We got up this morning at 7 and started loading the car from the hotel storage room. Saw a lot of people on their way out the door - the Carters, Judi du Pont, the Wagmans and Sue. We stopped at the WaWa across from the hotel for 1.78 gas. Down the road in Ashland we stopped at a brand new McDonald's and got our breakfast - coffee and bacon egg and cheese biscuits. The trip was very relaxing - the sun was out, the temp was in the 50's and traffic was not bad. I drove straight to the greenhouse where we unloaded the car before coming home. We got home shortly after 1 PM. Kathy G dropped out of the book so we have to find somebody else to do this. She recommended Marjorie and Janet.

I went down at 7 am to the showroom to take photos but it was locked. About 7:15 I finally got in and started taking the honors table and the best in class winners. Lib came down to get me for dinner then we walked over to the ihop where I had the senior buttermilk pancakes. At noon today we had the meeting getting everybody together. We got Kitty to start thinking about niches from the Richmond club. She said she likes being an Indian but not a chief. I was the emcee for dinner - the dinner went well. We sat with the Carrs from Ohio and Kathy Lahti. It was a very nice evening. The Wagmans were honored with honorary life memberships.

Friday We slept late. It was good that Sue called at 7 because we were out cold. I went to the two training sessions for the convention and they went very well. The AVSA executive team was present at the second meeting. In the evening we had a nice dinner with a buffet of horsd'oeuvres consisting of cheese and fruit. We had Merlot for drinks. Dinner was very nice - I had the salmon with salad and fruitcake.

We had our normal breakfast and got out the door at 8:09 but around Western Blvd I remembered that I forgot to bring the design tools. We turned around and lost 40 minutes on our journey. The drive up 95 was tough because of the rain and the whiteout conditions we encountered from the trucks. We stopped in mcDonalds at the exit before our hotel and had lunch - we each had a Big Mac and split an order of fries. Sue met us at the hotel - we unpacked the car and set up the booth while I worked on my designs. The aquarium tube I bought was short - it was supposed to be 8 feet but was only about 4 feet. Went to the Olive Garden for dinner with a bottle of Pinot Noir which was slightly oxidized. Olive Garden has certainly improved - I had chicken breast in Apricot sauce. The family style salad was very good as it always was. After dinner we went to Office Depot and bought lights for the table. They only had 2 in boxes plus the floor sample or else we would have bought more.

This was a very busy day. Worked on the battery terminal box installing the bus jumpers and also installed the 12 volt cigarette lighter socket I bought in Walmart this morning. I also went over to Michaels and AC Moore for design supplies. Also went to Target and Office Max. Jennifer called that she had some Farmer Johns and a straw hat. I went over to the greenhouse and installed a 24 vac relay while waiting for her. This completes wiring the heater which makes me a very happy camper!!! Worked on gathering design supplies then returned some plumbing parts to Home Depot with Libbie, returned some lights to Target then went over to PetSmart and picked up some aquarium tubing for my design. We had dinner at Paneras - we had a buy one get one free coupon. I had a veggie sandwich and French Onion soup. Came home and ran around some more getting stuff together. Settled down to watch the CMA awards on TV.

Mounted the bypass switch in the battery terminal box. Picked up some warm white LED's in Krogers for the Ficus tree on the backporch and replaced one set of the blue white strand. Did some scanning catchup work on birthday cards, tax bills and misc.

Worked out the details for hooking the aux heater up to the thermostat terminal box and the new battery terminal box. Drew the schematic in Orcad for future reference. This took having to measure the existing terminal box to figure out how it's wired. The schematic should help with this in the future. Hung the rest of the tubing for the aux heater in the greenhouse and fired the heater up to test it out. Much remains to do. Dinner was TJ's lasagna. After dinner we watched a pretty good Dancing With the Stars. Brooke is a great dancer. Edita was showing her lovely body once again. Her practice sessions in the little short shorts are pretty nice to see.

