----------------------- Page 1----------------------- Entry Jan 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Fine tuned the display for Sam then started wiring the second Sam controller. Stopped at 11 to watch the Rose parade on HGTV which is commercial free. Finished the Sam controller wiring but not the cables. Entry Jan 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on wiring the Sam cables - it's a rainy day outside but warm, almost 60. Entry Jan 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- I spoke with Denise, she will be coming over tomorrow. Worked on getting some pricing together for meeting her tomorrow. Finished wiring the cables for the 2 meter controllers. Will delay testing until after meeting Denise. Dinner was Chicken Chow Mein - some Lib's chicken and chow mein from the Chinese place. Later in the evening I read some more of Carousel by John Paul Evans. Entry Jan 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- In the AM worked on price sheets for Denise who is coming at noon. She arrived with her mother and Tom, her fiance. They paid for our $1295 package with a $400 deposit check. This is our first paying bride. In the afternoon we walked to the library and Lib renewed the Last Promise which was on my card as a 7 day book. Dinner was chicken, sweet potato and lima beans. I had a little cranberry sauce with mine. We also had a half bottle of Lindemans Chardonnay. Lib and I scanned pics for Moms birthday next week. Entry Jan 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Scanned some pics for joe for Moms birthday. In the afternoon we walked the lake - nice clear day but a little chilly. Tried to work a little on a packet sending routine but didn't complete it. Dinner was traditional pizza with mushrooms. Was going to read a Linda Howard book but ended up watching the Actors Studio featuring Robin Williams. He was off the wall and incredibly funny. I laughed for the entire 2 hours. Entry Jan 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started debugging the two packet SAM's. Lib and I went to Michaels to look at picture frames. Bought one 11 x 14 as a trial. Liked it when I tried it with some pictures. Will order some more pictures to put in the frames. Dinner was chicken and some Uncle Bens rice bowl. Heard from Emily today - she want to come next week to talk photography. Entry Jan 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers after spending some time debugging SAM - we seem to be getting lots of clock pulses all the time. Will look into this some more. After Krogers I spent a few hours touching up Stef's wedding pictures. I want to send some out for 11 x 14's for my portfolio. Walked the lake at 4 with Lib - it's cold outside although the thermometer says it's 41. Dinner was salad and pot pie soup. Entry Jan 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Picked up the rest of my frames from Michaels for my portfolio and framed a few pictures. Went with Lib around the lake at 4 then drove over to the greenhouse to solve a telepohone problem before dinner. It's in the 60's today. Worked the morning getting pictures touched up and uploaded to EzPrints. Dinner was soup and salad. Entry Jan 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- A busy day - it's in the 70's today. Lib returned home this morning telling me her car was broke. Changed the oil then looked at the brakes - drivers hsoe is down to metal. Replaced pads and rotors. Finished up in the PM, no walk today. Dinner was pasta with salad. Fruitcake for desert. ----------------------- Page 2----------------------- Entry Jan 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Received the TDSP check today - deposited it and balanced books. This is my first SEPP withdrawal. Went to Michaels and got stands for my frames. Made an appointment with another bride for this week. Also bought a pocket wizard set on eBay. Worked on Stef's photos a little more then Lib and I walked after /I changed the thermostats around at the greenhouse. She closed off house 3 for the winter. Dinner was pork chops with rice and beans and Chardonnay. Entry Jan 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on photos some more this morning. The EZPrint order came - the 11 x 14's are beautiful!! After Die FlederMaus from the Met Lib and I headed out at 5 to walk the lake. Made it around before dark - finished at 5:35. Dinner was chili with Ravenwood Zinfindel. Very filling. Finished my Linda Howard book afterwards. Entry Jan 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Read the paper then had donuts then went out for double sided tape at Eckerds. Framed all the wedding pictures with the frames that I had. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry Jan 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on hooking two packet transceivers together but got nowhere. After a bowl of chili Lib and left at 6:01 for a photo seminar and trade show in Durham at the Hilton. Arrived there at 6:40. It was pretty interesting and mostly tapes of products for sale in the room by PhotoVision Systems. Entry Jan 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Tried some debugging of the wireless today. Went to Krogers then spent most of the afternoon on the web. Attended a very interesting signing at Barnes Noble this evening. A retired engineer wrote "a Faraway Sun" as his first novel using a Print on Demand publishing house. He answered question about the creative process and the mechanics of getting the material to the publisher and then going out and doing promotion. He says to write from your heart, recommends the NC Writers network and creative writing classes. He recommended some writers guide books but I don't remember the name. Dinner this evening was chili. Entry Jan 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day working on my wireless packet stuff. Dinner was brunswick stew which Lib made with the chicken I bought on sale yesterday. Entry Jan 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- I have my TNC software in the AVR sending packets but I have nothing to receive them. A smoky evening. Lib burned some pinecones with the damper closed and filled the house with smoke. We had fans in three windows upstairs to clear the house. All three smoke detectors were going off. Very smoky evening. Dinner was a bowl of brunswick stew. It's supposed to snow 1 to 3 inches tonight but it started at 8 and stopped at 9 and appears to be done. Entry Jan 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on rewriting the tx routine to be interrupt driven. Will also do this to the rx routine. Emily came at 3:30 today and signed a contract and wrote us a check. Her groom Jim is black. Went over to Krogers and got a roasted chicken and potato salad for dinner. The house still smells of smoke - we tried boiling vinegar all day today to cleanse the air. Entry Jan 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- We signed another bridal couple today - Alice and Bob. Listened to Carmen from the Met while rewriting the packet code. Dinner was the rest of the Kroger chicken with salad and Chardonnay. ----------------------- Page 3----------------------- Entry Jan 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- After donuts and the newspaper we went to Sams for groceries. In the evening we watched the Golden Globe Red Carpet fashion show as a Golden Globe intro. Watched some of the award show as well. Lunch was Brunswick stew on the back porch and dinner was traditionla pizza. Entry Jan 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the whole day doing stock research. Bright and sunny otuside and 50 degrees. Dinner was spaghetti. Lib had the quilters over this evening - she baked ginger snaps for them. Watched the Golden Globes Fashion police by Joan Rivers this evening. Entry Jan 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did the Krogers thing this morning. It's a miserable day - temp in 30's and light misty rain. Worked on stocks all day - bought some more aes preferred at 18.50 for my regular IRA. Dinner was tortellini that I got in Krogers today. Finished the second of the three short stories in my Linda Howard book, Strangers in the Night". Entry Jan 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Bought the preferred of EP, CGP_PT, today. AES dropped $1 so buying yesterday may not have been too smart. We'll see. Dinner tonight was chicken strips on buns. Pphotographed a half dozen violets this evening. Also went to the gtreenhouse to button up - predicting single digit temps tomorrow night. Entry Jan 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Woke up to an inch of snow on th eground. It's very cold so the snow was powdery. high for the day was only 24. Lib and I went to the greenhouse at 3 because the heater wasn't lighting everytime. Cleaned the pilot but could find nothing wrong. It's supposed to go to 10 tonight. 1010 was icy in spots and clear in other areas. We went to Lowes food to get bread to make tuna on toast for dinner. Moved some plants off the backporch and lit the gas heater out there to keep it above freezing. Entry Jan 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- The power went out this morning at 4:30 due to a substation fire in Apex. It went down to 12 last night - we kept the gas heater on low on the back porch - it stayed at 50 all night in the back. Started the generator at 7 so we can have heat, light, satellite TV and coffee. Went out at noon to get gas and a siphon tube from the new Northern Hydraulics in South Hills. Refilled the generator at 3 PM. We seem to get 5 and 1/2 hours on a tank full. The power came back at 4 - we can tell when Apex power is back by the Roadrunner lights otherwise when powered by the generator we can't tell. Dinner was ribs with rice and beans and Dancing Bull Zinfindel. Entry Jan 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Tried to get the MFJ TNC to recognize my transmissions. No success. The tones don't even sound right on the radio. Frustrating day. Listened to Jenufa from the Met in the avfternoon while debugging the transmissions. Dinner was chili that Lib made because tomorrows the superbowl. Entry Jan 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- In the morning wayched Breakfast with the Arts - the Rock an dBlues band and read the paper. After lunch Lib and I walked to the library - I turned in one Linda Howard book and picked up another, Mr Perfect. Continued working on the packet stuff. Took violet pictures and updated the First Class database with the password from the subscription we purchased from AVSA. Finally around midnight I got the software running - I had crc errors because I wasn't sending the whole frame only the data portion but the crc was calculated across everything from address to end of data. Dinner was traditional pizza with pepper and onion. Didn't watch the super bowl at all today - not even sure who is playing. Entry Jan 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started writing the receive routine for packet. Now that I know how transmit bits are formatted it should be easier to get ----------------------- Page 4----------------------- receive running. Currently I can receive on an MFJ TNC when packets get transmitted by an AVR. Went to Krogers at noon then Ace hardware for filters. On the way back from Ace I walked the lake. Checked my review of Lovely Bones on Amazon - it had 8 votes, most other reviews only had 1 or 2 votes. Lib went to visit Roger and Mildred today and found that Mildred had died. The funeral is Wednesday. Dinner was chili and corn bread. Entry Jan 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Rewrote the receive routine today but didn't test it. Did the Krogers thing this morning but didn't walk. Tried on my suit pants and jacket and none of it fits - I need to diet badly, have gained too much weight. We had turkey burgers early then left at 6:45 for calling hours at Roger Peelers house. Roger has a big beautiful house - I don't htink he can stay there alone much longer. Lib picked up an N&O, the obit was in threre today. We met Linda and Bill at Rogers in the evening - left there just before nine. Entry Jan 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Wrote the receive routine again this mroning then Lib arrived at 10:30. We got dressed for the funeral then left at noon in the rain. Met Linda at Oxford Mcdonalds exit 204 and went to the church in Warrenton for Mildreds funeral. Lib gave a testinonial from the pulpit then sang a song. Several church members approached her afterwards. The funeral went from 2 to 2:50 then we went to the cemetery. The whole thing was over at 3:30. There was a steady cold drizzle - went home via 56 and 50 to I- 540 because of rush hour. For dinner we ordered Cashew Chicken from China Chef next to Krogers. Entry Jan 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- The receive routine doesn't work - found the problem in the way I was receiving data. Finished the taxes this morning which are due tomorrow. Mary and George arrived around 2. The house is incredibly warm at 75 degrees. Lib made chicken caserole for dinner. Entry Jan 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib and her parents left at 7:30 this morning. The rain has stopped - Lib called at 5:30 saying she arrived in Gainesville for the night. I went to Krogers and picked up some Rice Bowls. Dinner was a spicy chicken rice bowl. Entry Feb 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Read the paper in the morning - Lib called at 8 syaing they were getting ready to leave Gainesville. Came back dowstairs at 10 and turned the TV on and found that Columbia had exploded over Texas. Watched the News channels for a while. Dinner was another Rice Bowl. In the evening I touched up Barbs portrait and uploaded it to EXPrints. Entry Feb 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of time trying to get the receive software working - no luck. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches. Entry Feb 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Walked the lake this afternoon. Ate too much food with the Krogers barbecue and the rice bowls and yogurt and desert. Got my simulator inpout feeding algorithm working. This allows you to set up an array of bytes and the algorithm extracts bit by bit from each byte and feeds it to the packet decode software. Talked to Lib - she arranged for carpet cleaning. Entry Feb 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not do Krogers today. It was a beautiful day around 60. Walked the lake then tried to work on packet reception. Watched the PPV movie "Shipping News". Dinner was a rice bowl. Entry Feb 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Walked the lake today - our last good day before the cold and wintry weather. Tried all day unsucessfully trying to get the AVR ----------------------- Page 5----------------------- to receive packet. Ended up ordering a KISS TNC from a QST magazine article. If sucessful I'll order a few more PCB's to make more TNC's. Lunch was barbecue sandwiches with potato salad, dinner was a Rice bowl. Entry Feb 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Read about KISS TNC's most of the morning. Around noon went to Radio Shack, Michaels and Best Buy. Bought some submini jacks, a telephone and picture frames. It started raining and snowing on the way home - a wintry mix. Left in freezing rain to pick up Lib on her 5 PM flight from Sarasota. It changed to all rain by the time we headed back. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches and potato salad with chocolate chip cake fro desert. The wintry mix is turning to all rain - it's supposed to snow north of here all the way up the coast to Boston. Entry Feb 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did a little reading on the Internet about TNC's and also photography. Dinner was barbecue chicken. Had to make a quick run to Krogers to get buns as well as a slice of carrot cake and macaroni and cheese for Libs veggie.. I finished the potato salad. Entry Feb 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Unsucessfully tried all day to get the tnc working. I have some code written for Fred 5 to send KISS packets. Got the slide scanner working and scanned some slides of the blizzard of 78 and put them up on pbase. Dinner was a turkey breast with wine and all the trimmings. Entry Feb 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib made pancakes this morning for breakfast. Then we read the paper, had donuts and went to Sams. Bought a battery for the Taurus in Sams. Had turkey sandwiches for lunch then walked to the library. Came back and looked at some pics on Pbase. Entry Feb 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Tried using the cable I made for the MFJ running KISS TNC mode. No luck - I listened to a radio for the xmit tones but there were none. Dinner was turkey with stuffing, mashed potato and cranberry sauce. Entry Feb 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers after working on the great image cleanup utility. The utility is now functional. In the mail today the KISS TNC kit arrived - I put it together in a few hours then went for a walk with Lib. We drove over to the lake and did a once around (2 miles). Entry Feb 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Got the KISS TNC running after building the proper cable to go from the TNC to FRED 5. Walked with Lib this afternoon around the lake. Before our walk we stopped by the greenhouse and I fixed the toilet flapper chain. Dinner was salmon. Entry Feb 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers and got Lib a box of Russel Stover. Made a cable for the MFJ TNC and got it to transmit to the PC across the room which also had an MJF TNC attached. Didn't walk today even though it was a gorgeous day. Dinner was pasta with a salad. Entry Feb 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- I fine tuned the telemetry transmit routines, now need to set up an AVR to receive. Ordered the parts to build another KISS TNC. Dinner was barbecue chicken with rice and beans abd Chardonnay. Today wa Valentines day - cold and rainy. It's supposed to be in the 40's but it seems colder. They're predicting ice for Saturday night. We'll see about that. Bought gasoline to prepare in case I need to run the generator. ----------------------- Page 6----------------------- Entry Feb 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- It didn't rain all day like it was supposed to. They're calling for frezing rain tonight and tomorrow however it looks like the precipitation is staying north of here. Worked on getting a routine written for Sam to receive a packet and display on the LCD. Will use an MFJ until I get a second KISS TNC built up. Went to H-T for Thomas's marinade but had to go back with Lib cause I got the worng thing. On our way back walked the lake then had crab dip and wine. It was chilly on our walk even though it was 46 out. Dinner is Salmon with asparagus and rice with Chardonnay. Entry Feb 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- It looked pretty good outside this nmorning. Lib went to te greenhouse then came back at 10:30 with donuts. It started raining at 3 and quickly changed to ice pellets. We're supposed to get a 1/4 inch coating of ice. We skipped the ballet performance at 2 because of the weather. Lunch was chicken soup. Heard that Jessica got engaged on Valentines Day. I finally was able to receive telemetry on SAM whcih wwas sent by Fred. Now I need to do it by demand instead of broadcasting every 5 seconds. Entry Feb 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went out this morning to shovel a path to the street but the one inch of frozen stuff we got is really frozen. You can ice skate on top of it. Temp all day today is only going to be 30. No warming until tomorrow. Lib went to the greenhouse on the ice. I worked on php for a web album today. Did not do anything with the wireless stuff. Dinner was homemade chili and cornbread which was ecellent. I made strawberry pudding later for our desert. Entry Feb 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did the usual Krogers trip this morning - chicken legs were on sale for 39 cents a pound. Bought a tray of legs. Sun all day today and temps in the forties - the snow cleared from the roads quickly. Dinner was chili and later we had yogurt for desert. Entry Feb 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Home Depot and got weather stripping and tried sealing the facia boards to stop squirrels from getting in. Saw squirrels in the attic in the middle of the night. Applied the weatherstrippping then caulked over it with silicone. Dinner was barbecue chicken legs and rice and beans. As part of the Home Depot trip I stopped im the library looking for a Jude Devereaux book - found one in the Large Print section. Found out about Jude in a top 100 romance list on the web. She's had a few dozen NY Times bestsellers to her name. Entry Feb 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- A nice day. I went to Walmart to get rat traps to catch the flying squirrels running aorund our attic. Worked on php album software all day - really need to do taxes and W2 forms but didn't. Finished reading my first Jude Devereaux book - "An Angel for Emily". Really enjoyed it - may look for more Jude Devereaux books. Dinner was salad and chicken legs. Entry Feb 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the whole day working on a PHP album. Started doing a Visual Basic form to handle this. In the afternoon I changed the battery on the Taurus then went to Sams with Lib. Dinner was chili with cornbread and yogurt afterwards. Turned my bookk into the library and got tow more - a Karen Robards "Walking after Midnight", and another Jude Devereaux, "Mulberry Tree". Entry Feb 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on php a little then listened to "Les Troyens" from the Met while finishing my Karen Robards book. Dinner was Ribs with Ravenwood Zinfindel and stir fry veggies. Entry Feb 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did the normal newspaper, watched Picasso on Breakfast with the Arts then had donuts when Lib came home. Afterwards we took a walk to the library - I got a book "Porno" and turned in "Wild" by Lori Foster. I didn't like "Wild" - only read a few ----------------------- Page 7----------------------- chapters. Picked up Porno because of the title. Dinner was homemade pizza - talked to the Benzigers later during the Grammys and talked about web sites and wedding plans. Entry Feb 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning i took Lib's inventory notebook to her at the greenhouse then went to the IRS in N Raleigh to get the additional W2 forms. Filled them out, mailed them to WilkesBarre and brought Jennifers to the greenhouse - it was 11 and she was still there. Came home and started looking at the Shopping Cart for the greenhouse. Entry Feb 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Dentist this morning - not good news. need a bridge and an extarction as well as a filling. Arranged with the oral surgeon for a consultation next Wednesday at 2 PM to start the process. Dinner was turkey burgers and salad. Entry Feb 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- We're supposed to get freezing rain tonight. The new keyboard arrived but it was not a keyboard - received a Toshiba docking station instead. Tried calling twice about it, also sent an eMail but have heard nothing. Dinner was homemade stew with chicken, limas, corn, onions. Very good!! Entry Feb 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Ice storm this morning - we had about a 1/4 inch buildup before the temps changed and the ice started falling from the trees before any damage was done. West of here they had significant icing and loss of power. Went to Crossroads and ordered business cards as well as bought a shutter at Lowes. Picked up some CDR;s at Best Buy - should be $10 for 100 after the rebates. No answer today about the incorrect keyboard shipment so I ordered a new keyboard today - will list the docking station on eBay tomorrow. Dinner was grilled salmon and salad. Entry Feb 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Very successful day - I worked on getting a list of violets output for Froogle in their format. Listed the Toshiba dock on eBay - somebody bought it using Buy It Now for $90 including shipping. Lib called at noon offering lunch at Logans. We went there and had crab cake sandwiches - they were out of the macaroni side dish and substituted potato salad. Afterwards we exchanged shutters at Lowes then looked for Roundup at both Lowes and Home Depot. Met Kathy Wilhelm from IBM in front of Home Depot. Dinner was the chicken stew leftovers. Watched Bruce Springsteen in the evening. Entry Mar 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- March 1. It's a rainy day - thought we caught a squirrel in the attic but it ended up being a mouse. Had a light dinner of chicken and salad then went to the ballet. We really liked Ballet Plus accompanied by the Ciompi quartet. There seemed to be some VIP's in front of us and they threw an extra performance in of Gross Concerto by Beethoven - 16 dancers in black and white costumes. What a great night. When we got out of the theater it was pouring buckets. We had brought the big umbrella inside because it was sputtering on the way in. Entry Mar 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Walked the lake in the afternoon. Restored the sku files that got wiped out Friday night. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry Mar 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent some time outside today cutting branches in the backyard and clearing downed branches. Worked on the great violets program making it produce sku numbers. Dinner was grilled chicken and salad. Entry Mar 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 8----------------------- Grocery store this minting then over to the greenhouse to cut down the Pampas grass. Came home and worked for several yards on backyard ice storm trees. Dinner was breast tenders on buns. Entry Mar 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked most of the day and evening getting bluebirds pictures fixed ont he web for the new web site. Also getting google formatted data for froogle. Had a dental surgeon consultation today at 2 - it doesn't look good. The front tooth comes out on march 19. Walked with Lib to Krogers in the late afternoon. Dinner was ravioli and salad. Entry Mar 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day getting the violet list to show up on the web with buttons. in the morning picked up my business cards but they were mispelled. Turned them back in, picked up a toilet seat for the greenhouse and Roundup for Lib. installed the enw tiolet seat. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with green beans. Entry Mar 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse in the morning and replaced the telephones then went to Best Buy and bought two more phones. I took the phones from home for the greenhouse initially but then substituted with the new ones from Best Buy. Wrote a new inventory maintenance program today - Great Inventory - in order to assist with updating the violet database. Now I need to get to the shopping cart list working. It was a cold day - only got up to the thirties today. Supposed to be back in the sixties tomorrow. Dinner was chicken breasts with salad and chocolate pudding for desert. Entry Mar 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful warm day. Picked up the business cards from Office Max, tightened the fan belt in house 3 and went home for La Boheme. Worked on Great Violets and Great inventory, fixing a bug Lib found. We walked the lake in the PM. At home had turkey burgers and salad for dinner. Later in the evening we had a bat in the mixing bowl of the mixer. Covered it with the clipboard and dumped him out the front door. Strange!! Entry Mar 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Another beautiful day. After the paper and Breakfast with the arts "The Chieftains" we had donuts then went to the greenhouse and pulled the shade cloth on house 3. The full sun and 70 degress is making that house warm. Worked some more on Great Violets. Traditional pizza in the evening. Entry Mar 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- After getting stock numbers assigned for our regular violets I started working on the web again. The shopping cart now works on Netfirms - I ended up buying an SSL site to run the cart. This encrypts the credit card info. Fixed the shutter motor in the garage but need longer bolts to screw it back together. Lib and i walked to the library in the afternoon - very nice day in the sixties and sunny. Dinner was trukey burgers. Entry Mar 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on HTML in the morning then went to the credit union to deposit the dental check and then Krogers. Lib came back from violet club at 3 - we had salad for lunch with chicken on it. Later it was an early dinner of pork chops, creamed corn and salad. Entry Mar 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- A Full day. Worked on HTML, went to ACE and got th elonger bolts for the shutter motor. Put the shutter back together at the greenhouse, changed the thermostat over because Lib dropped the plastic between house 2 and 3. Put heater 3 onto the circuit with heater 1. Temp went to 74 today. Beautiful. Took some pics over at the greenhouse but it was too late in the day for good light. ----------------------- Page 9----------------------- Entry Mar 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent most of the day getting the front page of Bluebird designed - the tables are a little tricky to get them to come out right. Went in the backyard and cut up some logs that were in the creek and picked up branches. It's an awesome day - low seventies. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns. Entry Mar 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on reformatting the Bluebird Frontpage to put more space netween the menu items. Found that if I put the menu in a table the spacing works out OK. Worked in the front woods a little picking up branches - five wheelbarrows worth. Had lunch at Logans - crabcake sandwiches. Looked at the hydroponic gardening display. Am interested in starting something like this on the back porch. Dinner was tuna fish sandwiches. Entry Mar 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day designing the photo tables. Went to Krogers at 11 to get bread, coffee filters and fruit. Listened to Traviata this faternoon while working on designing a violet photo page. Tomorrow will write the program to implement this. Dinner was shrimp from harris Teeter that was on sale 50% off. We had a glass of wine with the shrimp. Entry Mar 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not watch A&E this morning because they were doing the Chieftains Part 2. Worked upstairs on "great publisher" until Lib came at noon with donuts. It's a cold miserable rainy day outside. Finished the program in the PM and uploaded the pages to the bluebird web site. Dinner was traditional pizza but with Krogers Sargento cheese. In the evening we found that GreatInventory wouldn't update the violet named Feather. After some debug I found that it was looking up Apache Feather for feather and updating it instead. Fixed this bug then went to bed after reading another chapter of my book. Entry Mar 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- A little rain today. Worked from 8 AM till midnight doing the web pages. Finished the minis and space babies today. Dinner was chicken breasts and salad. Entry Mar 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on the supplies page then took a break and worked outside moving logs. I cut the logs too big - it was back breaking. Also did a Krogers trip this morning and picked up some anti-biotics for my surgery tomorrow. Had a tuna sandwich then went to Duke to see the Lucy Gariere dance company. Very different and pretty enjoyable. First number was "Melt" a duet for two females in which the reltionship between dance and temperature was explored. The video projection lighting was dazzling. They did a good job going from ice cube cold to hot, white hot and then steam. It was over at 9:40. The second was "When things end" with a guy in a room, lonely and doing repetitive things while images of his life float through the scene until he leaves the room and joins the images but not before they come into his room and join him in a party. Entry Mar 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Left the house at 7:15 for this mornings surgery. Had a 7:40 appointment. Got my novocaine at around 7:45 - the bridge prep went well. Next was the surgery at 9 - they pulled the tooth in about 20 minutes then I went next door for the temporary bridge. Beavers part of the bill was $2300. The oral surgeon gets $300. This is an expensive tooth. Stopped in Krogers on the way home and got some Ibuprofen for possible pain medication. After the novocaine wore off there was no pain which surprised me. I was very sleepy so after a walk around the lake with Lib I layed on the couch and fell asleep but woke in 15 minutes by the ringing phone. Angie from Dr Camp's office called to see if I was OK. Dinner was spinach and cheese tortollini, a soft food ideal for my sore gums. Afterwards I had lemon yogurt while Lib watched American Idol and I read my book "Double Standard". Entry Mar 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Tried to run the USPS test script but am getting PERL errors. It seems Netfirms doesn't have the Perl module installed that I need. Using a generic page I was able to put the top 10 list together. Dinner was turkey burgers. ----------------------- Page 10----------------------- Entry Mar 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse in the morning and changed the vent timer battery. Mulled over whether I should change web host providers ended up switching to superb.net. Tried to purchase a March 25 PC Mag at Barnes and Nobloe but they had the April 8 edition already on the shelves. Started transferring the web site in the evening and also got the gift certificate page written. Entry Mar 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Continued to work on transferring the web site. With help of superb.net support I was able to get a cgi script to run the printenv.pl the environment variable script. Tried to purchase a license but their sales dept doesn't seem to be there on weekends. Went to the greenhouse late in the day and looked at the vent timer - it seems to be working. Got the screw size of the lawn mower handle and went to Ace to buy one. Also bought a Patio tomato for the porch. Dinner was a full course turkey dinner with the turkey breast I got at Krogers this week. Sucessfully ran the usps test script then called them and switched over to the USPS production server. Entry Mar 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- A very busy day. In the morning I went to the greenhouse to fix the mower - ended up taking it home and replacing the plug, air filter and re-enforced the handle with angle iron. Next we climbed the oak tree in back and cut down the branches that were destroyed by the ice storm. Cut up a hurricane log in the woods but didn't haul the pieces yet. Watched the red carpet with Joan Rivers in the evening while having pizza then watched the academy awards. During the academy awards I finished the order information page and uploaded it. Entry Mar 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- A big day - the shopping cart works on superb.net with an interface to usps rate server!!!! After working on web stuff in the morning I had a salad with chicken on it then went into the backyard and worked on cutting brush for a little over anhour. Came back in and sucessfully got the usps rate calcu;lations working. Went to the greenhouse to change the water filter then looked at the heater which melted down in house 1. The heat exchanger in house one looks OK but obviously there is a drafting problem since it starts with a bang and burns outside the firebox. Entry Mar 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- An unbelievable day. Received a call from the greenhouse at 1 AM with a temp report of 49. Went over there and found the fans were on and the shutters were open. Also, house 2 heater wasn't working. Thought it was a simple re-light the pilot operation but it lt and extinguished itself after releasing the red button. Went home for the valve manual and an allen wrench. Tried adjusting the size of the flame with the pilot screw on the valve but it didn't make any difference. The temp went back up to 55 so we called it a night at 3 AM. Went to the greenhouse at 9 and removed the valve and took it to Michel's to match it up for a new one. After installing the new one we had the same symptoms. Ate lunch then went to Michels and got a thermocouple - the new thermocouple did the trick. Pilot works OK and heater runs normally. Also cleaned the orifice of the pilot and looked at it under a microscope. Did the Krogers thing at 4 then stopped by the greenhouse again to turn the fanjet back on. Jimmy was there picking up ferns. Dinner was slices of turkey on white bread with gravy. I had cranberry sauce. Entry Mar 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some more web work - finished adding batch mode to GreatPublisher then I got the Bluebird location map completed. At noon I went out and finsihed moving one of the hurricane logs. Came back in exhausted and continued working on the web stuff. At 3:30 I went out to the greenhouse - Lib and I cut and pulled brush in back of the greenhouse for an hour and a half. It was exhausting work. Came back, got cleaned up and started working on "meet the grower". Dinner was fresh spinach and cheese pasta and salad. We used the Kroger tomato sauce with mushroom and pepper. I liked it a lot, Lib didn't care for it. Entry Mar 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on getting the web pages running - getting an error receiving credit card payments. Need debug. In the PM went to the greenhouse with a new saw blade and went to work on the brush behind the greenhouse. Dinner was pasta. Entry Mar 28, 2003 ----------------------- Page 11----------------------- -------------------------------------- Left at 7 AM today for NJ. Trip was ok except for North of DC where it got pretty heavy. Weather was perfect all the way. Stopped at Wendy's in Fredicksburg for salads and gas. Paid 1.55 per gallon. Arrived around 4 in NJ. We left at 5:30 for rehearsal which was at 6:00 and dinner at O'Connors at 7:00 PM. They had a very nice Italian buffet of shrimp, egg plant, salad, bread and other things. Very nice setup by the Dowds. Entry Mar 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Woke at 6 and walked to the bagel shop to get 4 bagels for breakfast. I broke mine in small pieces because I still can't bite with the plastic bridge. Left at 9 for the wedding. It was a cold cloudy day. The reception was awesome - too much food. Sat next to Tom Musnicki and with his encouragement we had too much to drink. After the reception we went to Vicki's house for a while then I went to Arlene's with Steffies pictures. Entry Mar 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- We got going at 7 AM and stopped for gas at Raceway on Stelton Rd - 1.49 per gallon. There was a light rain on the TPK but traffic was light so we took the TPK all the way to the end. Stopped just before the bridge at McDonalds for breakfast. It started sleeting North of Baltimore and the temps steadily declined bottoming out at 32 just before the DC beltway. Visibility was terrible, I was worried about freezing roads. The snow was sticking between Baltimore and DC. Stopped at a rest stop below Potomoc Mills for a pit stop but because it was near freezing and still raining we kept going. Finally got gas and had lunch at McD's in Henderson. I had a McRib sandwich. We arrived home in Apex at 3:30 PM which wasn't bad timing. On the trip up and down we listened to an audiobook, "The Last Girls" by Lee Smith. Lib made standard pizza. which was great. Didn't work on the web pages. Entry Mar 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- First day back - it's a little chilly today - only in the fifties. Kept working on the web stuff. Hope to launch tonight or tomorrow. Lots of stuff still needs testing including receiving credit cards. Dinner was creamed tuna on toast. Entry Apr 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Turned the web site on at 10 this morning after some minor problems with data files write protected and a security certicate complaining about wrong domain name (I was using the IP address instead of normal URL). We started getting orders at noon and into the evening. Worked on Dandy Pots form in the afternoon. Had an oral surgeon checkup at 3:20 this afternoon. Everything is healing nicely. Dinner was frozen pizza because Lib went to a party. On my Krogers rn this morning I went tp the CU to transfer money for Carolina Rhode, the mailbox and to Walmart for gas. Entry Apr 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- More orders this morning. Finished merging the Dandy Pots into the site then photographed the Dandy Pots but I don't need the pix. Went to the greenhouse and cut more brush in the back. Came home and met with a prospective bride. Dinner was turkey burger. Entry Apr 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Still getting orders. Filled out a grower interview for the Violet vioce this morning. Will complete a grower interview tomorrow. It's a beautiful day outside - low eighties. Worked on the PDF catalog files then went to the greenhouse to drop a large gum and put the shade cloth on house 1. I got wiped out by pollen - it was making big clouds of dust everytime I threw a branch on the pile. I ended up sneezing and with watery eyes for the next 8 hours. Took an ibprofen before bed to help alleviate some of the wateriness and sneezing. Dinner was turkey burgers. Entry Apr 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Didn't do brush today - signed up another bride at 3 PM for the church on 55 in the former swimsuit factory. Ordered Chinese takeout from the place next to Krogers. Entry Apr 05, 2003 ----------------------- Page 12----------------------- -------------------------------------- Tried fromatting html into MS Word - success!!! Went to Krogers at 10:30 for bananas and oranges then went to the greenhouse to give Lib the fruit and work on trees. We had a fierce thunrderstorm when I got there. Lib and I sat in the van at the driveway top and watched it. When it stopped raining we started brush cleanup in the backyard. Ruined the chain saw blade on a Cinderblock. Went home and remainder of Chinese Hunan Beef for lunch then listened to Met bcast of Nabucco. Very nice. When it was over went ot Lowes with Lib for new blade then to Office Depot for tape and paper clips. Checked out the new church on 55 we'll be doing pix at. Located some good spots for pictures. On the way home stopped downtown for dinner at the Mexican place. Home at 7:15 PM. Entry Apr 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day. I put my new chain on the chian saw and tried it out in the backyard then Liub and I went to Duke gardens. We had a beautiful day, took lots of pictures. Stopped in Sams on the way home and got salmon and greenhouse supplies. Dinner was zmushroom pizza. I mailed the taxes this afternoon a few days before the deadline. We had to pay $200 to the state but get over $1000 back from the Feds. Entry Apr 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- It's a cold crummy dat today. Good day to stay inside and do taxes. Lib came back from the greenhosue at 1:30 and we had soup together for lunch. Later Fedex arrived with my QFlash. Found out that the X2 flash I ordered doesn't work with the Turbo 2=2 battery. Will have to return the flash in the morning. Dinner was chicken with beans and rice. Entry Apr 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did Krogers then went to the greenhouse and cut trees. Enjoyued seeing Raymond chase his ex wifes sheep back into the pen. It was cold and rainy. Called Vicki in the evening. she just came back from dinner with her kids. Dinner was salmon and rice with onions and celery in it. Entry Apr 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Dentist this morning for a fitting. My camera came around 1 - I really like it. Had to install some new drivers on my PC. Dinner was pasta with salad. Lunch was tomato soup with rice in it. Very tasty. Another cold rainy day. Started doing research on what I have to do to get local channels back on the TIVO. Entry Apr 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- The Q-Flash arrived via FedEx today as well as a new access card. Took the TIVO apart and upgraded the software to 2.52 from 2.50. This restored local service and gave me a few new script entry points to play with. Dinner was Alfredo vegetables. Entry Apr 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Bought a big hard drive at Circuit City today. A chilly day, the rain is slowing down. Went to Logans with Lib for a crabcake lunch. Wandered around Logans then home to continue working on the 120 gb hard drive. Can't get the root drive copied to the new one so will replace the D drive instead. Entry Apr 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day!!!! Sunny and warm - worked at the greenhouse a little piling trees and brush up in the back. In the PM listened to Parsifal on the Met. Evening dinner was a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and stuffing. No cranberries however! Entry Apr 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on fixing the html on bluebird in the morning then Lib and I walked around the NC state Arboretum. Dinner was pizza from Patroni's. Watched Bernadette Peters on Actors Studio later. Entry Apr 14, 2003 ----------------------- Page 13----------------------- -------------------------------------- Buttoned up the PC with the new hard drive today. Everything OK. Went to Blockbuster Cary and checked out the Camile Claudel tape. Had to apply for a new card at Blockbuster. When Lib left for the greenhouse at 4 I was going to watch the tape but Bill called with a computer virus in Mr Shearmans laptop. Helped him with creating a boot disk over the phone. Dinner was turkey, veggies and stuffing. Entry Apr 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did the groceries in the morning then went to the greenhouse and took some pictures and finished up the cleanup in the back. All downed brush is now cleaned up. May take down a few more trees around the greenhouse before they get too big. Finished watching the Camille Claudel tape. Very well done story of her life filmed approx 1988. Dinner was turkey sandwiches and salad. In the PM Lib and I vacuumed half of the back porch. We'll do the other half tomorrow. Entry Apr 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some stock research then bought PVX with dividends in my regular IRA account. Went to the greenhouse at noon and we cleaned the garage. Took everything to the dump in Jennifers truck. Afterwards I helped her load potting soil from the compost pile into her truck. After dinner Lib and I did the other half of the back porch. Dinner was veggies and salad with turkey chunks on it. In the evening we did photography of more violets. Had an exposure problem - some of the lighter varieties have the highlights blown out. Entry Apr 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Made a quick dash to Krogers for bread, cereal and bananas for George and Mary tomorrow. Lib and I finished cleaning the back porch. Dinner was Calzone from Dominicos next to Foodlion. Entry Apr 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started sorting out Stefs pictures and got a printout of the ones to size. George and Mary arrived at 1:40. When Lib came home we had the leftover Calzone. Dinner was ham with peas apple sauce, sweet potatoes and yogurt for deseret. In the evening we watched some of the breakfast with the arts Met audition winners. Entry Apr 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- They left this morning under gray misty skies. I spent a lot of the day studying income stocks for an income portfolio. Dinner was ham and sweet potato. Entry Apr 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not watch Breakfast with the Arts - the feature was