Friday 1-13-23 Friday the 13th

 

It's Friday the 13th

Are you superstitious? I'm not. We had a great day.

I did my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Spider and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 38 minutes and 36 seconds, which put me in 5th place in my group. I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends. 

In the afternoon I played pinball and took a nap.

Larry continued working on a huge file of games.

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2/C1 dance at 6:30 for an hour and fifteen minutes. She called four tips of A2 and one tip of C1. During the C1 tip we just dance the moves Loren Smith had introduced to us on Sunday nights. During the dance she had 18 to 20 participants. I had a great time.

Having fun dancing with friends

After the dance we watched two more episodes of Vienna Blood on PBS. Then I watched Thor: Ragnarok from our dvd collection. Afterwards I started watching the 3rd season of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Relaxing in front of the television

Thursday 1-12-23 Booster, Dance & New Grand Champion Score

 

We had a cold windy day with the high of 61 degrees at 3:00. The wind was a strong north wind of 23 mph.

We started the day by attending Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 dance at 11:00 for an hour. He called four two couple tips and one four couple tip with 12 participants. We had a super time.

I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. I did today's event, which was Event: Easy Street Mini of 15 games. It took me 27 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played Angry Birds. 

I'm very excited. Playing pinball I got a new Grand Champion score of 31,755,510 on Tales of the Arabian Nights. The goal of the game is to collect seven jewels and battle the genie to free the princess. The princess was captured by the genie and put in a bottle. Once you get the jewels you have to defeat the genie. I collected all the jewels and went to battle with the genie. I got all the way to the end but the genie defeated me. So close, what a fun game. 

Playing Tales of the Arabian Nights

 

Old Grand Champion score

 

New Grand Champion score

Larry is working on some computer stuff. He got this huge file of some games and the computer he is running it on ran out of space. He ordered a new drive from Amazon and it didn't fit correctly, it fit fine in another computer and a backup device but there were components on it that did not allow it to sit flat in his laptop. He found a drive at Best Buy that will fit so we went to town to pick it up.

Before getting the drive we stopped by Walmart in Temple to do our weekly shopping. Next stop was The Home Depot to pickup a catch for the pinball machine legs. Then we walked over to Best Buy for the memory. Next stop was the Walmart in Belton to pick up a prescription for my tooth paste, we also got our third Covid booster shot. Then we walked across the parking lot to pick up out mail at the UPS Store.

We watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched the last episode of the third season of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then we started to watch the third season of Vienna Blood on PBS, two episodes. Afterwards I watched Thor and an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which kept me in 3rd place in my group.

 

 

Wednesday 1-11-23 Dance Day & Willy Wonka

 

Having fun with family and friends

We had a fantastic day.

I attended four virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. They took turns calling five tips to 9 participants. They did an outstanding job of cueing us through the moves when necessary. I had a super time.

Second was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 at 11:00 for an hour. Dayle called two tips of A1, two tips of A2 and one tip of four couple A2 to 11 participants. Larry danced with me. Dayle is a fantastic caller. He knows exactly where everyone needs to be. He tells the dancers where to go when they in the wrong place. We had an outstanding time.

Third was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. She called five tips with 21 participants. This week she worked on the Finished concept, where you leave off the first part of a move. I had a great time dancing to Ett and with friends.

Fourth was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30 for two hours. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped him call the A2 tips. The format was two C1 tips with 6 participants, four A2 tips with 7 participants and one C1 tip with 6 participants. Karin and Greg took turns calling two of the A2 tips, Dave called one tip and the last tip all three callers took turns calling. In between the A2 tips we did some Trivia questions. I had fun evening of dancing with friends.

Larry spent the day playing with the pinball machine. He installed a Willy Wonka pinball game. Once installed he spent hours re-configuring it to work correctly on our machine. He asked if I would play the game just to make sure it works right and to see if he needed to do more work. The game is a lot of fun. 

The playfield screen

 

The top display

 

Willy Wonka pinball game

I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Klondike Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 4 minutes and 36 seconds, which put me in 8th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

After Dave's dance we watched an episode of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then I watched V for Vendetta from our movie collection. I've watched it many times and I still enjoy it. I watched a couple of episodes of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

  

Tuesday 1-10-23 The Great Houdini & New Neighbors?

 

Happy Tuesday

We had a fun Tuesday. The day started out with a little fog. After the fog went away we had blue skies and sunshine. 

 

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00. Larry danced with me. Di and Terry took turns calling the five tips with 14 participants. They called very well and steady. We had a super time.

I did my Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before going to bed. I did the five Mahjong games I didn't do Sunday. Today's event was Event: Free Cell Mini of 5 games. It took me 17 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 36th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

One of our pinball games is The Great Houdini. It has a lot of graphics and the sound is outstanding. I have the first three high scores and Larry has the fourth high score on the board.

