I played with the Wii this morning and also added some of the packet processing to Loge. Late morning I went to the greenhouse and started moving the FanJet into place. Did a Home Depot run for conduit, wire and plumbing pipes for the propane line. At home Libbie and I did some more Wii stuff before I went to the greenhouse and worked some more on the FanJet. Came home tired. We got cleaned up and went to La Concina for 99 cent Margaritas and dinner. I had the Pollo Chipotle. The bill with drinks was 19.71 which is pretty good. After dinner we bowled some on Wii then watched Dancing with the stars which was delightful since they did Jitterbug, Salsa and West Coast Swing as well as the Hustle.

What a busy day. I bought the Sunday paper and found that Best Buy had the Wii on sale for $249 plus the FIT for $89. After gooing to the greenhouse and moving the new Modine to the front of House 1, I went with Libbie to Best Buy at 11 AM. There was a line for the Wii - they had to talk to each person and harass him or her before selling them the Wii. The asshole tried to sell me another Remote and made a wise remark that I must like playin with myself. At the register the cashier harassed me about laughing at the warranty they wanted to sell me for $29. Went home for lunch of BLT which was delicious then went over to the greenhouse and pulled the shade cloths off. While I was still dirty I took the heat shield off the FanJet and moved both the heat shield and the unit down where I moved the heater. Both units are now in place. Back home I tested the controller some more - it's performing very well. I'm going to add packet processing to it so I can network it with other controller cards. Libbie and I bowled some on the Wii and I took the fitness test where it determined I was as fit as a 43 year old. Libbie made a yummy pizza tonight with some whole tomatoes from the garden in it.

I did some research on Wii combo packs online. Most are in the $430 to $475 range with Walmart having a combo special for $459 but out of stock online. I got the Loge controller working pretty well, solving the problems of the simulator. The simulator has been very valuable uncovering some problems with the sequencing of relays. The regulator gets a little warm at 12 volts but isn't too bad at 8 volts. I may have to run this on an external 5 volt supply. We went to Fresh market and found Chicken Venetian which was a chicken pastry with cheese and mushrooms. We also had squash and Chardonnay. For desert I had a Canolli. What a nice night. Watched Jerry McGuire on Flix, the showtime classics channel.

This morning I did some work on our wedding pictures on the Picasa site adding face names to Google's face technology. Did some rewiring of the Loge board - it was correctly wired for the MOSFET drivers but the RED LED was incorrectly placed (assembly error). So far no errors in the PCB. Arlene called and said that David gave us the $750 deposit money back after inspecting the house. Stopped over at the greenhouse and said hi to Jack who was back from Portland. Looked over the new Modine that arrived. It will go in house 1 underneath bench 1 or maybe in the dead man space blowing into the fan jet under the bench. Dinner was stuffed salmon with yams and Shiraz. We watched a movie, Bread and Tulips on Flix this evening but I fell asleep through some of it.

We got a late start today. I picked up some groceries at Krogers - mostly Lean Cuisines and some seasonal produce. We watched the Dancing with the Stars we missed earlier but I fell asleep through some of it. I rewired the FET's on LOGE because I thought they were miswired. Went through the mail - my orders from BG micro, Digikey and Maxim Sample parts all arrived to complete PCB assembly. The critical item was the terminal strip with 100 mil spacing. This is a nice terminal strip.

Got up at 6 AM Pacific time and showered and had breakfast. This is our last day here. Took our last walk down Main St then when out on the pier, turned around at 9:15. Left the house by 9:50 and took the Pac Coast to Newport where we picked up 55 North and topped off the gas tank at 3.32 per gal. Arrived at the terminal at 10:30 and after security and check in we had a Big Mac from the McDonalds in the terminal. Our plane got off OK at 11:55 for a very smooth flight into Atlanta. We got to Atlanta 20 minutes early but there was no gate for us. Once inside we found our 8:04 flight was delayed until 8:50. At 9:30 we were number 3 for takeoff but had to taxi back due to an overheating engine and oil leak. They got us another 757 at gate A2 from our plane at gate A18. We eventually landed in Raleigh at 12:30. After getting the car, luggage and a trip to Krogers for cereal and milk we got in at 2:00 AM. It was a long but satisfying day. It was great to be back.

