Thursday 8-6 Six Dances in Two Days

Hot sunny day

The last two days our high temperatures have been 101 degrees with a lot of sun.

We have been virtual square dancing for about two months. It is not the same as real square dancing but we are having a blast. The dances are usually an hour long which gives the caller time to call four tips. The tips are two couple squares, which is Larry and me and a phantom couple. Some dancers are dancing by themselves so they dance with three phantoms. I don't know how they do this because I have enough problems keeping track of two phantoms. Virtual square dancing keeps your skills up and when you breakdown you don't breakdown three other couples. It doesn't matter how good of a dancer you are you will breakdown. Virtual square dancing gives us an opportunity to dance with callers from all over the United States, Europe and Canada. The callers are calling for free because they want to keep dancers dancing and having fun, if you want to give the callers money most have a tip jar. Virtual dancing has dances of all levels from Mainstream through C3A&C3B. If the dancers are struggling through moves most of the callers will walk the dancer through the moves. The popularity of the virtual square dancing is growing all the time, sometimes we have to decide what dance we want to attend. Some days we dance four or five dances.

Yesterday, we attended two virtual square dances today. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly A2 dance at 11:00 to 12:00. This week Dayle invited Bill Harrison to join him and help him call. Both Dayle and Bill did an outstanding job. Bill did a couple of sequences where he added two more phantom couples. It worked out great because he cued us through the sequence. The dance was very enjoyable because the dancers kept dancing and didn't spend a lot of time broken down. Super dance.

The second dance was Doren McBroom weekly C1 dance at 6:30. Doren invited Keith Stevens to help him call. They both did a great job of calling. We had a lot of fun dancing.

Today, we attended four virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly C1 dance. We had 42 people zoomed in. Dayle invited John Marshall to help call but John had problems with his connection. Dayle ended up calling the whole dance and invited John to come back on another day. Dayle did an excellent job, he put us in positions we weren't use to being in but he cued the moves and everyone was successful. We had a great time.

The second dance was Joachim Ruhenbeck's C1, two hours of C1. We had 42 people zoomed in. Joachim is a great caller. He calls faster than the other callers and can be very complex. Today he called a lot of moves out of T-Bone formations and he did recycles from different positions. We broke down but still had fun.

The third dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 dance. Jeremy was having internet problems because of a storm that came through his area. He asked Dick Otis to zoom in and cover for him if he lost internet. Jeremy called three A2 tips and a C1 tip. The fourth A2 tip Dick called. The dance was very good and we had a lot of fun.

The fourth dance was Loren Smith's weekly Plus dance. Loren called three two couples tips and a four couples tip. I decided to do the four couples tip but Larry decided to sit it out. I did very well, thanks to Loren cueing the dancers through it. We had a super time dancing to Loren.

Having fun with friends

Today we worked on a Cameo project, which was making a Sunflower Pumpkin. I helped put on the foam spacers in between the layers. The sunflower pumpkin was six layers, three of the layers are glued together and the other three use the foam spacers. The project came out excellent. Now we have to decided on what color of frame to make for it.

Sunflower Pumpkin

Look at the layers of the Sunflower Pumpkin

In between dancing I did my daily challenges and The Events. Yesterday's Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 12 minutes and 44 seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group. Today, the Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 30 minutes to complete, which put me 43rd place in my group. Every Pyramid game we completed our points were doubled.

We watched our YouTube videos. Then I continued watching the sixth season of Psych. Yesterday, I did 20,000 steps and missed my daily challenge by 1200 steps. Today I did 24,000 steps.     

     

Wednesday 8-5 Air Vehicle Puzzle

Air Vehicle Puzzle

I enjoy doing jigsaw puzzles so Larry thought I might like a different type of puzzle. ROKR builds a lot of different kits, some of them even have running parts. He bought me a Air Vehicle Puzzle, it came in a few weeks ago but I needed to finish my Winter Haven jigsaw puzzle before I started it.

I disassembled the Winter Haven puzzle so I could use the dining room table. The Air Vehicle kit has 229 wooden pieces plus a few other parts. The pieces were laser cut on six sheets of wood. The kit also had an assembly instruction book. Before assembling the kit we watched a YouTube video on assembling it.

Yesterday we started assembling the Air Vehicle. Larry and I worked on assembling the air vehicle for two hours and I worked on it for another hour and a half. We had to be careful when removing the pieces from the sheet of wood so you don't brake the pieces. As we assembled the pieces we had to build tools in order to put the inserts on the shafts. We made five different tools and each of the tools was a different depth. We used another tool to press the inserts on the shafts. After putting the top together we had to weave ten small wooden sticks through the balloon. By the end of the night we had assembled half of the air vehicle parts.

