Loki Diary: January 01, 2001
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Slept in till 7:30 today. Worked on status reporting out the serial port, now when the ?S1
command is issued we get a serial dump of key program variables including low and high limits,
current temp, power status and some timers.
Loki Diary: January 02, 2001
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Joe took the car last night to visit Caroline and didn't return until 7:30 this morning. He has a 2PM
flight back today. Drove him to the airport leaving at 12:30 - had to get gas at McDonalds
before going since Joe ran it below empty last night. The plane left on time at 2 PM for
Baltimore but we heard the BWI to PIT flight was delayed 3 1/2 hours. We heard next day
that Joe rebooked via Northwest in Baltimore and arrived in Orange county only a half hour
later than first planned.
Loki Diary: January 03, 2001
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Spent the afternoon at Mico. Gooing over problems of the 900 mhz design. Talked to Jim in the
morning - he wants to go full bore on the bluetooth design. Dinner was steak sadwiches.
Loki Diary: January 04, 2001
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Spent most of the day working on the Bluetooth schematic. A digging crew showed up today and
dug up the shoulder and road edge in front of our house to repair a water main leak. Dinner was
tuna and peas on toast with a salad. Made a trip to the PO to mail thank you notes and my
Mastercard bill - parking lot was incredibly busy.
Loki Diary: January 09, 2001
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Jim toured my office and shop this morning and also brought a new guy around he was
interviewing. In the afternoon I worked on understanding some Bluetooth flows. Dinner was
homemade chili. Afterwards we went to a Bluetooth book signing at Barnes and Noble in Cary.
Loki Diary: January 10, 2001
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I woke with a really bad headache this morning. Spent the morning sleeping on the couch
downstairs while Lib went to Breckinridge Orchids in Burlington.
Loki Diary: January 13, 2001
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Cleaned up a lot of papers in my shop - threw lots of stuff away.
Loki Diary: January 14, 2001
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When Lib came back from the greenhouse today we cleaned the attic and took a carload full to
the dump. It was mostly skis, bottles and papers. Also burned a lot of old tax forms and financial
papers from the 80's.
Loki Diary: January 15, 2001
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Went for a 9:00 meeting at Mico today. This killed the morning. Jim told the guys we're going full
bore onto Bluetooth, all 900 Mhz stuff will stop.
Loki Diary: January 16, 2001
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Two NC State students toured my lab today at 3:15. I showed them Ericsson and CSR setups.
Loki Diary: January 17, 2001
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Bill came over this morning. He wants to get rid of Yuda and shake things up at Mico. I worked on
a document detailing setting up a bluetooth connection.
My cardbus ethernet card came from Access Micro today. It seems to be more reliable than the
National card I had that hung up quite a bit.
Loki Diary: January 18, 2001
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Tried doing some Flash update and persistence updates on the CSR tool this morning. No luck.
Received the gas bill today - the last four weeks has been $280 or $1.08 per therm.
Loki Diary: January 21, 2001
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This morning did some bluetooth reading and traces. Spent a lot of time on eMail back and forth
over processor selection. In the evening we watched the Golden Globes. Went to bed at 10. Found
out there was a super ECM today from DTV. Our emulator kept working.
Loki Diary: January 22, 2001
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Got a disturbing call this morning from Bill Jefferson - he was steadfast that we were going to use
the Motorola processor. Went to Mico at 2 PM and had a meeting - we settled on the AVR chip. Bill
Backus was checking the wiring of the Ericsson chip which had come back from Valcor.
Loki Diary: January 23, 2001
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Had to go to the dentist this morning. Afterwards went to Mico to debug the Ericsson boards - got
one working. Left there in rush hour traffic at 5:15. Lib spent the day in Burlington visiting Linda
and also Breckinridge Orchids.
Loki Diary: January 24, 2001
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Woke up with a headache this morning. Bill Henthorn called at 8:30 looking for me to come in to
debug the Ericsson Bluetooth. I left at 10:30 for Mico but when I got there Yuda didn't have the
Palm code ready for debug. Worked on an HCI analyzer until Yuda had the code ready.
Loki Diary: January 26, 2001
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An interesting day so far. Bill Henthorn called this morning about our lack of progress on the
layout. I called Jim Clary but he was at a Dr appointment. We finally met with Jim at 2 PM to
discuss what has been happening this week regarding Bill Jefferson. Not sure it did any good
because we now have another meeting Monday morning at 10 regarding this stuff.
Loki Diary: January 27, 2001
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Spent the day cleaning up the Pad program. Got it to be recognized in the Bluetooth
neighborhood.
Loki Diary: January 28, 2001
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I tried HCI data transmitting today but the Bluetooth-Scenix lashup is intermittent. Greg and Jim
came over this afternoon under the pretext of looking at Bluetooth hardware. They looked then
spent the rest of the time talking about Bill Jefferson. The problem we have been having may be
resolved. Bill called tonight with emulator problems. He called during superbowl halftime.
Loki Diary: January 29, 2001
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Went to Mico this morning for our 10:00 meeting and Bill J didn't show up. Jim told Bill H and I
that we're in charge and he'll find other things for Jefferson to do. Spent a few hours there came
home with new plan - going to build an AVR prototype. For dinner ordered Wonderful Chicken to
go.
Loki Diary: January 30, 2001
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Went over to Mico at noon and had KFC lunch with company. Spent the rest of the afternoon
waiting for my prototype to be finished. Took it home and worked on 'C' code until 9 PM. Had the
rest of the wonderful chicken for dinner.
Loki Diary: January 31, 2001
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Worked on 'c' code until about noon then headed to Mico. Spent the afternoon setting up the
environment on the lab machine at Mico then left at 4 for the airport. Arrived at Terminal A about
4:30. Met a pretty college student while waiting. She flew in from Brussels. Unfortunateley Lib
was at the other end of Terminal A and I didn't find her until 5:20. We creeped home on Evans Rd
and went to Waverly Place and had a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and Sam Adams at Red Hot
and Blue. Deposited the rent checks and some rebate and refund checks while there at the Credit
Union ATM.
Loki Diary: February 01, 2001
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Worked on Uart code all day. Dinner was spaghetti and Winn Dixie french bread. Also entered all
the data into quicken for the checks I wrote and ATM deposits yesterday.
Loki Diary: February 04, 2001
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Switched to the IAR compiler today. Went to Sams at noon for a quick grocery buying trip. Spent
the rest of the afternoon learning about compilers.
Loki Diary: February 05, 2001
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Stopped by Mico to look at Jim's Tactel adapter for the Palm.
Loki Diary: February 06, 2001
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Worked on the uart in the morning then had chinese lunch at Mico. Left there at 3 and stopped
into the new Home Depot on the way home - purchased an outlet strip and a/c filters. Dinner was
spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: February 07, 2001
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Spent the day at home trying to get the uart working. Talked with Bill Henthorn in the afternoon.
I'll go into Mico tomorrow to resume debugging. Dinner tonight was chicken wings with sweet
potatos.
Loki Diary: February 08, 2001
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Went over to Mico and spent the day there. Had a meeting from 2 to 4 to discuss tasks. I don't
think anything came of it.
Loki Diary: February 09, 2001
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Finally got the soft uart going this mroning. Also finished the W-2 and W-3 forms for Bluebird.
After lunch we went to Blooming Orchids to deliver. It's a warm day - almost 70 today. Dinner was
grilled pork chops with white wine and baked potato.
Loki Diary: February 11, 2001
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We are supposed to get an ice storm tomorrow. Went out and filled the Taurus gas tank just in
case. Worked on the UARt all day - no response from the Ericsson. Dinner was our usual pizza.
Loki Diary: February 14, 2001
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Spent the day at Mico today debugging the Ericsson interface. Came home and Lib and I went to
Alltel and bought two cell phones. Dinner was turkey burgers and the Russel Stover I got Lib for
Valentines day.
Loki Diary: February 15, 2001
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Spent the dat at Mico. We got the PAD wiring straightened out - it was screwed up. Also got the
PAD uart working.
Loki Diary: February 16, 2001
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Stayed home today - did a credit union trip and a stop into Walmart. Later on we stopped into
Alltel and got new batteries for Libs phone because the other ones wouldn't charge. Lib made
salmon over fresh pasta for dinner which we had with Chardonnay. I watched Hollow Man on PPV
late at night. A poor movie.
Loki Diary: February 17, 2001
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Met Brian this morning at 10 AM Lake Boone Trail to pick up the AVR emulator. On the way home
stopped at Best Buy and got a Palm cradle and a VCR. Listened to Italian in Algiers on the Met
broadcast then went for a walk around the block after the opera quiz. Dinner was pork chops
cooked as Spare Ribs with baked potato and Ravenswood Zinfandel wine.
Loki Diary: February 18, 2001
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\Worked on learning about PALM this morning - installed Palm desktop & cleaned up apps. We had
a quick Sams run - they're rebuilding the store. Nice day outside but cool around 40. Tried using
the emulator to debug the Mico code this afternoon. Dinner was meatball pizza.
Loki Diary: February 19, 2001
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Went over to Mico at 9:30 today. Fixed the Ericsson reset problem. Came back at 4:30 - we had
leftover ribs and baked potato for dinner. Today is a holiday - no mail, no stock market. Have
been thinking of buying some Cisco or other tech stock which have been beaten up badly lately.
Loki Diary: February 20, 2001
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Spent the morning taking Bluetooth connection traces. Left at 12:15 for the Atmel seminar at the
Holiday Inn. Spent the afternoon at the Holiday Inn - took the seminar and got a free development
kit. Dinner was spaghetti, meatballs and salad with french bread. Lib went to an exercise class
tonight - I downloaded Pink Floyd the wall. Snow is in the forecast for Thursday but nobody knows
for sure.
Loki Diary: February 21, 2001
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Spent the morning doing some stock research on the web. In the afternoon started trying some
Bluetooth connection scenarios. Finally managed a connection to the other Ericsson device and
started rolling some interpretation into the Bluetooth Epxlorer. In the evening we had wings and
rice for dinner then watched the Grammy pre-show with Joan Riers and daughter. Afterwards we
watched the Grammys.
Loki Diary: February 22, 2001
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Today is an el crappo day. I had to go to Mico in an ice storm to interview a candidate. It wasn't
supposed to stick to the roads but it did. Went out to the Governors Inn for the lunch buffet to
take Brian out. Lunch was $14. Left in the late afternoon - the roads were only wet but the trees
and grass were still icy.
Loki Diary: February 23, 2001
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Stayed home today and worked on the Bluetooth prototypes. The make connection thing seems to
be unreliable. For dinner we went and got a quart of chow mein and had it with some of Lib's
chicken breast on top and a bottle of Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: February 24, 2001
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A beautiful day. I had a breakthrough on the Bluetooth stuff - finally am able to make reliable
conenctions. I wasn't waiting long enough for the connection to complete. My ears are plugged
today - Lib has a sore throat. We put the shade on the greenhouse in the late afternoon after
Felicia left. Felicia was here helping do the letters for the convention and stayed for lunch.
Dinner was steak with Deloach Zinfandel. Fell asleep listening to WCPE on the radio.
Loki Diary: February 25, 2001
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Worked a little fighting the emulator this morning. Spent some time donwloading YoYoMa Tango
album from Napster then back to the PAD code. Fixed a few errors with the pointers and state
machine ariable but still doesn't work. The Bluetooth connection works great for a change. Lib
had a cough today and I still had some ear stuffiness. Went to Advance and bought an engine
computer scan tool. Found my error code was the cam position sensor. Reset the error and
everything is OK.
Loki Diary: February 26, 2001
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Drove to Mico this morning but the engine light came back on. Turned around and checked the
computer readout at home - it was the position sensor again. Reset the error code but it came on
again at Mico. Lib is pretty sick today with a hacking cough. Dinner was a Krogers salad and soup.
Loki Diary: February 27, 2001
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Started working at home then spent the day at Mico debugging the Bluetooth solution. Lunch was
Philly cheese steak at Mico. Lib still has her cough - dinner was chicken soup.
Loki Diary: February 28, 2001
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Spent the morning working on the Taurus - the Cam Position sensor was toast. The magnet in the
center had fallen off and the plastic post supporting it had disintegrated. I don't know how the car
ran. Rotated the tires and cleaned out the car then went to Krogers for windex and a lunch salad.
Washed the car windows then packed up to go to Mico. Helped debug a cable there a little bit
then went home via the credit union. Got some trip money and deposited a rent check.
Loki Diary: March 01, 2001
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We left at 7:10 this morning with a stop in Florence for breakfast at around 9:30. Got some gas at
1.29 then stopped in Savannah for Barbecue sandwiches at 12:30. Traffic was OK except from
Jacksonville to I-4 in Daytonna. It's bike weekend again but we didn't see a lot of bikes. Arrived at
the Hampton in Vero at 5:15 PM. Bought 6 pairs of shoes in the outlet mall then had spicy grilled
catfish with salad and baked potato in Cracker barrel. Dinner for two with tip was $23.
Loki Diary: March 02, 2001
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We got up at 7:12 and had the Hampton breakfast - all the food is now wrapped in plastic. This
didn't effect my bagel but the danish was soggy. We got going at 9:17 and had one stop in Boca
for gas and McDonalds. Arrived at the convention center at 12:00. Parking was difficult but we
managed after going around a few times. We toured the orchids then had pizza down the street.
$7.50 for 2 slices and two drinks. We stayed until 6, taking in one lecture on orchid CD Roms
where I bought a CD of Ecuador for $55. It was done in Macromedia Flash so everything is limited
to 640 x 480 but it's acceptable. We stopped at McDonalds at the other end of Alligator Alley at
8:52 PM, got gas and a chicken sandwich. Made it to the Island Reef at 10:45 PM. I can't find one
of my Flash cards.
---------------------------------
Our list:
1 white gift phal Odom
Carib 2 pink phals dtps. amanda mary carib gift phal, phal robt brown carib
Odom Phal sun prince x chihsang stripe
Potent terra haw yuan gold "Normans"
blc tzeng wen beauty catelya "Normans"
Golden zel cat "Normans"
Pot. chatoyant Montclaire red cat "Normans"
Carmela flask minipurple x robt strait
ren. memoria marie killlian compot Carmela
lc minipurple "tamani" x toshi akoie cat Carmela
pot terra x free spirit carmela cat Carmela
Hawaiian Island Dendr. copper queen x takami kodama
Hawaiian Island Dendr. ekapol King Dragon
Hawaiian Island Rhym gigantia spots
Loki Diary: March 03, 2001
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Woke up at 7. After cereal for breakfast, Lib and I walked North for 1 mile. Afterwards I did an
Ace hardware trip to get a clip for the master bath panel that holds the toilet paper roll. Did a
Publix runthrough with George - I paid. We got 2 lbs of Salmon for dinner. Went to the Selby plant
sale with our membership - signed up for a magazine called Florida Gardener that concentrates on
South and Central Florida. After Selby I checked eMail and made a reservation for Hampton
Brunswick. The weather here is perfect but up North there is a major snow storm forming with
North Carolina on the edge of rain/snow. Lib cooked our Salmon while the sun set. We had
Chardonnay on the pool patio while the sun set and the salmon cooked.
Loki Diary: March 04, 2001
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Slept in today - didn't get up until 7:30. After breakfast took a walk South. Had an orange for
lunch because I wanted to eat light for the Opera. We were supposed to leave at noon for the
opera but the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain horizontally with 30 to 40 mph winds.
The screens were ripped out of a unit in A building. We left in the pouring weather and navigated
Midnight Pass which was flooded. We took Tamiami because Midnight Pass was flooded badly. The
opera, Falstaff, was outstanding. It's unlike Verdi but keeps moving along. Sarasota did a super job
on sets.
Loki Diary: March 05, 2001
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In the morning it was very windy so we didn't go out for our walk. I made a hardware store run
and got a new A/C outlet for the living room. At 11:15 we left for the Flying Bridge where we met
Herb and Mildred for lunch. I had clam chowder and a crab salad sandwich. We lingered a while at
the lunch table then headed back. Left for Brunswick Georgia at 3:30 PM. Stopped for gas at 1.39
at the Mobil near the bridge. Arrived at the Hampton in Brunswick at 8:40 PM. We put the orchids
in our room and then walked to the cracker barrel for dinner. I had the chicken tenders with
baked potato and salad.
Loki Diary: March 06, 2001
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Woke today at 7 and went downstairs for a bagel and powdered sugar donut breakfast. There was
a christian school 7th grade class of girls staying at our hotel. They were from Columbus and
visiting historic sites. We got gas across the street at Raceway for 1.22 and got on the highway at
around 8:30. Stopped at Walterboro for bathroom and coffee and then lunch at 1 in Lumberton
NC. Got home about 3 after stopping at the post office for mail. Driving was very windy but traffic
was light due to the winter storm in the NorthEast. Dinner was spaghetti with meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 07, 2001
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Left early this morning to go to Mico. Traffic was heavy so I took 751 and arrived at 7:45. Fooled
around with the CSR card but it doesn't look alive.
Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 08, 2001
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Arrived at Mico at 9:00 this morning. Tim from Stonestreet was there. After we fooled around
with the CSR card he decided to do software while I debugged hardware. The oscillator doesn't
seem to be running.Carolee brought us lunch from Schlotskys - I had an Original on sourdough.
Left there around 4:30. Called Lib on my cell on the way home. Dinner was barbecue chicken
with wild rice.
Loki Diary: March 09, 2001
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Went to Mico later today - around 9:00. Changed the crystal on the CSR and the card now loads
reliably. Still no response. Went out to Wendys at lunchtime with Bill and Tim from Stonestreet. I
had the single combo which is a singlle with fries and drink. Left there at 5. Dinner was China
Chef Wonderful chicken.
Loki Diary: March 10, 2001
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Spent some time online with Naked News today. Did some reading and ordered a disk drive from
Buy.com with my etrade gift certificate. Went to Fresh Market during the opera and got some
stuffed mushrooms and marinated salmon for dinner. After dinner we watched Toy Story 2.
Loki Diary: March 11, 2001
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Read the paper and did market research this morning. On the way from Sams we stopped at the
Credit Union where I deposited my variable pay check - this is going to eTrade tomorrow. Went to
Mico this afternoon to see what Tim from StoneStreet had accomplished.
Loki Diary: March 12, 2001
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Went to Mico early this morning to work on the CSR card. It's not respponding now - possibly
blown up with too high a voltage. Bill Bakkus found a solder ball that was not touching. May have
a manufacturing problem. The market crashed today - down 437 with Cisco down to 18.
Loki Diary: March 13, 2001
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The market recovered a little bit today. Went to Mico early again to work on the Bluetooth stuff.
Tried to get the CSR stuff working but it was too confusing because of the interruptions. In the
evening I studied the state machine to figure out what was going on. It looks pretty
straightforward.
Loki Diary: March 14, 2001
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Spent another wasted day at Mico trying to get the bluetooth going. Dinner tonight was Voila.
Loki Diary: March 15, 2001
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Went early to Mico - still can't get the processor to run. Brian stopped by at noon time. Left there
at 3. Did some research on stocks and funds the rest of the day. The market is down over 1000
points this week. I'm looking into some index funds as well as Cisco which is in the high teens. I
like QQQ and XLK as stock index funds and also Vanguard 500 (VFINX).
Loki Diary: March 16, 2001
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Spent the day at home researching weather sensors. Ordered some Dallas humidity sensors. We
left at 2:24 for DC and encountered light rain from Richmond on North. Traffic was heavy but we
kept moving until the beltway where it was stop and go rush hour traffic. Arrived at the
Guenthers at 7:30 PM. We had bruces homemade pizza and wine for dinner.
Loki Diary: March 17, 2001
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After breakfast Lib went to her violet meeting North of Silver Spring and Bruce and I went 30
miles away to Davisonville to look at pellet stoves. It was a very informative demo of the
technology. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at a Fresh Food Supermarket and bought a chicken
wrap sandwich. Dinner was barbecue pork chops with roasted veggies and salad with Korbel
Cabernet Sauvignon champagne. Later we watched the movie "Becoming John Malkovich" and had
brownies and ice cream for desert.
Loki Diary: March 24, 2001
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Listened to the opera this afternoon then called in a request for Purcells Trumpet Voluntary into
the WCPE Saturday night listener request show. Lib made some ribs and baked potato for our
anniversary. I bought a small cheesecake at Winn Dixie. Wine with dinner was Fetzer Cabernet
Sauvignon on their Bonterra label that we picked up in California.
Loki Diary: March 25, 2001
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Our 29th anniversary. Worked on scanning slides most of today. Also did some research on the
stock market and one wire weather devices since my one wire humidity sensor arrived last week.
At 6 PM went downstairs and watched the pre Oscar red carpet show hosted by Joan Rivers then
the oscars afterwards. Dinner was plain pizza.
Loki Diary: March 26, 2001
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Went into Mico this morning at 10 and stayed until noon. Came home and resumed scanning
slides. Dinner was the left over anniversary ribs with baked potatoes.
Loki Diary: March 27, 2001
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Stayed home scanning slides all day. Quality is not bad but there is a streak running down each
image. I don't know if I'm happy with that or not. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 28, 2001
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Met with Jim and Haydon this morning at 10. They want to pay me a lot less for my time at Mico. I
settled for $5k for 300 hours. This works out to only 20% of what I should have gotten. Not very
good. The market is down again - Cisco is at 16 and my QQQ is down to 41. I bought at 43.
Vanguard is probably terrible as well.
Loki Diary: March 29, 2001
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A pretty terrible rain all day today - Sarasota got 8.5 inches, we got about 2 inches.
Loki Diary: March 31, 2001
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Tom Herner came over this morning around 10 to estimate our upstairs heating and A/C
replacement. Afterwards we set up Prokofiev Gambler to record from the Met and went to the
Orchid Show at the Northgate Mall. I was tired and didn't feel like being there. Dinner was grilled
tuna and Lindemans Chardonnay with rice and Brocoli.
Loki Diary: April 01, 2001
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Spent the morning researching duct boosters. When Lib came back from the greenhouse we went
to Sams. Got caught in a wicked storm on the trip home - thunder, lighteneing and hail. I was
worried about car damage from the hail but we got home OK. The ground was covered with pea
sized hail stones. It was a lazy afternoon - spent time sleeping then watched La Boheme taped
from NYC opera a few nights ago. This version is set prior to WWII.
Loki Diary: April 02, 2001
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A beautiful spring day. We took a walk up the street to Tom Herners and picked up the load
calculation. We took the walk because we heard a jack hammer going next door. They seem to be
waterproofing the basement. Worked on the gas lines to the outdoor grill and the back porch. I
punched one hole into the crawl space for the gas pipe, drilled a hole in the deck and punched
half of the second hole to run gas to under the porch. Made a Home Depot run and also Ace
hardware. While at Ace I noticed that natural gas weber grills were on sale. Went back with the
Mini Van after supper and got the grill. Put it together in the Family Room while Lib went quilting.
Dinner tonight was BLT's.
Loki Diary: April 03, 2001
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It's rainy today. To make matters worse, the Dow is down another 300 and Nasdaq is down another
100 to 1600. Not good! I finished the second foundation hole and made a run to Home Depot for
more pipe and fittings. Dinner was turkey burgers with Pasta Salad.
Loki Diary: April 04, 2001
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Ran the gas pipes in the crawl space in the morning. In the afternoon worked on 1065 tax forms
then Lib and I went to the dump, credit union and Walmart (for oil). When we got home I cleaned
the garage and blew the driveway off. Libs' parents arrive tomorrow. Dinner was turkey burgers
and pasta salad.
Loki Diary: April 05, 2001
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Libs parents arrived a little past noon when I was in the backyard using the chain saw. For dinner
tonight we had barbecue chicken but the grill ran out of gas half way through the cooking.
Loki Diary: April 06, 2001
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George and MAry left today around 9. I worked in the backyard cutting logs and cleaning up
around the creek.
Loki Diary: April 07, 2001
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Spent the morning cutting down trees around the Oak in the backyard. Lib came home at noon to
let me know Parsifal was starting early. Dinner was Red Hot and Blue ribs with Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: April 08, 2001
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Spent the morning picking up logs I cut yesterday. Around noon we went to Sams and bought a
ladder and backpack sprayer. Worked on the old lawnmower today and replaced the blade adapter
and put a new blade on. The mower runs great. In the late afternoon we called Vicki for her
birhtday. Lunch was tuna on regular bread.
Loki Diary: April 09, 2001
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Went to Mico today to get my microscope. They still need my helput I'm lukewarm about the idea.
On the way home stopped at Ace and got paint and screening .
Loki Diary: April 10, 2001
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Mixed up some cement and patched around the gas pipe holes I made in the foundation. Painted
the pipes with a throway brush and rustoleum. Dinner was turkey burgers on our new grill.
Loki Diary: April 11, 2001
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Spent some more time learning about the berkley implementation of 900 Mhz. Had the rest of the
turkey burgers for dinner on the new grill.
Loki Diary: April 12, 2001
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Started outside later in the morning and finished up putting the Masonite siding on. Spent the
afternoon researching the Berkeley site about smart dust. Dinner was Ravioli with salad and
bread.
Loki Diary: April 13, 2001
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Went to Home Depot this morning to get a 1x8 x 12 feet for the trim. After measuring and
cutting, it got dark outside and started raining. Gathered up the tools and wood and put
everything inside then it stopped raining. Spent the afternoon with Lib doing Easter grocery
shopping and then bought some plants at Home Depot.
Loki Diary: April 14, 2001
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In the morning I finished putting the trim boards over the siding on the popup in back. Took out
the mower I fixed this week and mowed the ditch out front for the first time this season. In the
afternoon Lib came home from the greenhouse and we had hot dogs on the grill. Listened to
Aridane from the Met and also napped a bit on the floor. Very nice opera. After the opera I went
out looking for a chocolate bunny. None at Eckerds or Winn Dixie. Found some leftover candy at
Krogers. Came home and had baked ham and Korbel champagne for easter dinner.
Loki Diary: April 15, 2001
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Easter. Mom called this morning while Lib was at the greenhouse. It's a fairly nice day. For dinner
we had ham and apple sauce which is our Easter dinner instead of normal Sunday night pizza.
Spent the afternoon doing the taxes. Had to send an additional $610 as well as making a $200
quarterly payment to cover my retirement income which has no taxes withheld. In late afternoon
Lib and I went to the postoffice with the tax forms - it started raining on the way there.
Loki Diary: April 16, 2001
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This morning I went onto the roof and painted the new siding and trim. Then I built two 900 mhz
prototypes and changed my Cisco buy order to buy 300 at $18. The price is currently above that.
In the afternoon I mowed the back yard and did some clean up work on the woods. Tom Herner
dropped the estimate off - $4520 to replace the upstairs A/C and furnace. Dinner was a ham
sandwich.
