I spent a lot of time working on the DVD and ended up with 2 DVD's for the species program. I read about writing to an SD card using a microcontroller and using relays to switch back to another host for the card in a circuit cellar contest article. The importance of this is I can use it to write a card in a digital picture frame and use the picture frame as a cheap LCD display device. This has possibilities. We didn't get shredded wheat from the stores today so Libbie and I went out for shredded wheat and then had dinner at La cocina. It's Tuesday which is 99 cent Margarita night. We each had a Margarita and I had the chicken chipotle. When we got home Anne called about the library program that Richard was going to do. He hasn't and said he needs a program to merge sound and pictures.

Spent almost the whole day messing with the Species program DVD. I can't get the 4 videos to fit on one DVD. I ended up going to bed with the 4 videos rendered in high quality. Tomorrow I'll try making the DVD's. Outdoors I set the ladder up against the Oak tree and cut off the lower limbs. I hauled about 3/4 of them to the branches pile. While I was at it I also cleaned up a few downed logs on the hillside. Dinner was cheese toast and chunky soup sausage gumbo. We spent the rest of the evening listening to the Chicago symphony on WCPE and reading. I'm reading Mitso Soup by Ryu Murakami which I accidentally checked out of the library thinking it was Haruki Murakami.

After the newspaper and dropping the bird book in the library this morning I started receiving the audio files from the Nicholas's. Finished the part 4 species program today. Not sure how to package it - individually or in pairs. Went up the hill and installed another fence pole where I want to add an opening in the fence. Did a little cleanup in the backyard. Pruned the roses and chopped down the old canes of the Lantana. In the woods I picked up a few logs and put them on the pile. This is largely a make work type project. Cleanup is probably not necessary but I feel better when I look out and see the yard cleaned up so I'm not going to stop. Heard from Vicki - she is at the rehab place in Berkley Heights. She put a phone in the room for $20. Dinner was Libie's traditional pizza which was outstanding. She used the frozen crust which gives a nice pizza. Finished the W2 and W3 forms today.

I gave Libbie the homemade Valentine card and the heart shaped box of Russel Stover this morning. Spoke with Anne today. They're sending the part 3 MP3 files. I received them as they came in and added them to the program for the species. Worked on the MP3's for the 60's on Tom's Music. We're getting all the top 100 songs for each year which is amazing. I have everything from 1946 on forward to 1967 as of today. Listened to Eugen Onegin from the Met and truly enjoyed it. I booked the Oxford hotel by the train station in Denver. It was built in 1891 and looks pretty cool with a nice restaurant downstairs. Still don't have transportation to Denver. Libbie and I went to Fresh Market after the opera and picked up some stuffed chicken with cheese and mushroom which we had with fresh asparagus and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Finished the sidewalk today. Spoke with the social worker, Emily and also Dr Golin about Aunt Helen. She is supposed to transfer today but laterfound she couldn't go from Overlook to the rehab in Runnels in Berkley Heights. I took the microwave to the post office after hearing that Mary and John were home. Insured it for $200 in case it doesn't make it there in onepiece. I developed 2 4x6 pics for Libbie at Walreen today for tomorrows Valentines card. Dinner was stuffed salmon with broccoli and Shiraz. In the evening I booked the return flight from Reno, some Amtrak reservations and the Nuggett hotel in Reno. I debated about the Nuggett courtyard which was across the freeway but AAA gave us a $57 rate in the tower so I booked it. Still need a Denver hotel and flight to Denver.

Did quite a bit more on the sidewalk. Went to Home Dpeot and picked up a total of 8 bags of sand. I also looked at flooring. I like the Tarkett Click and lock engineered wood without beveled edges. It solves the problem I don't like about the edges which is the grooves which I think would catch dust. Put down 4 bags of the sand, the last 4 I picked up but left it outside. Dinner was chicken, broccoli and simmer sauce. Libbie doesn't like the Picata simmer sauce. I'm neutral about it. Went over to the greenhouse at 2:30 to meet Maurice with the Wyatt Quarles potting soil but it was too late - he already had put the pallet down in the garage opening. Libbie wanted it back against the wall.

I started working on the brick sidewalk. It's a windy day but nice and warm - almost 80. There were pretty severe roots under a lot of the sidewalk. Did about 10 feet. I wasn't hungry for dinner so left at 6 for sculpting after eating an apple. Our model is beautiful. Charlotte is young and very thin but nicely shaped with medium very firm breasts, a tiny waist and nice compact butt. She's very pale. She said she has modeled for Paris Alexander and for Life Drawing at Artspace. I wasn't looking forward to the session since I was tired but I enjoyed it very much.

Did the grocery store thing late this morning after I worked on the music database stuff. I also wrote the article for the Lonestar Newsletter. Did a lot of shopping today. Went to Krogers, the gas station (1.89 per gal), Foodlion for Lean Cuisine on sale, the Credit Union to deposit the rent check. Libbie had a Violet Club Valentines party. I got to have the leftover 7 layer salad for dinner and then we had the Steamfresh veggie dinner for two. I love the 7 layer salad and would have been happy with that as a meal.