The instruction book and one of the wood sheet with pieces on it

The pieces used to assemble the air vehicle

The top of the air vehicle top

One of the sides of the bottom of the air vehicle

A set of wheels, a couple of gears and one of the bottom sides with wheels on it

Today we worked on the air vehicle for four and a half hours. During this time we installed the gears in the air vehicle. Once the gears were installed Larry tested it out to see if the gears were installed correctly. Then we installed the spring roll that controls the gears with a key. Next we assembled and installed the wheels. The last thing we did was put on the finishing touches: wings, anchors, life rings and sides. We installed the top to the bottom. The finishing product looks great.

The air vehicle with the main wheels on it

The tools we built to install the inserts and the tool used to press the inserts on

The finished product

The finished air vehicle actually works. Larry cranked the key that tightens the spring and the air vehicle took off across the floor, it is quite fast. It doesn't go too far but it was amazing. The air vehicle kit had a lot of detail and very very challenging. The kit is marked for people 14 and up but I am not sure how many 14 year olds would have the patience to put it together without breaking some of the pieces. I had a great time assembling the air vehicle.  

   

Tuesday 8-4 Just Having Fun

Squirrel in Feeder

We had a wonderful day.

I started the day out by doing my daily challenges and The Event: Tri Peaks Mini 10 games. It took me 31 minutes and 16 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. Today when ever players did a Tri Peaks game the points were doubled.

We attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus dance at 12:00. He invited Tom Miller to call with him. We had 52 people zoomed in. This week during each tip they did a singing call. Dayle and Tom called a tip a piece and the other two tips they called together. Tom Miller has an outstanding singing voice. We had a super time dancing to Dayle and Tom.

The second dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 for an hour and a half. Don had 84 people zoomed in. Don called a great dance. He cued throughout the dance and walked the dancers through moves they were having problems with. We had fun even though it wasn't too complex.

In the afternoon we watched a few YouTube videos. After the second dance we watched an Amazon movie called Ernesto's Manifesto. It was a romantic movie about a man, who lost his job, his girl friend and home. He meets someone, who changed his life. It was a cute movie. Then I finished watching the sixth season of Psych and started the seventh season. I ended up doing 26,000 steps. 

Monday 8-3 Finished Winter Haven Puzzle

Smile and have fun

Today it got to 101 degrees. We spent the day inside under the air conditioner.

I started the day by doing my daily challenges and The Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 27 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 23rd place in my group. 

We attended one virtual dance, Joachim Ruhenbeck's weekly A1/A2 dance. The dance was two hours long, the first hour was A1 and the last hour was A2. We had 47 people zoomed in. Joachim was on vacation in Poland with friends. The friends were square dancers and the husband was a caller. We had dancers from Russia, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and the United States. Joachim called a great two hours dance. He called Diamond Circulates from different positions. He made the dance a lot of fun and complex at times. We had fun.

After the dance we watched YouTube videos. I worked on my puzzle until it was completed. It took me almost three months to complete the 2000 pieces.

Majestic Winter Haven Puzzle

In the evening we had a weather front come through with some wind and a small amount of rain, then the power went out. About an hour later the power was restored so we watched an Amazon movie called The Girls of Summer. It was about a young woman who worked on her father's sod farm during the day and a drummer at night. It was a slow moving movie and wasn't too good. Then I continued watching the sixth season of Psych. I did 26,000 steps.

Sunday 8-2 Flowers From The Husband

Sunny hot day

We started the day out by going for a walk. We've been busy in the mornings and its hot in the afternoons so we haven't been for a walk in a bit. We didn't have anything on the agenda this morning so off to Crossroads Park we went. The sun was shining so we wanted to have some shade during our walk. Larry parked by the soccerfields because its close to Pepper Creek Trail. As we walked we saw a lot of people walking. Some folks were walking their dogs. When we were finishing up our walk we saw a few disc golf players. We walked about two miles. It was a great walk.

Crossroads entrance sign

After our walk I did my daily challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango, which had 10 games of Klondike and 10 games of Spider. It took me 1 hour, 52 minutes and 18 seconds to complete, which put me in 14th place in my group.

Then I worked on my puzzle. While I was doing my puzzle Larry did another project, making flowers. The first flower he made was out of colored paper. He put the paper on a pad and put it on the Cameo. Then the Cameo cut out the pattern for a flower. Each sheet of paper made one flower. Once the pattern was cut Larry wrapped the pattern around a dowel rod until the pattern formed the flower. He did an outstanding job. He made five flowers and presented them to me. How nice of my husband to make me flowers.

Red flower made out of cardstock paper

The flowers I received from Larry

White flower made out of cardstock paper

We attended two virtual square dances. The first one was a DBD Plus at 1:30. The Dixie Cups regular caller was attending another virtual dance this week so they invited Doran McBroom to call. Doran invited Mark Franks to co-call with him. Doran is out of Maryland and Mark is out of New Jersey. A nice thing about virtual square dancing is the callers can be anywhere. Dancers also Zoom in from all over the country and other countries such as Australia, Japan and Europe. For this dance we had 20 people zoomed in. Doran and Mark both called three tips. The dance was a lot of fun.