Got up our usual 6 or so and had breakfast before going over to the Best Western to say goodbye to Holly and Darrel. We next went over to Joe and Christa's and met Joe getting the boat ready in the street. They go over to Catalina today. Left there and headed South to Laguna. Walked around the Montage resort and enjoyed the path and beach. Libbie fell into the water climbing some rocks - it looks like her camera is dead. We stopped at a nice grocery store and picked up sandwiches and water which we ate at a picnic lunch in San Juan Capistrano. We went into the old mission ($16) and enjoyed the old adobe buildings, beautiful gardens and the butterflys and hummingbirds. Craig and Debbie called us from there and invited us over for dinner. Took I-5 up from Capistrano to Whittier and had a nice outdoor barbecue of Carni Asada on Tortillas with the fixings. Left there in the dark and used the GPS to get us home. Took the PAC Coast down to HB because we had to pick up the party leftovers at the brewery and put them in Joe's garage. Main Street was closed because of a street fair which happens every Tuesday night.

This is the day after. We had a leisurely morning looking at pictures. Around 11 AM Craig, Debbie and joe and Christa came over to open wedding presents. I also copied the pictures from the Lapworth camera. We put all the presents in the Lapworth SUV for storage in their backyard. Afterwards we went to the Huntington Beach Beer Co for lunch. I had the clam chowder and salad. The chowder was served in a bread bowl which was delicious. Later that day Libbie and i went to El Ranchito for dinner with Margaritas.

The wedding day was surprisingly another busy one. We went out to the iHop
for breakfast with all the Condon girls. We waited a long time for a table
but finally we got two booths - one for the girls and one for the guys.
I had the avocado and bacon omelet which came with a side order of buttermilk
pancakes. Too much food. Because breakfast was over past noon, we skipped lunch
and got ready for the wedding. My top button broke in a moment of pancake.
Joe gave me sandals for wearing on the sand but I stuck with the shoes and socks
until needed. Sandals seem very uncomfortable to me.

We had a nice slow start and then drove with Mary and John to
the rehearsal site on the beach. We had to pay $10 parking for
the one hour of the rehearsal. It seemed to be pretty chilly and
a little windy. Afterwards we all went to Rubys. Met Josh's
parents on the beach - they had wandered up from Laguna and
stumbled upon us doing the rehearsal. We invited them to Rubys
but they bowed out. The Ruby rehearsal dinner was nice - the
kids were excited with their iPod gifts. The dinner was good.
David and Peter joined us - David picked up Peter at John Wayne
and made it back. Arlene, Jessica and David and Ellie also made
it to Ruby's which was great. The bill ended up being around
$700. When we got back to the house our Gerbers had all wilted
and needed help. Arlene and I went out to get floral wire which
we got at 1-800 flowers. In the evening we went over to La
Capilla at 6:30 to set up the flowers and the sheet cake. Our
guests started arriving at 6:45 - we had the Margaritas and the
drinks brought out earlier than 7 but we couldn't start eating
until the Groom arrived. Joe arrived at 7:05 and we got started
with dinner. We ended up with 48 plates and 9 pitchers of
Margaritas. Mary Elaine and her boyfriend Josh were also there,
making it 3 Benziger kids and 3 Sroczynski kids. We left there around
9 and went home pleasantly tired. The bill came in at $800. We previously
put down a $200 deposit so the grand total was $1000.

