I spent the morning chasing a young squirrel out of the birdfeeder. It was determined to eat the food in the feeder, even when there was food in the bowls. I chased it out about five times within a half hour. I'd open the door and shoo the squirrel off and it would run to the tree. Then in less than five minutes it was back. It would eat a little out of the bowls and up the railing it went. It jumped on the feeder shortly afterwards it was in the feeder. Once it gave up we had a stead flow of birds in and out of the feeder. There were a couple of squirrels under the oak tree. When the squirrels left the tree a deer came by and ate what was left. When it moved on I went outside and filled the oak tree bowl with feed. It didn't take too long when the deer came back. In the evening I saw a hummingbird and the fox paid us a visit.
When I wasn't chasing the squirrel I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 29 minutes and 59 seconds to complete, which put me in 19th place in my group. Larry read.
After playing my games I continued working on my annual book for this year.
We attended one virtual square dance, Ett McAtee's Weekly C Series at 1:00. This week she invited Di Green to come and help her call six tips of C1. They called 4 tips of two couples and 2 full square tips. They had 46 participants. We were a bit disappointed, Ett was throwing in a lot of non-standard four couple material and not cueing so we spent a lot of time broken down. We left after the 4 tips of two couples.
After leaving the dance I continued working on my book and Larry read.
Loren Smith decided to take the summer off to travel and do projects around the house so we didn't have our normal Sunday evening dance. We watched a movie on Amazon called Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was about three orphans who are given to a cousin after their parents died in a fire. The cousin is an actor and plots to steal their fortune. It starred Jim Carrey as their cousin. It was a cute movie. Then I finished watching the fourth season of The Commander. I ended doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group for the week with 188,667 steps.
The rain has gone but the clouds stayed around. The temperatures were in the low 80s and high humidity. It was a beautiful day.
We started the day out going grocery shopping. We returned to town in the afternoon because the UPS Store received a package for us.
Last week Larry received a new battery for one of our cell phones, he was able to get the phone apart and replace the battery but the new battery would not charge. He contacted the seller who asked him to send him a couple of pictures. The seller then mailed another battery. That was the package waiting for us at the UPS Store. When we got home Larry put it in the phone and it also will not charge. He can put the old battery back into the phone and it charges fine so he believes there is something wrong with the aftermarket replacements. It was a really inexpensive phone that he uses for a backup and experiments so it is not worth spending much money on. He will play around with it to see if he could figure out why it won't charge.
Larry finished assembling two patriotic eagles. It is difficult to see in the picture but the chest is silver glitter. They came out cute and beautiful.
Eagle
While Larry was making the eagles I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Spider and 5 Pyramid). It took me 2 hours, 56 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 24th place in my group. It took me forever to complete the last spider game, which was an expert level.
In the afternoon I baked brownies for dessert.
Brownies
We attended Don Moger's Saturday Night Fever Dance at 6:00. This week he invited Eric Henerlau out of California to help call the dance. We had 55 participants for the A2 tips and 40 for the C1 tips. Don usually calls a C2 tip but this week he noticed there weren't too many C2 dancers so he decided to call an extra A2 and C1 tip. Don and Eric called 2 A2 tips a piece and called the fifth tip together. They called 1 C1 tip a piece and the third tip together. This was the first time we ever danced to Eric and he was very good. We had a super evening of dancing to Don and Eric and friends.
After the dance we watched The Addams Family on Amazon. It was a cartoon version and was cute. Then I watched two more episodes of the fourth season of The Commander. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. I was pushed out of 2nd place because the person now in 2nd did 44,500 steps. I still had fun doing my steps. LIFE IS GOOD!!!
It was an overcast day with a lite sprinkle now and then.
We had been having two birds roosting on our security camera on the front porch. Larry put a board on the box with staples protruding out to stop them but one of the birds keeps coming back, it simply roosts on top of the staples. Its like the staples don't both it at all.
Bird roosting on the porch
I started the day doing the Daily Challenges and the Event: Free Cell Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 2 minutes and 1 second to complete, which put me in 21st place in my group.