The second dance was at 7:30, this was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance. Loren invited Don Moger to come and help him call. The format tonight was three A2 tips and two C1 tips. The third A2 tip was four couple square concepts so we sat it out. We had 62 people zoomed in for the A2 tips of the dance and 46 for the C1 tips. We had a great time dancing to both Loren and Don.

In between the dances we watched YouTube videos. I worked on my puzzle.

After Larry went to bed I continued watching the sixth season of Psych. I did 24,000 steps, which gave me 178,000 steps for the week.

Saturday 8-1 Fun Day

Wow, what a beautiful day! We had a free day with no virtual square dancing. In the last week we danced seventeen dances. We're thankful that the dances are only an hour long.

Larry spent the day playing with the new printer and the Cameo. He did two projects. The first project was making a light box for the layered flag he built last week. He used  a battery powered LED light strip and some foam board that was left over from making a frame. Using the same foam board he also built an easel for it to stand on. The light strip has a controller, where you can change the mode and color. It came out outstanding.

The flag with white lights

The flag with red lights

The final project with lights off

The second project was making stickers. Larry used nine figures he found on the internet. Before printing them on the sticker paper he printed them on card stock to see how they looked. Then he printed the figures on our new color printer and the Cameo cut them out. What is great about the Cameo, it has a mode for cutting stickers. The stickers came out great. I put a few of them on my new light.

Figures on paper stock

The finished stickers project

Stickers on my light

While Larry did his projects I worked on my puzzle. I also did my daily challenges and The Event, Spider Mini of five games. Today Microsoft Solitaire had a special day called Spider Saturday, where every spider game you played your points doubled. The event took me 15 minutes and 34 seconds to finish, which put me in 26th place in my group.

In the evening we watched Opry Live Circle, which is a live performance of country singers at the Grand Ole Oprey. This week the performers were Vince Grill, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. This program is every Saturday night on 24-5 on our television. The performance was for an hour. Then we watched American Folk, which was an Amazon movie starring Joe Purdy and Amber Rubarth. It was about two strangers who were stranded in California because of 9/11. They were folk singers, who did a road trip together form California to New York. Then I finished up the fifth season and started the sixth season of Psych. I did 26,000 steps.

   

Friday 7-31 Last Day of July

Keep cool with a cold glass of lemonade

Today is the last day in July. The day started out overcast with a breeze. At lunchtime we got a small rain shower. It only lasted a few minutes.

I started my day out by doing my daily challenges and The Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 5 games. It took me 15 minutes and 54 seconds, which put me in 32nd place in my group.

At 9:30 I went outside and mowed the frontyard and backyard. After mowing I weedeated and blew off the driveway and front porch. It took me an hour and a half. By the time I was finished it looked like I had taken a shower.

Mowing the yards

Our Brother laser printer is giving up problems, we bought it on a Black Friday sale seventeen years ago. Over the years Larry has only had to replace the drum and toner a few times. Last week it started making a horrible sound. It has been a terrific printer but its time for a new one. Our current printer is black and white but we want to replace it with a color laser printer. Ink jet printers actually  print nicer but we don't want the hassle of ink cartridges and ink plugging the print head. We were very happy with our brother printer, Larry's sister has a Brother color laser that has also given her many years of trouble free service, Brother also seemed to have the best reviews. Larry found the newer model of Louise's printer at Staples. They didn't have it in stock so he ordered it online. It took about a week to get here but it was delivered to our front door. Larry set it up last night on the file cabinet by the desk. He did a few test prints to make sure everything worked correctly. The printer takes up more room but it is a network printer so Larry decided to move it to our bedroom. It's not as convenient but it's not too far away.

New printer

After setting the printer up Larry did a craft project, which was a small puzzle. The puzzle is four cube pieces, where you can solve the puzzle multiple ways. It came out great.

The puzzle made by the Cameo

   

We attended two virtual square dancing dances. The first dance was a C1 dance called by Don Moger at 12:00. We had 66 people zoomed in. The dance was an hour and a half and Don called six tips. Don introduced us to triple boxes, Larry and I were different boxes and we worked with three phantom couples. This was very hard. As the dance went on the harder it got. Don Moger is a very good caller. We had a good time dancing to him and our friends.

The second dance was Ett's weekly A2/C1 dance. We had 55 people zoomed in. Ett called four A2 tips and two C1 tips. We only attended the A2 portion of the dance. Ett is a very challenging caller. We had fun.

After the second dance we watched an Amazon movie called Wish You Well. It was about a great grandmother her took in a young girl and her brother on her farm. Where they learned about family and friends. It was very good. Then I continued to watched the fifth season of Psych. I ended up doing 28,000 steps.