Sunday 9-6 Beautiful Summer Day

 

We had beautiful summer day with sunshine. The rain is gone and left mild temperatures behind. At the house it got to 93 degrees. 

We didn't see any squirrels today but the birds were active in the feeder. 

We attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Don Moger's weekly C1 dance at 11:00 for an hour and a half. Don had 50 participants. He slowed down his calling and didn't make the moves so complex so it made the dancing very enjoyable. We had a super time.

The second dance was Loren Smith's weekly A2/C1 dance at 7:30 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Loren called three tips for A2 with 38 participants and he called two C1 with 32. We had another fantastic night of dancing to Loren.

 

Square dancing virtually

   

I spent the day playing Microsoft Solitaire games. I did my Daily Challenges. Next I moved on to the Event: Easy Street Mini with ten games. It took me 45 minutes and 19 seconds to complete, which put me in 40th place in my group. I spent hours playing the Star Club games. I completed a Hard Level of 10 games in Klondike and 10 games in Spider. I think Larry may be right, I'm addicted to playing Microsoft Solitaire games.

I finished reading a great book on my Kindle called The German Midwife, it was written by Mandy Robotham. It was very well written and entertaining. The story took place during World War II in Germany.  

In between and after the dances we watched YouTube videos and the weekly GizWiz Show. I finished watching the fourth season of Yorkshire Vet and started the fifth season. I watched a 2007 movie on Peacock called 3:10 To Yuma. It was a western movie starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale and Ben Foster. It was about a rancher, who joins a group of men to take an outlaw to Yuma for trial. It was a good movie. I ended up doing 25,000 steps, which put in third in my group and for the week I did 181,656 steps.  

Unwind in front of the television

Saturday 9-5 Busy Doing This & That

 

We had a pleasant day. It rained a couple times but very lite. The high today was 85 degrees with a little breeze at times.

I filled a small bowl with birdseed for the squirrels to keep them out of the feeder. We looked out the window and saw the bowl was tipped over and a mess was left behind. I went outside and cleaned it up and then I filled the bowl again. After lunch we saw a squirrel go to the bowl, it crawled on its stomach to get to the food, it looked like it was scared. Then it knock the bowl over and that scared it so off it went. It most have been a new squirrel because of how timid it was. We saw birds come and go from the feeder in the afternoon. We hadn't seen the hummingbirds for a few days so I put their feeders away for the season.

 

Enjoying the feeder

The last few days when I went to check on my flowers I found them laying over due to the rain so I propped them back up. The flowers are still doing very well. 

 

Flowers hanging in there

We didn't have any virtual square dancing scheduled today so we spent the day doing this and that.

I spent the morning playing Solitaire games. Today Microsoft had a special event called Spider Saturday, which was for every spider game players completed the points were doubled. I did my Daily Challenges, which has one game of five different Solitaire games (Klondike, Free Cell, Spider, Tri Peaks and Pyramid). The Event: Spider Mini of 10 games of Spider. I also played Star Club, I did the first level of hard spider of 10 games. 

After playing my Solitaire games I read for a couple of hours. We watched YouTube videos.

While I played Solitaire games Larry did a few projects in the house. The first project was the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink has been smelling for a bit. I have been treating it with Pine Sol and a drain treatment, the smell would go away but in a few days it was back. This morning Larry took the drain pipes apart, he found a lot of gunk, he cleaned everything up and put it back together. Larry bought a new pair of tennis shoes and they came in a couple of days ago. He tried them out during a dance and they wouldn't slide so today he put leather on the soles. The next project was to hang some of our Cameo projects on the wall using some ribbon. The final project was playing with the Cameo.

 

Cameo projects hung with extra room for more

In the evening we watched The Matrix. We hadn't watched this movie in a long time and we still enjoy it. Afterwards I watched the movie Hatch on Peacock. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Yorkshire Vet. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in fifth place in my group. 

       

 

Friday 9-4 Dance Day

Get a partner and square it up

 

We had another rainy day. The temperature was in the high 70's, the humidity was high but it was a pleasant day.

When we got a break in the rain we went to town to pick up our mail at the UPS Store. Larry went into Walmart to pick up a few things we can't get delivered because they're not available at the Walmart closest to us. While he was doing this I walked over the the UPS store. On the way home we swung by Jack 'n' Jill to get a couple of donuts.