Loki Diary: April 18, 2001
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Went to Walmart this morning and bought 2 receivers and dish for DTV. I'll use these for an
emulator. The H card is on order from DSS Escrow.
Loki Diary: April 19, 2001
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Left at 3:14 but had to turn around because I forgot my tie. Finally got going and had dinner at
the Cracker Barrel at Frecerick. Used the cell phone to talk to Sue. She said to call when we get
to the potomoc bridge. They were at a day care center meeting. Got to their house aorund 9 PM.
Loki Diary: April 20, 2001
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Left Silver Spring at 9 and arrived in NJ at 12:00. Picked up 4 slices of pizza at Dominics on the
way there but of course Mom had gotten sub sandwiches before we got there. Stopped by Arlenes
to give her the scanner then went to Moms to get ready for the rehearsal. We left at 5:15 - the
rehearsal is at 6:30. Afterwards we had an Italian buffet at Scarpalleni's hosted by Vicki. Very nice
evening.
Loki Diary: April 21, 2001
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Left at 9 for the wedding which started at 10:30. The limo arrived on time at 10:15. Took lots of
pictures. Sat with the Musnicki's during cocktails and then during the reception. After it was over
we went to Vickis' where Barb and Rob were opening presents.
Loki Diary: April 22, 2001
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Left NJ at 8 - waited for Mom to get back from Mass before leaving. Went to the bagel store and
got breakfast for Lib and I. Stopped into Silver Spring for a half hour to retrieve my jacket with
Cell phone and Palm I had left there. Bruce was planting Dogwood and Redbud trees. Arrived
home at 5:30. Lib went to the greenhouse and I went to the grocery store. She returned with a
Patroni's pizza around 7 PM.
Loki Diary: April 23, 2001
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Read up on the hu card and 5th gen receiver. My H card arrived this morning from DSS Escrow.
Burned a few CD's of Elvis, Simon and Grfunkel.
Loki Diary: April 24, 2001
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Spent most of the day on Usenet. Ordered a Hu loader from Milli now that my PayPal account is
active. Dinner tonight was turkey burgers. It started raining in the evening. Planted the Petunias
and cleaned the driveway before the rain.
Loki Diary: April 25, 2001
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Spent the morning editing images and uploading the wedding pix to Toms Porch.
Loki Diary: April 28, 2001
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Lib returned from Virginia Beach today. I went over some of the Paris opions with her. Dinner was
Red Hot and Blue ribs for two with a Red Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: April 29, 2001
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Booked the PAris trip via US Airways today. Made it 8 nights in Paris at the Mercure Tour Eiffel.
Loki Diary: April 30, 2001
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Spent the morning putting together a 1951 birthday CD for Arlene. In the afternoon built an AVSA
convention ad for Lib. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice. Received an MP3 player form
computer geeks today but it doesn't work.
Bought a Digital Wallet on eBay today.
Loki Diary: May 01, 2001
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Went to Barnes and Noble after the credit union today and picked up a coffee table book on Paris
as well as a NY Times full story book.
Loki Diary: May 02, 2001
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Mowed the backyard and cleaned up the front woods today with Libs help. After our chinese
leftovers dinner on the back porch we watched Fantasia on PPV. Very nice music - it seemed so
short.
Loki Diary: May 04, 2001
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Did some Paris reading in the morning then went with Lib to Logans at 12:30. She reserved the
last two crab cakes which they had when we arrived. I bought some sage plants for the perennial
garden.
Loki Diary: May 05, 2001
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Spent the day studying art on the web. Lib brought home 2 small ferns and a large one for the
perennial garden in the front. I did some test photography with the digital camera trying different
jpg quality settings vs different exposure. Dinner was barbecue chicken with paked sweet potato
and chocolate creme cake that was on sale for 2.99 for a half cake.
Loki Diary: May 06, 2001
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After reading the paper started debugging the violet program and also converting it into an art
data base program. I would like one of these for certain artists. Lib came home at 10:3o and after
chocolate cake we went to Sams for wine and to stock up. Had a lunch of Nathans hot dogs then
left at 2 for the opera. Rakes Progress was in the new Fletcher Opera Theater - a very nice small
opera theater. Very enjoyable. Returned home at 6, changed clothes then ordered a Patronis
Pizza.
Loki Diary: May 07, 2001
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This morning I reviewed the Bluebird web site then did a lot of reading on photography comparing
Olympus D500 pictures (my camera) with Kodak DC4800 and Olympus E10 pictures ($2,000. SLR).
In the afternoon Lib and I went to IBM and bought ADF tickets. Went out to lunch at the Panda
Bear on Alexander. Dinner was tomato soup.
Loki Diary: May 08, 2001
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Bought a Kodak 4800 this morning at Garner Walmart. Didn't like the autofocus or low light
handling of this camera, mainly indoor pictures. Returned it in the afternoon at Cary Walmart
with Lib. Picked up a new tee shirt while there.
Loki Diary: May 10, 2001
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Went to Sams with Lib this afternoon and bought an Olympus C-3000 . This camera is $200 more
than one on the internet. Will return it if I like it and order one online.
Loki Diary: May 11, 2001
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Spent the day playing with the Olympus camera and reading photo reviews on the internet.
Loki Diary: May 12, 2001
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Spent the day on the bluebird web site. Finished uploading everything by 5:30 PM. In the late
afternoon we went to Fresh Market and got crab dip and marinated salmon. Had this with 1.5 litre
of Mondavi chardonnay.
Loki Diary: May 13, 2001
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This morning I corrected the Bluebird web site - the arrows were not displaying correctly. Now I
need to add the supplies list and orchid prices.
In the afternoon after a salad with leftover chicken on top. Aftwerwards we went to the flea
market to get hostas and perrenials. Bought 3 hostas for $2 each, 2 coreopsis at 2.95 and 2
veronica at 2.95 each. Did not plant this stuff because I'll get some potting soil tomorrow from
the greenhouse. Dinner was Libs homemade pizza.
Loki Diary: May 14, 2001
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Tilled the new perennial garden spot then picked up soil frpom the greenhouse to till into the soil.
Also hooked up the sprinklers.
Loki Diary: May 15, 2001
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Hooked up rest of drip sprinklers on the hostas today.
Loki Diary: May 16, 2001
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Worked on the web site supplies all morning. It finally rained today after 3 weeks with no rain.
Dinner tonight was crab cakes with macaroni salad.
Loki Diary: May 17, 2001
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Took pictures of violet su[pplies this morning then packed up the camera to return to Sams.
Bought some index stocks before the market opened. Big rally yesterday - Dow closed over
11,000.
Loki Diary: May 18, 2001
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Tom Herner came over at a little after 7 - there was a slight mist. They started in the attic and I
went on the roof to change the smokestack to a vinyl pipe. Had to put in 2 new shingles because
the new boot was smaller. Tom finished up at 7:00 PM - a long day. We had Chardonnay and
stuffed salmon for dinner.
Loki Diary: May 19, 2001
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This morning I buried a pipe for the A/C drain. Lunch was leftover chicken sandwiches. In the
afternoon we went to the flea market and bought 2 black eyed susans which I put into the new
perennial bed. Dinner was chardonnay and stuffed salmon again.
Loki Diary: May 20, 2001
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Read the paper outside this morning. Tom Herner came over to finish some stuff in the attic. I
tried configuring the shopping cart software. When Lib returned at noon we called Mom then went
to Artsplosure in downtown Raleigh. Saw a unique fountain I liked. Enjoyed the day listening to
music and looking at art. We came home at around 3 and had leftover chicken for lunch. The
couple came over to take our barbecue grill away - Lib drove our minivan to their house with the
grill. During the late afternoon I took violet pictures - some of the jpeg files were corrupt. I think
the flash card had a problem - I hope it's not a transfer problem to the digital wallet.
Loki Diary: May 22, 2001
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Had a gas leak at the greenhosue this morning. Went over and shut all the tanks off but couldn't
do one of them. Went home for a wrench but when I returned the propane company had arrived.
They fixed the fill valve which was mis-seated. Dinner was turkey burgers with tomato and vidalia
onion.
Loki Diary: May 23, 2001
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Spent time online studying 900 mhz and avr applications. In the PM I mowed the lawn in the back.
Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice.
Loki Diary: May 25, 2001
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When Lib came home we went to Sams and picked up our groceries and also some stuffed salmon.
Dinner was stuffed salmon on the grill with Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: May 28, 2001
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It was a pretty glum memorial day - rainy all day. Stayed inside playing on the computer all day,
did almost nothing productive all day. Dinner was the rest of the frozen chicken teryaki we got at
Sams a few weeks ago.
Loki Diary: May 29, 2001
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Took Lib to the airport early - her flight was at 9:45 to Chicago. Afterwards stopped at Brueggers
for coffee and a bagel. Dinner tonight was French Bread Pizza.
Loki Diary: May 30, 2001
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Spent a lot of time today researching cameras - decided to get a C-2040. Ordered Kung Tsao
Chicken from China Chef for dinner.
Loki Diary: May 31, 2001
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Faye called thsi morning - nobody is at the greenhouse and she needs 60 Ferns. Went over and
started bagging Ferns - they seem to have a mealy problem. Nancy and Coleman came over and
helped when I was half way through. Finished wiring the hot tub outlet - I'm moving it to under
the sink so the wire isn't in the way. Also want to run water to the outside and speakers and a LAN
to the porch. Dinner was French Bread pizza. Ordered a C-2040 camera this evening from Linden
NJ.
Loki Diary: June 01, 2001
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Called to the greenhouse this monring - Doreen was there. Didn't hear from Libbie yet. Went to
Home Depot and Radio Shack then the skies opened up - there were tornado warnings and buckets
of rain. Watched some Woodstock tape because the rain took out the satellite.Around 7:30
ordered some Moo Goo Gai Pan - didn't like it because there was too much garlic and it was pretty
bland.
Loki Diary: June 02, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse to check on things - everything was OK. Stopped into Best Buy for a
new PCMCIA network card for Libs computer. It was zapped by lightening. There also seems to be
something wrong with the upstairs hub. Worked on the solenoid plumbing but didn't finish. Dinner
was TV dinner barbecue ribs which wasn't too bad.
Loki Diary: June 03, 2001
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Worked on putting the wall back together around the porch sink and also finished the plumbing -
installed the solenoid and outdoor copper fittings. Lib called at noon from Chicago while I was
having polish sausage and potato salad. Left at 3:30 for the airport. Lib called on ,my cellphone
while I was waiting at the baggage door at terminal C. She didn't see me. Got home at 5:00 and
had homemade pizza with Chardonnay and some nachos.
Loki Diary: June 04, 2001
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Balanced the checkbook this morning with the credit union eStatement. This thing is pretty nice
for keeping on top of the checkbook.
Loki Diary: June 05, 2001
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Spent the day painting the skylights on the back porch and also patched some holes and gaps on
the ceiling in prep for painting. Need to get some more ceiling paint from Lowes before doing the
ceiling. This will probably be done tomorrow. It was quite warm - 94 degrees. Ended up turning on
the upstairs A/C for the first time this season. Dinner was turkey burger, polish sausage and
potato salad. Did some research in the evening on pellet guns to control some of the varmints
around here.
Loki Diary: June 06, 2001
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Rollered the ceiling today. Finished the whole thing from one end to the other.
Loki Diary: June 07, 2001
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Went to Walmart this evening to return the pellet gun and exchange it for a working one. Pellets
jammed in the first and after I took it apart I couldn't get it back together.
Loki Diary: June 08, 2001
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UPS tracking is showing that my new camera will be delivered today. Spent the morning near
home waiting for the camera. It finally came about 1 PM. Rollered the East wall with green
Restful Retreat to compare to the Stowe White. Dinner was Teryaki Chicken, Sweet Potato and
White wine.
Loki Diary: June 09, 2001
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Painted windows today and spackled the nail holes on the wall. For lunch I grilled the last of the
Polish Sausage. Spent some time taking pictures with the new camera and learning how it handles.
Learned Aperture priority mode and low light capabilities.
We went to our first ADF tonight - Garth Fagan. It was a very colorful and lively performance.
Very entertaining. Our seats were the uncomfortable balcony at Page. We left at 6:30 to get paint
mixed at Home Depot on the way. The line at the paint counter was long but we left there at 7:04
PM and made it OK - we even parked in front of the chapel.
Loki Diary: June 10, 2001
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Read the paper on the back porch with coffee and bagels then tried to call Mom but only got her
answering machine. Tried Arlene but answering machine. Finally got hold of Vicki and foun that
Mom went to LI for a graduation. Painted the green wall with the Stowe white. Also put a second
coat on the clock wall which was Stowe White previously. It was a long day because I wanted to
finish rollering. The wall after painting still looks dirty - it may need a third coat. We had pizza
tonight. I stayed up and watched Finding Forrester which was on PPV.
Loki Diary: June 11, 2001
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Painted the second coat on the trim and then left for Home Depot to get more paint and a new
kitchen faucet. Went to the greenhouse and replaced the water tank float valve which was stuck
open. This involved a trip to two different ace hardwares. Next step was putting up the trim and
scraping the painted windows. Dinner was turkey burger with tomato and vidallia onion. My new
wallet from Magellan came today. Spoke with Arlene today - she talked about her trip to Poland
last week.
Loki Diary: June 12, 2001
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Lib took the afternoon off and helped me clean the porch. Picked everything up and she washed
the floor. Dinner was a turkey burger then we went to John Jasperse dance at the ADF. The dance
company has 4 dancers who performed to strange industrial sounds and flailed their arms in synch.
Mid way through the two males were nude and did a dance with nude butts. I was hoping the
female dancers would join in but only the men got naked.
Loki Diary: June 13, 2001
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Painted the spackle holes on the trim and also removed the hot tub pump and opened the motor
to get to the seals. New seals are available on Six Forks in Raleigh. Finished washing and scraping
the windows. Took the old ceiling fans down and made a trip to Home Depot to get new white
extension poles but they didn't have 30 inch so I bought white enamel instead. Broke down the old
fan motor and blades for the garbage tomorrow. Dinner was Ravioli which we had while it poured
outside - the remnants of tropical storm Allison. This morning I also went to the Cary post office
to return the thinkpad battery I bought on eBay which was bad.
Loki Diary: June 14, 2001
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Went to Six Forks at 8:15 because Mark the repair guy is only their from 8:30 to 9:00. Picked up
the new seal and put it in the pump. The thing works leak free!
We were supposed to go to Sams but Allison dumped buckets of rain on us so we postponed.
Worked on crown moulding trim. Dinner was tomato soup.
Loki Diary: June 15, 2001
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Finished up washing and scraping windows on the porch then went to Sams and spent $170 on
groceries. Brought home a ready cooked rack of ribs for dinner which we had with Ravenwood
Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: June 16, 2001
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Dinner tonight was pork chops which we bought 2 for 1 at Krogers. Put the cabinet doors abck on
and replaced the skirt on the hot tub.
Loki Diary: June 17, 2001
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Finished the painting - needed a touchup of the crown mouldings. Joe called this afternoon.
Loki Diary: June 18, 2001
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We finished up the porch today!!!! I went on the roof in the AM and washed the skylights. Then
took the ladder and removed a branch over the garden in front. Went inside and washed the
remaining skylights. Mowed the lawn and broke the blade adapter - a quick trip to Ace hardware
and all was well. Bought some once and done at Ace and Lib used this stuff to shine up the
previously scrubbed floor. Dinner was pork chops and sweet potato.
Loki Diary: June 19, 2001
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Built two plywood covers for the floor holes and painted them. Installed one but the one under
sink won't go in until the speaker wires are pulled. My replacement batteryncame from PC Surplus
today. Dinner tonight was a Jersey Mikes sub.
Loki Diary: June 20, 2001
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Pulled wire today for a LAN and speakers on the backporch. dinner was Voila. We have an ADF
performance tonight of Pilobolus. Pilobolus was fantastic. They introduced stilts to dance in a
very talented performance. They did their usual acrobatics and unbelievable superhuman feats.
Afyterwards we stopped for Carolina Concrete (raspberry and chocolate) at Goodberry's.
Loki Diary: June 21, 2001
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Hooked up the speakers on the porch and also ran the LAN wire. Couldn't find any crimp-on RJ45
connectors. Our guidebooks and vouchers came today from US Airways. Did a Sams run this
afternoon and NY Pizza for lunch next to Sams. Picked up Salmon for dinner this weekend. Dinner
tonight was polish sausage on the grill and baked beans.
Loki Diary: June 22, 2001
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Picked Sue up at 10:05 AM. On the way to the airport I renewed the Taurus registration and
browsed watercolor books at Borders. After picking up Sue went to the greenhouse to get Lib then
did a Farmers Market trip. Had a message from Brian about real time clocks on the AVR. I'm going
to put together an app note for this stuff. Dinner was Salmon, snap beans and blueberry pie with
Mondavi Chadonnay. We watched "What Woman Want" on PPV in the evening.
Loki Diary: June 23, 2001
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Went to Brueggers this morning while Sue slept in. Lib did some greenhouse stuff then came back
to be with Sue. I worked on some real time clock code for AVR because Brian has a customer that
may need consulting. I also spent some time putting together a consulting web site on nc.rr.com.
In the evening we had Sams frozen ribs with Mondavi Chardonnay. Lib baked a peach cobbler
which we had while watching Billy Elliott on PPV.
Loki Diary: June 24, 2001
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Hung around the house today - Lib and Sue read on the back porch and I worked on the real time
clock code. For dinner Lib made 3 pizzas. Watched Finding Forrseter on PPV in the evening.
Loki Diary: June 25, 2001
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Took Sue to the airport this morning. Left at 9:05 and arrived at Southwest at 9:27 via the Cary
Parkway - Evans Rd. In the PM met Brian at Centennial campus and picked up an STK500. Plugged
it in at home and ran the demo's. Dinner was grilled Polish Sausage and snap beans. Watched the
ADF produced Dance program on Great Performances.
Loki Diary: June 26, 2001
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Wired up the LCD display this morning then found out the Tiny28 has different configuration than
the 8515. To use the 8515 for testing I'll need to modify the program and move the port to display
wiring around. In the afternoon I spent the time reading the Phil G photo.net site gleaning info
about photographing buildings, people and scenery. Dinner was grilled chicken with new potatoes.
Loki Diary: June 27, 2001
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Moved around the ports in the real time program and flashed the STK500 with the 8515 version
but the LCD is not responding. May have to add the voltages to the contrast control to get it to
work. Left at 7 for ADF - "From the Horses Mouth". It was a very lively and ecletic collection of
characters - 28 dancers total tell stories then do dance routines. My favorite was the tall thin
Pilobolus dancer who when paired with David Dorfman was graceful and elegant as they spun with
him holding an arm and leg of hers. Her graceful form was perfect - body parallel to the floor,
legs outstretched just slightly bent. A defining moment for me. Dinner before we left was tuna
fish sandwiches. Stopped at Goodberrys on the way home - I had a chocolate - raspberry concrete.
The en tire performance was 90 minutes with no intermission but they ocassionally broke up the
format with music, lighting and dancers moving across the stage diagonally.
Loki Diary: June 28, 2001
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Worked on getting the AVR to talk to the LCD display. Finally got it all working in the evening with
the switches to set minutes and hours. Didn't hook up a 60 hz timebase so can't tell time yet.
Dinner was turkey burger with baked beans.
Loki Diary: June 29, 2001
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Went to Atmel this morning to pick up the Tiny 28 AVR samples. Brian got two of them in. Met
some of the people at the Atmel office on the corner of Strickland and Falls of the Neuse. Got the
real time clock working on the 8515 hardware on an STK500 development lit with my LCD display
and an optoisolator hooked to an AC transformer. Was supposed to go to Sams with Lib but she
was late and tired so we didn't go.
Loki Diary: June 30, 2001
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The clock was off by two hours this morning. Found that I was resetting to 0 at 12 instead of 1.
Fixed it and now things work OK. Dinner was Lloyds ribs from Sams and Ravenswood Zinfandel.
Desert was a Sams apple pie.
Loki Diary: July 01, 2001
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Spent some time today putting together a trip plan for Paris.
Loki Diary: July 02, 2001
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Worked a little bit on my irrigation controller, collected some parts to start building one. Dinner
was grilled chicken with cucumber salad and cantaloupe.
In the evening we went to Shen Wei at Reynolds. Very nice - beautiful topless dancers, colorful
dreamlike impressionistic painting. The performance ended at 9:20. Afterwards we stopped at
Harris Teeter and got some Breyers Oreo mint ice cream which was on sale for $3.49.
Loki Diary: July 03, 2001
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Worked on my ADF web pages in the morning - scanning the programs and assembling the reviews.
I don't know why I'm doing this. After this I finished up the Atmel app note. Lib came home from
violet club late in the PM. Dinner was barbecue chicken with white wine and suddenly salad.
Loki Diary: July 04, 2001
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A nice 4th. I spent time studying photography - picked up a shutterbug magazine at Krogers. We
also picked up some chips, hot dogs, bagels and bread. Took a walk before dinner around shepards
vineyard pool. Saw a nice bikini sunning in her front yard. While Lib cooked our chicken it started
pouring - I held the umbrella while she basted and turned the chicken. It was thinder and
lighteneing and pouring unbelievably hard. The backyard flooded like a mountain stream - some of
the logs I put in the creek flooded up. The power went off a few times but in general stayed up.
We had our chicken with wine and sweet potato while it rained. We started watching a Brian
Wilson tribute on TNT but switched to the A&E coverage of Boston Pops and their fireworks. It
was very nice - guests were Arlo Guthrie and Cindi Lauper.
Loki Diary: July 05, 2001
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The generator ran all night. The CP&L sensor got fried by a lightening zap. It took out the
optoisolator and the fuse. Fixed that but found the generator governor lost a screw - it was racing
at high speed. Repaired the screw and topped off the batteries. Took a power walk over to the
Apex reservoir. Lib met me in the parking lot on her way home from exercise class. Dinner was
polish sausage hot dogs and Texas style beans. Enjoyed the evening listeneing to American Opera
on WCPE - Porgy & Bess, Babes in Toyland and other delightful pieces.
Loki Diary: July 06, 2001
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Drove over to the reservoir on the Lake Pine side and walked the greenway around the lake. It
was a very nice day for this.
Loki Diary: July 07, 2001
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Mowed the front by the street today and trimmed the branches there. When Lib came home we
had lunch then did a Winn Dixie trip and parked on the Laura Duncan side of the park. Walked
around the lake, then home. In the evening drilled holes for the switches of the irrigatin
controller. Dinner was sweet potato, barbecue chicken and Beringers Merlot. Very nice wine.
Loki Diary: July 08, 2001
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Spent the day reading some more about Paris then I fixed the irrigation controller program so the
30/60 minute selection worked correctly. It rained all afternoon so our walk today was cancelled.
Dinner was Pizza - talked to my Mom at noon today - she fractured her foot. George and Mary
called during pizza to wish us well.
Loki Diary: July 09, 2001
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Went to the bank this morning and withdrew $800 for our trip. Cut the grass when I returned then
finished packing. The weather may be a little stormy near Charlotte where we get the Paris flight
from. We leave home at 3:00 - Nancy is picking us up. After mowing I also did some wiring of the
irrigation controller switches and powered up the supply to measure voltages. The regulator is
getting a little hot dropping 34 volts to 5 volts. May add a resistor to take the load off it by
dropping some of the voltage.
Loki Diary: July 19, 2001
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Started downloding pictures this morning and waited for the Time Warner guy to replace our cable
modem. It got zapped as well as our downstairs printer while we were gone. Lib was on her liguid
diet today so I picked up a frozen french bread pizza for dinner.
Loki Diary: July 20, 2001
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Took Lib to the hospital this morning for her 8:30 checkin. The called aroun nnon saying she was
done so I went over to pick her up. While she was napping I went over to Barnes and Noble and
browsed books and bought her birthday present - Monet at Giverny. Dinner was chicken and
quiche that Doreen had made. Later had some Lime yogurt to go with it.
Loki Diary: July 21, 2001
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I picked up the mail in the mailbox when I got the paper - forgot to do it yesterday. Wrapped Lib's
present and talked to my mother this morning. She called while Lib was at the greenhouse. Sorted
through the pictures and talked to Vicki later in the afternoon. After lunch we walked around the
Apex reservoir then went to Fresh market for salmon and birthday desert. After that went to the
NC art museum to look at perennials. While there we also visited the arboretum. Took some
digital pictures of textures and colors of flowers.
Loki Diary: July 22, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse in the morning because Lib reported that the phone box was off the
wall because the siding was rotted. The phone is not working. Put a treated 2x4 on the wall and
mounted the box to it. Tested the cable from the street - no dial tone. It's a phone company
problem. Called it in to phone company service. Spent some time reading about WW II in a book
we bought at Sams. The book was a bargain at $10. Dinner was hoemmade pizza - it's been a while
and tasted good.
Loki Diary: July 23, 2001
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Spent the day researching image databases. I want something web based to query an image
collection and return a web page of thimbnail results. This will cover both art photos as well as
personal photography.
Loki Diary: July 24, 2001
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Started writing the image databse application. In the afternoon and evening go interested in WW
II in France and read the NY Times book and also some extensive stuff online. Dinner was rice with
barbecue chicken. The market fell another 200 points today - the DOW is at 10,200. I'm tired of
watching the market fall. Had dental X-Rays and cleaning this morning. Lib had a crown at noon
(my appointment was at 9:10).
Loki Diary: July 26, 2001
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Spent the whole day sorting and uploading pictures to the online services so I can order prints.
Loki Diary: July 27, 2001
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Went to Krogers today and picked up ribs for dinner with baked potato and Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Walked around the Apex reservoir from Krogers parking lot - tried to get a watch battery in
krogers but they didn;t carry them. After our walk drove to Eckerds on Laura Duncan and got a
battery.
Loki Diary: July 28, 2001
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Decided today to order an Epson Stylus 780 from Staples taking advantage of the online coupons
and rebates. Price after rebates should be $80. Dinner tonight was leftover ribs with baked potato
and Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: July 29, 2001
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Worked on doing the AVR using IAR software for the SDK500 Atmel development board. Went to
Sams around noon and picked up another in the WW II series. Have been obsessed with this stuff.
It was a dreary rainy day most of the day.
Loki Diary: July 30, 2001
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Put together a CD using the menu system software in the mroning. In the afternoon we went to
the CU to deposit my $600 IRS tax rebate, then a trip to Sams to get a black ink cartridge for the
Epson 800. Sams didn't have them. On the way home we stopped at the Apex reservoir and walked
around then did a grocery run at Krogers. Dinner was leftover ribs. Read my book in the evening.
During the day the post office delivered the 16 x 20 print of the burgers that I ordered - it's
beautiful. Need a frame now.