In the morning we went to Sams to get a sheet cake which we had
engraved with "Three Cheers, your day is here". We picked up the
glass beads for the flower vases. On a walk I found a guy
selling watercolors of Rubys. Told him I would be back with my
wife. Libbie and sue went with the women to get their nails
done. When they returned Libbie and I went back to the Farmers
market at the pier. She found Gerber Daisies from a guy which
we negotiated for $32 for 6 bundles including the pail they were
in. At the watercolor place we not only got "Going to Rubys" but
we also picked up the Huntington Beach brewery painting and also
a Main Street scene that Libbie found. We got all 3 paintings
for $45 in cheap frames. We also looked for Huntington Beach
placemats but no luck. For dinner tonight we went over to Joe's
for pizza. all the boys were there - it was pretty loud with the
guys playing Guitar hero. Later they put on Wii fitness. Aiden
was great at the ski jump and a few other wii games such as
hitting soccer balls with his head. I had too much pizza and
also a few beers from Joe's tap. It was a fun night.

We surprisingly slept until 6 AM then got up to make coffee and
have our shredded wheat breakfast. I didn't like the Trader
Joe's breakfast blend coffee. It tasted more l ike Maxwell house
with soy fillers. We drove to LAX at the embassy suites and
picked up Sue who is going to stay with us till Saturday. On the
way back we stopped at Nordstroms to steam the dress and also
Crate and Barrel to buy a set of silver ware for Joe's wedding
gift. We had lunch late in the afternoon at Wahoos. Later Joe
came over to our house and started grilling some tri tips and
grilled veggies that we ate on Tortillas with Mondavi Pinot Noir.
The Pinot was pretty good but we should have had the Trader Joes
wine instead from an economy standpopint.

Got up at 4:30 for a 5:15 AM departure. We need to park in the
outbound lot, lot 3 because of the length. Our flight left at 7
AM on time and got into John Wayne a little early. We got a
Pontiac Vibe which I was very happy with except it stunk with
cigarette smoke. It was the last 4 door mid size so we kept it.
Stopped at Joe's and went to Wahoos for a veggie bowl lunch.
After lunch hung out at Joe's until our landlord called that he
was available to check us in. The house was nice although it
needed a little TLC. It had a SOLD sign on it. When Libbie was
here in September it was "For Sale". Paul and Marijah came and
met us outside the house. We all walked down to Ruby's for
dinner. When Christa got out of work, she and Joe joined us.
Afterwards even though we were tired we went over to La Capilla
to settle on the menu for Saturday night. We had to choose 3
items from the menu which we did with Joe's help. We also did
the grocery store, Trader Joes, and got wine, cereal, coffee and
milk.

We leave for California tomorrow. Lib and I spent the afternoon packing. We will have two big suitcases and the carryon. I'm bringing the computer. Dinner was the leftover barbecue chicken on buns. We have to get up at 4:30 AM tomorrow morning. I'm reading Grapes of Wrath which I'm really getting into.

After the Sunday newspaper routine I went to Home Depot to pick up a copper tee for the spigot plumbing. Cut the pipes and soldered the tee to the line and mounted a block of wood to fasten the end of the 1/2" pipe against. The spigot is pretty firm and stands 6 inches above the sink. It took a few hours to accomplish but it turned out well. After a lean Cuisine lunch of sezchuan shrimp we went to the WCPE open house in Rolesville. We have never been there before. Walked around the studio, had birthday cake then toured the transmitter and generator building. It was pretty comprehensive. I took lots of pictures of the music collection, offices and inside the transmitter building. We came back via I-540 and the 64 bypass to the beltline. It was an easy trip back. Libbie made her excellent pizza and I watched a 60 minutes story about the electric car revival featuring the GM Volt and the Tesla motor company sports car.

The countdown is on for the rehearsal dinner next Saturday. Libbie has 40 positive responses and she also thinks Holly and Darrel will be coming. I doubt it since we heard that as of last Saturday at Corrie's wedding they didn't even have tickets yet but they accepted the invitation. I spent the morning and part of the afternoon hooking up the new faucet on the back porch sink. On the way back from Ace Hardware I went up Laura Duncan and saw a spectacular house fire - they appear to intentionally burning a ranch home in back of the old Winn Dixie.
The faucet works and I punched a hole in the sink for the new spigot but I haven't hooked it up yet. This evening we had crab stuffed salmon and acorn squash for dinner. After dinner we watched Father of the Bride on FLIX. This was a very good movie.

