Mixed up some Roundup and sprayed the grass on the powerline. Tried fixing the Solo but it's got a cracked plastic piece. Listened to Elixir on the Met this afternoon while transferring files to the new 1TB disk drive. I'm organizing the movies and jpg files from many hard drives onto a single large drive. I will have one drive for movies, one for Music and the Western Digital MyBook for misc data files. Dinner was a Healthy choice spicy Gerneral Tsao chicken. I watched the Guitar this evening and liked it so much I screwed around with converting it to DIVX. I found that I needed to load something called SLy Fox DVD driver which removed copy protection then I used a Sourceforge open source program called DVDx which made a DIVX file of the DVD. It worked pretty good although my first pass was only 320 wide which made a blocky picture but then using 720 x 480 it worked pretty good.

A perfect day. I worked a little outside. Went to Tigerdirect and picked up a SATA cable for the new 1TB disk drive. Also stopped into HH Gregg in Apex. Not sure why this place exists. It had almost nothing.Fell asleep during Moulin rouge in the evening. Got up and went upstairs to bed. Dinner was cereal.

We had more rain today but I got out in the morning and planted yesterdays Camellia purchase and spread one bag of cypress mulch on the rose bed. It still needs another bag to finish the job. Rented National Lampoons Cattle Call and Nights in Rodanthe. I hated Cattle Call but really liked Nights in Rodanthe. The play between Richard Geere and Diane Lane was good. Very attractive people in a tender story. Had to return it this afternoon before 7 PM. Got some frozen dinners while in Krogers. Talked to Brenda about the Reno convention. We're going to concentrate on silent auctions. Had a frozen Healthy Choice dinner for both lunch and dinner today.

A rainy day. Left at 8:30 to drop Lib off at the airport for her 10 AM Providence flight. Stopped at Brueggers on the Cary Pkwy on the way home and picked up bagels and coffee. Got a call around noon that the minivan was ready. Walked up Old Raleigh Rd because it stopped raining. The starter was $300 and was bad because it filled with oil according to the guy at Gastons. While I had the minivan I went to Home Depot and got 4 more bags of cypress mulch and 2 Camellias. The Camellias rang up as Rhododendron for 7.99. The price was OK because last year I saw Camellias for $39 in the Garden Center near Ace and then $21 at Ace. These were in 1 gallon cans which is a fine size. They probably won't bloom for a couple more years. I had a Krogers mini pizza for dinner.

Worked on building Burbank in the morning a little then went to Krogers for groceries on old geezer day. After lunch I roto tilled the peat moss in the backyard. I may want to planta Camelia there. Libbie called from the Post Office that the starter on the minivan quit. She had a dentist appt across the street at Beavers. Afterwards I met her at Gastons garage where she drove it and left it running but we ended up turning it off since they can't deal with it until tomorrow anyway. I drove her to the Credit Union and greenhouse. At the greenhouse I changed the oil on the tractor and put a new air filter in. Dinner was pork chops with broccoli and butternut squash. It was delicious. Soldered wires onto the solar powered LED lightand extended the LED. Drilled a hole in the wooden box holding the glass pumpkin and now the white LED lights it up nicely.

I roto tilled near the roses then spread the two bags of mulch as far as it would go. Dug out the septic pump pipe where I had drilled a hole and put a screw into the hole. The shade blew off the end of the greenhouse. I went to Ace and got some Roundup and also eye hooks that I screwed into the end wall and tied the shade onto. Dinner was chicken caciatoria over rice. Yummy.

Got up at 6:30 and was out the door by 7 to get the paper. It was raining lightly as I went over to McDonalds but it's supposed to clear up today with a little sun and some wind.

It's a crappy rainy day. The septic pump is running and won't turn off. When it gets near the bottom of the pump it won't drain enough to shut off. I switched it off in the garage. May have to use a timer before eventually going to a sonar level sensor. Replaced the kitchen faucet - had to run to Home Depot for a pair of stainless supply connection lines. While there I got a 3/8 drive adapter for my drill and tried it on the roto tiller. It starts flawlessly. This is all I need for only using the tiller once a year. Listened to Met Opera Rheingold today while working on the Wiznet web server. Libbie and I went to Trader Joes in the rain and got ribs and wine for dinner and also some more of the Indian veggie and rice medley. Dinner was ribs, yams and Shiraz. After dinner I worked on Bonnard some more. It's now spitting out web pages with variables!!!! Much still needs to be done. Libbie asked an intersting question. What do you need another web server for? I thought you already had one. The answer is it gives me a small potentially battery operated master web server in which I will be able to aggregate via Zigbee a wide variety of information. Because this is on the net, I can potentially even send updates to an external website or even the Traviata web server.