Larry started working on another paper project, which is an eagle.
We attended three virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 Four Couples at 11:00. We had 19 folks logged in for the two A1 tips and 18 for the A2 tips. Dayle did an outstanding job of cueing and telling us where we should be. We had a great time.
Second was Don Moger's Weekly C1 at 12:00. We had 32 participants. Don walked us through moves we were having problems with. He jokes around all the time and is a lot of fun.
Third was Di Green's Weekly C1 Workshop at 2:00. She had 34 participants. I did this dance by myself. She danced by herself because Terry's right leg still hurts. The moves Di worked on were Cross By, Tally Ho From Lines and other moves the dancers requested. I had a fun afternoon dancing with Di and our virtual friends.
While I was dancing Larry mowed the yards, weedeated and blew off the drive. We have had so much rain our yards are growing fast so we have to mow once a week. Before Larry mowed he made sure that the grass wasn't wet. He did an excellent job.
Larry mowing the backyard
Larry mowing the frontyard
After the last dance Larry cleaned the kitchen drains with baking soda, vinegar and boiling water. He used this method a couple of weeks ago and it really helped so he thought he would do it again as a preventative measure.
When he finished cleaning the drains I made a pizza using the rest of the Phyllo pastry dough. It came out good.
Pepperoni Pizza
In the evening we watched another movie on IMDb TV called Woman In Gold. It was a biographical movie about Maria Altmann, a Jewish refugee, who hires a young lawyer and they take on the Austrian government to recover artwork that was stolen from her family by the Nazis. It was a good movie. Afterwards I started watching the fourth season of The Commander. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which kept me in 2nd place in my group.
When Covid hit almost all live square dancing around the world stopped, there were a few small groups who started back up dancing in garages or basements and one group we know of about 100 miles away here in Texas. Luckily for many of us Zoom square dancing started up, anyone who follows my blog knows this has become a big part of our lives. Well with the development of the vaccine and falling Covid numbers live dancing is coming back.
Before Covid if we were not traveling we would drive about an hour each way to dance in Georgetown/Sun City a couple of times a week. Currently there is an Advanced dance in Georgetown on Tuesdays and just this week a C1/Advanced dance started on Thursdays. In July The Sundancers club will begin dancing live on Mondays. There have also been live dances held in Waco and Schertz that in the past we would have attended.
Larry and I have been invited to dance at all of these events and while we appreciated all of the invitations we made the decision to be cautious and wait for Covid infections to decline. Well the numbers are improving so in the not too distant future we will go back to doing some live dancing, but here is the quandary, we enjoy dancing via Zoom and it requires no travel.
We have formed a group of Zoom friends and callers that we enjoy. Today we could dance Advanced in Georgetown on Tuesdays to a caller we love and dancers we know but we are currently dancing Advanced that same evening to another terrific caller and we don't have to leave the house. We have the same situation on Thursday, we can dance Advanced and C1 to tape in Sun City or we can stay home and dance Advanced and C1 via Zoom and once again not have to drive two hours.
Now to be honest with live dancing coming back, some, maybe most, of the Zoom dancing will go away. Some of the callers started calling via Zoom on what had been their normal club dancing night and they will certainly go back to calling for their clubs. One of the callers on Mondays is doing just that starting next week. A few of the callers are saying they plan to continue calling via Zoom even after live dancing begins so we will have to wait and see what happens. We are also starting to see some Zoom dancers missing from some sessions as they are going back to live dancing locally.
Given all of this what will we do? Our best guess is we will go back to doing some live dancing. We miss seeing and visiting with our square dance friends. On top of that we really need to get out of the house more often.
On to other things....
I started the day out by doing the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 6 games ( 3 Pyramid and 3 Tri Peak). It took me 13 minutes and 40 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group.
Larry finished reading a book on his Kindle and started another.
We attended two virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 at 11:00. He called four two couples tips and one four couples tip. During the two couples tips we had 25 participants and the four couples tip we had 16. We had a super time dancing to Dayle.
