----------------------- Page 1----------------------- Entry: Jan 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Happy New Year!!! A slow start to the day - while Libbie painted the bathroom trim I hooked up a new light shining down on the sidewalk outside. The old lights stopped working and I didn't like their plastic quality or their shoddy appearance. The new one is a metal halogen and I put it 12 feet above ground. After this I came inside and began painting the second coat of paint on the bathroom walls. Getting tired of using the bathroom downstairs. We were also going to photograph violets today but didn't get around to it. Dinner was black peas and rice from Zatarains and turkey burgers on Pepperidge Farms hoagie rolls toasted. These are really good. Missed the opera today because we were watching the Rose parade on A&E. Entry: Jan 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Skipped A&E since they were doing a "By request" program. Put a lot of the bathroom back together today - I spent the whole day installing a shower control that has a lever instead of knob. It also has temperature control of the output. A long, long day of plumbing. On Lib's traditional pizza she put sausage from Williams - the last of it from earlier this week. It was very very good. Watched an entertaining 60 Minutes piece by Leslie Stahl about the Google guys. They made it sound like anyone can advertise on Google. I may look into it. Entry: Jan 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Didn't feel like doing the plastic today - instead Lib and I went to Lowes and got the 1x4's for the greenhouse. Dinner was barbecue chicken and veggies. Very nice Entry: Jan 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did a credit union run as well as the groceries this morning. Another day in the 70's - tore the plastic off the greenhouse in the back and renewed the 1x4 and also about 1/3 of the baseboard. Had to run to Ace for screws and nuts. I'm putting in 1.5 inch threaded bolts and hex stop nuts on the bottom. Lib and I did the clips together on the rood and stayed until after 6 - it was very dark out. Dinner was leftover barbecue chicken and veggies. Entry: Jan 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse in the late morning and finished the baseboard in the back and clipped the plastic to it then stapled the ends. Temp is holding in the mid 70's - a nice starting week for the New Year. Dinner was grilled sirloin pork chops and veggies. Entry: Jan 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Tried to get a calendar at Barnes & Noblkes and Borders but they were picked clean. Got a "Birthday Book" for Mom's birthday then went home to wrap it and took it the Post Office for priority mailing. I worked on getting all the 8x10's into whcc - the mounted and unmounted ones. We had pork chops and veggies then went to the zoning info meeting about the development behind us. It's going to be pretty high density - I'm concerned about runoff. When we got back we worked on assembling David and Michelle's album - finished it before 11. ----------------------- Page 2----------------------- Entry: Jan 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Another busy day - it's a little cooler today, only in the low 60's. Studied Flexipanel and Ipaq's a little then cut the panel for the bathroom door and painted it. Also painted the pipe in the garage for the gas line. I bought the brush for this 6 months ago. Finished the 11x14 pictures for Lynn. Tonight we're doing first Friday and having dinner at Cafe Luna. Set up an acount on Google today for Monet and will start paying for advertising there. Entry: Jan 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- Dave and Michelle came oer at 3 - we did photos in my studio then went out to dinner at the mexican place downtown. It was a pleasant day. We also gave them their album this afternoon - it came out very well. Entry: Jan 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Skipped breakfast with the arts today. Downloaded yesterdays opera in the mroning. Lib came home early then we spent some time doing violet photography. I also worked on getting Great Violets workingon her new laptop and also installed the new version of Encore and built an AVSA DVD for her violet club meeting Tuesday. Entry: Jan 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning we got up early and drove to Chapel Hill to have breakfast with Andrea, her mother, aunt and sister. The four drove across the country together and arrived Sunday. We left at 6:55 and arrived at the Holiday Inn at 7:35. It was a nice morning. At home I worked on moving logs, tried to start the mower but no luck. Bought a new spark plug but still no luck. Slept most of the evening today. Dinner was a chicken voila type of stir fry. Entry: Jan 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- I did the Krogers run and then finished moving the last of the firewood pile. Tried messing with the mower again - looked at the spark - it was excellent. Went inside and worked on the 485 network some more. Dinner was cereal and fruit then off to sculpting. Traffic was at a standstill on 1 and 64 around the Cary Pkwy then it was clear sailing. Mike is our model - standing pose holding his jeans on one leg.I enjoyed the evening, however I wasted a lot of time getting my model to stand upright. Entry: Jan 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Another 70 degree day. Addded lots of gas to the carburetor on the mower and got the thing started. Mowed a path to both wood piles to make it easy for the wheelbarrow. Took the string trimmer and chain saw up to the septic field and cleared 80% of the saplings before getting tired. Have to bring a shovel up to the top of the hill to find distribution box so I will know what needs further attention. Dinner was turkey burgers and veggies. Entry: Jan 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 3----------------------- This afternoon we went to the Matisse -Picasso at 2 PM and stayed until 4. I loved it - after a slow walk through enjoying the paintings I took another walk through looking at the highlights, especially the Matisse sculptures. We went home and Lib made reservations for dinner at Lucky32 for 6:30. I had blackened catfish and Lib had chicken with spinach in a cream sauce. We had a bottle of Woodbridge Chardonnay with dinner. Prior to dinner we put together Lynns album. Entry: Jan 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- It rained all night long last night as a cold front moved in. Today is our last warm day before winter returns. Dinner was barbecued chicken and veggies. Entry: Jan 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- I feel a cold coming on. Moved a bunch of wood off the septic field. This is as far as I'm going to take it until it leafs out in the spring. Sarted working on some of the log pile from the Hurricane Fran tree. Going to move it out of view and clean the area a little. Lynn came over to pick up her album and left her selections for the next album as well as a few extra pictures. When Lynn left I picked up some ribs in Krogers which we had with Shiraz and carrots and lima beans. Entry: Jan 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- I am misierable today with the sniffles and a full blown cold. Worked some more outdoors - it was very soggy but I got several wheelbarrows of logs moved to the back. Also did a few more saplings on the septic field - not sure how far the field goes so I cleaned it up a little wider. Also widened the path going up the hill. Went to Krogers and got some nose drops and also Sudafed. Watched the red carpet with Joan and melissa on the TV Guide channel which we didn't know we had. Entry: Jan 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did a little more outdoor work - finished moving the old Fran woodpile. it needs a tilling. Lib and i went to Krogers and picked out inedients for a veggie soup with a turkey pot pie soup base. It was great and just what I needed for my cold. Entry: Jan 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on pictures this morning then went to krogers for the grocery run. Stepped outside with hot chocolate at noon but it was extremely cold- only 28 degrees. i decided not to do anymore yard work today. We had the turkey soup again for dinner. Because of my cold I chose not to go to sculpting this evening. Entry: Jan 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- What a crazy day!!! I was doing genealogy updates this morning when Jennifer called about snow and if Wake County schools were still running. I looked out and was surprised by a snowfall covering everything. Wake county was gridlocked today on less than 1 inch of snow. I used the leaf blower and cleaned the sidewalks and steps off. Finally got Windows to install correctly on the new Manon C drive mounted in a removable tray. Now the job begins of moving the applications. My cold is ----------------------- Page 4----------------------- significantly better today - almost all signs of it are gone. Dinner was the chili we were going to have on Friday - Libbie made it this evening instead. Entry: Jan 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- The roads look pretty clear today after yesterdays surprise storm. Went to krogers for ingredients to make some more chili. Then i went into the woods in the back and took a few wheelbarrows of logs to the log pile. It's really starting to look good. We're supposed to get more snow tonight - we had chili for dinner then i went back to Krogers at 7 PM to get the meat for the chili I forgot. Topped off my gas tank and came home. Continued to update my computer - everything is coming along OK in the installs for the new hard drive. Entry: Jan 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- Well it didn't snow last night like it was supposed to. Had a rough night - Lib is breathing badly and we kept waking. Bill called from the VA border - he wants us to check on a return flight tonight because of the storm tomorrow. Lib worked with United and got him on an 8 PM flight tonight. We left home around 5:15 and drove to the airport - met Bill in terminal C then walked to his flight in Terminal A. Sat there and chatted for a while then left when it was time for his plane. Got home and had Chili with yogurt for desert. They say tomorrows storm will start as freezing rain then change to all rain. Entry: Jan 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Outside this morning I helped Lib put suet in the feeder then watched the birds for a while. Lib went to the greenhouse - rain is supposed to start at 10. It didn't really rain until 5 today. Had a couple sign up for bridal portraits on their wedding day of Feb 19. They don't want wedding coverage. Too bad since they are an attractive couple. Listened to Aida from the Met at other times when the couple wasn't here. Entry: Jan 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- A fairly nice day - we missed the storm that walloped the Northeast with 2 feet of snow. Went with Lib to the greenhouse and covered up the shutter inhouse 4 then noticed 3 and 4 were not inflated. Cleared the screen and came back later but still no inflation in 4. Decided to replace the 4 inch vent tubes inflating the houses. Bought a fireplace screen in Lowes on clearance but they didn't have tubing. Bought a 25 foot rule of aluminum flexi tube in Ace hardware and got house 4 fixed. Will come back for house 3. Dinner was a very nice Libbie pizza. Watched a tribute to Johnny Carson who died today. Entry: Jan 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on AVR programming in the morning then went to the credit union and Walmart. Got a pocket inverter for my mp3 on the trip this week. Went to the greenhouse and replaced the house 3 inflation tube with an aluminum one. It's a pretty nice sunny day. At home I worked on the 3 8x10's for Lynn and David while Lib worked on cutting quilts on the floor downstairs. Dinner was salmon with butternut squash. ----------------------- Page 5----------------------- Entry: Jan 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished up 3 more 8x10's this morning then worked on 485 LAN for the AVR. Around noon I did the Krogers thing then went over to Target to get some Einstein bagels for Wed and Thurs. Checked on the greenhouse spotlight and it seems to be working OK. Was planning to replace it if it was acting up. Mowed in the woods a little this afternoon making a pathway to the back. Moved a few twigs and sticks for 15 minutes or so. Left for sculpting at 6 - later than usual but lucjily the road was not jammed up. Had a turkey burger and veggies before leafving at 6. Cut the blue foam board for my clay to keep it from sagging - was very happy with how this stabilized the piece. I was able to work the details and get the outline correct without too much trouble. In all I'm satisfied with the progress I'm making. On the way back noticed that one lane was closed on route 1 north as the widening project progresses. Late in the evening I got the IAR compiler to produce output that AVR Studio 4 was able to recognize for source code debugging. Entry: Jan 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did not drive to Fl today - Libbie called from the greenhouse saying that tthe spotlight was stuck on. Took a look at adjusting it then went to Lowes and finally Home Depot to get a replacement. The new one has a 10 year warranty. I'm going to keep the warranty and sales slip this time. Libbie and i went to Target and picked up a stainless steel thermos for the trip. Dinner tonight was salad and chicken. Entry: Jan 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- Libbie made coffee and I had a bagel at home. Pourd the coffee into the new thermos. Left home at 7:04 - a light mist started falling on 1010 and continued down I-95 until around Fayetteville. The wipers on the Sable are in bad shape. Also had trouble with the tape player - it kept switching to FM scanning mode - later figured out that when the MP3 player hit a silent passage it would do this. Stopped in Florence for a biscuit and coffee - my thermos of coffee did a nice job of keeping me in caffeine - it kept it hot a long time. After Florence I put the audiobook Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen into the player - excellent!! I really got into this book - when I arrived in Sarasota it was hard to put it down. On the way down traffic was fairly light and the trip was uneventful. I had a salad at Wendys in Starke. Bought gas at exit 7 in Georgia beforehand to take advantage of the cheap prices. This lasted me the rest of the trip. After settling into Island Reef I went out to Publix and picked up coffee, bagels, OJ and a healthy choice dinner. Thurs Jan 27 Left home at 7:04 - a light mist started falling on 1010 and continued down I-95 until around Fayetteville. The wipers on the Sable are in bad shape. Also had trouble with the tape player - it kept switching to FM scanning mode - later figured out that when the MP3 player hit a silent passage it would do this. Stopped in Florence for a biscuit and coffee - my thermos of coffee did a nice job of keeping me in caffeine - it kept it hot ----------------------- Page 6----------------------- a long time. After Florence I put the audiobook Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen into the player - excellent!! I really got into this book - when I arrived in Sarasota it was hard to put it down. On the way down traffic was fairly light and the trip was uneventful. I had a salad at Wendys in Starke. Bought gas at exit 7 in Georgia beforehand to take advantage of the cheap prices. This lasted me the rest of the trip. After settling into Island Reef I went out to Publix and picked up coffee, bagels, OJ and a healthy choice dinner Entry: Jan 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- Washed the Lanai floor and took a look at the screen. The top part of the frame which was attached to the corrugated aluminum is twisted beyond repair. Went to Ace then sears to buy a 1/4 inch drive socket handle to remove the aluminum. Also bought a belt in Sears for $20 - I got tired of my pants falling down all the time. Had a Navel Orange for lunch and left at 12:30 for the airport - stopped in Bradenton at the Hess on hwy 70 for gass. Put 10 gallons in the made it to the airport at 2. Looked at some art then browsed a bookstore and checked the arirval monitor. Found the Providence flight was a half hour early. Checked the tram and also went down 5 flights to the baggage area looking for George and Mary. Did this three times before finding them in baggage. Left the airport at 2:45 - short term parking is 1.25 per half hour, we paid 2.50. Arrived at the condo at 4:00. Went to Turtles for an early dinner at 4:30 then did the publix. We left Turtles at 5:20. Tried calling Lib a few times but she wasn't home - finally got a hold of her at around 7. Fri Jan 28 Washed the Lanai floor and took a look at the screen. The top part of the frame which was attached to the corrugated aluminum is twisted beyond repair. Went to Ace then sears to buy a 1/4 inch drive socket handle to remove the aluminum. Also bought a belt in Sears for $20 - I got tired of my pants falling down all the time. Had a Navel Orange for lunch and left at 12:30 for the airport - stopped in Bradenton at the Hess on hwy 70 for gass. Put 10 gallons in the made it to the airport at 2. Looked at some art then browsed a bookstore and checked the arirval monitor. Found the Providence flight was a half hour early. Checked the tram and also went down 5 flights to the baggage area looking for George and Mary. Did this three times before finding them in baggage. Left the airport at 2:45 - short term parking is 1.25 per half hour, we paid 2.50. Arrived at the condo at 4:00. Went to Turtles for an early dinner at 4:30 then did the publix. We left Turtles at 5:20. Tried calling Lib a few times but she wasn't home - finally got a hold of her at around 7. Entry: Jan 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- Woke up at 6 and took a quick shower then made coffee and toasted my bagel. Worked a little on the computer in the early hours. They are predicting a major ice storm for Raleigh this afternoon. I am unfortunately flying into it this afternoon. Talked with Lib a little then took the corrugated metal down ----------------------- Page 7----------------------- above the missing screen. Lib will deal with the screen company on Tuesday. It's 9:30 and I'm pretty much set for the trip. Took a short walk to the end of the Island before driving to the airport. Left at 11:15 and got to the airport parking garage around 12:30. Traffic was not bad - it was a beautiful day with a little