Loki Diary: July 31, 2001
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Spent the morning cataloging and soring images. When Lib came home whe had a bag of video
tapes from Doreen about WW II. We watched the Longest Day which was a pretty good movie
about the Normandy invasion. What it was missing was an ending. The director must have decided
that 2 hours are up lets call it quits here. Dinner during the movie was creamed tuna and peas on
toast. Desert later was Kroger store brand yogurt.
Loki Diary: August 01, 2001
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Watched Patton in the morning. The Epson printer from Staples came but there was no CD or
documentation in the package. My pictures also came - there are too many of them. The 16x20 of
monets Lily pond also came - I like this one less than the first - it seems to have some out of focus
areas. I was thinking about a Monet Lily pad series for our wall - all 16 x 20. Dinner tonight was
spaghetti and french bread. After dinner we watched part 1 of Patton. This was the second time
for me.
Loki Diary: August 02, 2001
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Worked on printing 4 x 6's using Pagemaker 7 and the Epson Heavyweight paper I bought in Office
Depot. While out also went to Target and bought an album for our pictures. In the evening Lib and
I made a Krogers run and got Krogers brand Yogurt and bananas. Dinner was left over chicken, ribs
and spaghetti. It was a fairly cool day so I mowed the front and back yards.
Loki Diary: August 03, 2001
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Worked on printing some more pictures then called Staples to tell them all the stuff was not in
the printer. They are sending a new one Monday and will pick up the old one. In the afternoon cut
down poplar trees around the apple tree in back. Worked this afternoon on putting more pictures
in the album. Dinner tonight is Sams ribs we got last weekend and Ravenwood wine. Before dinner
we looked up journals from the previous 4 years to see what we had for dinner on Aug 3 in years
past. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of our mortgage.
Loki Diary: August 04, 2001
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This morning trimmed the Spirea next to the driveway. Came in and read about new developments
for Dishnet and AVR3. RAI has some good opera this month so it would be nice to get a Dishnet
receiver working. In the afternoon worked on finishing up the PAris album except for the
Normandy pix which haven't come yet. Dinner tonight is chicken with baked potato and
Chardonnay. After dinner we walked to Krogers and picked up bagels and yogurt. Breyers is on sale
at 5 for $2. Lib tried dealing with Alltel this afternoon about our bill but they kept insisting the
bill is correct but it isn't. They added a call from last month onto this months bill.
Loki Diary: August 05, 2001
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Worked on the second CD menu system in the morning then we watched the "Saving Private Ryan"
video. Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: August 06, 2001
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Worked in the morning on a smartcard programmer. My ISO socket is broken - need to order one.
Waited for a pickup for my printer but it never came. Dinner was suddenly salad.
Loki Diary: August 07, 2001
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Worked on the dish programmer - found a documentation error which resulted in an incorrect wire
on one of the Max232 pins. Fixed it and now the H cards read OK. Set up a DOS computer to read
the dishnetwork card. It's not working entireley although it did read the cam ID ok. Lib called with
a broken water pipe on the cool cell tank. Bought some glue and fixed it - on the way deposited
the dental rebates in the CU and then stopped into Alltel and got my bill corrected. Alltel
customer service is terrible - they thought I didn't know how to read my bill and attempted to fit
the period to my calls instead of vice versa. Finally showed them the error of their ways and now
they will credit me. May have to revisit this if they don't also rebate the sales tax on the 11.60.
Loki Diary: August 08, 2001
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Couldn't get my 2 dish cards to dump their cams using either freetalk or talk31d. I think the cards
are OK they just can't be read. May use them in an AVR3 except that the AVR3 doesn't autoroll.
Went to Sams with Lib - had lunch at NY Pizza then we got some wine and Salmon. Dinner was
salmon and rice. Fell asleep later in the evening watching crouching tiger hidden dragon.
Loki Diary: August 09, 2001
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Worked on debugging the water controller in the morning and helped Lib design an anniversary
card in the PM. Ran out of bread for lunch so we had melted cheese on bagels. The anniversary
card came out pretty good. In the evening I turned the water on and went out to get gas and
money for our trip. Wouldn't you know it would start raining. Wasn't supposed to! The plants got
an extra dose of water. Dinner was left over chicken and rice. Worked on the Fred AVR IAR
program into the evening. Would like to have the monitor working by the end of August.
Loki Diary: August 10, 2001
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Checked the weather channel before leaving this morning - the storms are supposed to hit Newark
at 1 and Providence at 3. We leave Newark at 12:10. Our flight was on time and smooth to
Newark. Leaving Newark the tiny plane did a little rock and roll as we flew through some
thunderheads. Arrived into Providcence at 1:30 - we were one of the last flights into the airport
when the storms hit. Waited at gate 3 for Stevens plane until 3:30 when they announced the
plane didn't even get off the ground yet in Philly and they had no estimated departure time.
Traveled in light rain to Portsmouth, reached there about 4:30 in our Hertz Mazda MPV minivan.
Mary and crowd got tied up in traffic and weren't able to get the taco supplies so Bill ordered
pizzas for all. We slept outside in the camper - Bill and Libbie went to the airport at 4 AM to get
Sue and Bruce.
Loki Diary: August 11, 2001
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Lib cut the fruit and made breakfast for all - it was a pretty good xmas breakfast. At 3:30 we went
to the Sea Fare Inn for photos outside. A light rain started but we finished by 4. Cocktails, dinner
and the Condon sing along were enjoyable. During the singalong everyone gave their card to
George and Mary. Lib and I had the Scrod with potatoes and salad and white wine - it was pretty
good.
Loki Diary: August 12, 2001
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Slept in the minivan last night because of the loud snoring in the camper. Had a little rain shower
during the night. Sue made breakfast this morning. I didn't get up until 8. In the PM drove Bruce to
the airport for a 5 PM flight. Dinner was hamburgers which Joe cooked on the grill. Packed our
suitcases and slept in Heathers room for the night. Have to get up at 5 to get Steve and Leslie to
the airport in the morn.
Loki Diary: August 13, 2001
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We were supposed to leave for the airport at 5:30 but left at 5:39 which meant Steve and Leslie
ran for their flight. Lib and I bought gas then turned in the rental car. Our free car cost $72 in
taxes plus gas. Had bagels and coffee in the coffee shop then saw Joe and Sue off. Our flight
through Newark was on time. Landed in a thunderstorm in Raleigh at 1 PM. Stopped at NY pizza
next to Sams for lunch then went home. After a brief nap we went out to Krogers for supplies.
dinner was a Krogers chicken with potato salad.
Loki Diary: August 14, 2001
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Called Lib and found the greenhouse phone isn't working. Downloaded pictures from the wallet
this morning and renamed them and corrected red eye. Lib came home at lunch and we had
melted cheese on toast. Dinner was Krogers chicken and potato salad.
Loki Diary: August 15, 2001
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In the morning worked on correcting red eye in the anniversary pictures then tried a clean up of
the registry on my PC. This killed the CDR program. Created the menus for my anniversary CD and
wrote the CD but couldn't close the session on the PC. Had to unplug the USB cable to eject then
put the CD onto the other PC with CD writer and closed the session. Dinner was creamed tuna
with peas on toast.
Loki Diary: August 17, 2001
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Went to Logans at noon to deloiver orchids using the taurus. Had lunch but they were out of
crabcakes - had the veggie sandwich. Next went to the farmers market then checked out glamour
shots in crabtree. Crabtree looked foreign it was so remodeled. Dinner was turkey burgers with
baked beans.
Loki Diary: August 18, 2001
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Rainy day - spent the afternoon reading in the family room. Dinner was pork chops with white
wine and corn.
Loki Diary: August 19, 2001
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Spent the whole day reading about an app to do full text searches in java. Found an article in Feb
99 doctor dobbs about doing this but the text it searches has first been indexed with a perl
Berkley database indexer. At noon tried to get a free cd rom drive at best buy but they were out.
Loki Diary: August 20, 2001
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Spent the day installing Jbuilder and getting it to run. Also configured a 1.4 ghz AMD system and
ordered it from newegg. Dinner was tuna and rice. The bank notified us that they are removing
PMI insurance from the mortgage. This saves $128 per month.
Loki Diary: August 22, 2001
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Worked on single stepping Java today. Dinner was frozen teryaki chicken and vegetables (a Sams
dinner).
Loki Diary: August 23, 2001
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Was expecting the AMD system parts to come today - the FedEx tracking says it's on the truck.
Rebuilt the frame inside the back door today. Put it together with silicon and clamps and let it
dry overnight. Dinner tonight was barbecue chicken and baked potato. Checked the FedEx
tracking in the evening and my package was returned to the FedEx facility. No delivery today.
Loki Diary: August 24, 2001
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The computer came in the afternoon today. Started assembling everything - very nice chassis. The
PC works OK in DOS - now have to figure how to load windows. Dinner was steak, baked potato
and Ravenwood wine.
Loki Diary: August 25, 2001
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Got windows to load on the new PC by first using a Win 95 start disk to format and partition the
drive. Then loaded a directory of WinMe files and installed from there. Hooked to the network in
my shop and moved some files across the LAN to the new PC. Dinner was red hot and blue rib
dinner with Fetzer Syrah (sp?) red.
Loki Diary: August 26, 2001
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Worked all day loading programs on the new PC. Didn't even go out except after our pizza dinner
to go to Krogers to get bagels and orange juice.
Loki Diary: August 27, 2001
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Loaded Delphi and Java on the PC and tried to use the Delphi program - not bad. Filled out the
rebate for the Epson printer and drove it to the post office because it needs to be postmarked by
Aug 28. Our appraisal came today - the Island Reef condo is worth $415k. The proofs came today -
not very good. They're blurry and not composed very well. Dinner was turkey burgers.
Loki Diary: August 29, 2001
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Went to Sams today to look at lawnmowers and bought some salmon. Had lunch at NY pizza.
Dinner was the salmon with a bottle of Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: August 30, 2001
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In the morning went to Northern Hydraulics and Agri Supply looking for a blade adapter. Bought
two of them at Agri Supply but they have the wrong key for my mowers shaft. Had the second half
of the salmon for dinner and a single glass of chardonnay. Corked the bottle for a later date.
Watched Family Man starring Nicolas Cage on PPV. Pretty good movie.
Loki Diary: August 31, 2001
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Fixed the lawnmower with a new blade adapter from Ace in Apex. The store is being enlarged and
remodeled - it should be pretty good when finished. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice with
the rest of yesterdays wine.
Loki Diary: September 01, 2001
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Did research on SEPP IRA withdrawals - it basically is any amount you want from less than 10k$ to
almost 20k$. I estimate my needs at 1k$ per month to cover the Siesta mortgage. In the PM we
went to Harris Teeter to get crab legs on sale for 2.99 per lb. Dinner was a little different - we
had frozen king crab legs and French red wine (red Rhone). Very good. Desert was yogurt.
Loki Diary: September 02, 2001
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Spent the day researching bonds on eTrade and adding the 30 gig harddrive to my PC which used
to be in the 500 mhz celeron. The new PC is really cooking now - CD Creator works and now MS
Office XP is installed. Traditional pizza for dinner.
Loki Diary: September 03, 2001
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Labor day today. Researched bonds some more - need to find some more income to help cover the
island reef mortgage expense. Dinner tonight was creamed tuna with peas over toast.
Loki Diary: September 04, 2001
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Working on the generator program this morning. Power went out at noon for about 10 minutes.
Ordered a Garmin GPS today from half.com. Now I need a cable and memory expansion card.
Dinner tonight was turkey burgers and beans.
Loki Diary: September 06, 2001
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Spent a lot of today researching bonds. Hardly worked on the generator at all. Made some
corrections to the MAAVS web page and installed the MS map program to build a map between the
Sheraton and Bluebird. Dinner was turkey burgers and beans informally on the back porch. I'm the
sucessful bidder on a PC cable for the Garmin on eBay.
Loki Diary: September 07, 2001
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Market blowout today - dow off by 250 to 9600. Still researching bonds and bond funds looking for
supplemental income in retirement. Worked a little on the generator controller and a little on
cleaning up the computer desk. Made progress on both. Bought a Money magazine at Krogers to
look at mutual fund ads.
Loki Diary: September 08, 2001
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The GPS came today but I spent mot of the day researching bonds. Lib went to a violet sale at
Northgate mall. Dinner was leftover pot roast and veggies with Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: September 09, 2001
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Rainy morning - the GPS doesn't synch up too well with heavy cloud cover. Worked on reading
about fixed income investments, also cleaned up the office a little. After a walk to the reservoir
we went upstairs and loaded the 3D drawing software and Epson printer drivers and layed out the
floorplan for MAAVS. Dinner was a Patroni mushroom pizza.
Loki Diary: September 10, 2001
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Spent a lot of the day researching stock dividends and bonds. We chose not to go to Sams today.
Dinner was the leftover pot roast and leftover wine. This was the last of the leftovers.
Loki Diary: September 11, 2001
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While working on the AVR generator program this morning I looked up at Good Morning America
which switched to a fire at the World Trade Center. I watched it horrified by the smoke and
flames and called Lib at the greenhouse. While describing to her what I was seeing the second
plane hit the other tower in a fireball. I initially thought it was the first building exploding
although I did see the plane but dimissed it since this was a helicopter shot and you typically see
lots of other air traffic in the view. Went to the hardware store to get a phone jack for the
greenhouse and on the way back from the store heard that the twin towers had collaped.
Did the phone repairs at the greenhouse and then Lib and I went to Sams and lunch at NY Pizza.
Came home and watched the terrorist attacks on TV then turned it off and put on classical music.
Dinner was salmon and rice but I wasn't very hungry today.
Loki Diary: September 12, 2001
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Watched the terrorist cleanup on Good Morning America while working on the generator program.
Turned off the TV and went upstairs to continue the programming. Dinner was salmon and rice
although I wan't very hungry.
Loki Diary: September 13, 2001
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Worked a little debugging the generator program then went to the grenehouse and worked on
fans. Replace the MOV on fan2 relay then tightened the belt on fan 2. Next tried Fan 1 but the
belt was too big to tighten any further. Bought a smaller belt at Apex Sales and it went on
perfectly with lot of adjustment room. Dinner was creamed tuna with peas on toast although I
still wasn't hungry. Also had a coming and going headache - probably from the stress of the past
few days.
Loki Diary: September 14, 2001
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Went over to the greenhoue and tore the roof off fan 3 - it was totally rotted through.
Strengthened the frame with 2x4's - didn't have a long enough power cord so didn't do the
plywood. Dinner was Marie Colandar chicken dinner and zesty soup. Still wasn't very hungry.
Loki Diary: September 15, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse around 11 and started replacing the roof of Fan housing 3. Decided to
get another piece of plywood from home Depot - Lib and I went there and then spent the
afternoon replacing the plywood. Will paint it tomorrow. Did a quick Kroger trip for baked
potatoes and yogurt and our cream. Dinner was large shrimp with the potato and Chardonnay.
Afterwards watched the Mexican with Julia Roberts on TV - a terrible movie. Fell asleep before
the end then went up to bed at 10.
Loki Diary: September 16, 2001
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Built a cable for the AVR genny controller in the morning then we took a long walk from home to
around Apex lake - 4.2 miles.At noon we bought the gray stain for the fan housing and sign but
didn't go to the greenhouse at all today. Took the eMap GPS along to track our travels around the
lake. In the late evening after pizza and yogurt I worked on the MAAVS web page because Felicia
sent a reformatted show schedule. As a distraction from all the terrorist coverage we watched a
2 hour biography of Walt Disney.
Loki Diary: September 17, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse to paint the fan and the sign. Took all the letters off the sign - will
make new ones at home but it'll take several days to cut them all out. Finished the painting - will
return tomorrow to put the fan back together. The market fell 684 points today. Glad I pulled my
401k money out - it has fallen 15% since I got out which I estimate is about $35k. Dinner tonight
was barbecue chicken and baked potato. My first subscription issue of Shutterbug magazine came
today - Oct issue. Worked a little on the stimulator and avr generator controller.
Loki Diary: September 18, 2001
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Worked on the generator controller - found an error in the port address definitions. Cut all the
letters out for the bluebird sign then Lib and I went to lunch at Taco Bell and then to Ace for blue
paint for the letters. After her exercise class Lib painted the letters while I strung fishing line
through them and hung them to dry on a 2x4 nailed between 2 trees. Dinner was spaghetti. After
dinner I went to Krogers and picked up a turkey breast, bread and celery for dinner this week.
Found that the Miami Orchid show is March 1-3, 2002. Il Trouvere is the opera on March 3.
Loki Diary: September 19, 2001
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Worked a little on the generator program then packed up the letters and brought them to the
greenhouse where I installed them. Stopped by Ace for galvanized nails and clear krylon spray for
the bird logo. Cut one additional letter which Lib painted - was pretty depressed in the late
afternoon - a little lackadaisacal. Layed around dozing in and out of pay per view. More terrorit
activity is expected Saturday, Sept 22. I hope not. Dinner was butternut squash and grilled
chicken. The squash was fresh and very good.
Loki Diary: September 20, 2001
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Built the box for the controller and painted it. Went over to the greenhouse at the end of the
rain and added the extra 's' to the sign and also nailed up the bird logo. Came back and worked on
building the circuit card for the controller. Dinner tonight was Italian sausage with onions and
peppers on buns with baked beans. Afterwards I went to Krogers to pick up yogurt, bread, onions
and milk. At 9 PM we watched the presidents speech to congress on terrorism.
Loki Diary: September 22, 2001
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Lib cooked the turkey breast today which we had with white wine, mashed potato, stuffing and
cranberry.
Loki Diary: September 23, 2001
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Spent the day testing the controller with the visual basic generator controller stimulator. Didn't go
to the greenhouse today. Dinner was pizza followed by lemoin pudding for desert.
Loki Diary: September 24, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse and tore down the old controller and all the sprinkler wiring. Went
to home depot and bought a sheet of 1/2 inch plywood for the wall. It was raining pretty hard so
during the rain I dug out the drain so it would flow better and not flood the garage. Dinner wa
leftover turkey.
Loki Diary: September 25, 2001
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Added the watchdog software and heat sinks to the generator controller then went over to the
greenhouse and cut the piece of plywood to 6 feet long and nailed it up in the control room. Went
home for turkey sandwich lunch, then back to the greenhouse at 4. I hung the controller on the
wall and then helped Lib move sod from the ditch to the embankment to try to stop the erosion.
Dinner was leftover turkey with stuffing, mashed potato and sweet potato.
Loki Diary: September 26, 2001
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Downloaded music in the morning then went to the greenhouse and wired the controller. Started
the generator OK but it seems to want to start out in test mode - went home and programmed a
pullup on the test line. This may fix it. Will carry new programmed chip over tomorrow. Dinner
was Uncle Bens frozen rice bowl dinners - not bad, I had the vegetable terayaki.
Loki Diary: September 27, 2001
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Worked the environmental monitor then went to the greenhouse and changed the AVR chip with
one that had a pullup on the test pin. Everything worked - ran a test cycle succesfully. Whe I got
home while working in the office heard a crash in the house. Later found that the bracket holding
the spring for the garage door had fallen down. My car is stuck in the garage. Went with Lib to
Home Depot to look at new doors.
Loki Diary: September 28, 2001
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Called Overhead door - a new door will be $1200. They'll have a guy here by noon to fix the spring
bracket. Worked on the monitor program and downloaded music until the guy came. He took
about an hour, then Lib came and we went to Logan and had crabcakes for lunch. On the way
home went to the post office, the credit union then Krogers. At home cleaned up the car to take
Nancy and Coleman to the airport tomorrow. Dinner tonight was Tacos trimmed out with lettuce,
salsa, tomato, cheese and sour cream.
Loki Diary: September 29, 2001
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Worked on monitor program in the morning. At noon Lib and I went to the Apex festival downtown
and walked along Salem Street looking at vendors stuff and semlling the food. Didn't buy anything.
Came home and had leftover grilled chicken on a sandwich for lunch.
Worked a little more on the monitor and then started building an internal emulator into the DTV
Plus receiver I bought last spring. Dinner was Bryans ribs (Sams frozen package) and French red
wine.
Loki Diary: September 30, 2001
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In the morning worked on the monitor program then went to Sams with Lib for our normal
groceries. Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: October 01, 2001
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Worked on the emulator in the new winked receiver. Got it working downstairs with the new H
card. Went to the greenhouse in the AM and stapled the plastic to house 4 around the fan in prep
for repairing the fan housing. In the afternoon restored the old receiver and emulator. Now I
need to run a line upstairs to my office. The new receiver only allows one set of locals at a time
which may be a problem. Lib went to her first yoga class tonight. She skipped quilting because
she's been running hard all day. Dinner was leftover tacos and fixings.
Loki Diary: October 02, 2001
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Rounded up the drill, saws, power cords and hand tools and arrived at the greenhouse at 11. The
violet club was gathering when I arrived. This was their first meeting since the Sept 11 terrorist
attack - the previous meeting was scheduled for Sept 11 but canceled. I took the old fan roof off,
re-enforced the box with 2x4's and attached the new plywood on the roof. Did not expect to
finish the job this far. Tomorrow will paint the box. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches. Watched
the John Lennon tribute on TNT after dinner.
Loki Diary: October 03, 2001
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Painted the fan housing today but ran out of paint. Went to Lowes with Lib at lunch time then
went across the street to Panterras for lunch. I had an Italian combo sandwich - very good and
filling. Took half of it home for dinner. In the PM I finished the fan then Lib and I painted the
sliding door into the greenhouse. Dinner was the leftover sandwich and tomato soup.
Loki Diary: October 04, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse and finished up the fan - caulked it, stapled the plastic and put on
flashing on the edges. Also helped Lib space some violet trays. Dinner was the last of the
barbecue on buns. Only had enough for 1 and a half sandwiches.
Loki Diary: October 05, 2001
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This morning went to Lowes to order the patoi doors but their price was over $300 so went across
the street to Home Depot and found them in stock. Went to Harris Teeter and picked up Tuna
steak on sale for $4.99 per pound. Later in the day at 3:30 went back to Home Depot with Lib and
got the patio doors and some treated 2x4's for door sills. Dinner was a 1.5 liter bottle of Glen
Ellen Chard and the tuna steak with rice. Afterwards we had Lemon yogurt then went to bed at
10. I read my book "One Summer" for a little while before bed.
Loki Diary: October 06, 2001
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Took the inside trim off the two doors I'm going to replace this morning.
Loki Diary: October 07, 2001
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Worked a little on trim but didn't have enough wood to really work this job. At noon Lib brought
doughnuts then we went to the dump and got rid of the glass. Came home and had not dogs for
lunch then took a walk to the library. I got another Karen Robards book - At Midnight and spent
most of the rest of the day reading it. In the evening we decided to go to home depot at 6 and
get anohter glass door. Spent a long time there because we had to wait for a fork lift to get the
doors down then they didn't have any screens for the door. Had pizza much later. Kept the radio
on because the TV was all about the attacks on Afghanistan.
Loki Diary: October 08, 2001
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Replaced the third patio slider and started the trim work on the doors. Went to the library after
dinner and got a new book. Dinner was squash and reheated Tuna steak.
Loki Diary: October 09, 2001
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Worked on trimming 2 doors - had to run out to Home Depot for a 1x6 for the sills. Stopped at
the greenhouse with the Hosfelt package and put a new door handle on the slider. Came home
and worked on the trim until Lib came home and announced we were out of cheese. Went to Sams
with her and Ny Pizza for lunch. Bought a new battery in Sams which I put into the minivan then
changed the sparkplugs because the thing was having trouble starting. Dinner was a Sams
barbecue chicken and Krogers American potato salad.
Loki Diary: October 11, 2001
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Started working outdoors - trimmed one slider and the exterior door. Also replaced one piece of
siding. Went to Ace to get some decking screws to hold the 2x4 sill plates down as well as a
square drill bit for the screws. Came home from Krogers with imitation crab which we had before
dinner with Chardonnay then had crab cakes and chard for dinner.
Loki Diary: October 12, 2001
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Finished trimming out the exterior of the sliders but ran out of caulk for the last door. Will do
that tomorrow before painting. Really got into my new Robbards book, Hunters Moon, this
afternoon. Dinner tonight was crab cake sandwiches with imitation crab and Chardonnay as a pre
dinner snack.
Loki Diary: October 13, 2001
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Went to Home Depot Apex for a door and screen - got it home and found the screen was dented.
Also picked up a gallon of outside paint - Lib started painting the door trim. Dinner tonight was
Harris Teeter Shrimp with Glen Ellen Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: October 14, 2001
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In the morning we returned the door to Home Depot then got our Sunday doughnuts at Foodlion.
After lunch drove over to the library and picked up some more Karen Robards books for the
Sarasotsa trip. Worked on Libs talk sheet of paper and some business cards for her.
Loki Diary: October 15, 2001
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Spent the morning getting ready for the Sarasota trip. Also made some MAAVS brochures for Libs
Thursday talk. Packed up my stuff - after Libs yoga class I picked up some Bojangles chicken which
we at at 7:30 PM. Put together the final stuff for my suitcase.
Loki Diary: October 16, 2001
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We awaoke at 4 am and were rolling down the driveway at 4:13 am. Took Evans and arrived at the
airport 20 minutes later. Made it through security without incident and to Charlotte on time. Had
a Dunkin Donuts cake donut and coffee in Charlotte. The plane boarded 30 minutes late - I was
randomly selected for a detailed search. The 757 seemed to be a shaky plane in relatively smooth
skies. Even on the ground in Charlotte it was rocking back and forth. I was sitting in the back of
the plane. Hertz had a Mitsubishi Galant ready for me - not a bad mid sized car. Got into Island
Reef after noon after stopping at Publix and getting some groceries. Spent the rest of the day
reading and napping. Dinner was an Uncle Bens cajun chicken and sausage dinner.
Loki Diary: October 17, 2001
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In the AM went to McDonalds for pancakes and coffee. The screen guy, Dave, came at 9. Bad news
- the shutters have to come down and our housing is too rusted for new screens. He'll be back
tomorrow after I take down the shutters today. Went to Sears and bought vise grips, an extension
and breaker bar and a nut driver. Also went to Ace and got stainless steel screws to put everything
back together. Reinforced the railing with brass and stainless steel screws. Dinner was Stouffers
French bread pizza.
Loki Diary: October 18, 2001
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Did the eMail this morning then cooked a bagel and coffee for breakfast. One of the rails looked
crooked so I redid it before the screen guy gets here. The screen job started at 9:00 and didn't
finish until 4:30. I cleaned up some of the metal particles on the floor of the Lanai. Will put the
shutters up tomorrow.
Loki Diary: October 19, 2001
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Put up the shutters today with a little difficulty. In the evening cooked a steak while watching the
sunset. Ate it with half a bottle of Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: October 21, 2001
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Worked on the valence over the shutters then went out to some of the open houses - the harbor
towers (the one with a waterfalls in front) and then to the Oakds tower. Attempted to drive to
Venice but it got dark and rainy so headed back in a pouring rain. The streets were flooded.