 

Doing errands

 

We attended three virtual square dances. The first was Don Moger's weekly C1 dance at 12:00 for an hour and a half. He had 61 people zoomed in. We had a super time dancing to Don.

The second dance was Di Green's weekly C1 workshop at 2:00 for an hour and a half. She had 24 people zoomed in. We enjoy attending this workshop because it's very relaxing and Di does a fantastic job of walking the dancers through moves they have problems with.

The third dance was Ett McAtee' weekly A2/C1 dance. Ett called four tips of A2 and two tips of C1. During the A2 tips she had 28 people zoomed in and C1 had 26. We had a great time.

In between the dances I did my Microsoft Daily Challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 5 Klondike games and 5 Free Cell games. It took me 1 hour, 54 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. 

After the second dance we received our weekly groceries from Walmart. 

 

Weekly grocery shopping online

We watched some YouTube videos. 

After the last dance we watched a two episodes of the fourth season of Yorkshire Vet. When Larry went to bed I watched a 2005 movie called The Interpreter on Peacock. The movie starred Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman. It was a very good movie. I didn't remember watching this movie many years ago until it was almost over. I ended up doing 26,000 steps for the day, which put me in fifth place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

     

 

Thursday 9-3 Enjoying the Cool Temperatures

Just having fun

 

According to our irrigation system we received 4.5 inches of rain yesterday. The rain came back this morning. 

Once again we had a high temperature in the high 70's. The wildlife enjoyed the temperatures, in the late afternoon we saw some deer come through the backyard. While the does were eating the fawns took advantage of this and ran across the backyard into the lots next door and back, they did this for a few minutes, it was very entertaining. Earlier we watched two squirrels eating the seeds I put in a bowl. When the seeds were gone the squirrels had left a mess so out came the blower and I blew off the back porch.

 

A squirrel having fun making a mess

We attended three virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly C1 dance at 11:00 for an hour. We had 47 people participating in the dance. Dayle called four tips. We had a super time.

The second dance was Jeremy Butler's weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:00 for an hour. We had 34 participants for the three A2 tips and 29 for the C1 tip. We had a great time.

The third dance was an A2 dance called by Michael Levy at 7:30 for an hour. We had 16 participants. This was Michael's first virtual dance and the first time we danced to him. He is a very good caller. We had a great time.

In between the dances Larry worked on a Cameo project. I did my Daily Challenges and Event: Pyramid Mini of 5 games. It took me 15 minutes and 25 seconds to complete, which put me in 19th place in my group. I did a few Star Club Pyramid games at the hard level.

I also read for a couple of hours.

After the last dance I watched three episodes of the fourth season of Yorkshire Vet. I also watched E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. It was made in 1982 and I still enjoyed watching the movie. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me fourth place in my group.   

 

 

Wednesday 9-2 Finally We Got a Rainy Day

Keep dry under your umbrella

 

A front came in last night and stayed in all day. Our local weatherman Andy Andersen said it's suppose to stay around for a couple of days, he also said our area got between 4.5 and 6 inches of rain. It was a pleasure to get the rain and the cool temperature in the high 70's. At our house it only got to 78 degrees.

The front brought a lot of activity to our bird feeder. There was a constant stream of birds flying in and out of the feeder, however, we haven't seen any hummingbirds in a few days. We have been trying to keep a couple of squirrels out of the feeder. Today we decided to put some of the birdseed we have in a small bowl on the porch for the squirrels, they loved this idea. The only problem is the squirrels make a mess on the porch.

I did my Daily Challenges and The Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 52 minutes and 22 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. I also did some Star Club games, Pyramid Medium level of 10 games.

I read for a hour and a half. 

We attended two virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's A2 dance at 11:00 for an hour. He had 37 participants zoomed in. Most of the dancer have been attending this dance for a few weeks and are getting more comfortable with virtual dancing so Dayle is starting to call more complex moves. But if the dancers are having problems Dayle will walk us through the moves. He calls four tips and third tip is a workshop tip. Today Dayle went through Counter Rotates and continued working the concept in the fourth tip because the move is hard to see at times. It's an easy move but you can't always see where to go especially working with two or three phantoms. We had a super time dancing to Dayle.

The second dance was Doren McBroom's weekly C1 Dance for an hour and a half. This week he invited Ett McAtee to join him in calling the dance.We had 31 participants zoomed in. Doren and Ett both called three tips a piece. The dance was a lot of fun.

