During breakfast we watched some of the early pictures of hurricane Ike in Galveston and Houston. I mowed the backyard today then worked on the landscape lights. Put a new light up on the tree that used to carry the IR sensor which was never used. Dinner was stuffed flounder and a delicious Butternut squash. After dinner we went to Staples and purchased Rehearsal Dinner Invitations.

Got Ubuntu updates and all the build essentials loaded thanks to a few web pages describing what I needed. I then ran through the make source and make config successfully. Not sure if the buildroot worked because one file could not be found - I suspect it's a versioning problem. The buildroot took several hours. While this was going on I mowed the front lawn but had to abandon the back because it was too wet. The mower kept choking on the grass and stalling. I got cleaned up then climbed the ladder to look at the lights. Did a trip to home Depot and got a pack of 2 halogen bulbs ($7.50 - ouch!). Replaced the two bad bulbs but one of the original plastic lights has the wires cut at the base and it seems to be weathered. I'll prepare one of the metal lights that I have and replace it tomorrow. Came back in and found the build had finished. Hurray. Libbie made barbecued chicken with her own sauce - yummy. We had it with steamfresh peas and a bottle of Shiraz.

I'm feeling much more chipper this morning thanks to reduced eating yesterday. I'm going to start researching how to modify the Linux boot image. Tried loading Ubuntu Linux on an old computer several times. In the end I found that Ubuntu doesn't include the development tools by default. It's not set up to be a developers machine. think I will switch back to Debian. Could not get the Linux image to build on this machine - seem to be missing a few packages. Had some email chats with Joe Bruns about the wisdom of what AVSA is doing in regards to web software. Sold half of my position in MWE today. I got tired of it falling few cents each day for no reason. My target for buying it back is November at about $25. I sold for 29.50. Received a quote from Spark - their least expensive package was $52. We went with LaCapilla for $12.95 per plate all inclusive. Pitchers of margaritas are $18.95. I put a $200 deposit on my credit card.

I'm a little slow this morning. Ate too much yesterday and didn't sleep well. The rains all day stopped me from going out to cut the lawn. Went to Harris Teeter with Libbie this afternoon to get 24 grain bread for BLT's tonight for dinner. Got a $500 check from John today for the microwave which was a surprise. I'll return a majority of it. I did some reading and scoping of my TTY port on Rembrandt. I found that I have to recompile the image to enable the other USARTs on the card. I'm very tired today. Went to bed at10 and slept very well.

After getting in at 1:30 this morning I didn't get up until 7. Worked on the serial routines under Linux for the one wire bus. I gave up trying to compile any programs I found and read the spec and started writing my own. This is the easiest way and it seems to be going well. I'll need to put a scope on the uart outputs to see if it's really doing what I hope it is.
I'm putting together a Mouser order for driver GasFETS and schottky diodes for the one wire assembly. I may do a separate proto board with 3 RJ45 connectors and the driver stuff at first to put in a box with the Linux board for Stoneybrook.
Did the grocery store later in the day. Met Tom Herner in Kroger's - he talked about doing a Danube cruise next week for 2 weeks. When I got home I ordered tickets for opening night of the Met HD series on Sept 22. Looked in my eMail and saw there was a 10% off coupon code for Carolina Ballet. Called the Ballet line and got ballet tickets for Sunday afternoon Sept 21. The arts season is up and running!!!
Downloaded Lib's camera containing the pictures from her California trip. Pretty nice places she visited. We checked on the owner of the rental house today to see if he's legit. Not a problem, Libbie talked to the realtor selling the rental house and I researched the owner.
Dinner was pasta that I picked up in Trader Joe's today.