Worked on the fish pond version of Loge defining the timers, etc. Looked some more at the runaway problem on Kahlo. It could be it takes a while for it to get to the magnetron off routine. I don't know why it takes seconds but I'll hook up the scope and see what's going on. The bathroom drain was leaking due to a cracked washer. We went to Lowes and got a drain repair kit for $7. This is an expensive washer. We also bought some new faucets for the sink on the back porch. This new one is higher and will allow a pail under the spigot. I'm also going to put a hose bib mounted on the sink basin. Took the dead tree down next to the house. Dropped some of it on Longo's property but I'm cutting it all up and putting it on the pile in the back. The new washer fixed the leak under the sink. I'll keep the extra parts in case something else breaks but I don't think so. Tonight is First Friday. I have dinner reservations at Cafe Luna downtown tonight.
We had a wonderful time at first Friday. Found street parking in front of Exploris then walked to Visual Arts where there was a "perspective" art show. Had some wine then went over to ArtSpace and had more wine while browsing various galleries. Talked to Judy Crane about her painting in the Marriott. She's a nice lady, we chatted a little about her art and the nice work she does. Next went to the quilting lady. I wish I brought my camera. Many nice night scenes with lights to photograph as well as some indoor shots. There was a pretty good street band playing some Bruce Springsteen and Rolling Stones music. I also enjoyed some of the scenery - nice looking woman in pretty clothes. Had dinner at Cafe Luna - I ordered the veal cannelloni which was a nightly special. Libbie had the Totelli cruscettia which is a seafood dish in a rich cream saucee. After dinner we went back to listen to the band some more and went home at 10 PM.

Finished the layout and sent it to AP Circuits in Canada. I made A change so it would accommodate a push button switch so that it could be used on Genny as a generator controller. I'm also looking into using this as a crawl space vent timer possibly tied into a humidity sensor to fine tune crawl space venting. I spent some time putting together orders on Digikey and Mouser. I ended up using Mouser but found out they don't carry Maxim parts. I ended up requesting samples from Maxim for both the A/D battery converter and the RS485 transceiver. Mouser will supply the resistors I don't have and the Max202 RS232 transceiver. I found that I have some surface mount LED's from my IBM days that I can use. The RED one was an SOT23 package which I tested and also tried on the LED pads and all looks well. I don't need the RS485 transceiver from Maxim yet and the Battery Monitor is for a photocell circuit which I haven't worked on yet. Dinner was the Trader Joe's Eggplant Parmesan which was very tasty. I programmed John's controller card and it ran away to 78 degrees C before I shut it down.

Tried reading the netlist into the layout program but there were some issues with the footprints. I ended up making a footprint for a solder cup DB9 rather than order a normal through hole one. Fixed some drill sizes to match the AP standard drill list. Libbie and I walked the lake so I could take bat house pictures then we went to Home Depot for divider wall plastic. I paid the rental money today for our Huntington Beach rental house and also paid the quarterly for Stoneybrook. This is getting expensive. Found out the $300 check never made it to David Kazan. Am investigating with the credit union. I successfully made a wiring run of Loge. Will sit on it overnight. Dinner was crab cakes with macaroni salad. I watched Adrift in manhattan on the Movie Channel.

I spent the morning working on the footprints for Loge. Around noon I noticed it was Tuesday so I needed to get groceries. Did the Trader Joes and Krogers runs then went over to the greenhouse to debug the generator. Found that a wire broke off the battery which resulted in no power to the relay box that enables the starter, ignition and transfer relays. Went back home for a soldering iron since the original was a crimp connection which got loose. I don't like the other crimp connections either although they seem to be tight. At some point I'll replace them with solder connections for reliability reasons. Got on a ladder and used my rake tied to a rope to clean the valley over the garage. Got a wheelbarrow of pine straw for the front then blew the scraps off the driveway. Dinner was Trader Joes pasta. In the evening we watched Dancing with the Stars that we missed last night and then I stayed up to watch the results show. Kim Cardashian was kicked off - I didn't really like her.