Ringo. Studied re-allocating my PGN holdings and decided to sell out in order to re-invest in higher yield issues. After lunch we went for a walk in the WRAL TV gardens. Weather was warm but cloudy. Enjoyed the azaleas whcih are probably at their peak. Came back and started doing Stefs wedding photos. This is going to be a slow process. Dinner was a traditional pizza after which I stayed up till midnight doing photos. Entry Apr 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Got up early and worked all day touching up and cropping pictures for Stef's album. Dinner was ham sandwiches. Entry Apr 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- A crazy day. I'm still getting pictures ready for printing. Finally sent in the EZPrints order - $166 worth of pictures for Stef's album. We packed for Baton Rouge and had a ham omelet for dinner. This morning at 8:40 I had my permanent bridge installed - was out of there by 9. It went very well. Entry Apr 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 14----------------------- We got up at 3:30 and left by 4 AM for Baton Rouge. Almost hit 3 deer on the 4 lane of 64 near Pittsboro. Had breakfast after we crossed into South Carolina. Lunch was a McDonalds salad in Alabama. Arrived at the Radisson around 6:30. After unpacking and setting up the booth we went next door to Chilis. I had two Killian Reds and a rack of baby back ribs which I didn't enjoy very much. Back at the hotel I hooked up the PC and happily discovered that we had broadband access. Entry Apr 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- The show opened at 7:30 - pretty early for us. Sales were very good. At first everyone headed to Paul Soranos booth even though we were in front but that changed in a little bit. We really need a photo book of our violets. For lunch i went over to Taco bell and got some Taco Supremes. Dinner was pretty neat - we went out with Bruce and Barbara in their car to Boudins which featured Cajun cooking and cajun music. I even danced a little with Lib. Barbara and Bruce met and married in Baton Rouge at a health club. Entry Apr 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- We had a more leisurely morning today. The show didn't open until 9. Went over to Starbucks for coffee and bagels. The Starbucks seems to be a college hangout - lots of students curled up on chairs doing homework. Lunch was the commercial lunch whcih was overkill. We had pork loin and mashed potatoes. A good argument took place between Sandy and Rob over "rules". In the evening Lib and I drove around the capitol, walked the river and visited a riverboat Casino. Dinner was very elegant at Moncusp's - they had a piano player and nicely dressed people. We were in tee shirts and jeans. I had stuffed shrimp and citrus cheesecake desert Entry Apr 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- The final day. Breakfast at Starbucks, lunch was an Albertson sandwich. For dinner we went out to Boudins for a very nice meal and music. The locals were there - they are very good at dancing. We didn;t attempt it because of this. Entry Apr 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- We left Baton Rouge at 5:20 Central time after checking out at the front desk. I drove in almost no traffic. We stopped for breakfast and gas in Pascagoula, MS. A stop at the Georgia Welcome Center gave us the idea of doing the Atlanta Orchid Botanical Gardens. Lib was driving but we never came across Monroe Rd which should be on the Atlanta beltway so we skipped that idea. she stopped at Wendys North of Atlanta for gas and a salad lunch. Continued driving - the traffic started getting heavy in Greenville, SC and finally Charlotte was the pits with a combo of heavy traffic and construction. Finally tuned off on 64 and headed home. Arrived at 8:05 PM for a total of 14 hours. When we got home we ordered a pizza from Domeneco's and stopped in to FoodLion next door to the pizza place to get groceries. Lots of orders piled up while we were gone. Entry Apr 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- I started organizing the AVSA photos and burning them to a CD. We don't have as many good plants to work with this time. Lib came in the PM with the mail which we "processed". In the evening we had a free Kroger chicken because they were out of them. After wards I helped Lib in the garage planting violet leaves and a tray of Chiritas. Entry Apr 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked all day today on wedding photos. There are so many!!!! Dinner was leftover Krogers chicken and potato salad. Entry Apr 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished up the rest of the wedding photos but won't order until I see what's missing in the book. The mats arrived by FedEx. Unfortunately I ordered the 5x7's in oval but will make do somehow. The greenhous emower is broke so Lib took the house mower to the greenhouse. Dinner was chicken strips on buns. Entry May 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- May day. Lib is busily cleaning up the greenhouse. She left for Richmond this afternoon with Barbara Taswell. I finished up putting in the order for Steffies pictures. It took 1 and 1/2 hours to select sizes and quantities in the shopping cart. Dinner was ----------------------- Page 15----------------------- a French bread pizza from Krogers. Entry May 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib is in Richmond judging today. I trimmed the bushes at the greenhouse then worked on the AVSA CD today. The pictures are good, the plant material is not. Lib arrived in the evening. We ordered Cashew chicken for dinner and had that with Nancy's wedding wine split. I unsleeved the violets from Baton Rouge and planted the leaves in Lib's absence. Entry May 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went over to the Bluebird open house at 10:30 and took some pictures. Went back home and worked on photography some more for the AVSA CD. Dinner was barbecued chicken with baked sweet potato. Entry May 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Watched Sofie Van Otter and Elvis Costello on Breakfast with the arts this morning. Lib brought donuts later in the morning then we went tto the greenhouse and pulled the shade on house 4. Finished the horticulture part of the AVSA CD. Having trouble identifying the design section, many eMails back and forth with Marjorie. Mary called Sunday night - we discussed wedding photography for next weekend. Updated the Bluebird website late in the evening with inventory updates. For dinner we sent out to Patronis for a mushroom pizza. Entry May 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of the dat working on Stef's album. Finally finished it in the norning then started working on the AVSA CD. Entry May 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished the AVSA CD. Hope to mail it on the way to the wedding. Entry May 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished up the AVSA CD and burned some copies in the morning. Packed everything including photo equipment this afternoon. We left around 4 with a gas stop in Fredicksburg. Stopped at McDonalds near Sues for takeout including a quarter pound burger for Sue. North of Raleigh in the town of Kittrel we found a post office and mailed the AVSA CD. We had late dinner at Sues house while their untrained dog ran circles around the place. It was pretty terrible but we were grateful for the early jump start on our Main trip. Entry May 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- We left DC around 7. Stopped at Starbucks in Maryland servicecenter then had McDonalds breakfast around 9 at Delaware Memorial bridge. Took 206 through Princeton to 287. This was the worst part of the trip - many stoplights and slow traffic. Finally got onto 287 and had smooth sailing. We did lunch at Wendys in Strubridge, MA and landed at the Waterville Holiday Inn around 6 PM. We made a gas stop at Freeport where we toured the Delorme store then walked downtown Freeport stopping into Beans and Beans outlet. Didn;t stay too long. In the evening Mary took us out to a nice restaurant that had mostly Italian foods cooked in a wood fired overn. I had a veggie Calzone. Entry May 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning we went down one exit to Walmart and bought socks which I forgot and wipers for the minivan. Had bagels for lunch at MAry and Johns. We spent the afternoon visiting and picking up the arch for the wedding. Set it up at China lake then watched some of the rehearsal and took pictures. In the evening we had a very nice family dinner at the Holiday Inn. I had seafood over linguini and Gallo Sonoma Chardonnay. Entry May 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 16----------------------- This morning we had a nice breakfast in the Holiday Inn with the gang. Mary and John and their kids joined us. Afterwards Lib and I went to the salon around 10 and enjoyed some munchies and bubbly before taking some pictures of the girls getting their hair done. The salon attendants were eye candy as well. We arrived at the lake at 2 PM at a neighbors house where we took getting ready pictures. The wedding started at 3 with Laura arriving by pedal boat. After family picture taking we went to ht eHoliday Inn for the reception. It was a very nice buffet featuring prime rib. Entry May 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- We got up at 6 then had breakfast in the Holiday Inn restaurant. It was Mothers Day and they asked if we had a reservation. We had eggs and coffee then went over to Marys to meet others who were drifting in for brunch. We got going at 10. Traffic was heavy but kept moving. It was a glorious clear day as we left Maine. Approaching Whit Plains it started raining and kept us wet until Central NJ. Got gas on 287 in North NJ after a McDonalds lunch stop in Connecticut. Arrived at Stefs at 7 PM. We toured her home, had cranberry wine and pasta and then delivered the photo album and large picture. She was happy with the book - I too thought it turned out OK. Entry May 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- We got up at Stef's this morning at 6, had some English Muffins and tea then left at 7 am. We encountered a little traffic on 42 towards the TPK but once on the TPK we were OK. Stopped at Starbucks at the Delaware Service Area for some coffee and green tea. Kept going to just before Fredicksburg where we got gas. Arrived home at around 2 PM after a Krogers stop for lunch and dinner fixins. For dinner we had fresh pasta we picked up this afternoon. I started gathering the pictures together from the wedding. We certainly did not have a photogenic couplte. To make matters worse, the group pictures didn't work so good because we didn't notice the pocketbooks and coats folks were carrying in the pictures. Entry May 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Getting back into things. Went to Krogers for groceries, made a bank deposit then took the packages to the post office while Lib went out with the garden club. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns. Entry May 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib called at 8:30 this morning saying the greenhouse was broken into. Went over and called the sheriff. The plastic was slit in the back corner and $30 was taken as well as two bottles of fertilizer, 4 bags of ProMix potting soil and our compost buckets and 1 gallon pails. I went to Radio Shack and Home Depot and picked up an aisle sensor, some motion sensing lights and a 120 volt relay. Put the lights on the outside back corner and installed a motion sensor in the garage to turn on the greenhouse lights. This required the 120 volt relay to go across the light switch. Finished up at 8:15 PM then went home and had salad with chicken on it. Entry May 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Home Depot for conduit and electrical supplies to put another light in the greenhouse as well as an alarm on the aisle. Came home and had lunch with Lib - checken soup and grilled cheese. Our tax refund came wo Lib and I stopped at the credit union before going to the greenhouse to work. Ran some conduit to the back door from the potting bench then built a little shelter for the IR beam. Lib and I left at 4:45 because we had a bride coming at 6:30. Met with Michael and Joy at 6:45. They picked their album and discussed photos of the family beforehand. For dinner we had takeout from the Chinese place next to Krogers and chocolate pudding afterwards. Entry May 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- In the morning punched holes in an electrical box for conduit. Pulled wire in the conduit that was up then installed the rest of the conduit and pulled the rest of the wire. Got the spots hooked up and working over the back door. We left the greenhouse and came home around 6:30. Dinner was boneless skinless chicken breast. Entry May 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went over to the greenhouse and wired the sliding door with a switch in the morning. Went home and then we had lunch at NY pizza . I had a stuffed veggie pizza slice. Then we shoppled Sams and went home. Dinner was Ravenwood Zin with Llloyds ribs and Zatarains rice and beans. ----------------------- Page 17----------------------- Entry May 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- We were going to go to Artsplosure but it rained all day so we aborted. I worked in the greenhouse wiring the back door for the alarm system. At noon we went home where I had left over cashew chicken. I worked on the computer bulding a schematic for the alarm box. In the evening we had traditional pizza while we watched the 2 hour 60 minutes anniversary special. Entry May 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on wiring up the alarm controller. Finished the corrections on the AVSA CD. Dinner was salmon and salad and cooked carrots. Entry May 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse to drop off newspapers then went to Krogers for groceries. At home I built an alarm box and painted it with silver paint. Did not install it today. Lib went to Rex and dropped me off at the lake where I walked home. Made an unsucessful bid on a thinkpad for $225. for a 14" IBM 770. Dinner was porkchops with fresh peas and salad. Desert was fresh strawberries. Entry May 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished wiring up the alarm panel today. Mary called in the evening looking for the pictures. dinner was pork chops and salad. Entry May 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some investment reading on the net today then in the PM went to the greenhouse to install my alarm panel. No power from the battery supply and also the slider door switch didn;t work. Replaced the switch, determined the LED polarity but stopped and went home. dinner was ravioli and salad. Entry May 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Filled out all the apploication forms and drove to Scottrade today to open accounts. Entry May 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- The rain is clearing this morning. Went to Home Depot and Ace hardware for lawnmower parts. The greenhouse mower threw the drive belt. Got a new belt and it works OK. It still needs new drive wheels since the current ones are worn out. Dinner was chicken breasts sliced on buns as sandwiches. Entry May 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Breakfast with the art s this morning was poetry - I didn't watch. Spent some time reviewing monte's photos technique. Dinner was hamburgers with baked beans and watermelon. Entry May 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- Memorial Day - the sun was out in the morning but the rain returned. I went over to the greenhouse to debug the alarm system. Got the door switches lighting the green LED. Still working on the aisle annunciator - the standby power source seems to be drawing 10 amps on the device. Bought a new extensio cord for the humidity timer that has a flat plug so the sliding door will close pproperly. Dinner was hamburgers with vidalia and tomato. Finished reading my Jude Devereaux book "Temptation". Lib gave me a Nicholas Spark novel to read next. The library is closed this weekend for Memorial Day. Entry May 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers and then visited the library to return my books then picked up a Linda Howard book. My ebay LCD came in the ----------------------- Page 18----------------------- mail as well as my Amazon order. Dinner was hamburgers with Vidalia onions and tomato slice. Entry May 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started working on Lauras pictures. Copied everything to one directory, renamed the files then burned the originals to CD's. Created two reduced resolution CD's . Went to Both Home Depots and two Lowes looking for fans. Ended up buying 4 fans in Walmart on Glemdwood for $35 each. Dinner was Italian sausage with onions and peppers. Entry May 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse in the morning to hook up the 4 new horizontal air flow fans. Bought 8 lengths of 25 inch chain in Ace to hand the fans. May need to move two of them back towards the aisle to get full coverage of the house. In the mail today was an FIT newsletter. Was surprised to find a classmate, Hank Eyster, is a Harris vice president. Received an eMail from Alysia Porterfield about wedding photography. She grew up on Palace Ct. next to the Leavers. Dinner was pasta. Entry May 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started looking at camera equipment for tomorrow. Rigged up a veil light using the pocket wizards and tested it. Tried to go to the Credit union but the line was too long. On the way home I stopped at the lake and walked around it. When Lib came home we watched a Monte tape on formal posing and lighting. Dinner was tuna steak with salad, corn on the cob and Chardonnay. Entry May 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- A rainy day with severe weather predicted about the time of the wedding today. Spent the morning charging batteries and reading equipment manuals for the Q Flash and the lightmeter. The power went out at 10 so I went to the greenhouse after an hour of no power to finish charging my batteries. At home Lib and I had salad on the backporch then packed the minivan for the wedding. We brought the studio with us. After setting up we promptly started doing family groups at 4. Everything went well - we drove the minvan home with the posing table and stools because of the possibility of hail. We wanted the Taurus outdoors in case there is a hail storm. We returned in pouring rain - everything went well. Packed up and went home around 10:00. Entry Jun 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful sunny day. We had a bride over at 11 to look at pictures. After lunch we walked around the flea market then went home. Dinner was traditional pizza with Barila tomato sauce which was very good. Entry Jun 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- The pictures are a disaster - the veil light ruined a lot of the family pictures. I have to do some serious touch up to restore the pictures. Entry Jun 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers this morning then walked around the lake. It was a beautiful day. Dinner was Szechuann chicken which is chicken strips and veggies. Entry Jun 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of time today touching up the other wedding pictures - not the ones that were ruined by the light. Dinner was pasta with Barila sauce. Entry Jun 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some yard work in the morning while waiting for the Overhead Door guy to show up. He arrived on a Harley and measured the door. I secured the loose screw a little better so we can use the door without worrying about it. Reseaerched some stocks - think I will buy some AHR and FBR tomorrow. Dinner was salmon and veggies. ----------------------- Page 19----------------------- Entry Jun 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the morning on finances - bought some CGPt and AHR. Market was up 200 then retreated at the days end. Close was still over 9000. Scottrade lost 100 shares of APU in the transfer from eTrade. Went to Logans today for lunch - crab cakes. Bought a Rose bush for the backyard. Peach colored and fragrant. Dinner was grilled chicken with Limas and salad. Entry Jun 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- A miserable rainy day. Stayed indoors and did some reading and internet surfing. In the Pm Lib and I went to Crossroads for package tape and stopped into the new wine store and bought some Lindemans and Ravenwood Chardonnay. Dinner was salmon with Ravenwood Chardonnay which was pretty good. Entry Jun 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Studied my portfolio this morning then after donuts Lib and I went to see the Russian Ark at Cary Madstone at 1:30. This movie was about a trip through the Hermitage visiting the ghosts of the past. Very different, very nice. I went to Ace and made copies for Lib then bought new flourescent tubes for the light stand. Pizza was traditional with Barila cheese sauce. The breadmaker broke while making the pizza dough. Needs to be replaced. Entry Jun 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Today I went to Home Depot to pick up a 2x8 for the garage door. Also looked at lawnmowers in Lowes. Dinner was pasta. Entry Jun 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers int he morning before the door guy came. The guy came today and hung the garage door in the afternoon. He did a slopoy job - the door is misaligned and he left fingerprints all over the door and nails all over the driveway. When replacing the pad over the door he tore up the sheetrock. I wish I had replaced instead to protect the wall. Dinner was turkey burger. Entry Jun 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day aligning the new garage door, trimming the header trim and replacing the brick mold. I'm now ready for painting of the door and am also happy with the way it works. Went to Pilobilus in the evening. 