Got up at 6 which was before the radio went off. Continued looking at the serial programming for One Wire interfacing. I'm fat - I feel very bloated this morning. I may do two walks - one in the morning and then again in the afternoon by driving over to the park. Had trouble with the blog this morning. I found that when I enter without logging in there is no way to login and no way to make an entry. I added another entry into Tom's Musings which is the login page. Let's see if this works.
The login page seems to help get to the blog when it appears to be stuck at read only.
I struggled most of today trying to compile a one wire serial module. I may have to strip it down to nothing and essentially write my own. I put out the MAAVS eMemo today. Now I need to work on the BB web site.
Had some troubles updating the BB web site. When there are no streps in a category, the program barfs with an illegal function call or something like that. Added one fake strep to get around the problem.
I started looking at doing the onewire routines from scratch based on the uart, The PD kit from maxim is too complicated and won't readily compile.
Libbie encountered thunderstorms this evening in Las Vegas. Her plane took off 1 1/2 hours late because they didn't want to fuel the plane in a thunderstorm.
Left the house at 12:15 and arrived at the Sheetz gas station at 12:45. Libbie called at 12:54 saying she just got off the plane. Picked her up outside the terminal at 1:05 and got home by 1:30 AM. this is pretty late but I was up and wide awake.

Sunday. Picked up the paper as usual at 7:05 AM. I noticed the $10 off Lowes coupon from Libbie expires today so I'll go down and pick up another roll of aluminum foil for the crawl space. Late last night I changed the port for Rembrandt and can now access the http server on port 9320. Next step is to compile a "hello world" program before I compile my own temperature reading program.
After lunch went to Lowes and picked up the roll of foil. Back home I collected pine straw off the driveway and picked up tree limbs in the backyard as well as pruned the roses and weeded.
After a quick shower I settled down and compiled a hello world program using Cygwin and GCC on my PC, Mazeppa. Downloaded Hello World to the Rembrandt and executed it OK.
Next step is to write a One Wire program derived from lots of examples on the web. I'm going to either use a serial port or the TWI port on the AVR32.
Studied some one wire interfacing techniques using 3 volts which is a problem. The Uart will provide the timing but will have to buy some GasFet transistors from Digikey or Mouser. Cost is $.14 each which is more than acceptable but will have to buy 100. because of quantity pricing. Started writing the interface program using Digitemp as a guide. I also need to look at OWFS to see how they did serial port I/O. Fell asleep downstairs watching IFC, went to bed at midnight.

The alarm went off at 6 as always but I was very tired and felt like sleeping in but I didn't. We got 4 inches of rain last night and it's still raining. Elizabeth said it will rain for 3 more hours. Talked to Lib while she was in bed at the Lapworths. The sun came out at noon so I went over to the greenhouse. Everything looks OK. I ran a generator test then turned the monitor system on. The garage is flooded. I was thinking of adding a drain out the back which Libbie doesn't want. Perhaps if I add a pipe with a sewer cap it might win her approval. Picked up the mail, my Walgreens rebate for shampoo came today. will take that with the Eckerds $5 gillette rebate to the CU on Monday. I finally made progress with Linux. Got the SD card functioning and used it to transfer the networking file to the card. It now boots with networking. Still no web services. I get a forbidden 403 error.
I got past the web thing. The conf file has a restriction of what IP addresses can access the thing. This is stupidity on Atmel's part. I made it available to all and now can get to the web page. Had to also modify the S91httpd script to change the port of the web server. Interestingly, Firefox wouldn't allow a port of 87 so I changed it to 2287 and all is well. I wanted something more meaningful. Maybe for Stoneybrook I'll use the build ing address, 9320, and see if that works. I also took a look at OWFS and templogger which comes with it. I rejected this stuff as too complicated. I'll probably write my own based on Digitemp. Digitemp also has a script to output the data to the RRDtool. I'll make the whole thing C to hopefully simplify things. Dinner and lunch was a Stouffers French Bread pizza. While studying one wire temps under Linux I had the spanish channel, Gigante Sabado on. This is an old fashioned variety show with lots of T&A.

