Friday 1-6-23 It's Friday

 

It's Friday

It was overcast all day. The high was in the high 60s with a wind.

We started the day by going to town to do our weekly grocery shopping at Walmart. First we stopped at the UPS Store and picked up our mail. On the way home we swung by Jack 'n' Jill donuts for our breakfast.

Grocery shopping

When we got home I put the groceries away. 

Larry thinks he is finished with the sound and power updates on the pinball machine. He also built a bracket to mount one of the cooling fans directly over the computer. There are a ton of components and wires, he had organized and labeled them but now with the changes he needs to add some more labels.

While Larry worked on the pinball machine I read and played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 29 minutes and 51 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2.

We both played pinball.

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:30 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Ett called four A2 tips and one C1 tip with 17 participants. In the group of participants there was only one couple (Jane and Morley) so most of us pin them. Ett put us in difficult positions but because we could pin the couple it was easier for the single people to get in the right position. It was more challenging for Jane and Morley because they didn't have a couple to pin. I had fun dancing to Ett and with friends.

After the dance we watched The Smurfs movie on Freevee. It was very cute and I liked it. Then I watched Sherlock Holmes on our dvd. Afterwards I watched a couple of episodes of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

     

 

Thursday 1-5-23 Dancing & Playing Games

 

Beautiful Day

We had a beautiful day of the high of in the 60s.

Larry spent the day working on the pinball machine upgrades of sound and power.

We attended one virtual square dance, which was Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 at 11:00 for an hour. He called four two couple tips with 17 participants and one four couple tip with 16 participants. Every week Dayle makes the dance challenging by putting us in weird positions. We had a super time dancing to the challenge and with friends.

I did my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Pyramid). It took me 2 hours, 1 minute and 35 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. I played Angry Birds.

I took a two hour nap.

We watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we finished watching third season of Miss Scarlett and the Duke. Then I watched The Dark Knight Rises. Afterwards I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

Wednesday 1-4-23 Dance Day & Having Fun

 

We had another gorgeous day with a lot of sunshine and the high in the high 60s. 

On Wednesdays I attended four virtual dances. They're easy to attend I just have to remember to login to Zoom. We have been doing virtual square dancing for almost three years and I still have fun. Last year Larry cut back his dancing a bit because he wanted to do other things. I still dance six days a week (normally eight dances) and sometimes on Saturdays, Larry normally attends four dances. The attendance has slowed down but the callers we dance to say they will continue calling until there is no more demand for it.

Today's First dance was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry dance with their backs to us and call. They took turns calling five tips to 9 participants. Robin requested to dance more four couple moves so Di called some. She knows it's very difficult to dance with phantoms so she cued us through the moves. Di and Terry did an outstanding job of calling. I had a super time.

Second dance was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 at 11:00 for an hour. Today he had to attend a meeting at 12:30 his time so he only called for a half hour. He called one tip of A1 and two tips of A2 two couples with 12 participants. Larry danced with me. We had fun dancing to Dayle and with friends.

Third dance was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. Ett calls five tips during the dance. This week she had three local dancers and her partner Linda showed up to dance to her while she called virtually. Linda called three of the tips because she is still recovering from a hip replacement operation. Ett called the first and last tips. Linda struggled a bit because she had to read Ett's notes on what she wanted to cover during the dance. It's very hard to call virtually yet alone call for someone else using their notes. But over all she did a good job. We had a total of 22 participants. I had a great time.  

Fourth dance was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30 for two hours. This week Dave Hutchinson showed up but didn't call. He just wanted to dance. The format was two C1 tips, five A2 tips and one C1 tip to close. Dave Eno called all the C1 tips to 7 participants. Greg Moore and Karen Rabe called the first and third tips of A2, Dave Eno called the second and fourth tips and the last tip they all called it together. When it was Dave's turn he called C1 moves because the dancers were all C1 dancers. We had 9 participants during the A2 tips. In between the tips we played some Trivia. I had a fun dancing to Karen, Greg and Dave and with friends.

Get a partner and dance

Larry continued playing with slots stuff.

I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Hard Road Mini of 5 games. It took me 33 minutes and 34 seconds to complete, which put me in 17th place in my group. I continued playing Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

After the last dance we watched the Christmas special episode of Doc Martin. It was very good. Then I watched The Dark Knight (2008). Afterwards I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Tuesday 1-3-23 Dancing, Playing Games & Having Fun

 

We had a beautiful day with the temperature in the low 70s. 

We started the day out by going to Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 19 participants. They did a super job of calling and cueing. During the dance when we get home we celebrate, today I celebrated too hard and knocked a Christmas ornament off the tree, when it hit the floor it shattered so we had to get the broom and sweep it up. I vacuumed the smaller pieces up. Larry explained why we had a broom. Di said they used a broom once to fill in for a dancer. It was fun. We had a great time dancing with friends.

I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and the event. Today the event was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 7 minutes and 56 seconds, which put me in 7th place in my group of 50 players. Then I played some Angry Birds.