This was a busy day. Did a little debug work on Bonnard then took a look at my broken tiller. Went to Northern Tool then AgriSupply then Home Depot and Lowes. Bought a new kitchen faucet in Home Depot and found Pyracantha in Lowes. Went back after lunch with Libbie and got the Pyracantha in the rain. They will do nicely. The estimate for our new Disposal will be $150. I told them to go ahead and replace it. For dinner we had Indian Veggies with shrimp. The veggie combo was called Biryani. Before bedtime I worked on Bonnard and managed to serve a web page using the Wiznet ROM FileMaker program to compile a web page into a hex file. I will be replacing this.

Couldn't get the Bonnard Atmega to work. Changed the chip and still no love. Discovered that the ISP interface for an AT128 is different from other AVR's. Changed the wires and burned the JTAG enable fuse then I was able to debug normally. Did not need to change the chip. Dinner was Curry simmer sauce chicken after which we watched American Idol.

I made the traditional 8x10 picture for our anniversary. Libbie and I went to La Cocina for dinner and Margaritas. We were serenaded by a Mariachi band which was nice. Who would have thought??

My disk drive arrived today from New Egg while we were out. Went to Seagrove, NC to do a precon. Had lunch t the Westmore Family dinner where I had a barbecue sandwich and we split some seasoned fries. Dinner this evening was pasta.

Went over to the greenhouse to tighten the fan belts. This didn't work so well - both belts on houses 3 and 4 have no more adjustment left. I found a fan belt in the garage that's 55 inches. I looked up what we've been using and it's anywhere from 53 inches to 55 inches. Took 2 barrels of dirt home from the greenhouse then worked some in the backyard. Put three wheelbarrows of clay at the base of the oak tree filling in stump holes. Walked to the top of the hill to check on the bird house - a pair of bluebirds are building a nest up there. The septic pumped this morning - there was another puddle at the base where the pipe was drilled. Dinner was chicken and broccoli with curry simmer sauce. After dinner we read our books and listened to WCPE playing the Chicago Symphony performance of Holst's Planets. This morning the Bonnard card arrived - everything fits mechanically!!!! Put the card together but did not power anything up yet. I ordered the missing voltage regulator resistor along with other parts from Digikey. In the meantime i will jump out the regulator and run the thing directly at 3.3 volts.

Had to go to Krogers this morning to pick up milk with the newspaper. We were out of milk for cereal. Raked more leaves from next to the shed. Went over to the greenhouse for 2 garbage cans full of dirt. Libbie asked if I wanted to stay and do the shadecloth. We put one cloth up but the other needed mending because the seams had torn in many spots. Came back after lunch with the chain saw and the empty garbage cans. Filled up the cans, trimmed some of the shrubbery when Libbie was done with the mending. Put the repaired shade on house 1 which was very vey hard because I was so tired. Came home, took a shower and sat on the backporch and started reading a book Libbie gave me to read. It's a library book by a local author she liked. Dinner was Libbie's traditional pizza with some fresh tomato slices thrown in.

Went over to the greenhouse to get potting soil in my grow box and also filled up the tank for the opera today. Left for Sonnambula at 11:30. The theater was sold out again. I really enjoyed the performance. Natalie made the whole show. Wow, what an opera. Stopped at a very crowded Trader Joes for ribs and wine for dinner. Dinner was very nice but the ribs were St Louis, not our normal TJ's ribs. These had a fake hickory smoke flavor. It's spring - enjoyed the flowering trees on the way back from the opera. Distributed the MAAVS Memo this evening. It looks like we have a new hotel for the MAAVS convention. I finished the Richochet book tonight. This was a thriller that I enjoyed very much.

Ordered another terabyte drive from Newegg. I also reworked the Burbank control card and sent it off to AP Circuits. Dinner was stuffed salmon and Sweet potato. I spray painted the septic pipe crossing the creek black today. It looks much better since the black conceals it. The temp got up to 68 today - horray!!! Planted the tomato and marigold seeds in the cell packs Libbie brought for me. Spent the evening reading Richochet some more. This is becoming a page turner.

Sent Bonnard off to AP circuits. UI'm going to run the whole thing at 3.3 volts which should simplify life. Bonnard has an Atmega128 with a Wiznet web server and a Zigbee. Went outside and worked on the Dogwood. The old stump had rotted and left a big hole under the dogwood. It took 2 wheel barrows of dirt then I covered all with leaves. Talked with Town of Apex today about my power bill which they didn't deduct from my bank like they were supposed to. Libbie brought dirt home for me to plant my seeds into. Then we went to the top of the hill and extended the length of the birdhouse pole. while we worked on this there was a Bluebird overhead singing. I think we'll get a bird in this box. Dinner was Trader Joe's pasta. We had a nice evening listeneing to Luisa Miller on the radio and reading our books.