I read an interesting recommendation by an author on MSN about how MLP's are going to come back strong and the time to get in is now. IV is back and seems to be faster than ever. I studied how the Round Robin Database tool (RRD) works this morning. It looks to be pretty powerful and may be just what I need to log temperature and humidity data. It contains nice tools to create graphs for display in web pages. I'm going to get it working first in Linux, possibly on an NSLU2. It also seems to work in Windows, at least there is a windows binary that I've been using. Hanna is supposed to hit today with 1 to 2 inches of rain and some wind gusts. Not sure about the greenhouse but around here the generator is all set to go. I need to check the chain saw gas since I recall running out this summer.
The NGW100 came this afternoon. Atmel providesnothing in the way of instructions, cables or even how to hook it up. After muddling around a bit I found that Linux bootup comes out of the DB9 rs232 connection. There is no indication what the baud or flow control should be. I was able to change the IP and access the device but I ended up having to change the switch in my office to an 8 port Netgear switch instead of the 5 port Linksys I was using. Went to the greenhouse in advance of tropical storm Hanna and ran a generator test cycle then I turned the monitor system off. We don't need it when the overnight temp is in the 70s. Dinner was a Lean Cuisine, Parmesan fish.

Left this morning at 9 after breakfast to take Libbie to the airport for her 10:30 flight to California. she has a stop in Denver. In the meantime I worked on the Linux stamp I will be developing. The name is going to be Rembrandt. I need a free web site to host it - I started looking at Google Sites. In the interim I have started collecting info on Traviata in the Wiki. this is a great idea to organize my thoughts andplan what I want to do. When the Gateway board comes I want to fire it up, compile an application or two, possibly get the web server and a temperature probe working. This eventually will be a multi device platform. I was thinking of calling the collective bunch "Network Toys". This would fit the goal of hosting NCID on the thing, possibly hosting a weather station with http and one wire stuff running. I will put one in Stoneybrook to monitor HVAC, one as a zigbee to LAN gateway or something like that and of course there's the fish pond and greenhouse to consider.

Got up at 5:12 am, the alarm was actually set for 5:15. Did all the morning stuff - filled my thermos, had cereal, put the stuff in the car and left at 5:40 AM. Short delay in Tampa where there was a 3 car accident at I-4. I made some pretty good time. Stopped for gas in Brooksville at 3.59 and again in Reevesville, SC for 3.59 where I stopped at McD for a bathroom break. Got home at 4:30 - Libbie wasn't home. Unpacked and she showed up later. We went out to the Mexican place for Margaritas and food. I had the Pollo chipotle again which I took home in a takeout box for tomorrow. In the evening I fell sound asleep and was awoke y the telephone. when it rang I was so out of it that I didn't know where I was. Went to bed at 10:20 - it felt good to be home.

Took a walk around the block through the housing development in Stoneybrook which I like very much. I imagined myself living there some day. Came home and studied MLP's and data formatting a little. Bought some MLP's in my IRA accounts. The IRA accounts are doing pretty poorly. Is it poor management? The two mutual funds in the Roth are both underwater with little hope for recovery but I'll keep the money there just in case a miracle happens. I ordered a Network Gateway board from Mouser today. This has the AVR32 with Linux kernel. I would like to build a Linux stamp equivalent of my own design.
Enjoyed T Boone Pickins on GMA this morning. I may get his book at Amazon. He talks about his natural gas powered Honda. Went to Publix and got some trip fixins: Plums and trail mix in addition to the few Apples I have leftover that I brought with me. Have to cleanup this place today which shouldn't be too hard. A few loads of laundry and wash the floors.

Woke on time and had my cereal and coffee. It looks like it's going to be a nice day after the big storm yesterday. I'm wearing one of the new Covington shirts this morning and it feels good. I'll probably go out for a morning walk ahead of any possible afternoon rain showers. Took my walk out to the wetland boardwalk in front. Missed lunch at the clubhouse. Even though I was there at 1:30 they said they were closed. Got hold of Lib in the PM and together we worked through the trip arrangements for Corrie's wedding. We're going to the evil empire on Friday and returning on Sunday. I vehemently dislike Rhode Island and New England and think it's a pretty shitty place to be going in the Fall. I would much rather it be a southernly trip. Dinner was some chicken from Publix.