8 PM performance, we left at 6:45 to stop by the box office to get our tickets for all the ADF performances. Pilobulus did their program B which is all repertory work. The first piece was brass ring with Fanfare for music and was from the Olympics. In colorful costumes they demonstrated their strength carrying members on their backs. Second piece was Bens Premonition cosnisting of two males hanging from ropes and doing amazing feats of strength while eery music featuring bells and other clang sounds play. A single white spot shines down. Third piece was a fun romp - Lyndonwalk which is Pilobolus doing walks across stage in yellow costumes. It was like a living comic scene. After the intermission they did Sweet Prgatory which is one of my favorite Pilobolus pieces featurng Shostacovich op 110. PArt of the action is the dancers crouched like frogs then jumping and spreading their arms and legs and dropping back to a crouch position. Entry Jun 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Painted the garage door today after adjusting it yesterday and replacing the brick molding. Dinner was sloppy Joe made with turkey burger. Entry Jun 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- I dumbly paniced this morning over Canroys and ending up selling some PGH into the downwind. The stocks ended up recovering for the day. What a bummer. Also bought some AespC on margin today. I'm doing it for the income since I want to own this stock and will sell PGN to cover the margin. Painted the front door then went to Home Depot and bought some new lanterns for next to the door. The door looks great. Dinner was tuna sandwiches. We left for Pilobulus at 6:45 and picked up our tickets at the box office. We used the buy one get one free of the entertainment book and had seats in the Mezannine row D on the right side. The piece brothers keeper was canceled due to injury. Wedlock consisted of the company hanging from ----------------------- Page 20----------------------- black cloths wearing flesh colored body suits. Some of the arrangements of bodies looked like Rodin sculptures. I particluarly liked the last curtain closing arrangement with the smallest girl suspended rigid among the other members of the company in different poses. Rodin should see this!!! The next piece was star crossed which consisted of pairs of dancers doing coupling things from the erotic to the funny. An example of the funny is a plate which then became a pregnancy prop followed by other dancers walking through pregnant. After the break they did Day Two which starts with lightning and thunder sounds and neanderthal movements of cave like people. the girls are topless. Renee is older and has flattened pear shaped boobs while Jen is ASian and has normal but small mounds. Both girls are curvy and look great in thongs. GThe piece ends with the company sprouting from a vinyl floor and dancing like crabs and then waving outstretched arms in pairs like new life forms. The piece ended with the cast sliding across stage on water in break dance moves and playful splashes, turns, slides and body surfing across stage. Curtain calls were done in full flodlighting with the woman still topless. Very nice. Afterwards we stayed for the post performance talk. I enjoyed the roving mike - the lady wore a black slinky dance outfit. Entry Jun 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on installing the two lanterns next to the front door. The job went well except had to make 2 trips to Ace hardware to finish the job. We walked the lake then stopped in Krogers for Sour Cream. Dinner was ribs with baked potato and sour cream and Ravenwood Zin. Entry Jun 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- A rainy day. Didn't do much outdoors today. Traditional pizza for dinner with the dough made in our new bread maker. Entry Jun 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Panic this morning - PVX announced that only 50% of their shares can be owned by non Canadians. Sold all my PVX at 8.05. Probably hsould have sat this one out. In the afternoon did some research on Huntington Beach accomodations. Libe and I went to the Credit /Union where I enjoyed an enjoyable female in short terry shorts and terry halter top. Afterards we inventoried miniature violets then walked the lake. Dinner was pasta then Lib left for quilting. I worked on a Yahoo Message reader. Entry Jun 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did Krogers this morning then bought shutters for upstairs in Lowes. Worked on the Bluebird web site adding the new inventroy, new supplies and violet pictures I took in April. For dinner we went to Smiuthfield BBQ at the corner of 1010 and 401. We clocked it as being 11 miles from here. Entry Jun 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Sams in the PM to check out mowers. They did not have self propelled mowers. Dinner was grilled Italian sausage with peppers and onions and baked beans. Emailed Joe about today being the 20th anniversary of Sally Rides flight on the shuttle. We were at the Cape for the 7:33 am launch after getting up very early in Orlando and driving to the Cape for the liftoff. Could not get a room at the Cape that weekend. After the launch we drove home. Dinner this evening was tuna sandwiches. Entry Jun 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Another rainy day. Did some reading about investments on the web. Should not have sold the Canroys. My PVX actually went up again. Dinner was Voila. Entry Jun 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Talked to a bride this morning who is going to come over Tuesday afternoon. Went to the library and got books on Java and ASP. It turns out I had a very good Java book about Java networking on my own bookshelf. In the PM Lib and I hung out. Went to Logans, bought a planter full of flowers. Went to NY Pizza and some slices for lunch then went to Sams and bought Red wine and cereal. I also got some underwear briefs to wear under shorts becaus ethe boxers were too long. One the way home stopped in Krogers for milk and corn. Dinner was corn and salmon. Entry Jun 21, 2003 ----------------------- Page 21----------------------- -------------------------------------- A pretty nice day. Worked outside planting mondo grass in the front yard. need to mow the yard - thinking of buying a Home Depot lawn mower. Dinner was peas and pearl onions with Salmon and Fat Bastard Chardonnay. Homemade Blueberry Pie was the desert. Entry Jun 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I tried playing with java and had some limited success. After donuts Lib went nback to the greenhosue to meet some customers passing through from Ft Lauderdale. They were celebrating their 50th in Williamsburg. Walked the lake then had pizza and blueberry pie. I finally got the java program to retrieve a web page, the bluebird page. Entry Jun 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went out to the greenhouse to flush the cool cells. Found that the wood was rotted pretty bad - the top support wasn't supporting at all. Stopped by Home Depot and got 5 new treated 2x4's and finished up the 4 foot section of cool cells. Entry Jun 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers then the Post Office for a money order to Milli for echostar starter parts. Found out that the post office only takes cash for money orders. Deposited a circuit city western digital hard drive $60 rebate check into the credit union then withdrew cash and got the money order at the USPS. Mailed it to Milli at a Miami address. Met with a bridal couple at 2 PM for a May 2004 wedding then went to the greenhouse at 3:30 and worked till 6 on the tall section of the cool cells. Dinner was field peas and peppers followed by watermelon and raspberry yogurt. Entry Jun 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I solved the shopping cart problem - changing the part numbers of the pots and the pans allow the cart to work correctly. Suspect the code was only using the first few digits of the part number. Went to the greenhouse and found the wood over the 6 foot section of cool cells was rotted. Replaced all the wood. Need to finish tomorrow. ADF tonight - La Maison, a French dance troupe. Dinner was a half a rice bowl - turkey, rice and cranberry. Very good turkey and stuffing flavor. Entry Jun 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- In the morning I bought some PWI on a dividend cut. Expecting a dip then a recovery in a few weeks.This is a trial - bought the stock on margin expecting some price recovery. Around noon went to the greenhouse and completed the framing around the cool cells then put some plastic up. Will do more when the new cool cells come in next week. We ordered 6 new pads from Stuppy. Went back out at 5:45 to complete the plastic under the shutter then walked around the lake. Temp was around 90 today with an Ozone alert. Dinner was turkey burgers with patio tomatoes from the backyard plant. Had a black snake in the garage when we returned from the greenhouse but he escaped into the crawl space when I shooed him off with the broom. Brian Hammil called yesterday about consulting. I talked with him today - client wants a PPP connection on an IP stack for an Atmega or an 8051. He already found somebody by the time I returned the call. Entry Jun 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Stayed around all day - researched some alternative credit card vendors. Talked to three of them, now I need to talk to the bank. In the evening we went to the art museum for Eiko and Koma "Offering". The slowly slithered around a burial mound full of peat moss that they dug into and while the dirt fell off the sides it seemed to be greatly amplified. It was a very nice night out on the lawn of the Art Museum. Afterwards there was the movie "Adaptation" starring Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep. The movie had some sound problems but it was still enjoyable considering the entire evening was free. Lib and I did not know about the lawn so we didn't bring and blankets or chairs but we were comfortable anyway. Dinner before the concert was 7 ears of corn. After the sow we had snickers ice cream. Entry Jun 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day working on a search program for my images. In the PM we walked the lake. Dinner was a clump of chicken but I added salad to mine to get some veggies into the mix. Also had squash with this. I'm tired of just meat for dinner. ----------------------- Page 22----------------------- Entry Jun 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent some time today working on the MAAVS web site. Added the convention updates, a link to the convention and the show schedule. On the back porch today we had tuna sandwiches with tomato slices. Sent Joe a birthday greeting also left a message on his answer machine. Scanned some convention programs and added a maavs history page. Lib brought home the greenhouse mower so I mowed the front and back lawns as well as did a little bit of string trimming. Dinner was traditional pizza with newmans sockarooni sauce. Entry Jun 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day. Went to the Credit Union and on the way back walked the lake. Lib was painting the pantry shelves and generally cleaning up. The Art Leather Albums came today, the box is smashed. Ordered a new one. Sold some losing stocks today in the Roth account. Dinner was birdseye veggie terayaki with our own chicken breast. Entry Jul 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers this morning then walked around the lake while Lib went to exercise class. Dinner was chicken fingers with corn and lima bean veggies. Entry Jul 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- A very rainy day as the remnants of tropical storm Bill passes through. Got my car inspected this monring - it was two months overdue! Went to the greenhouse to move the cool cells from the mini van to the fourth greenhouse bay. Did not put them up because of the rain. In the PM went to Walmart and picked up two more fans then hung them in the greenhouse. This makes the first two greenhouses complete with horizontal air flow fans. Dinner was a Krogers chicken dinner which included potato salad and rolls as a July fourth special for 6.99. Lib had macaroni and cheese as a side dish which we later found was 1000 calories. Entry Jul 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse this morning and finished up the cooling pads by installing the ones that came in this week. Need to replace the back door. Entry Jul 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib called from the greenhouse and asked to bring the camera. Took some Fourth of July celebration pics of Libbie and Jennifer all dressed up in patriotic ware. Posted the pictures on the web site. Dinner was leftovers from yesterdays chicken. Entry Jul 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent almost the whole day working on a PHP script to process invoices for a report. Dinner was Italian sausage with peppers and onions on the back porch. Entry Jul 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked some more on my invoice reporting program. After lunch we went to home depot for a new door frame for the greenhouse and some sheathing. Walked the lake alone today. Dinner was traditional Libbie pizza. Entry Jul 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse this morning and starting routing out the hinges for the back door. Did two post office trips for a total of 31 boxes. Signed up for a Merchant Account with Merchant Warehouse. They agreed to a $10 gateway fee for authorize.net. Spoke with Denise about her Oct 4 wedding. She wants a pic of her and her horse in September in a pasture in Wendell. Dinner was cucumber salad and barbecue sandwiches. Lib picked up the barbecue at Smithfield one her way to Wyatt Quarles and the box company. ----------------------- Page 23----------------------- Entry Jul 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers then went to the greenhouse and rmounted the treated 2x8 sill plate I built onto the door frame. This completes the door frame assembly - will hang the thing tomorrow. Dinner was the leftover barbecue on buns and potato salad. Entry Jul 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent most of the morning installing the door frame and hanging the door. Ran out to Ace to get a new set of wood boring drill bits. Our memrchant account application was approved today - a guy came out to inspect our greenhouse for the account. The ag inspector also came today for a plant shipment to Hong Kong. We went to Shen Wei in the evening. Left a few minutes early because of an impending thunder storm. HAd very heavy rain on 55 as we crossed 64 but it lightened up a few miles later. Shen Wei first dance was "Resonances" with a very deep stage. While zen like gong sounds sounded the dancers in dark sleeveless wrap dresses formed various sculpture like stances. Then three of the girls sat prone on the floor with back to the audience and their dresses removed. Their bodies were coated in white powder and with the white light they looked like marble statues. They later came forward and danced on the floor singly and as a pair. The second dance was " " with a large plastic mat on the floor covered with triangular white lines. Dancers followed the lines and dance together in groups of 4 or more then did wildly erratic individual spastic movements. The music was Stravinskys Firebird for piano - I thought it was getting long. It's a large company - Shen Wei once again managed to combine music with artistic lighting to create dance paintings on stage. Dinner before we left was pasta. Entry Jul 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent most of the day getting the pictures ready from the Mike and Joy wedding. In th emorning I worked a little on my program that will parse invoices. Walked the lake at 3 - it was a 90 degree day. Dinner was grilled chicken sandwiches. In the evening we got the authorize.net Ok and I started learning how the virtual terminal works. Entry Jul 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I put two real credit cards into the authoize.net system to see how this is going to work. I also put in a $25 bid on a Venus di Milo sculpture by Santini. Will see how htis goes. Expiration is Sunday evening. The bid was outbid in the evening. Will watch and wait. We went to the Farmers Market this afternoon and bought produce - corn, peaches, squash then stopped by Sams on the way home. Dinner was Samon with corn on the cob and Chardonnay. Finished the Mike and Joy proofs - postponed Joy from tomorrow until Monday. This will give me time to build some collages. Entry Jul 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on cleaning up photos. Took a walk around the lake in the afternoon. Dinner was salmon with corn on the cob and Chardonnay. Lib baked a blueberry and peach pie for desert. Entry Jul 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not watch AE because it was Phil Collins. Worked on collages for the Monet web site. In the afternoon Lib and I went to Office Depot - bought some memory but it was the wrong stuff for my computer. Got the small computer running with display software and Joys photos. Will use this for planning her album. Dinner was traditional pizza. An eBay auction for a Santini Venus de Milo was ending tonight at 7:21 PM. The bidding was at $26. I made a $41 bid at 7 PM and won the auction. Shipping is 7.30 including insurance. Entry Jul 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Joy came over at 10:30 - spent 3 hours with her going over picture selections. Didn't walk this afternoon. Dinner was chicken mixed with Lo Mein vegetables. Entry Jul 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on collages this morning then went to Crossroads for modeling clay and then the Kroger old gezer day groceries. Mom called this morning announcing that cousin Frank had died. I never liked him but Christine is a good person. Scanned some of ----------------------- Page 24----------------------- the sculpture book then finished up the collages before walking around the lake. Lots of pretty woman walking today - tee tops, shorts, etc. Dinner was tuna sandwiches with a tomato slice in it. Entry Jul 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of time today working on the computer - photos and php for bluebird reporting. Also tried burning a program into the 16f877 PIC chip with my new programmer but I don't have a compiled version and the compiler I have won't compile the program. Not good. May have to reinvent the wheel or else buy a preprogrammed chip. After my 4 mile walk we had dinner which was chicken finger sandwiches with tomato. ADF tonight was the International. We left under threatening skies and flashes of lightning but made it to Duke dry. The first pieces was French and consisted of pairs. Ladies dressed in slacks and tee shirt tops. I liked a tall blond with black slacks and green top with bare midiriff. The dancing was energetic and lively. I liked the pairs doing lifts, synchronized dances and leaps, tumbles and rolling on the floor. At one point a video projector showed a dancer while others danced in front of the screen. Throughout the whole piece a runner ran on a treadmill. I think it represented the passing of time while life went on. The second piece I didn't care for - it was a Japanese choreographer. A room full of pairs in chairs dressed almost in uniforms slowly react with each other. At one point the chairs are moved aside and the dancers interact in scenes of fighting, argument then love. Music stands are brought out and papers fly everywhere off the music stands then blow around the stage in a dance finale. The Russian piece was great. A white floor mat was laid down. The girl dancers wore long satin prom dresses in blue and green. The guys were in tuxedos. They did a lot of classical moves as well as lifts and rolls dancing in unison. A trampoline appears at stage rear and all the dancers take turns dancing on it individually, in pairs and sometimes all together. One scene has the couples on the floor, females on top of the males in an obvious sexual number while a white tuxedoed accordian players moves through serenading them while they writhe and grind on the floor. The tramp is used as a table where a waiter sets the "table" and the dancers take their place drinking wine and engaging in conversation. A point we didn't understand was a rope suspended from the ceiling where occassionally one of the female dancers is hanging from it upside down. Afterwards Lib and I stopped at H-T fir Edy's M&M ice cream. They only had M&M vanilla so we went to Lowes and gor M&M mint which we had at home. Entry Jul 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Didn't go out at all today except to walk around the lake. Worked some more on the php reporting. Looked for a compiled version of the KISS TNC code. Sent a query to John Hansen, the author of this stuff. Dinner was chicken tenders over a bed of Pictsweet Teryaki vegetables. Entry Jul 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- John Hansen offered to program the 16F877 for me for $5. Worked a little on php - got the invoices reading into a databse properly. Now I need to get form data to the program to make user selections. When Lib came home we went out, got gas at Tryon and stopped there at NY Pizza. Next stop was AAA to get tour books and maps about California. Went across Centennial campus to the Farmers Market. Saw a very skimpy mini skirt - dress. Very nice. Bought peaches, corn and squash. Stopped into Borders on the way home and purchased a Frommers Sequoia guide as well as a php beginners book. Took my walk around the lake then went home to dry off and read the books we brought home. After cooling down I went to Krogers for wetting solution and M&M Ice Cream. Dinner was salmon with corn on the cob and a glass of Chardonnay. Desert was the ice cream purchased earlier. Entry Jul 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Sucessfully retrieved reports from the mysql database. In the afternoon walked around the lake. Had squash medley with hot sauce on it for lunch then dinner was salmon with corn on the cob and chardonnay. Lib baked another peach and blueberry pie for desert. Entry Jul 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Built the admin panel for the mysql database. Now I can clear tables, rebuild them and update the invoices. Reporting has a problem - accessing the array is not working. Walked a full 4 miles around the lake from home today. We had a Krogers brand self rising pizza for dinner since Lib spent more time at the greenhouse getting plants ready for shipping tomorrow. Desert was mint chip ice cream. Entry Jul 21, 2003 ----------------------- Page 25----------------------- -------------------------------------- Busy morning. Having trouble displaying the results of a mysql query. Found the problem was a field name was different in the database and in my use of it. Went to Krogers bought cupcakes for Libs birthday - had some candles on the cupcakes at the greenhouse then helped load orchids for a lady named Mazy who is moving to Georgia. Took 23 boxes to the post office then came home. Did the full 4miles around the lake then when Lib came home we went out to Carlys on Salem for her birthday. Bill was $54 and included some Copolla Chardonnay. I had blackened tuna on a very nice veggie bed consisting of sprouts, snow peas and mushrooms in a tasty sauce. Stopped at Krogers on way home and bought some MM mint ice cream. Entry Jul 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did the Krogers run for some minimal supplies this morning then worked some more on my php reporting. Found what was wrong with reporting - the array needed to be reset each time. Did the 4 mile run then worked more on PHP. Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce. Entry Jul 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- A warm day - walked the lake - 4 miles - and finished my php reporting program. Dinner was chicken pieces over veggies. Entry Jul 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- While collecting garbage this morning I stubbed my toe pretty badly on the upstairs chair. It is painful - walked the 4 miles this afternoon but when I got home my toe was swollen and black and blue. My Amazon order came - didn't like the sculpture book but Oprah's choice, East of Eden by Steinback will be fine. Dinner was pork chops with veggies Entry Jul 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Frustrating day - re-installed php and now nothing works anymore. The variables are not being passed from the html forms to the php app. Dinner was chicken strips pn buns with tomato and pickled peppers. Entry Jul 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day getting my php stuff working again. Found the problem during lunch - a global variable setting wasn't turned on when I re-installed php. All is well now. Did some work on the bb website - photogrpahed some cell trays, sized some photos and got a new db update from Lib. Walked 4 miles around lake today - lots of nice bikinis at the pool behind Blockbuster of the apartment complex. Dinner was ribs, rice an dbeans and zinfindel wine. Entry Jul 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Updated Bluebird today - added space babies, new cell pack. Did some research into float switches - need to add one at the greenhouse for the cool cells. Dinner was traditional pizza with hot and spicy sauce. Desert was M&M mint chip ice cream I picked up in krogers on the way back from Home Depot. Went to Home Depot looking for a float switch but no luck. I think this is available from Lowes. Will go in the morning. Did a 4 mile lake walk - Lib joined me from Krogers - I called her when I reached the library. Saw a very shapely lady in shorts and sport top. The shorts were very low exposing a very nice v shape near her hips and going downward. The pool at the apartment had lots of scenes to view - laying on the deck, in the water, on lounge chairs in red bikini's etc. Entry Jul 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse and installed a new float in the coll cell tank. Went to Lowes in the monring to get a float switch then Home Depot to get a rod and float. Visited Ace for plumbing fittings so I could install the water solenoid which is controlled by the float switch. Dinner was chicken and veggies. Entry Jul 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the Barber Shop first thing and got a $15 haircut including tip. Stopped by Krogers on the way back for Tuesday groceries. Walked four miles around the lake then came home in time before the rain started. Made a plate to better guide the float for the cool cell tank. Dinner was past I picked up in Krogers this morning. ----------------------- Page 26----------------------- Entry Jul 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some internet reading this morning and also organized our reservations for our trip. Paid the Carolina Rhode mortgage by borrowing from Lib. Fixed the float at the greenhouse for the cool cells - raised the rod above the tank and built some guides for it to slide on. The inflation is dead - needs replacing and found that the generator controller is dead. Took it home for debug. Walked the lake after a trip to Parkway Ace for hardware. Dinner was veggies and chicken with yogurt for desert. ----------------------- Page 27----------------------- Entry Aug 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- After a normal breakfast at home we left at 8:30 for the airport. It was a warm hazy morning - they are predicting thunderstorms for later in the afternoon. PArked out at lot 4 which is North of the tower - it's $4 a day versus $8 at the terminal. Our plane departed on time - it was a smooth flight. Arrived at gate B4 in Cincinnati and walked to B17 where they were already boarding the LAX flight. They gave us a bag lunch as we got on the plane - the plane was very full. Lib and I didn't sit together. I read a lot of "Wild Orchids" by Jude Devereaux even though the flight was incredibly bumpy. Found a good quote about writing on pg 17 - will copy that paragraph when we get home. Arrived on time at LAX and after some brief indecision at the Hertz counter over the intermediate cars they had available we got a Malibu which seems OK. Got on the 405S and went 12 MPH for 2 hours to get to Huntington Beach. Arrived at our hotel around 5PM LA time or 8 PM Eastern time. Total time door to door: 11.5 hours. After checking in we gave Joe a call and went over to his place. Met his roomate Brian and had beer chicken stuffed Burritos and a beer. Walked down Main St after dinner then went to the hotel to bed. Entry Aug 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning we had a Comfort Suite breakfast and Starbucks Coffee then went over to Joe's. We hung around there for a while, walked Main St then walked through the tent area on the beach to see some of the surf exhibits. We walked back to his place and drove to his butcher up at Bolsa Chica. We were impressed by the butcher shop. Came home then went on the pier to watch the men's finals in surfing but the schedule was off so we only saw the woman. Lots of bikinis walking around the pier area. Joe cooked hamburgers with Jalapeno cheese and baked fries for lunch/dinner. It was very very good. After dinner Lib and I took a walk to the pier and walked out to the end before turning around and going back to Joe's for the ride back to our hotel. Entry Aug 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- I got a Starbiucks coffee across the street then joined Lib in the Lobby for breakfast at the Comfort Suites. I had a bagel and a cheese danish. Afterwards we went to Joes and met him in the street prepping his boat for our ride. We each had a Dramamine then took off North to Bolsa Chica where the ramp is. Gassed up the boat at the Chevron on the corner of PAC Coast and 7th or 8th or ??? After a nice slow ride through the marina admiring the homes we hit the open water and really bounced around in the swells. Reached the Queen Mary and a cruise ship at Long Beach. Cruised the harbor then visited the naval area but were stopped by the coast guard. Went to some rocks offshore and fished a little using plastic lures. Had an apple and water at mid morning then headed back. Got back around 2 - Lib and I took off for a while - picked up a deli sandwich at the grocery store across from the hotel along with some chips and cookies. Downloaded my camera during lunch and got ready for a nap or some reading - not sure which. I really am enjoying the book "Wild Orchids". At 5 we drove over to Joe's to go out for dinner. Our reservation at Dukes is for 6:15. Joe had serviced the boat and been out surfing while we napped. Dukes was nice. I had the 7 spice Asahi (yellow tuna) with papaya mustartd sauce - very good. Lib had Asian Barbecue Salmon and Joe had coconut butterfly shrimp. We had Chardonnay with dinner. Total was $105 with $15 tip. We had a christmas gift certificate from Joe to cover half of it. Afterwards we walked partially out on the pier but it was a little chilly so we turned around and watched some kids dancing to a bongo beat near the start of the pier. We walked back to Joe's place and went back to our hotel for an early bed time. Entry Aug 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I went across the street to Starbucks while Lib showered. Came back with a Starbucks then went down to breakfast. We waited for the morning rush hour traffic to ease before heading out at 9. 405N was still stop and go so we went around LA on 605 and 210. This is longer but at least it was moving. When we got to I-5 everything was stopped North of LA. Couldn't figure out the problem, just heavy traffic and lots of trucks. Had a pleasant drive North with a gas stop in Bakersfield. Got to our hotel in 3 Rivers at 2 then went down the street to Ann Lange's emporium where we had a turkey sandwich on the back porch overlooking the Kiawah River. Went up into the Sequoia Park and spent the rest of the day there touring the General Sherman Tree and the Congress Trail. Paid $10 park admission fee which is good for the next 7 days. Lots of beautiful scenery and magnificent vistas. On the way back stopped in at the Pizza Factory and ordered a medium pizza and two Coors Lights. It was 8:30 PM and getting dark - a very long day on the go. Entry Aug 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- After breakfast we went straight toward Moro Rock. I wanted to be there in the early light. We reached the parking lot at 9 AM. Only a few other cars there. Took the 400 stairs to the top overlooking glorious vistas. The San Jocquin valley seemed to have a layer of smog over it but the other directions were clear and the sky overhead was blue. As we were leaving a lot more people started the climb - most of them huffing and puffing. After Moro we walked the Crescent Meadow trail and enjoyed a slower pace, birds, ferns and flowers. Saw a deer and countless Sequoia - some fire damaged from a recent fire. Lunch was a turkey sandwich at the Lodgepole Visitor center. It has a deli, snack bar and general store which accomodated us. We bought ----------------------- Page 28----------------------- place mats there and watched a slide show in the visitors center after lunch. Next we drove over to Kings Canyon and then up a narrow winding road to Panoramic Point which had our best view yet of the Sierra Nevadas. Stayed there a while contemplating the majesty of the mountains and peaks in the distance. We can't see Mt Whitney but what we can see is awesome. Visited the General Grant Tree on the way out of the park then took a winding foothills hwy, 245, to get back. I think it was faster than going over the top again. There certainly was less traffic. We thought we had a concern with gas since it was a 70 mile trek and we had less than a quarter tank. We have a Chevy Malibu which handles quite well and is sparing on fuel. The good news is most of the mileage was coasting downhill so we basically were idling. Found gas at Woodland at a 76 station for $1.69. Boy were we glad to find this gas but it turned out we only needed 10 gallons in a 14 gallon tank. Stopped into the hotel at 8 for a quick face and hands wash before looking for dinner. The Mexican place we stopped at seemed overloaded so we drove towards the park and stopped at another establishment that turned out to be a pool hall. Turned around and had dinner at the Noisy River Restaurant. Service was very very slow but the food was good. I had stir fry chicken. It took 1.5 hours total time for dinner but it was the best we could do. Slept hard that night. Entry Aug 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Checked out after breakfast and started back for LA. Traffic was moderate and we made it back to LA around Noon. Drove along Colorado in Pasadena looking for a McDonalds because I had a coupon for a free Big Mac Value Meal from our Comfort Inn stay. After lunch at this outdoor McDonalds (order at the window outdoors and pickup outdoors, eat outdoors) we went to the Norton Simon. Started by touring the 16th century galleries then went outside into the sculpture garden before doing the nineteenth century impressionists. Picked up a Sister Wendy DVD and saw the last showing of her movie in the NS theater. I really like this museum and it was sad to go. Something I never realized but the NS specializes in portraiture as opposed to landscapes and of course NS himself seems to have an obsession with Degas. I like the gardens and the sculpture here above all. We watched some quarreling hummingbirds in the orange flowers outdoors. Headed back on the Freeway but as we approached the 405 traffic was standing still so we eased over to an exit and took city streets to our hotel which worked well. Checked into a 7 story white HIX and then went out to find food. We had an address for Piccolo Italian but couldn't find it. Ended up at a Sizzler which had ribs and beer. It was OK. Turned in at 10 after organizing pictures. Entry Aug 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Woke up this morning and organized more pictures while Lib was getting ready for breakfast. The HIX breakfast was not crowded - saw two Hispanic looking woman in very very tight white low rider slacks and bare midriffs and apparently no underclothing. Left around 9:30 for LACMA. The freeway was moderately crowded - Wilkshire was slow going. We parked in LACMA's lot for $5 all day then went into the Russian exhibition. They wouldn't allow a camera in the Russian painting exhibition so I had to check it at the ticket booth. We enjoyed the number of quality paintings in this collection. It was almost too much. Afterwards we had lunch - tuna melt on Olive bread - then toured the rest of the collection. We went upstairs first to tour the European collection then briefly did textil art and some American Art. Our last two galleries were in the modern wings - the top floor was 1900 to 1970 and the second floor was 1970 to the present. This was some weird art including a complete old garage with cobwebs, musty smell and old tools. There were rusty cans with bolts, old bottles and various radios and TV's as well as car parts in various states of rusty disrepair. Two other notable exhibits were an old 1936 car with chicken wire forms of a couple making out in the backseat and a complete column covered with bronze figures reminiscent of the Gates of Hell. I was very tired after all this. At 9 we got back to the hotel and had dinner at Denny's. I had turkey and stuffing with cranberry sauce and carrots. Not too bad of a meal but too much food. It was next door to the hotel so was an easy convenient walk. Entry Aug 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning was leisurely. We had breakfast then hung around the hotel room reading books. Around 10:30 we got gas and headed to Venice Beach. Lucked out in free parking one block from Muscle Beach. What a zoo - muscle builders, rollerblades in bikinis, street musicians and an assortment of boards and people. We found a spot on the grass in the shade and read our books and people watched. I took some bikini pictures. We had crackers, apples and water on the beach. At 2:30 we went to the Getty and found dinner reservations were full. Walked around the gardens then found the European art collection which has grown. There are now 4 Renoir paintings and a nice selection of Monet and Cezanne. I thought the museum closed at 6 but found out it was 9. We had dinner at the cafe which is cafeteria style but nice entrees and wine. I had salmon and Lib had pork chops nicely trimmed out with sauces and trimmings. We had a bottle of Chardonnay with dinner and I had coffee and cheesecake for desert which I split with Lib. During dinner the sun went down and we were treated to the automatic floor to ceiling window shades silently retracting into the ceiling. After dinner we walked through some photography exhibits then left the Getty at 9 which was later than planned. I wanted to get out at 8:30 no later than 8:45. The freeway was still clogged and it was stop and go to the airport. Got gas outside the airport to top off our tank then went to the Hertz terminal. The bus ride crept along because the traffic outside the terminals was at a standstill. After getting boarding passes at the Delta kiosk, checkin was long - we had to remove our shoes, my suitcase was chosen for hand inspection and the process was long. Finally made it to the Delta gate with 45 minutes to spare. We left LA on a very large plane which was on time. ----------------------- Page 29----------------------- Entry Aug 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- OVernight from LAX to RDU. The flight was smooth but uncomfortable as usual for a red eye. Changed at Atlanta - we landed at 6:52 then took off for Raleigh at 8:23 AM. Arrived in Raleigh at 10 and by 10:11 we had bailed out our car from airport parking ($34)and were on the way home. Most of the day was groggy. Caught up on eMail and computer stuff. They didn't turn off our newspaper like they were supposed to - some soggy papers and a wedding contract forms box were sitting on the front porch. Dinner was a rotissere chicken from Krogers and Macaroni salad. I went to bed at midnight and passed out. Entry Aug 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- We didn't wake until 8 today. Watched Breakfast with the arts today and read the paper then went over to Best Buy and bought a combo DVD and VCR player. Watched the Sister Wendy Norton Simon CD. Tried burning a CD of Bonnard paintings and successfully played it back on the DVD machine. Lib stayed at the greenhouse catching up on orders so dinner was a Krogers self rising pizza and M&M ice cream. Entry Aug 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Didn't do much today - finished the Jude Devereaux book "Wild Orchids" and went to the library and got a Rodin sculpture book and "The Girl in Hyacinth Blue Dress" about a supposed undiscovered Vermeer painting. It seems to be well written. Dinner was the rest of the Kroges chicken and macaroni. Entry Aug 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers in the morning then came home and played on the computer. Did my 4 mile walk and found the town was digging up an electrical cable on the corner. There was a local power outage but we were not affected. Had watermelon for lunch which I picked up today in Krogers for 2.99 Lib informed me that we go to the wedding in NJ next week. I'm not enthused about leaving yet again. Would like to just stay home a while and complete some projects. Entry Aug 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning we took the minivan to Leith to fix the noise. It turned out to be bad bushings on the sway bar. We also had the transmission drained and filter cleaned for an extra $160. Total bill was $550. Walked over there around 2 PM to pick up the car. On the way back I stopped at Krogers and got new batteries for the upstairs smoke detectors. The power went off for three hours overnight and the smoke detectors beeped every minute indicating the battery was low. Don't know how long ago they were changed. Worked in the PM on Joy's pictures. Made some good progress on them. Dinner was pasta. Entry Aug 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on pictures all day and submitted Joy's order to Ezprints. Had cheese toast with tomato with Lib for lunch. After I finished the prints I left to take a walk but the sky was dark and grumbling so I turned around and gave my water to the porch plants. I transplanted half a dozen more liriope's onto the front lawn instead. Lib was talking to my mother and found out a large blackout has hit the Northeast. She has power. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with tomato and mayonnaise. Entry Aug 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning we watched Good Morning America and the aftermath of the power failure in the Northeast. Most of NYC still has no power. Lib came home and told me the greenhouse was broken into again. Went out there to check on it - everything seems normal. Need to get the alarm system functional and a camera installed. Started working on the backdoor plywood. Researched cameras on the Internet. In the afternoon we dropped the minivan off at Walmart for tires and checked on cameras and VCR's. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with lettuce and tomato. In the evening we went to Ralph's Italian Ices in Holly Springs and used a buy one get one free coupon. Next went to the greenhouse and discovered that the outdoor lights are not working. Will debug in the morning. Entry Aug 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on replacing the backdoor plywood. Bought a new floodlight at Lowes and installed it on the side where the ----------------------- Page 30----------------------- break-in occurred. Took a trip to Home Depot where I bought some trim wood for the backdoor and Lib went next door to Lowes grocery store to get bacon for BLT's. Finished up the greenhouse late and went home. Dinner was stir fry with chicken. Joy called us around 11 to say that the greenhouse spot light came on. We went over to check it out but it probably came on because of rain. Entry Aug 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Afte watching the doors on A&E and affter donuts I went over to the greenhouse and finished up the plastic on the greenhouse. Also went to Walmart and bought another spotlight for the back door but didn;t install it because of issues with the screws mounting it. The threads in the box appeared to be stripped. Dinner was a Kroger self rising pizza becasue it was so late and Lib had no time to make pizza. Entry Aug 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Picked up a new junction box at Ace and installed the back door light in the new box. Also built a box to hold the wireless monitoring system. Will paint the box the same time as the back door. The pictures came this afternoon. Spent some time mounitng Joy's pictures into Mats. Need to find out which ones she ordered vs which ones I ordered for my portfolio. Superb.net, our domain host, was down from noon till midnight today. They were experienceing a DOS attack. Dinner was Penna Pasta with Emirils sauce. I made tapioca pudding fro desert. Entry Aug 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Superb is back this morning after a dos attack yesterday. Did the groceries in the mornign then went home and worked on pictures. After lunch I went to Michaels and picked up a silver 8x10 frame for the Joy 8x10 black and white I printed. Dinner was barbecued chicken breasts with brocolli and potato vegetables. Entry Aug 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Put together the parents book for my portfolio this morning. Went with Lib at noon to Logans - had the veggie sandwich on sunflower bread. On the way home we picked up a frame for the extra picture for Joy that didn't fit into the book. Joy came over after teaching at Davis Drive elementary and picked up the book. We also showed her the parents album and a bw 8x10 that we printed. Dinner was chicken breast on bread with brocolli rice. My camera and VCR controller came today. Need batteries then will test it tomorrow. Entry Aug 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Looked a little bit today at Earhtstation 5 which is a DVD sharing site. Installed two runs of barbed wire over the pipeline this afternoon. It really knocked me out. Dinner was teryaki stir fry and pistacchio pudding for desert. Loaded the car up with photo equipment for the trip tomorrow. Entry Aug 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- After breakfast we got going at 7 AM. Stopped at McDonalds in Henderson for more coffee then went to Fredicksburg where we needed gas. Traffic was horrible. Delaware and North MD were stop and go on 95. Turned off on 295 which was better. Had lunch at the first McDonalds - I had a big mac and fries.. They sold us bottled water when we asked for water - a mistake. Got into Piscataway at 4:30. Mom and Helen were having Roast Beef and potatoes at this hour. We went out at 7 and had a medium Pizza at Dominicks then went to Arlenes but she wasn't home. Walked the park looking for a portrait site. Met up with her later and dropped the photo equipment off for tomorrow. Entry Aug 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the brides house at 10 but nobody was there yet. When Ellie arrived at noon she didn't want portraits so we went along with that. Took pictures of the flower making - Stef went out at noon to get Joe at the train station from New York. Rich ordered a giant pizza from a place called Romanos for lunch. We stayed until 3 then went back to get cleaned up and dressed for rehearsal. Left at 5:15 for 6:00 rehearsal in Waterloo village. After rehearsal there was a Mass in the tiny church then a little dinner at Perkins. I had the Captains catch which had COD, shrimp and Oysters while Lib had the grilled halibut. Joe stayed at the Embassy suites with the guys. Lib and I got gas and went back to Piscataway but got lost when we took Centennial Ave exit off 287 and ended up in Bound Brook. Found Rte 28 and took it home. Got in around 11. ----------------------- Page 31----------------------- Entry Aug 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- After some bagels from the corner shop Lib and I went to the bride's house around 9:30. The bride was having her hair done. Got lots of pictures of the girls getting ready then went into the backyard and took Ellie and her parents. Discovered later that my ASA was at 400. Left the house a little later than planned - about 12:20. Stopped at the quick check for deodorant then got onto 287 for the trip to the wedding. Arrived at the church at 1:20. Mom and Aunt Helen went with Barbara Schaeffer and got lost. The got 4 miles from the Water Gap instead of 25 miles away. The wedding photos went well until my flash died as the bride was walking up the aisle. Turned it off and let it rest awhile and nursed it through giving the bride away. Dashed into the choir and changed batteries. Photos went well - left the reception at 10 PM for the hour ride home. Joe came with us. Entry Aug 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Left Piscataway this morning at 7:00 right after Marijah and Paul picked up Joe for his 8:55 am flight back to LA. The ride down was incredibly easy - a little bit of traffic South of Washington but this seemed to be mostly due to a very long funeral. Stopped for gas and junk food at the end of the TPK before the Delaware bridge. Had a Southwest salad at Wendy's in South Hill where we also got gas for $1.51 Gas has gone up a lot in the past few weeks. Picked up the mail at the PO on the way home - arrived home around 4 PM. Dinner was tuna sandwiches. Alice called this evening setting up an appointment to go over her wedding pictures. Entry Aug 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- Dentist this morning and then Krogers. Dr Paul wasn't there so a Prof from the NC state dental school filled in. Have to go back to get a filling replaced. Walked around the lake after parking near Krogers this afternoon - temp is in the low nineties but it seems cool. I didn't get too hot or wet. Started downloading wedding pictures from the flash cards into my computer. Dinner was chicken breasts grilled perfectly on the grill with corn, carrots and broccolli veggie medley. We had yogurt for desert. Entry Aug 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Studied cameras and video capture devices on eBay and the internet. Did a quick 2 mile lake walk this afternoon. Temp is in the low 90s. Dinner was turkey burgers. Entry Aug 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished archiving the pictures to Cd this morning. Bought a Sister Wendy companion book for the American Collection used on amazon then went to the library and got a Jude Devereaux Forever book for Lib at the Library and a portrait painting book for me. Walked 4 milesa around the lake. dinner was turkey burgers then we started watching the MTV video award show. Entry Aug 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on researching home automation on the net. Found a site showing an rs485 automation system I liked. No schematics but pcb and code that I could learn from. Watched the Sister Wendy NY Met dvd this morning. This is the fifth of 6 in the American Collection. In the evening Lib and I went to the library and I picked up a Vermeer book. Dinner was salmon with rice and M&M Ice Cream. Did a 4 mile walk today but late in the day because Lib and I did a bunch of errands: 1. visited Magnolia Marketplace in Cary for a photographers name. Very nice place. 