Went outside because it was a glorious day. Took my wheel barrow and moved several loads of logs onto the log pile in an attempt to clean up the woods. I even walked to the top of the hill and picked up some sticks while looking over the birdhouse. Went to Walmart to get socks. Price was much better than target and they were the Tall socks. Deposited the rent check in the Credit Union next door and met Libbie in the wild bird store where she was buying worms.
We went to the Farmers market looking for shrubs and was disappointed - not a single nursery vendor. Picked up an ugly sweet potato called Bathus Potato. Google says it's an old timey yam. It was white inside and very sweet. The guy showed up today around noon for the sofa for his daughter. He had a pickup with cap so it went inside pretty easily. Dinner was bean burgers with Farmers Market tomatoes and the Bathus yams.

Went for groceries but did not do much outside. Worked on the code for the Bonnard web server. Using a Wiz module I think I can create a web server as well as the Zigbee. Went with Libbie and picked up our couch at a warehouse in RTP. It looks great. Listed our old one on Craigslst and had 9 responses. We had dinner at La Cocina and a MArgarita. The Margaritas went up to 1.99 instead of .99 on Monday and Tuesdays.

Finished the Burbank grow box monitro PCB. Have not finished the code. started the complementary product which is Bonnard, after the artist who features ladies dressing after their baths. Bonnard will be a zigbee to ethernet bridge with an onboard web server. I will re-use some of the Wiznet code I ported to the AVR and GCC. Even though I finished Burbank, I did not send it in. I want to wait and see if I need to add anything else to the project. Dinner was chicken over noodles with simmer sauce. We enjoyed ancing with the Stars this evening before going up to read my Sandra brown book. During the day I broke down the boxes in the garage for recycle tomorrow. We had the grill parts boxes and the septic pump box. Also finished up the septic job by putting the outlet cover over the wires and generally cleaning up the yard. This job is complete.

Did the newspaper thing and mostly stayed indoors today because it was a cold rainy day outside. We cleaned the backporch with the vacuum and Libbie washed the tiles with her sponge mop. I continued to work on Burbank. Libbie made her excellent pizza again today.

Worked a lot of today on the Burbank PCB. I had to create a few new footprints for the zigbee and some of the surface mount parts. Did all of that OK. Vicki called because she couldn't find Aunt Helen. The lady had checked herself out of Overlook and got herself back to WR. Communicated with Lynn some of today about our raffles - she wants to give away tickets to the raffles in the goody bags. Dinner was ribs with baked potato, Merlot and Cranberry Ricotta cake. Very good. It's cold and rainy outside but Libbie and I both seem to be back.

I finished the trailer program this morning. Another one down!!!! It's a rainy day - raining pretty hard. The grill parts arrived from Amazon via UPS. Replaced the flavorizer bars and the cook grill. The grill was filled with a deep layer of rust. I used a trowel to shovel the rust into a plastic garbage bag. Even though it was raining, I used the vacuum outdoors and vacuumed the grill out then put all the new parts in. This time I bought stainless steel flavorizer bars but a porcelain coated steel cooking grill. Hopefully the flavor bars will last longer. Libbie cooked grilled chicken on the rebuilt grill which we had with yams and Shiraz. I really didn't want the wine but drank it anyway. I did some reading of the new book from Sandra Brown this evening, Richochet.
Earlier in the day Libbie and I went to the library, Home Depot for tape and a septic tank outlet cover, Office Max for a box of printer paper so it was a full day. We heard that Joe was laid off this week. This is too bad. The economy is in bad shape, jobs are tough to find.

I created he 16x20 for our sign and sent it off to whcc.com for delivery to Brenda. Went outside and added the additional plank to the septic cover. This is looking pretty good. Took down a gum tree adjacent to the tank. Heard from Runnels about Aunt Helen. She did not have a urinary infection. Fixed the clock on the oven. It seemed to be covered in sawdust inside. I used the shop vac to clean it out then gave the wheels a twirl. All seemed to be well. We ran a cleaning cycle this evening. Dinner was TJ's frozen lasagna and chocolate frozen yogurt. Interestingly, this monring I had incredible oain across my chest and radiating down my shoulders. I wonder what this is? It seened to be triggered by brushing my teeth. Bending over the sink? Probing sensitive gum tissue?

I'm pretty groggy today. Went with Libbie to Logans at noon to look at landscaping bushes. Still looking for pyracantha which do not seem to be a spring item. This is our last 80 degree day for a while. Mailed the postcards to Reno via parcel post. The package costed $12 to send. In the PM I wasn't feeling hungry when Libbie suggested chicken and yam for dinner but later in the PM my appetite seemed to retun. We had her yummy barbecue chicken with yams. After dinner we watched American Idol. Got a phone call at 9 from Runnels that they were shipping Aunt Helen to Overlook because she was running a fever and had low blood pressure. She seems to be bouncing in and out of hospitals and rehab in these past few months. Libbie said we may be going to a funeral soon.