Thursday 12-26-24 Happy Boxing Day, Pinball Cabinet, Diamond Painting & Games

 

Happy Boxing Day

What is boxing day? It is the day after Christmas. It was once a day to donate gifts to those in need but it has evolved to become a part of Christmas celebration. Many people choose to shop for deals. It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in several Commonwealth nations. The bank holiday or public holiday may take place on the 27th or 28th so, that it falls on a week day. Boxing Day is concurrent with the Christian festival Saint Stephen's Day. We celebrated it by staying at home.

Today's weather was morning showers and the rest of the day the clouds stayed around. It was high humidity of 66% and the high of 69 degrees at our house. 

Temperature at our house at 3:00

Larry spent the day working on the mini pinball machine. He worked on the sound in the games. He wanted to make sure the electronics he had installed worked correctly with the installed games. It will take some time because he has to play and work on the games one at a time. He's having a lot of fun doing so.

While Larry worked on the pinball cabinet I played game. 

Before going to bed I did the Daily Challenges in Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 10 minutes and 48 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes. I worked out with four different songs. I played each song three times.

I played Monster Manor twice and Gunpowder Gulch two times. While playing Gunpowder Gulch I did two different multiball (Saloon and Jailhouse Breakout), shots the barrels twice, I cracked the safe and got a silver metal high score. In order to play the Saloon multiball, you had to light up the saloon sign. The Jailhouse Breakout you have to put two balls in jail. While playing Monster Manor I lite up the manor, fought the ghost, I got the skeleton key played two Ecto Balls and stunned the manor. I got a new high score and got a bronze metal. I had a great day of playing bounce arcade.

Gunpowder Gulch final score

Monster Manor final score

 

I worked on my diamond painting of a horse. I got the legs of the horse done.

Horse's legs done

I played seven games of pinball. They were The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Addams Family, Dr. No, Attack From Mars, Black Rose, Godzilla and Big Buck Hunter Pro. When I playing Dr. No I was told I need flipper skills. When I played Godzilla I was #5 high score. 

 

Attack From Mars

 

 

Big Buck Hunter Pro

 

 

 

Black Rose

 

 

Dr. No

Godzilla

 

The Addams Family

In the evening we watched A Haunting In Venice. It's a mystery film base on Agatha Christie Halloween Party. It was a Hercule Poirot. I watched Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and a couple of episodes of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group.

Wednesday 12-25-24 Christmas Lunch, Diamond Painting, Pinball Cabinet & Games

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

We had a super Christmas. We celebrated today with Louise and Alice. They arrived at the house at 8:30 and left at 12:00. We visited with each other and Louise played Medieval Madness pinball. Before lunch we munched on a relish tray (olives, pickles, pepper jack cheese and ham), deviled eggs and goodies Louise brought (fudge, chocolate cookies and brownies). For lunch we had ham, dressing, dinner rolls and mashed potatoes and gravy. When we finished lunch we visited a little while longer before Louise and Alice left to go back to their home in Round Rock. 

 

Christmas lunch

 

Relish tray

Deviled eggs

Goodies Louise baked

After Louise and Alice left Larry continued working on his mini pinball cabinet.

Before going to bed last night (1:30 am) I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. When Louise and Alice left I did the event, which was Event: Spider Adventure of 20 games. It took me 3 hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I played four games of pinball. They were The Nightmare Before Christmas, Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars and The Machine Bride of BOT. I didn't get a new high score of The Nightmare Before Christmas and currently I'm in 25th place in my group. It had been a long time since I played The Machine Bride of BOT and had a great time. 

Attack From Mars

Medieval Madness

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Machine Bride of BOT

So far I have done over 20 diamond paintings. When I completed the first six Larry hung them on the wall. After a comment from Carol the other day he decided it was time to change them out. Today he replaced Lady and the Tramp, Groot, Stitch, Yoda, Disney and Eeyore with Seaside House, Mandala, Tiger, Desert Scene, Sea Turtle and The Eye.