Went out at 7 to get newspaper and use my Wendys free breakfast coupon which expires today. Wendys near the Sarasota mall is closed in the morning. Went home and had cereal. Read the paper then went to Sears to get a roller cover to paint the bathroom and also get some paint masking tape. While there I bought 3 more of the Covington shirts I like. They were on Sale further marked down to 8.99. I paid 11.99 on Friday. Took down the mirror, removed the electrical plates and taped all the moldings and sink counter top in prep for painting. It's a windy day out with on and off rain as the hurricane passes. As part of the Social Security analysis, I built a model spreadsheet to see if I could take early SS payments, invest the proceeds, return all the benefits and reset my rate. This looks promising.
Did the painting which didn't take too long. Cleaned the tools in the kitchen sink at the advice of Libbie. This worked well. The painting looks good. It rained buckets all day long - sometimes horizontally. When the rain let up a little around 8 PM I ran out to Publix and got a 1/2 gallon of skim milk for breakfast tomorrow.

I slept until 7:10 AM this morning. What a good, deep sleep. Had breakfast then called Libbie at 8:15. She still did not have breakfast yet. Watching hurricane Gustav on the weather channel. It appears to be curving further and further West. I'm guessing it will eventually make landfall West of Galveston.
Went out to Penneys and Sears to price shirts. I have a $15 coupon for a purchase over $75. Tall dress shirts by Van Huessen list at $44 but retail for $17 on sale. I also found a sport jacket in 46L that fits. Went over at 4 and bought the shirts and two ties. The guy gave me the coupon back and said I could use it again. After talking with Libbie at home, she convinced me I should return and get the jacket. Talked with Vicki on the phone about 40 minutes regarding Aunt Helen then went back to Penneys at 8:30PM. Picked up the jacket, looked at several more and bought it with the $15 coupon. It was $99 less the $15 for a total of $84 plus tax. Stopped at Publix on the way home and got some Sherbet. Did some computer analysis in the evening.

Started out this morning by going to Penneys and returning the shirt which didn't fit. While there I tried on suit jackets. The sizes were a mixed bag - a few styles in my size then nothing. Went over to Macys and did the same although the prices were a tad higher. They have Donald Trump clothes which tend to be pricier. Drove up Tamiami and stopped in Barnes and Noble to browse the book recommended by Phil Wasserman on local channel 7 but couldn't find it. Went next door to Best Buy and got a new network card. It's there brand, Dynex and was on sale. Drove further up Tamiami and saw the Mens Wearhouse. Proceeded to Selby, walked around, had lunch at "Local Coffee" in Selby since I had a $5 gift card. It was still valid - I got a veggie wrap sandwich and bottle of water. I wanted the water mostly for the bottle. Sat on a bench in the shade and enjoyed the outdoors and the sweeping lawn at Selby while having lunch. Afterwards I cooled down in the car on the way to Mens Wearhouse. I like the store - bought a suit and a sports jacket. The suit pants need cuffs. They will be ready Tuesday night. When I got back I put a limit order in for Selective Insurance at 19.75. The $188 divvy in September should defray some of my clothing costs. After talking to Lib i ordered a turkey sandwich and fruit from the clubhouse at 4. They close today at 5 for a Chuckwagon dinner tonight. The limit order executed so I had to move $3900 over to Scottrade.
Walked all the way around the 1.5 mile loop then had my Turkey sandwich which was very good. We have 2 bikini clad girls in our pool at Clubside. Very nice. Talked to Lib about the suit - I will return the extra jacket but pick up the shirts and ties for a no net difference or close to it. The newspaper has a $15 coupon good at Pennys Sat from 4 to 10 PM. I may use it then and take a look at their sport jackets.