2. Visited the new Apex Flea Market which was very disappointing 3. Took Lib to Ira's to get her glasses adjusted. 4. Went down to a banquet hall in Fuquay and gave them my Monet business cards. Heard about this from the Blossom Shop who also got a supply of my cards. The late in the day walk was very difficult to croww 64 because of the busy start of the holiday weekend traffic. Entry Aug 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Walked the four mile circuit this afternoon. Nice pink bikini in the apartment pool. Went out to Krogers to get mouse traps for a mouse in the kitchen. Dinner was salmon and rice and butternut squash with Fat B* wine, a chardonnay. Entry Aug 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- Struggled with PCBExpress today and decided it was not going to do my job. No net display, limited components and hard to ----------------------- Page 32----------------------- load footprints into it. In addition, schematic needs to be redrawn instead of using the Orcad version. Switched to learning Orcad Layout. It started rianing at noon and rained all afternoon. No walk today. Ran out to Ace to get mouse traps because the one from Krogers yesterday didn't work. Poor quality, didn't spring and there was evidence the mouse was still around. Dinner was standard pizza. Lunch was BLT with turkey bacon. Finished reading the Girl in Hyacinth Blue this evening - it was hard reading because of the period places and period names but a book that focused on the art and the emotion it brings out. Entry Sep 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- We caught the mouse overnight. He went for the trap with bread instead of any of the prebaited traps. Worked some more on the PCB layout for the AVR controller for Bluebird. Decided to go with Orcad instead of ExpressPCB yesterday so today I was putting the finishing touches on the design. Walked 4 miles and returned the Girl in Hyacinth Blue book today on the trip. Temp was only 89 - quite unusual for the date. Wrote an Amazon review for Hyacinth Blue and also updated "Tom's Reads". Entry Sep 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Had a dentist appointment at 8:10 - replaced two fillings - one that showed up on the xrays and a rear one that I believe was bothering me. Total was $230. The Sister Wendy amer collection companion book came today. It seems to be pretty good. Spent quite a bit of time learning the nuances of the Layout program. Did the credit union for Carolina Rhode then Krogers groceries. Walked 4 miles this afternoon. Dinner was chicken strips on buns with veggies. Entry Sep 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on the layout - found that the terinal strips were sized wrong. Changed the layout for the new sizes. HAving lots of layout spacing errors. Walked 4 miles, dinner was pasta. Watched some of the Latin Grammys. Entry Sep 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished the layout today - cleaned all the spacing errors by redesigning the terminal strip parts. Got a good error free layout and sent the design out to AP Circuits in Canada around noon. They should turn it around by tomorrow. Walked the 4 lake miles but it started raining for the last mile. Rounding Krogers there were a few cracks of thunder so I started running. Had a cell with me but Lib was at exercise class. Got home as the sun briefly came out. Later it started raining pretty good. Dinner was rice & beans with turkey burgers after which I went to the Apex comprehensive planning meeting. Entry Sep 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- A run around day.Spent some time in the morning looking at the F6 packet programthen I wentto Lowes to lookat mowers and pressure washers. There is a deal this week with 0% financing for one year.Returned around noon and checked out the Apex Home Depot formowers since Lowes had a low inventory. Met with Alice and Robert about their Sept 27th wedding which will be at Exploris downtown.Received my "Ready to Wear" DVD in the mail but Lib came home so we went to Lowes on Glenwood and bought a pressure washer and mower. Had to re-apply for a Lowes card but approval is instantaneous and we got the 0% deal. On the way home we stopped at Home Depot Crossroads to exchange masking tape because it was the wrong stuff. Stopped into NY Pizza on the way home for lunch. After testing the mower and pressure washer (without water which was bad for the pump) Lib and I walked the lake then tried to get chicken in Krogers but they were out. Got a coupon for a free chicken next time becuase the policy is it's free if we don't have any. Went to Lowes food on 55 and got our chicken there instead. Had it with leftover rice and beans and M&M ice cream for desert. Entry Sep 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went outside this morning and finished assembling the lawnmower and pressure washer. Washed the front steps and walk - looks good with just water. Mowed the back lawn and got bit three times by yellow jackets. Tomorrow will string trim. Went to Blockbuster in the PM and got a rewards card and also the movie Chicago. We had ribs, rice and beans and zinfindel for dinner then watched Chicago after dinner. Entry Sep 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Watched breakfast with the Arts then went outside and started pressure washing. After donuts we did the side deck with the pressure washer. Did a little string trimming this afternoon. Dinner was traditional pizza. Watched the chicago commentary which had the screenwriter and the director commenting as the movie ran. It was pretty good and informational. Nice to hear ----------------------- Page 33----------------------- them saying the digital version has more detail because they were able to adjust lighting afterwards vs the film version which is darker. Entry Sep 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Made eMail contact with TFP model Wendy today. She sounds willing to have photos taken but not in Sarasota. The F6 design cards showed up this morning via FedEx at 8:30 AM. Returned the Chicago DVD at noon to Blockbuster in pouring rain. Tried spending some time building the F6 card but was interrupted by a possible Atmel consulting opportunity. This took plenty of telephone time for a dubious cause. The CEO of Land Cellular has a bad card layout and he's tired of fooling with it. His problem is he thinks he has a schemtaic design but instead he has a sequence of cut and paste files that need to be brought together so a valid netlist can result. Called Matt Gaselle in Apex about him doing the layout with a schematic that I would bring together. Dinner was Marie Calendars soup. Entry Sep 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Found out today at noon that the Clarion went bankrupt and won't be doing our convention. Made some phone calls and internet postings about this. It looks like the convention is off. The power connectors arrived but the pins are too big to fit. This is disappointing but the good news is that the card seems to work OK. Will have to drill the board because shaving the pins removes the plating so that the pins can't be soldered. Thought about Gloria and the poses we can work with. Sent her an eMail with some details. Will call tomorrow. Went to Krogers and the bank in the earlier morning. Looked for Frida in Blockbuster but it was not there in the DVD version. Dinner was chicken breasts and rice and beans. Entry Sep 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on studying model poses this morning then called Gloria at noon. Spent a half hour talking about her shoot and types of poses and clothing. In addition to my suggestions she wants to wear a jogging suit and evening dress. The rest of the afternoon was consumed by documenting our conversation then eMailing it to her. There is a lot of ground to cover for an all day shoot! Walked 4 miles later in the day. Dinner was cheese ravioli. Joe is flying to Bali today with a stopover in Singapore. Entry Sep 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- Felicia called this morning and quit as convention planner. She sounded like she was gloating as she said I need to find a program of speakers. This was good in a way as she didn't contribute much in the last few weeks. Ken Barbi called right after this to find out what was going on. He'll help with finding speakers for the program. Called the hotel to make an appointment at 2 PM today for the hotel tour. Spent a lot of time this morning making MAAVS arrangements and switching the web site over to the Embassy Suites. We met with Deb at 2 and got the hotel tour. The place is very nice and a significant upgrade over our previous hotels. Afterwards we went to Sams and got our weekly grocery supplies. I called Ken in the evening and had a long talk about the contract. He's looking for more details on the hotel amenities. I'll write them up and send them to him and the web site. Dinner was turkey burger and leftover rice and beans. Entry Sep 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Called about the Ballet tickets this morning. The person owns a lingerie shop in Cary, Crash and Coco Fine Lingerie. Went over there - very nice shop with displays of sheer undies and stuff. Worked on model poses from the Internet - I need to do something to try to get all the poses into my head. I may print a book with select poses for reference purposes. We left for the ballet at 7. Outside Memorial auditorium "Kids on Broadway" was entertaining the theatre goers with singing. I liked a young shapely blonde in pretty sleek but short black dress. Lib was disgusted and said the big old fat one had a personality in there as well. The performance was wonderful. I didn't like the first piece with three male dancers but the Degas number featuring poses from his dancer paintings really appealed to me. Before the performance we had a bowl of clam chowder. When I came home there was a TFP inquiry from "surfergurl" at aol. Entry Sep 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent almost all of today studying model portfolios and posing. Found an online posing guide but to get it I had to pay a subscription fee of $5 per month. Will cancel after one month. Walked over to the art museum and then walked the trail around the outside of it looking for possible photographic spots. I may set up a studio in the garage supplemented by some outdoor photos. Dinner was salmon with stir fry veggies. Stayed up well past midnight downloading the posing guide. ----------------------- Page 34----------------------- Entry Sep 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of the day studying posing and the posing guide as well as looking at model portfolios. Listed the studio on several more model sites. Didn't want to spend the time walking so we drove to the park and only did the two miles around instead of a 4 mile walk. Worked a little on packaging for the LCD version of Fred 6. Drilled an old case I had. Went to Krogers and got a self rising crust pizza and bagels. Dinner was the Krogers pizza. Lib wasn't feeling too well. Stayed up pretty late on the computer and then read a few more chapters of East of Eden. Entry Sep 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on pulling together some wedding photos from Ellie's wedding for my portfolio. I have a person coming at 3 today who did book us for May 22 in Fuquay. They only took the $995 package though. Received an eMail from a model with an eMail address of beachbuns today about a TFP shoot. She was going to send pictures to my yahoo address but hasn't replied. Denise and Tom came over with an unbelievably long shot list. I told them to go back and select just 20 or so good shots. Dinner was tuna fish sandwiches. Took my computer table apart and drilled some holes in the bracket and top and put it together more sturdily. It seems to be OK - it needed a cleanup anyway. There was dust and dirt on everything and several pieces of computer equipment were no longer needed. Entry Sep 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Updated my monet portfolio on some of the modeling sites. Now I need to update the web site. Went to the Credit union and deposited my Monet checks then did the groceries at Krogers. Ran out to PIP printing and got an estimate for the booklet - $173 for 200 copies. Talked to Gloria about modeling TFP for me - she's cute on the phone. We chatted about her Apr 4 wedding in Cocoa Beach at the Patrick NCO club. She wants to get married on the beach. I offered her the spare bedroom - she wants to bring her boyfriend. I'm not sure about this. Sent a few inquiries out to models on onemodelplace. Should be interesting. Skipped lunch and dinner was two chicken tender sandwiches. Stayed up past midnight updating the Monet web site. Probably need a new design to incorporate more weddings and the fashion photos. Entry Sep 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day. The Alien Bee lighting accessories arrived today. Went to Ace to get black duck tape for the gels I received today. On this trip I walked around the lake. Later I went with Lib and replaced the inflation fan in houses 3&4 because the hurricane is to arrive tonight and we wanted the tops to be inflated and tight. The fan burned out in early summer. Received the group code today from Deb of the Embassy Suites. Updated the MAAVS website with it. Started building a posing chart for use in my model posing. Started a light diet today. This means light meals and no snacks. Weight is currently 245. Would like to see 230 by the end of September and 220 by the end of the year. Dinner was pasta and light sprinkling of cheese. Stayed up late reading East of Eden. Entry Sep 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning was cloudy and a little rainy but no storm yet. Spent the morning studying studio lighting then worked on the LCD card epoxying the connector and soldering missing grounds and additional wires for the piezo buzzer. The storm arrived as scheduled at 3 PM with torrential rains and high winds. The trees were really whipping around, lots of small sticks and branches everywhere. I updated the MAAVS website with the correct full name of the convention hotel. During the storm power was flickering on and off then went totally off for a few hours. It came back at 6:30 PM just in time for dinner and nightfall. Dinner was chicken jambalya. Entry Sep 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful sunny day!!!!! Lib raked the driveway before she left today. I went over to the greenhouse to look over the storm aftermath. A big tree fell in the back away from the structure because the winds were from the North. Went to Home Depot to look at shade mechanisms. Looking for a way to easily raise and lower the paper backgrounds. Cleaned up the driveway by first carting off the branches with the wheelbarrow then used the blower and cleaned the front walk, driveway, side walk and both decks - side and back. Did some accounting with my Visa bill and Monet accounting. Dinner was a big bowl of lima beans and tomato soup. Entry Sep 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on hanging poles in the garage for the photo backgrounds that arrived yesterday. ----------------------- Page 35----------------------- Entry Sep 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not watch Breakfast with the arts this mroning since it was a blues band that we saw before. Lib and I cleaned up the shed and threw away a min van load of junk. We now have room in the shed to move stuff out of the garage for refurbishing. Dinner was Lib's traditional pizza with mushrooms. Entry Sep 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the morning looking at modieling and collecting images on posing then took the garage apart and pressure washed the floor. Used a push broom to sweep out the floor and also set up a fan to dry it over night. Heard from Jaime today about her TFP shoot. She said she will call. Lib had the quilt group overnight - they commented that our house looks different. We have new shutters, a new garage door, pressure washed porch and walkways and the work continues. Dinner was a Krogers chicken and potato salad. Lib baked ginger snap cookies for the quilt group. Even though I lost 10 pounds in the past mponth, this is my downfall and I had more than my share. Ordered a Canon G3 today for supplemental photography and also vacations and stuff. Also ordered another 512Mb flash card since the G3 will be taking one of my 256mb cards. Entry Sep 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- The G3 arrived this morning early - it's a nice camera, very easy to adjust with manual overrides. Went to Krogers and also Lowes and the DMV. At Lowes I bought 2 gallons of Moonglow white paint by Olympic.. Will also do the floor later. The floor is dry today - now I need to spackle. Dinner was leftover chicken from yesterday with Lima beans. In the afternoon Lib and I put up plastic over the cool cells. Entry Sep 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spackled the garage and communicated with a model in Jacksonville abotu a TFP shoot. Walked the lake - it was a beautiful clear day. Stopped at Blockbuster and rented te Russian Ark as well as Stealing Beauty and One Hour Photo. Entry Sep 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spackled a few coats today. Should be ready for painting tomorrow. Communicated with model Missy in Jacksonville with some suggested poses. Heard from a Chapel Hill model about "working with me". Updated the Bluebird web site this morning. Dinner was turkey burgers and tomato slices. Afterwards we watched some special features from Russian Ark. Entry Sep 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- I wanted to get started painting the garage but didn't get to it. Touched up the spackle somewhat then Lib came and we went to Logans for crabcakes on the patio. It was a nice afternoon. I communicated with some of the models then studied posing in nude art, studio lighting and outdoor flash with Clay. Lots of stuff. Dinner was voila. Picked up a library book on the artists way, a way to explore your creativity. Entry Sep 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Started this morning by writing three pages of a journal as suggested in the artists creativity book. Spent some time composing letters to models then went into the garage and did some painting of raw wood and fresh plaster in prep for the real painting tomorrow. Charged my batteries for tonights shoot then experimented with a back light flash in the living room. It still gives too much light, actually putting white blown out areas on peoples skin. I need a light that can be lowered in intensity. Probably should play with a qflash to see if it will do this job. Ran around at 3:30 because I couln't find car keys and a few pieces of camera equipment. Things shouldn't be this haphazard but I htink we're getting better. We arrived at the Oakwood Inn but the bride was still doing hair. She arrived a half hour later. The bridesmaids didn't get dressed here so it was disappointing to only have the bride and the surrounding antique furniture. The wedding was very elegant - everything was very nice. A string quartet played for the ceremony, afterwards there was a nice buffet in the tibet room next door with catered food from the cafe luna across the street. Everything was very nice. The music was not too loud and not too hard. The DJ played soft music for dinner then kicked it up a notch for dancing later. My camera performance was almost flawless. For the last hour I removed the stroboframe and used the canon flash mounted on the camera. Lib and I had some of the food on the buffet for dinner and also had the wedding cake and a few mini eclairs on the table. ----------------------- Page 36----------------------- Entry Sep 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did not watch breakfast with the arts today. Looked at some of the pictures from yesterday from the camera Lib was using. They came out pretty good. Entry Sep 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Bought another can of paint today and finished painting the garage walls. Now I need to clear the place out and paint the floor. Entry Sep 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Painted the garage floor today. it was more of a hassle than I thought because the floor paint was settled pretty bad and I couldn't stir it with a stick so drove it to Lowes and had them mix it. After it dried it looks like it will need another coat. Dinner was pasta with roasted pepper sauce. Entry Oct 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Put a second coat down on the garage floor today. It looks pretty good. Also attempted to paint the workbench outside on the pine straw. The paint checked badly, probably because I put it over Kilz. The concrete guy came over this afternoon and measure the slab in front of the garage doors. He was supposed to call with an estimate but I didn't hear from him. My red muslin arrived as well as the new Epson printer for downstairs. Dinner was szechuan stir fry. Burned a Cd for Ellie today and also uploaded some pix for her onto ezprints because she wanted wallet sized for thank you's. Entry Oct 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- Ran around the house and emptied the trash for the garbage man. Also deposited the old Epson 800 printer into the trashcan because I got the new one hooked up and working last night. Went to Lowes and also Big Lots for paint and a sheer curtain panel respectively. The Visa bill came today with a bottom line of $2199 which included the new Canon camera and other photo stuff like the background papers and filter gels for the Bees as well as the new softbox for the bee. In the afternoon we painted the doors and trim in the garage "constellation" blue which looks pretty nice. I can't wait for the project to be complete. After a dinner of lima beans and beans and rice we went out to Home Depot to get gas pipes. They didn't have any so we drove to Lowes at Crossroads and we did find three gas pipes. Entry Oct 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- I spent almost the whole day hooking up a gas pipe under the house with several trips to Home Depot and Lowes. Lib came home in the afternoon and crawled under the house for moral support. I stopped in the evening. We drove to Home Depot to get a few more fittings to tie the line into the main line. We ordered Chow Mein takeout from the Home Depot parking lot and picked it up on the drive home. This worked out OK. Entry Oct 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning i did some work in the garage repairing an electrical outlet and also installing the gas shutoff in the garage. I rearreanged some of the stuff in the shed so that I could put the power washer out there instead of the garage. At 11:15 we left for the wedding. Arriving at the church, we wwere the first ones there. We met Barry the Dad who gave us the tour. Denise arrived a little bit later - I was able to get some photos of her and her grandparents whule she wore jeans. The ceremony was over at 3:30 and we did bridal party pictures in the church. At 4:15 we left for the holiday inn on Capital Blvd. The reception went on for a long time - we found out it should have ended at 8:30 but they went into overtime for the out of town guests. We left at 9:30. Entry Oct 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Mostly vegged otut today recovering from yesterday. Libs pix had a little problem - the shutter speed was too slow for the amount of light so a lot of her pics were blurry. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry Oct 06, 2003 ----------------------- Page 37----------------------- -------------------------------------- Spent the day hooking up the gas into the main line. Did a soap bubble test on everything. In the PM we got some plywood for the posing bench and picked up a 20,000 btu heater. This should be enough to heat the garage. . Ran back over to home depot and got a 3/8 elbow to get to the 3/8 outlet of the heater. The elbow is a reducing elbow to get to 1/2inch. I ran a few feet of 1/2 inch pipe before using another reducer at the valve to get to 3/4. Dinner was voila. Entry Oct 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Finished up the heater today and turned it on. Everything working OK. Painted the posing bench and bench top. Moved into the garage with the benches and other stuff. Dinner was pork chops that I picked up in Krogers today. Subscribed to Dan Capps model site in Florida. He features free comp cards for models - lots of examples of poses here. Entry Oct 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did touch up painting today. Cut the top of the posing bench so it fits perfect;ly instead of having a 3/4 inch lip around it. I did this because the plywood is thin and I didn't want it to break. Touched this up, painted the floor touchup and then painted the drill bench. In addition picked up a new door sweep at home depot and another 1x4 to support the plywood. It rained most of today so I couldn't do the cutting and painting outdoors. Rented Frida at Blockbuster with my 1.99 coupon. Entry Oct 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- I was ready for Marie today but it was disappointing - she didn't show up. Got an eMail later in the day she wasn't coming until October 25th. What a waste. We even canceled a violet club goodie bag filling to accomodate this shoot. Anyway, at least the garage is ready., heated and clean. Entry Oct 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- A leisureley day. Walked the lake this afternoon after donuts. Worked on completing the program book. Dinner was our normal Libbie pizza. Entry Oct 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day. i got the awards list as a wordperfect file from Susan but it needs lots of formatting. Also tried to work on my talk, "Who Let the Dogs Out" but onlyd did a few slides. Ran out to Walmart and got slide film and also a black curtain for photography. Don't know what I'll use it for but I wanted to add one to my collection. Entry Oct 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lots of last minute stuff to do. Worked on fromatting the awards for the book, studied posing a little then in the evening I packed thanks to Lib's pre-packing and laying out my clothes. Dinner was Penne Pasta. Took some pictures for my talk on violet photography and will ifnish the powerpoint presentation in Florida. Entry Oct 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- We got up normally then had breakfast and left at 7. Took 1010 and passed Jessie Drive at 7:20. Traffic on 1010 was heavy but once we hit the interstate traffic was light and moving on the whole route. HAd a little scare just after we got onto 301 - a state trooper pulled right in fron of us and pulled over the car two cars in front. We were all doing 70 in a 45 zone. Lucky break. Libbie took over the driving at the entrance ramp to I-75 and drove us the rest of the way. For lunch we had sandwiches in the car. Before we hit the reef we stopped at Publix and got steak, Chardonnay, veggies and some breakfast fixins for tomorrow. Entry Oct 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- A lazy day. After breakfast without coffee we went over to Selby and walked the Orchid house then went down to the end where the new wedding pavillion is. We enjoyed the orchids then had lunch at the little cafe which was formerly a bookstore - a wrapped turkey and han sandwich by Michaels East. The mansion is being refurbished so we didn't go there or the butterfly garden in front. After lunch we went to Publix and Lib picked up the wedding present at Bed Bath and Beyond while I browsed ----------------------- Page 38----------------------- some of the books in Books a Million. We walked to the island end then had dinner after sunset which was steak, Ravenwood Merlot and mixed veggies. Tried reading a little of my Steinbeck book but the wine got to me and i fell asleep. Heard from Missy this evening. She wants a few pictures her mother would approve of then the rest artistic nude. This will be interesting. Entry Oct 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Picked up Joe at 6 in Tampa even tough his plane landed at 5:30 AM Brandon arrived at the condo around 2 PM. They all went to the rehearsal dinner and then picked up Brandon at 11 PM in Tampa. We went out to turtles where I had a stufed flounder and Chardonnay. We watched the sunset on the beach beforehand. Entry Oct 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning we had 5 kids in our condo. They played shffleboard and swimming before getting ready for the 3 PM wedding. They left here at 2:30 to be downtown for pictures. We found the Methodist Church on Pineapple then went over to Longboat for the reception. It was very elegant in the ocuntry club. We left around 8 before the end and dragged ourselves back. The kids walked St Armands after the wedding. Entry Oct 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- A leisureley day. Woke late and went to Publix for bagels and donuts. Lunch was bagels and cream cheese since the cold cuts ran out. In the vening the Whitfills came over - we watched the sunset then had hamburgers, beans and potato salad with Chablis. We enjoyed the visit. Many good times we went over about the wedding. Entry Oct 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- Brandon and Cami slept in till 9 today in the living room so I couldn't do much in there. We took joe to the airport at 4:30 AM for his 7:40 AM flight. Brandon and Cami gave us a gift certificate to Chart House on Longboat key. Lib and I had MAcadamia Tapia and clam chowder which was excellent. They screwed up my check - this should be interesting seeing the Visa results. After dinner we walked St Armand Circle for a little bit then drove back. Arrived at the condo at 9 Pm then went on the internet for a while. dial up access is bad news. Entry Oct 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib was under the weather this morning so we didn't get going until 8 AM. Traffic was light, we ate in the car to save time so we only stopped for gas. Had dinner at Smithfield BBQ off 1010 on the way home. Arrived home at aorund 7:15 PM. After unpacking a little I went to Krogers for groceries at 10 PM. Entry Oct 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- A busy day. Took all the 35mm pictures with the Nikon. Had a bad start - bought new batteries and cleaned the ocntacts to make the thing work. Exposed the roll of film then went with Lib to site out some possibilities for a shoot over by Waverly. NY Pizza was closed where we wanted to have lunch so we drove to the new pizza place in Apex at Liberty Station. don't think we will return. Found out that Wolf Camera needs 7 to 10 days to do slides. Will try Sam Bass. Visited the credit union and scoped out waverly. The shopping centre is falling apart and appears to be in big trouble. Entry Oct 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- What a day - it started with a call from Lib to put out the garbage. I worked on the convention book and after a few uploads to the printer we have a good booklet to be printed. Went to get my slides and 5 x7's but no pictures only the slides. On the way there Lib and I stopped at the dollar store and got design material and picture frames. I was happy when we got the Apex Herald - our story is on the front page. Nicely done. Went to Krogers and bought four more copies. What a coup. Ended up sending an order to EZPrints for the 5 x7's. Dinner was chicken brocoli Skillet Sensations. Entry Oct 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- Didn't do much today. Picked up the booklets - the Governors letter was disappointingly blurry. They printed from the pdf which notoriously gives bad copy instead of from the Pagemaker file. Took the carpet to the dump which was the dining room ----------------------- Page 39----------------------- and hung around the house for a few years. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with baked beans. Entry Oct 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- TAVS arrrived this morning to stuff goodie bags. I showed a sample of the program book. In the afternoon I worked on pictures and also talked to Gloria about rescheduling for Nov 8. Missy comes Nov 7. Discovered that my mail was staying on Netfirms instead of being read by my pop reader. I had mail from Gloria and a new girl - Brooke who i scheduled to do Nov 15. For dinner we did a takeout from Red Hot and Blue and had Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon with it. Entry Oct 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- A very busy day. Worked on Alices pictures to send out then updated the web site with some itinerary information. Worked iwth Lib defining some design entries. In the afternoon we went to the dollar store Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry Oct 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did some diagnosis today of the furnace - the downstairs controller looks like it's broken. I called tom Herner and he said he would be out tomorrow at noon. eMailed the meal count and floor plans to the eMbassy. In the PM Lib and I went to Michaels, the Dollar Store and AC Moore looking for design materials as well as costume ideas. I'm planning to be First Class. Took the blower down at the greenhouse and bench tested it - everything seems OK. Will put it back and look closer for a thermal break in the heat exchanger. Dinner this evening was creamed tuna with peas on toast. The peas were purchased in the Dollar Store. May have to go back there to get beads for a Brittney pose I want to try. Entry Oct 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Did Krogers and also dropped Denises pictures off this morning. Tom Herner came at noon to start debugging the furnace which has problems. It won't start this morning. The transformer primary was blown, in addition the short piece of wire from the thermostat wires to the terminal strip was pinched where it went into the furnace messing up the controller and blowing fuses. The thing now works. Lib and I went to the Dollar Store and got materials to build designs. Dinner was chicken Alfredo by Skillet Sensations. Entry Oct 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went out today to the Credit Union then the Dollar Store - met Jennifer there. Talked to the Cooks this afternoon - invited them over for dinner of chicken, wine and veggies. Nice evening. They left at 9 PM. Tomorrow is D-Day! Entry Oct 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Picked up Sue at 9:30 this morning then went over to the embassy. Helped set up the place then went to NY Pizza for lunch and had a Pepperoni pizza. After building my 4 designs we went to the open bar for libations then stayed for dinner at the Bistro. The food was outstanding. I had the special which was linguine with shrimp, scallops and crab. Entry Oct 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- I went home to build my costume then went shopping in Michaels for materials for my design. The bufet dinner was fun with violet bingo. My costume was a mexican hat for "First Class" with a necklace of 0's and 1's. The bar was great but I consumed too much. Almost everyone participated in coming as their favorite violet. A truly good time!!!! Entry Nov 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Woke up early this morning and went an hour early to the convention to take pictures using a photo workstation. Collected last minute trivia from folks for the dinner tonight. Took a batch of violets to Logans then went home to get stuff for tonight. Met Rae Anne from Ibm - she lost a lot of weight. Helped cleanup then dressed in the car in the parking lot. This was difficult since two ladies were in gowns in a car putting onmakeup. I was Master of Ceremonies this evening - everything seemed to go OK. I enjoyed the total conveniton. My designs won several awards and $105 cash. ----------------------- Page 40----------------------- Entry Nov 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- An easy day. Started processing pictures this morning and formatting stuff for the MAAVS web site. Lots of work to do. In the PM I helped Sue with her computer - it was shutting down early due to Hibernate mode. Got rid of that and installed software for her Palm MP3 player. We had traditional pizza and M&M Ice Cream for desert. I staye dup past midnight updating MAAVS. I'm going to install an eMail reflector on MAAVS. Entry Nov 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on pictures this morning then dropped Sue off at the greenhouse at noon and went to Best Buy to get a wireless card for Lib. Her network card had connection problems so the wireless solution was tried. It seems to work well. Heard from another brides mother today - she wants to come over at 4 on Wednesday. Lib and Sue went to Seagrove this afternoon. When they came home we ordered Chinese takeout - Hunan Beef, Kung Poi Chicken and Chow Mein. Entry Nov 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- I took Sue to the airport at 9 then worked some more on MAAVS pictures. Also balanced the checkbook and researched more income producing stocks. Lib had the violet club meeting at noon and when she came ohome lunch was leftover chinese. I took a late afternoon nap then awoke for Chinese dinner. Very sleepy today. Went to bed around 9 and slept solid until 6 am. It felt good to catch up on sleep. Entry Nov 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Talked to the embassy about our bill. They didn't fax a copy to Bill Armstrong yet. Met with a prospective bride and signed her up this afternoon at 4 PM. Lots of questions but I had no answers such as a backup plan or how to avoid lost files. Heard from a tattooed lady, Zoe of Apex - real name tara anderson. Also communicated with the brats about a Bluebird Ad. Libbie needs a program to manage orchids. Dinner was pasta with krogers sauce mixed with Sockooroni sauce. Entry Nov 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- My birthday!. Heard from Arlene who is vacationing in Virginia Beach. Vicki called later in the evening. Dinner was pasta primavera with additional chicken added by Lib. Mom called around 5 and I also spoke with aunt helen. She's having trouble with bones breaking. Entry Nov 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Waited for Missy this morning at 11 but she was a no show. Haven't heard anything from her in weeks. I was all dressed up a waiting. Made some tests on a teddy bear and found my newest light is broken. Paid for Gloria at the Comfort Inn in Apex. She called at 10 that she arrived. I'll meet her at 9:30. Dinner was chicken strips on buns with rice and beans. I had a lime yogurt for desert. We went over to Gorrell today and worked up an order for a replacement heater in house 1 which has not been doing well over the years. I think the power exhauster is not doing its job but it's discontinued - because it's 17 years old we decided to replace it. Entry Nov 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- I picked the girls up at the Comfort Inn at 9:30 and then we went to the greenhouse to meet Libbie. Boy, are they beautiful girls. We started on the backporch doing swimsuit shots and Hannahs red evening dress before moving indoors to do homework on the floor shots. It was very dark on the back porch and I used the Qflash but the lighting looked fake. We then went to leotards and dance shots as well as the sluttly saloon player on the piano. Entry Nov 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- I'm very mopey and lethargic today after a high energy day yesterday. Lib and I walked the lake in the PM before i came home and started looking at the photos. I think I only got about 50% good ones. Dinner was a yummy pizza homemade by Lib during which I watched Brittany Spears on Nightline and how she's a packaged fake. ----------------------- Page 41----------------------- Entry Nov 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spoke with DNA company about an AVR problem they are having. Worked on getting my name out on the net for tfp opportunities. Not sure if this is worth it. Spoke with Alien Bees about replacing the broken bee. Dinner was sweet and sour chicken from a frozen package. Entry Nov 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- A busy day. Spoke with Clinton about his AVR project and then looked at the source files he sent me. Also sent an email to Brooke about the Sat shoot. Not sure she's still up for this. Went to the greenhouse and installed the blower. Now we need the pilot assembly and burner installed and new fanjet tube in house 2. Dinner was pasta which I picked up today when I did the Krogers seniors thing. Fell asleep early on the couch downstairs. Entry Nov 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Replaced the fan jet tube in house 2. Accidentally removed the Fan Jet tube in house 3. it didn't need replacing. Dinner was chicken fingers and lima beans. Went over to DNA group and picked up a coffee maker timer board. They need some touchup work on the design to get it ready for production. Entry Nov 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- An unbelievably windy day. The airport is reporting 40 mph gusts. While working on the AVR clock this morning the power flashed a few times due to wind. This took out our internet service. Talked with Time Warner but they insist everything is OK. Later found that I had to reset the cable modem and then the router to get everything working. In the afternoon I got the model numbers of the power exhausters on the Modines. I may buy a new motor for house one and keep it as a spare. Later Lib and I tightened up the greenhouse in the back patching up a lot of holes in the plastic. When we get new plastic next Wednesday we'll replace half of the back. Went to home depot and got a few 1x2's and used them as battens under the cool cells to hold the plastic down from the wind. Strong blasts of wind causes the plastic to pop and the staples pull out. The battens improve this. Dinner was Chinese takeout: eggrolls and Szechuan Chicken. Entry Nov 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- Picked up 5 more battens at Home Depot and installed them below the rest of the cool cells. The wind has died down considerably today but I put up the battens anyway in case they're needed. In the afternoon Lib and I had lunch at Logans then went over to Graingers to get the new blower which I ordered over the Internet for Will Call. Dinner was steak and baked potato. We watched Bowling for Columbine this evening. I couldn't get into the DVD because the yellow seal was still attached. Broke into the box but did not do this for Walk to Remember whcih is the other CD I rented. Entry Nov 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning i went to Blockbuster to get the yellow strip removed on the DVD. Worked on the address list program learning how to access a database with B. Lib baked a turkey breast with all the trimmings and also a pumkin pie. It was delicious. We watched Walk to remember this evening. I really liked it. Entry Nov 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- A&E this morning had Tom Jones. Nice music but mildly interesting. Walked around the lake today with Lib and then I went to the greenhouse and removed the power exhaust blower to bring home. Dinner was traditional pizza. We watched some of Walk to Remember commented by Nicholas Sparks and the screenwriter. Entry Nov 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- What a busy day. Took the round plate off the old blower and set it aside. Need t drill the square end out. Clinton called about the circuit not resetting properly after power down. Archived the Gloria and Hannah pictures and communicated with a new bride from Duke about her wedding. Also communicated with Kylie about a shoot but she's tied up caring for her sick mother. I doubt if this will pan out. Dinner was turkey leftovers. We watched the rest of the actors commentary about "Walk to Remember" on the DVD. ----------------------- Page 42----------------------- Entry Nov 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Clinton is finished with me for now. He's going to send my check and he has requested 100 cards be built. I don't think it will work. I spent the day rewriting the Spa program to include a flat file database. This seems to be easier for me. Dinner was turkey sandwiches. Entry Nov 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked this morning on the orchid customer list program. Lib came home at 11:15 due to severe weather moving through the area. She had the customer list with her which I typed in to get a few more test cases. The dress dummy arrived via UPS today. I like it and hope it will be useful setting up lights in the studio. My CGPt is in trouble as it sinks. I'm thinking that maybe I should pick up another 100 shares if it drops lower - this would be on margin. My margin loan is up to 9500 dollars but when I get tdsp money and the pgn money from my 100 share sale I hope to be even again. Alice called - she's coming over Friday at 11 to pick out pictures. We went to Sams in the rain about 4 PM because we were out of many items. Met Marcia in the wine dept. She was admiring a weird blue bottle of Italian wine. Dinner was creamed tuna on toast. Watched the Larry King 70th birthday celebration and then recorded Victoria Secrets fashion show. We stopped at the greenhouse after Sams to lock up - the Wetsel plastic arrived to replace the back wall. Entry Nov 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- A very wet day - i decided not to work on the greenhouse at first because it was too wet. Later in the day I started rebuilding the baseboard. Made several trips to Ace hardware to decide what kind of fasteners to use. I ended up with 1/4 inch nits and bolts with steel washers. The nuts are lock nuts. Dinner was salmon with rice and lima beans. Entry Nov 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- I waited for Alice and received a phone call around 10:30 saying they were not coming. Finished the baseboard then went to Home Depot for some treated wood and reworked the center support for the wall. Replaced some 1x4's and covered the others with new 1x4's to give a good nailing base for the plastic. Dinner was pork chops with corn, rice and apple sauce. Entry Nov 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Put the new plastic on the back house. The little dog next door was annoying as he yipped and yipped all day long. We finished up late in the afternoon. For dinner we went out to the Mexican place downtown and had Mexican dinner and Margaritas. We came home tired then fell asleep. Rented a movie but didn't watch it - Walking across Egypt. Watched the Raleigh Xmas parade on Tivo instead with Clay Aiken. Entry Nov 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- After the paper and breakfast with the arts I went to the greenhouse and started repairing the baseboard. Replaced all the screws with bolts and nuts. Went to Home Depot and got more treated 1x4's then repaired the center board of the deadmen. One section of it was rotted and fell down, the rest seemed OK but I covered the old boards with new 1x4's for a new nailing base. We finished a little after 3 but decided not to replace the plastic because we were too tired. Lib messed up the pizza crust so we had a chewy crust