Dinner was an ?Uncle Bens rice bowl - sweet and sour chicken with chardonnay.
Loki Diary: October 22, 2001
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Went out in the morning to Venice - stopped into Hidden Bay and also looked at Island of Venice
and also some developments around Jacaranda and Center Rd. Names like Quail Lakes, Oak Creek,
and other water names. Came home for lunch - peanut butter sandwich and yogurt. Took off again
and went downtown to the used book store - was looking for a palm tree book. Didn't find
anything. ?In the evening Bill called then it was time to go to board meeting at 7. Came back at
9:30, called Lib and cooked a French Bread pizza. Finished the evening by reading some more of
The Senators Wife.
Loki Diary: October 23, 2001
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Got up at 7 and did the laubdry and dishes. Cleaned out the fridge, closed the shutters and
vacuumed the rugs. Left at 11 for the airport - stopped at the bridge and filled up at $1.19.
Arrived at the Hertz place at 12:30. The charged me an extra day because I took the car out at
10:13 a week ago. They only allow 59 minutes grace. Didn't know this so paid $56 for my free
week instead of $17. Had lunch at Chick Fila at the airport - grilled chicken and waffle fries.
Breezed through security and left at 2:45 pm on time. Stopped in Charlotte and left on time at
5:05 pm and got into RDU at 5:50 pm. Lib had to circle while I waited for my bag because she
wasn't allowed to park. For dinner we went to the Chinese place for Wonderful chiken takeout.
Bed at 10 - a long day.
Loki Diary: October 24, 2001
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After doing some catch up on the computer, went outsid eand painted the outside trim. Finished
when Lib came back at 1:30. In the afternoon studied TDSP options including the ability to start
early withdrawals. We went to Sams and got Salmon which we had with Chardonnay and sweet
potato for dinner.
Loki Diary: October 25, 2001
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Went outside in the AM and did some spot caullking. At noon went to Sams, Best Buy and Circuit
City to look at DVD players. Also turned in The Senators Wife and took out Ghost Moon. Came
home and finished painting the caulking then Lib came back at 3. Spent some time downloading
MP3's - will probably get a DVD/Mp3 player for the condo. Dinner was salad and melted cheese on
toast. Afterwards went to Krogers for yogurt, bagels and bananas.
Loki Diary: October 26, 2001
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Bought the Samsung DVD/MP3 player. Lib and Felicia came for lunch - we had Taco Bell on the
back porch. Returned the player in the late afternoon - it would not play MP3's reliably. Dinner
was Pork Chops with white wine.
Loki Diary: October 27, 2001
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Dinner was the Sams ribs with French Red wine. Lib baked an apple pie with the last of the
McIntosh apples.
Loki Diary: October 28, 2001
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No donuts this morning - we had the rest of the apple pie. In the afternoon cut up the downed
maple in the backyard and Lib helped move it to the wood pile. Will split the logs a few per day.
Dinner was our traditional pizza - this evening kept the TV off and spent the evening reading while
a fire crackled in the fireplace. Very nice
Loki Diary: October 29, 2001
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Cleaned out the garage with the blower and the shop vac. Put up the leftover trim wood and
siding then found the workbench. Helped Lib clean up the house because quilters were meeting
here this evening. Went to Krogers shopping and talked to Lib in the aisle on the cell phone
looking at cake boxes. Got the Betty Crocker strudle cake.
Loki Diary: October 31, 2001
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Went to Home Depot to buy a glass door and screen, keep the screen and return the door to Cary
Home Depot. Cary owed me a screen for the door I bought without one. The door wouldn't fit into
my car - had to call Lib on the cell phone to bring the mini van. On the way home we went to
Taco Bell for lunch. We had no trick or treaters for Halloween but had a pack of butterfingers
ready just in case. Dinner was barbecue chicken with the leftover sauce from Fridays ribs.
Loki Diary: November 01, 2001
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Had to go to the greenhouse this morning - the generator was running. Strange - the power
switching diode was blown out. CPL power was on, generator power was on, only the ignition light
was on the controller. This almost looks like a test state but the run clock said it was on for over
an hour. Not sure what's going on. Went to Home Depot and bought a sink and faucets for our
bathroom. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches with beans. Finished my Robards book, Ghost Moon.
Loki Diary: November 04, 2001
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Went to Home Depot for the plumbing supplies and poreclain knobs for the bathroom vanity.
When Lib came home we took the old stuff to the dump then went to Sams. Afterwards took a
long walk to Leith and looked at minivans. Dinner was pizza and yogurt. Watched the emmys for a
little before falling asleep.
Loki Diary: November 05, 2001
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Went to home depot this mornin and retunred the unused sink side splash. They didn't have a
beveled mirror in our size so will wait. Found textured ceiling wallpapaer that may help the
bathroom repair. Talked to IBM TDSP about distributions - they only offer annual distributions.
Spent the afternoon trying to estimate what taxes will be if I accept this amount. Dinner was
spaghetti which we had after Lib came home from yoga.
Loki Diary: November 06, 2001
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My 55th birthday! After some computer time in the morning, went to get a haircut at South Hills -
$15 with tip. Before i went for the haircut, Mom called. Went through Lowes looking at insulation
board then went to Krogers for my new senior discount. Bought $20 worth of stuff including OJ,
bagels and yogurt and saved 97 cents. In the afternoon Lib gave me 6 bottles of Ravenwood
Zinfandel for my birthday. Went back to Krogers for birthday potato salad, pound cake and vanilla
ice cream. Dinner was barbecue chicken with the potato salad and cake. Vicki called in the
eevening.
Loki Diary: November 07, 2001
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Dinner was creamed tuna and peas over toast. In the evening Lib and I took the quilt poles and
stands to the Sheraton Ballroom.
Loki Diary: November 08, 2001
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This morning left at 10 to pick Sue up at the airport. As I was approaching I-40 she called to tell
me she had landed. I arrived in front of the terminal at exactly 10:30. We went to the Sheraton
and met Libbie in the parking lot. Started setting up the quilts then I left to pick up plants at the
greenhouse. Had lunch at home then brought everything to the Sheraton including a laptop that
Ken Barbie wanted to borrow. The bonus is that we get the latest copy of the Master Variety List.
Left there around 6 with Sue. We ordered Chinese for dinner - Kung Po Chicken and General Tso.
Lib came home at 9:30 - I picked up a Tostada and Soft Taco for her from Taco Bell. Afterwards
had a bottle of Chardonnay with Lib and Sue. Talked to the Credit Card Co late at night - my
number is being used in Europe. They have blocked the card.
Loki Diary: November 09, 2001
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This morning I went to the greenhouse and got Xmas Cactus for Paul and also handled Time
Warner on the phone with billing and my credit card.
Loki Diary: November 10, 2001
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We got up early today - Lib went to the greenhouse and I got everything together for our talk this
morning. The talk got going late because the judges breakfast ran over but the presentation went
well. Lib and I jointly presented the 36 slides and passed around some tissue culture samples in
sealed containers. We broke the show down and went home at 5 to clean up and get ready for
tonight. The dinner went well - I had two Heinekeins and Lib and Sue each had 2 glasses of
Chardonnay. Drinks total was $27. The London Broil was very tasty. Lib and Sue had chicken. The
Rochester folks sat with us as well as Sue from AVSA and Roger and Mildred. At home I registered
the MAAVS domain. Will set up netfirms tomorow.
Loki Diary: November 11, 2001
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Took Sue to the airport at 5:45 for her 8:00 flight. Got home and rested from our four days of
convention. Worked on organizing and naming the MAAVS convention pictures. For dinner we
ordered a pizza from Patronis at Parkway. Lib didn't like the place or the kid making the pizza. I
thought it was OK but she thought it was uncooked.
Loki Diary: November 12, 2001
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Worked on the MAAVS website this morning when Lib called and said a plane crashed at JFK.
Turned on the TV and watched for a while then went back to web site creation. Had a quick trip
to Krogers in the afternoon to get cream cheese and a roast chicken. Dinner was roast chicken
and potato salad. Fell asleep early - didn't even hear Lib come back from quilting.
Loki Diary: November 14, 2001
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Worked on putting the MAAVS pictures on the web. Lib cooked the turkey breast for tonight and
made a pumpkin pie for dinner. We had the turkey with Mondavi Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 15, 2001
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Spent more time on the MAAVS web site. For lunch Lib and I had turkey sandwiches on white
bread. When Lib returned from exercise we added the captions to the java slide show, then I
uploaded everything to the web. We now have the full MAAVS experience on line. Dinner was
turkey with mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberries and Mondavi white wine. Afterwards I
watched the Victoria Secrets fashion show on ABC.
Loki Diary: November 16, 2001
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Put the trim molding around the bathroom vanity. Touched up the MAAVS site a little. Received
the print pix from Linda - the quality is not great, will only post a few. Dinner was leftover turkey
and white wine. Watched Wall Street Week later in the evening.
Loki Diary: November 17, 2001
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Worked in the morning on finances and research. In the PM went to Home Depot for a heater for
the porch and also a rug. Total was $409. It was 4 PM so decided not to install - will do that
tomorrow. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice with Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 18, 2001
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Worked on stock screening in the AM when Bill called. He's back from Scotland and was doing bills
- wanted the Carolina Rhode totals. Lib came with donuts around noon then we went to Sams for
some groceries. Had hot dogs on the grill for lunch then shut off the grill gas supply and started
hooking up the gas to the back porch heater. Had to run out to Home Depot for the final
connection to the heater. Hooked things up but was missing one 3/8 close nipple. Lib went with
me back to Home Depot at 6:30 to get the missing parts. Fired up the heater at 7 - it's pretty hot.
Don't like the noise the fan makes or how long it takes to turn on or turn off. Will finish the job
tomorrow - need to move the furniture against the wall. Dinner was traditional Libbie pizza.
Loki Diary: November 19, 2001
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Put the porch back together and vacuumed it. Also vacuumed the car for our trip and blew off the
driveway. Cut out the door cover where the gas pipes come up from below then tested the
heater. Very nice. Packed the suitcases and stuff we're going to take. Lib deposited Elliots $2450
check for me.
Loki Diary: November 20, 2001
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Left this morning at 5:48 AM. Stopped in Florence for hot cakes and coffee at 8 am, while Lib
waited in line I drove to Hess for gas - reg was .97. The McDonalds line was long because a bus
dropped a lot people off. Had lunch in Starke around 2 and then got gas just before getting on I-
75. The gas light was on when we pulled in. Lib drove from there - unfortunateley, I-75 was stop
and go North of Tampa - we lost about a half hour. Stopped in Publix and got 2 DelMonicos with
wine and veggies. We'll do a main grocery run some other time. Cooked the food around 7 and had
dinner then went to bed.
Loki Diary: November 21, 2001
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Woke up leisurely at 7. Had my breakfast bagel then worked on the Maavs entry program while lib
did Aquacise. At 11 we went to the library, Lowes and had lunch at Hungry Howies in Bradenton.
At Lowes we bought a conical shaped Rosemary bush and also a cocktail table. Looked at Stereos
in KMart but was not impressed. Next went to Hungry Howies buffet. I had 4 pieces of pizza and a
salad. Lib finished her meal with a chocolate desert pizza. Went down University to Best Buy in
Sarasota. Found a Sony system that was pretty nice - 120 watts for $141 dollars.Next did Publix
for a Thanksgiving Ham which we had for dinner with Vendage Chardonnay. Walked out to the
dock then back for some yogurt for desert. The stereo is playing CD's the whole time - very nice.
Temp outside today was 81.
Loki Diary: November 22, 2001
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Thanksgiving Day. Beautiful day around 80 with blue skies and sunshine. Lib is on the Lanai
painting the stereo table, I'm working on the entry program. Called Diane at Dandy Pots and
arranged to meet her in Wesley Chapel at 1 on Saturday. Have been enjoying the stereo listening
to a lot of new CD's that I haven't heard yet. We had yesterdays ham for lunch sandwiches with
Doritos. Quite a number of people around the pool today - more than I've seen in a long while at
Island Reef.
Loki Diary: November 23, 2001
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Lib did her aerobics at 9:30 but the instructor didn't show up. Went to Selby in the morning then
stopped by Best Buy looking for speaker brackets. They were $45 which was ridiculous so we went
to Ace and got some shelf brackets for $1.50 each. These worked perfectly. Ran the wire above
the patio doors and stapled it. It came out pretty good. Hung one speaker on the wall but the one
on hte outside wall couldn't get fastened to the wall because of interference to the blocks behind
the sheetrock.
Loki Diary: November 24, 2001
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While Lib did Yoga I wired the right speaker to the cable I strung last night. Read the paper and
left for Selby. Picked up some mollys at Ace on the way then toured the torpical house and the
bayfront at Selby. Went up to Wesley Chapel, I-75 extit 58, and arrifed at 12:51. Got gas at Hess
and waited for Diane. She led us to her house and we chatted about Dandy for 2 and 1/2 hours.
Lfet there just before 4 and had lunch at Taco Bell. Arrived back in Siesta via Palmer Ranch and
Albrittons fruit on Clark. Bought oranges and had orange ice cream cones at Albrittons. Lib said
her cone was stale. Dinner was ham sandwiches with Mondavi Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 25, 2001
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Another beautiful morning. I sat out on the Lanai reading the Sunday paper and having a morning
coffee. We're going to Turtles brunch at 10:30 so only had a half a bagel this morning. Walked to
brunch and after a delicious veggie omelet we walked back to Turtles again to retrieve my
sunglasses. Later walked to an open house at the Point - 1100 sq ft for $349 which was reduced
from $379. It's small and on the 9th floor. Later visited 302 on the bay side, also $349 but smoky.
Loki Diary: November 26, 2001
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We cleaned the condo this morning and packed our suitcases then went to the homeowners
meeting at 2. Nothing new to report. The meeting was over by 3:15 and we were on the road by
3:30. Saw the sunset while on I-75 a little North of Tampa. Turned off at Ocala and took 301.
Made it to Brunswick by 8:30. We checked in and went over to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Had
a Pork Chop with carrots and mashed potatos. Very good.
Loki Diary: November 27, 2001
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Woke early and had the Hampton breakfast. Got on the road by 7:30 - there was a very heavy fog.
Stopped for coffee in South Carolina and made it home by 1 PM. Lib talked with Felicia from the
car cell phone - we stopped in at Wendys drive through for lunch which we ate at home. Later
did a Krogers run for my Senior discount.
Loki Diary: November 28, 2001
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Called a local palstics factory and paid them a visit to see if they could mold my Dandy
Pots. They're by UPS in North Raleigh - visited them at 3. They are more of an engineering or
telecom molder. Looks expensive.
Loki Diary: November 29, 2001
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Visited Granville Plastics this morning to show them my flower pots and get a quote. It looks
hopeful - we'll see. Talked to Diane later in the PM and was discouraged by her conversation. She's
full of it.
Loki Diary: November 30, 2001
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Dinner was hamburgers and baked beans which we purchased earlier in Krogers.
Loki Diary: December 01, 2001
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Got back to working on the show entry program again today. In the PM I tried a chat program from
upstairs to downstairs - it worked. Lib cooked a turkey with all the trimmings which we had with
Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: December 02, 2001
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Started working this morning on adding conenctivity to the entry program. It's a warm morning.
After the paper I called Sue about credit card numbers for her laptop and Palm. In the afternoon
worked on the violet entry stuff. Dinner was traditional Libs pizza.
Loki Diary: December 03, 2001
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Received an eMail from Circuit City that they can't send Sues computer. What a bunch of morons.
Ordered it from Amazon - same price but no sales tax and fre shipping. Worked on the violet show
entry program - frustrated trying to get the exhibitor list to update with a new entry. Took the
evening off and screwed around with the computer, reading and TV. Dinner tonight was leftover
turkey wth potatoes and stuffing. Was very happy - received a good Dandy quote from Granville
Plastics.
Loki Diary: December 04, 2001
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Worked on violet entry in the morning then Lib called saying the well was broken. She had her
violet club xmas party today. Ordered a camera for Sue in addition to the computer from Amazon.
Went grocery shopping in Krogers at noon - today is senior discount day. Lib gave me a grocery
list. When she came home at 3 we went to the greenhouse and repaired the well - the control box
had a frayed wire b the bladder tank. Dinner was leftover turkey, potatoes, gravy and cranberries.
Loki Diary: December 05, 2001
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Worked on the client/server code in the morning then went to the eye doctor for a 12 noon
appoointment. Came back and tried using the thinkpad as a server and manon as the client. Can't
connect with my program but some of the sample programs seem to work OK. Dinner tonight was
sliced turkey on bread with gravy.
Loki Diary: December 06, 2001
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Did stock analysis and computer reading in the morning, finally got around to working on the
violet program in the afternoon. Found out that the multiple connection server winsock is not
working as a client, had to add a second winsock for when the program is used as a client. Sold all
my IBM stock in the purchase plan today. Price was around 120. The market is over 10,000 for the
first time in several months. Dinner was turkey pot pie that Lib made from scratch with the last of
the turkey. She also made 3 fruit cakes which she will soak with brandy over the next 2 weeks.
Sue recieved her Toshiba computer which I had ordered from Amazon on Monday.
Loki Diary: December 07, 2001
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Bought some stock today of APU at 21.50. They have a new issue and pay 10% dividends. Also
monitoring SPH as an income stock as well. Dinner tonight was the rest of the turkey pot pie. Very
good. We did a Sams run today and had NY pizza for lunch. They were out of Ghirardelli chocolate
blocks. Stopped by Krogers and picked up some Ghirardelli chocolate drops.
Loki Diary: December 08, 2001
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Tried melting the chocolate drops and molding it into forms to get experience doing this. HAd
some limited sucess. Dinner tonight was Bryans ribs from sams with veggies and baked potato and
Ravenwood Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: December 09, 2001
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We went to Sams this afternoon to get choclate blocks for making xmas candy. I made
arrangements on Southwest.com for Lib to fly to Providence next weekend to visit her parents.
Lib made Bourbon balls this afternoon while I ocntinued working on the violet entry program.
Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: December 10, 2001
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Went into the candy making business this morning.
Loki Diary: December 11, 2001
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Measured the flue pipes on house 3 and then went to Graingers Durham to get a new blower.
They're not there anymore!!!! They'll send one out UPS. Stopped by Home Dpeot and got a mirror
for our bathroom and the new flue pipes as well as a new chick for my drill. Finished making the
chocolates this afternoon. Lib and I grocery shopped at Krogers since it was senior discount day.
Needed foil and wax paper. Dinner was krogers barbecue chicken and baked beans with potato
salad. After dinner I finished Karen Robards "Paradise County". It was a drizzly day today.
Loki Diary: December 12, 2001
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Spent the day working on the violet entry program. Took a trip to Walmart in the AM to get a
flourescent 100 watt light bulb for the kitchen. Took Lib to Winn Dixie in the evening to get her
meds. My net card came today from newegg for the upstairs PC. Dinner was the leftover krogers
barbecue and baked beans. Mostly foggy and yucky today but temp was around 50.
Loki Diary: December 13, 2001
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Left this morning at 6 in the fog to take Lib to her 8 AM flight. Stopped at Brueggers on the way
back - they didn't open until 6:30. There was a line waiting for them to open. Bought PSD today at
20. The market is down (9600) but utilities are up. Trying to put together a fixed income portfolio
but I really need 100,000 to do this. Only have 50,000 thanks to CPL and IBM stocks. Talked to Lib
at 5 then checked on the greenhouse and bought some frozen foods at Winn Dixie. It's a cloiudy
drizzly day but warm in the 60's. Supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow.
Loki Diary: December 14, 2001
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Decided not to go over to the greenhouse today. Worked on the program and did reading instead.
Went to the library and picked up two Robards books - one with short stories and the other a
novel. For dinner I tried the Freschette self rising pizza that consumer reports said was pretty
good. I disagree. It was OK but not better than fair. Picked up my new glasses this morning - much
better correction but I don't like Ira Tuckers showroom - there is no eye chart to test new glasses
only display cases with Dior and Gucci frames. Awful!
Loki Diary: December 15, 2001
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Slept until 6:45 this morning. Made coffee and read the paper then gathered my stuff together for
the greenhouse. Took the old stack blower down in house 3 and removed the chimmney and took
it home to work on it. It doesn't vibrate when I bench test it. Decided to put it up as is because
the new blower wheel is smaller. Put a new chimmney up. While working we had a customer to
buy a violet and Dandy Pot. Lots of left over xmas cactus in the greenhosue. I started unsleeving.
Listened to Arabella on the Met this afternoon while I had a stouffers French bread pizza. Spoke
with Lib this morning - she's having fun in Providence. I would go bananas if I was subjected to
Celtics (a big yucko) and Patriots (even bigger yucko) games.
Loki Diary: December 16, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse in the morning and finished up putting the chimmney on the house 3
furnace. It's a nice sunny day in the sixties. Unwrapped the returned xmas cactus then went
home and had leftover sesame chicken for lunch. Dinner was cereal and a bowl of chicken noodle
soup. Found an interesting company that makes frequency hopping wireless xcvrs - Maxstream.
Spent some time in the evening reading their spoecs and operating manual.
Loki Diary: December 17, 2001
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Went to Crossroads this morning and bought boxes at Office Max and a snow globe at Michaels
then stopped into the Hunter St Eckerds for more xmas cards and wrapping paper. My first time in
this new store. Wrapped all the presents, made a Pagemaker insert for each box then put them
into mailing boxes and took everything to the post office. Before doing that I ran over to Perkins
and got gift certificates for Mom to go with the snow globe. Total time for the Post Office run was
25 minutes. The line was out the door but moved along. Next I donwloaded some Caruso and
Civilization 3 from warez groups. Earlier this morning I downloaded Turbo Tax 2001 Premier and
made a CD. Sucessfully installed it and transferred data from last years tax return as a starting
point.
Loki Diary: December 18, 2001
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Did a lot of internet reading on the Maxstream frequency hopper. Ordered a dev kit from
maxstream in Utah. In the PM went to Krogers and got my geezer discount. Dinner was pork chops
I picked up in Krogers with mashed potatoes and peas.
Loki Diary: December 19, 2001
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This afternoon we went to Win Dixie to get contact solution for me and also some groceries.
Dinner was crabcakes on buns with lettuce and tomato and chips.
Loki Diary: December 20, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse in the morning and nailed the mailbox back onto the post. The supports
are not in good shape - will have to replace them if this thing get loose again. Spent most of the
day learning about Mr House and also learning about the picoweb server. Want to hook that up to
the greenhouse controller when I get the wireless working. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and a
very nice salad. Just before dinner the emulator started giving ivac's - late in the evening a fix
came out to take care of this. Applied the fix and it worked perfectly.
Loki Diary: December 21, 2001
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We had Bryans ribs with Krogers baked beans, salad and ravenwood Zinfandel. The emulator is
getting hashed - it freezes every 5 minutes for 20 seconds. This is the new 3.3 emulator code.
Loki Diary: December 22, 2001
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Learned how the emulator works and built an activation script to use with the emulator. This
activates so the emulator command line switch is /n0 which means emulate only with the
included file. Didn;t know it worked like this. Cold this morning - 40's. Balanced the Carolina
Rhode checkbook. Added a SPI socket to the controller so I can program it with the STK500 board.
Didn't try it because it was dinner time. Dinner was the ham with apple sauce and sweet potato
and pumpkin pie. Fell asleep durin the Grinch movie on PPV.
Loki Diary: December 23, 2001
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This morning I worked on getting the control program to download. Some success but the timers
and baud are not set right or somethings broken. Lunch time Lib and I set on the porch and had
donuts with the gas heater running. I slowed the fans down to gently bring down the rising heat.
It's comfortable out there. Dinner was pizza but the second pizza had to be thrown away because
the cheese had an off taste. Stayed up late trying to figure out why I couldn't debug the control
program on manon but it worked OK on Glinka. Found the problem - needed to check debug info
in the link options for debug compile. This morning I bought a Directivo from a guy in mempis off
ebay. It doesn't have a card, it's the unit only.
Loki Diary: December 24, 2001
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Sent in a $100 donation to Sarasota Opera by filling out the web form. They're supposed to call for
credit card info. Want to do this before year end for program listing. This evening we went out to
look at xmas lights. Toured Shephards Vineyard, Knollwood then went to Lochmere. Many
luminaria were out as well as decorated houses.
Loki Diary: December 25, 2001
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Christmas breakfast was rice pancakes from Swiss Colony. Then we opened presents, called all of
our family and read the newspaper. Spent most of the day reading by the fireplace. The porch
heater kept the back porch at 68 even though it was 40 outside. Dinner was ham and chardonnay
with apple sauce and creamed corn.
Loki Diary: December 27, 2001
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Spent the whole day trying to read the temp sensor - no luck at all. All I get is zeros. Modified the
timing and rewrote the functions and still nothing. Dinner was Clam Chowder then we watched
the Mets Verdi program on PBS. We have more PBS choices now that the spot beam technology on
the satellite is turned on.
Loki Diary: December 28, 2001
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Success today with reading temperatures on Fred 5. The whole problem was triggering a
temperature conversion before reading it. Next the reading is in degrees C and in hex. Dinner was
ham and baked potato. Did a Krogers trip today and got a wrapped microwave potato. Heard from
Sue and Bruce as they drove home from Stephens. They asked me to set up a Condon group on
Yahoo which I did. The Directivo came today via UPS.
Loki Diary: December 29, 2001
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Worked some more on the blubird monitor. Accidentally called 911 when I was testing. A police
officer came out to talk with us. Dinner tonight was bean soup and corn bread.
Loki Diary: December 30, 2001
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Spent the morning building the emulator. In the PM got the controller to dial out but it still didn't
receive a call. The incoming interrupt routine is not coded. Still need two things added - a second
microlan and a sno heating relay. Used to have inflation control as well. May add that to this
version. Traditional pizza for dinner - very good crust with mushroom topping.
Loki Diary: December 31, 2001
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Hooked the TIVO up to the satellite dish and to the emulaor. The thing finished building its' guide
data, then did the touch thing from a bash prompt on the thinkpad hooked to the serial port and
got the lifetime subscription. The thing seems to be a pretty neat toy. Went to the greenhouse
and hooked up the house 3 heater to the snow heating thermostat in the back house in prep for
the bluebird controller. New Years dinner was flaming steak with baked potato and Korbel Brut
that Felicia gave to us. Fell asleep in the evening reading my Karen Robards book but awoke at 10
and watched the ball drop at midnight. Recorded it on TIVO for Lib tomorrow - she went to bed at
9.Loki Diary: January 01, 2001
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Slept in till 7:30 today. Worked on status reporting out the serial port, now when the ?S1
command is issued we get a serial dump of key program variables including low and high limits,
current temp, power status and some timers.