Woke at the normal time and watched GMA during my bowl of cereal. Took a ride to Selby and enjoyed the tropicals. Inside the Mansion the exhibit was an exhibit of art by Selbys instructors. Enjoyed the watercolors. Afterwards took a ride over to Siesta beach and enjoyed a young mother in a very skimpy red and white flower bikini that did not cover her shapely rear end. Stopped at Sears for clothes shopping. Found a few golf shirts, have to take back an Arrow silk shirt because it's too big for me. It's a nice day here and over 90 which we haven't seen much of in Raleigh this august.

Tried to leave a little after 7 this morning in a light rain but didn't get far. A tree fell across the driveway from the remnants of Fay. Libbie helped move the logs that I cut up with the chain saw. We stacked it out by the street. Left at 7:36 AM. Around Fayetteville the weather got pretty nasty as it started raining pretty hard. In SC the sun came out and I had blue skies the rest of the way. The trip was uneventful. Breezed through Baldwin and Starke as well as through Tampa without any delay or stopping. Gas in Florence was 3.38. In Southern Georgia it was 3.59 but in Florida I saw lots of prices around 3.54. Got here at 6:30. Ordered a parmesan crustd Tilapia from the restaurant which is operating out of a trailer. While the meal was cooking I ran over to Publix and got milk and juice for breakfast. Found out that board member Joe Knipper died yesterday. His daughter sent an eMail.

Found Roger Eberts blog thanks to a story in the N&O. It's pretty good, added it to "Tom's Bookmarks". It's lightly raining this morning which we need. Wish it was a little harder. I checked on the newest hurricane - Gustav. It looks like it will be going West into the Gulf instead of affecting my trip to the Florida West Coast this week. Rebuilt the new lid for the Septic and again it's wrong. It doesn't clear the tank. Dinner tonight was Bean Burger with garden tomato. Finished my book and packed my stuff for Sarasota. I'm leaving in the morning.

It's great to have the AVSA obligations completed. Went to Home Depot and picked up some electrical fittings and built an electrical outlet on a post next to the septic tank. Tested it out and all looks good. Will use this to plug the pump and avr power supply into. Had a BLT for lunch then got cleaned up and went to Savvi Tux rental for a fitting. I like the way the Tux looks. This went well. We next went to JoAnn Fabrics on Falls of the Nuese. Libbie got her Orange fabric and pink handles. We stopped into Trader Joes on the way home and picked up Almonds, crab cakes and apples since we were going within a mile of the place. Dinner of course was crab cakes with our garden tomatoes which seem to be coming in abundance today. It was supposed to rain but never did. We could use some badly. Everything is once again drying up.

Did not get up early this morning which was a surprise. Opened my eyes at 7AM and instantly jumped out of bed and got dressed to get the paper. Finished the AVSA CD and drove it to the post office. When I came back i worked on the septic lid. Unfortunately I misjudged the inside supports and have to redo it. Went inside and got cleaned up for our RLT performance - the first of the season. We left at 2 and wandered the Rose Garden. The colors were especially vibrant today- we're having low humidity and only 82 degrees. The Mikado was colorful with a large cast and a small orchestra. A nice enjoyable performance!! RLT continues to wow us with their productions. Libbie made another of her nice thin crust pizzas - this time she put peppers on it. I really started to get into my Sandra Brown novel, The Witness.

I tried burning a DVD in Encore 2 but kept getting an error message that my submenu was too complex to be transcoded. I deleted the submenus and instead put buttons in from the Encore Library. The DVD burn is now proceeding error free. May have to modify the menu again because I don't like where the Main Menu button is located. Modified the Menuu Button and made it like all the other buttons, burned a new DVD and drove it to the Post Office. Also checked out Lowes and Target for sonar measures. Target had a Stanley and a Black-Decker for $30. Went out with Lib to Home Depot and bought some composite boards to build a new septic lid. Didn't like the treated wood because it was wet and I was afraid it would shrink exposing cracks to the septic below. Lib bought masking tape as well. We used a 10% off coupon that came in the mail. Mailed a DVD to Marjorie on this trip. Now there is only the CD to complete. Took a look at Libbie's sewing machine - it keeps jamming. Found that the thread wasn't threaded properly. Dinner tonight, which we ate on the porch, was grilled chicken and Steamfresh Southwestern corn.