After the newspaper I went to the greenhouse and replaced the faulty wire. The heater now lights but the flame is yellow. Came back with the manometer and checked the pressures then tried to fool around with adjusting the air but could not make the flame blue. Possibly the burner has spread out too much. Libbie made her excellent pizza again.

I worked building the battery box this morning. It's a warm day outside. Went over to the greenhouse and hooked up the new gas valve but no flame!!! did some debugging after going home to get my meters. The regulator pressure is OK. I actually was able to lower it a little. Next I tried electrical testing. I found that there was no power on the valve. Traced the lack of power to a bad wire coming from the conduit near the cooling outlet. I didn't have wire to fix this so we went home. Libbie fixed scallops in wine sauce over rice with peas. We had this with Chardonnay. Watched Mama Mia after dinner. Not a good movie but the Abba music was great. Meryl Streep is campy and wonderful.

The printer said my convention booklet was size to 8.5x11 insread of 8.5x5.5 i opened up PM and re spooled it back out to the PDF converter after setting the paper options in the PDF converter to custom. Went to the greenhouse and installed the FanJet tube under the bench in house 1. This went well. I used the unpunched tube. My gas valve sold on eBay using the Buy It Now. Took it to the greenhouse for pack and ship service. Ordered a gas valve from Grainger for Will Call pickup. Libbie and I picked it up this afternoon and also bought gas on Capitol Blvd for 2.19. Behind Grainger we stopped into Home Depot and bought a 100 pack of #8 and #6 screws. I need them for the terminals in the terminal box. It's a gorgeous day out - on the way home we stopped at the greenhouse and I assembled a cap on the new exhaust stack. Libbie stayed in the gh and plugged in my extension cord while I worked on the cap on the outside drilling holes for the sheet metal screws to hold everything together.
We went to First Friday at 6:30. There was quite a crowd everywhere downtown but the galleries were not as full. We were disappointed there was no band outside Artspace. Interestingly, Visual Arts had a DJ and loud music which was annoying. We ended up at Caffe Luna where I had the grilled tuna and 2 glasses of Merlot. The Rodney Strong Merlot was very good. At Paris Alexander studio we were served champagne. He was celebrating awards in several cities.

I painted the battery terminal box this morning using the green paint left over from the greenhouse garage building. Libbie cleaned the brush when she came home.
Happy 62nd birthday to me. The WII wished me Happy Birthday and also was wearing a birthday hat as well as confetti and streamers. Nice. Libbie made a birthday Apple Pie for me and gave me a new 1/4 inch drill bit because she noticed my old bit was dull while trying to put the bolts into the duct. Finished installing the duct on the other side of the aisle. It's all ready for the fanjet tubing. The fire Ants are active today since the temp is in the 70's. Arlene gave me a Yo Yo Ma Cd for my birthday and Mary and George gave me a book from Island Books like they always do. Vicki called in the evening. This was my first birthday in which there was no birthday card from Mom. So sad. Joe called this morning to wish me a happy birthday. he also sent a link to the uploaded wedding pictures from the photographer. She did a terrible job - cut people off at the waist, put mostly sky in the pictures and tried to correct the exposure with Paint shop. Awful - I feel bad for Christa.

Built the battery terminal box today then tried to work some more on the Venus layout. I'm not happy with placement and possibly function. Went to the greenhouse and started installing one of the ducts next to the aisle. It was a little tough crawling around on the gravel. Totally finished the job on one side of the aisle after having to go to Lowes to get 3 2x4's. Tomorrow I'll do the duct on the other side of the aisle. Heard from the Hilton that they are booked for next fall for MAAVS. Dinner was a delicious Turkey pie. Watched Dancing with the Stars this evening and watched Susan Lucci get eliminated. Accidentally went to bed early at 10 PM. I was tired.
Received the eBay gas valve today. Unfortunately it can't be converted to propane. I put it back on eBay.