I worked on the software for Loge, the furnace selector. Also spent some time adding the PCB footprints to the design. Need to create some footprints for the relays and possibly some of the headers. Went to Krogers and picked up a chicken and potato salad and macaroni salad for dinner. The market had a meltdown today - down 777 points. Interestingly, the one preferred I was looking at from Lincoln National was only down .07. Why is it the stuff I own goes down several points while the stuff I want to buy never seems to be at a bargain. Dinner of course was the chicken and the two salads.

I worked some more on the Loge controller. Did a footprint for the relay I'm going to use. I also managed to find a pdf spec of the thing on the web which is good. Had to go to Ace hardware to get a replacement spring for one of the greenhouse shutters. The spring broke where it attaches to the shutter. This is a natural wear point. Libbie and I went to the greenhouse and measured and also discussed where and how to add an auxiliary heater. Modine makes a 125,000 BTU Hot Dawg heater that is also available in a 2 stage model. With some intelligent control algorithm I may be able have an AVR measure outside temperature and make a decision on which heater to use including using them both for really cold temperatures. When we got back we took a walk back to the Seagroves farmhouse which they are preparing to move. Pacific Standard also seems to be building a few spec homes which I think is foolish. Only 2 of the homes under construction have SOLD signs on them. There are also a few with Open House signs. I need to go back to the greenhouse and troubleshoot the generator auto starting circuitry. It seems to not be able to start the generator from the AVR controller card but manual starting works very well. This could be anything including bad Solid State Relays, low voltage on the relay coils, bad wiring to the relays, bad wiring from the relays to the generator. Libbie made her usual excellent pizza for dinner.

It still looks nasty in the Northeast. Libbie is having pangs of regrets about canceling but I'm happy about it. It would be miserable up there. I worked on Loge, an AVR controller to select which heater to use for greenhouse heating. In the afternoon we went to Fresh Market and picked up some precooked ribs to have with squash and Shiraz for dinner. After dinner i watched a little of the Babysitters which I downloaded.

It was a rainy windy night. We woke this morning to hear Washington Mutual collapsed overnight. In the meantime, the Federal bailout is mired in political squabbling. We have to fly today in awful weather. I heard from John - he is going to bring the microwave and some chemicals for testing.
We left for the airport at 10:30 in some rain squalls which eventually cleared up by the time we got to the airport. I dropped Libbie off and parked the car in the parking garage. When I got to the Southwest counter in the rain Libbie decided that we shouldn't go. A lot of flights were delayed or canceled and our flight was 90 minutes delayed with a stop in Philly which looked like we may spend the night there. We stopped at Courtneys for lunch. I had the Colorado scramble and Libbie had a country scramble. The difference was she got cheese and I got ham in our dishes. The day didn't turn out too bad. We had Butternut Squash soup for sesert which was pretty bland. Watched a little of the debate then went to bed after unpacking the suitcase.

I loaded 300 ml of alcohol into the microwave and had quite a bit of success maintaining 70C for 10 minutes in a number of runs. The new algorithm seems to be doing well. I'm going to bring my laptop and JTAG device to Rhode Island. It's a rainy day today. We have a Noreaster forming off the coast and is going to track up the coast and follow us to RI tomorrow. It won't be a pretty weekend. I checked us in to Southwest - we both got the A boarding group. I checked some of my preferreds today - I would guess the damages are down about 10% in preferreds and 30% in my one MLP which is MWE. I expect all to recover eventually. It's a tough call - the economy is bad enough and natural gas has fallen where there may not be significant recovery in MLP's. The preferreds are quality issues so they may fare better. I would like to pick up some NRN tomorrow which is trading at 18 but will probably settle around 20. Dinner tonight was trader joe's barbecue chicken on toast. It lacked a bite - it tasted pretty bland. I'm not looking forward to our evil empire trip tomorrow.