 

Having fun virtually square dancing

  

After the second dance we finished watching the third season of the Yorkshire Vet. Then I watched a movie on Peacock called He's Just Not That Into You. It was a comedy, romance, drama about dating and the challenge of reading human behavior. It was an ok movie. I ended up doing 25,500 steps, which put me in second place in my group.

Tuesday 9-1 Hello September - Staying Home

First day of September

 

We had a super day. 

I'm excited we finally got some needed rain. The front came in at 11:30 pm with a steady rain and wind.

About this time of year we leave on our fall trip. Normally we are gone for about two months but due to Coronavirus we have decided to stay home. We have done a fall trip for many years and we are going to miss it. Hopefully things will improve and at some point we can return to some form of normal, it will probably be a new normal but at least we will feel comfortable traveling. 

I started the day out by doing my Daily Challenges and The Event: Two Game Tango of 6 games (3 Free Cell and 3 Tri Peaks). It took me 18 minutes and 55 seconds, which put me in 33rd place in my group. Then I played some games in the Star Club. The Star Club has eight levels with ten games in each level of all the Solitaire games (Klondike, Free Cell, Spider, Pyramid and Tri Peaks). I played 10 games of Free Cell at the medium level, 4 games of Spider at the medium level and 4 games of Pyramid at the medium level.

We attended three virtual square dances. The first dance was Dayle Hodge's weekly Plus Dance at 11:00 for an hour. Dayle had 47 people zoomed in. We had an outstanding time dancing to Dayle and other dancers.

The second dance was Di Green's weekly A1/A2 Workshops at 1:30 pm for two hours. In between each session we had a fifteen minute break. Di and her partner Terry took turns calling each session. They called five tips per session. During the A1 session Di had 42 participants and A2 had 36. The workshops are very easy and slow but good. We enjoy dancing to Di and Terry because you can relax and you don't have to think too hard. We had a fun time.

The third dance was Don Moger's weekly A2 dance at 6:00 for an hour and a half. We had 72 participants on zoom. Don puts you in complex positions where you have to concentrate. We had a lot of fun dancing to Don and other dancers.

After the second dance we watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of Yorkshire Vet. When Larry went to bed I continued watching the Yorkshire Vet. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in third place in my group.

 

Relaxing in front of the television

  

Monday 8-31 Last Day of August

Last day of August

 

Today was the last day of August. Children are back in school or are getting ready to go back. Because of the Coronavirus the local districts are limiting how many days the children can be in the classroom. When they can't be in the classroom they do their schooling via Zoom. 

We had another 100 degree day. We were going to go to the lake but it was a bit windy. While hanging around the house Larry worked on another Cameo project. I did my Microsoft Solitaire games. I did my Daily Challenges, the Event and Star Club. The Event: World Tour Mini of ten games. It took me 50 minutes and 34 seconds, which put me in 31st place in my group. I did some games in the Star Club, I have gotten through three levels in each game type (Klondike, Free Cell, Spider, Tri Peaks and Pyramid).

We attended two virtual dances. The first dance was with Joachim Ruhenbeck in Germany. It was A1/A2 at 12:30 for two hours. There was a half hour break in between the A1 session and the A2 session. We had 55 people participating in the dance. We had a great time.

The second dance was Ett McAtee weekly C1 workshop at 6:30 for an hour. We had 69 people participating. Ett is doing a lot better by slowing down the workshop and walking the dancers through the moves. It was an ok workshop.

After Joachim's dance we watched YouTube videos. Everytime I go outside and water my flowers I'm amazed they are still growing.

 

Flowers are still growing and a few more buds

 

A couple of days ago I cut some pork into 1/4 inch cube, put the cubes in a marinade and then put them in the refrigerator. Today I cooked the cubes up using some skewers. The recipe I used was from All Recipes, it is called Sweet Teriyaki Beef Skewers. I substituted the beef with pork. They came out good. 

 

The finished Sweet Teriyaki Pork Skewere

The sweet teriyaki pork skewers ready to grill

After the second dance we finished watching the second season of Yorkshire Vet and started watching the third season. I watched an Amazon movie called Letters To Juliet. It was an adventurous, drama, comedy movie. It was about Sophie, who dreams about being a writer and goes to Verona, Italy and meets the Secretaries of Juliet. This takes on an adventure to find true love. It was a cute movie. I ended up doing 24,500 steps today, which put me in fifth place in my group.