Loki Diary: January 02, 2001
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Joe took the car last night to visit Caroline and didn't return until 7:30 this morning. He has a 2PM
flight back today. Drove him to the airport leaving at 12:30 - had to get gas at McDonalds
before going since Joe ran it below empty last night. The plane left on time at 2 PM for
Baltimore but we heard the BWI to PIT flight was delayed 3 1/2 hours. We heard next day
that Joe rebooked via Northwest in Baltimore and arrived in Orange county only a half hour
later than first planned.
Loki Diary: January 03, 2001
--------------------------------------
Spent the afternoon at Mico. Gooing over problems of the 900 mhz design. Talked to Jim in the
morning - he wants to go full bore on the bluetooth design. Dinner was steak sadwiches.
Loki Diary: January 04, 2001
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Spent most of the day working on the Bluetooth schematic. A digging crew showed up today and
dug up the shoulder and road edge in front of our house to repair a water main leak. Dinner was
tuna and peas on toast with a salad. Made a trip to the PO to mail thank you notes and my
Mastercard bill - parking lot was incredibly busy.
Loki Diary: January 09, 2001
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Jim toured my office and shop this morning and also brought a new guy around he was
interviewing. In the afternoon I worked on understanding some Bluetooth flows. Dinner was
homemade chili. Afterwards we went to a Bluetooth book signing at Barnes and Noble in Cary.
Loki Diary: January 10, 2001
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I woke with a really bad headache this morning. Spent the morning sleeping on the couch
downstairs while Lib went to Breckinridge Orchids in Burlington.
Loki Diary: January 13, 2001
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Cleaned up a lot of papers in my shop - threw lots of stuff away.
Loki Diary: January 14, 2001
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When Lib came back from the greenhouse today we cleaned the attic and took a carload full to
the dump. It was mostly skis, bottles and papers. Also burned a lot of old tax forms and financial
papers from the 80's.
Loki Diary: January 15, 2001
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Went for a 9:00 meeting at Mico today. This killed the morning. Jim told the guys we're going full
bore onto Bluetooth, all 900 Mhz stuff will stop.
Loki Diary: January 16, 2001
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Two NC State students toured my lab today at 3:15. I showed them Ericsson and CSR setups.
Loki Diary: January 17, 2001
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Bill came over this morning. He wants to get rid of Yuda and shake things up at Mico. I worked on
a document detailing setting up a bluetooth connection.
My cardbus ethernet card came from Access Micro today. It seems to be more reliable than the
National card I had that hung up quite a bit.
Loki Diary: January 18, 2001
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Tried doing some Flash update and persistence updates on the CSR tool this morning. No luck.
Received the gas bill today - the last four weeks has been $280 or $1.08 per therm.
Loki Diary: January 21, 2001
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This morning did some bluetooth reading and traces. Spent a lot of time on eMail back and forth
over processor selection. In the evening we watched the Golden Globes. Went to bed at 10. Found
out there was a super ECM today from DTV. Our emulator kept working.
Loki Diary: January 22, 2001
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Got a disturbing call this morning from Bill Jefferson - he was steadfast that we were going to use
the Motorola processor. Went to Mico at 2 PM and had a meeting - we settled on the AVR chip. Bill
Backus was checking the wiring of the Ericsson chip which had come back from Valcor.
Loki Diary: January 23, 2001
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Had to go to the dentist this morning. Afterwards went to Mico to debug the Ericsson boards - got
one working. Left there in rush hour traffic at 5:15. Lib spent the day in Burlington visiting Linda
and also Breckinridge Orchids.
Loki Diary: January 24, 2001
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Woke up with a headache this morning. Bill Henthorn called at 8:30 looking for me to come in to
debug the Ericsson Bluetooth. I left at 10:30 for Mico but when I got there Yuda didn't have the
Palm code ready for debug. Worked on an HCI analyzer until Yuda had the code ready.
Loki Diary: January 26, 2001
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An interesting day so far. Bill Henthorn called this morning about our lack of progress on the
layout. I called Jim Clary but he was at a Dr appointment. We finally met with Jim at 2 PM to
discuss what has been happening this week regarding Bill Jefferson. Not sure it did any good
because we now have another meeting Monday morning at 10 regarding this stuff.
Loki Diary: January 27, 2001
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Spent the day cleaning up the Pad program. Got it to be recognized in the Bluetooth
neighborhood.
Loki Diary: January 28, 2001
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I tried HCI data transmitting today but the Bluetooth-Scenix lashup is intermittent. Greg and Jim
came over this afternoon under the pretext of looking at Bluetooth hardware. They looked then
spent the rest of the time talking about Bill Jefferson. The problem we have been having may be
resolved. Bill called tonight with emulator problems. He called during superbowl halftime.
Loki Diary: January 29, 2001
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Went to Mico this morning for our 10:00 meeting and Bill J didn't show up. Jim told Bill H and I
that we're in charge and he'll find other things for Jefferson to do. Spent a few hours there came
home with new plan - going to build an AVR prototype. For dinner ordered Wonderful Chicken to
go.
Loki Diary: January 30, 2001
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Went over to Mico at noon and had KFC lunch with company. Spent the rest of the afternoon
waiting for my prototype to be finished. Took it home and worked on 'C' code until 9 PM. Had the
rest of the wonderful chicken for dinner.
Loki Diary: January 31, 2001
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Worked on 'c' code until about noon then headed to Mico. Spent the afternoon setting up the
environment on the lab machine at Mico then left at 4 for the airport. Arrived at Terminal A about
4:30. Met a pretty college student while waiting. She flew in from Brussels. Unfortunateley Lib
was at the other end of Terminal A and I didn't find her until 5:20. We creeped home on Evans Rd
and went to Waverly Place and had a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and Sam Adams at Red Hot
and Blue. Deposited the rent checks and some rebate and refund checks while there at the Credit
Union ATM.
Loki Diary: February 01, 2001
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Worked on Uart code all day. Dinner was spaghetti and Winn Dixie french bread. Also entered all
the data into quicken for the checks I wrote and ATM deposits yesterday.
Loki Diary: February 04, 2001
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Switched to the IAR compiler today. Went to Sams at noon for a quick grocery buying trip. Spent
the rest of the afternoon learning about compilers.
Loki Diary: February 05, 2001
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Stopped by Mico to look at Jim's Tactel adapter for the Palm.
Loki Diary: February 06, 2001
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Worked on the uart in the morning then had chinese lunch at Mico. Left there at 3 and stopped
into the new Home Depot on the way home - purchased an outlet strip and a/c filters. Dinner was
spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: February 07, 2001
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Spent the day at home trying to get the uart working. Talked with Bill Henthorn in the afternoon.
I'll go into Mico tomorrow to resume debugging. Dinner tonight was chicken wings with sweet
potatos.
Loki Diary: February 08, 2001
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Went over to Mico and spent the day there. Had a meeting from 2 to 4 to discuss tasks. I don't
think anything came of it.
Loki Diary: February 09, 2001
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Finally got the soft uart going this mroning. Also finished the W-2 and W-3 forms for Bluebird.
After lunch we went to Blooming Orchids to deliver. It's a warm day - almost 70 today. Dinner was
grilled pork chops with white wine and baked potato.
Loki Diary: February 11, 2001
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We are supposed to get an ice storm tomorrow. Went out and filled the Taurus gas tank just in
case. Worked on the UARt all day - no response from the Ericsson. Dinner was our usual pizza.
Loki Diary: February 14, 2001
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Spent the day at Mico today debugging the Ericsson interface. Came home and Lib and I went to
Alltel and bought two cell phones. Dinner was turkey burgers and the Russel Stover I got Lib for
Valentines day.
Loki Diary: February 15, 2001
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Spent the dat at Mico. We got the PAD wiring straightened out - it was screwed up. Also got the
PAD uart working.
Loki Diary: February 16, 2001
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Stayed home today - did a credit union trip and a stop into Walmart. Later on we stopped into
Alltel and got new batteries for Libs phone because the other ones wouldn't charge. Lib made
salmon over fresh pasta for dinner which we had with Chardonnay. I watched Hollow Man on PPV
late at night. A poor movie.
Loki Diary: February 17, 2001
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Met Brian this morning at 10 AM Lake Boone Trail to pick up the AVR emulator. On the way home
stopped at Best Buy and got a Palm cradle and a VCR. Listened to Italian in Algiers on the Met
broadcast then went for a walk around the block after the opera quiz. Dinner was pork chops
cooked as Spare Ribs with baked potato and Ravenswood Zinfandel wine.
Loki Diary: February 18, 2001
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\Worked on learning about PALM this morning - installed Palm desktop & cleaned up apps. We had
a quick Sams run - they're rebuilding the store. Nice day outside but cool around 40. Tried using
the emulator to debug the Mico code this afternoon. Dinner was meatball pizza.
Loki Diary: February 19, 2001
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Went over to Mico at 9:30 today. Fixed the Ericsson reset problem. Came back at 4:30 - we had
leftover ribs and baked potato for dinner. Today is a holiday - no mail, no stock market. Have
been thinking of buying some Cisco or other tech stock which have been beaten up badly lately.
Loki Diary: February 20, 2001
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Spent the morning taking Bluetooth connection traces. Left at 12:15 for the Atmel seminar at the
Holiday Inn. Spent the afternoon at the Holiday Inn - took the seminar and got a free development
kit. Dinner was spaghetti, meatballs and salad with french bread. Lib went to an exercise class
tonight - I downloaded Pink Floyd the wall. Snow is in the forecast for Thursday but nobody knows
for sure.
Loki Diary: February 21, 2001
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Spent the morning doing some stock research on the web. In the afternoon started trying some
Bluetooth connection scenarios. Finally managed a connection to the other Ericsson device and
started rolling some interpretation into the Bluetooth Epxlorer. In the evening we had wings and
rice for dinner then watched the Grammy pre-show with Joan Riers and daughter. Afterwards we
watched the Grammys.
Loki Diary: February 22, 2001
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Today is an el crappo day. I had to go to Mico in an ice storm to interview a candidate. It wasn't
supposed to stick to the roads but it did. Went out to the Governors Inn for the lunch buffet to
take Brian out. Lunch was $14. Left in the late afternoon - the roads were only wet but the trees
and grass were still icy.
Loki Diary: February 23, 2001
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Stayed home today and worked on the Bluetooth prototypes. The make connection thing seems to
be unreliable. For dinner we went and got a quart of chow mein and had it with some of Lib's
chicken breast on top and a bottle of Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: February 24, 2001
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A beautiful day. I had a breakthrough on the Bluetooth stuff - finally am able to make reliable
conenctions. I wasn't waiting long enough for the connection to complete. My ears are plugged
today - Lib has a sore throat. We put the shade on the greenhouse in the late afternoon after
Felicia left. Felicia was here helping do the letters for the convention and stayed for lunch.
Dinner was steak with Deloach Zinfandel. Fell asleep listening to WCPE on the radio.
Loki Diary: February 25, 2001
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Worked a little fighting the emulator this morning. Spent some time donwloading YoYoMa Tango
album from Napster then back to the PAD code. Fixed a few errors with the pointers and state
machine ariable but still doesn't work. The Bluetooth connection works great for a change. Lib
had a cough today and I still had some ear stuffiness. Went to Advance and bought an engine
computer scan tool. Found my error code was the cam position sensor. Reset the error and
everything is OK.
Loki Diary: February 26, 2001
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Drove to Mico this morning but the engine light came back on. Turned around and checked the
computer readout at home - it was the position sensor again. Reset the error code but it came on
again at Mico. Lib is pretty sick today with a hacking cough. Dinner was a Krogers salad and soup.
Loki Diary: February 27, 2001
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Started working at home then spent the day at Mico debugging the Bluetooth solution. Lunch was
Philly cheese steak at Mico. Lib still has her cough - dinner was chicken soup.
Loki Diary: February 28, 2001
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Spent the morning working on the Taurus - the Cam Position sensor was toast. The magnet in the
center had fallen off and the plastic post supporting it had disintegrated. I don't know how the car
ran. Rotated the tires and cleaned out the car then went to Krogers for windex and a lunch salad.
Washed the car windows then packed up to go to Mico. Helped debug a cable there a little bit
then went home via the credit union. Got some trip money and deposited a rent check.
Loki Diary: March 01, 2001
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We left at 7:10 this morning with a stop in Florence for breakfast at around 9:30. Got some gas at
1.29 then stopped in Savannah for Barbecue sandwiches at 12:30. Traffic was OK except from
Jacksonville to I-4 in Daytonna. It's bike weekend again but we didn't see a lot of bikes. Arrived at
the Hampton in Vero at 5:15 PM. Bought 6 pairs of shoes in the outlet mall then had spicy grilled
catfish with salad and baked potato in Cracker barrel. Dinner for two with tip was $23.
Loki Diary: March 02, 2001
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We got up at 7:12 and had the Hampton breakfast - all the food is now wrapped in plastic. This
didn't effect my bagel but the danish was soggy. We got going at 9:17 and had one stop in Boca
for gas and McDonalds. Arrived at the convention center at 12:00. Parking was difficult but we
managed after going around a few times. We toured the orchids then had pizza down the street.
$7.50 for 2 slices and two drinks. We stayed until 6, taking in one lecture on orchid CD Roms
where I bought a CD of Ecuador for $55. It was done in Macromedia Flash so everything is limited
to 640 x 480 but it's acceptable. We stopped at McDonalds at the other end of Alligator Alley at
8:52 PM, got gas and a chicken sandwich. Made it to the Island Reef at 10:45 PM. I can't find one
of my Flash cards.
---------------------------------
Our list:
1 white gift phal Odom
Carib 2 pink phals dtps. amanda mary carib gift phal, phal robt brown carib
Odom Phal sun prince x chihsang stripe
Potent terra haw yuan gold "Normans"
blc tzeng wen beauty catelya "Normans"
Golden zel cat "Normans"
Pot. chatoyant Montclaire red cat "Normans"
Carmela flask minipurple x robt strait
ren. memoria marie killlian compot Carmela
lc minipurple "tamani" x toshi akoie cat Carmela
pot terra x free spirit carmela cat Carmela
Hawaiian Island Dendr. copper queen x takami kodama
Hawaiian Island Dendr. ekapol King Dragon
Hawaiian Island Rhym gigantia spots
Loki Diary: March 03, 2001
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Woke up at 7. After cereal for breakfast, Lib and I walked North for 1 mile. Afterwards I did an
Ace hardware trip to get a clip for the master bath panel that holds the toilet paper roll. Did a
Publix runthrough with George - I paid. We got 2 lbs of Salmon for dinner. Went to the Selby plant
sale with our membership - signed up for a magazine called Florida Gardener that concentrates on
South and Central Florida. After Selby I checked eMail and made a reservation for Hampton
Brunswick. The weather here is perfect but up North there is a major snow storm forming with
North Carolina on the edge of rain/snow. Lib cooked our Salmon while the sun set. We had
Chardonnay on the pool patio while the sun set and the salmon cooked.
Loki Diary: March 04, 2001
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Slept in today - didn't get up until 7:30. After breakfast took a walk South. Had an orange for
lunch because I wanted to eat light for the Opera. We were supposed to leave at noon for the
opera but the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain horizontally with 30 to 40 mph winds.
The screens were ripped out of a unit in A building. We left in the pouring weather and navigated
Midnight Pass which was flooded. We took Tamiami because Midnight Pass was flooded badly. The
opera, Falstaff, was outstanding. It's unlike Verdi but keeps moving along. Sarasota did a super job
on sets.
Loki Diary: March 05, 2001
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In the morning it was very windy so we didn't go out for our walk. I made a hardware store run
and got a new A/C outlet for the living room. At 11:15 we left for the Flying Bridge where we met
Herb and Mildred for lunch. I had clam chowder and a crab salad sandwich. We lingered a while at
the lunch table then headed back. Left for Brunswick Georgia at 3:30 PM. Stopped for gas at 1.39
at the Mobil near the bridge. Arrived at the Hampton in Brunswick at 8:40 PM. We put the orchids
in our room and then walked to the cracker barrel for dinner. I had the chicken tenders with
baked potato and salad.
Loki Diary: March 06, 2001
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Woke today at 7 and went downstairs for a bagel and powdered sugar donut breakfast. There was
a christian school 7th grade class of girls staying at our hotel. They were from Columbus and
visiting historic sites. We got gas across the street at Raceway for 1.22 and got on the highway at
around 8:30. Stopped at Walterboro for bathroom and coffee and then lunch at 1 in Lumberton
NC. Got home about 3 after stopping at the post office for mail. Driving was very windy but traffic
was light due to the winter storm in the NorthEast. Dinner was spaghetti with meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 07, 2001
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Left early this morning to go to Mico. Traffic was heavy so I took 751 and arrived at 7:45. Fooled
around with the CSR card but it doesn't look alive.
Dinner was spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 08, 2001
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Arrived at Mico at 9:00 this morning. Tim from Stonestreet was there. After we fooled around
with the CSR card he decided to do software while I debugged hardware. The oscillator doesn't
seem to be running.Carolee brought us lunch from Schlotskys - I had an Original on sourdough.
Left there around 4:30. Called Lib on my cell on the way home. Dinner was barbecue chicken
with wild rice.
Loki Diary: March 09, 2001
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Went to Mico later today - around 9:00. Changed the crystal on the CSR and the card now loads
reliably. Still no response. Went out to Wendys at lunchtime with Bill and Tim from Stonestreet. I
had the single combo which is a singlle with fries and drink. Left there at 5. Dinner was China
Chef Wonderful chicken.
Loki Diary: March 10, 2001
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Spent some time online with Naked News today. Did some reading and ordered a disk drive from
Buy.com with my etrade gift certificate. Went to Fresh Market during the opera and got some
stuffed mushrooms and marinated salmon for dinner. After dinner we watched Toy Story 2.
Loki Diary: March 11, 2001
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Read the paper and did market research this morning. On the way from Sams we stopped at the
Credit Union where I deposited my variable pay check - this is going to eTrade tomorrow. Went to
Mico this afternoon to see what Tim from StoneStreet had accomplished.
Loki Diary: March 12, 2001
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Went to Mico early this morning to work on the CSR card. It's not respponding now - possibly
blown up with too high a voltage. Bill Bakkus found a solder ball that was not touching. May have
a manufacturing problem. The market crashed today - down 437 with Cisco down to 18.
Loki Diary: March 13, 2001
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The market recovered a little bit today. Went to Mico early again to work on the Bluetooth stuff.
Tried to get the CSR stuff working but it was too confusing because of the interruptions. In the
evening I studied the state machine to figure out what was going on. It looks pretty
straightforward.
Loki Diary: March 14, 2001
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Spent another wasted day at Mico trying to get the bluetooth going. Dinner tonight was Voila.
Loki Diary: March 15, 2001
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Went early to Mico - still can't get the processor to run. Brian stopped by at noon time. Left there
at 3. Did some research on stocks and funds the rest of the day. The market is down over 1000
points this week. I'm looking into some index funds as well as Cisco which is in the high teens. I
like QQQ and XLK as stock index funds and also Vanguard 500 (VFINX).
Loki Diary: March 16, 2001
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Spent the day at home researching weather sensors. Ordered some Dallas humidity sensors. We
left at 2:24 for DC and encountered light rain from Richmond on North. Traffic was heavy but we
kept moving until the beltway where it was stop and go rush hour traffic. Arrived at the
Guenthers at 7:30 PM. We had bruces homemade pizza and wine for dinner.
Loki Diary: March 17, 2001
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After breakfast Lib went to her violet meeting North of Silver Spring and Bruce and I went 30
miles away to Davisonville to look at pellet stoves. It was a very informative demo of the
technology. Afterwards we stopped for lunch at a Fresh Food Supermarket and bought a chicken
wrap sandwich. Dinner was barbecue pork chops with roasted veggies and salad with Korbel
Cabernet Sauvignon champagne. Later we watched the movie "Becoming John Malkovich" and had
brownies and ice cream for desert.
Loki Diary: March 24, 2001
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Listened to the opera this afternoon then called in a request for Purcells Trumpet Voluntary into
the WCPE Saturday night listener request show. Lib made some ribs and baked potato for our
anniversary. I bought a small cheesecake at Winn Dixie. Wine with dinner was Fetzer Cabernet
Sauvignon on their Bonterra label that we picked up in California.
Loki Diary: March 25, 2001
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Our 29th anniversary. Worked on scanning slides most of today. Also did some research on the
stock market and one wire weather devices since my one wire humidity sensor arrived last week.
At 6 PM went downstairs and watched the pre Oscar red carpet show hosted by Joan Rivers then
the oscars afterwards. Dinner was plain pizza.
Loki Diary: March 26, 2001
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Went into Mico this morning at 10 and stayed until noon. Came home and resumed scanning
slides. Dinner was the left over anniversary ribs with baked potatoes.
Loki Diary: March 27, 2001
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Stayed home scanning slides all day. Quality is not bad but there is a streak running down each
image. I don't know if I'm happy with that or not. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and meatballs.
Loki Diary: March 28, 2001
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Met with Jim and Haydon this morning at 10. They want to pay me a lot less for my time at Mico. I
settled for $5k for 300 hours. This works out to only 20% of what I should have gotten. Not very
good. The market is down again - Cisco is at 16 and my QQQ is down to 41. I bought at 43.
Vanguard is probably terrible as well.
Loki Diary: March 29, 2001
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A pretty terrible rain all day today - Sarasota got 8.5 inches, we got about 2 inches.
Loki Diary: March 31, 2001
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Tom Herner came over this morning around 10 to estimate our upstairs heating and A/C
replacement. Afterwards we set up Prokofiev Gambler to record from the Met and went to the
Orchid Show at the Northgate Mall. I was tired and didn't feel like being there. Dinner was grilled
tuna and Lindemans Chardonnay with rice and Brocoli.
Loki Diary: April 01, 2001
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Spent the morning researching duct boosters. When Lib came back from the greenhouse we went
to Sams. Got caught in a wicked storm on the trip home - thunder, lighteneing and hail. I was
worried about car damage from the hail but we got home OK. The ground was covered with pea
sized hail stones. It was a lazy afternoon - spent time sleeping then watched La Boheme taped
from NYC opera a few nights ago. This version is set prior to WWII.
Loki Diary: April 02, 2001
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A beautiful spring day. We took a walk up the street to Tom Herners and picked up the load
calculation. We took the walk because we heard a jack hammer going next door. They seem to be
waterproofing the basement. Worked on the gas lines to the outdoor grill and the back porch. I
punched one hole into the crawl space for the gas pipe, drilled a hole in the deck and punched
half of the second hole to run gas to under the porch. Made a Home Depot run and also Ace
hardware. While at Ace I noticed that natural gas weber grills were on sale. Went back with the
Mini Van after supper and got the grill. Put it together in the Family Room while Lib went quilting.
Dinner tonight was BLT's.
Loki Diary: April 03, 2001
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It's rainy today. To make matters worse, the Dow is down another 300 and Nasdaq is down another
100 to 1600. Not good! I finished the second foundation hole and made a run to Home Depot for
more pipe and fittings. Dinner was turkey burgers with Pasta Salad.
Loki Diary: April 04, 2001
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Ran the gas pipes in the crawl space in the morning. In the afternoon worked on 1065 tax forms
then Lib and I went to the dump, credit union and Walmart (for oil). When we got home I cleaned
the garage and blew the driveway off. Libs' parents arrive tomorrow. Dinner was turkey burgers
and pasta salad.
Loki Diary: April 05, 2001
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Libs parents arrived a little past noon when I was in the backyard using the chain saw. For dinner
tonight we had barbecue chicken but the grill ran out of gas half way through the cooking.
Loki Diary: April 06, 2001
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George and MAry left today around 9. I worked in the backyard cutting logs and cleaning up
around the creek.
Loki Diary: April 07, 2001
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Spent the morning cutting down trees around the Oak in the backyard. Lib came home at noon to
let me know Parsifal was starting early. Dinner was Red Hot and Blue ribs with Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: April 08, 2001
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Spent the morning picking up logs I cut yesterday. Around noon we went to Sams and bought a
ladder and backpack sprayer. Worked on the old lawnmower today and replaced the blade adapter
and put a new blade on. The mower runs great. In the late afternoon we called Vicki for her
birhtday. Lunch was tuna on regular bread.
Loki Diary: April 09, 2001
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Went to Mico today to get my microscope. They still need my helput I'm lukewarm about the idea.
On the way home stopped at Ace and got paint and screening .
Loki Diary: April 10, 2001
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Mixed up some cement and patched around the gas pipe holes I made in the foundation. Painted
the pipes with a throway brush and rustoleum. Dinner was turkey burgers on our new grill.
Loki Diary: April 11, 2001
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Spent some more time learning about the berkley implementation of 900 Mhz. Had the rest of the
turkey burgers for dinner on the new grill.
Loki Diary: April 12, 2001
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Started outside later in the morning and finished up putting the Masonite siding on. Spent the
afternoon researching the Berkeley site about smart dust. Dinner was Ravioli with salad and
bread.
Loki Diary: April 13, 2001
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Went to Home Depot this morning to get a 1x8 x 12 feet for the trim. After measuring and
cutting, it got dark outside and started raining. Gathered up the tools and wood and put
everything inside then it stopped raining. Spent the afternoon with Lib doing Easter grocery
shopping and then bought some plants at Home Depot.
Loki Diary: April 14, 2001
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In the morning I finished putting the trim boards over the siding on the popup in back. Took out
the mower I fixed this week and mowed the ditch out front for the first time this season. In the
afternoon Lib came home from the greenhouse and we had hot dogs on the grill. Listened to
Aridane from the Met and also napped a bit on the floor. Very nice opera. After the opera I went
out looking for a chocolate bunny. None at Eckerds or Winn Dixie. Found some leftover candy at
Krogers. Came home and had baked ham and Korbel champagne for easter dinner.
Loki Diary: April 15, 2001
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Easter. Mom called this morning while Lib was at the greenhouse. It's a fairly nice day. For dinner
we had ham and apple sauce which is our Easter dinner instead of normal Sunday night pizza.
Spent the afternoon doing the taxes. Had to send an additional $610 as well as making a $200
quarterly payment to cover my retirement income which has no taxes withheld. In late afternoon
Lib and I went to the postoffice with the tax forms - it started raining on the way there.
Loki Diary: April 16, 2001
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This morning I went onto the roof and painted the new siding and trim. Then I built two 900 mhz
prototypes and changed my Cisco buy order to buy 300 at $18. The price is currently above that.
In the afternoon I mowed the back yard and did some clean up work on the woods. Tom Herner
dropped the estimate off - $4520 to replace the upstairs A/C and furnace. Dinner was a ham
sandwich.
Loki Diary: April 18, 2001
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Went to Walmart this morning and bought 2 receivers and dish for DTV. I'll use these for an
emulator. The H card is on order from DSS Escrow.