that fell apart for our traditional pizza. Afterwards we were alarmed that the health deadline for IBM was Nov 20th and today was the 23rd. Went online and found they gave us until Dec 11th to verify our options. We added the vision plan and will not renew with Cigna because it's now $300 a month instead of $60. Entry Nov 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went over to the greenhouse this morning at 10:30 and started unclipping the plastic. It's supposed to rain later this afternooon and get colder. Today it's in the seventies. I got pretty tired running up and down the ladder clipping the plastic. Came home and fell asleep on the couch while Lib watched Oprah at 5:30 PM. Dinner was pasta and 4 cheese sauce. Changed the health option to the high deductible plan. This is $95 vs the $60 we were paying for Cigna full coverage. Entry Nov 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- A busy day. Went to the CU to deposit the TDSP check then over to Blockbuster to drop off the Walking across Egypt movie. ----------------------- Page 43----------------------- Did the Krogers old geezers thing then went to the greenhouse and discovered termites had eaten the corner board by the bathroom. We attached the inflation to the new front wall. Dinner was Voila which was not mixed very well. It lacked pasta and flavoring and was only some veggies. Watched Walking Across Egypt this evening. I liked it - it's based on a Clyde egerton novel. Entry Nov 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I went to ScottTrade on Falls of Neuse to deposit the TDSP check for 6,000 dollars. Also filled out an online check funding application to allow me to transfer money from checking to them. On the way home picled up a 1x6x12 in Lowes for the greenhouse. Went with Lib to the Credit Union to deposit a PGN check for a 100 share sale then we had pre Thanksgiving lunch at Red Hot and Blue. I had a pulled pig sandwich. Went ot the greenhouse at 3 and replaced the termite eaten corner board. Discovered the front corner was also bad so I stopped into Home Depot on the way home and got a new 1x6 and also some 1x2 battens for the horizontal portion. Dinner was Salmon with Yams. We watched Bette Midler on Larry King afterwards. Entry Nov 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- We slept in a little then watched the Macys parade and had cheese and crackers. For lunch we had ham sandwiches. Went over to the greenhouse and looked at the termite damage then went home. Worked on the MAAVS conveniton pictures. Thanksgiving dinner was ham, yams, yellowtail chardonnay and applesauce. Entry Nov 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- A cold and wet day. Worked on the MAAVS web site most of the day. Rented Y Tu MAMA Tambien from Blockbuster using my Dec coupon. It's pretty sexy - watched just a little bit. Dinner was ham sandwhiches. Entry Nov 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I watched the Y Tu MAMA movie then went over tp the greenhouse and worked on the baseboard. I'm going to add a 5/4x6 along the base to save the siding. Entry Nov 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- Spent the day working on the greenhouse - put the new baseboard in on the West side of the building. Worked a lot of the day on Gloria and Hannahs pictures. Have them finished and will mail them tomorrow. Entry Dec 01, 2003 -------------------------------------- Mailed the Cd on the way to the greenhouse. Deposited the Carolina Rhode check and mailed the taxes a month early. Picked up a garage door open detector which is a piece of junk. Back it goes!! Dinner was ham sandwiches. Entry Dec 02, 2003 -------------------------------------- It's a very cold day. Lib had a violet club party at 11 so i watched the greenhouse while trying to hook up a power drafter. A lady dropped off one orchid and Ray Moulton stopped by to pick up two orchids. Afterwards I wentto Krogers. Couldn't get the old heater to light anyway. We called Gorrel to see what the story was on our new heater. It sounds like it may come tomorrow. Dincer was seven layer salad and a ham sandwich. Entry Dec 03, 2003 -------------------------------------- The new heater is coming today. We found this out this morning from Gorrell. Started disconnecting the old one and got it down by noon. The truck arrived at 2:30 - we dropped it off by the propane tanks and remoed the lower plasic off the deadmen and one bench section nearest the wall. Took the old one out and slipped the new one in. Lib picked up Wendy's salads for us since we were going to wait at the greenhouse until the truck came. We got the new one on the bench and hooked up the chains but couldn't hoist it because one threaded rod hanger was stripped. Took it home and worked a nut over the threads with WD-40 and it was good to go. Dinner was pasta with Emerils tomato sauce. Worked on the violet article this evening an dgot two paragraphs done. ----------------------- Page 44----------------------- Entry Dec 04, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I downloaded some account statements from the CU, finished the article for the N&O, then went to the greenhouse and inserted the heater hangers. Using the comalong the new heater easily went up. Lib tugged on a roppe attached to the hangars while I jiggled the heater to line it up and we got it hung. Had to go home for cable to support the motor onto the upper pipe. Removed the comalong then started hooking up the propane and power. Didn't have electrical tools so concentrated on hooking up the blower but found that the new heater is 4 inches shorter and 2 inches narrower than the old one. Lib and I went to Home Depot for 7 inch vent pipe but they didn;t have heavy gauge. Bought a nice Fraser fir for 40.50 with tax then went to Michaels by the old Farmers market. Struck out there so tried East Coast metal distributing. They had the pipes. Returned home and cleaned up for a bride coming over at 7. Dinner was chicken Teryaki from Skillet Sensations Entry Dec 05, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked some more on the Violet article this morning. Received an eMail later from Weta that she liked it and wanted one or two a month. This sounds good to me. Had lots of trouble getting the 7 inch flue pipe cut and fitted. Had to make a new plate on the wall for the pipe to pass trough. Got the power hooked up and the exhaust pipes and we tried the heater - it worked great. NOw I need to adapt the larger discharge transition to the smaller heater opening. Ran out of time so will do this tomorrow. At home Lib made 7 layer salad for dinner after I ran out to Krogers to get frozen peas for the dinner. We had this for dinner. Entry Dec 06, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went over to the greenhouse first thing and worked on the chimmney assembly as well as the discharge transition. Bought a piece of angle iron from Home Depot and put it on the side to close up the one inch gap on the old transition adapter. Tested the heater and all is well!!! Listened to the Met on the radio this afternoon - first one of the season and it was the preview for the season. Put the xmas tree up on the porch and worked on lights. Ended up going to K-Mart for more lights. Tried to get across town to Eckerds but Apex was having the xmas parade. Dinner was bean soup. Entry Dec 07, 2003 -------------------------------------- Was planning to work at the greenhouse today but didn't make it. Worked on the orchid address database at home The Northeast had a blizzard today. Lib made traditional pizza and I watced the A&E playboy 50th anniversary special. We washed the windows in the back today. Entry Dec 08, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse and put the front bench back together then added some new boards around the inflation blower. It was hanging on by one screw - put it solidly together, replaced the inlet screen and stapled the plastic to the fan houseing redwood. Also replaced a piece of plastic under the shutter. Went to Blockbuster and got two moview - Bruce Almighty and Wave Rider. Entry Dec 09, 2003 -------------------------------------- Went to Kroger this morning then worked on the Fred 6 packet program trying to re-acquaint myself with the thing. Went to the greenhouse at 11 and finished the lattice strip on the west side of the garage building then put the bottom plastic base on the back. It was a big job because the bottom had to be buried. Dinner was pasta. Entry Dec 10, 2003 -------------------------------------- Early in the morning I deposited the check for the EAS stocks I sold then went to Lowes to get door sweep and kick plate. Went out to the greenhouse to repair the door bottom. Ended up going out to Home Depot and buying a new door. The new door doesn't fit - will have to remove the door frame and replace it with the one that came with the new door. It's rianing pretty hard as well making the job miserable. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. Dinner was Voila chicken teryaki. Watched the Washington Opera gala in the evening. Entry Dec 11, 2003 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 45----------------------- Built up an AVR card for the Fred 6 remote monitor then went to the greenhouse and took the plastic door frame down and installed the new door frame with the new door. Went to Walmart for caulk and then Lowes for a new door knob and lock. Also returned the old door sweep and kickplate I didn't get to use because we went with a new door. Heard from a model, Hana, in Cary about a TFP session next week. She is a YMCA pilates instructor and has a very nice body. Dinner was baked yam and seven layer salad. In the evening I read a chapter of East of Eden instead of TV. Great!! Entry Dec 12, 2003 -------------------------------------- Was going to finish up at the greenhouse then go with Lib to Logans and Sams but she found a customer was bringing 100 orchids and also I got involved building the Fred6 card and mounting it on the copper base. After a while got it working - problem was configuration of the AVR assembler. Next found that the temp probe RJ45's are wired wrong. Did some cuts and adds and now the thing reads temps OK. Next I need to test the alarm arming and loop and then try sending a packet. Lib came home late at 5:00 from the greenhouse - we had eggnog and crackers then did household stuff for one more hour nefore ordering chines Szechuan chicken at 7:15. Lib picked up our food and I got milk in Krogers. After dinner it was another night of reading. Market is over 10,000 again and all my stocks are in the green. Was watching FGP fall - even bought some two days ago but it too is up so I'll just watch for a buying opportunity. Entry Dec 13, 2003 -------------------------------------- Communicated with a model,Hana, about her tfp shoot Monday. She has lots of ideas. This should be fun. The TNC-X came today - I started putting it together. In the morning I finished the door switch but did not install the magnet because I dind't have it. Went home to listen to the opera on the Met. Very nice. Dinner was yam and 7 layer salad. Afterwards I went to plug in the Fred phone at the greenhouse but found the AVR was dead. Took it home and replaced the regulator and also a new AVR chip. All is OK now. On the way back from the greenhouse took a ride around looking at lights - Vintage Grove is well lit. Also, downtown is lit beyond imagination. Will go back with a camera. My violet article ran today - nice comments on AV connection as well as TAVS. Now I need to get busy with the Orchid article. Entry Dec 14, 2003 -------------------------------------- A crummy rainy day - at least there was no ice storm last night. After the papers I worked on the wireless controller. We went to Sams in the afternoon and then it was back to the controller. Dinner was traditional pizza which was excellent. Entry Dec 15, 2003 -------------------------------------- The roads were a little icy this morning - the rain yesterday evening froze on the roads. Hana called this orning around 9 that she was going to travel slowly getting here. We started posing on a weight bench while I only used a single light to highlight here curves. She was a lot of fun to work with. We did some see through lingerie under the xmas tree which I sent to Joe since his ornament was visible in the foreground. We worked all day - Lib came home while we were doing the xmas tree shots. She stayed for some bikin on the ladder shots. After Hana left I went to the greenhouse and pulled a transfer relay and jumpered out a few contacts. The contacts burned badly. Dinner was Green Giant veggie mix with cheese and brocolli. Entry Dec 16, 2003 -------------------------------------- Lib called from the greenhouse to say it was 42 degrees over there at 8:15 and I should call off Hana. I raced over there and found the circuit breaker popped and the monitor controller wasn't working. I reset the breaker and the heat came back but there is still a problem somewhere. Went back home to meet Hana at 9 - she brought an Asian pear and crumb cake for a break later. We had another good session - went to the greenhouse after lunch for Vietnamese dress shots then back home for another hour of travel clothes and bikini shots. Lib went to Rex Wellness while Hana and I worked. Afterwards we went to the greenhouse to find out what was happpening. My meter was acting crazily. The 12 volts was not feeding the controller - the wire fell off. Put a little water in the battery but it was not too bad off and still supplying power. Went home and did the grocery shopping on the way home. Dinner was pasta then went back to the greenhouse. Replaced the dialer card. That was OK but now it was dialing an intruder alert. Went home again and reprogrammed the chip. Now it was calling a temperature alert immediately. Played with the probes and found the probe between house 1 and 2 was not working. Plugged the wall probe in and all seems to be well. We went home tired. Entry Dec 17, 2003 -------------------------------------- Answered another model, this one in Pinehurst, about a tfp shoot sometime. Would like to do this next week. I got depressed this morning after talking to Libbie and she told me about all the cold damage on the Violets. What a disaster for us. Don't ----------------------- Page 46----------------------- know about the orchids yet. Went over to the greenhouse and measured current and traced circuits from the breaker panel. Thought about Hana most of the evening and reviewed her pictures. They're good photographically. Dinner was creamed tuna and peas on toast. Entry Dec 18, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on hooking up the TNC stuff. Finally got to try it out in the evening but it didn't work. Went over to the greenhouse in the morning and met with Nancy and Lib. Also tried measuring current with a different meter. It didn't even register. Dinner was seven layer salad after we had egg nog and crab dip with wheat thins. Entry Dec 19, 2003 -------------------------------------- I spent most of the day trying to get either of the new TNC's to work but could get nowhere. Met with a Bride, Groom and Mother at 12:30 about a July wedding. The mother used John Bond for a wedding 2 years ago but he was not available. I'm not sure if they will be back. In the afternoon I was going to do a simple relay swap so Lib and I went to Walmart for an Aunt Helen gift then stopped at the greenhouse and put the new relay in which came from Grainger. Cranking the genrator produced a chattering noise. Found that there is a manual transfer switch on the wall which was on. Didn;t know about that one. Turned that off and found the controller woiuld not start the generator. The battery cable lug was burned out. The connector must have gotten very hot and melted. This is scary. Went to Southern Tire and bought a new battery terminal and some #10 wire and rewired the starter. Tested the generator and all was well. Next we tried lighting the heater in house 4 so it could be on standby. Couldn't figure where to plug it in so we did some trial and error and got all working. need to replace the inflation tube in house 4. On the way home picked up some crab dip and crackers. Found that the answering machine did not pick up the power alert so at 8:45 we went back to the greenhouse to verify the power monitor. It did call - when it gives the power alarm it does so over the answering machine greeting. That's why we didn't hear the alarm on the tape. On the way home did a drive through downtown with my camera, parked and shot some storefronts all lit up. Also drove behind the post office and saw a house all lit up with a santa in the garage from 7 to 9 pm. This guy is dressed in a santa suit in his garage with a TV and fireplace waving to the passerbys. Entry Dec 20, 2003 -------------------------------------- I got the packet board to send packets this morning. We left around 12:30 for the wedding - it was very cold and windy but bright and sunny. The ceremony and reception was nice - we got a few nice pictures. Wedding started at 2 and was over by 4:30. We went home but then went to the greenhouse to cover up two of the unuse shutters because it's supposed to be a low of 20 tonight. Dinner was a nice steak and mushrooms with a baked potato and Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon. Entry Dec 21, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I read the paper, replaced the gasket around the back door on the porch. Went to the greenhouse and put labels on the outlets in house 4. Also made circuit breaker labels but they didn't fit so will make smaller ones. Picked up the gasket material from the old back door frame. In the afternoon I got the second PIC TNC board working . The problem was setting up the thing using a jumper putting it into terminal mode. Got it all set up then tried it in KISS mode and it sent packets!!! Now I have 3 Hansen TNC boards working. Two of the original PIC TNC's and the new TNC-X. Later in the afternoon Lib and I made gift certificates for Bluebird using PM. Couldn't easily locate the old files so we created new ones. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry Dec 22, 2003 -------------------------------------- Hooked up the LCD - found some wiring errors and fixed them. The LCD now displays but not correctly. It's a nice day - temp around 60. In the afternoon we returned the answer machine to ATT then eased on home in the traffic. Stopped at the greenhouse on the way where I put a wire nut on the generator and found the other terminal was loose. Fixed it then got gas and went to Krogers. Picked up a James Bond Halle Barre video and also From Here to Eternity. Production values and acting back then were terrible. So was the amount of smoking and getting drunk. Pretty poor. Wonder what was so good about this movie. For dinner we had barbecue sandwiches and potato salad. Entry Dec 23, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on LCd software then went to Krogers for Old Geezer day. The bill was $65 - included a spiral ham and a lot of other stuff for the weekend which will be xmas with Sue and Bruce. In the afternoon I found the software bug and got the lcd displaying. Now I ned some data link routines. Dinner was pasta. ----------------------- Page 47----------------------- Entry Dec 24, 2003 -------------------------------------- Heard from another model - Michelle who wants to do tfp She's 14 and lives in Cary. Worked a little outside and cleaned the driveway and the leaves off the deck. Went with Lib to Krogers to get beef for Chili. We watched the James Bond-Halle Berry movie in the evening.Dinner was chili with homemade corn bread. Entry Dec 25, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning Lib made pancakes for breakfast then we opened presents. When this was done we made some calls to NJ. found that Barb is pregnant - due in August. I went upstairs and started putting the various boards into an enclosure. Need something on the other side of the room I can talk to as a test target. Built up Fred into a box an dmounted everything. Next built osme cables for Sam and also found a bad regulator on one of the TNC's. This is not a good sign. Hope it was a freak accident. I won't be happy if this thing blows up regulators on a regular basis. Lunch was tomato soup. Sue and Bruce left DC at 3 - they called at 7 from I-85 - they missed the exit for 55 and got off on 86. We had to call them back when we found 86 did not go to 64 as we thought so we told them to get onto 40 and go East to 55. Lib and I toasted each other with egg nog and crab dip while waiting for them. Dinner is going to be ham sandwiches and wine. Entry Dec 26, 2003 -------------------------------------- While sue and Bruce read books on the back porch for most of the day I tried to talk across the room to the greenhouse monitor from the base station. Also ordered another htx 202 on eBay for $70 Buy it Now. dinner was chili with corn bread. We rented SeaBiscuit from Blockbuster and enjoyed it in the vening with Sue and Bruce. Entry Dec 27, 2003 -------------------------------------- Libbie and the Guenthers got going at 6 am this morning for the Tire Bowl game in Charlotte. I spent the day debugging the wireless controllers. It sort of works but not very reliably. Need to debug further. They came home at 6 after which we went to Blockbuster for more wine and some Chinese food from China Chef. Also returned the sea bicsuit video. Entry Dec 28, 2003 -------------------------------------- Another beautiful day. Read the paper and watch one part of Breakfast with the Arts. Around noon Bruce and I walked the 4 mile lake loop - Libbie joined us from behind Krogers. Stopped into Krogers with Bruce to get water. We had ham sandwiches on Kaiser rolls for lunch then dinner was Libbies traditional pizza with Yellow Tail Merlot. I got the packet controller working reliably. The last problem was the need for a .1 uf cap in line with the xmit out and also needed a way to control PTT since it couldn't getr through the cap anymore. Fixed this and now I can request and receive a status packet in one attempt. Entry Dec 29, 2003 -------------------------------------- Sue and Bruce got going late this morning - leaving a little after 11. I worked out a strategy to set devices via wireless. My bride, Frechelle, came over at noon. She was actually a little early but after showing her the pix she signed up for our middle package. She seemed ready to sign no matter what she saw in the way of pix. I think she was a price shopper and she found her price in me. I walked the lake with Lib then we went to Carolina Hydroponics out at the park at the corner of 54 and 55. Came home and communicated with some models - Heidi and Trina. Stayed up late working on the code to set events at the controller. Entry Dec 30, 2003 -------------------------------------- This morning I worked on the wireless controller then at 11:15 ran over to Krogers but had to be back at 12:30 for a brides mother. She came and paid $400 for our middle package for July. Afterwards I deposited all the checks into the CU after dropping Libs car at the inspection place on 1010. It was due in October. Also went to Office Depot to get labels then came home straight on Piney Plains through Lochmere. This was pretty good since it took us right onto Kildaire Farms Rd. Dinner was chili but the corn bread was moldy. Entry Dec 31, 2003 -------------------------------------- Worked on keypad routines today for the wireless monitor. Also wrote thank yous in the morning for birthday gifts then after ----------------------- Page 48----------------------- dinner wrote thank yous for the MAAVS awards. We walked the lake around 2 and looked for string in Krogers to hang the bird suet feeders but didn't find any. We had to take it down on the back porch because the squirrels were climbing the screen to get to it. In the evening I started classifying pictures using the Adobe Photoshop ALbum 2.0 software. I lost track of time and came down at 7:30 for dinner. We had ham, baked yam, apple sauce and Almond champagne for dinner and New Years toasts. We went to bed at quarter to twelve and did not watch the ball drop but earlier in the evening we did watch Rene Fleming on Great Performances Live from Linclon Center New Years concert.