Second was Jeremy Butler's Weekly A2/C1 at 6:00. He called four A2 tips and one C1 tip. During the A2 tips we had 14 participants and 11 for the C1. We had a small group but had fun dancing to Jeremy and with friends.
I did our monthly expenses and took a nap. I baked some blueberry muffins for our dessert. After the last dance we watched a movie on IMDb TV called The Homesman. It was a western but wasn't all that great. Afterwards I watched the third season of The Commander on Acorn. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.
We had an awesome day. It was overcast with the temperatures in the low 80s. The rain held off until 9:00 pm. When the rain came in there was thunder and lighting. The rain wasn't as hard and we didn't get as much as a couple of nights ago.
I started the day out doing some housework. I vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, dusted and did laundry.
Time to clean the house
While I did housework Larry finished making a card that I am sure anyone who likes working in their yard would love. The lady that lives next door to his sister has a beautiful backyard and he thought she might enjoy it. This is a tri-fold card, it folds flat for mailing and when you take it out of the envelope it will partially unfold and stand up. The card came out very nice.
Gardening card
After doing my housework I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Easy Street of 5 games. It took me 6 minutes and 56 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group.
We attended three virtual square dance. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A2 at 11:00. Dayle had to go to a class pertaining to his new job driving a school bus so he asked Jeremy Butler to cover for him. We had 33 participants for the two couples tips and 27 for the four couples tip. Jeremy had just finished the second tip when Dayle showed up, which was a pleasant surprise. Jeremy and Dayle called the rest of the dance together. This is always a lot of fun. We had a super dance.
Second was Don Moger's Weekly C1 working on problematic calls at 12:00. Don called five tips, we missed the first one because we were at Dayle's. Don had 32 participants. This week Don worked on Tracks, Percolate, Split Counter Rotate, Circle By and other calls the dancers were having problems with. We had a fun time.
Third was Doren McBroom's Weekly A2/C1 at 6:15. Jeremy Butler covered from Doren this week. Jeremy called four A2 tips with 12 participants and three C1 tips with 9. The last A2 tip was a full square tip. We had a great time.
When we weren't dancing we watched YouTube videos and watched the birds and squirrels. We watched a movie on Amazon called London River. It was very slow moving and wasn't that good. Afterwards I finished the season season of The Commander. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group. We are doing great.
The rain was gone and left an overcast day. Last night and through the early morning in our area we had received 3 to 4 inches of rain. We got over three inches, when I went outside to feed the birds, squirrels and deer the bowl I fill under the tree was full of water.
Last night it was raining hard so I didn't blow off the back porch, this morning before Larry put the bird feeder and the other bowls out he swept it off. We had a constant flow of birds in and out of the feeder and on the porch all day. When I filled up the bowl under the tree and was walking back to the stairs a deer came and ate the food. I fill the bowl under the tree and the bowls on the porch multiple times a day.
It was nice and cool this morning so we decided to go for a walk. Today we walked the Pepper Creek Trail. We parked in the parking lot by the soccer fields and picked up the trail there. We walked towards Adams instead of Airport. We have had so much rain that Pepper Creek was flowing fast. When we got to the waterfall Larry took a short video showing how fast it was flowing. Pepper Creek snakes around the trail and flows under the trail via bridges. It's a beautiful creek. As we walked we saw a couple walking the trail and a gentleman playing disc golf and walking his baby. We walked for a half hour and had a very pleasant walk.
To play the video click on the arrow in the middle of the picture, it even has sound.
20 Second video of Pepper Creek Trail Waterfall
The statue by the waterfall
Wildflowers along the trail
The entrance to Pepper Creek Trail off of Adams
Pepper Creek waterfall
We had a roll of Athens Phyllo Dough in the freezer that was left over from when we made Baklava. Larry went to the Athens Phyllo Dough site to see what else we could make. They had a lot of recipes, we decided to use the Raspberry Turnovers recipe but instead of raspberry filling we used Caramel Apple. On the way home from our walk we stopped by Walmart to buy the filling.