Loki Diary: April 19, 2001
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Left at 3:14 but had to turn around because I forgot my tie. Finally got going and had dinner at
the Cracker Barrel at Frecerick. Used the cell phone to talk to Sue. She said to call when we get
to the potomoc bridge. They were at a day care center meeting. Got to their house aorund 9 PM.
Loki Diary: April 20, 2001
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Left Silver Spring at 9 and arrived in NJ at 12:00. Picked up 4 slices of pizza at Dominics on the
way there but of course Mom had gotten sub sandwiches before we got there. Stopped by Arlenes
to give her the scanner then went to Moms to get ready for the rehearsal. We left at 5:15 - the
rehearsal is at 6:30. Afterwards we had an Italian buffet at Scarpalleni's hosted by Vicki. Very nice
evening.
Loki Diary: April 21, 2001
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Left at 9 for the wedding which started at 10:30. The limo arrived on time at 10:15. Took lots of
pictures. Sat with the Musnicki's during cocktails and then during the reception. After it was over
we went to Vickis' where Barb and Rob were opening presents.
Loki Diary: April 22, 2001
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Left NJ at 8 - waited for Mom to get back from Mass before leaving. Went to the bagel store and
got breakfast for Lib and I. Stopped into Silver Spring for a half hour to retrieve my jacket with
Cell phone and Palm I had left there. Bruce was planting Dogwood and Redbud trees. Arrived
home at 5:30. Lib went to the greenhouse and I went to the grocery store. She returned with a
Patroni's pizza around 7 PM.
Loki Diary: April 23, 2001
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Read up on the hu card and 5th gen receiver. My H card arrived this morning from DSS Escrow.
Burned a few CD's of Elvis, Simon and Grfunkel.
Loki Diary: April 24, 2001
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Spent most of the day on Usenet. Ordered a Hu loader from Milli now that my PayPal account is
active. Dinner tonight was turkey burgers. It started raining in the evening. Planted the Petunias
and cleaned the driveway before the rain.
Loki Diary: April 25, 2001
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Spent the morning editing images and uploading the wedding pix to Toms Porch.
Loki Diary: April 28, 2001
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Lib returned from Virginia Beach today. I went over some of the Paris opions with her. Dinner was
Red Hot and Blue ribs for two with a Red Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: April 29, 2001
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Booked the PAris trip via US Airways today. Made it 8 nights in Paris at the Mercure Tour Eiffel.
Loki Diary: April 30, 2001
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Spent the morning putting together a 1951 birthday CD for Arlene. In the afternoon built an AVSA
convention ad for Lib. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice. Received an MP3 player form
computer geeks today but it doesn't work.
Bought a Digital Wallet on eBay today.
Loki Diary: May 01, 2001
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Went to Barnes and Noble after the credit union today and picked up a coffee table book on Paris
as well as a NY Times full story book.
Loki Diary: May 02, 2001
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Mowed the backyard and cleaned up the front woods today with Libs help. After our chinese
leftovers dinner on the back porch we watched Fantasia on PPV. Very nice music - it seemed so
short.
Loki Diary: May 04, 2001
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Did some Paris reading in the morning then went with Lib to Logans at 12:30. She reserved the
last two crab cakes which they had when we arrived. I bought some sage plants for the perennial
garden.
Loki Diary: May 05, 2001
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Spent the day studying art on the web. Lib brought home 2 small ferns and a large one for the
perennial garden in the front. I did some test photography with the digital camera trying different
jpg quality settings vs different exposure. Dinner was barbecue chicken with paked sweet potato
and chocolate creme cake that was on sale for 2.99 for a half cake.
Loki Diary: May 06, 2001
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After reading the paper started debugging the violet program and also converting it into an art
data base program. I would like one of these for certain artists. Lib came home at 10:3o and after
chocolate cake we went to Sams for wine and to stock up. Had a lunch of Nathans hot dogs then
left at 2 for the opera. Rakes Progress was in the new Fletcher Opera Theater - a very nice small
opera theater. Very enjoyable. Returned home at 6, changed clothes then ordered a Patronis
Pizza.
Loki Diary: May 07, 2001
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This morning I reviewed the Bluebird web site then did a lot of reading on photography comparing
Olympus D500 pictures (my camera) with Kodak DC4800 and Olympus E10 pictures ($2,000. SLR).
In the afternoon Lib and I went to IBM and bought ADF tickets. Went out to lunch at the Panda
Bear on Alexander. Dinner was tomato soup.
Loki Diary: May 08, 2001
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Bought a Kodak 4800 this morning at Garner Walmart. Didn't like the autofocus or low light
handling of this camera, mainly indoor pictures. Returned it in the afternoon at Cary Walmart
with Lib. Picked up a new tee shirt while there.
Loki Diary: May 10, 2001
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Went to Sams with Lib this afternoon and bought an Olympus C-3000 . This camera is $200 more
than one on the internet. Will return it if I like it and order one online.
Loki Diary: May 11, 2001
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Spent the day playing with the Olympus camera and reading photo reviews on the internet.
Loki Diary: May 12, 2001
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Spent the day on the bluebird web site. Finished uploading everything by 5:30 PM. In the late
afternoon we went to Fresh Market and got crab dip and marinated salmon. Had this with 1.5 litre
of Mondavi chardonnay.
Loki Diary: May 13, 2001
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This morning I corrected the Bluebird web site - the arrows were not displaying correctly. Now I
need to add the supplies list and orchid prices.
In the afternoon after a salad with leftover chicken on top. Aftwerwards we went to the flea
market to get hostas and perrenials. Bought 3 hostas for $2 each, 2 coreopsis at 2.95 and 2
veronica at 2.95 each. Did not plant this stuff because I'll get some potting soil tomorrow from
the greenhouse. Dinner was Libs homemade pizza.
Loki Diary: May 14, 2001
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Tilled the new perennial garden spot then picked up soil frpom the greenhouse to till into the soil.
Also hooked up the sprinklers.
Loki Diary: May 15, 2001
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Hooked up rest of drip sprinklers on the hostas today.
Loki Diary: May 16, 2001
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Worked on the web site supplies all morning. It finally rained today after 3 weeks with no rain.
Dinner tonight was crab cakes with macaroni salad.
Loki Diary: May 17, 2001
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Took pictures of violet su[pplies this morning then packed up the camera to return to Sams.
Bought some index stocks before the market opened. Big rally yesterday - Dow closed over
11,000.
Loki Diary: May 18, 2001
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Tom Herner came over at a little after 7 - there was a slight mist. They started in the attic and I
went on the roof to change the smokestack to a vinyl pipe. Had to put in 2 new shingles because
the new boot was smaller. Tom finished up at 7:00 PM - a long day. We had Chardonnay and
stuffed salmon for dinner.
Loki Diary: May 19, 2001
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This morning I buried a pipe for the A/C drain. Lunch was leftover chicken sandwiches. In the
afternoon we went to the flea market and bought 2 black eyed susans which I put into the new
perennial bed. Dinner was chardonnay and stuffed salmon again.
Loki Diary: May 20, 2001
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Read the paper outside this morning. Tom Herner came over to finish some stuff in the attic. I
tried configuring the shopping cart software. When Lib returned at noon we called Mom then went
to Artsplosure in downtown Raleigh. Saw a unique fountain I liked. Enjoyed the day listening to
music and looking at art. We came home at around 3 and had leftover chicken for lunch. The
couple came over to take our barbecue grill away - Lib drove our minivan to their house with the
grill. During the late afternoon I took violet pictures - some of the jpeg files were corrupt. I think
the flash card had a problem - I hope it's not a transfer problem to the digital wallet.
Loki Diary: May 22, 2001
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Had a gas leak at the greenhosue this morning. Went over and shut all the tanks off but couldn't
do one of them. Went home for a wrench but when I returned the propane company had arrived.
They fixed the fill valve which was mis-seated. Dinner was turkey burgers with tomato and vidalia
onion.
Loki Diary: May 23, 2001
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Spent time online studying 900 mhz and avr applications. In the PM I mowed the lawn in the back.
Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice.
Loki Diary: May 25, 2001
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When Lib came home we went to Sams and picked up our groceries and also some stuffed salmon.
Dinner was stuffed salmon on the grill with Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: May 28, 2001
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It was a pretty glum memorial day - rainy all day. Stayed inside playing on the computer all day,
did almost nothing productive all day. Dinner was the rest of the frozen chicken teryaki we got at
Sams a few weeks ago.
Loki Diary: May 29, 2001
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Took Lib to the airport early - her flight was at 9:45 to Chicago. Afterwards stopped at Brueggers
for coffee and a bagel. Dinner tonight was French Bread Pizza.
Loki Diary: May 30, 2001
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Spent a lot of time today researching cameras - decided to get a C-2040. Ordered Kung Tsao
Chicken from China Chef for dinner.
Loki Diary: May 31, 2001
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Faye called thsi morning - nobody is at the greenhouse and she needs 60 Ferns. Went over and
started bagging Ferns - they seem to have a mealy problem. Nancy and Coleman came over and
helped when I was half way through. Finished wiring the hot tub outlet - I'm moving it to under
the sink so the wire isn't in the way. Also want to run water to the outside and speakers and a LAN
to the porch. Dinner was French Bread pizza. Ordered a C-2040 camera this evening from Linden
NJ.
Loki Diary: June 01, 2001
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Called to the greenhouse this monring - Doreen was there. Didn't hear from Libbie yet. Went to
Home Depot and Radio Shack then the skies opened up - there were tornado warnings and buckets
of rain. Watched some Woodstock tape because the rain took out the satellite.Around 7:30
ordered some Moo Goo Gai Pan - didn't like it because there was too much garlic and it was pretty
bland.
Loki Diary: June 02, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse to check on things - everything was OK. Stopped into Best Buy for a
new PCMCIA network card for Libs computer. It was zapped by lightening. There also seems to be
something wrong with the upstairs hub. Worked on the solenoid plumbing but didn't finish. Dinner
was TV dinner barbecue ribs which wasn't too bad.
Loki Diary: June 03, 2001
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Worked on putting the wall back together around the porch sink and also finished the plumbing -
installed the solenoid and outdoor copper fittings. Lib called at noon from Chicago while I was
having polish sausage and potato salad. Left at 3:30 for the airport. Lib called on ,my cellphone
while I was waiting at the baggage door at terminal C. She didn't see me. Got home at 5:00 and
had homemade pizza with Chardonnay and some nachos.
Loki Diary: June 04, 2001
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Balanced the checkbook this morning with the credit union eStatement. This thing is pretty nice
for keeping on top of the checkbook.
Loki Diary: June 05, 2001
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Spent the day painting the skylights on the back porch and also patched some holes and gaps on
the ceiling in prep for painting. Need to get some more ceiling paint from Lowes before doing the
ceiling. This will probably be done tomorrow. It was quite warm - 94 degrees. Ended up turning on
the upstairs A/C for the first time this season. Dinner was turkey burger, polish sausage and
potato salad. Did some research in the evening on pellet guns to control some of the varmints
around here.
Loki Diary: June 06, 2001
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Rollered the ceiling today. Finished the whole thing from one end to the other.
Loki Diary: June 07, 2001
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Went to Walmart this evening to return the pellet gun and exchange it for a working one. Pellets
jammed in the first and after I took it apart I couldn't get it back together.
Loki Diary: June 08, 2001
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UPS tracking is showing that my new camera will be delivered today. Spent the morning near
home waiting for the camera. It finally came about 1 PM. Rollered the East wall with green
Restful Retreat to compare to the Stowe White. Dinner was Teryaki Chicken, Sweet Potato and
White wine.
Loki Diary: June 09, 2001
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Painted windows today and spackled the nail holes on the wall. For lunch I grilled the last of the
Polish Sausage. Spent some time taking pictures with the new camera and learning how it handles.
Learned Aperture priority mode and low light capabilities.
We went to our first ADF tonight - Garth Fagan. It was a very colorful and lively performance.
Very entertaining. Our seats were the uncomfortable balcony at Page. We left at 6:30 to get paint
mixed at Home Depot on the way. The line at the paint counter was long but we left there at 7:04
PM and made it OK - we even parked in front of the chapel.
Loki Diary: June 10, 2001
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Read the paper on the back porch with coffee and bagels then tried to call Mom but only got her
answering machine. Tried Arlene but answering machine. Finally got hold of Vicki and foun that
Mom went to LI for a graduation. Painted the green wall with the Stowe white. Also put a second
coat on the clock wall which was Stowe White previously. It was a long day because I wanted to
finish rollering. The wall after painting still looks dirty - it may need a third coat. We had pizza
tonight. I stayed up and watched Finding Forrester which was on PPV.
Loki Diary: June 11, 2001
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Painted the second coat on the trim and then left for Home Depot to get more paint and a new
kitchen faucet. Went to the greenhouse and replaced the water tank float valve which was stuck
open. This involved a trip to two different ace hardwares. Next step was putting up the trim and
scraping the painted windows. Dinner was turkey burger with tomato and vidallia onion. My new
wallet from Magellan came today. Spoke with Arlene today - she talked about her trip to Poland
last week.
Loki Diary: June 12, 2001
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Lib took the afternoon off and helped me clean the porch. Picked everything up and she washed
the floor. Dinner was a turkey burger then we went to John Jasperse dance at the ADF. The dance
company has 4 dancers who performed to strange industrial sounds and flailed their arms in synch.
Mid way through the two males were nude and did a dance with nude butts. I was hoping the
female dancers would join in but only the men got naked.
Loki Diary: June 13, 2001
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Painted the spackle holes on the trim and also removed the hot tub pump and opened the motor
to get to the seals. New seals are available on Six Forks in Raleigh. Finished washing and scraping
the windows. Took the old ceiling fans down and made a trip to Home Depot to get new white
extension poles but they didn't have 30 inch so I bought white enamel instead. Broke down the old
fan motor and blades for the garbage tomorrow. Dinner was Ravioli which we had while it poured
outside - the remnants of tropical storm Allison. This morning I also went to the Cary post office
to return the thinkpad battery I bought on eBay which was bad.
Loki Diary: June 14, 2001
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Went to Six Forks at 8:15 because Mark the repair guy is only their from 8:30 to 9:00. Picked up
the new seal and put it in the pump. The thing works leak free!
We were supposed to go to Sams but Allison dumped buckets of rain on us so we postponed.
Worked on crown moulding trim. Dinner was tomato soup.
Loki Diary: June 15, 2001
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Finished up washing and scraping windows on the porch then went to Sams and spent $170 on
groceries. Brought home a ready cooked rack of ribs for dinner which we had with Ravenwood
Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: June 16, 2001
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Dinner tonight was pork chops which we bought 2 for 1 at Krogers. Put the cabinet doors abck on
and replaced the skirt on the hot tub.
Loki Diary: June 17, 2001
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Finished the painting - needed a touchup of the crown mouldings. Joe called this afternoon.
Loki Diary: June 18, 2001
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We finished up the porch today!!!! I went on the roof in the AM and washed the skylights. Then
took the ladder and removed a branch over the garden in front. Went inside and washed the
remaining skylights. Mowed the lawn and broke the blade adapter - a quick trip to Ace hardware
and all was well. Bought some once and done at Ace and Lib used this stuff to shine up the
previously scrubbed floor. Dinner was pork chops and sweet potato.
Loki Diary: June 19, 2001
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Built two plywood covers for the floor holes and painted them. Installed one but the one under
sink won't go in until the speaker wires are pulled. My replacement batteryncame from PC Surplus
today. Dinner tonight was a Jersey Mikes sub.
Loki Diary: June 20, 2001
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Pulled wire today for a LAN and speakers on the backporch. dinner was Voila. We have an ADF
performance tonight of Pilobolus. Pilobolus was fantastic. They introduced stilts to dance in a
very talented performance. They did their usual acrobatics and unbelievable superhuman feats.
Afyterwards we stopped for Carolina Concrete (raspberry and chocolate) at Goodberry's.
Loki Diary: June 21, 2001
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Hooked up the speakers on the porch and also ran the LAN wire. Couldn't find any crimp-on RJ45
connectors. Our guidebooks and vouchers came today from US Airways. Did a Sams run this
afternoon and NY Pizza for lunch next to Sams. Picked up Salmon for dinner this weekend. Dinner
tonight was polish sausage on the grill and baked beans.
Loki Diary: June 22, 2001
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Picked Sue up at 10:05 AM. On the way to the airport I renewed the Taurus registration and
browsed watercolor books at Borders. After picking up Sue went to the greenhouse to get Lib then
did a Farmers Market trip. Had a message from Brian about real time clocks on the AVR. I'm going
to put together an app note for this stuff. Dinner was Salmon, snap beans and blueberry pie with
Mondavi Chadonnay. We watched "What Woman Want" on PPV in the evening.
Loki Diary: June 23, 2001
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Went to Brueggers this morning while Sue slept in. Lib did some greenhouse stuff then came back
to be with Sue. I worked on some real time clock code for AVR because Brian has a customer that
may need consulting. I also spent some time putting together a consulting web site on nc.rr.com.
In the evening we had Sams frozen ribs with Mondavi Chardonnay. Lib baked a peach cobbler
which we had while watching Billy Elliott on PPV.
Loki Diary: June 24, 2001
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Hung around the house today - Lib and Sue read on the back porch and I worked on the real time
clock code. For dinner Lib made 3 pizzas. Watched Finding Forrseter on PPV in the evening.
Loki Diary: June 25, 2001
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Took Sue to the airport this morning. Left at 9:05 and arrived at Southwest at 9:27 via the Cary
Parkway - Evans Rd. In the PM met Brian at Centennial campus and picked up an STK500. Plugged
it in at home and ran the demo's. Dinner was grilled Polish Sausage and snap beans. Watched the
ADF produced Dance program on Great Performances.
Loki Diary: June 26, 2001
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Wired up the LCD display this morning then found out the Tiny28 has different configuration than
the 8515. To use the 8515 for testing I'll need to modify the program and move the port to display
wiring around. In the afternoon I spent the time reading the Phil G photo.net site gleaning info
about photographing buildings, people and scenery. Dinner was grilled chicken with new potatoes.
Loki Diary: June 27, 2001
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Moved around the ports in the real time program and flashed the STK500 with the 8515 version
but the LCD is not responding. May have to add the voltages to the contrast control to get it to
work. Left at 7 for ADF - "From the Horses Mouth". It was a very lively and ecletic collection of
characters - 28 dancers total tell stories then do dance routines. My favorite was the tall thin
Pilobolus dancer who when paired with David Dorfman was graceful and elegant as they spun with
him holding an arm and leg of hers. Her graceful form was perfect - body parallel to the floor,
legs outstretched just slightly bent. A defining moment for me. Dinner before we left was tuna
fish sandwiches. Stopped at Goodberrys on the way home - I had a chocolate - raspberry concrete.
The en tire performance was 90 minutes with no intermission but they ocassionally broke up the
format with music, lighting and dancers moving across the stage diagonally.
Loki Diary: June 28, 2001
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Worked on getting the AVR to talk to the LCD display. Finally got it all working in the evening with
the switches to set minutes and hours. Didn't hook up a 60 hz timebase so can't tell time yet.
Dinner was turkey burger with baked beans.
Loki Diary: June 29, 2001
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Went to Atmel this morning to pick up the Tiny 28 AVR samples. Brian got two of them in. Met
some of the people at the Atmel office on the corner of Strickland and Falls of the Neuse. Got the
real time clock working on the 8515 hardware on an STK500 development lit with my LCD display
and an optoisolator hooked to an AC transformer. Was supposed to go to Sams with Lib but she
was late and tired so we didn't go.
Loki Diary: June 30, 2001
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The clock was off by two hours this morning. Found that I was resetting to 0 at 12 instead of 1.
Fixed it and now things work OK. Dinner was Lloyds ribs from Sams and Ravenswood Zinfandel.
Desert was a Sams apple pie.
Loki Diary: July 01, 2001
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Spent some time today putting together a trip plan for Paris.
Loki Diary: July 02, 2001
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Worked a little bit on my irrigation controller, collected some parts to start building one. Dinner
was grilled chicken with cucumber salad and cantaloupe.
In the evening we went to Shen Wei at Reynolds. Very nice - beautiful topless dancers, colorful
dreamlike impressionistic painting. The performance ended at 9:20. Afterwards we stopped at
Harris Teeter and got some Breyers Oreo mint ice cream which was on sale for $3.49.
Loki Diary: July 03, 2001
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Worked on my ADF web pages in the morning - scanning the programs and assembling the reviews.
I don't know why I'm doing this. After this I finished up the Atmel app note. Lib came home from
violet club late in the PM. Dinner was barbecue chicken with white wine and suddenly salad.
Loki Diary: July 04, 2001
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A nice 4th. I spent time studying photography - picked up a shutterbug magazine at Krogers. We
also picked up some chips, hot dogs, bagels and bread. Took a walk before dinner around shepards
vineyard pool. Saw a nice bikini sunning in her front yard. While Lib cooked our chicken it started
pouring - I held the umbrella while she basted and turned the chicken. It was thinder and
lighteneing and pouring unbelievably hard. The backyard flooded like a mountain stream - some of
the logs I put in the creek flooded up. The power went off a few times but in general stayed up.
We had our chicken with wine and sweet potato while it rained. We started watching a Brian
Wilson tribute on TNT but switched to the A&E coverage of Boston Pops and their fireworks. It
was very nice - guests were Arlo Guthrie and Cindi Lauper.
Loki Diary: July 05, 2001
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The generator ran all night. The CP&L sensor got fried by a lightening zap. It took out the
optoisolator and the fuse. Fixed that but found the generator governor lost a screw - it was racing
at high speed. Repaired the screw and topped off the batteries. Took a power walk over to the
Apex reservoir. Lib met me in the parking lot on her way home from exercise class. Dinner was
polish sausage hot dogs and Texas style beans. Enjoyed the evening listeneing to American Opera
on WCPE - Porgy & Bess, Babes in Toyland and other delightful pieces.
Loki Diary: July 06, 2001
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Drove over to the reservoir on the Lake Pine side and walked the greenway around the lake. It
was a very nice day for this.
Loki Diary: July 07, 2001
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Mowed the front by the street today and trimmed the branches there. When Lib came home we
had lunch then did a Winn Dixie trip and parked on the Laura Duncan side of the park. Walked
around the lake, then home. In the evening drilled holes for the switches of the irrigatin
controller. Dinner was sweet potato, barbecue chicken and Beringers Merlot. Very nice wine.
Loki Diary: July 08, 2001
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Spent the day reading some more about Paris then I fixed the irrigation controller program so the
30/60 minute selection worked correctly. It rained all afternoon so our walk today was cancelled.
Dinner was Pizza - talked to my Mom at noon today - she fractured her foot. George and Mary
called during pizza to wish us well.
Loki Diary: July 09, 2001
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Went to the bank this morning and withdrew $800 for our trip. Cut the grass when I returned then
finished packing. The weather may be a little stormy near Charlotte where we get the Paris flight
from. We leave home at 3:00 - Nancy is picking us up. After mowing I also did some wiring of the
irrigation controller switches and powered up the supply to measure voltages. The regulator is
getting a little hot dropping 34 volts to 5 volts. May add a resistor to take the load off it by
dropping some of the voltage.
Loki Diary: July 19, 2001
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Started downloding pictures this morning and waited for the Time Warner guy to replace our cable
modem. It got zapped as well as our downstairs printer while we were gone. Lib was on her liguid
diet today so I picked up a frozen french bread pizza for dinner.
Loki Diary: July 20, 2001
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Took Lib to the hospital this morning for her 8:30 checkin. The called aroun nnon saying she was
done so I went over to pick her up. While she was napping I went over to Barnes and Noble and
browsed books and bought her birthday present - Monet at Giverny. Dinner was chicken and
quiche that Doreen had made. Later had some Lime yogurt to go with it.
Loki Diary: July 21, 2001
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I picked up the mail in the mailbox when I got the paper - forgot to do it yesterday. Wrapped Lib's
present and talked to my mother this morning. She called while Lib was at the greenhouse. Sorted
through the pictures and talked to Vicki later in the afternoon. After lunch we walked around the
Apex reservoir then went to Fresh market for salmon and birthday desert. After that went to the
NC art museum to look at perennials. While there we also visited the arboretum. Took some
digital pictures of textures and colors of flowers.
Loki Diary: July 22, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse in the morning because Lib reported that the phone box was off the
wall because the siding was rotted. The phone is not working. Put a treated 2x4 on the wall and
mounted the box to it. Tested the cable from the street - no dial tone. It's a phone company
problem. Called it in to phone company service. Spent some time reading about WW II in a book
we bought at Sams. The book was a bargain at $10. Dinner was hoemmade pizza - it's been a while
and tasted good.
Loki Diary: July 23, 2001
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Spent the day researching image databases. I want something web based to query an image
collection and return a web page of thimbnail results. This will cover both art photos as well as
personal photography.
Loki Diary: July 24, 2001
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Started writing the image databse application. In the afternoon and evening go interested in WW
II in France and read the NY Times book and also some extensive stuff online. Dinner was rice with
barbecue chicken. The market fell another 200 points today - the DOW is at 10,200. I'm tired of
watching the market fall. Had dental X-Rays and cleaning this morning. Lib had a crown at noon
(my appointment was at 9:10).
Loki Diary: July 26, 2001
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Spent the whole day sorting and uploading pictures to the online services so I can order prints.
Loki Diary: July 27, 2001
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Went to Krogers today and picked up ribs for dinner with baked potato and Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Walked around the Apex reservoir from Krogers parking lot - tried to get a watch battery in
krogers but they didn;t carry them. After our walk drove to Eckerds on Laura Duncan and got a
battery.
Loki Diary: July 28, 2001
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Decided today to order an Epson Stylus 780 from Staples taking advantage of the online coupons
and rebates. Price after rebates should be $80. Dinner tonight was leftover ribs with baked potato
and Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: July 29, 2001
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Worked on doing the AVR using IAR software for the SDK500 Atmel development board. Went to
Sams around noon and picked up another in the WW II series. Have been obsessed with this stuff.
It was a dreary rainy day most of the day.
Loki Diary: July 30, 2001
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Put together a CD using the menu system software in the mroning. In the afternoon we went to
the CU to deposit my $600 IRS tax rebate, then a trip to Sams to get a black ink cartridge for the
Epson 800. Sams didn't have them. On the way home we stopped at the Apex reservoir and walked
around then did a grocery run at Krogers. Dinner was leftover ribs. Read my book in the evening.
During the day the post office delivered the 16 x 20 print of the burgers that I ordered - it's
beautiful. Need a frame now.
Loki Diary: July 31, 2001
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Spent the morning cataloging and soring images. When Lib came home whe had a bag of video
tapes from Doreen about WW II. We watched the Longest Day which was a pretty good movie
about the Normandy invasion. What it was missing was an ending. The director must have decided
that 2 hours are up lets call it quits here. Dinner during the movie was creamed tuna and peas on
toast. Desert later was Kroger store brand yogurt.
