Monday 3-13-23 Di and Terry C1 Dance & Playing Games

 

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day. It was cooler than yesterday it got up to 62 degrees with a breeze.

We started the day out by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance at 10:00 for an hour and a half. Di called five tips to 19 participants. She worked on Linear Action, Triple Waves/Lines/Squares and Triangles. Larry danced with me and we had a super time.

Larry continued working on his arcade machine.

I did the weekly challenge to earn the golden ticket to double my points. Then I moved onto the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Hard Road Mini of five games. It took me 56 minutes and 55 seconds to complete, which put me in 20th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends.

In the afternoon I played a few games on the pinball machine: NBA Fast Break, Playboy and this weeks challenge of Tron where I got a new high of 512,090. I also played a couple of slot games on the arcade machine: Hagar and Lords of the Rings, they both were very good. When playing the games you have to pay attention because the games has different things to do and you have to chose what to do. I had a great time playing.

New high score

Lord of the Rings

 

Hagar

 

NBA Fast Break

In the evening we watched Thor: Ragnarok. After Larry went to bed I watched A Wrinkle In Time on Disney. It was very good. It was about two kids, who travel the universe to find their dad after he disappeared four years previous in an adventure. Then I started the 5th season of Line of Duty on Acorn. It's a detective series. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

Sunday 3-12-23 Day Light Saving, Mowing, Dancing & Playing Games

 

Daylight Saving 

Before going to bed I set the manual clock forward because daylight saving time starts today in the United States. At the end of the month the U.K. starts it. This makes a difference to us because of our virtual square dancing. 

I started the day off by having breakfast. 

The grass in the far back of the backyard is getting tall so after breakfast I decided to mow. The temperature was 60 degrees and there was a breeze. It was a perfect temperature to mow. Larry had to add oil and gas to the mower. It took him a few pulls to get the mower to start.  There was a section where the grass was very high and hard to mow. That area is where the septic system sprays. About 2/3 of the way through mowing Larry refilled the gas tank so I wouldn't run out of gas. I couldn't get all the way to the neighbor's fence so Larry came out with the weedeater. He also treated for fire ants. It took me an hour and a half to mow.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Spider Adventure of 20 games. It took me 3 hours, 32 minutes and 53 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. 

I played Angry Birds and Friends and Angry Birds 2. When I play Angry Birds and Friends I play the events, which is two events. The events change every other day. One of the events ends tonight I'm doing ok in it but I gave up on one of the games because I couldn't get rid of all the pigs. I worked on that game for many hours so I gave up. I still came in 29th and earned gold bird coins. If you have 30 coins you can spin the wheel to win a helping hand in solving the games. I enjoy Angry Birds a lot.

Playing Angry Birds

I ended up attending two virtual square dances. First was Ett McAtee's Weekly C Series at 1:00 for an hour and fifteen minutes. This week Ett decided to call C1 because she had to cancel her Wednesday C1 dance. She called five tips to 19 participants. I attended the dance by myself. She cued us through moves that were hard to see virtually. I had a great time dancing to Ett and with friends.

Second was Loren Smith's Weekly A2/C1 at 7:30 for an hour and a half. He called three tips of A2 to 12 participants, two tips of C1 teach to 10 participants and two tips of C1 to 9 participants. I attended it by myself. It is always a pleasure to dance to Loren because he is so laid back. I had a lot of fun dancing with friends.

Square dancing with friends

Larry kept busy adding games to his arcade machine. He added Dolly, Elvis and two Rolling Stones pinball games. He also added an arcade game called Ice Cold Beer. The new Rolling Stones game has Mick Jagger sliding across the stage and the Elvis game has Elvis shaking his hips, it also has a cute hound dog that jumps up and down. In Ice Cold Beer the object is to get a ball in a particular hole. It's harder than it looks. I had fun playing the games.

Elvis

Ice Cold Beer

Rolling Stones old table

 

 Rolling Stone new table

I also played the weekly challenge, which is Tron 2020. The table is based on the first Tron movie, Tron: The Original. The playfield is very nice and looks more like an old table. I got the high score of 214,200.

The newer version of Tron

 

This weeks Tron challenge

After Larry went to bed I watched The Parent Trap on Disney. Then I finished up watching The Frankenstein Chronicles. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group for the week with 193,149 steps.

 

Saturday 3-11-23 Visiting Louise & Alice & New Soup Bowls

 

Have a happy Saturday

We started the day out by going to Round Rock to visit Louise and Alice. We hadn't seen them since Christmas. We usually go to see Louise every month or two to make sure she' doing ok fixing a few things around her house. 

On the way to Louise's we stopped by Jack 'n' Jill Donuts and bought breakfast. We arrived at Louise's around 9:00. The light switch in the kitchen was not working correctly with Alexa, Larry replaced the switch with a new one. Many of her other switches and plugs also would no longer work with Alexa. Larry discovered that those devices had disappeared from the Alexa settings. He reprogrammed everything and it is all back to working again. While none of these home automation types of things are critical they certainly are convenient. 