 

The first six diamond paintings

 

The six diamond paintings that replaced the first six paintings
 

 I continued working on the horse diamond painting. 

The YouTube people we follow had their Christmas videos today and wished everyone a Merry Christmas. 

In the evening we watched a special Christmas episode of Call the Midwife on PBS. When Larry went to bed I watched Star Wars Episode II: Attach of the Clones. Afterwards I watched a couple of episodes of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group.

   

 

Tuesday 12-24-24 Christmas Eve Celebration with Louise and Alice

 

Christmas Celebration with Louise and Alice

We had a super day. We started out with the temperature of 65 degrees and the high got to 75. A front came through in the evening with rain. It poured down rain for a bit and stayed around..

Before going to bed last night I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. I did the event, which was Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 15 games. It took me 52 minutes and 4 seconds, which put me in 21st place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I also played four games of pinball. They were The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lethal Weapon 3, Fish Tales and NASCAR. While playing The Nightmare Before Christmas I almost made a new high score for my weekly challenge. I had a great time playing pinball.

 

Fish Tales

Lethal Weapon 3

NASCAR

The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

While I played games Larry worked on his mini pinball cabinet. He received some parts yesterday for the cabinet. He is working on installing two more amplifiers. He needs to make mounts to hold the amplifiers. 

We went to Louise's house to celebrate Christmas, we got there around 2:30. We were there until 7:00. Louise and Alice met us at the door. Larry wore a red shirt, white pants and suspenders. I wore a red shirt, red blouse and Christmas socks. Before dinner we visited and snacked on fudge, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and a relish plate with pepperoni, pepper jack cheese slices, cheddar cheese chunks and pickles. For dinner we had chili, Fritos and corn bread. After dinner we opened our gifts. It took a couple of hours. We got a lot of great gifts from Louise, Shirley (Larry's mom) and Barbara. We had a super Christmas celebration with Louise and Alice.

 

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening gifts for Alice with Louise

 

Larry opening his gifts

Louise opening her gifts

 

We got home about 8:00, just before the rain came. We unloaded the gifts from the car and put them away. Then we relaxed in front of the television. We watched a couple of episodes of the fourth season of Elementary. When Larry went to bed I watched a Christmas movie on Amazon called The Holiday. It was about two single women, who switch homes for the holidays and fell in love. One woman lived in L.A and the other one lived in England. Then I watched an episode of the third season of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in fifth place in my group.

 

 

Monday 12-23-24 Christmas Dance, BLORA, Games, Playing Pinball & Diamond Paintings

 

Smile and have fun

We had a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine. 

We started the day by attending Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly C1 dance at 9:00 for an hour and fifteen minutes. It was a Christmas dance so Di called to Christmas music. Some of the dancers were dressed up for Christmas. Larry wore white pants, red shirt, Santa hat and a red, white and blue belt. I wore a rose color shirt and blouse, rose color belly dance belt and a Santa hat. Di called five tips of C1 to 13 participants. In between the tips we all visited. Michael wore a headband, that was mistletoe and people asked how many kisses he get when wearing it. He said he it doesn't work. So Deborah, Di and I blew him kisses. He caught them and was very happy. He said "I guess it works now". Larry danced four of the five tips with me. Di did an outstanding job of calling and cueing through out the dance. We had a great time.

 

Some of the dancers at the dance

 

Larry spent most of the day playing pinball on the mini pinball cabinet.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 32 minutes and 44 seconds to complete, which put me in 9th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes.

I played Asteroid Outpost and Pirate's Plunder three times. While playing Asteroid Outpost I energized a module in ship and mined the asteroids a couple of times. I didn't get a new high score but I'm getting better playing the game. While playing Pirate's Plunder I got a golden metal and a silver metal and a new high score I fought my enemy and sunk their boats twice and received a skull. I did the Skeleton Swarm and raised the flags twice. I had an outstanding time playing. 