Loki Diary: August 01, 2001
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Watched Patton in the morning. The Epson printer from Staples came but there was no CD or
documentation in the package. My pictures also came - there are too many of them. The 16x20 of
monets Lily pond also came - I like this one less than the first - it seems to have some out of focus
areas. I was thinking about a Monet Lily pad series for our wall - all 16 x 20. Dinner tonight was
spaghetti and french bread. After dinner we watched part 1 of Patton. This was the second time
for me.
Loki Diary: August 02, 2001
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Worked on printing 4 x 6's using Pagemaker 7 and the Epson Heavyweight paper I bought in Office
Depot. While out also went to Target and bought an album for our pictures. In the evening Lib and
I made a Krogers run and got Krogers brand Yogurt and bananas. Dinner was left over chicken, ribs
and spaghetti. It was a fairly cool day so I mowed the front and back yards.
Loki Diary: August 03, 2001
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Worked on printing some more pictures then called Staples to tell them all the stuff was not in
the printer. They are sending a new one Monday and will pick up the old one. In the afternoon cut
down poplar trees around the apple tree in back. Worked this afternoon on putting more pictures
in the album. Dinner tonight is Sams ribs we got last weekend and Ravenwood wine. Before dinner
we looked up journals from the previous 4 years to see what we had for dinner on Aug 3 in years
past. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of our mortgage.
Loki Diary: August 04, 2001
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This morning trimmed the Spirea next to the driveway. Came in and read about new developments
for Dishnet and AVR3. RAI has some good opera this month so it would be nice to get a Dishnet
receiver working. In the afternoon worked on finishing up the PAris album except for the
Normandy pix which haven't come yet. Dinner tonight is chicken with baked potato and
Chardonnay. After dinner we walked to Krogers and picked up bagels and yogurt. Breyers is on sale
at 5 for $2. Lib tried dealing with Alltel this afternoon about our bill but they kept insisting the
bill is correct but it isn't. They added a call from last month onto this months bill.
Loki Diary: August 05, 2001
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Worked on the second CD menu system in the morning then we watched the "Saving Private Ryan"
video. Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: August 06, 2001
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Worked in the morning on a smartcard programmer. My ISO socket is broken - need to order one.
Waited for a pickup for my printer but it never came. Dinner was suddenly salad.
Loki Diary: August 07, 2001
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Worked on the dish programmer - found a documentation error which resulted in an incorrect wire
on one of the Max232 pins. Fixed it and now the H cards read OK. Set up a DOS computer to read
the dishnetwork card. It's not working entireley although it did read the cam ID ok. Lib called with
a broken water pipe on the cool cell tank. Bought some glue and fixed it - on the way deposited
the dental rebates in the CU and then stopped into Alltel and got my bill corrected. Alltel
customer service is terrible - they thought I didn't know how to read my bill and attempted to fit
the period to my calls instead of vice versa. Finally showed them the error of their ways and now
they will credit me. May have to revisit this if they don't also rebate the sales tax on the 11.60.
Loki Diary: August 08, 2001
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Couldn't get my 2 dish cards to dump their cams using either freetalk or talk31d. I think the cards
are OK they just can't be read. May use them in an AVR3 except that the AVR3 doesn't autoroll.
Went to Sams with Lib - had lunch at NY Pizza then we got some wine and Salmon. Dinner was
salmon and rice. Fell asleep later in the evening watching crouching tiger hidden dragon.
Loki Diary: August 09, 2001
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Worked on debugging the water controller in the morning and helped Lib design an anniversary
card in the PM. Ran out of bread for lunch so we had melted cheese on bagels. The anniversary
card came out pretty good. In the evening I turned the water on and went out to get gas and
money for our trip. Wouldn't you know it would start raining. Wasn't supposed to! The plants got
an extra dose of water. Dinner was left over chicken and rice. Worked on the Fred AVR IAR
program into the evening. Would like to have the monitor working by the end of August.
Loki Diary: August 10, 2001
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Checked the weather channel before leaving this morning - the storms are supposed to hit Newark
at 1 and Providence at 3. We leave Newark at 12:10. Our flight was on time and smooth to
Newark. Leaving Newark the tiny plane did a little rock and roll as we flew through some
thunderheads. Arrived into Providcence at 1:30 - we were one of the last flights into the airport
when the storms hit. Waited at gate 3 for Stevens plane until 3:30 when they announced the
plane didn't even get off the ground yet in Philly and they had no estimated departure time.
Traveled in light rain to Portsmouth, reached there about 4:30 in our Hertz Mazda MPV minivan.
Mary and crowd got tied up in traffic and weren't able to get the taco supplies so Bill ordered
pizzas for all. We slept outside in the camper - Bill and Libbie went to the airport at 4 AM to get
Sue and Bruce.
Loki Diary: August 11, 2001
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Lib cut the fruit and made breakfast for all - it was a pretty good xmas breakfast. At 3:30 we went
to the Sea Fare Inn for photos outside. A light rain started but we finished by 4. Cocktails, dinner
and the Condon sing along were enjoyable. During the singalong everyone gave their card to
George and Mary. Lib and I had the Scrod with potatoes and salad and white wine - it was pretty
good.
Loki Diary: August 12, 2001
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Slept in the minivan last night because of the loud snoring in the camper. Had a little rain shower
during the night. Sue made breakfast this morning. I didn't get up until 8. In the PM drove Bruce to
the airport for a 5 PM flight. Dinner was hamburgers which Joe cooked on the grill. Packed our
suitcases and slept in Heathers room for the night. Have to get up at 5 to get Steve and Leslie to
the airport in the morn.
Loki Diary: August 13, 2001
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We were supposed to leave for the airport at 5:30 but left at 5:39 which meant Steve and Leslie
ran for their flight. Lib and I bought gas then turned in the rental car. Our free car cost $72 in
taxes plus gas. Had bagels and coffee in the coffee shop then saw Joe and Sue off. Our flight
through Newark was on time. Landed in a thunderstorm in Raleigh at 1 PM. Stopped at NY pizza
next to Sams for lunch then went home. After a brief nap we went out to Krogers for supplies.
dinner was a Krogers chicken with potato salad.
Loki Diary: August 14, 2001
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Called Lib and found the greenhouse phone isn't working. Downloaded pictures from the wallet
this morning and renamed them and corrected red eye. Lib came home at lunch and we had
melted cheese on toast. Dinner was Krogers chicken and potato salad.
Loki Diary: August 15, 2001
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In the morning worked on correcting red eye in the anniversary pictures then tried a clean up of
the registry on my PC. This killed the CDR program. Created the menus for my anniversary CD and
wrote the CD but couldn't close the session on the PC. Had to unplug the USB cable to eject then
put the CD onto the other PC with CD writer and closed the session. Dinner was creamed tuna
with peas on toast.
Loki Diary: August 17, 2001
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Went to Logans at noon to deloiver orchids using the taurus. Had lunch but they were out of
crabcakes - had the veggie sandwich. Next went to the farmers market then checked out glamour
shots in crabtree. Crabtree looked foreign it was so remodeled. Dinner was turkey burgers with
baked beans.
Loki Diary: August 18, 2001
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Rainy day - spent the afternoon reading in the family room. Dinner was pork chops with white
wine and corn.
Loki Diary: August 19, 2001
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Spent the whole day reading about an app to do full text searches in java. Found an article in Feb
99 doctor dobbs about doing this but the text it searches has first been indexed with a perl
Berkley database indexer. At noon tried to get a free cd rom drive at best buy but they were out.
Loki Diary: August 20, 2001
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Spent the day installing Jbuilder and getting it to run. Also configured a 1.4 ghz AMD system and
ordered it from newegg. Dinner was tuna and rice. The bank notified us that they are removing
PMI insurance from the mortgage. This saves $128 per month.
Loki Diary: August 22, 2001
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Worked on single stepping Java today. Dinner was frozen teryaki chicken and vegetables (a Sams
dinner).
Loki Diary: August 23, 2001
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Was expecting the AMD system parts to come today - the FedEx tracking says it's on the truck.
Rebuilt the frame inside the back door today. Put it together with silicon and clamps and let it
dry overnight. Dinner tonight was barbecue chicken and baked potato. Checked the FedEx
tracking in the evening and my package was returned to the FedEx facility. No delivery today.
Loki Diary: August 24, 2001
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The computer came in the afternoon today. Started assembling everything - very nice chassis. The
PC works OK in DOS - now have to figure how to load windows. Dinner was steak, baked potato
and Ravenwood wine.
Loki Diary: August 25, 2001
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Got windows to load on the new PC by first using a Win 95 start disk to format and partition the
drive. Then loaded a directory of WinMe files and installed from there. Hooked to the network in
my shop and moved some files across the LAN to the new PC. Dinner was red hot and blue rib
dinner with Fetzer Syrah (sp?) red.
Loki Diary: August 26, 2001
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Worked all day loading programs on the new PC. Didn't even go out except after our pizza dinner
to go to Krogers to get bagels and orange juice.
Loki Diary: August 27, 2001
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Loaded Delphi and Java on the PC and tried to use the Delphi program - not bad. Filled out the
rebate for the Epson printer and drove it to the post office because it needs to be postmarked by
Aug 28. Our appraisal came today - the Island Reef condo is worth $415k. The proofs came today -
not very good. They're blurry and not composed very well. Dinner was turkey burgers.
Loki Diary: August 29, 2001
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Went to Sams today to look at lawnmowers and bought some salmon. Had lunch at NY pizza.
Dinner was the salmon with a bottle of Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: August 30, 2001
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In the morning went to Northern Hydraulics and Agri Supply looking for a blade adapter. Bought
two of them at Agri Supply but they have the wrong key for my mowers shaft. Had the second half
of the salmon for dinner and a single glass of chardonnay. Corked the bottle for a later date.
Watched Family Man starring Nicolas Cage on PPV. Pretty good movie.
Loki Diary: August 31, 2001
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Fixed the lawnmower with a new blade adapter from Ace in Apex. The store is being enlarged and
remodeled - it should be pretty good when finished. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice with
the rest of yesterdays wine.
Loki Diary: September 01, 2001
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Did research on SEPP IRA withdrawals - it basically is any amount you want from less than 10k$ to
almost 20k$. I estimate my needs at 1k$ per month to cover the Siesta mortgage. In the PM we
went to Harris Teeter to get crab legs on sale for 2.99 per lb. Dinner was a little different - we
had frozen king crab legs and French red wine (red Rhone). Very good. Desert was yogurt.
Loki Diary: September 02, 2001
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Spent the day researching bonds on eTrade and adding the 30 gig harddrive to my PC which used
to be in the 500 mhz celeron. The new PC is really cooking now - CD Creator works and now MS
Office XP is installed. Traditional pizza for dinner.
Loki Diary: September 03, 2001
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Labor day today. Researched bonds some more - need to find some more income to help cover the
island reef mortgage expense. Dinner tonight was creamed tuna with peas over toast.
Loki Diary: September 04, 2001
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Working on the generator program this morning. Power went out at noon for about 10 minutes.
Ordered a Garmin GPS today from half.com. Now I need a cable and memory expansion card.
Dinner tonight was turkey burgers and beans.
Loki Diary: September 06, 2001
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Spent a lot of today researching bonds. Hardly worked on the generator at all. Made some
corrections to the MAAVS web page and installed the MS map program to build a map between the
Sheraton and Bluebird. Dinner was turkey burgers and beans informally on the back porch. I'm the
sucessful bidder on a PC cable for the Garmin on eBay.
Loki Diary: September 07, 2001
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Market blowout today - dow off by 250 to 9600. Still researching bonds and bond funds looking for
supplemental income in retirement. Worked a little on the generator controller and a little on
cleaning up the computer desk. Made progress on both. Bought a Money magazine at Krogers to
look at mutual fund ads.
Loki Diary: September 08, 2001
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The GPS came today but I spent mot of the day researching bonds. Lib went to a violet sale at
Northgate mall. Dinner was leftover pot roast and veggies with Ravenwood Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: September 09, 2001
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Rainy morning - the GPS doesn't synch up too well with heavy cloud cover. Worked on reading
about fixed income investments, also cleaned up the office a little. After a walk to the reservoir
we went upstairs and loaded the 3D drawing software and Epson printer drivers and layed out the
floorplan for MAAVS. Dinner was a Patroni mushroom pizza.
Loki Diary: September 10, 2001
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Spent a lot of the day researching stock dividends and bonds. We chose not to go to Sams today.
Dinner was the leftover pot roast and leftover wine. This was the last of the leftovers.
Loki Diary: September 11, 2001
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While working on the AVR generator program this morning I looked up at Good Morning America
which switched to a fire at the World Trade Center. I watched it horrified by the smoke and
flames and called Lib at the greenhouse. While describing to her what I was seeing the second
plane hit the other tower in a fireball. I initially thought it was the first building exploding
although I did see the plane but dimissed it since this was a helicopter shot and you typically see
lots of other air traffic in the view. Went to the hardware store to get a phone jack for the
greenhouse and on the way back from the store heard that the twin towers had collaped.
Did the phone repairs at the greenhouse and then Lib and I went to Sams and lunch at NY Pizza.
Came home and watched the terrorist attacks on TV then turned it off and put on classical music.
Dinner was salmon and rice but I wasn't very hungry today.
Loki Diary: September 12, 2001
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Watched the terrorist cleanup on Good Morning America while working on the generator program.
Turned off the TV and went upstairs to continue the programming. Dinner was salmon and rice
although I wan't very hungry.
Loki Diary: September 13, 2001
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Worked a little debugging the generator program then went to the grenehouse and worked on
fans. Replace the MOV on fan2 relay then tightened the belt on fan 2. Next tried Fan 1 but the
belt was too big to tighten any further. Bought a smaller belt at Apex Sales and it went on
perfectly with lot of adjustment room. Dinner was creamed tuna with peas on toast although I
still wasn't hungry. Also had a coming and going headache - probably from the stress of the past
few days.
Loki Diary: September 14, 2001
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Went over to the greenhoue and tore the roof off fan 3 - it was totally rotted through.
Strengthened the frame with 2x4's - didn't have a long enough power cord so didn't do the
plywood. Dinner was Marie Colandar chicken dinner and zesty soup. Still wasn't very hungry.
Loki Diary: September 15, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse around 11 and started replacing the roof of Fan housing 3. Decided to
get another piece of plywood from home Depot - Lib and I went there and then spent the
afternoon replacing the plywood. Will paint it tomorrow. Did a quick Kroger trip for baked
potatoes and yogurt and our cream. Dinner was large shrimp with the potato and Chardonnay.
Afterwards watched the Mexican with Julia Roberts on TV - a terrible movie. Fell asleep before
the end then went up to bed at 10.
Loki Diary: September 16, 2001
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Built a cable for the AVR genny controller in the morning then we took a long walk from home to
around Apex lake - 4.2 miles.At noon we bought the gray stain for the fan housing and sign but
didn't go to the greenhouse at all today. Took the eMap GPS along to track our travels around the
lake. In the late evening after pizza and yogurt I worked on the MAAVS web page because Felicia
sent a reformatted show schedule. As a distraction from all the terrorist coverage we watched a
2 hour biography of Walt Disney.
Loki Diary: September 17, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse to paint the fan and the sign. Took all the letters off the sign - will
make new ones at home but it'll take several days to cut them all out. Finished the painting - will
return tomorrow to put the fan back together. The market fell 684 points today. Glad I pulled my
401k money out - it has fallen 15% since I got out which I estimate is about $35k. Dinner tonight
was barbecue chicken and baked potato. My first subscription issue of Shutterbug magazine came
today - Oct issue. Worked a little on the stimulator and avr generator controller.
Loki Diary: September 18, 2001
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Worked on the generator controller - found an error in the port address definitions. Cut all the
letters out for the bluebird sign then Lib and I went to lunch at Taco Bell and then to Ace for blue
paint for the letters. After her exercise class Lib painted the letters while I strung fishing line
through them and hung them to dry on a 2x4 nailed between 2 trees. Dinner was spaghetti. After
dinner I went to Krogers and picked up a turkey breast, bread and celery for dinner this week.
Found that the Miami Orchid show is March 1-3, 2002. Il Trouvere is the opera on March 3.
Loki Diary: September 19, 2001
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Worked a little on the generator program then packed up the letters and brought them to the
greenhouse where I installed them. Stopped by Ace for galvanized nails and clear krylon spray for
the bird logo. Cut one additional letter which Lib painted - was pretty depressed in the late
afternoon - a little lackadaisacal. Layed around dozing in and out of pay per view. More terrorit
activity is expected Saturday, Sept 22. I hope not. Dinner was butternut squash and grilled
chicken. The squash was fresh and very good.
Loki Diary: September 20, 2001
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Built the box for the controller and painted it. Went over to the greenhouse at the end of the
rain and added the extra 's' to the sign and also nailed up the bird logo. Came back and worked on
building the circuit card for the controller. Dinner tonight was Italian sausage with onions and
peppers on buns with baked beans. Afterwards I went to Krogers to pick up yogurt, bread, onions
and milk. At 9 PM we watched the presidents speech to congress on terrorism.
Loki Diary: September 22, 2001
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Lib cooked the turkey breast today which we had with white wine, mashed potato, stuffing and
cranberry.
Loki Diary: September 23, 2001
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Spent the day testing the controller with the visual basic generator controller stimulator. Didn't go
to the greenhouse today. Dinner was pizza followed by lemoin pudding for desert.
Loki Diary: September 24, 2001
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Went over to the greenhouse and tore down the old controller and all the sprinkler wiring. Went
to home depot and bought a sheet of 1/2 inch plywood for the wall. It was raining pretty hard so
during the rain I dug out the drain so it would flow better and not flood the garage. Dinner wa
leftover turkey.
Loki Diary: September 25, 2001
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Added the watchdog software and heat sinks to the generator controller then went over to the
greenhouse and cut the piece of plywood to 6 feet long and nailed it up in the control room. Went
home for turkey sandwich lunch, then back to the greenhouse at 4. I hung the controller on the
wall and then helped Lib move sod from the ditch to the embankment to try to stop the erosion.
Dinner was leftover turkey with stuffing, mashed potato and sweet potato.
Loki Diary: September 26, 2001
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Downloaded music in the morning then went to the greenhouse and wired the controller. Started
the generator OK but it seems to want to start out in test mode - went home and programmed a
pullup on the test line. This may fix it. Will carry new programmed chip over tomorrow. Dinner
was Uncle Bens frozen rice bowl dinners - not bad, I had the vegetable terayaki.
Loki Diary: September 27, 2001
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Worked the environmental monitor then went to the greenhouse and changed the AVR chip with
one that had a pullup on the test pin. Everything worked - ran a test cycle succesfully. Whe I got
home while working in the office heard a crash in the house. Later found that the bracket holding
the spring for the garage door had fallen down. My car is stuck in the garage. Went with Lib to
Home Depot to look at new doors.
Loki Diary: September 28, 2001
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Called Overhead door - a new door will be $1200. They'll have a guy here by noon to fix the spring
bracket. Worked on the monitor program and downloaded music until the guy came. He took
about an hour, then Lib came and we went to Logan and had crabcakes for lunch. On the way
home went to the post office, the credit union then Krogers. At home cleaned up the car to take
Nancy and Coleman to the airport tomorrow. Dinner tonight was Tacos trimmed out with lettuce,
salsa, tomato, cheese and sour cream.
Loki Diary: September 29, 2001
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Worked on monitor program in the morning. At noon Lib and I went to the Apex festival downtown
and walked along Salem Street looking at vendors stuff and semlling the food. Didn't buy anything.
Came home and had leftover grilled chicken on a sandwich for lunch.
Worked a little more on the monitor and then started building an internal emulator into the DTV
Plus receiver I bought last spring. Dinner was Bryans ribs (Sams frozen package) and French red
wine.
Loki Diary: September 30, 2001
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In the morning worked on the monitor program then went to Sams with Lib for our normal
groceries. Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: October 01, 2001
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Worked on the emulator in the new winked receiver. Got it working downstairs with the new H
card. Went to the greenhouse in the AM and stapled the plastic to house 4 around the fan in prep
for repairing the fan housing. In the afternoon restored the old receiver and emulator. Now I
need to run a line upstairs to my office. The new receiver only allows one set of locals at a time
which may be a problem. Lib went to her first yoga class tonight. She skipped quilting because
she's been running hard all day. Dinner was leftover tacos and fixings.
Loki Diary: October 02, 2001
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Rounded up the drill, saws, power cords and hand tools and arrived at the greenhouse at 11. The
violet club was gathering when I arrived. This was their first meeting since the Sept 11 terrorist
attack - the previous meeting was scheduled for Sept 11 but canceled. I took the old fan roof off,
re-enforced the box with 2x4's and attached the new plywood on the roof. Did not expect to
finish the job this far. Tomorrow will paint the box. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches. Watched
the John Lennon tribute on TNT after dinner.
Loki Diary: October 03, 2001
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Painted the fan housing today but ran out of paint. Went to Lowes with Lib at lunch time then
went across the street to Panterras for lunch. I had an Italian combo sandwich - very good and
filling. Took half of it home for dinner. In the PM I finished the fan then Lib and I painted the
sliding door into the greenhouse. Dinner was the leftover sandwich and tomato soup.
Loki Diary: October 04, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse and finished up the fan - caulked it, stapled the plastic and put on
flashing on the edges. Also helped Lib space some violet trays. Dinner was the last of the
barbecue on buns. Only had enough for 1 and a half sandwiches.
Loki Diary: October 05, 2001
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This morning went to Lowes to order the patoi doors but their price was over $300 so went across
the street to Home Depot and found them in stock. Went to Harris Teeter and picked up Tuna
steak on sale for $4.99 per pound. Later in the day at 3:30 went back to Home Depot with Lib and
got the patio doors and some treated 2x4's for door sills. Dinner was a 1.5 liter bottle of Glen
Ellen Chard and the tuna steak with rice. Afterwards we had Lemon yogurt then went to bed at
10. I read my book "One Summer" for a little while before bed.
Loki Diary: October 06, 2001
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Took the inside trim off the two doors I'm going to replace this morning.
Loki Diary: October 07, 2001
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Worked a little on trim but didn't have enough wood to really work this job. At noon Lib brought
doughnuts then we went to the dump and got rid of the glass. Came home and had not dogs for
lunch then took a walk to the library. I got another Karen Robards book - At Midnight and spent
most of the rest of the day reading it. In the evening we decided to go to home depot at 6 and
get anohter glass door. Spent a long time there because we had to wait for a fork lift to get the
doors down then they didn't have any screens for the door. Had pizza much later. Kept the radio
on because the TV was all about the attacks on Afghanistan.
Loki Diary: October 08, 2001
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Replaced the third patio slider and started the trim work on the doors. Went to the library after
dinner and got a new book. Dinner was squash and reheated Tuna steak.
Loki Diary: October 09, 2001
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Worked on trimming 2 doors - had to run out to Home Depot for a 1x6 for the sills. Stopped at
the greenhouse with the Hosfelt package and put a new door handle on the slider. Came home
and worked on the trim until Lib came home and announced we were out of cheese. Went to Sams
with her and Ny Pizza for lunch. Bought a new battery in Sams which I put into the minivan then
changed the sparkplugs because the thing was having trouble starting. Dinner was a Sams
barbecue chicken and Krogers American potato salad.
Loki Diary: October 11, 2001
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Started working outdoors - trimmed one slider and the exterior door. Also replaced one piece of
siding. Went to Ace to get some decking screws to hold the 2x4 sill plates down as well as a
square drill bit for the screws. Came home from Krogers with imitation crab which we had before
dinner with Chardonnay then had crab cakes and chard for dinner.
Loki Diary: October 12, 2001
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Finished trimming out the exterior of the sliders but ran out of caulk for the last door. Will do
that tomorrow before painting. Really got into my new Robbards book, Hunters Moon, this
afternoon. Dinner tonight was crab cake sandwiches with imitation crab and Chardonnay as a pre
dinner snack.
Loki Diary: October 13, 2001
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Went to Home Depot Apex for a door and screen - got it home and found the screen was dented.
Also picked up a gallon of outside paint - Lib started painting the door trim. Dinner tonight was
Harris Teeter Shrimp with Glen Ellen Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: October 14, 2001
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In the morning we returned the door to Home Depot then got our Sunday doughnuts at Foodlion.
After lunch drove over to the library and picked up some more Karen Robards books for the
Sarasotsa trip. Worked on Libs talk sheet of paper and some business cards for her.
Loki Diary: October 15, 2001
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Spent the morning getting ready for the Sarasota trip. Also made some MAAVS brochures for Libs
Thursday talk. Packed up my stuff - after Libs yoga class I picked up some Bojangles chicken which
we at at 7:30 PM. Put together the final stuff for my suitcase.
Loki Diary: October 16, 2001
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We awaoke at 4 am and were rolling down the driveway at 4:13 am. Took Evans and arrived at the
airport 20 minutes later. Made it through security without incident and to Charlotte on time. Had
a Dunkin Donuts cake donut and coffee in Charlotte. The plane boarded 30 minutes late - I was
randomly selected for a detailed search. The 757 seemed to be a shaky plane in relatively smooth
skies. Even on the ground in Charlotte it was rocking back and forth. I was sitting in the back of
the plane. Hertz had a Mitsubishi Galant ready for me - not a bad mid sized car. Got into Island
Reef after noon after stopping at Publix and getting some groceries. Spent the rest of the day
reading and napping. Dinner was an Uncle Bens cajun chicken and sausage dinner.
Loki Diary: October 17, 2001
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In the AM went to McDonalds for pancakes and coffee. The screen guy, Dave, came at 9. Bad news
- the shutters have to come down and our housing is too rusted for new screens. He'll be back
tomorrow after I take down the shutters today. Went to Sears and bought vise grips, an extension
and breaker bar and a nut driver. Also went to Ace and got stainless steel screws to put everything
back together. Reinforced the railing with brass and stainless steel screws. Dinner was Stouffers
French bread pizza.
Loki Diary: October 18, 2001
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Did the eMail this morning then cooked a bagel and coffee for breakfast. One of the rails looked
crooked so I redid it before the screen guy gets here. The screen job started at 9:00 and didn't
finish until 4:30. I cleaned up some of the metal particles on the floor of the Lanai. Will put the
shutters up tomorrow.
Loki Diary: October 19, 2001
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Put up the shutters today with a little difficulty. In the evening cooked a steak while watching the
sunset. Ate it with half a bottle of Zinfandel.
Loki Diary: October 21, 2001
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Worked on the valence over the shutters then went out to some of the open houses - the harbor
towers (the one with a waterfalls in front) and then to the Oakds tower. Attempted to drive to
Venice but it got dark and rainy so headed back in a pouring rain. The streets were flooded.