bit of breeze and partly cloudy. The airport was empty - lots of short term parking. I put the car right near the elevator flor Lib. Spent the time reading the book "I am Charlotte Simmons" then stood up to get online for my flight when I Lib came over from her flight that landed early. We chatted for a few minutes before I had to board. The flight was mostly OK with a few rough spots ascending and descending. It was cold and raining at the airport. The ice storm never came only cold rain which was very good. Stopped in the library on the way home and took out Skinny Dip which I started listening to on the drive down to Tampa. Also went over to Target and got some bagels and ground coffee. Tried to rent a video at Hollywood but they were closed so went to Blockbuster and got the door in the Floor. I liked it. Dinner was a mixture of raspberry tarts, an Orange and cereal. Not very nutritional. I read some before bed. Woke with a cramp in my foot so put my socks on. Sat Jan 29 Woke up at 6 and took a quick shower then made coffee and toasted my bagel. Worked a little on the computer in the early hours. They are predicting a major ice storm for Raleigh this afternoon. I am unfortunately flying into it this afternoon. Talked with Lib a little then took the corrugated metal down above the missing screen. Lib will deal with the screen company on Tuesday. It's 9:30 and I'm pretty much set for the trip. Entry: Jan 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Woke up at 5:30 this morning and took a shower then made the coffee and walked out in the dark to get the paper at 6 am. The driveway was wet but not icy, however when a sliht breeze blew I could hear the trees crackling with their ice encrusted pine needles. We had a very slight glaze, not a major icing. The temp was 33 at 6 AM - it's going to warm into the 40's today. Entry: Feb 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did not do the Krogers run - Lib is away so determined didn't need anything. Left for sculpting at almost 6 - had a pretty nice time of it. My figure is coming along OK - Jim suggested that I widen the upper body somewhat so I took the arms off and added to the shoulders. This should have been the last night but I feel that 2 more nights are required. Entry: Feb 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Hollywood video and rented In the cut and Garden state. Watched Garden state - a surprisingly good film. I liked the Natalie Portman character. Joim called that the bust was ready so I went to Litmus at 5:00 in the afternoon and picked it up. I really like the thing. Wanted to do this now in cse it snows tomorrow. Dinner was mushroom soup and veggies. Entry: Feb 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 8----------------------- We're supposed to have an ice storm today but it looks like all rain. Went over to the greenhouse with Dan in the rain and spent the time in the back bay sanding the bust. Around 12:20 I helped Jennifer sleeve violets for Linda's club sale they will pick up tomorrow. Watched Meg Ryan in the "In the Cut" Movie. It was a little different, universally bad, but I liked it. It was a little edgy and raw. Meg in the buff was great. Later I wqtched the romantic movie "Before sunset". Dinner was veggies and a veggie burger. I also made popcorn. Went to bed at midnight. Entry: Feb 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- A beautiful day after the yucky one we had yesterday. Went to the bank in the morning them returned home and finished up the Morgan flush album Got a call from Jennifer that she had money that needed depositing so I went to the greenhouse and then the credit union. Stopped at Tuesday morning on the way home and got coasters. Dinner was fried chicken and chocolate ice cream. This wasn't a smart choice but it was what I wanted to do. Entry: Feb 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Got up early and did some laundry, ran over to the greenhouse to take in an orchid from a customer who called. Lib called from the Tampa airport at 1:30 just before todays opera - Peleas and Melisande. Left at 3:45 for the airport and received Lib's call just as I was approaching Terminal A. Very good timing. Her plane was a few minutes early - it was to arrive at 4:10. She called me from the front of the terminal at 4:07. We stopped in Krogers and picked up ribs and wine for dinner on the way home. Entry: Feb 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Rough sleelping with Lib back last night - she snored pretty loud. My bust of Dan is ready for apinting after a quick touchup sanding today. Lib came from the greenhouse at noon and went with me to Ace to get some Krylon spray. Put two coats of paint on then Jim and Marjan came over at 4:15 and stayed fro 2 hours picking out pictures. We had Libbies homemade pizza and watched the Paul McCartney half time show during the silly bowl. I then went upstaurs to read but fell asleep. Entry: Feb 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I looked at the Fred 6 schematic for use on Tilly. Will initially debig the thing using an RS232 connection then will wire it to a 485 net. Entry: Feb 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished washing the last of the porch windows today. I found out on sunday that what works best is a combination fo vinegar and water and the widnow brush on a pole. I use a rubber squeege that I bought years ago in Ace to finish the window. They really sparkle. I was so motivated that I also did the downstairs windows outside in the front of the house. Have been communicating with someone named Brittani at UNC-CH about TFP for this week. ----------------------- Page 9----------------------- Entry: Feb 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Stayed inside most of the day. Put together some pictures for Lynne to choose from for her mothers album then started setting up Photoshop for the new hard drive. Have most of the actions loaded. It's a drizzly day but warm - I need to get on the roof to clean the skylights. Power was out at Island Reef in the afternoon then all evening. 16 units are out - it looks like a transformer problem. Dinner was pork chops and squash. Anne Nichols called this afternoon about doing a new introduction program - we decided to do this on DVD so I have been ocmmunicating with Marjorie about getting some of the Hortense hybrids. Researched Avid miticide in the afternoon. Entry: Feb 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on labeling Russian violets - we had three violet photo sessions so far this year and have not had anything labeled in the ACDC program. Got the GreatViolets program updated so that it reports each of the gesneriad types. Lynne came over late this evening and picked up her pictures. She will have her mother decide on which to remove from the mothers album which has too many pictures. Lib wanted me to bring 6 oranges and my Dan sculpture over to the greenhouse so nancy could see it. the oranges were also for her. Dinner was chicken soup with lots of veggies. I rented the Notebook this afternoon as well as "Shall We Dance". Entry: Feb 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked most of the day updating the violet database and working on the rest of the pictures we had taken in Jan and Feb. This is mostly the Russian pictures. Did a Sams trip where we had lunch at NY Pizza. Dinner was salmon and veggies. Tried to watch "The Notebook" but our DVD player is broken. This is a surprise since Toshiba is supposed to be a good brand. Late night I started adding a report function to the violet database that will report missing pictures or missing descriptions. Also looked at First Class and discovered that the raw data seems to be in the clear. It should be easy to merge this stuff into Great Violets. Entry: Feb 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- After Lib left for the greenhouse I moved the cars out and cleaned the garage then set it up with the lights. Brittani arrived her with mother Karen and sister Bailey a little after 11. They got lost. We started shooting jeans and a green top then switched to a black club dress which we also did on the piano. Next was her black bikini and then the business suit. They left around 3:30. I had fun, hopefully we got some good pictures. Listened to the rest of Marriage of Figaro sitting in my chair - Libbie said I dosed off but I don't think so. Dinner was chicken fingers on buns with veggies. Entry: Feb 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- After the paper this morning started working on the First Class interface program. Went on the roof in the PM and washed the skylights with the water & vinegar combo. it's supposed to rain tomorrow with rain starting tonight. We took another batch of violet pictures which I added to my database and processed with the Avatar program. it's now ready to go into "Great Violets". Two ladies came over from Surry this evening to sign the petition to stop the Seagrove zoning. Libbie made the traditional pizza. This afternoon I went to Target for bagels and a kitchen timer. After coming home I watched ----------------------- Page 10----------------------- "Shall we Dance" by Richard Geer. I loved it!!! He's a lawyer commuting everyday and wanted something to make him happy again so he signed up for Ballroom Dance lessons without telling his family. Entry: Feb 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Valentines Day - wished Lib a happy valentine when I woke. she liked that. Worked on the great violets program - delete doesn't work and somehow we get duplicate entries. Also downloaded some of Brittanies pictures and got an album order from Michelles mother. We went to the rezoning hearing tonight - the board recommended not rezoning the property. The commissioners meet March 1 about this property. We stopped into the Chinese place next to Krogers and picked up a three meat dish - shrimp, pork and beef. Entry: Feb 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- At sculpture tonight I added the face to my work - struggled with it - at the end of the evening Jim critiqued my work. The face is too far forward - an easy fix I hope. In general, I'm happy with the way the sculpture is coming out. Sculpture started a half hour late this evening because the mdoel couldn't start on time. We stayed a hhalf hour later. We had veggies wit chicken strips sprinkled on for dinner. Did the rounds of Target, the video store and Krogers. Walked around the lake this afternoon - temp was in the seventies. Entry: Feb 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today I studied shopping carts so that I could adapt something to my photo web site. Looked at X- Cart, Zen cart, Agora and of course the current MOF carts. I want a cart that has static pages and will display cart contents with thumbnails. Entry: Feb 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on the CSS version of the BB web site. I'm really beginning to understand how CSS works now. Entry: Feb 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- I spent the whole day working on the Great Publiser program to make the new Bluebird website using CSS. Stayed up til midnight working on it. Dinner was chicken strips on buns with veggies. Entry: Feb 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning i was hoping that Lib would leave for the greenhouse but she didn't go. At 9:30 I blew out the garage and set up the lights for todays bride. Angeska, Brogdan and his godfather and her mother arrived a little after 12. We photographed osme formals of them for about an hour than did a few outside ports - it was only in the forties - then invited ourselves to their wedding. Went to the ----------------------- Page 11----------------------- Sheraton at 5 and stayed for the ceremony then took some family pictures and drove to Lucky32 for dinner. They were having a New Orleans emnu - I had the chefs special which was pasta with shrimp and scallops in a red pepper sauce. We also had a bottle of Chardonnay with dinner. Entry: Feb 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day - finished a CD for Brittani, returned the video "Ray" then tried working on taxes. My printer is ou of ink - bought black ink but that didn't help. Didn't want to go to Target yet again so I dragged the downstairs printer to my office and printed all the W-2's and the W-3 for payroll. Dinner was traditional pizza courtesy of Lib. Entry: Feb 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on getting a large bunch of Marjan's pictures doen and uploaded into WHCC. Dinner was salmon and veggies. It's another nice day. Worked also on the glmor techniques for Maxim style photos which I'll do on Brittani's photos. Entry: Feb 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Spent a lot of time today working on an MP3 server. I really like 'Edna' a lot. Now I need to get this program to output to a local MP3 player. Dinner was a bowl of veggies which I had before sculpting. At sculpture I worked on the face and the arms. Phillip brought some pretty nice spanish wine from his wine store and Adam played some Hindu chants from his CD's. Did the Krogers thing this morning and also went to Target to get ink for my printer as well as bagels and clementines. Entry: Feb 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today I worked on converting the wedding photos. Found an ordering system, EOS, that seems to work off the html generation in Breeze Browser. It's a nice day - Lib and I walked the lake at 3:30. A lot of people are out. In the evening we had turkey burgers and pork and beans then watched the reunion of one day at a time - a show we went to in LA almost 30 years ago in 1977. I created a calendar this aftenoon on Lulu and made it available for sale on their site. Entry: Feb 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- After messing around with MP3 drivers on Turandot and also reading about books and calendars on LULU I ordered a calendar for myself of the Russian Violets. Worked on all of Angelieska's proofs - I'm going to build a proof book and get one for myself. It was a cold dreary rainy day today so I didn't walk. Added my gmail address to Paypal for my lulu account. I'm thinking about making a winners of Tucson calendar for show and tell at Tucson. Will do a more creative cover but still include the image thumbnails. Dinner was chili and cornbread preceded by a horsedoeurve of mushroom and cheddar- bacon which was very good. Entry: Feb 25, 2005 ----------------------- Page 12----------------------- -------------------------------------- This was a cold but sunny day. In the morning I finished the 5x7's for Marjans order and put anorder into WHCC. I also added some pics of Brittani to the order. Started working on another calendar - this one to be called a Fiesta of Winners. In the evening we ad chili and cornbread then left at 7 for the ballet. We enjoyed the different type of dance for Carolina Ballet - the Red Clay Ramblers (with terrible sound) and the dancers doing a oe down, square dancing, logging and Virginia reel. It was a toe tapping fun evening. The first number was called lost and found and was dedicated to 9-11. Live piano music of Schumann by a pretty girl in a revealing dress accompanied dancers who danced singly and in pairs - disappearing from stage, re- appearing and floating through. A very somber and soulful performance. Entry: Feb 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- I left home for the PPNC conveniton at 8 and got at the Sheraton at around 8:20 - plenty of time to pick up my registration stuff and get to the seminar. The seminar was not as advertised but it was worthwhile - Doug Box is an excellent marketeer and invigorated speaker. I learned a thing or two about marketing photography although I won't employ all his points. I had lunch at McDonalds because I was hungry then went to the afternoon session which touched on photography. I may have learned about a new hairlight placement. Will try it to see how it works. Also learned that 200 mm is a good portrait lens since it blurs the background. Stopped by target on the way home and got bagels for breakfast. After the Doug Box seminar I attended the newcomers orientation which was pizza and soda and then an intro of all the staff of PPNC. Entry: Feb 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- No convention today. I did some catch up on the Bluebird stuff this morning then we left at 2 for the performance of "Blue". The play was great - the fire alarm went off during the third act. We had to evacuate the theater - it turned out a little girl pulled the alarm. They restarted the the scene of the third act again. We left thoroughly enjoying the play. Libbie made a traditional pizza then we watched the Oscars until the end at around 11:30. Entry: Feb 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- Left home at 7:13 for an 8:00 class with Jeff Hawkins. Jeff is a photographer in Orlando and had a lot of good hints about marketing, websites, picture sales, weddings, etc. I learned a lot and got invigorated to work on the Monet business. In the evening Lib made pork chops for dinner which we had with squash. Entry: Mar 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today is "A Day with Monte". I left home at 7:30 - traffic was not bad getting to RTP. There was some slowness through Morissville but I got to the Sheraton at 8. Monte was out in the hallway when I got ----------------------- Page 13----------------------- there. The seminar was good - I learned some touchup. Monte's great grandchild showed up and it was a photo op of course. Met Karen Patterson, Brittani's Mom, at the conference. I didin't recognize her at first. I had lunch at Wendy's - it was very crowded and hard to even get into the parking lot. Monte did not disappoint - I brushed up on a few posing concepts. I noticed he really takes his time and does a lot of fine adjusting in the viewfinder. When I got home Lib told me that sculpting would be a half hour earlier. I had a quick sandwich and ran out the door with my apron and tools. Did not finish my sculpture - will have to pick it up and finish it at home later. Entry: Mar 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- The rest of my 5x7's came today. There was another seminar this mroning at PPNC but I chose to stay home and catch up. Worked a lot of the day on the VB program that publishes Bluebird web pages. Also spent some time scanning material into the "MyWebPages" directory on my PC. This collection is sorely lacking. We went to Sams in the late afternoon - our dinner was a Sams roast chicken with veggies. Tried calling Anne Nicholas about AVSA registration but no luck. Entry: Mar 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked more on the Vb program, looked at the tax work to be done then Lib and I went to Sams for groceries. Picked up a sams chicken for dinner. Entry: Mar 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today is First Friday. Worked on the Bluebird VB program some more. In the evening we went to First Friday. Started at Visual Art Space and had some wine. We parked in front of Exploris near the corner which was lucky. After Visual arts we walked around Artspace and visited with the artist who paints the flowers. Our dinner was for 8:30 at Cafe Luna but we arrived early at 8:15. We had a nice seat in the corner next to the window. At the next table was Robert Weiss of Carolina Ballet. We both had the 4 cheese pasta with pears. Very nice. At home we had orange scream from Krogers that I purchased earlier in the day. Entry: Mar 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day. This morning at 10 I met with Agnieszka and Bogdan and went over their proofs. They ordered an Art Leather album. I worked on Agnieszka's album to get it ready for submitting this weekend. Also did a little work on the Bluebird web page and also researched income stocks (what else is new). Dinner was salmon and veggies but we didn't have wine. Entry: Mar 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished up Agnieszka's album today. At around noon I cleared a spot in front of the potential bluebird house. After Lib came home from a Bluebird lecture we went to Lowes and got a pipe to mount her feeder for worms. It's a nice day around 60. Dinner was traditional pizza. ----------------------- Page 14----------------------- Entry: Mar 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Ordered Agnieszka's album fom Art Leather this morning. Entry: Mar 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Jaymie showed up this afternoon at 5 to discuss her wedding. She's a pretty nice girl - a black dance teacher. She indicated she wanted to sign with us. After a quick dinner of veggies in soup I went to Litmus to show off my violet calendar and to pick up my sculpture. Entry: Mar 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on another birdhouse today - this time back by the creek. Need to move the wood pile in front of it to the back. Bought some CGPt at 25.20 because the dividend is paid this month. In the past it held up after the dividend was paid. Went over to the greenhouse and cut down the Pampas grass. Dinner was barbecue chicken with veggies. Entry: Mar 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- We got a bad news tax bill today - they want $4500 whcih is the last 3 years taxes on Jessie Drive. Worked some more on the Bluebird web pages. Dinner was ribs with veggies and Ravenwood Zinfindel Entry: Mar 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- After reading the paper this morning I went outside and moved logs around the second bluebird house. I really tired myself out doing this. It was pretty muddy back there but I moved logs, used the blade on the string trimmer and cut small brush down and dragged handfuls of stuff to the back. We watched the bluebirds for a while then I had to go to Lowes to get a fill valve for our bathroom. Also pcked up some bagels at Target next door. Met Betty Evans outside of Target. Libbie made her yummy pizza - she chilled the dough beforehand which made it crisper. I went online and purchased the EOS template software for Monet. Entry: Mar 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- LEft this morning at 9:10 for a 9:20 dental appointment at the new Dr Beavers office. They were just moving the furniture in. The hygienist was not in so Dr Beaver cleaned my teeth. Did the Krogers thing - dinner was turkey burgers with vidalia onion and veggies. We didn't have baked beans to go with the meal. ----------------------- Page 15----------------------- Entry: Mar 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Jaymie came over after school - she arrived at around 5 and paid cash for her deposit. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches - I added microwaved veggies to the meal. Entry: Mar 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- I had a potential bride, Shannon, come over this afternoon to look at my portfolio. She left positive but didn't sign anything. She said she would let me know in a few days. Went ot the credit union in the PM and deposited the wedding money from yesterday. Lib and I also went to BEst Buy looking for ink carts and also to Joanns where we ordered another Ott light. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches and baked beans. The bluebirds have been building a nest all week. Entry: Mar 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- I spent most of today debugging the html for the supply page, In the morning David Morgan called and wanted to come over to pick up Ruth aldridges book. I quickly started building it and finished in about an hour. Next I set the white muslin up on the hot tub abd photogrpahed the cell pack. When Lib came hoem we went to Sams before the ballet. Dinner was tuna sandwiches then we left at 7 for Copellia. Sat next to the mother of one of the dancers from Rye, NY. Her daghter is 22 and is Claudia Schreiber in the production. It was a wonderful spectacular done by Weiss. The music was recorded due to budget constraints but the program was well danced. Entry: Mar 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- Kept working away on the Bluebrid web pages. I'm making progress at eliminating all the errors. Morgans came over shortly after 1 - picked the final prints for the flush album and paid for extra prints. Opera today was Don Carlos - it turned out to be in the 60's today but clouds moved in in the late afternoon. Dinner was barbecue chicken with veggies and Chardonnay. I read my book afterwards in the evening while we had the radio on. Today I ordered the $1600 lens from B&H. This is the 70-200 f2.8 which I'll use for things like the Bluebirds. Entry: Mar 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- started the mmorning off with the newspaper as usual but this time I used the back porch because it was almost warm enough. Today to be in the 70's. Took a walk in the woods because we have a hunting stand in the trees and yesterday we had 4 little girls curious about it until Libbie chased them off. Dropped another squirrel off and bought my first tank of $2 gas - $2.049 per gallon. Continued working on the web pages as well as getting a few pictures ready for the Morgan book. Had some of Libbie's traditional pizza - she put the dough in the freezer this time to stop it from risig then put it on the counter to get it to room temp while the overn warmed up. Entry: Mar 21, 2005 ----------------------- Page 16----------------------- -------------------------------------- Finished Skin tigth today - what a good read. I really like the Carl hiassen books! Did a lot of work on the web stuff today - spent most of the morning getting form mail to work. Now that it works I need to update the rest of the site. Updated the database with the latest pictures we took as of yesterday then uploaded the new pages for Libbie to proof. She didn't seem too interested. Dinner was chicken and Zatarains French veggies and rice. Very good. David Morgan wants some more changes - I'm tired of fixing that picture. Entry: Mar 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked some more on web stuff then went to Krogers and the library - got another Carl Hiaasen book, "Stormy Weather". At 11 Sarah and Matt came over for engagement pictures. We did them at the Apex Lake. Tried to work on web pages some more but Darren came over. He announced that he and Marissa had split - they're getting divorced. After a dinner of pork chops and veggies, Lib and I photograhed another 16 violets. Got the info from Barb Stewart about where the MAAVS convention w ill be held. Also heard back from Joyce about AVSA membership - Libbie isn't happy that Joyce said I'll be on the AVSA board. Entry: Mar 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- Started this morning off by updating the MAAVS web site which was in need of an overhaul. Added the hotel address and also a new commercial vendor. This morning FedEx Ground delivered Agnieszka's album. This is a record for Art Leather. Entry: Mar 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Another busy day. I worked on putting Gina's selections on the web then finishing up the Bluebid web site. Walked around the lake this morning with my new telephoto lens - took a few pictures of birds and stuff. Received a call from a company in Florida interested in a one wire implementation on an AVR talking to a security chip, the SHA. Dinner was turkey burgers and veggies. After dinner I did nothing - fell asleep downstairs. Entry: Mar 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished Gina's web page with her selections - worked some more on the Tucson calendar. Finally finished it - Lib and I celebrated our anniversary at Logans with a couple of crab cake sandwiches. Dinner was salmon and veggies with Merlot wine we got in Wrld Market last week. This was the one with theegret on the label. Lib watched bozo ball while I had to leave the room - went to bed. Entry: Mar 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers for an Easter ham then to home depot for annual plants for our planters.Went to the grenehosue and adjusted the fan belts and planted up the annuals I got in Home Depot. Two ----------------------- Page 17----------------------- planters, each with pansies, snapdragons and allysum. Number 2 fan won't come on - Lib said it was always slow starting. Will look into a new starting cap from Grainers. Had a May 28 groom stop by to look at my work. He left without signing. Entry: Mar 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- Easter Sunday. Read the paper on the back porch as usual for a sunday then went upstairs to do Gina's 5x7's. Need to get that order in so I can order the two missing 5x7's for Agnieszka. Finished up Gina's stuff then launched the Bluebird website. Found the text page had the Russians - Lib made some last minute changes to remove them as available then I made the text only page again. Found a few other minor problems with links that we fixed. The Feertilizer was not distinguishing between the violet food and the plant food. Changed the description. Added a description line so that the Figidy wicks come up saying "Figidy wicks". Noticed the violet care wasn't there. Will fix that tomorrow. We had a chocolate bunny and peeps wand chocolate eggs in our Easter basket. Lib made traditional pizza for dinner. 60 minutes was delayed because of bozo ball - I did another update to my "Sports Free America" blog on google. Watched a special on improving memory on CNN. The usual tricks were there as well as suggestions on eating Brocolli, fish and nuts. Entry: Mar 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- What a day. I finished Gina's 8x10's and uploaded them - next I got a call from QYX corp in Florida. They are interested in having me consult for them on an ongoing basis for 20 hours per week. It was a rainy windy day all day long so wasn't outside too much. Dinner was ham with yam, applesauce and veggies. Went to Krogers after dinner to get yogurt. Entry: Mar 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I dropped a squirrel off at the park and walked the lake with camera. Went to Krogers afterwards. It's a beautoful morn ing!!! Took a look at one wire interfacing using the AVR. Will write some code using the Atmel driver to search ROM and calc crc for one wire devices. Dinner was ham with yam and apple sauce. Afterwards Lib and I went to Joanne Fabric and picked up our Ott light then went to Home Depot and got a 6 pack of pansies for the back. It's a relatively warm evening - 60 degrees at 8 PM. Entry: Mar 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on one wire interfacing then took a lake walk with my camera. We had a racoon in the trap which I shot and buried after the lake walk. I felt bad about doing this but he was pretty nasty. Went over to bluebird with the planter and filled it up with potting soil. Lib planted geraniums then I put the pansies in at home. We took a ride downtown to pay our greenhouse property taxes - $4500 with interest and penalties. Ouch!!! We stopped at the Farmers Market and got tomato, new potatoes and yams. Dinner was ham, the new potatoes and apple sauce. Lib went to quilting and I worked on the Atmel one wire software. ----------------------- Page 18----------------------- Entry: Mar 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Cloudy day today. Went outside and took a few pieces off the old satellite dish and put them into the garbage can sinc today is garbage day. Little by little the old dish is going away. We were to go to Duke gardens today but it started raining before noon so Libbie called Andrea and we postponed toll Sunday. Took a look at the fan in house 2 - it has 2 starting caps. I only replaced one last time. Will get two new caps and try it. We went over to Blue Rain Cafe for lunch - I had grilled vegetable sandwich which was very good. It had mushroom, eggplant, grille dpepper, cheese and other stuff in a wrap. I had it with potato salad. Libbie had a split bean ham soup and wheat toast. Called QYX today - Murf is busy at a conference in Naples trying to sell his product. Will get a conference call later today. Entry: Apr 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Ordered the starting cap from Graingers this morning. Studied web hosting from GoDaddy as a replacment for Superb. Got the one wire stuff done in my tilly program. When Lib came home I made a call to QYX and got Murf. after an hour or two we got an understanding and I'll start working for them on firmware. Lib and I went in the rain to Graingers and picked up the cap. They tested my old one and proclaimed it good. Bought the new one anyway. Traffic getting out of there was terrible. We drove to Smithfiels looking for the outlet store - went the wrong way on I-95 and had to go North. Lots of campers and snowbirds migrating North because it was Apr 1. Found Reebok at Exit 95 and bought 4 pairs of sneakers. I got a new pair of sneakers and a black pair. We stopped at Smithfield babecue on 1010 and 401 for dinner. I had a small platter with iced tea. Picked up the worms at the greenhouse late at night - it was dark when we repackaged them on the back porch. I took pictures of htis. Got going somewhat on QYX stuff after a few calls to Mark. Was able to log in and get a secure transfer. Went to bed after watching the vigil for the pope on CNN and other channels. Entry: Apr 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Lots of eMails this morning about QYX administrivia. Did not get WinCVS going but I got the code to compile with IAR and simulate OK. It's been a crappy day - we ended up with a lot of hail in the mid- afternoon. Took some pictures this afternoon of violets. Dinner was bean soup and corn bread. Because of the wind, after dinner we went to the greenhouse to check the plastic covering the cool cells. Entry: Apr 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Read the paper a little in the morning then sat down to document the QYXie ports. Next I built some 8x10's of the Russian violets for Lib. Will upload that to WHCC for printing. Went over to Duke in the afternoon - it's a glorious day for the gardens but a little windy. Have to go back when some more stuff is open. Got gas on 55 next to the old OT's for 2.19 per gallon - wow. $28 to fill up the Taurus. ----------------------- Page 19----------------------- Entry: Apr 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- Lots of messages flying back and forth with QYXie. The greenhouse calendars came - very nice, although I'm a little disappointed about the "Fiesta of Winners" calendar. Setup Magic on my other computer and eventually got it running after dowloading the java SDK from SUN. Went to Best Buy and got a keychain flash as well as a USB to serial adapter for my laptop. Entry: Apr 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did Krogers, the credit union and dropped off a squirrel today in the industrial park. Worked on documenting the QYXie code - it's in bad shape. The QYXie came today - soldered the ISP and JTAG connectors and got it working with my SK500 eventually. The STK500 is on Com2. Dinner was turkey burgers and veggies. Entry: Apr 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- I located my null modem and hooked it to the laptop and got the usb to serial adapter running. Turned out I didn't need the null modem, just the correct cable which I dug up in the shop. Studied the code some more and printed out the problems for reference. Caught two squirrels today - released one near the greenhouse and stopped in to see Jennifer and Lib. Gave Jennifer the list of plants without flower pictures. Lib came home and we went to NY Pizza for lunch then Sams. Afterwards I worked more on understanding the QYXie code. For dinner we had chicken tenders with veggies. After dinner I lay on the floor of the family room and wrote the routine to allow esc to terminate login on QYXie. Heard from Bill at midnight regarding the homeowners insurance. Entry: Apr 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- It's a pretty cloudy day out - not a good day for a wlak. Got the Esc routine to clear the login and actually burned it into the QYXie. Dinner was turkey burgers and veggies. Entry: Apr 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- A very successful day. I did well with QYX solving a number of problems and understanding the keyboard and display much more. It's a drizzly cloudy day today. Went to the greenhouse with a squirrel then put the new starting cap in the fan 2 motor. Success - it worked. The Grainger guy said my old cap was good but obviously it was bad. Called Vicki for her 55th birthday today. Dinner was salmon, yams, veggies and chardonnay. We debated this since I wanted to do more QYXie stuff. Fell asleep after dinner but awoke around 10 and watched some highlights from the popes funeral then worked some more on QYXie until 12:30 Entry: Apr 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 20----------------------- This morning I'm working on the memory routine. Having trouble getting memory written and compared. The opera was Tosca this afternoon - we turned it on late. In addition, WCPE is doing fund raising instead of the normal intermission features. Dinner this evening was leftover bean soup - it was very good and the last of the soup. Entry: Apr 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Short day today. Helped Lib with the back porch by vacuuming