We use Alexa for so many things and when something doesn't work we miss it. We use Alexa to open and close our blinds, turn our TV on and off, turn the lights and ceiling fans on and off, change the thermostat, when we leave the house we can have Alexa turn off all our lights and ceiling fans simply by telling her we are leaving. When we get home we can tell her were home and she will turn the lights on that we normally use. Of course we also use her for timers and alarms and to ask questions. There is not a day that goes by that we don't ask her something, sometimes its the weather, or something about a person, or to convert something from metric to English, someone says something cost so many peso's she will convert that for us, many people we dance with are from other countries and will tell us their temperature in Celsius, Alexa can covert that to Fahrenheit in seconds. Oh, I did not know how to spell Fahrenheit so I simply asked Alexa and she spelled it out for me. She has become part of our daily lives. 

Spring is wildflower time in Texas and this spring they are coming out early. There are Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes lining the highways. We have some in our area but just a few miles south they are really abundant. Many years they don't appear until April. Lovely to see.

Louise decided to buy some finger food for lunch instead of a pizza. We had TGI Friday cream cheese stuffed jalapenos and mozzarella sticks. They were good. 

We had a super visit with Louise and Alice.

Our soup bowls have been cracked for a long time. I didn't want to get rid of them because they were the perfect size. While shopping yesterday we looked at Walmart and HEB for replacements but couldn't find any. When we got home Larry went on Amazon and found some that would work so he ordered them. While I was napping today they arrived. They are ceramic with ceramic lids. They're a little larger than the old ones but they will work. The lids don't really fit correctly but they will also work. I tried one out for cooking leftover pork for dinner. It worked out great. It is very difficult to find these types of bowls with ceramic or glass lids, most have plastic lids that you can't use in the microwave.

Soup Bowls

 

The bowl and lid

 

How the lid fits bowl

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Pyramid Mini of 10 games. It took me 40 minutes and 10 seconds, which put me in 13th place in my group. I played some Angry Birds.

In the evening we watched the next Marvel movie, which was Doctor Strange. It was a very good movie. Afterwards we watched an episode of Poirot. Then I watched The Call of the Wild on Disney. It was a 2020 movie starring Harrison Ford. It was a based on the novel The Call of the Wild. It was a good movie about a domestic dog that finds his calling. Then I watched a couple of episodes of The Frankenstein Chronicles. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

Tomorrow Larry will need to install next weeks pinball challenge game for me. He downloaded it before he went to bed. It's a version of Tron that was done in 2020. We did a different Tron game a few weeks back. I played Batman and got a new high score of 212,491,880.

New high score

 

   

Friday 3-10-23 Weekly Shopping and Playing Games

 

Smile and have fun

We had a great day.

We started the day out by going to town to do our grocery shopping. First stop was HEB to do most of the shopping. Then we went across the street to the UPS Store to pick up our mail. Afterwards we went to Walmart to finish our grocery shopping. On the way home we stopped at Jack 'n' Jill Donuts to buy breakfast. 

Shopping at HEB

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 8 minutes and 46 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played a couple of Sudoku games.

Larry installed Elvira, Scared Stiff on our pinball machine. He also installed Rocky & Bullwinkle on the arcade cabinet. After installing the games he tested them. He is still having fun installing games and making them look and work the way he wants.

Today on the pinball machine I played Mission Impossible, James Bond 60th Anniversary, Goldeneye, Dr. No, Scared Stiff, The Tales of the Arabian Nights and Batman. I got a new high score on Batman, it was 109,889,760.

Goldeneye

 

Mission Impossible

 

Scared Stiff

 

New high score

After playing games on the pinball machine I moved over to the arcade machine. I played a couple of pinball games, Rocky & Bullwinkle and Pirates of the Caribbean. I also played a couple of slots, Double Diamond Haywire and Casino Crazy. Larry helped me play the slot games.

Rocky & Bullwinkle

 

Pirates of the Caribbean

 

Double Diamond Haywire

In the evening I attended Ett McAtee's Weekly A2 dance at 6:30 for an hour. This week Ett called four tips of A2 to 16 participants. She didn't work on anything we just danced. I had a fun time dancing to Ett and with friends.

Dancing with friends

After the dance we watched a couple of episodes of Poirot. Then I watched Secretariat on Disney. It was about the famous horse Secretariat, who won the U.S. Triple Crown in 1973. It was a good movie about the love between Secretariat and his owner Penny Chenery (Diane Lane). Then I watched a couple of episodes of the second season of The Frankenstein Chronicles. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

  

Thursday 3-9-23 Dancing with Dayle & Playing Arcade Games

 

Having fun

We spent day just having fun.