In the morning I did the rounds of Trader Joes, Krogers and also stopped by St Andrews to vote. Had to hang around today for a conference call at 3 with the rehab center about Aunt Helens progress. I think the phone call was a waste but they think they're doing something. After the call went to Garner for the ducts.
Drove in the rain to Garner and picked up the 18 inch ducts. Had a hard time fitting everything in my tiny Toyota.
We played Wii in the evening. Talked to Vicki this evening about the conference call we had this afternoon with the nursing home about aunt Helens rehab. Dinner was Pasta.

Worked on the Venus layout. Would like to send it out this week but it probably won't be ready. Went to Johnstone Supply to get 18 inch ducts - they didn't have any but they sent me to Michels next door. Ordered them from their Rocky Mount Store for pickup tomorrow. Dinner was pasta.

Heard from Judi about the 2009 convention. Her themes are about couples or comedians. I have some updates to do on the convention booklet this morning. It's a nice day, went to the greenhouse and stapled the plastic around the exhaust pipe. Fired up the heater and Fan Jet combo and everything worked as it was designed to. I may have to do a better job in tightening the FanJet belt. I also need to put the guards around the fan jet housing. The big news is that everything works!!!!
Late in the day Ken Barbi sent an updated membership list with email addresses and URL's for the commercials.
We had 2 of Libbie's great pizzas for dinner.

Worked on the MAAVS booklet some more, finally finishing it late in the day. At mid-morning I cut the plywood and tin for the through wall exhaust support. Went over to the greenhouse around noon and hooked up the exhaust pipe. While I was there I finished hooking up the regulator vent line. The heater is ready to go but i didn't test it. Went home and finished the booklet, uploaded it and sent out notices of the proof copy availability. Libbie fixed our turkey breast which we had with Korbel Brut, squash, potatoes, stuffing and cranberries. Very nice. Afterwards we watched the Aviator. My PC froze before the end of the movie.

Today is Halloween. I spent most of the day working on the MAAVS convention booklet. In the afternoon I went to the grocery store and picked up fixings for our turkey dinner - bread, celery, milk, etc. Dinner was scallops over rice with Chardonnay.

Did some work on the MAAVS convention book today then went over to the greenhouse to pick up Libbie to go over to Tony Avents. We talked about an AVSA convention tour. Afterwards we had lunch at Smithfield barbecue. At home I went back to working on the convention booklet. Dinner was TJ's Lasagna and Canneloni.

I disassembled the gas valve in house 4 and found it did not work when heat is called for. The thing is 10 years old or older. The regulator problem on the generator controller turned out to be a miswiring - went out to the greenhouse with Libbie and installed the generator controller and made a test run with it. All was well. Rewired the controller terminal box so that house 4 thermostat turns on house 3 heater and also removed the FanJet from the thermostat. I will restore this when we get house 4 heater running again. Late at night I won an eBay auction for a new gas valve from Vista, CA. My winning bid was $36.83 plus $14 shipping. There were 9 other bids. Ii talked to Arlene earlier this morning - Tess died yesterday. Funerl is Friday - i went in with Arlene and Vicki for flowers.

Got a call from Anne that the office needs the CO and MN DVD's because there's is corrupt. Went over to the greenhouse after the Tuesday grocery run and diagnosed the controller which had a loud buzz when we called it overnight. Found that the battery was toast. Got a new one at Walmart for the replacement warranty cost, about $28 instead of $50 for a new battery. Unfortunately when hooking up the new battery I hooked it up backwards and blew up the controller. Not sure how much damage I caused. Hopefully it's just the regulators on the circuit boards. Dinner was fresh pasta.
At home I replaced the regulators and we drove back out there at 8 PM. The wind was howling and it was cold. The Fred monitor worked like a charm. The generator controller had no power from the 5 volt regulator. I took it home again. In addition, the heater in house 4 will not come on. Libbie uses this heater for keeping the back house above freezing. When we got home we found Aunt Helen was taken to the hospital. she has pneumonia and a fever. Watched Dancing with the Stars tonight and saw Cloris Leachman get eliminated. I chose not to work on the regulator anymore today.