 

Asteroid Outpost

 

Playing Pirate's Plunder

 

My score broken down

 

Pirate's Plunder

 

I played a couple of games of pinball, which were the weekly challenge of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Star Wars.

Star Wars

Every year Camp Cavazos (used to be Fort Hood) puts on an outstanding Christmas light show on Belton Lake called BLORA Nature of Lights. It is a five and a half mile trail, which takes you through the park where you enjoy beautiful light displays celebrating the Christmas season. They also have Santa's Village, where you can browse vendor booths, buy crafts, have refreshments and get photos with Santa. There a Santa's Depot, where you can see another trail of light, which can only be seen via a locomotive train (additional cost of $5 for adult and $3 for children 11 and under. 

We hadn't been to this event for years and Larry surprised me by taking me there after dinner. It cost $20 for a car and $35 for mini-vans and trucks. It took us about 45 minutes to drive through the trail. We had a super time seeing new and old displays.

 

Entrance to the trail

 

Nativity 

 

Budweiser display

 

An RV display

 

Mrs. Claus baking cookies for Santa

 

Helicopter (Fort Cavazos) display

 

Military tank display

 

Joy to the World

 

Santa going shopping

 

When we got home we watched a couple of episodes of Elementary. After Larry went to bed I watched Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace. Then I watched a couple of episodes of the 3 season of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 6th place in my group.

 

 

 

  

Sunday 12-22-24 Home Project, New Challenge, Diamond Painting & Games

 

Christmas shopping

It's almost Christmas (three days) are you finished with your shopping ?

When we built this house the only rooms Larry did not wire for Ethernet was the bathrooms and the dining room. He simply thought those rooms would never need it. Over the last few years he has used the dining room table while working on computers, Raspberry Pi jukeboxes and now the mini pinball machine. To hook them up to Ethernet he has been stringing a cable all the way through the kitchen to the dining room. Today he decided to fix that. He added a Ethernet jack at the corner of the dining room. To do this he ran a cable through and over the kitchen cabinets coming out right above refrigerator which is next to the dining room. He still needs a cable but now it's not running through the kitchen. This took a good part of the day.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event" Two Games Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Spider and 5 Free Cell). It took me 1 hour, 21 minutes and 6 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

I worked on the diamond painting (horse) in between playing games.

I worked out with the Synth Riders for 45 minutes.

 

  Working out

I played with Bounce Arcade for about an hour, which was the Monster Manor and Gunpowder Gulch. While playing both games I got a new high score and bronze metal. When playing Monster Manor I lite up the manor, fought the ghost, played two Ecto Balls and stunned the manor. When playing Gunpowder Gulch I cracked the safe. I had a great time.

Cracked the safe in Gunpowder Gulch

My final score in Gunpowder Gulch

Fighting the Monster Manor with the Ecto Balls

Stunned the manor

Final score in Gunpowder Gulch

I played pinball five different games of pinball. I did last week's challenge Theatre of Magic before it went away and got a new high score of 1,218,687,320, which put me in 26th place out of 65 participants. I played the new weekly challenge, which is The Nightmare Before Christmas. We already have the game so Larry changed the number of balls from five to three for the challenge. My first high score in The Night Before Christmas was 16,944,150, which put in 9th place in the group. He changed the balls back from three balls back to five balls in Theatre of Magic. The other three games were Cirqus Voltaire, Monster Bash and Iron Man. When I played Cirqus Voltaire I played two players and both of them I joined the cirqus. The other two games I did ok. 

Cirqus Voltaire

Iron Man

Monster Bash

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Theatre of Magic

For dinner we tried something new, El Monterey Beef and Bean Chimichangas. I cooked them in the air fryer and they came very crispy and tasted good. 

Dinner

In the evening we watched a few episodes of Elementary. When Larry went to bed I watched Frosty the Snowman and a finished watched the second season of Everwood. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 4th place in my group for the week with 126,227 steps.