around the edges with the shop vac. I also blew off the driveway and the garage. Pollen dust is on everything. The ram test is still not working today. Will use the read and write routines built into the QYX program next to get this to work. We left at 6 after some tuna sandwiches. We got good on street parking on our favorite side street. "Smokey Joe's Cafe" was very loud and not very satisfying - it was almost a waste of time especially with all we have to do. Entry: Apr 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- I worked upstairs while Lib vacuumed the downstairs. George and Mary arrived around 3 after spending the night in Brunswick. We had salmon with new potatoes and green beans for dinner. They decided to watch moron ball which was good because I went upstairs to try the memory testing some more. Found that the built in read and write routines work OK but can't read/write directly. Entry: Apr 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today we got off to a slow start - didn't get up until 7 AM. I started right away getting the RAM test underway. Also ran around charging batteries for the shoot today. Today is a short day - photo shoot with Sarah this afternoon at her Mom's lake Anne house. Tuna sandwiches for lunch then went to the house under cloudy skies - it was threatening rain and it also was very cold. Took the pictures - the house on the lake is very nice - the weather could have been better - at least the rain held off until later. Came home and finished up the RAM test then loaded it up to QXY. Dinner was turkey burgers with baked beans and salad. Entry: Apr 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- Surprisingly, George and Mary got up early and got going early. It's cold today and it's also lightly raining. I got the QYXie display working correctly when it retrieves test questions now. Dinner was Pasta that Lib picked up in the grocery store today. Entry: Apr 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- I reported almost all bugs eliminated on QYXie yesterday and this morning they sent a philosophy of what the next step should be. They want robust communications and quicker firmware downloads. Went over to Target today and bought pleated front khaki pants and then Office Max for a stapler. ----------------------- Page 21----------------------- Worked the rest of the afternoon understanding how QYXie retrieves test questions over the IR link. Dinner was chicken Gumbo - Zatarains gumbo mix and some grilled chicken mixed in. Very nice. Prepared some status for Murf today. Entry: Apr 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- It was a stressful day. I was trying to get things working for QYXie and Lib called that the wind was taking the roof off the greenhouse shed. I had to go on the roof and put some more roofing nails into the tin - they worked themselves loose. We finally left at around 2 PM. It was very windy - got gas for 2.13 outside of EMporia on Hwy 58 then rode along uneventfully. The Chesapeake bridge was very very windy and huge waves were spraying water across the road surface. We had dinner in Pomocoke in Virginia at Dons. We each had crab cakes on a bun with chips. Arrived at Seatime at approx 9 PM. Libbie talked to Sue on the cellphone after we crossed the Chesapeake Bay. We thought we were almost there - it was another 100 miles. Took route 113 which was an excellent choice. No traffic at night - we sailed right along. At the condo it was extremeley cold - 43 degrees and incredibly windy. Entry: Apr 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Lib and I got up at 6:15 as usual - had a shower and went out looking for a Starbucks. Ended up at McDonalds and had breakfast. By then everyone was starting to get up at Seatime. The condons are not very early risers. Lunch was a very nice ham that Sue had. We also had too much Australian Shiraz and Cabernet blend. Lots of visiting and catching up with everyone. Holly and Darryl didn't make it - Darryl has some kind of urinary problem. For dinner we had ribs, baked potatoes, salad and the wine agian with a very delicious butter pecan ice cream for desert. Took pictures, walked on the beach with Mary in the daytime. In the evening after dinner we went out with Bill and Mary and walked down the trailer park to the sound. The trailers are selling for 500,000!!! Libbie picked up a brochure from one that was for sale. Entry: Apr 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning we got up and went to 7/11 - it's a lot less windy and a little warmer today. After breakfast we got going at 10:01. It was a beautiful day for a drive back along the Eastern shore. Enjoyed the Chesapeake, had ham sandwiches in the car around Norfolk. We got home at 4 PM after seeing an incredible traffic backup at Knightdale. It was nice getting home - turning into Buckingham was like a tropical oasis. Everything was green or else in bloom - azaleas, dogwoods, leaves on the trees and green grass. In the evening we did a takeout pizza from J&S on Hwy55 next to Ace hardware. It was a thin crust hand tossed NY pizza. Pretty good. The baby Bluebirds hatched while we were away - there are 4 of them out of 5 eggs. Entry: Apr 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did some catching up on the weekend with QYXie and also tried to get terminal software hooked up ----------------------- Page 22----------------------- to the transceiver. No luck. Enjoyed the bluebirds today - we have 4 babies. In the PM I did the conversion of Sarah's bridal pix and posted them on the web site. Dinner was salmon and veggies that we had on the back porch. Getting everything together for our trip tomorrow. Entry: Apr 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- Lots of communications with the QYXie guys this morning over data links and MAGIC vs a VB program. I got the program and also reflashed my transceiver - I don't see packets flowing like I expected to. Started packing for our trip - also caught another squirrel today. That's number 22. Entry: Apr 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- We got up at 8 AM to a dusting of snow outside our room. We warmed the car, dusted the snow and drove to McDonalds for breakfast. Met Laurene there who was having breakfast before their journey back. We drove to the hotel and loaded the car then were on the road at 9:10 AM. It was snowing outside all the way to Lexington - we chose to go South on I-75 instead of East through Ohio because of the chance of snow. Stopped for lunch in Canton NC after looking around Clyde for a restaurant. Lib took over and drove us to a gas stop a few hours down the road. I got us home - we arrived around 6:30 PM. Picked up a Pizza at Paradise pizza on 1010 and also unloaded the car at the greenhouse. We got home at 7:15 with pizza in hand and the car unloded. Entry: Apr 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- First day back was busy - lots of QYXie catchup to do. Lib lost her charge card printouts - spent all day looking for them which were put away when George and Mary came through last week. We didn't have much in the kitchen but Lib made turkey burgers whcih we had with baed beans. Entry: Apr 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers today - received a few calls while I was out from Gina and Jaymie. Ordered a tissue culture kit today and read about tissue culture on the web. Lots of good stuff!!! It's a rainy cloudy day - dinner was chicken tenders on buns with baked beans. In the evening we went to Krogers to get plastic bags then to Target for Inkjet carts. Looked at HEPA fans in Target. Entry: Apr 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- I was involved in a conference call with the QYX guys about their next generation QYXie. Tried some data link experiments in the hallway with little luck - I always got good packets. Dinner was chicken jambalaya using the French market mix of zatarains. ----------------------- Page 23----------------------- Entry: Apr 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- A very busy day. I walked the lake for the first time in a long time. The tissue culture kit arrived - I watched the DVD twice - once alone and once with Lib. It's pretty nice. Went to Lowes and Target to size up materials for a hood. Bought a HEPA air purifier in Target. Need to do the rest of the design. Photographed birds on the feeder in the sunlight in the PM then back to work. Gina picked up her album at 6:15 while we were having dinner. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with veggies. Entry: Apr 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- I did QYX stuff in the morning trying to understand the tx/rx spaghetti then contacted Brian at Atmel to get status of new Atmega chip. Murf called wanting this stuff. In the PM went to Lowes and bought wood for the laminar hood and also mailed Sarah's pictures. Dinner was Chinese and wine. After dinner we went over to the the gh to see if the labels arrived - they did, shipped from Miami. Lib also wanted to Smoke hte place. During the afternoon I took pictureso of a grackle that arrived on the front feeder. Entry: Apr 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Printed labels this morning hen drove another squirrel to the park by Bluebird nefore stopping into Krogers for hot dogs and buns for lunch. Entry: May 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on the Rx routine - will probably have to hook up the Jtag Ice to determine what's going on. Worked on my bill for QYX for the last two weeks of last month - still haven't been paid for the first two weeks. We walked the lake today after I returned the air cleaner to Target. will get some HEPA filters instead and build a cabinet for a fan integral with the laminar hood. We picked up a plastic box for use as a tissue culture box in Target. Entry: May 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- I spent the day working on the new receive routine for QYXie. Got out around 3 to walk around the lake. Dinner was voila with extra peas added. Entry: May 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today was pretty frustrating - I got the ICE hooked up and tried all day to debug the improved receive routine that I wrote. Visited the new credit union with Bills check. Took a walk with Lib in the afternoon around the lake around 4 PM. Went back to getting the receive routine working. At 7 we ----------------------- Page 24----------------------- went to town hall for the rezoning hearing - the Seagroves rezoning was approved. We didn't get home until 11:30. Dinner was pork barbecue on buns before we left for the meeting. Entry: May 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I did more tracing of QYXie - am finally understanding how it all works but my new receive routine is still not working. April came over at 6:30 to drop off her deposit and pick out her book. She'll be a veyr cute bride. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns. This afternoon we did a Sams trip to get supplies. Our bluebird babies left the nest today. Couldn't see them anywhere but Barry and Bernice are out carryring worms to them somewhere. Entry: May 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- It's a wet day - watched the Bluebirds for a while. Spotted a few of the babies high up in the Pin Oak tree next to the creek in the back. Dinner was chicken Jambalaya. Entry: May 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Libbie called from the grenehouse this morning - she fell and was hurt. Ran over to there - she seemed to be OK. Put some plastic p on the end wall where it tore. She fell trying to scavage plastic fpor the job. A very busy day trying to get the QYXie stuff working. Not much luck - should probably rewrite the entire receive and transmit stuff. We left at 4:15 for the rehearsal which I thought started at 5:00 but instead it really was at 5:30. Stayed awhile, got our bearings then went home via I-40. Bailed out at Harrison Ave because traffic was stopped - went down Harrison and Kildaire Farm to Lucky32. We each had a glass of Chardonnay - it was sonoma valley menu, so I had the Russian River chicken. Chicken with goat hceese and spinach. Very tasty. Our waiter was terrible - had to ask 3 times for water. There was no bread - service was slow even though the restaurant was empty. Got home around 9. Entry: May 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Charged batteries and in general got ready for Entry: May 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- A little more relaxed today -called Mom for Motheres Day. Arlene got her flowers for the front porch which we talked with Arlene about earlier this week during her birthday call. Didn't walk today because we had enough exercise yesterday. Watched the Bluebirds some more - we can see the babies flying around from tree to tree. Sent Jessica a birthday greeting eMail. Dinner was Lib's traditional pizza which was very very good. It's been a while. ----------------------- Page 25----------------------- Entry: May 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Bought some GM notes this morning - they're on a 30% off sale because the companies debt has been downgraded to junk status. Bought GMW and XGM in my individual acocunt and in the IRA account Entry: May 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- It's surprisingly cold today - we went to Lowes and bought a garden tractor for the greenhouse with 0% financing for 6 months. Lib cut the grass and I used the small mower t do trim. We're just learning how to get around with it. Dinner was chicken jambalaya and chardonnay. Watched Sideways afterwards - I didn't exactly like it. Entry: May 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhosue in the morning to tighten the seat on the new tractor and to put oil into the lawn mower. A busy day working on QYX stuff - still no IR comm. Don't know what's wrong. Took a walk in the PM around the lake with Lib. Dinner was ribs with corn on the cob and red wine. Entry: May 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I worked on Jayme's engagement pictures and posted them to the web. In the PM I installed PowerBasic and got the Magic sim program running. It doesn't seem to be polling the 232 port however - at least it doesn't seem to display polls on the screen. Shot a racoon from our bedroom window while it was thundering and lightning. At ifrst I though I missed because he climbd a tree after I shot him off the bird feeder, however he later fell out of the tree dead. Buried him behind the feeder. BEcause it was thndering we chose not to go to the theater in the park tonight although I'm sure the show went on. We both were tired and stressed out with too much work. Dinner was tuna on hoagie buns. Entry: May 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Frustrating day of QYX stuff. I ordered another 1 gig flash card for my camera from newegg. My amazon package - the body user manual book and Meistersinger. Another Amazon package also arrived - the Frnech movie :La Belle Noiuse", the the beautiful nuisance. Dinner this evening was barbecue sandwiches from Jennifers pig picking Sunday. The bluebird eggs were all gone today - we think a bird got into the box. Added hole extensions to the boxes to keep out predators. ----------------------- Page 26----------------------- Entry: May 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did the Krogers run then power walked the lake - did the loop in 30 minutes. Started doing the QYX changes line by line until something breaks. So far so good. Dinner this evening was crab cakes and veggies. Bought some more GM notes today and sold SPH. Entry: May 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- Turned in QYXie status - received a phone call almost right away about lack of progress on most fronts. Worke dlong and hard to fix the probelm - finally solved everything with static variables. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches with veggies. Entry: May 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Lots of progress today on QYXie stuff. Reworked the receive routine then started working on the hub. We left at 4 to go to ht eMatthews house for the rehearsal of April and Jason. I was tired - we didn't go out. Insta;lled the pipe next to the deck walkway before rehearsal - need concrete to cement the hole. After rehearsal we picked up a Krogers chicken with Potato Salad then to bed. Entry: May 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- A morning of charging batteries and getting ready. Entry: May 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on Monet stuff all day - downloaded Aprils pictures and worked on Sarahs proofs. In the evening I started an upload job to whcc. It took 9.5 hours to upload the proofs. Dinner was traditional pizza. Boy am I busy. Entry: May 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Sarahs proof book came - I only ordered it Monday. Will USPS it out to her in the morning. Entry: May 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Late today I got the hub software working. It was the same as the QYXie last week - too many variables in the interrupt routine. Dinner was veggies and a turkey burger with bun and tomato. I stayed busy all day working on the hub software getting it to switch gears in response to a dip switch. ----------------------- Page 27----------------------- Entry: May 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- A much happier day since things are working - tried the longer name field code today. Caught a squirrel who I took to the lake when I did a noon walk. It's much warmer today. Libbie and I did a Sams run in the PM and had pizza at NY pizza next to Sams for lunch. Entry: May 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on QYXie stuff this mroning - it doesn't work in St Pete but my version works OK. Lib made tuna sandwiches before we left. LEft for Shannons wedding in Greensboro at 2 PM. The bride was bridezilla - lots of micro managing and in general a mess. We liked the families of she and Rocky. We had some of the buffet dinner and after pics left around 10:15, arriving home at 11:30 PM. The drive was uneventuf. Entry: May 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- After some paper reading this morning I went to work on getting David's 8x10's ready for his album. Lib walked with me today around the lake. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry: May 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on getting the 5x7 pictures for Jaymie and David this morning then in the evening I worked on the phone with Mark who used the QRS remote software to debug Magic on my machine. Bought some climbing roses today from Home Depot and also planted the red grass I picked up at Walmart a few days ago. Entry: May 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Today's Tuesday but it feels like Monday since yesterday was memorial day. I forgot about old geezers day at Krogers. Got Magic running with crc-16 out through the hub and to the QYXie and return. HAd trouble getting QYXie started in the morning. Did not walk today because I was so busy. Caught squirrel number 45 this moening. Dinner was chicken on buns with veggies. I had potato chips and candy during the day but salad for lunch. Entry: Jun 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked a lot on qyx today then went to Home Depot with Lib right after lunch and got bark and annuals for the backyard. ----------------------- Page 28----------------------- Entry: Jun 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Read the paper in the monring, tried working on some QYXie stuff then went to Walmart to pick up a picture for my portfoliio and also piked up a wild looking rose and a 6 pack of MArigolds. Walmart was crowded. Entry: Jun 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- A frustrating day. Nothing is working correctly - caneled my walk because of this. High today was 95 - it was about time. Had a bride over in the evning to look at photography - Tina from Cary. Dinner was leftover ribs and rice N beans from saturday. After dinner we went to Lowes to get a new toggle switch because the one I got this afternoon at Ace was a SPDT. We need a DPDT. Also picked up bagels at Target. Entry: Jun 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- It was another hot day - high of 93. Walked the 4 miles around the lake. Also went to Home Depot and picked up some bark for the plantings and a new toggle switch for the greenhouse cooling. Replaced that this morning and also did a Krogers run. Got the qyxie and magic communicating using crc-16 finally today but the login sequence still needs help. Dinner was chicken tender sandwiches with veggies. Entry: Jun 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse in the PM and started putting the fan into house 2. Finished the job and tested it. Everything worked - will put the cross bar back tomorrow. Walked the lake with Libbie - rode back with her instead of walking back - I was dragging myself tired. Only 3 miles today. For dinner this evening we had salmon with zuchinni sliced lengthwise and garnished with tomato, onion amd psices. Entry: Jun 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- After reading the paper I went to the greenhouse and finished the fan job - had to put back the crossbar which involved bringing the come along over to the greenhouse. Jennifer was there on sunday helping Libbie. Took my walk then Libbie and I went to Office Max looking for rub a dubs, Petsmart to get some fish, Lowes to pick up a fan which we rejected then Target for bagels. Dinner was traditional pizza after which we watched a nice movie about an unmarried pair of wackos awarded custody of a child, Waylon. They changed their lifestyles to become parents. ----------------------- Page 29----------------------- Entry: Jun 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Ran over to Krogers then did a 4 mile walk aroiund the lake - 95 degrees today. Very nice. Lib had the violet club over at the greenhouse along with George McDonald and his daughter and grandsons. Dinner was a salad. Entry: Jun 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- Dinner was chicken sprinkled on a bed of lettuce. Participated in a technical discussion this morning with Murf and the QYXie crowd. Murf wants text processing prompto. Entry: Jun 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a family over for Ambers wedding this morning at 11:30. Can't really afford it - there's so many problems in QYXieland. Dinner was chicken pieces over a salad bed. Nice light dinner. Entry: Jun 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a teleconferecne this morning with Joe and Mark. I woke up early and fixed the serial number problem Mark reported last night. After the call I went to the Credit Union and Walmart - picked up a tower fan for the backporch. The pond is looking better - the water has been running 2 days solid now. We called for Pilobolus tickets at 4:15 and got them!!! Also purchased the rest of the ADF season using the WCPE 2 for 1 price. We left at 10 to 7 but got hung up on 55 construction - almost turned around and bailed out for 751 but stucj with it. Parked a distance from Page and walked up the hill. The firs piece was Aquatica - lighting and sounds were of the sea. A little girl is picking up shells and creatures come crawling in twos and threes. She joins them and climbs through and on the pack. Very realistic sea adventure appropriateley named. Next was Monkey and the White Boned demon. Fearing people living in the wilderbess and one dancer with a pole appears to slay the demon. He keeps re-appearing through the ages. Night of the Dark Moon involves a girl in heels and a dress dancing when a white silk with a red robed girl with black mask descends and swallows her up. The last piece is high energy Megawatt. A glowing rectangle and high powered rock starts the scene then the dancers crawl on their backs head first in a line across the stage before each one jumps up in a frenzy. They then go through various states of frenzy and physical acrobatics dropping each other and throwing each around. The floor seems to be a gym mat. Afterwards we stayed for the discussion then had ice cream at Goodberrys at 11 PM on Davis Drive. They stay open till 12 on weekends. Entry: Jun 18, 2005 ----------------------- Page 30----------------------- -------------------------------------- Left at 8 for Chapel hill. Waited outside the storage facility for an hour before we discovered that Nevly was inside the facility since 8. We found her at 9:30 - we had been in the car reading the newspaper since 8:40. Got lots of junk - not sure if it was worth it. Went back at 2 to finish up for another hour. Stopped at Target on the way home and got bagels and a box of Raspberries. This was my first box of Raspberries ever. Dinner was pork chops, Pinot Noir, asparagus, delicious farmers market corn. Afterwards we drove to Goodberrys for desert. I had a medium concrete - flavor of the day which was oreos and malt chocolate. Entry: Jun 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- After the paper I went right to work on getting firmware download to work. Found that by adding a reset to the packet processor I get consistently good downloads. Did the 4 mile walk early today - the pools I walk past as wel as the library were closed. We left at 2 for RLT - Carousel was the performance. This is one of my favorites with a lot of favorite music. Good stuff. It was long - we got home in a light rain jut after 6. Ordered a pizza from Mama Mia in Laura Village. Entry: Jun 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Sara's mother is not happy with the proof album she ordered. I told her I would look at alternatives. Did the 4 mile walk a little after 1 - lots of bikinis at all three pools I pass. Entry: Jun 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- We caught our 54th squirrel this morning. Did the Krogers thing then walked the 4 miles - it's actually a little cooler and less humid today - high of 85 but I got a rash from the leg band of my underwear. Took a quick shower before ADF to heal the wounds. Dinner was corn and veggies. ADF was Chunky Move - a very innovative rotating stage for a piece titled "Tense Dave". It was like a nightmare with various esoteric characters and fantasies incluidng a funny scene with a finger of the girl, Clarabelle, in the long white nightgown. We stayed for the discussion - Lib asked a question about equillibrium and whether the dancers are just now getting used to being off the rotating platform as they sit here talking. We used the $5 parking garage for the first time - it was very nice and very convenient. Afterwards we stopped for Carolina Concrete at Goodberrys. It was swim team night but we got served right away. I had the feature which was peaches and strawberries in vanilla ice cream. Entry: Jun 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked a little on text processing today but didn't do a whole lot. Walked the 4 miles on a relatively cool day - it was the best day yet for bikini watching. Murf called about text processing around 6 PM - not sure what he wanted but we chatted for a while. Looked up dance on the web - specifically ----------------------- Page 31----------------------- Emanuel Gat and Bill Jones dance. Dinner was salmon and lima beans with corn. Lib made a delicious squash for lunch. We caight two squirrels today - dropped the second one off after dinner and scavaged some newspapers right before we had a thundershower. I made a peanut butter dish feeder for the birds on the side deck - drilled some holes in a plastic lid and mounted it to a strip of aluminum nailed to the deck. Entry: Jun 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- Garbage day - I put a few photo things from the garage into the garbage can this morning before pickup. Workd on the text processing for QYXie and also kept an eye on stocks - down triple digits but none of the income stuff fell. Dinner was turkey burgers with lima beans. Entry: Jun 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Wanted to work on text processing but had to do Shannons CD. Got it into the mail before my walk. Joe called this morning - we chatted about his life and how he's thinking of going back to finish his Masters degree. I hope it's true. He's also thinking about coming for the 90th birthday this August. Walked the 4 miles - in spite of 90 degrees the walk seemed easy. Lots of bikinis to admire at the apartment pool. Instead of working in the evening I had Pinot Noir with chinese szechuan and egg rolls. Fell asleep afterwards. Entry: Jun 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Our 58th squirrel was waiting for us in the trap this morning when we got up. Entry: Jun 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Another busy day. I read the paper this morning then went to work on QYXie stuff. I was going to do AVSA today but I couldn't help myself. I tried figuring out the file system so I could store the memo. Had the leftover Chinese from Friday night for dinner then went out and walked 4 miles. That was around 3:30 so I was done by 5 and quit for the day. Had Lib's nice pizza for dinner then fell asleep. I ordered the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami's book "Wind up Bird" which ocntains the passage about the well from the Saturday night dance. I also ordered his current novel, On shore with Kafka". Our library was out of both titles which was strange - I didn't think he was that popular. Entry: Jun 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- Murf called this morning - he's unhappy with the text editor I wrote and lots of bad htings to say. I got ----------------------- Page 32----------------------- depressed because I tought it was going so well. Entry: Jun 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Didn't do anything until 10 AM today as I reflected on what I was going to do. Finally started working on the text object and noticed how badly the thing departed from standards. Entry: Jul 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- After lunch we went to Home Depot and got bark and annuals for the backyard. Then I went for my 4 mile walk. Had difficulty negotiating the hill by the dam then more difficulty going up the hill by the pool next to the library. Too hot and I was tired. Dinner was chicken slices on buns with veggies. Entry: Jul 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on QYX stuff in the morning then did a 4 mile walk and worked outside when I returned. Spread the mulch from Home Deot, planted the Mandevilla vine while Lib planted the annuals in the back porch planters. Dinner was ribs from Target because Kroger was out, Rice and beans and Ravenwood Zinfindel. Watched a lot of Live 8 today on the web. Saw Andre Bocelli, Brian Wilson, Dave Matthews and some groups from Germany and France. Entry: Jul 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on qyx in the morning - good progress on word wrap. Then did a 4 mile walk and was going to work in the yard but I was tird. Got back to qyx stuff and went down at 7 for Lib's traditional pizza. Entry: Jul 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- Woke htis morning and foiund a racoon in the trap. Took him out back and shot him and buried it then started cutting wood for the bottom step of our deck and walkway. Finished the bottom step - it needs some bark mulch around it. Did not walk today. Dinner was left over beans and rice and chicken strips on buns. Entry: Jul 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked all day getting wrap mode to work on the text portion of QYXie. Dinner was eggplant ----------------------- Page 33----------------------- parmesan and zucchini. Entry: Jul 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Heard from Mark this morning - he wanted to know where I was. I told him I might have a snapshot this faternoon. Walked the 4 miles this afternoon then did a drive back to Krogers to get eggs and cherries.. Dinner was turkey burgers and corn on the cob. I bought the corn in Krogers but didn't like it. Entry: Jul 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Picked up a book at the library this morning then went with Lib to get a new phone. We ended up with an LG Flip phone. Dinner was eggplant with tomato sauce and cheese. Entry: Jul 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- Talked with Joe at QYXie - he apologized for Murf being so rude last week. I agreed to post a snapshot but ran out of time. Went to ADF at 7 - got free parking behind Reynolds. The group was Compagnie Kafig, a French hip hop group that was amazing. Afterwards we had medium sized feature of the day concretes at Goodberry's. The feature was heath and fudge in vanilla ie cream. Did not walk today because Iw as so busy but ended up with two Monet phone calls that tied up the afternoon anyway. Dinner was pasta before we left for ADF. Entry: Jul 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day. I did get out for a 4 mile walk but got back to QYXie business. Joe wanted a snapshot - I got it posted at 5 PM then quickly got dressed and went with Lib to ADF at Baldwin at 6. afterwards we stopped at Daniels for dinner - we had to wait for 30 minutes and service was slow but I enjoyed Southwestern ravioli in cajun cream sauce. I had a glass of Pinot with dinner. Entry: Jul 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Read the paper as usual but indoors today then did more QYX stuff even though I planned to do AVSA. Stephanie and Tom came at 2 - she was a delight. She had a story about their first date at Cafe Luna and how she gave away her meal to a homeles person. Next David and Michelle came at 3:30 - they were quiet and subdued. Did my 4 mile walk before pizza for dinner. Worked on AVSA pictures somewhat.= then fell asleeep during Larry King special coverageo of Dennis which hit the ----------------------- Page 34----------------------- panhandle this afternoon. Entry: Jul 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished the Linefeed function of the text processor in QYX - I'm happy today. The clue was to make the insert line function work for either LCD display line 1 or 2. ----------------------- Page 35----------------------- Entry: Jul 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did a very minor Korgers morning because Lib is leaving. Did the 4 mile walk and then worked a little on QYXie text processing. It's starting to look good. Jaymie will shoot will bridals here next week so spent some time in the garage cleaning up. Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce over it. Entry: Jul 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went out to Krogers and got some junk food and a chicken for dinner. Did not walk - talked to Joe and Marki at QYXie - they're ready to move onto the next thing. Entry: Jul 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Felt terrible today - my blood pressure has skyrocketed. Too much junk food yesterday - took the garbage cans to the street and trew most of it out. Also, got a little more of the garage uncovered. Walked the 4 miles this afternoon then rented a couple of movies - Kinsey and Million Dollar Baby. Dinner was chicken and potato salad. Spoke with Lib this morning and also ordered gas from Ferrel when Jennifer reported they didn't deliver any yesterday. Entry: Jul 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- Took a minivan full to the dump - I'm finally finding the garage. On my walk today I stopped at a concrete job in shepards Vineyard. Asked about an estimate - he estimated our driveway at $9300. Said he could start Tuesday. I gave him the go ahead. Dinner was pasta and tomato sauce with grilled red peppers. Entry: Jul 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked Entry: Jul 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- Read the paper, worked on the garage, worked on QYXie then greeted Stephanie and her Mom at noon. after they left I got back to QYXie coding. The text processing is coming along. Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce with grilled red peppers in it. Finished watching Million Dollar Baby today - what a great movie. The ending was a surprise - he kills her mercifully. Entry: Jul 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- I did a little QYXie stuff then got the garage ready for Jaymie. She arrived at noon and we shot a dozen or so pictures. Because I spent so much time doing other things today I did not take the time to walk. Heat index is 105 outside today. Dinner was tortellini with Barilla tomato sauce and roasted red peppers. In the PM I went to return the movies and also rented Callas and Book of Love. "Book" is loosely based on the teacher, Mary Kay, who had sex with her student and went to jail. Entry: Jul 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 36----------------------- The driveway crew showed up this morning and started taking out the old driveway. They said they'll start pouring in the morning. Dinner was pasta with roasted red peppers. Entry: Jul 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- The cement guys started working at 6 AM today - they finished pouring the driveway by 3 PM. I walked 4 miles around noon time. Dinner was pasta with roasted red peppers. Entry: Jul 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- After reading the paper I started working on the AVSA CD. I don't want to do this, have no clue on how to go about selecting pictures but I charged onward. Cut some trees down in the front yard this afternoon. Also worked on tyring to save QYXie text. In the late afternoon workd on the CD some more then did a Post Office run at 9 PM with the finished product. Entry: Jul 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Mowed in the front yard and also mowed the backyard today. Lib returns this evening. HE plane was pretyt late - it left an hour late in Providence and then the Baltimore flight was also late. I picked her up at 8:48. Stopped into Krogers beforehand for milk, OJ, potato salad and a roasted chicken which we had late at night after she came home - around 9:30 or so. Entry: Jul 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Larry came around at 9 to take up the forms. We started driving on the driveway today. Unplanned, but the FedEx truck brought me an Art Leather box on the new driveway. Went over to the greenhouse and Larry estimated what we had to do to get rid of the water. Dinner this evening was the rest of the chicken and potato salad. It went over 100 today - I mowed in the backyard. Entry: Jul 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- I was supposed to do Qyxies stuff today but couldn;t get motivated. Walked 4 miles in the heat - 103 degrees today. It was difficult. Dinner was turkey burgers. Enjoyed watching the bluebird babies from the back porch this evning. It was hot out there but nice. Entry: Jul 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- Larry came to the greenhouse at 9:00 today. He graded in front of the garage door and formed it up fro concrete. I prepared an electrical outlet for the sump pump and also replaced the float on the sump with a new one from Lowes. Worked on QYXie multi line response today. Entry: Jul 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- It rained last night - Larry was pouring concrete at 7 AM - Lib and I arrived there around 7:20 and quite a bit of the pouring was done. I stayed a little while then went home. Larry said the pump was running when he got there but it had not turned off - it was still running. He pulled it out of the hole and set it aside for the pour. Wen all was done he put an ugly looking grate stacked on bricks over ----------------------- Page 37----------------------- the hole. I hooked up the pump again and left the mes behind. We went out to the Art museum at 5:30 - got caught in lots of traffic on 64 near Regency - got to the museum a little after 6 but the docent had not showed up. We canceled our reservations then bought tickets to the glass exhibit, FUSION, and admired the Chihuly glass among others. For dinner we went to Lucky 32 - I had scallops in Gaspacho. We each had a glass of Chardonnay. The menu theme was Framers Market featuring fresh local veggies. We stopped in Krogers on the way home and got ice cream - Andes Creme de Menthe. Entry: Jul 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Wanted to do QYXIe but instead picked up a new sump pump at Lowes - the old pump was sitting in a puddle of water and had not run. Played with the plumbin hookup on the new pump - found we had to have a very long exhaust tube to prevent backwash after pumping it into the 4 inch pipe. Afterwards I worked on digging out the old cross tie and replacing it with a new treated 6x6. Chiseled out the old grate supported by bricks that Larry installed and ended up pouring a new surface on each side for the grate to sit on. Bought a 60 pound bag of Sakrete gravel mix to do this. Was very very tired from all this. Dinner was ribs, rice and beans and Yellow Tail shiraz. Entry: Jul 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to the greenhouse this morning and re-installed the grate on top of the newly poured concrete supports from yesterday. It rained overnight but didn't mess anything up. The pump still works. Libbie hosed down the concrete and caused the pump to empty the hole - all worked well. I think we got a good system here. Went home and did QYXie work. Libbie made her good pizza. She discovered evidence of a mouse while she was gone. It rained on and off all day today - a good test of the greenhouse drain. Entry: Aug 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Caught a rabbit in the squirrel trap. Took him to the greenhouse and releas3ed him in the orchard. Finished up the pump work by installing a 2 inch pipe to hold the plug and wire and removed the 1x4 forms on my pump box top. Entry: Aug 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did the Krogers run and also stopped by the greenhouse to label the new circuit breaker for the sump pump. HEard from Sarahs mother-in-law with a big picture order which I started working on. Need to also do AVSA work and QYX stuff. dinner was chicken shishkabob wich I picked up at Krogers - Libbie didn't like the ocmbo of peppers, onions and mushrooms with chicken. I loved it. We watched Mary Elaine on some country music show from Nashville. Entry: Aug 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- Finished the piture order today - also added a few dozen of Lib's pictures to the mix and uploaded all to whcc. Walked 4 miles again - temp was around 92. Dinner was pulled pork barbecue on buns with bean salad that Lib learned to make from Mary. Entry: Aug 04, 2005 ----------------------- Page 38----------------------- -------------------------------------- Worked on slides today for AVSA. Also tried to do some QYX stuff but it was mostly AVSA that ruled the day. Dinner was rubbed pork loins I got in Krogers earlier in the week. Entry: Aug 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on AVSA slides. A long day - in the meantime, Anne is working on the script in Dallas. Put a finished copy up on maavs.org for her to review. Dinner was spaghetti. Entry: Aug 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- I tried to work a little on the QYX stuff but we had so many other distractions that I barely did anything. Worked outside on the roses and weeds. In the evening we had ribs, ric and beans and Pinot Noir wine. Finished up the AVSA slide show and put the order in to the lab in Utah to be shipped to Jackie's house in Dallas since Anne will be out of town. Entry: Aug 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked a little on QYX stuff this morning while charging batteries for todays wedding. Wrote a synopsis for Bam! for Marjorie - this will be our talk in Corpus Christi. Left at 2 for Mebane - arrived there at 2:45. Didn't get too many pictures since the bride didn't get dressed until quarter of 4 and the wedding was at 4. Left the hotel and went over to the Lake pavillion. It was warm - in the upper 80's but not as warm as it could be in August. The wedding was elegant - we finally got finished at 8 PM - still daylight and arrived home at 8:45 PM Entry: Aug 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning Lib's computer would not get onto the internet. Played around, downloaded some drivers but couldn't get them installed. Didn't have anymore CD's to make a driver disk. Went to Office Max but struck out then went to Target and bought some CD-r's, a weather station and next door at Lowes I bought a powered foundation vent. Entry: Aug 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers this morning then to Circuit City after a torrential downpour. The greenhouse with the new concrete got flooded out badly. Larry said he can do some more grading to channel the water around the building. The great news is that the new router fixed Lib's connectivity problem. April came over in the evening and we spent two hours going over her album. Entry: Aug 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on Aprils album somewhat this morning. Picked up an 8x10 from Walmart for Kay, Matts mother. When the 5x7 comes from WHCC this will complete her order. Entry: Aug 11, 2005 ----------------------- Page 39----------------------- -------------------------------------- Worked a little on QYXie until Joe called from QYX. Put in some effort to clean up the text editing. Went under the house and wired up the vent space exhaust fan. This was a hot, sweaty, dirty job. Everything under the house is dripping with water - the insulation, ducts, beams, wires. The floor is also soaked. I had to crawl around on the slimy wet plastic in a very cramped place up by the garage. Yuch! Dinnr was pasta with tomato sauce and chocolate pudding for sesert. Mailed the picture order to Matts mother, Kay in Saluda NC when UPS delivered the WHCC package. Bills check finally came today so I deposited it along with Aprils check. This was close to the Washington Mutual due date. As insurance, we temporarily transferred money from Bluebird to cover. Entry: Aug 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did QYXie text editing this morning - think I got the file system working. Mowed the back lawn this afternoon, now I'm back to getting the USB driver working on the hub. Entry: Aug 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- We left home at 7:18 after a normal breakfast. I-85 was very heavy and I-95 got pretty bad. Gas was up to 2.39 per gallon - we were in stop and go traffic many times on the way up, especially around the tolls. It was a relief going up the philly side of the river to get Joe but we lost lots of time. Got stuck on a bridge for 45 minutes with an accident - temps were 102. Got to the Rodin museum after getting lost in Philly - just walked into the door and Joe called. We headed back to the airport without too much incident - one wrong turn. Got to Piscataway around 7 - found out Mom was in the hospital. Ordered a pizza from Dominicks and had it downstairs with Aunt Helen. What a day - 12 hours on the road. Entry: Aug 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Visited Mom in the hospital this morning - she will be discharged but I needed to go home, dropping Helen off, then getting Arlene's Subaru to get Mom. It's a mini SUV and works better for getting in and out of. She wasn't very happy - pointed to Arbor Glen and said she wanted to live there. Dropped her off then took Helen to the party. Lib stayed behind with Mom. Later went back to get Mom and Libbie and got her to the party at 3. We stayed until 8 or so and returned home tired. It was a nice party. Entry: Aug 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- We went over to Arbor Glen in Somerville this morning - drove around, picked up some brochures, talked with the lady at the front desk. It's a very nice facility but pricey. $300,000 to buy in then 3,000 a month service charges. Went back with this info - everyone stopped by in the evening. For dinner we had turkey slices and potato salad and a salad that Lib picked up at Acme. Entry: Aug 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- I picked up Joe at Ellie's at 7:15 then went back for breakfast and packing the mirror, etc. We got going at 8 AM - did a coffee stop at the end of the TPK. Got to Delaware and everything was stopped - there was a robbery and police chase which stopped everything. Hit rain around the susquenahha river bridge - the rain stayed with us until South of Richmond. Got gas at Fredricksburg and had the sandwiches in the car which we took with us from Mom's. Traffic around DC was stop and go a few ----------------------- Page 40----------------------- times - we did the West side of the beltway. Got home around 5 PM. It rained later in the evening. Dinner was a bean salad. Joe picked up some hot salsa and sour cream for the salad. Entry: Aug 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- I tried looking at some QYXie stuff but ended up working on an interval controller using an 8515. I need it to control the basement foundation vent fans. The I/O ports are not responding - it seems like the program is not being loaded into the AVR. Tried also working with the new USB hub. No luck there either. Dinner was chicken strips, fruit and bean salad. Entry: Aug 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked with Joe on his AVR stuff most of today. Showed him my setup adn then helped him duplicate it on his board. He has a bootloader installed and has to use the debugwire interface. Dinner was pizza - Brandon and Darren came over in the evening to visit Joe. Entry: Aug 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a 10:30 conference call this morning with QYXie land about their wireless solution. They have an engineer, Yossi, who is desigining a packet system based on Motorola zigbee chipset. Lib has a cold today - went to Krogers for OJ and bagels then picked up a cooked chicken and potato salad for dinner. Entry: Aug 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on Jaymies raw files this morning. Had a breakthrough with text editing. I found out where the file read routine was going errant. Did a 4 mile walk and barely made it. There's a heat alert - saw a very shapely woman walking the lake - she was the only one. Black short running shorts, bikini top and baseball hat. Very nice legs and abs. Came home, had some watermelon then fell asleep on the floor. Worked on QYXie some more after my nap. Entry: Aug 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did the newspaper this morning then worked on pictures for Jayme. Joe said they were coming back tonight from the Outer Banks. Walked 4 miles - I feel a cold coming on. Hardly made it back. Heat index is over 100 today. Lib made a delicious pizza with peppers, onions and fresh tomato's. Entry: Aug 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked a little on Text stuff for Qyxie this morning - solved some issues then took the JTAG downstairs to help Joe. He went to Bits Inc. with Libbie to get some unprogrammed 168's. We set the fuse then fired up the jtag and nothing!!! I took the board into my shop and removed the reset capacitor. It works. For dinner, Joe and Lib went to Dixie Belles and came back with chopped barbecue, fixins and sweet tea. My walk today was much better - it's still warm but not in the upper nineties. I walked while Lib and Joe went to North Raleigh for Atmel chips. ----------------------- Page 41----------------------- Entry: Aug 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- We got up at 4:45 AM today to tek Joe to the airport. His flight is at 6:25. It's raining and thundering and lightning outside this morning but noticably cooler. I got a lot of work done on the QYXie text editing. Ordered a JTAG for Joe this morning - Digikey said they would need to check with Atmel for confirmation. Did not walk today - too busy. I did make some headway on Jayme's pictures. No CD or Flipbook but that will be easy. April is also hanging over my head. I responded to Jim today about reserving a spot for sculpture in October. Also received the Lonestar newsletter for the convention this fall. We're listed as being delightful. Entry: Aug 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Working hard on finishing the text processing on QYXie. The plan is to finish up text work this week and drive down to St Pete next week to debug the COMM. Dinner was leftover BBQ fixins. Entry: Aug 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Dinner was Jambalaya - very nice. Entry: Aug 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Unbelievably busy today - spoke with Murf in the afternoon - he wants me in Florida next week to help debug the RF QYXie. Walked the 4 miles today - the Kudzu is blooming and semlls heavenly by the lake. The pools are deserted - school started yesterday. Dinner was baked sweet potato and salmon. Entry: Aug 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- This was a busy day working on the phone with Yossi when I should have been finishing Aprils pictures. Eventually finished her and Jayme's pics and put them both on the web. Dinner was ribs and Ravenwood Zin. For a side dish we had Jambalay mix without the meat added. No walk today - too busy. Entry: Aug 28, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day. Prepared Jayme's CD this morning then mailed it on the way to Spitfire Grill at Raleigh Little Theater. It didn't disappoint - RLT always does a good job. Came home and ordered a pizza from "Great Italian Pie" on 55 - also picked up an apple at H-T across the street for lunch tomorrow. Busy packing this evening for tomorrows trip. Hope I remember everything. Entry: Aug 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- Left the house at 7:48 - got hung up oon traffic in Cary on the ----------------------- Page 42----------------------- Cary Pkwy near High House. Got to the airport OK ina round 40 minutes. Lots of time for my Airtran 9:45 flight. In spite of Katrina hitting the LA coast, the flight was very smooth into Atlanta. Leaving Atlanta was some problem since we lefft over an hour late - change of planes and gates, then waiting for a flight crew. Finally got underway - there was a long lineup to takeoff. This flight was smooth as well - we went down I-75 in Florida - got to see Island Reef across from the Oaks condos. Went to Ft Meyers, turned left and crossed the Everglades. From the air they are impressive. Murf met me at baggage claim - went to Yossi's house - what a zoo. Got something done - we went do dinner ata Mexican Restaurant then came back at 10. Got the AVR to transmit a byte to his PC. Went back at midnight. Yossi's company is novtech.com QYX - Journal Arrived around 3 PM Monday at Yoshi's. I wrote a small AVR routine to toggle a port bit to verify our development environment. I am able to write test code, compile it, download to the QYXie and debug using the JTAG ICE Mark II using the JTAG connector. Yossi soldered a connector to the QYXie to plug in the JTAG. This code worked without any trouble. We left for dinner at 7 and returned around 9:30 I wrote and compiled a program to send a single character out the UART and downloaded it to the QYXie. After setting the correct fuses on the Atmega the uart port bit was toggling but the radio was not transmitting. Yoshi needed to do a code load to the RF transceiver on the QYXie. This seemed to solve the transmit problem - the PC was receiving the character over the air from the QYXie. Entry: Aug 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- At 7:30 we went out to Manhatten bagel. Arrived At Yossi's at 9. Got the firmware to wrap a single byte. Sending it from the laptop out the USB, receiving it in the QYXie uart and echoing it back out the qyxie tx uart to the radio. The qyxie with rf device is able to receive and send characters which are then received by the PC dongle. It's not capable of doing packets. Each character is wrapped with a protocol, acknowledged at the far end and then another character is fetched. The older 8 