We attended Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 dance at 11:00 for an hour. Dayle called four two couple tips to 15 participants and one four couple square tip to 13 participants. We had a super time dancing with friends.

We love virtual square dancing

Before going to bed I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Todays event was The Hard Road of 16 games. It took me 1 hour, 47 minutes and 15 seconds, which put me in 5th place in my group. I did a few Sudoku games and played Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds and Friends. 

I did some housework. I cleaned the bathrooms, dusted and vacuumed the house and did some laundry.

Doing housework

Larry continued working on the arcade machine. I used it to play three pinball games, Spiderman, The Six Million Dollar Man and Cactus Canyon, I also played poker games and slot games. Larry explained how the games worked, things are a bit different than on the big pinball machine.

Spiderman

 

Cactus Canyon

 

The Six Million Dollar Man

 

Wild Cherry

After playing the arcade games I played a game of Batman 66 on the other machine so I could enter a high score. Yesterday, we received an e-mail from my the weekly challenge group. It said the rules have changed and when we take a picture of the high score we have to have our name and date on a card and the picture of the game showing the flippers and the playfield. Today I got a high score of 54,750,990.

New high score

In the evening we watched Black Panther. Then I watched Mary Poppins Returns on Disney. It was about when Jane and Michael Banks are grown up and fight to save their home. It was made in 2018. It stars Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks and Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks. It was very good. Then I watched the 4th season of Luther. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group.

 

Wednesday 3-8-23 Dancing, Playing Games & Project

 

Mostly Cloudy Day

Most of the day was cloudy but in the afternoon the sun came out. It got up to 66 degrees.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. Today the event was Event: Free Cell Mini of 5 games. It took me 8 minutes and 19 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. I played Sudoku games and Angry Birds. 

I attended two virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling 5 tips to 9 participants. I had a super time dancing to Di and Terry and with friends.

Second was Dave Eno Weekly C1/A2 at 6:30 for two hours. The format was two tips of C1, 4 tips of A2 and one tip of C1. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the A2 tips. The last A2 tip Dave, Karin and Greg took turns calling. During the dance 8 dancers participated. In between the A2 tips we did some trivia. I had fun dancing to Dave, Karin and Greg and with friends. 

Larry continued working on installing pinball games on the arcade machine. 

After lunch I napped for a couple of hours.

Afterwards I played pinball, Batman 66, Iron Man, Junk Yard, Tales of the Arabian Nights and Dolly. Dolly is based on a 1979 Bally machine and was covert to virtual. It's a cute game and plays some of Dolly Parton's songs. On Batman I got a new high score of 81,803,600.

Dolly Parton

 

Iron Man

 

 

Junk Yard

 

Tales of the Arabian Nights

 

Batman high score of 81,803,600

After Dave's dance we started to watch Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot on Acorn. We watched one episode of the 1st season. Afterwards I watched Swiss Family Robinson (1960) on Disney. It was a cute movie. Then I watched the last episode of the 3rd season of Luther. I ended up doing 27,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

Tuesday 3-7-23 Dancing, Playing Games & Treating for Bugs

 

Just having fun

We had another beautiful day with a high of 77 degrees and sunshine.

Larry started the day by treating for bugs. He sprayed around the house and on porches using his backpack sprayer. Then he spread granular around the yards. Afterwards he worked on the sprinkler system by capping off the the sprinkler on the side of house. Last summer when our new neighbors moved in we started having water pooling issues on that side of the house, they water frequently and their sprinklers spray enough water to water the little strip of grass we have. We have not started running our sprinklers yet and it is already very wet and soft in that area.

While Larry treated for bugs I attended Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. Di and Terry took turns calling five tips to 14 participants. We just danced and I had a super time dancing with friends.

Dancing with friends virtually

Larry has now completed installing and configuring arcade games (129), fruit games (49) and poker games (7) on his arcade cabinet so now he has moved on to pinball games. 

I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 32 minutes and 53 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I did some Sudoku games.

I played pinball games. I played the weekly challenge of Batman 66 and got a new high score of 49,537.130. I also played Theater of Magic, The Great Houdini, James Bond 60th Anniversary, Queen and a few more.

 

Batman new high score

 

Theater of Magic

 

Queen

 

James Bond 60th Anniversary

 

The Great Houdini

After playing pinball I took a nap.

In the evening we watched Spider-Man: Homecoming. Afterwards I watched The Sound of Music on Disney. It has been years since I watched it and I still enjoyed it. I ended up doing 28,000 steps, which put me in 3rd place in my group.

We might cancel Disney at the end of the month, we already have Acorn and Amazon. We really don't need to pay for another channel. We wanted to watch some of the Marvel movies we don't have and they were on Disney. Disney has been great for me because I have enjoyed watching some movies from my childhood. It is very easy to start and stop these services via Amazon so if we want it back we could simply restart it.