Went to a 9 AM appointment at the eye doctor. He wants me to switch to a different contact lens. I have the trial one in my eye now. Picked up the construction materials for the greenhouse. Visited there earlier and inspected the wood and which boards need to be replaced. Took Libbie aroudn to all the groceries stores and Target looking for round rubbernaid pie pans for her fruit cake. We had no luck. Earlier in the day I picked up a six foot plasic folding table at Office Max. It was on sale for $49 plus I got a $10 coupon in the mail which I used. Over at Lowes I also had a $10 coupon when i bought the nuts, bolts and wood. Dinner was turkey chowder with noodles. We had some of the fruit cake for desert. Joe sent an interesting eMail about using an itouch for a controller. I did a little research on the iTouch and computer control.

Picked up some groceries but not a large amount. Worked on the state machine for the greenhouse controller, LOGE. Finished up most of it but still need a way to test it. Dinner was pasta from Trader joes.

Woke this morning to hear that Citi was bailed out over night. This is getting bad. Worked on putting LOGE into an enclosure. I had to do some manual wiring because the card traces are too small to handle the thermostat relay current. i estimate the current at 100 to 200 ma. I used some pieces of #24 wire from ethernet cable to wire to the relay. The wires go to a terminal strip inside the box. In the PM Libbie and I went to Trader Joes for apples for an apple pie she wants to make. Also picked up some cranberries, blueberries and almonds. Dinner was a turkey dinner from yesterday.

Picked up a paper then while reading my eMail found out from Jim that Opera LaFinesse is doing Barber of Seville in HD at the Cary theater. Took a look at converting the temperatures for the controller and made all the changes so it will compile for two one wire buses. Still need to know what to do with this info. Libbie made a turkey today instead of Thanksgiving because we'll be going to Jack and Barbara's for Thanksgiving. Fell asleep tonight at my computer upstairs. Went to bed at 1:15 when I woke up.

I expected to work on the greenhouse controller LOGE this morning but instead did a bunch of catch up stuff. We left for the opera at 11:30. This time we were in Brier Creek for La Damnation of Faust. It was an enjoyable performance done by the Cirque S'oleil guy. He's going to do the ring at the Met in 2 years. On the way back we stopped at Fresh Market on the Cary Parkway. We picked up some Parmesan Tilapia and a desert consisting of a "peanut butter chocolate stack". It was delicious.

Went over to the CU and deposited the MAAVS check and a Scottrade 3,000 check to pay the huge Visa bill from the wedding as well as the Sarasota taxes which are $400 lower this year. Pat Ford called and our tenant is facing $900 in expenses for the exchange rate difference. She asked to lower the rent by $500. I agreed but only if she lowered her piece of the pie. She lowered to 12% which is about $100. Went to Lowes and picked up some sheet metal and 1x4 for the telephone box in the steereo room at home. I also picked up screen for the fanjet guard and flashing for the heat baffle. Installed everything OK. The project moves on. This afternoon is very cold and windy. We had snow flurries this morning and a high of only 43 degrees. Brrr. Did a Krogers run and got fixins for Thanksgiving turkey - white bread, celery and a battery for the gas fireplace remote. It didn't work. Boo Hoo.

Finished the last of the MAAVS pictures today then switched back to the greenhouse. Installed the battery terminal box in the control room. The DC inverter I bought doesn't seem to work. I was going to use it to make 5 volts from 110VAC from 12 VDC. The theory was to have readily replaceable parts. Dinner this evening was chili and corn bread. Nice!!! I fell asleep on the couch with the gas logging running while reading Tortilla Flats by Steinbeck. The gas log remote seems to be broken. I'm going to try a new battery. Had to go back to the greenhouse because I needed one more piece of bus wire about 6 inches long for the negative side of the 12 volts.

Worked all day today getting MAAVS pcitures formatted for the web site. Tis is a lot of work. The small camera does not have the flash power of my SLR and thus the pictures are dark and noisy. They needed lots of help and still they're not good. Dinner was Salmon and squash.

Today was not an exciting or productive day. I spent the day researching laminar flow hoods on the internet and eBay. Dinner was pasta that i picked up at trader Joes yesterday. This morning I did the usual Krogers run and got the rest of the fruit cake ingredients.

Started getting settled back down after the MAAVS convention. Went to Trader Joe's for almonds, blueberries and apples. Lunch was tuna fish sandwichs. For dinner before dancing with the stars we had tomato soup and a half a bun with cheese and tomato. I picked up some LED's in Krogers for the ficus tree on the back porch.

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.