After I finished playing the event I played some pinball. I played Attack From Mars, it is fun to play and the sound effects are terrific. 

Off and on Larry is still playing with slot machine stuff. He has a number of games running on various platforms. He is still debating building a machine.

In the evening we started to watch the third season of Miss Scarlett and the Duke on PBS. I was convinced we hadn't watched the third season, I was wrong. Then I started watching The Dark Knight series of three movies we have. The first movie was Batman Begins (2005). It stars Christian Bale as Batman and Michael Caine as Alfred. Then I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,500 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.  

 

Monday 1-2-23 Just Another Monday

 

Happy Monday

We just had another day of having fun.

We started the day attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00. Di called five tips with 20 participants. She worked on vertical tag. Sometimes it's hard to see which way to go when doing this move. I was glad Cindy requested Di to walk through the move. Larry danced with me. We had a super time dancing to Di and Terry and with friends.

Larry continued working on sound upgrades to the pinball machine. Afterwards we played some games and they sounded super. He is not quite done with the sound but he is getting closer.

Playing pinball

I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 17th place in my group. I played Angry Birds. 

I read a bit.

Reading is relaxing

In the evening we watched the fourth episode of Midsomer Murders. When Larry went to bed I watched Spider-Man 3. Then I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.  

 

Sunday 1-1-23 Happy New Year

 

Happy New Year 

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope everyone had a great. We had another gorgeous day with the high of 77 degrees.

We didn't do too much but hang around the house.

I played my games. I did a Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 29 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 26th place in my group. I played Angry Birds. I read a bit. 

Larry continued working on the pinball machine. Almost everyone who has built a pinball machine has installed two fans that pull air in and two that move air out, this helps keep them cool. Since our machine is a bit smaller, utilizes a smaller monitor, computer, processor and graphics card Larry hoped having a fairly large opening in the back along with a small internal fan would be sufficient in keeping it cool. This has been working well but one of the new games requires the computer to work harder and the computer has been getting hot enough that the internal fan starts running on high, it is very noticeable. Once you move to another game the computer will cool down and the fan with slow. Larry decided it would be best to install a fan to pull in outside air so today he took part of the machine apart, drilled a 3 inch hole in the bottom and installed a fan. He played the problem game for quite some time, the computer fan never turned to high and the temperature inside the cabinet was much lower. 

While he had the machine opened up he upgraded the audio system. He originally built it using one amplifier, two speakers and a bass shaker. He decided to add surround sound so today he added a 7.1 sound card, two amplifiers and a couple of sound induction speakers. You can now hear the flippers and bumpers better, he still needs to add two more speakers (the amplifier for them is installed) but he wanted to experiment a bit before he decides which speakers to get. Adding this equipment also required more power adapters, the machine is filling up. Once he gets the last two speakers and everything installed permanently he will once again have to organize the wiring.

For our New Year dinner we had deviled eggs, ham, potato chips and baked beans. For dessert we continued eating the pecan pie that our neighbor gave us.

New Year's dinner

In the evening we watched Shrek the Third. After Larry went to bed I watched Spider-Man 2 and couple of episodes of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group for the week with the total of 191,099 steps. 

Saturday 12-31 New Year's Eve

 

New Year's Eve celebration

We had a great day. The weather was gorgeous. The temperature started at 43 degrees and got to 76 degrees. It was blue skies.

Gorgeous Day

Larry continues to work/play with the pinball machine. 

I read a bit. I did my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and event. The event was Event: Free Cell Adventure of 20 games. It took me 2 hours, 48 minutes and 58 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group. I played Angry Birds.

While playing Angry Birds my computer crashed, the mouse wouldn't work and the computer wouldn't shutdown. Larry worked on it. He turned off the computer and turned it back on. It still didn't work. He tried the keyboard and the computer worked but when he tried the mouse it didn't. He checked the batteries and they were low, he replaced them and the computer still wouldn't work. Finally he removed the mouse adapter from the computer and reinstalled it and everything was now fine. Thank you, honey.

Di Green and Terry McCann decided to have a virtual square dance at 1:00 to celebrated the new year. It was a Plus/A2 dance with 41 participants. They invited three surprise callers, Betsy Gotta, Karen Rabe and Greg Moore to help them call the dance. The format was Plus, A2, Plus, A2, Plus, A2 and Plus. Di started the dance with a plus tip and a singing call. This was the first time I remember dancing a singing sequence to her and she has a beautiful voice. Betsy called the next tip, which was A2. Terry called the next tip, which was plus without a singing call. Karen and Greg took turns calling the next tip, which was an A2. Betsy called the next plus tip and she did a singing call. Di called the last A2 tip. Di and Terry closed the dance with a plus tip. Terry did the pattern section of the tip and Di did the singing call. I had a super time dancing with friends. 

All dressed up for the dance

Some of the participants

 

Ray and JoAnn from Chicago dressed up for the dance

 

Terry and Di

In the evening we watched Shrek 2. It's an old movie now but I still like watching the Shrek movies. We watched YouTube videos. After Larry went to bed I watched 2002 Spider-Man starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.