After our second dance I made the Caramel Turnovers. The recipe said it makes eight turnovers I made two to see how they came out. They tasted delicious so after the last dance I made six more. The recipe said it only takes 20 minutes to make, it took me twice as long.
Apple turnover
Turnovers cooling off
Turnovers before before baking
We attended three virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly Plus at 11:00. He called four tips of two couples and one tip of four couples. During the two couples tips we had 28 participants and 22 for the four couples tip. Dayle once again did an excellent job and we had great.
Second was Di Green's Weekly A1/A2 Workshop at 1:30. Terry's leg was feeling better and he tried to dance and ended up doing two tips but didn't want to hurt it worse. Di called five tips of A1 and A2 and did a great job. Di didn't realize how many dancers followed Terry when he was dancing until the single men dancers said they did. Di and Terry dance with their backs to us while they call so we can see where we should be. During the A1 session we had 24 participants and A2 had 26. We had a fun afternoon.
Third was Don Moger's Weekly A2 at 6:00. Don called five tips and had 38 participants. He worked on Cross Fire from diamonds and fractional Swing Thru, example 3/4 of a swing thru. The fourth tip was dancing in a full square. Don helped where ever he was needed. We had a super time.
Larry bought a new printer for his paper crafting last July. It came with starter color cartridges and he had noticed they were getting low. A couple of days ago Alexa told him the magenta cartridge was low and asked if he wanted to order a new one. Really interesting that Alexa knew the cartridge was running low. The original Brother brand cartridges are quite expensive, around $300 for all four cartridges. Larry ordered a generic brand and got all four for $50. They came in today and he installed them, after running the calibration routine they are printing fine. At $50 vs. $300 Larry was willing to take a chance on them.
I did my Daily Challenges. I didn't have any games to play in the Event because the event from yesterday went on for two days. I ended up coming in 8th place I didn't loose my position even though the player who came in 9th solved the games in less time because I solved the games yesterday and not today.
In the evening I started watching the second season of The Commander. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group. We had a wonderful day.
Today was Memorial Day, which is a day to honor the men and women who died defending the United States.
It was a humid day with a sprinkle now and then. At 6:30 a front came in with a steady rain and at times the rain was heavy. It stayed through out the night.
Before the rain the birds and squirrels were very active on the porch.
For the next two days I'm celebrating Microsoft Solitaire 31st Anniversary. I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Solitaire Celebrates 31 Year with 31 games. It took me 5 hours, 32 minutes and 29 seconds, which put me in 8th place in my group at 1:19 am. The rest of the players in my group have 1 day, 5 hours and 41 minutes to complete the games. So my position may change. They also added another set of games in the Star Club called Solitaire Celebrates 31, which has 31 games in each Solitaire game of Free Cell, Klondike, Spider, Tri Peaks and Pyramid.
While I played games Larry made sunflowers.
Sunflowers
Closeup
Back of sunflower
We attended two virtual square dances. First was Joachim Ruehenbeck's A1/A2 at 12:30. Joachim couldn't make it so he asked Di Green to call the dance for him. Di kept the same format as Joachim, which was A1 for an hour, a half hour break and A2 for an hour. Di usually dances with Terry but he pulled a muscle in his leg so she danced by herself. During the A1 session we had 41 participants and I danced by myself. The A2 session we had 43. Di called five tips in each session and did an excellent job. I dressed in red, white and blue and wore my red, white and blue hat that flashes. Di wore red, white and blue to celebrate Memorial Day. We had a great afternoon.
Second was Steve Kopman's Weekly A2/C1 at 6:30. Larry and I wore red, white and blue. During the A2 hour we had 25 participants and the C1 half hour had 17. We met his daughter and granddaughter. We had a fun evening of dancing.
After Steve's dance we finished watching Wonderful World of Disney, this week the movie was The Princess and The Frog. Then we watched The GizWiz. I watched the first season of The Commander, which is a detective series on Acorn. I ended up doing 26,500 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.