bit processor in our data stream is a bottleneck. Murf had to leave this afternoon for a meeting in Tampa. Katie, a nice EE who graduated from Duke, took me to the airport to get a rental car. I messed up going home and turned South on 95 instead of North and went to North Miami. Turned around and crept and crawled along I-95 traffic back North. Got back to Yossi's but he was out still buying his car. Went back to check into the hotel - got a room at 9 PM then went across the street to KFC and picked up a chicken combo meal to go and ate it in my room. QYX Journal Wrote a program to receive a byte from the Rx UART and send it back out the Tx UART. Arrived at Yoshi's at 9 to try wrapping the RF character over the air using the QYXie. This didn't work ----------------------- Page 43----------------------- and Yoshi left at 11 to buy a car. At 2 PM Yossi returned to do some more fiddling with baud rates in the RF modules. After making changes and downloading to the RF module the single character wrap worked. Murf and Yossi left in the early evening, I went to the airport to rent a car. Returned to Yossi's house and stayed till 10 - Yossi was not there - his wife said he went out to do a "test drive". Entry: Aug 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Arrived at Yossi's first thing but he was out car shopping. He made an appearance at noon for a little while then left. I worked on Ram tests on my PC. This morning I went out looking for the Manhattan Bagel that Murf found yesterday. No luck, I ended up at a Starbucks instead. Left at 9 for Yossi's but he wasn't there - he's still out buying a car. I worked on locating the driver for the TI USB module, Got a version of Magic configured with the USB driver and got it working. Yoshi finally showed this afternoonn at 3 for a few hours. Wed night had a subway sub for dinner, fell asleep watching the devestation of Katarina in New Orleans. QYX Journal Arrived at 9 at Yossi's but he wasn't there - he was still buying a car. Loaded a new version of Magic and the drivers for the TI USB dongle. Got Magic up and running with configuration assistance from Mark over the phone. QYXie will not log into Magic. I tried setting breakpoints in the receive routine and noted that we only receive the first byte of each packet. Yoshi returned at 7 and wrote a program on his PC to send "Hello World" from an RF transceiver on PC to a transceiver on a second PC. He could only receive the first character of "Hello World", "H" over the air. Yoshi decided he needed to implement a character buffer in the RF transceiver collect a packets worth to transmit. He claims this would mean no changes are required in the QYXie firmware or Magic. I doubt it. Entry: Sep 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a bagel at Einsteins. Saw a homeless woman sitting outside. Went to Yossi's at 9 - started debugging the Ram, then he decided he needed the power supply and logic analyzer. Left there, called Murf at around 12 then headed across Florida. The trip was relatively uneventful . Got gas by the hotel in the morning for 2.79 per gallon. Arrived in Siesta Key at 3:30 PM. Did some shopping at Publix and had a Boca Burger and some lemon yogurt. Bought bagels and coffee for the morning. Entry: Sep 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- Got up at 7 and packed up, emptied the refrigerator, dried my towel, had a bagel for breakfast. Left the condo at 8:30. Arrived at QYX headquarters at 9:30 - nobody was around so I went to Burger King for a coffee. Returned and all had assembled - Murf, Mark. We had a little meeting with Pat on ----------------------- Page 44----------------------- the phone about building an RF board. I left there at 1:05 in a thunderstorm. The storm delayed our takeoff for about an hour - just when I got connected to the airport internet they started loading our plane. I sat next to a pretty blonde in the exit row who was busy doing office work. The flight was incredibly smooth - landed only a little late. Libbie was at Cary Pkwy and Evans when I called. She was just driving by the terminal when I came out with my bags. This evening we went out to Lucky32. I had the scallops - the theme was Hawaiian. Accomplishments this week. Wrote some software to transmit a single character from the QYXie, then receive a single character and wrap it back out over the radio. Found out the radio was not capable of doing packets - it currently is a single character at a time device. My opinion of Yoshi was low before going to Florida - it is even lower leaving. Basic incompetence - did not read any of the specs sent to him. The design is based on many incorrect assumptions. Instead of working the problems, he chose to spend days at a time running personal errands. The design is a disaster - there's another processor in between our processor and the RF link. - Unnecessary processor between the AVR and the RF transceiver. - The processor doesn't meet QYXie requirements. There is no path to upgrade the firmware, the processor currently is a bottleneck to the datastream, real time debug ability is not existant. Firmware support is non existant. Summary of this week. The current RF solution is not usable. The current RF solution consists of an RF transceiver chip and an 8 bit processor. The solution falls short of meeting QYXie requirments in a number of areas. 1. The RF Processor is currently a bottleneck in the datastream. 2. There is no real time debug ability. Writing software on a PC, burning it into a processor and then "let's see if it works" is not real time debug. 3. There is no path to upgrade the firmware over the air. 4. Current processor firmware is kludgy engineering code written by an individual with no sense of committment to this project. 5. The RF processor is a duplication of function contained in the current QYXie, however the RF processor implemenatation falls short and is not executed well. 6. The unnecessary processor consumes power. 7. Better solutions are available that meet all QYX requirements at better price points, with lower power and improved throughput. (If he worked for me I would have reprimanded him a week ago for missing a teleconference and fired him for spending several days on personal errands while debug tasks languished.) Entry: Sep 03, 2005 -------------------------------------- The Digikey parts didn't come today. Perhaps tomorrow. I started working on Radio code almost immediately. Talked a few times with Pat about the hookups. Dinner was shrimp and rice and lima beans with Chardonnay. I retired early from the tasks at hand. ----------------------- Page 45----------------------- Entry: Sep 04, 2005 -------------------------------------- Read the paper then worked on Aprils album. She came by at 1 to get her print order. Sent her order to WHCC then the rest of the day read up on the Atmel radio. I need a crystal that we don't have. Entry: Sep 05, 2005 -------------------------------------- Labor Day. Continued reading about the atr2406 part and how to configure it using software. Dinner was Jambalaya. Diagnosed Yossi's radio this morning - he used an octal buffer for the address instead of a latch. Entry: Sep 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- Ordered the Digikey parts this morning for next day delivery. Talked at length with Pat about the schematic. Did a Krogers run along with a Credit Union trip Tried installing the powered vent in the garage but no luck. Have to move the gas heater. Dinner was pork chops and left over veggies. Entry: Sep 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Got the Digikey parts today. Built up an oscillator using some PC board and a Dremel tool. Could not get it to oscillate. Ended up using an STK500 for the oscillator but had to add a 100k resistor across the crystal. Don't know why. Entry: Sep 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- Not much more luck with oscillators. Still writing some RF code for the thing. I was hoping to fire it up by now. Dinner was chicken on Zatarains French rice mix. Entry: Sep 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked all day on the QYX stuff - writing code for the RF and on the phone with Pat. Entry: Sep 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did some QYXie RF work then cleaned the car and the driveway. Stephanie came over at 10 - we took a few pictures in the front yard then went over to the Apex lake. Came home and went back to QYXie. I want to get the RF working this weekend. I'm thinking of using a Mavric board since I don't have a hub. Dinner was eggplant parmesan and Mondavi Pinot Noir. Entry: Sep 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- After reading the paper we played with the pond - want to get it clearer. Worked on the QYX RF ----------------------- Page 46----------------------- software some more. Lib made her good pizza. She also joined me on a Lake walk from the street next to Krogers. A few bikinis in the pool - summer is ending. Entry: Sep 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Fired up the RF boards today - they don't work. Spent a lot of time debugging and looking at signals, the oscillator and the code. Could find no mistakes. Dinner was chicken breasts on a bun with veggies. Did a 4 mile walk today. IT was pretty easy although I was a bit warm. My order for 200 shares of IMHpC was partially filled with 100 shares at 25. Entry: Sep 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Krogers for geezer day today. Also took out a Home Depot credit card online for buying the generator. Still unsure about this. I think I want the one that's self contained with transfer switch and everything. It's not as good as a Honda engine but it's got a cabinet that it's mounted in. Dinner was bean salad. Very nice. No walk today - no time. The rest of the IMHpC order filled at 25.05 - additional 100 shares. This is my first position in IMHpC. Entry: Sep 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- I drove to Atmel in North Raleigh this morning and met Brian. He loaned me a couple of Dragon modules for the atr2406. Got home before it started raining - there's a hurricane off the coast, ophelia. Still couldn't get the QYX RF module to transmit. Ordered some ballet tickets for this Sunday using the WCPE classical card - 20% off. Looked at rolling stones tickets - too expensive at $400 each for floor seats. Measured blood pressure before dinner - 140/90. This is not good - need to get back on track. Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce. Entry: Sep 15, 2005 -------------------------------------- Blood pressure this morning was 151 - really bad. Time to buckle down. Lunch was an apple. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches and veggies. Entry: Sep 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- The Flamingo kit got here today - got it sending RF packets that can be measured by the Dragon modules that Brian loaned to me. Could not get the modules to receive. Did a 4 mile walk. Dinner was shrimp, rice , veggies and chardonnay. Entry: Sep 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- I thought I had a receiver interface going but after a while it looked like it was not so. Spent much of the day on the RF hardware but got nowhere. In the morning I took a break because my batteries were dead so I finished installing the crawl space powered vent in the garage. We now have two vents that are powered. I did not walk today - in the late afternoon Libbie needed color ink for her ----------------------- Page 47----------------------- inkjet so I went with her to Target and got ink. Also orderd 5 cartridges from Buy.com - 2 for each of ours and one extra black for Libbie. Dinner was pork chops, sweet potato, asparagus and ogurt for desert. Talked to Pat late at night about adding another chip to the layout. This chip will help me with the RF interface. Entry: Sep 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- I still can't get the RF to work - didn't want to leave but we signed up for a ballet, Romeo and Juliet at 2 in Fletcher. The ballet was spectacular - there was a street festival going on infront of the performing arts center. Afterwards we had Libbies homemade pizza in the evening. The ballet was pretty long - we got out at 4:30 after a 2 PM start. Entry: Sep 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- I'm not sure how everything is going to get done. Still not receiving RF. The data appears scrambled. I'm going to try implementing a Manchester encoding/decoding algorithm. Entry: Sep 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a dentist appointment at 9:20 this morning then did the Krogers run afterwards. Sent a letter to Kay about getting money from her for pictures. It's been a month. Another hurricane is going past the outer banks, Ophelia, while Rita makes it's way past Key West. Temp is still in the high nineties. Dinner tonight was barbecue sandwiches. Entry: Sep 22, 2005 -------------------------------------- The bug guy got here this morning and sprayed. I orderd some chemical so I could do the job next time. I could do it better since I would spray all the baseboards and cracks. Entry: Sep 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I noticed the OLE signal was not being energized by the Atmega. Found I had assigned the wrong pin in software. Changed it and now everything is working OK. I can send packets from one eval board to another!!!! This has been a long time coming. Entry: Sep 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- The pressure is off a little now that the RF is communicating. Tried a simple packet today used by Magic and took the packet length from the QYX length byte. It worked ok. In the PM we went to the Farmers Market in Raleigh - got sweet potatoes, a watermelon for $1, a viola plant for the back porch and misc veggies. Dinner wa spork chops, sweet potato, butternut squash, limas and corn and Chardonnay. We watched Larry LKing in the evening with the aftermath of hurricane Rita. ----------------------- Page 48----------------------- Entry: Sep 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Slept until 7:30 this morning. Too much wine last night. Read the paper as usual then started fixing up the QYXie program with the RF changes. Got quickly dressed at 2 then left for RLT - the Story. It was a very moving and deep drama with racial overtones. The play was in the lower theater. Met Kent Whitfield outside the theater on our way to the car - I didn't recognize him but remembered his face. Ordered a pizza from Mama Mia at Laura Duncan in the evening. Went back up to work on the QYX RF stuff. Entry: Sep 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- Waited for the boards this morning but no dice - around 2 the UPS website said the delivery was rescheduled for Oct 3. Called and told them I will come get the package. They dispaatched a van to deliver it at 3 PM. Lib and I went out to deposit Bill's check then look at blocks in Lowes and Home Depot for the back porch pond. Picked up a chicken at Krogers on the way home for dinner aling with potato salad and yogurt. Spoke with Pat and Murf many times. Hooked it all up and couldn't get anything to work. Worked until a little after midnight on the LCD. The LED's are now OK, LCD is not. Entry: Oct 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning I got the LCD working. The keyboard is next - it's not working. The LCD problem was some initialization in assembly language using the LCD lines which changed. Also, yesterday I sucessfully made some DVD's using software that compresses a 9 gig DVD onto a 4.7 gig version. Have downloaded 3 of the ring operas, Fidelio, Orpheus and Deep Throat of all things. In the afternoon we left for a wedding at Page Walker. The bride has an 18 year old daughter, doesn't want an album and didn't want Libbie to do getting ready pictures. We had fun - left there around 8 PM. Entry: Oct 02, 2005 -------------------------------------- A restful day - I'm working on the QYXie stuff again. Walked with Lib around the lake - dinner was Lib's homemade pizza. The crust came out very very good. We had a Sams trip around noon to get basics. Entry: Oct 06, 2005 -------------------------------------- I spent all day today looking at the tx chip. Finallly concluded that it wasn't grounded. Went back and forth with Pat over this. Even tried mounting the chip by reheating with an iron. No luck. Libbie watched more of the Adeline streaming tonight - finner was pork chops with apple sauce and veggies. It finally rained today as a tropical system makes its way through the area - remnants of tropical storm Tammy. Downloaded Karma Sutra today - also got a SADE DVD in the mail from Amazon. Visa bill was $1850. Entry: Oct 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 49----------------------- Rain all day. I procrastinated over Rolling Stones tickets for tomorrow evening. Pat is going to send me his hub card overnight since mine has problems. Entry: Oct 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- Got the hub card this morning. Hooked it up - it's sending stuff out the transmitter OK as received by my eval board. I found some missing nets on the chip that I wired up to get it to work. Took a walk this afternoon around the lake after the rain stopped. Dinner was pork chops, squash and red wine. Entry: Oct 09, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked all day tryig to get my RF QYXie to go. Tried wiring the missing nets but no luck. Stephanie and Tom came over at 4 for an engagement picture. This meant we cleaned the house up before they came. I couldn't afford the time but it was worth it. Had the traditional pizza for dinner. Entry: Oct 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- I worked with Pat on the phone today - it sounds like his QYXie has a good RF section. He's sending it out FedEx. I got the LCD characters fixed by converting the assembly program to "c". Still can't get the on/off switch to work but Pat said his works. Dinner was barbecue and veggies. The hub was originally hanging up sending packets from Magic. I fixed it with a watchdog timer on the uart interface. We seem to be reliable. Entry: Oct 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- Very busy day - worked all day trying to get RF across the QYXie. Pat'sQYXie came this morning - all indications are it's transmitting but I can't receive any packets. Worked all day trying various things but no luck in anything. Dinner was chicken tenders on buns with veggies. It's a rainy dismal day outside. Entry: Oct 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- What a frustrating day. Couldn't get any QYXie stuff working over RF. Tried changing the oscillator and blew up the power switch. In addition, a