Finished part 2 of the species show but the Proshow program won't burn a DVD. Went to my fallback of Adobe but didn't make a DVD with it. Started building the second temp probe - cut the brass and soldered the end but didn't get the connector on. Dinner was TJ's eggplant parmesian. Libbie didn't like it. I was neutral about it. Received a rent check for $2780 from Pat Ford. This is our Feb rental.

After the traditional newspaper on Sunday morning I worked somewhat on the probe and made a few test runs. The connector is intermittent, will redo it in the final version. Libbie and I took a walk around Seagroves after lunch. Worked on the AVSA species program. The Nicholas's sent me enough MP3 sound files for the first two parts of three. All went well although it's a lot of work for me. Dinner was Libbie's traditional pizza after which we watched the US Air flight 1549 crew story of the Hudson River landing and then watched the Grammys. It's a beautiful day in the seventies.

Got the probe working on microwave sn/001. It seems to be intermittent. We left at 11:45 for Lucia. The theater was sold out which was surprising. We didn't get our center seats since we arrived at the theater at 12:15 for a 1:00 performance. Libbie made sandwiches for us which we ate in the theater. It was an incredible performance. Our substitute tenor was very good. Anna was so so. Mad scenes are not her thing although she was competent. It was an enjoyable performance anyway. The sets were very complicated and large. They kept the cameras rolling b=during the intermission so we could see the action. We got out at 5 PM and stopped at TJ's for ribs and baked potatoes for dinner which we had with Shiraz.

Worked all morning modifying microwave sn/001 for the new probe scheme. When all was said and done I couldn't get it to work. The controller kept saying "no probe". Found a 200 gig MP3 drive in my storage boxes. Transferred the rest of the files from Manon's 200 gig drive and replaced it with this new one. Found out i already had all these MP3's so I erased it and am using it as another drive in Manon. Put some of the images on it from the C drive. Later in the afternoon I debugged the probe of the microwave and found the jack was wired wrong. Corrected the wiring but did not test the microwave since we were going to First Friday with jack and Barbara. Picked them up at 6 then went to Nicoles Art gallery up Person St before parking near Cafe Luna and walking to ArtSpace. Enjoyed seeing Barbara's conversation with some of the Artists - the portrait lady and Judy Crane. We didn't have much time there before dinner at Cafe Luna. We were in the back room I've never been in before. Had the clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops over pasta. We ordered a very nice bottle of Rodney Strong Merlot with dinner. The total with tip was $110 which Libbie paid for on her credit card.

I spent most of today trying to organize files on Manon - moving stuff to the server, exchanging files with Mazeppa and so forth. Dinner was pasta from trader Joe's from earlier this week. I went to Lowes today and picked up a solid brass rod to insert into the brass tube as a plug. This worked well to build the new probe assembly. I ordered a new camera from Newegg since it was their valentine sepcial. $149 with free shipping for an SD1100IS.

Pretty cold day. No snow overnight. They initially predicted 1 inch. Finished my sculpture with Christa but not really. The arms, legs, hands and feet all need some work. Before I left for sculpting Libbie made some chicken in simmer sauce over rice but without veggies which was too bad. I like the veggies. It was a cold day today with a high only of 35.

This morning I stopped in Ace Hardware looking for brass tubing but no luck. Next I tried a railroad shop in South Hills and got lucky. Bought the last piece of 1/4 " tubing they had. What a fun little shop. They seem to have lots of railroad junk. The place reminded me of the one in Dunellen. Picked up groceries in both TJ's and Kroger before going home and working on the new probe. Not sure how to seal the end. Can't crimp it since it gets deformed like that. Tried epoxy but I doubt that it will give me enough of a seal under 70C heat without brass expansion breaking the epoxy seal. I installed the 1 TB drive in the Traviata server today. It seemed like I had trouble at first because the thing seemed to start with error messages but everything setled down and the music library is now in place. Spent a few hours organizing the directories of songs. Dinner this evening was bean burger with "Immunity" veggies, vidalia onion and the last of the Florida tomato. We also had some of the tomato for BLT's for lunch.

Went over to Lowes and picked up a new faucet for the downstairs bathroom. Also looked for a brass tube to use for the microwave probe assembly. Couldn't find one. Installed the new faucet downstairs which went well. Finished the job and the faucet looks good. The microwave came back from Maine today. On the way to sculpting I stopped into the Hungate Hobby Shop in Cary Mall. It's a pretty pathetic operation - barely anything in the store. Next I tried AC Moore in Crosroads before giving up. Went to sculpting and did a pretty good job of representing Christa. I got the proportions correct, now I need to work on detail. I'm going to try for a face and hair on this one. Christa is very beautiful but she doesn't have much of a female form. she's flat chested and not defined much around her tiny tummy but she has a very shapely rear end. I enjoyed thee evening very, very much even though I was tired.

