursday 1-29-26 Beautiful Day & Doing This and That

 

Just having fun

 

We had a beautiful day with sunshine and a little bit of clouds. The morning temperature was 35 degrees and the high was 68 degrees. If the temperatures keep up the way they are we will be completely out of snow in a couple of days.

In the morning I went outside to take out the garbage container because the trash collector company was going to collect the trash today. They couldn't do it Wednesday because of the weather. The sidewalk was completely thawed but by the garage it still had ice so I had to be careful walking to the garbage container. It was very slick where the trash container was but I managed to get the trash container to the curb. The trash collection company didn't make it today, maybe tomorrow.

Larry installed a new pinball game on the mini cabinet, which was The Goonies. Then he had fun playing the game.

Larry played with Hoopla to get to know the application more. He looked at movies, that are available. He played a few clips of movies to see if he would like to watch them.   

I spent most of the day working on my puzzle of the Cambridge and played games.

 

The Cambridge

 

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: The Hard Road of 16 games. It took me 2 hours, 12 minutes and 32 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for a half hour to four songs twice. The songs were Go!, Lazer Pink, Riot and Tonight. While working out with Tonight I did an outstanding score on the second time and it gave me a new high score on the board. I had a great workout.

 

Go!

 

Lazer Pink

 

Riot

 

Tonight

 

I did one game of Gunpowder Gulch on Bounce Arcade. I had a super game and I'm very excited because I completed all the four events and did a fifth one called Outlaw Shootout for the first time. During the game I earned a gold trophy, played all the events and all the multiballs. The events were Quick Drawl once, Gunfight once, Crack Safe once and Barrel Barrage three times. I was successful in completing the events. I was very excited when I was successful in getting through the Barrel Barrage event because it was the first time I had completed it. I played the Outlaw Shootout for the first time because I completed all the events. The Outlaw Shootout event has a combination of Barrel Barrage, Gunfight and Quick Drawl. The multiballs were S.A.L.O.O.N. once, Jailhouse Break twice, Sade Crack once and Wooden Sign Rally once. I had a lot of fun playing Gunpowder Gulch.

 

Gunpowder Gulch

I played eight games of pinball. I played four games on the mini cabinet. They were Great Houdini, Playboy, The Goonies and Three Angels. While playing Playboy I became Playboy Grand Champion because I played Mansion Mania. In order to play mansion mania you have to get all 12 playmates. When I played The Goonies I was on the board as high score #3. The Goonies is a cute game. I played four games on the big cabinet. They were Cactus Canyon, Godzilla, Magic Pinball and Willow. While playing Godzilla I became high score #8. I had fun playing pinball in both the mini cabinet and the big cabinet. 

 

Great Houdini (mini)

 

Playboy (mini)

 

The Goonies (mini)

 

Three Angels (mini)

 

Willow (big)

 

Magic Pinball (big)

 

Godzilla (big)

 

Cactus Canyon (big)

 

Larry spent some time choosing and putting movies on a list in Hoopla for us to watch. We watched the YouTube videos we follow and others of interest. 

In the evening we watched The Annihilation of Fish on Hoopla. It was a 1999 romantic movie starring Lynn Redgrave as Poinsettia and James Earl Jones as Fish. It was a cute movie about two elderly people with mental illness who fall in love. After Larry went to bed I watched The Untouchables on Hoopla. It was a 1987 movie starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro and Martin Smith. It took place during Prohibition, where a team of government agents brought Al Capone to justice. It was a good movie when I first watched it and still is a good movie. I also watched Finding Dory from our movies collection. I ended up doing 2,500 steps.

 

Relaxing in front of the television

  

   

    

Wednesday 1-28-26 Dance Day & Warmer Temperatures

 

Awesome Day!

 

We had a warmer day and a lot of the ice and snow are melting. More people were driving around because the main road to the neighborhood is clear of ice. We even got mail in our mailbox. It was nice to see people driving around but they were still being careful.

Our morning temperature was 23 degrees and the high was 54 degrees. We had a pretty day.

I attended three virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus dance at 10:00 for an hour. Terry called the first tip and Di called the other four tips. They called to 9 participants. Di called the new A1 moves, that were moved to the Plus moves. She asked if we wanted her to go over the moves considering we were all A2 dancers. We said it would be great to review them. We had people from the U.K., U.S. and Canada. I had a great time dancing with friends.

Second was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Loren Smith from Canada called the dance for Ett. He called four tips to 11 participants. Larry danced with me. I was happy he did because he helped me get in the right place at times. We had people from Germany, Canada, Finland and U.S. We had a super time dancing to Loren because he put us in different positions were not use to be in. He worked on Relay The Top because the dancers were have problems with it.