huge seloff in MREIT's and GM bonds caused a one day loss of $1800 in my account. This brings the one month loss to $8,000 Dinner was Ravioli and tomato sauce with yogurt afterwards. I need a break from this stuff. Talked to Bill - he's really hot to sell the condo. It would cost me a fortune in taxes so I'm reluctant. Entry: Oct 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Didn't do much QYX stuff today. The faux hub is not transmitting. Left at 2 to go to FoodLion day at the State Fair. It's a warm sunny day about 85 degrees. Walked around, had an italian sausage for dinner and some fried dough as a snack. ----------------------- Page 50----------------------- Entry: Oct 21, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day. Found that most of my problems with not receiving may have been dead batteries. Walked the lake with Lib this afternoon - also returned 2 French tour books to the library 3 days late. Got lots more stuff in for the convention booklet. Did a credit union run before they closed with out insurance rebate. Wilma may hit Florida this weekend. Dinner was pork chops, sweet potato and apple suace. Interestingly, we ran out of toilet paper today. Not a roll anywhere!!! Entry: Oct 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day trying to get the QYXie RSSI working. Took time off at 3 to hook up the inflation in the greenhouse. Found that the fan in house 1 and 2 was frozen. Ordered another from Grainger to be delivered UPS. Libbie may fetch one tomorrow from North Raleigh. Dinner was rice and beans. I ran out to Krogers for Yogurt then went back to work on the RSSI. Entry: Oct 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Hooked up the eval board to the QYXie to get a RSSI signal - the onboard receiver doesn't seem to be working. Went to Krogers for groceries at 11. Stephanie called about possibly canceling this weekends bridal session. Lib picked up a new inflation blower. We went to the greenhouse after lunch and installed the blower. It went smoothly. Dinner was spinach stuffed ravioli. Later in the evening I was able to get the RSSI diags working and also performed some updates on the MAAVS booklet. Entry: Oct 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked today on the new QYXie stuff that arrived in a box from Pat. It was disappointing that a lot of the stuff didn't work. Went to sculpting tonight. Was running late - took Lake Pine to Maynard to avoid the traffic on US1&64 construction. Had to gas at the Citgo one the corner of Lake Pine and Cary Pkwy. The trip went well - no delays. I think I found a good way to go to sculpting. No dinner tonight but I had some baked beans when I got home at 10. Our model tonight is very young - 20 year old HEather but very pretty. Entry: Oct 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked some QYXie software today then went to Lowes and got the liner and pump for our pond. Libbie and I streteched out the liner and filled the pond with water. Tried out the pump but went back to Lowes for a different sluice pan. Still not happy with it. will keep trying. Dinner was barebcue chicken, sweet potato, veggies and Mondavi Pinot Noir. Entry: Oct 30, 2005 -------------------------------------- ----------------------- Page 51----------------------- A very busy day. Trying to get the RF stuff to alk - found the hub is running on 5 volts but he RF chip needs 3.6 volts. Tried to fix it but the oscillator wouldn't work. Added some caps to the oscillator which made it work. MAde some corrections to the MAAVS booklet. After lunch today we wet to the greenhouse and I finished stapling the plastic on the East side bows of all 4 houses. Dinner was Libbie traditional pizza. Entry: Oct 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Frustrated with the lack of progress today on the QYXie that I wired an RF module in externally. After some debugging, I got it to work and reliably send packets. Yes!!! Took some time and got Libs car registered then tried for inspection but the tires flunked. She took it to Walmart in Fuquay and got 4 new tires returning late at night. She called at 7 that she was leaving Fuquay so i went to get dinner - Krogers was out of chicken roasted so I got two healthy choice frozen dinners. Entry: Nov 01, 2005 -------------------------------------- Did a minimal grocery run this mornng after trying some more QYXie stuff. Found the 13 mhz wasn't going into the chip. Reworked a second QYXie and got a good 13 mhz signal. Tried to receive on this one but no luck. I started wiring the RF module in externally. Tried to bring the pagemaker file to the printer - they couldn't read it. Sent them a second copy via eMail. Called an hour later and they had not read it yet. This is frustrating. Deposited some checks in the Credit Union - the MAAVS check and Bill's check since it's the first of the month. Island Reef assessment is going up. In addition, they're going to hit us for another $340 for alarms in the unit. Entry: Nov 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on QYX stuff until 9 hten we left for Richmond. Had an uneventful trip - made one stop in Henderson for cofffee and treats. It was fun meeting everyone - the hotel was a dump. Went out to dinner tonight with the McDonalds to Joy Garden, a chinese place. It was pretty good although our waitress was very abrupt. Entry: Nov 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- I stayed in the room and worked on the AVSA CD while Libbie worked the booth. There wasn't very much business. This evening we had the banquet - it was a buffet - pretty terrible. Entry: Nov 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- We woke up this moring automatically at 6:30. Got dressed and had the Comfort Inn breakfast then packed the car. I had the waffle for breakfast - we ate with John Cook next to a table with Tatiana and Vladimir. Got going around 8:30. Stopped in South Hill for bathroom and coffee at McDonalds. Bought gas just before 540 in Raleigh - 2.23 a gallon which is down quite a bit. Got home around noon. Had tuna sandwiches on the back porch for lunch then started working on the AVSA CD. ----------------------- Page 52----------------------- Entry: Nov 14, 2005 -------------------------------------- Continued working on the AVSA CD. Lots to do. Entry: Nov 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- A busy day - tried to get an eMail list working on MAAVS then heard from Joyce about convention CD so I worked hard on completing that. Got the CD and the checks for George into the mail on the way to Sculpting this evening. Bill also called today - he's going to mail the wedding CD;s for me to build an album. Dinner tonight was sloppy Joes. Entry: Nov 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- Got an eMail from Murf that he's in NC and wants to see the QYX stuff. This ruins my weekend. I planned to work on the pond. Overhead Door came over at 3:30 and replaced the door panel. Now it needs paint. He left at 5 and I headed over to Litmus to photograph sculptures for an Art calendar. Got home around 9 PM - picked up a frozend dinner - Chicken Kooskoos for dinner. Entry: Nov 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Thanksgiving day. Watched the parade this morning then did some reading about shopping carts on the MOF site. In the PM while Lib made the fruit cake and turkey and all the fixins I painted the new garage door panel. It's a warm day - around 70. Entry: Nov 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- Murf called a few times today. Spent a lot of time working on the Male torso calendar. Attempted the femal late at night but it doesn't look as good because of the wrinkled muslin. May have to shoot it again. Thank goodness Stu was not available today to do the RF testing - I'm too tied up. Received Stephanie's choices for an album. Now I'm really booked. Dinner of course was turkey leftovers. No wine tonight. Bought a used copy of the DVD Phantom using the 4.99 coupon I got from Blockbuster but didn't watch it tonight. Entry: Nov 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on the female calendar. Murf called many times - watched the phantom DVD this afternoon - it was very good. I loved it - Libbie said she didn't like it in the theater. Later in the day I read about dance and looked at pictures on Pbase. Lots of good stuff there. Dinner was probably the last of the turkey leftovers. ----------------------- Page 53----------------------- Entry: Dec 07, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a long conversation with Murf and company at QYX land. I told them about the lack of success at getting RF working reliably and proposed a synchronous solution for this stuff. In the PM the new laptop arrived - spent most of the afternoon getting it to install windows XP, then swapped Libs hard drive into the system. I now have the extra drive in the broken computer. Wrote some hub firmware for Pat to allow him to test two new hub cards. Late at night I did a writeup for hub to QYXie synchronization. Dinner this evening was pasta. For desert we had Andes Creme De Menth ice cream cake. Entry: Dec 08, 2005 -------------------------------------- I've been having trouble keeping up with this journal since there's so much to do. Entry: Dec 10, 2005 -------------------------------------- We got up normally today and I scrambled around packign the car. Need to be at the Edonton St Methodist church at 9 to start photographing Stephanie's wedding. Got to the church around 9:20 . The wedding was very nice - beautiful Ave Marie solo during the ceremony. I used the 70-200 tele on my old D30 in the choir loft. Could not make it through the reception at Cafe Luna on three batteries. The batteries died during the getaway outside. Dinner this evening was ribs from Target.and Beringers Pinot Noir wine and a sside dish of corn and lima beans. Entry: Dec 11, 2005 -------------------------------------- It was hard getting going today. Worked on the login all day. Did not have much success. I started scanning a Dec 1991 AVM as an experiment. I would like to do 10 to 20 pages per day. Set up the tree on hte porch with lights and a remote control RF remote. Dinner was traditional pizza. Entry: Dec 12, 2005 -------------------------------------- Tried getting some RF hardware working for FCC testing tomorrow. Not much luck - communication is very spotty. Around 2:30 got a note from Murf to send the working hub to Timco in Newberry Fl for FCC testing. Went over to Krogers and gave the card to the pack and ship place to Fedex out to Timco. Came home and found the Crock Pot Lib ordered has arrived. It's huge - 6.5 quart. I was expecting something much smaller. In the evening after a dinner of ribs and pork chops the microwave oven quit. It was 2 years and 1 month old. Went to Lowes and Target and ended up buying envelopes in Target and back to Lowes to get a GE 1100 watt oven for $70. Also picked up a pork loin at Krogers for the slow cooker. Lib is mixing the ingredients together to make something. The Johnston wedding pics arrived today from WHCC along with the pics I took of Heather last week. ----------------------- Page 54----------------------- Entry: Dec 13, 2005 -------------------------------------- A few phone calls back and forth today as I supported the Timco testing of the hub card. The software kept timing out which is what it was designed to do to preserve the battery. Entry: Dec 16, 2005 -------------------------------------- Worked on pictures in the morning then went to Sams in the PM with Libbie. Dinner was barbecue sandwiches. Entry: Dec 17, 2005 -------------------------------------- It's supposed to snow tonight but I think it's too warm. Stayed inside and worked on Jayme's album which I don't like. Dinner tonight was Salmon and butternut squash with Chardonnay. Entry: Dec 18, 2005 -------------------------------------- After the paper reading I worked on the software some more - tweaked the RF somewhat then went over to Stu's at 1 PM. Tested the hub and QYXie over there then home by 4. Worked osme more on Jayme's album - it's not good. Too many pictures per page. Pizza for idnner. Entry: Dec 19, 2005 -------------------------------------- Spoke with Murf then Brian this morning about the FCC problems with the Atmel design. At noon I went over to the greenhouse to meet Lib. Went over to the snack bar at the golf course and met with Evie and her developer. We gave them property maps. Came home and worked on Stephie's pictures - got them all on the web by dinner itme. Dinner was Krogers Jambalaya with a chicken tender added. After dinner I started working on the CD for the wedding. Entry: Dec 20, 2005 -------------------------------------- Busy, busy, busy. Had a conference call with Atmel in the morning - added the timings to the two products. Went to Krogers after lunch. Libbie went to Raleigh Boys choir in the evening - I talked to Barbara who is in Sarasota inventorying the condo. Dinner this evening was tuna on toast with cream and peas. Entry: Dec 21, 2005 ----------------------- Page 55----------------------- -------------------------------------- Went to Barnes & Noble in Cary then Borders to browse books. Got a Nicholas Sparks for Libbie. Read about State Machines on the web and mulled over getting the Quantum-Leap book. Wrote Xmas cards to all in the PM then went over to Litmus to work on my sculpture with the others without the model. Came home and updated glembocki.info with new pics from Ed Glembocki. Will call him this weekend on free minutes. Dinner was chicken tender sandwiches. Entry: Dec 23, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went over to Stuarts at 1:30 to test the QYXies and hub but couldn't get he stuff to power up. The QYXie is much better in this pass. Entry: Dec 24, 2005 -------------------------------------- Ran around today - dropped the RF stuff off at Stuarts for testing at noon. Spent the resto of the day not doing much. Walked the lake with Libbie and used the stopwatch to gauge it. stopped in Krogers for last minute items before they close at 6 PM for Christmas Eve. Entry: Dec 25, 2005 -------------------------------------- We had a quiet Christmas. Opened presents, talked with Joe and Krista then had turkey and all the trimmings for dinner. The greenhouse called at 3:30 AM - it was cold. It called again at 10 AM. Went to look at what's wrong and found a dead battery on the monitor system. Today's Christmas so can't replace it. IT's raining so we didn't walk. Talked to Jimmy tonight about where Lorraine and Tommy are in Florida. Had an annoying call with Mom - she cant' hear and doesn't listen so there's no communication. Entry: Dec 26, 2005 -------------------------------------- Went to Walmart with Libbie and got a battery. also went to :Lowes for a stove pipe for the birdhouse and the fish store for an automatic feeder. Talked with Murf this morning then Stuart around noon. Pat clalled in the evening abotu Stuarts hardware recommendations. Dinner was turkey leftovers. Entry: Dec 27, 2005 -------------------------------------- Had a conference call with Murf, Stu and Pat this morning at 10:30 regarding FCC cert. Stu has the ball for getting a design done. Brian is going to get Atmel help for the reference board RF characteristics. Entry: Dec 28, 2005 ----------------------- Page 56----------------------- -------------------------------------- Left a little late for Florida. Got going around 7:30 after breakfast. The road was very crowded. Did a gas and bathroom stop in Florence. Lib found some windshield washer for $3 a gallon. We returned it. This was at a Hess where gas was 2.09. We stopped twice in Georgia where the road goes from 3 lanes to 2 in Savannah and then again in Brunswick. Missed the turn lane for I-295 in Jacksonville so took some crowded streets to cut across town and pick up 295 again. The worst was yet to come - spent 30 minutes in Starke trying to get through the sequence of lights. Tried for gas at the little town of Citra on 301 and both stations we tried were out. Got $10 worth of premium at 2.35 at the only pump that had gas. Finally got a fillup at the raceway at the entrance to I-75. I-75 was also bumper to bumper - pulled off at exit 301 to find Pat Brunners. The trailer in front of us started fishtailing then overturned in the median. Pretty scary since it was dark. Found Pats place - we liked the 28 acres and his workshop/house situation. The shop and garage was on the first floor of essentially a walk out basement. Got going and landed at Panaras bread for dinner at 8:19 then did Publix - into the condo by nine after a long long day. Entry: Dec 29, 2005 -------------------------------------- This morning we went to Selby and as always enjoyed the garden. They don't open until 10 and we were there at 9:30 so we went over to the bayfront and walked around looking at the sculpture installations. We then went to Home Depot and got our screens and materials to do the Lanai fixup. Came home and had a nap - after the drive yesterday and fresh air today it was pretty tiring. Went out much later at night to Carabbas Italian Grill. I had chicken Mrsala - it was excellent. Had it with a glass of Coppola Cabernet Sauvignon. It was $8 but I wanted to taste it. Excellent Cabernet. Entry: Dec 31, 2005 -------------------------------------- Starting working on the screens after the channel change programming for QYX. Took down the screens along the Gul and got them re-screened. In between getting this done we had two couples come through with realtors. One of them was Karen. When Karen and her client came through we walked over to the docks. The second realtor was a lady named Susan. We continued working ----------------------- Page 57----------------------- on the screens when they came through. Libbie made cheese on rye toast for lunch. Afterwards we toured Pelican Cover with Charlie and his Mom. I didn't care for the woodsy feel of this very old condo community. The buildings are wood structure - I wonder about termites. There is a process in place to replace all the copper water pipes in this place because they are leaking. This doesn't look too desirable. Got going from the Cascade Realty offices to Lorraines at 4:40 PM. Arrived at Port Charlotte at 5:30. It was an easy drive. The home is very nice - sunset was taking place over the river. The Lanai view of the Myakka River estuary was spectacular. Went out to dinner to Outback - got seated around 8:15 PM after waiting in the parking lot for 40 minutes for a table which wasn't too bad. Lots of young people out there. After dinner we came back to Lorraines and watched the ball drop. Dick Clark looked like he was in very bad shape after his stroke last year. I doubt if he's going to do this too much longer.