Worked on the AVSA Tulsa convention DVD all day today. Put together a bunch of pictures for the venue segment and then started labeling violet pictures for the violet show. Walked the full 4 miles today easily. Don't know what was wrong yesterday. I had tortilla fish before leaving for todays walk. Found some public domain music for the DVD by doing a Google search. Skidmore college has a terrible orchestra but the music is public domain. My Selective Insurance preferred dropped 40 cents today. May pick up some more at the open on Monday. It's 19.35 so I was thinking of putting in a bid at 19.25 which was the low today. Libbie went out at 5 to get fabric on sale at JoAnns fabric at Crossroads. We went out to the Mexican place for dinner and Margaritas. I had the Pollo Chipotle which is a spicy favorite. Afterwards we read using the lights on the porch since it was dark out and then had Frozen Yogurt. When we came inside I went upstairs and finished the AVSA DVD but did not burn it.

I entered a limit order for CEG-A and SZN this morning. I'm buying a small amount of szn as a first buy. I'm also thinking of adding some PHR to the mix but will wait till after the dividend and see what the price does. Will pick up an Ott light lamp for Libbie's sewing machine this morning at Lowes. Will try my Home Depot 10% off coupon first but i don't think they carry Ott lamps. The SZN and CEG purchases both hit at 19.75 and 24.40. Mailed the tape to Anne then bought an Ott light in Lowes as well as some Rubbermaid boxes and some 4x4 posts. Took a look at the construction on the hill - the lot is lowered and smooth. A trailer of hay is sitting there waiting for seeding. Took the crumbled lid off the septic and tested the power going out there. It's still putting out power but the plug and socket are melted and corroded. Next I will build a wood lid for the tank so I can remove the inner tank lid. A wood lid may allow me to cut a hole and mount an ultrasonic range finder.
I was really tired today after my 4 mile walk. Actually, it was hard doing the last mile of the walk. It wasn't too hot but I was out of energy and dragged myself home. Took a nap after my shower then slept in the evening after dinner. Dinner was Bean burgers with garden tomato and vidalia onion.

Disconnected the dishwasher after breakfast in anticipation of a new one today. Used my cap to shut the water off until the new dishwasher gets here. Inspected the septic again - still the same with a slow drip coming from the cut pipe. I can't work outside today since I'm waiting for the dishwasher delivery to call (if they do that). Downloaded Audacity, a free sound editor, from Soundforge. Used it to remove the clicks from Anne's wineglass chime sound file. Created an M3U playlist for WinAmp to play all the MP3's with the chime sound. Talked to Jennifer about fixing her dog fence zapper - it got hit by lightning. Did some more experimenting with the credit card reader on the Verifone. Did not find a clock signal going over to the Motherboard, only the data. Did my 4 mile walk carrying a cell phone but the dishwasher didn't come. Got a call from the delivery company after I came home and took my shower. They're on the way. Let's see how this goes.
Hooked up the new dishwasher when it arrived and ran an empty load then we put the dishes from the day intoit and ran it. Everything seems to be well. Received a 13k check from Vicki from moms estate. Interestingly, I was looking into an insurance company and Constellation energy during the day. Finished recording the AVSA audio tape after finding the first time that the tape was too short. Dinner was BLT's with our garden tomatoes. In the evening Libbie's sewing machine quit so we went to Sears to look at new ones after checking Consumer Reports online. CU didn't have ratings but they did have some generic buying advice which was mildly useful. We bought a middle line Kenmore from a young lady who seemed to be wearing painted on clothes. She had tight white jeans and a black sweater - very nice. Libbie unpacked the machine and started sewing sample stitches.