Dinner was an ?Uncle Bens rice bowl - sweet and sour chicken with chardonnay.
Loki Diary: October 22, 2001
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Went out in the morning to Venice - stopped into Hidden Bay and also looked at Island of Venice
and also some developments around Jacaranda and Center Rd. Names like Quail Lakes, Oak Creek,
and other water names. Came home for lunch - peanut butter sandwich and yogurt. Took off again
and went downtown to the used book store - was looking for a palm tree book. Didn't find
anything. ?In the evening Bill called then it was time to go to board meeting at 7. Came back at
9:30, called Lib and cooked a French Bread pizza. Finished the evening by reading some more of
The Senators Wife.
Loki Diary: October 23, 2001
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Got up at 7 and did the laubdry and dishes. Cleaned out the fridge, closed the shutters and
vacuumed the rugs. Left at 11 for the airport - stopped at the bridge and filled up at $1.19.
Arrived at the Hertz place at 12:30. The charged me an extra day because I took the car out at
10:13 a week ago. They only allow 59 minutes grace. Didn't know this so paid $56 for my free
week instead of $17. Had lunch at Chick Fila at the airport - grilled chicken and waffle fries.
Breezed through security and left at 2:45 pm on time. Stopped in Charlotte and left on time at
5:05 pm and got into RDU at 5:50 pm. Lib had to circle while I waited for my bag because she
wasn't allowed to park. For dinner we went to the Chinese place for Wonderful chiken takeout.
Bed at 10 - a long day.
Loki Diary: October 24, 2001
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After doing some catch up on the computer, went outsid eand painted the outside trim. Finished
when Lib came back at 1:30. In the afternoon studied TDSP options including the ability to start
early withdrawals. We went to Sams and got Salmon which we had with Chardonnay and sweet
potato for dinner.
Loki Diary: October 25, 2001
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Went outside in the AM and did some spot caullking. At noon went to Sams, Best Buy and Circuit
City to look at DVD players. Also turned in The Senators Wife and took out Ghost Moon. Came
home and finished painting the caulking then Lib came back at 3. Spent some time downloading
MP3's - will probably get a DVD/Mp3 player for the condo. Dinner was salad and melted cheese on
toast. Afterwards went to Krogers for yogurt, bagels and bananas.
Loki Diary: October 26, 2001
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Bought the Samsung DVD/MP3 player. Lib and Felicia came for lunch - we had Taco Bell on the
back porch. Returned the player in the late afternoon - it would not play MP3's reliably. Dinner
was Pork Chops with white wine.
Loki Diary: October 27, 2001
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Dinner was the Sams ribs with French Red wine. Lib baked an apple pie with the last of the
McIntosh apples.
Loki Diary: October 28, 2001
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No donuts this morning - we had the rest of the apple pie. In the afternoon cut up the downed
maple in the backyard and Lib helped move it to the wood pile. Will split the logs a few per day.
Dinner was our traditional pizza - this evening kept the TV off and spent the evening reading while
a fire crackled in the fireplace. Very nice
Loki Diary: October 29, 2001
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Cleaned out the garage with the blower and the shop vac. Put up the leftover trim wood and
siding then found the workbench. Helped Lib clean up the house because quilters were meeting
here this evening. Went to Krogers shopping and talked to Lib in the aisle on the cell phone
looking at cake boxes. Got the Betty Crocker strudle cake.
Loki Diary: October 31, 2001
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Went to Home Depot to buy a glass door and screen, keep the screen and return the door to Cary
Home Depot. Cary owed me a screen for the door I bought without one. The door wouldn't fit into
my car - had to call Lib on the cell phone to bring the mini van. On the way home we went to
Taco Bell for lunch. We had no trick or treaters for Halloween but had a pack of butterfingers
ready just in case. Dinner was barbecue chicken with the leftover sauce from Fridays ribs.
Loki Diary: November 01, 2001
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Had to go to the greenhouse this morning - the generator was running. Strange - the power
switching diode was blown out. CPL power was on, generator power was on, only the ignition light
was on the controller. This almost looks like a test state but the run clock said it was on for over
an hour. Not sure what's going on. Went to Home Depot and bought a sink and faucets for our
bathroom. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches with beans. Finished my Robards book, Ghost Moon.
Loki Diary: November 04, 2001
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Went to Home Depot for the plumbing supplies and poreclain knobs for the bathroom vanity.
When Lib came home we took the old stuff to the dump then went to Sams. Afterwards took a
long walk to Leith and looked at minivans. Dinner was pizza and yogurt. Watched the emmys for a
little before falling asleep.
Loki Diary: November 05, 2001
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Went to home depot this mornin and retunred the unused sink side splash. They didn't have a
beveled mirror in our size so will wait. Found textured ceiling wallpapaer that may help the
bathroom repair. Talked to IBM TDSP about distributions - they only offer annual distributions.
Spent the afternoon trying to estimate what taxes will be if I accept this amount. Dinner was
spaghetti which we had after Lib came home from yoga.
Loki Diary: November 06, 2001
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My 55th birthday! After some computer time in the morning, went to get a haircut at South Hills -
$15 with tip. Before i went for the haircut, Mom called. Went through Lowes looking at insulation
board then went to Krogers for my new senior discount. Bought $20 worth of stuff including OJ,
bagels and yogurt and saved 97 cents. In the afternoon Lib gave me 6 bottles of Ravenwood
Zinfandel for my birthday. Went back to Krogers for birthday potato salad, pound cake and vanilla
ice cream. Dinner was barbecue chicken with the potato salad and cake. Vicki called in the
eevening.
Loki Diary: November 07, 2001
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Dinner was creamed tuna and peas over toast. In the evening Lib and I took the quilt poles and
stands to the Sheraton Ballroom.
Loki Diary: November 08, 2001
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This morning left at 10 to pick Sue up at the airport. As I was approaching I-40 she called to tell
me she had landed. I arrived in front of the terminal at exactly 10:30. We went to the Sheraton
and met Libbie in the parking lot. Started setting up the quilts then I left to pick up plants at the
greenhouse. Had lunch at home then brought everything to the Sheraton including a laptop that
Ken Barbie wanted to borrow. The bonus is that we get the latest copy of the Master Variety List.
Left there around 6 with Sue. We ordered Chinese for dinner - Kung Po Chicken and General Tso.
Lib came home at 9:30 - I picked up a Tostada and Soft Taco for her from Taco Bell. Afterwards
had a bottle of Chardonnay with Lib and Sue. Talked to the Credit Card Co late at night - my
number is being used in Europe. They have blocked the card.
Loki Diary: November 09, 2001
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This morning I went to the greenhouse and got Xmas Cactus for Paul and also handled Time
Warner on the phone with billing and my credit card.
Loki Diary: November 10, 2001
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We got up early today - Lib went to the greenhouse and I got everything together for our talk this
morning. The talk got going late because the judges breakfast ran over but the presentation went
well. Lib and I jointly presented the 36 slides and passed around some tissue culture samples in
sealed containers. We broke the show down and went home at 5 to clean up and get ready for
tonight. The dinner went well - I had two Heinekeins and Lib and Sue each had 2 glasses of
Chardonnay. Drinks total was $27. The London Broil was very tasty. Lib and Sue had chicken. The
Rochester folks sat with us as well as Sue from AVSA and Roger and Mildred. At home I registered
the MAAVS domain. Will set up netfirms tomorow.
Loki Diary: November 11, 2001
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Took Sue to the airport at 5:45 for her 8:00 flight. Got home and rested from our four days of
convention. Worked on organizing and naming the MAAVS convention pictures. For dinner we
ordered a pizza from Patronis at Parkway. Lib didn't like the place or the kid making the pizza. I
thought it was OK but she thought it was uncooked.
Loki Diary: November 12, 2001
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Worked on the MAAVS website this morning when Lib called and said a plane crashed at JFK.
Turned on the TV and watched for a while then went back to web site creation. Had a quick trip
to Krogers in the afternoon to get cream cheese and a roast chicken. Dinner was roast chicken
and potato salad. Fell asleep early - didn't even hear Lib come back from quilting.
Loki Diary: November 14, 2001
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Worked on putting the MAAVS pictures on the web. Lib cooked the turkey breast for tonight and
made a pumpkin pie for dinner. We had the turkey with Mondavi Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 15, 2001
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Spent more time on the MAAVS web site. For lunch Lib and I had turkey sandwiches on white
bread. When Lib returned from exercise we added the captions to the java slide show, then I
uploaded everything to the web. We now have the full MAAVS experience on line. Dinner was
turkey with mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberries and Mondavi white wine. Afterwards I
watched the Victoria Secrets fashion show on ABC.
Loki Diary: November 16, 2001
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Put the trim molding around the bathroom vanity. Touched up the MAAVS site a little. Received
the print pix from Linda - the quality is not great, will only post a few. Dinner was leftover turkey
and white wine. Watched Wall Street Week later in the evening.
Loki Diary: November 17, 2001
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Worked in the morning on finances and research. In the PM went to Home Depot for a heater for
the porch and also a rug. Total was $409. It was 4 PM so decided not to install - will do that
tomorrow. Dinner was barbecue chicken and rice with Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 18, 2001
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Worked on stock screening in the AM when Bill called. He's back from Scotland and was doing bills
- wanted the Carolina Rhode totals. Lib came with donuts around noon then we went to Sams for
some groceries. Had hot dogs on the grill for lunch then shut off the grill gas supply and started
hooking up the gas to the back porch heater. Had to run out to Home Depot for the final
connection to the heater. Hooked things up but was missing one 3/8 close nipple. Lib went with
me back to Home Depot at 6:30 to get the missing parts. Fired up the heater at 7 - it's pretty hot.
Don't like the noise the fan makes or how long it takes to turn on or turn off. Will finish the job
tomorrow - need to move the furniture against the wall. Dinner was traditional Libbie pizza.
Loki Diary: November 19, 2001
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Put the porch back together and vacuumed it. Also vacuumed the car for our trip and blew off the
driveway. Cut out the door cover where the gas pipes come up from below then tested the
heater. Very nice. Packed the suitcases and stuff we're going to take. Lib deposited Elliots $2450
check for me.
Loki Diary: November 20, 2001
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Left this morning at 5:48 AM. Stopped in Florence for hot cakes and coffee at 8 am, while Lib
waited in line I drove to Hess for gas - reg was .97. The McDonalds line was long because a bus
dropped a lot people off. Had lunch in Starke around 2 and then got gas just before getting on I-
75. The gas light was on when we pulled in. Lib drove from there - unfortunateley, I-75 was stop
and go North of Tampa - we lost about a half hour. Stopped in Publix and got 2 DelMonicos with
wine and veggies. We'll do a main grocery run some other time. Cooked the food around 7 and had
dinner then went to bed.
Loki Diary: November 21, 2001
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Woke up leisurely at 7. Had my breakfast bagel then worked on the Maavs entry program while lib
did Aquacise. At 11 we went to the library, Lowes and had lunch at Hungry Howies in Bradenton.
At Lowes we bought a conical shaped Rosemary bush and also a cocktail table. Looked at Stereos
in KMart but was not impressed. Next went to Hungry Howies buffet. I had 4 pieces of pizza and a
salad. Lib finished her meal with a chocolate desert pizza. Went down University to Best Buy in
Sarasota. Found a Sony system that was pretty nice - 120 watts for $141 dollars.Next did Publix
for a Thanksgiving Ham which we had for dinner with Vendage Chardonnay. Walked out to the
dock then back for some yogurt for desert. The stereo is playing CD's the whole time - very nice.
Temp outside today was 81.
Loki Diary: November 22, 2001
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Thanksgiving Day. Beautiful day around 80 with blue skies and sunshine. Lib is on the Lanai
painting the stereo table, I'm working on the entry program. Called Diane at Dandy Pots and
arranged to meet her in Wesley Chapel at 1 on Saturday. Have been enjoying the stereo listening
to a lot of new CD's that I haven't heard yet. We had yesterdays ham for lunch sandwiches with
Doritos. Quite a number of people around the pool today - more than I've seen in a long while at
Island Reef.
Loki Diary: November 23, 2001
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Lib did her aerobics at 9:30 but the instructor didn't show up. Went to Selby in the morning then
stopped by Best Buy looking for speaker brackets. They were $45 which was ridiculous so we went
to Ace and got some shelf brackets for $1.50 each. These worked perfectly. Ran the wire above
the patio doors and stapled it. It came out pretty good. Hung one speaker on the wall but the one
on hte outside wall couldn't get fastened to the wall because of interference to the blocks behind
the sheetrock.
Loki Diary: November 24, 2001
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While Lib did Yoga I wired the right speaker to the cable I strung last night. Read the paper and
left for Selby. Picked up some mollys at Ace on the way then toured the torpical house and the
bayfront at Selby. Went up to Wesley Chapel, I-75 extit 58, and arrifed at 12:51. Got gas at Hess
and waited for Diane. She led us to her house and we chatted about Dandy for 2 and 1/2 hours.
Lfet there just before 4 and had lunch at Taco Bell. Arrived back in Siesta via Palmer Ranch and
Albrittons fruit on Clark. Bought oranges and had orange ice cream cones at Albrittons. Lib said
her cone was stale. Dinner was ham sandwiches with Mondavi Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: November 25, 2001
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Another beautiful morning. I sat out on the Lanai reading the Sunday paper and having a morning
coffee. We're going to Turtles brunch at 10:30 so only had a half a bagel this morning. Walked to
brunch and after a delicious veggie omelet we walked back to Turtles again to retrieve my
sunglasses. Later walked to an open house at the Point - 1100 sq ft for $349 which was reduced
from $379. It's small and on the 9th floor. Later visited 302 on the bay side, also $349 but smoky.
Loki Diary: November 26, 2001
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We cleaned the condo this morning and packed our suitcases then went to the homeowners
meeting at 2. Nothing new to report. The meeting was over by 3:15 and we were on the road by
3:30. Saw the sunset while on I-75 a little North of Tampa. Turned off at Ocala and took 301.
Made it to Brunswick by 8:30. We checked in and went over to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Had
a Pork Chop with carrots and mashed potatos. Very good.
Loki Diary: November 27, 2001
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Woke early and had the Hampton breakfast. Got on the road by 7:30 - there was a very heavy fog.
Stopped for coffee in South Carolina and made it home by 1 PM. Lib talked with Felicia from the
car cell phone - we stopped in at Wendys drive through for lunch which we ate at home. Later
did a Krogers run for my Senior discount.
Loki Diary: November 28, 2001
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Called a local palstics factory and paid them a visit to see if they could mold my Dandy
Pots. They're by UPS in North Raleigh - visited them at 3. They are more of an engineering or
telecom molder. Looks expensive.
Loki Diary: November 29, 2001
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Visited Granville Plastics this morning to show them my flower pots and get a quote. It looks
hopeful - we'll see. Talked to Diane later in the PM and was discouraged by her conversation. She's
full of it.
Loki Diary: November 30, 2001
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Dinner was hamburgers and baked beans which we purchased earlier in Krogers.
Loki Diary: December 01, 2001
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Got back to working on the show entry program again today. In the PM I tried a chat program from
upstairs to downstairs - it worked. Lib cooked a turkey with all the trimmings which we had with
Lindemans Chardonnay.
Loki Diary: December 02, 2001
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Started working this morning on adding conenctivity to the entry program. It's a warm morning.
After the paper I called Sue about credit card numbers for her laptop and Palm. In the afternoon
worked on the violet entry stuff. Dinner was traditional Libs pizza.
Loki Diary: December 03, 2001
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Received an eMail from Circuit City that they can't send Sues computer. What a bunch of morons.
Ordered it from Amazon - same price but no sales tax and fre shipping. Worked on the violet show
entry program - frustrated trying to get the exhibitor list to update with a new entry. Took the
evening off and screwed around with the computer, reading and TV. Dinner tonight was leftover
turkey wth potatoes and stuffing. Was very happy - received a good Dandy quote from Granville
Plastics.
Loki Diary: December 04, 2001
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Worked on violet entry in the morning then Lib called saying the well was broken. She had her
violet club xmas party today. Ordered a camera for Sue in addition to the computer from Amazon.
Went grocery shopping in Krogers at noon - today is senior discount day. Lib gave me a grocery
list. When she came home at 3 we went to the greenhouse and repaired the well - the control box
had a frayed wire b the bladder tank. Dinner was leftover turkey, potatoes, gravy and cranberries.
Loki Diary: December 05, 2001
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Worked on the client/server code in the morning then went to the eye doctor for a 12 noon
appoointment. Came back and tried using the thinkpad as a server and manon as the client. Can't
connect with my program but some of the sample programs seem to work OK. Dinner tonight was
sliced turkey on bread with gravy.
Loki Diary: December 06, 2001
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Did stock analysis and computer reading in the morning, finally got around to working on the
violet program in the afternoon. Found out that the multiple connection server winsock is not
working as a client, had to add a second winsock for when the program is used as a client. Sold all
my IBM stock in the purchase plan today. Price was around 120. The market is over 10,000 for the
first time in several months. Dinner was turkey pot pie that Lib made from scratch with the last of
the turkey. She also made 3 fruit cakes which she will soak with brandy over the next 2 weeks.
Sue recieved her Toshiba computer which I had ordered from Amazon on Monday.
Loki Diary: December 07, 2001
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Bought some stock today of APU at 21.50. They have a new issue and pay 10% dividends. Also
monitoring SPH as an income stock as well. Dinner tonight was the rest of the turkey pot pie. Very
good. We did a Sams run today and had NY pizza for lunch. They were out of Ghirardelli chocolate
blocks. Stopped by Krogers and picked up some Ghirardelli chocolate drops.
Loki Diary: December 08, 2001
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Tried melting the chocolate drops and molding it into forms to get experience doing this. HAd
some limited sucess. Dinner tonight was Bryans ribs from sams with veggies and baked potato and
Ravenwood Zinfindel.
Loki Diary: December 09, 2001
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We went to Sams this afternoon to get choclate blocks for making xmas candy. I made
arrangements on Southwest.com for Lib to fly to Providence next weekend to visit her parents.
Lib made Bourbon balls this afternoon while I ocntinued working on the violet entry program.
Dinner was traditional pizza.
Loki Diary: December 10, 2001
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Went into the candy making business this morning.
Loki Diary: December 11, 2001
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Measured the flue pipes on house 3 and then went to Graingers Durham to get a new blower.
They're not there anymore!!!! They'll send one out UPS. Stopped by Home Dpeot and got a mirror
for our bathroom and the new flue pipes as well as a new chick for my drill. Finished making the
chocolates this afternoon. Lib and I grocery shopped at Krogers since it was senior discount day.
Needed foil and wax paper. Dinner was krogers barbecue chicken and baked beans with potato
salad. After dinner I finished Karen Robards "Paradise County". It was a drizzly day today.
Loki Diary: December 12, 2001
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Spent the day working on the violet entry program. Took a trip to Walmart in the AM to get a
flourescent 100 watt light bulb for the kitchen. Took Lib to Winn Dixie in the evening to get her
meds. My net card came today from newegg for the upstairs PC. Dinner was the leftover krogers
barbecue and baked beans. Mostly foggy and yucky today but temp was around 50.
Loki Diary: December 13, 2001
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Left this morning at 6 in the fog to take Lib to her 8 AM flight. Stopped at Brueggers on the way
back - they didn't open until 6:30. There was a line waiting for them to open. Bought PSD today at
20. The market is down (9600) but utilities are up. Trying to put together a fixed income portfolio
but I really need 100,000 to do this. Only have 50,000 thanks to CPL and IBM stocks. Talked to Lib
at 5 then checked on the greenhouse and bought some frozen foods at Winn Dixie. It's a cloiudy
drizzly day but warm in the 60's. Supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow.
Loki Diary: December 14, 2001
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Decided not to go over to the greenhouse today. Worked on the program and did reading instead.
Went to the library and picked up two Robards books - one with short stories and the other a
novel. For dinner I tried the Freschette self rising pizza that consumer reports said was pretty
good. I disagree. It was OK but not better than fair. Picked up my new glasses this morning - much
better correction but I don't like Ira Tuckers showroom - there is no eye chart to test new glasses
only display cases with Dior and Gucci frames. Awful!
Loki Diary: December 15, 2001
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Slept until 6:45 this morning. Made coffee and read the paper then gathered my stuff together for
the greenhouse. Took the old stack blower down in house 3 and removed the chimmney and took
it home to work on it. It doesn't vibrate when I bench test it. Decided to put it up as is because
the new blower wheel is smaller. Put a new chimmney up. While working we had a customer to
buy a violet and Dandy Pot. Lots of left over xmas cactus in the greenhosue. I started unsleeving.
Listened to Arabella on the Met this afternoon while I had a stouffers French bread pizza. Spoke
with Lib this morning - she's having fun in Providence. I would go bananas if I was subjected to
Celtics (a big yucko) and Patriots (even bigger yucko) games.
Loki Diary: December 16, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse in the morning and finished up putting the chimmney on the house 3
furnace. It's a nice sunny day in the sixties. Unwrapped the returned xmas cactus then went
home and had leftover sesame chicken for lunch. Dinner was cereal and a bowl of chicken noodle
soup. Found an interesting company that makes frequency hopping wireless xcvrs - Maxstream.
Spent some time in the evening reading their spoecs and operating manual.
Loki Diary: December 17, 2001
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Went to Crossroads this morning and bought boxes at Office Max and a snow globe at Michaels
then stopped into the Hunter St Eckerds for more xmas cards and wrapping paper. My first time in
this new store. Wrapped all the presents, made a Pagemaker insert for each box then put them
into mailing boxes and took everything to the post office. Before doing that I ran over to Perkins
and got gift certificates for Mom to go with the snow globe. Total time for the Post Office run was
25 minutes. The line was out the door but moved along. Next I donwloaded some Caruso and
Civilization 3 from warez groups. Earlier this morning I downloaded Turbo Tax 2001 Premier and
made a CD. Sucessfully installed it and transferred data from last years tax return as a starting
point.
Loki Diary: December 18, 2001
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Did a lot of internet reading on the Maxstream frequency hopper. Ordered a dev kit from
maxstream in Utah. In the PM went to Krogers and got my geezer discount. Dinner was pork chops
I picked up in Krogers with mashed potatoes and peas.
Loki Diary: December 19, 2001
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This afternoon we went to Win Dixie to get contact solution for me and also some groceries.
Dinner was crabcakes on buns with lettuce and tomato and chips.
Loki Diary: December 20, 2001
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Went to the greenhouse in the morning and nailed the mailbox back onto the post. The supports
are not in good shape - will have to replace them if this thing get loose again. Spent most of the
day learning about Mr House and also learning about the picoweb server. Want to hook that up to
the greenhouse controller when I get the wireless working. Dinner tonight was spaghetti and a
very nice salad. Just before dinner the emulator started giving ivac's - late in the evening a fix
came out to take care of this. Applied the fix and it worked perfectly.
Loki Diary: December 21, 2001
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We had Bryans ribs with Krogers baked beans, salad and ravenwood Zinfandel. The emulator is
getting hashed - it freezes every 5 minutes for 20 seconds. This is the new 3.3 emulator code.
Loki Diary: December 22, 2001
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Learned how the emulator works and built an activation script to use with the emulator. This
activates so the emulator command line switch is /n0 which means emulate only with the
included file. Didn;t know it worked like this. Cold this morning - 40's. Balanced the Carolina
Rhode checkbook. Added a SPI socket to the controller so I can program it with the STK500 board.
Didn't try it because it was dinner time. Dinner was the ham with apple sauce and sweet potato
and pumpkin pie. Fell asleep durin the Grinch movie on PPV.
Loki Diary: December 23, 2001
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This morning I worked on getting the control program to download. Some success but the timers
and baud are not set right or somethings broken. Lunch time Lib and I set on the porch and had
donuts with the gas heater running. I slowed the fans down to gently bring down the rising heat.
It's comfortable out there. Dinner was pizza but the second pizza had to be thrown away because
the cheese had an off taste. Stayed up late trying to figure out why I couldn't debug the control
program on manon but it worked OK on Glinka. Found the problem - needed to check debug info
in the link options for debug compile. This morning I bought a Directivo from a guy in mempis off
ebay. It doesn't have a card, it's the unit only.
Loki Diary: December 24, 2001
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Sent in a $100 donation to Sarasota Opera by filling out the web form. They're supposed to call for
credit card info. Want to do this before year end for program listing. This evening we went out to
look at xmas lights. Toured Shephards Vineyard, Knollwood then went to Lochmere. Many
luminaria were out as well as decorated houses.
Loki Diary: December 25, 2001
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Christmas breakfast was rice pancakes from Swiss Colony. Then we opened presents, called all of
our family and read the newspaper. Spent most of the day reading by the fireplace. The porch
heater kept the back porch at 68 even though it was 40 outside. Dinner was ham and chardonnay
with apple sauce and creamed corn.
Loki Diary: December 27, 2001
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Spent the whole day trying to read the temp sensor - no luck at all. All I get is zeros. Modified the
timing and rewrote the functions and still nothing. Dinner was Clam Chowder then we watched
the Mets Verdi program on PBS. We have more PBS choices now that the spot beam technology on
the satellite is turned on.
Loki Diary: December 28, 2001
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Success today with reading temperatures on Fred 5. The whole problem was triggering a
temperature conversion before reading it. Next the reading is in degrees C and in hex. Dinner was
ham and baked potato. Did a Krogers trip today and got a wrapped microwave potato. Heard from
Sue and Bruce as they drove home from Stephens. They asked me to set up a Condon group on
Yahoo which I did. The Directivo came today via UPS.
Loki Diary: December 29, 2001
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Worked some more on the blubird monitor. Accidentally called 911 when I was testing. A police
officer came out to talk with us. Dinner tonight was bean soup and corn bread.
Loki Diary: December 30, 2001
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Spent the morning building the emulator. In the PM got the controller to dial out but it still didn't
receive a call. The incoming interrupt routine is not coded. Still need two things added - a second
microlan and a sno heating relay. Used to have inflation control as well. May add that to this
version. Traditional pizza for dinner - very good crust with mushroom topping.
Loki Diary: December 31, 2001
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Hooked the TIVO up to the satellite dish and to the emulaor. The thing finished building its' guide
data, then did the touch thing from a bash prompt on the thinkpad hooked to the serial port and
got the lifetime subscription. The thing seems to be a pretty neat toy. Went to the greenhouse
and hooked up the house 3 heater to the snow heating thermostat in the back house in prep for
the bluebird controller. New Years dinner was flaming steak with baked potato and Korbel Brut
that Felicia gave to us. Fell asleep in the evening reading my Karen Robards book but awoke at 10
and watched the ball drop at midnight. Recorded it on TIVO for Lib tomorrow - she went to bed at
9.