Today is our last warm day so I may go over to the greenhouse and work on the wiring in the garage before the garage gets too cold and numbs my fingers. Laurene sent me the registration file which is in MS Works format. I found a java converter on the web that converted it into an Excel spreadsheet file.
The union hooking the gas line to the heater was leaking as determined by Libbie's soap solution. Fixed the leak then went into the garage to start hooking up the transfer relay and attaching to the electrical panel.
Went back with Libbie and finished the wiring to the electrical panel. The new heater now has power and it's through the transfer switch but there is no power on the transfer relay. I made a test run with the generator. All seems to be well. For dinner we had TJ's Canneloni and Lasagna. Afterwards we watched Dancing with the Stars.

After the newspaper this morning I went to the greenhouse and hooked up the gas line with regulator to the new heater. I had to do a Home Depot trip to get two 12 inch pipes to finish the job. The gas is now plumbed but not leak tested. I'm also not sure about the old regulator I hooked up. It was salvaged from the shed and the inlet ports were clogged solid with insects and mud. I disassembled the regulator last night and cleaned it. I still need to hook up the vent port. We went to RLT this afternoon to see Death Trap, a comedy "who done it?". I wasn't in the mood for it since I have so much other stuff on my plate but it was enjoyable. Back home I started the MAAVS convention booklet. Libbie made her excellent pizza again. On 60 minutes this evening there was a nice story about T Boone Pickens.

Traviata was not up this morning. I logged into the console remoteley and restarted the Apache/php service which doesn't self start. Apparently the server had an update last night which required a reboot which it automatically performed. Wired the relay for the FanJet then moved the heater onto the concrete blocks. Libbie and I took a Home Depot trip and got some gas piping parts. We also went to Ace for a Fan belt then Target for ribs for dinner. Finally she wanted to do Office Max for plastic tape. I had a $10 off card which reduced the $22 to $12. Dinner was ribs with beans and rice and Shiraz. We need to stop having this much wine.

Went to the greenhouse and cut into the propane lines to install a tee and shutoff for the new heater. Joy was there helping Libbie. The project went successfully - I went there in the morning in case it was going to take all day but in about one hour I was already leak testing the new connections. Came home and the relays were waiting for me on the front porch. I ordered them Monday so I could control the Fan Jet the same time as the new heater. I will mount the relay inside the heater. Found an old FanJet fan belt - will match it up at Ace Hardware tomorrow. Did not return to the greenhouse. Libbie fixed stuffed flounder and Yams which we had with Chardonnay. After dinner we watched "the Big Lebowski", an old 1998 movie that we had not seen.

Worked on the Venus controller a little in the morning before going over to the greenhouse. Nancy was with Libbie there while I wired the electrical outlet for the new heater. I put the last piece of conduit in to the outlet, screwed it down then put in an outlet. Need to come back with an outlet cover. Tomorrow I'll get into the gas line. After lunch we went to the State Fair because it was free admission today with 4 cans of food for the foodbank. Walked around the gardens, looked at the pathetic violets then went thourgh the village of yesteryear where we bought fudge. Toured the watermelons, sweet potatoes and pumpkins before watching some sheep judging and looking at a few dairy cows. Next we went over to the quilts and cake decorating. Met a very nice lady who took the time to show us all the quilt entries. Bought some peanuts from the peanut roaster. Walked through an environmental tent that had some electric cars then went into the Scott building for Libbie to get milk. Walked down the midway and saw some Hot Wisconsin Cheese being deep fat fried. We did not get any since we just bought a funnel cake with powdered sugar and cinnamon. It was an interesting afternoon of getting our exercise. We were back in Apex around 6:15 where we stopped at home to wash our hands and face before going out to dinner at La Concina. I had the Pollo chipotle again with a frozen Margarita. Came in and fell asleep on the couch.