The pinball machine in it's new home

 

High score

The Great Houdini 

I took a two hour nap.

Our neighbors to the south, Jason and Courtney also own the two lots north of us and they have decided to build on them. They hired crews to clear the lots and add a pad for their swimming pool. They decided to construct the pool first, they thought it would be easier since it is in the back and is a complicated two level pool. Today Jason showed us the plans and explained how they plan things to look. We thought this was very considerate of him. It is going to be a huge house, almost 5000 sq feet.

In the evening we watched two episodes of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Then I watched Van Helsing from our movie collection. I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 27,500 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group. 

 

 

Monday 1-9-23 Good-bye Christmas Tree & More

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day.

We started the day out by attending Di Green's C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour. She danced with her partner Terry McCann and called five tips to 17 participants. She worked on the move recycle, where she called facing, box, column and split. She put us in challenging positions but it was fun. Larry danced with me and we had a super time dancing with friends.

 

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire before I went to bed. After the dance I started playing the event. The event today was Event: Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. I ended up only doing 27 of them. It took me 4 hours, 52 minutes and 41 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group. The ones I couldn't solve were Free Cell games two were experts and one was hard. I played some Angry Birds.

After lunch I decided to take down the Christmas tree and put the decorations away. It took me about an hour and a half. Larry helped me put the decorations in the attic for another year. 

Larry moved the pinball machine where the tree was. It fits perfect. Now he has more room in his workroom.

Playing pinball at it's new home

In the evening we started watching the 3rd season of All Creatures Great & Small on PBS. Afterwards I watched Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Then I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday 1-8-23 Grand Champion in Pinball, Dancing & Having Fun

 

Super Day

We had a super day. 

We started the day out by playing games. Larry played pinball and I did my normal games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong and event. Today's event was Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 11 minutes and 38 seconds, which put me in 19th place in my group. Then I moved onto Angry Birds.

I also did my housework and laundry.

I attended two virtual square dances. First was Ett McAtee's Weekly C Series at 1:00 for an hour and a half. This week she invited Di Green to come and help her call C1. They called seven tips with 29 participants. Di called four tips and Ett called three tips. I had a great time.

Second was Loren Smith Weekly A2/C1 at 7:30 for an hour and a half. He had been celebrating the holidays so he hadn't called for two weeks. This week he invited Ett to come and help call the dance. Ett called two A2 tips and Loren called one A2 tip with 16 participants. Loren and Ett called two C1 tips a piece with 13 participants. Usually during the first two C1 tips Loren teaches a move or two but this week he decided we would just dance. I had fun dancing to Loren and Ett and with friends. 

After Ett's dance I played some pinball. I played Tales of the Arabian Nights and had a super game. I got all seven jewels and attempted to save the princess. I earned 23,840,090 points, which made me Grand Champion. I played multiple games and bumped Larry off the top four players. I'm having a lot of fun playing pinball.

Tales of the Arabian Nights

 

My top two scores

 

 

The third and fourth high score

 

My Grand Champion Score

The pinball machine has three monitors; 1) the playfield, this is where the game is, where you hit the ball using the flippers, 2 the DMD, this is used to display the score and give you information as you play, in some games this is animated and in others it is just the score, and 3) the back glass, which depending on the game may contain the score but is normally a static picture. The Tales of The Arabian Nights does a terrific job on all three screens. The playfield is stunning, the DMD has great animations and information, the sound and voices are terrific.

All Three Screens (monitors)

The Playfield

Before dinner we went to town so Larry could get a hair cut. On the way home we stopped to give the car a bath. It had been over six months and it was filthy. We stopped by Today's Car Wash. Now it looks a lot better.

Getting a haircut

After Loren's dance we watched an episode of Death In Paradise. When Larry went to bed I watched Jack Reacher on one of our dvds. Then I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 24,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group for the week with 191,559 steps.

 

Saturday 1-7-23 Playing Games & Having Fun

 

Happy Saturday

We had a very relaxing day.

We spent the day hanging around the house playing games. Larry continued playing with the pinball machine, he installed a new pinball game called Tales of the Arabian Nights. It is outstanding and has a lot of challenges. The goal is to free the princess from a genie. The sound and graphics are terrific. Out of all the games we have the graphics on this one are the most impressive.  

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. I took me 1 hour, 23 minutes and 43 seconds, which put me in 12th place in my group. I played Angry Birds.

Angry Birds

I also read a little bit.

We watched YouTube videos.

In the evening we watched a movie on Freevee called Jumanji. It was a 1995 movie staring  Robin Williams, Kristen Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth. The story centers on a supernatural board game.It was redone in 2017. It was a good movie. Afterwards I watched Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows from our dvds. Then I watched an episode of Rockford Files. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.