Did the newspaper thing then started organizing some of my projects. We had BLT's for lunch with the Florida tomatoes I brought back. Filled the Kerosene heater in case it gets cold although it's in the sixties today. Libbie brought the first of the oranges to the greenhouse for Joy. We had her wonderful pizza this evening while we watched some of the super bowl ads. Turned it off and went to read my Karen Robards book.

Got up at 5:30 and was on the road by 6 AM. It was 47 degrees when I pulled out of Stoneybrook. On the trip the temp was as low as 37 degrees in Orlando. The trip was uneventful. Important facts to note: Jones College radio is on 90.9, the last exit in Florida is 380 and the highest mileage marker in SC is 198 right around Pedro's but the last exit is numbered 193 in Dillon. The Pedros exit is 1 in NC. Listened to Rigoletto from the Met on the whole trip except for a dead zone from Florence to Dillon. When I reached Fayetteville I was able to get WCPE. I heard the intermission features again since WCPE ran them after the opera since they were fund raising during the opera. Gave Libbie the 40 pound box of oranges - not sure what she is going to do with all these Honeybelles. Libbie fixed Salmon with sweet potato and Chardonnay for dinner.

Got up and started cleaning the place. Washed the kitchen floor, vacuumed the rugs and spread the green matte carpet out in the Living Room. Did some laundry then went to Yoders Fruit stand to get my 40 pound box of oranges. Also bought tomatoes and strawberries. He only charged $25 for the oranges. At sunset I went out for a walk in shorts and a tee shirt. It was cold!!! I got to the clubhouse and turned around. Spent the evening reading and packing my stuff. Didn't talk to Lib in the later evening although we talked at 5 PM. Went to bed around 11 PM. I'm really enjoying the Karen Robards book, "Guilty".

Stopped and talked with Christa then walked with her up to their condo. Chatted with Peter and Christa about the pool party on Monday night. I won't be there - wish I was. Went down to Venice and watched birds for a while. There was an amazing amount of birds on the island with varioius nests. On the way back I stopped into Yoders Fruit and inquired about getting a case of Honeybelles. The owner said he would get me a case tomorrow morning. A case has about 40 pounds of oranges. Gave him my phone number and name. For dinner tonight I picked up a turkey sub at Subway next to Publix. Took a walk this afternoon after visitng Pat in the Real Estate office and Janet in the admin office. Walked out to the wetlands area in front of Stoneybrook.

Woke up shortly before 6. Bill and Barb were sleeping in the downstairs bedroom. Libbie so nicely made coffee. I filled my thermos, ate abowl of cereal and was out the door at 6:20. It was foggy and lightly misting. I stopped at Florence for bathroom and a bacon egg and cheese biscuit. I waited 14 minutes and then they gave me the wrong biscuit. I got a sausage egg and cheese biscuit. Got gas across the street for 1.64 but I only needed 5 gallons. Emerged under the cloud shelf in SC and had blue skies and warm temps the rest of the way. Took I-4 through Orlando without incident. I was in Orlando at 3 PM which was good. Got into Stoneybrook at about 5:15. I stopped on the way in for milk and juice in Publix. Overall it was a pretty good trip. I found that the refrigerator door won't dispense water. Took the metal plate off the back to diagnose the problem but no solution.

Waited most of the day for Bill and Barb instead of driving to Sarasota. They were delayed in Southern Pines and came in at 5 PM. After some wine and cheese we went to La Cocina for dinner since it was $1 Margarita night. We had the large Margarita which is equal to 3 small ones according to our waitress. I had the La Cocina Quaesidilla which is what Libbie always orders. It was great. When we got back we watched the Joe and Christa wedding video.

Picked up a memory stick for the PSP at OfficeMax using the $10 coupon I had. The cost was $10 after the coupon for a 4 gig stick. The device goes out on the internet and can listen to radio stations as well as surf the web. Did a little cleanup around the house. I put quite a few things away in my workshop. Libbie scrubbed and vacuumed the house. Today is Chinese New Years, The year of the Ox. We celebrated by ordering a Chinese takeout which we had with a bottle of Chardonnay. Afterwards we had WCPE on and read our books with the gas log burning.

After the paper this morning I worked on the microwave all day. Finally got the probe working wihtout error and also designed a nice error recovery algorithm. After Libbies wonderful pizza we drove to the post office and mailed the controller to ME using priority mail.

Worked on building a microwave probe then got dressed and out to the opera. On the way there I stopped into Best Buy and picked up a Sony PSP for the web browser function. I plan to do Greenhouse monitoring by using the browser to see a local web page with greenhouse sensing. The opera was great. I enjoyed Mark Morris choreography. Afterwards I stopped by the airport on the way home and picked up Libbie. The opera was over at 2:45 and I was at the airport by 3 PM. We picked up Ribs in Trader Joes for dinner which we had with Butternut Squash and Shiraz.