Third was Dave Eno 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 10 participants, three tips of A2 to 10 participants and two trivia questions. The participants were from Australia and the United States. It's always a small group but we have a lot of fun dancing together. 

 

 

Get a partner and dance

 

While I danced Larry read. He started a new book and finished it.

 

Reading is relaxing

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games (3 Spider and 3 Free Cell). It took me 13 minutes and 54 seconds, which put me in 22nd place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I worked out for a half hour with the Synth Riders. I worked out with four songs twice, which were Dust to Dust, Enemy, Into The Void and Unshakeable. While working out with Dust to Dust I earned one new high score, Enemy I got two outstanding scores and Unshakeable I earned one new high score. I had a good workout.

 

Dust to Dust

 

Enemy

 

Into The Void

 

Unshakeable

I played seven games of pinball, which were three on the mini cabinet and four on the big cabinet. The games on the mini cabinet were Dead Pool, JP Space Cadet and Red & Ted Road Show. On the big cabinet the games were Cactus Canyon, Medieval Madness, The Big LeBowski and Willy Wonka. I didn't get on the board but had a lot of fun.

 

Dead Pool (mini)

 

JP Space Cadet (mini)

 

Red & Ted Road Show (mini)

 

Cactus Canyon (big)

 

Medieval Madness (big)

 

The Big LeBowski (big)

 

Willy Wonka (big)

 

Last year Larry became a member of the Houston Library, this allows him to read ebooks via an app called Libby and we can stream movies via Kanopy. We have been using it for a couple of months, you get 20 tickets (credits) per month, you use them for the movies and TV shows. Each movie or show will tell you how many tickets it cost. The Kanopy app is not very user friendly, the other night we used a few tickets on movies we had already watched, Kanopy doesn't keep track of what you watch.  

The Houston Library also offers movies via a second application called Hoopla. Today Larry installed it and now we have a lot more movies to choose from. Every application is different. I think Hoopla will be easier to use than Kanopy. It also appears to have more movies to choose from. You can watch 15 movies per month. Both Kanopy and Hoopla restart the tickets every month.         

After Dave Eno's dance we watched Aeon Flux on Hoopla. It was a science friction movie where people were cloned. It was an ok movie. Then I watched Rain Man on Hoopla. It a 1988 movie starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. I've watched it before many years ago and liked. I ended up doing 2,000 steps.  

  

  

 

   

Tuesday 1-27-26 Still Cold, Dancing, Puzzle & Games

 

It's cold

 

We had another freezing cold day but it did get above freezing. The low was 16 degrees and the high was 40 degrees. We had a cloud covering all day. The temperature was over 32 degrees so things thawed out some more. The snow is almost gone and the ice melted but it suppose to be in the 20s. The ice may form again. 

We didn't do too much. We stayed in the house and kept warm. 

Our dance in Liberty Hill was cancelled due to the weather so we attended Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. They called five tips to 12 participants. Terry called the first tip and Di called the other four tips. In between the tips we talked about the cold weather we're having here in the states. The participants were from the U.K., France and United States. Liz is from Canada but spends her winters in Mexico. Di worked on Motivate, Chain Reaction and Check Mate because some dancers were having problems with the four couple moves. Larry danced four of the tips with me. We had a super time dancing to Di and Terry and with friends. 

 

We love square dancing

 Larry started reading a book and finished it. 

 

Keep warm with a good book

 

I played games and worked on my jigsaw puzzle of the Cambridge. 

I played the Daily Challenge of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 33 minutes and 14 seconds, which put me in 20th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2. 

I played ten games of pinball. I played five games of pinball on the mini cabinet, which were Dead Pool, Fun House, Jaws, Junk Yard and Theatre of Magic. While playing Jaws and Theatre of Magic I became high score #3. I played five games on the big cabinet, which were Cactus Canyon, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Great Houdini, Iron Man and Queen. I didn't get on the board but I played well.

 

Mini Cabinet

 

Dead Pool

 

Fun House

 

Jaws

 

Junk Yard

 

Theatre of Magic

 

Big Cabinet

 

Cactus Canyon

 

Creature From the Black Lagoon

 

Great Houdini

 

Iron Man

 

Queen

 

In the evening we watched Ready Player One on Prime. Ready Player One is a science fiction movie about people escaping from realty into a virtual reality game called Oasis. It was a cute movie. When Larry went to bed I watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 from our super heroes movies collection. I ended up doing 3,000 steps.