I went outside around 9 and started working on the septic pump. After installing the 2 inch pipe and taping the wiring to the pipe I hooked up the rope and lowered it into the tank. It went in a lot easier than I thought. Installed a 220 VAC outlet by the tank and rewired the panel in the garage but I made an error picking up the same phase for both sides of the 220 VAC. After a quick change to pick up both sides i tried again but the punp was stalled. I could hear it humming but it didn't pump. I initially thought the line was plugged so I dug a hole 100 feet up the hill and drilled a 1/4 inch hole but no water. Went further down and dug another hole about 30 feet up the pipe. Drilled another hole and also dry. Cut the pipe at the creek and tried the pump again. This was when i realized the pump was stalled and not pumping. I will have to raise it again and get it to spin freely. Dinner was Libbie's barbecued chicken with Southwestern corn. Her BBQ sauce is still good. Libbie has a bad cough today. I'll probably get it tomorrow.

Went over to the greenhouse at 8:30 to cap a plumbing leak on bench 10. The pipe broke from the solenoid. While there I noticed the inflation blower was not working. Took a look and it was hot to touch and not spinning. Unplugged it and ordered a new blower as well as a Hot Dawg Fanjet fan belt spare. The current fan belt is 6 weeks old and seems to be holding up but I don't have a backup. I studied the old spreadsheets for a septic pump and then bit the bullet and spent $850 to get the larger high head pump. I will need to rewire the panel to deliver 220 volts to the septic tank. Libbie went to Graingers with me to pick up the stuff. She stayed home while I went to the greenhouse and installed the inflation blower. Installation went without a problem. Dinner was the Trader Joe's Calzone. After dinner I went over to Home Depot and picked up the 2 inch pipe fittings for the septic pump.

It was a nice day out but I didn't work on woods cleanup since my back hurts. I studied CNC routers some more and pretty much decided I want to get the Fireball base unit and populate it with 3rd party stepper motors and driver board. The computer is another issue that I haven't dealt with yet. I possibly may replace Manon as my main desktop and repurpose Manon as a Linux CNC machine. Took a look at wireless once again. I may build a growbox controller with moisture sensors and a wireless interface back to the house. I went to sculpting tonight for the last session. i really don't like the piece. Proportions are all off. Dinner was tomato soup and cheese toast.

Went to Krogers and Trader Joe's then went in search of an Earth Box. Didn't have them at Garden Supply or at Family Garden on 55. I researched them some more and found a clone at the Garden Patch for half the price, $29 vs $59 and if you order 3 they knock money off the shipping so I ordered 3 for $105. Found a nice wiki of a university, USC, that covers the Fireball V90 router they bought. It covers stepper motor sources, specs, wiring and driver boards. It seems I can save much by buying the base and going elsewhere for motors and drivers.
Regarding the Earth Box, I learned of it in Circuit Cellar. A guy fixtured his grow box to detect that it needed water and added solenoid drivers to give it water. All this is monitored by a wireless handheld controller.

I checked the web and the package delivery was attempted at 8:30 in Maine but no-one home. They had 17 inches of snow, the news was reporting power failures. Heard from John later that Mary picked up the package and he made some test runs. The ethanol is still overshooting but it's better now, only going over by 1 to 3 degrees. I studied CNC machines on the web. I don't think I have the mechanical expertise or tools to build one myself so I found a few kits with all the parts for assembly. These thing are driven by an open source Linux program and typically cost less than $1,000. I could use one for prototype packages. Libbie made some Trader Joe's shrimp and broccoli which came with white pepper that I used. We watched some of the Oscar fashion reviews on Extra and Entertainment Hollywood which I usuallyenjoy. It was too cold to go outside today. It was 41 but there was a stff wind.

A slow day. TRied working on the php program to build library pages but the skies cleared, the sun came out and I worked outside a little. We took a walk through Seagroves and discussed where to put a bird box. Picked up a few branches then came inside to watch the red carpe at 6 then the Academy Awards at 8. Libbie made 2 pizzas for dinner tonight. We learned the package left Raleigh last night. The microwave controller was sent Express Mail on Saturday evening. We didn't know if it would sit in the Post Office till Monday. Apparently not.

Listened to Cenerentola on my server while working on microwave stuff. I finished the runs of H2O and isopropyl alcohol. I think I'll add an xlow setting to the mix. Heard from Anne. She like the newsletter - she asked if either of us wants to be on the Board of Directors. I went outside to finish trimming the Oak trees next to the brick sidewalk. Didn't finish hauling the branches because I wanted to listen to the opera. Adriana Lecouver today with domingo and Borodin. Very nice.

I worked on the microwave algorithms today testing various quantities of media and timing the slope for use in the firmware. Blew a fuse while testing water at 5 PM so turned it off and got ready for the opera. Libbie made soup and cheese toast for lunch then we had a lean cuisine before the performance. Left at 6:30 for the 7:30 performance. Parking was crowded because of Dora the Explorer going on at the same time. Cenerentola was delightful. The singing was amazing, the acting was quite good which we got to see up close since we were in Row C. My postcards came today in two 15 pound boxes. That's a lot of cards. Marjorie sent the Lonestar newsletter which was amazingly great.

I'm going to do the trailer program for AVSA since Rich Follett doesn't know what he's doing. Heard from John about the microwave. It's better but it still overshoots the target temperature. I need to re-adjust the timings. Dinner was Trader Joe's pasta. Received all the trailer images from Barb in California. The slides are pretty old.

Talked with Anne many times today about the Trailer program and what to do about it. I spent a lot of the day working on the library website revamp. I want to use PHP to read an XML file to generate the web pages. Went to sculpting tonight - I'm getting better at legs. Charlotte our model is a beauty. I'm thinking of a private posing session for a more dynamic dance pose. Still need to work out the details. Dinner before sculpting was chicken and fresh asparagus. It rained today and was a little wet returning home.

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.