Olympics - Vampire - Bibles - Hacked - Springfield Competition

 Shiloh, IL  (Hi 51  Lo  29)

The next two weeks I'll be watching Olympics. I love the winter sport and it's a nice background when I want to do something else, just listen or watch closely. Nothing else will matter, no news no weather unless there's some big storm coming  in the area.  My favorite is curling and luge. 

Tuesday I met with the vampire. I was at the doctors office in August to establish with new doctor here in Illinois. I had blood taken for diabetes and this was the followup appointment. Every aspect went down quite a bit from August and so did my weight. All is well and I'm pleased with the results. 

I had 15 Bibles that Jim collected over the past few years. He'd sell and buy Bibles and wanted me to bring them from Florida. I sold them all and the gal came and  picked up the last of what I had this week. I kept my own plus my mom's favorite. 

I love the apartment overall but the people (person) above me is quite noisy. All hours of the day and night. I knew I might run across that, at least there's no fighting. I don't want to start trouble so I'm staying quiet, but I think they're lifting weights. I'm on zoom and even the gals can hear it. I'm glad I don't sleep more then five hours a night, they're up as much as I am. They must work from here because it's never quiet. Oh well, it could be worse. 

Another gripe is being hacked. I was informed from several people on social media that I was hacked. It's an easy fix, but still annoying. There's so much of that now days. 

I finished another order this week. This time it's an armadillo. 

So the llama, quail and armadillo are complete. Now to make the manger scene. 

Saturday was a very special day. My "band" friend wanted to go to Springfield, IL for her granddaughters dance competition. I was up by 5:00 to get to her place by 6. It was a dark start, but didn't last long, sun starts coming up at 7:00. The trip is an hour and half and it's a desolate road except for traffic, (on the way to Chicago from St. Louis). We had no problems with the GPS taking us to the convention center in town. There were a lot of people and things started right at 8:00 just as we arrived.   

    The rows of trophies that were presented after the competition (around 8pm) (Click on the photos to enlarge). 

                                         A view of the people. It was on both sides of the gym. 

The competition involved 116 schools in Illinois. The event covered Pom Pom's, Lyrical, (L/C) which is dance, Hip Hop, Flags, Kick, Flags and Jazz. It was sixth grades to Seniors and JC or Varsity. This was like the band competitions we went to in the 80's while both kids were in band. It was so fun to see the talents of each group or person. Each event had solos and the way they walked in told a lot about the person, the confident and the not so confident. You could also tell who has had outside classes, like ballet, or aerobics. The whole day was so fun. O'Fallon performed three times, L/C, Jazz, and Pom.  We left after the last show for home. I don't like driving at night and we wanted to eat on the way back. We stopped in Troy, IL for BBQ. I have never been there and loved it. That will be our go to place on the way to or back from Chicago. 

Here's a few of the pictures from the events. I hope they make state next year, I want to go.

 

By 9:00 the granddaughter texted the results. 

Jazz: 5th place, Lyrical (dance) 3rd place, Overall scores 3rd place 

Now it's time for Puppy Bowl. Sure beats the real Bowl game.