I got up at 6 this morning and got on the scale. My weight was a disappointing 244. I'm getting obsessed with knocking this down. I was at McDonalds at 6:38 and the paper machine was empty. Had to go to Krogers and picked up a paper and also some cocoa powder to make some roach bait. Worked with Libbie on a tour timetable on google docs. I also had to water the grow boxes again today - one of them was completely dry and the squash and cucumbers were wilted. Did another complete 4 mile walk, Libbie joined me from Krogers. It doesn't seem as hot today although they said it was 94 on the news. Interesting, this morning Libbie and I talked about pitchman Billy May and this evening we found out he died overnight. I previously read the Playboy article profiling him. We had Libbies excellent pizza again. She had a frozen crust and spiced up the sauce with fresh tomato wedges.

Page views of my Gone Too Far story have reached 13,400 with an average rating of 3.24 out of 5. On the scale his morning I weighed in at 244. This is good, yesterday I cut back on iced tea. I only had one glass. We measured our standard glass and found it was 14 ounces. I did a full 4 miles today. Beforehand I bought a 33 ounce bottle of water. I'll use the bottle for future walks. After the walk Libbie and I went up the hill and walked through the lot 67 house. I then drove 10 foot poles into the ground to stake my tomatoes in the grow box which had overgrown the 5 foot poles. Dinner was excellent - we had fresh corn from Kroger's and bean burger with tomato and the last slice of Vidallia.

I got on the scale and was disappointed again as the balance beam showed 245.5. It's hard losing excess weight, it has become a permanent part of me. Need to keep trying.
I ordered the NewEgg computer - a quad core AMD with 4 gigs of memory. GMA this morning has devoted the whole show to Michael Jackson although they are running a concert with the cast of Hair as part of their summer Friday concert series. Last night Libbie and I wrote a sympathy card for Helen and also made a donation to the Tinari endowment fund.
Later in the day we got the Helen Mahr obituary and the family requested moneys go to the scholarship fund at TWU rather than flowers. We didn't mail the Tinari check. Dinner was blueberry pancakes again. We went to Walgreens to pick up 3 5x7's of copies of the Cortelyou house that Libbie photographed on the wall of her Mom's house.

Weight still holding at 246. Need a good kick in the ass. Walked the lake today from home. Also went to Lowes and picked up 3 bags of brick chips and one bag of mulch for our gardens. Fixed it all up nicely. I think I'll write another story but this time for the July monthly contest.
Walked to the lake and down this side of it from home, about 3 miles total. I want to lose weight. I think the iced tea is killing me. Checked the news to read about Farrah's death and found out Michael Jackson had died. some time later Janet Castiglione had sent an eMail announcing that Helen Mahr Nicholas had died. We talked to Anne and Richard yesterday about Helen's fall. This was a tragedy. When she fell she broke her nose and lost her vision in one eye because the lens was torn out. Earlier today Laura had sent her list of wedding pictures. Dinner tonight was blueberry pancakes again. Excellent!!!

I thought I was happy with my weight this morning at a nice solid 246 but when I looked back a few days ago I reported a weight of 245 so it would seem no progress but I don't think so. Will take a walk today to help.
Went to Walmart and K-Mart in Garner. Ended up buying a comfort bike in Walmart for $75. Just the basics, one speed with coaster brakes for Sarasota. Libbie and I tested it on Downing Place then took a walk around the lake from Krogers. Dinner was blueberry pancakes using the many blueberries that Joy gave us plus the ones I bought on Tuesday. My story was rejected today because of incorrect punctuation. I reformatted the quotes after reading the writers guide and resubmitted it.

After the grocery run this morning I went to Walmart in Holly Springs to look at bikes they didn't have. I did buy four Dahlias from their rescue table for $2 each, Submitted my Gone Too Far story to the Nude Day contest. I think it turned out well. Replaced the second rotted fence post on our property line this afternoon. It was easier than yesterday. Dinner was crab cakes with tomato and fresh corn from Krogers. Yummy.

I spent the morning recreating the withdrawals from our home equity loan. I'm pretty pissed off that Libbie has been using the house as a credit card and not paying the equity back. I may need to close the account which will hurt me because the reason I got this account was in case of emergencies but this can't continue. The balance owed by Bluebird is in the $7,000 category. Bad, bad news.
I finished the Literotica story late at night. Didn't lose any weight today - presently stuck. Late in the PM I replaced one fence post of the two I'm going to replace on the back line. Dinner was corn, bean burger and mango medley for dessert. Earlier we went to Trader Joe's for Mangoes but they were out. Stopped by Kroger's for a Watermelon and cucumber and discovered the corn which was delicious,

Went early for the paper. Noticed that the downstairs A/C is continuously running. Felt the vents and they were warm. This isn't good. Turned it off. I think it ran all night. Mixed up some malathion and did the backyard after I finished pruning the roses. Libbie saw bugs behind our headboard today so I sprayed te baseboards upstairs with Conquer. Some online research shows that for indoor pest control I want Demand CS instead of Conquer. It costs twice as much but seems to be more powerful according to reading the labels and marketing hype. Went to Home Depot and bought 2 4x4x8 posts to replace the fence posts on the barbed wire in the backyard. Pulled one post and re-dug the hole then installed a new post, leveled it and put the fence on it. I got my account at ASSTR today so I uploaded the first 4 parts of the Disney Story to it this morning. Got cleaned up and left by 2 for Cabaret. Walked a little in the Rose Garden before entering the theater for our 3 PM performance. Cabaret was dark and made you think after somberly leaving the theater. It starts out happy with singing and dancing but the mood turns somber and dark before the break as Nazis infiltrate. Libbie made an excellent pizza with fresh tomato. This was her best ever or I'm hungry. Weight this morning was a very satisfying 245. I still can't believe I'm this high and trying to come down from this level.

Weight is still holding at 247. Studied hot tub pumps. To replace the Jacuzzi with a Waterworks will take adding an adapter because the Jacuzzi has a custom connection. I have found much lower prices on non Jacuzzi pumps. Mowed the backyard and then Libbie and I took a walk in Seagrove Farm. We went as far as the pool. After returning I tried pruning the rose bushes. It was 100 today and I began hyperventilating. I had to crawl back to the porch and chill out. We then went to Home Depot looking for Dahlias. I had to return the GFI. Bought Malathion because whitefly and mealies are eating plants in the backyard. Will use it tomorrow. Dinner was quite bit of food - cucumbers, corn and tuna steak. The corn from Krogers was the best we've had this season so far.

Good news this morning, I am 247. It's amazing that when you gain a few pounds it becomes permanent and a part of you forever. I have gained over 10 pounds since the wedding and I have to work on getting rid of it one pound at a time. At least the weight is going in the correct direction. I spent most of the day working on the hot tub. Got themotor to start but it kept tripping the GFI. I bought a new external GFI in Home Depot to see if the GFI was bad. The new one tripped just like the current one. I'll take it back. Dinner was cucumber with bean burger. After dinner I started researching hot tub pumps. I sent an eMail to a guy with a $300 pump on eBay. He said it was a single speed but that's incorrect for that model number.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I'm still holding at 248 which is good considering I snacked a lot yesterday in between meals. Will do better today, may even take a walk if it's not raining. Tried pulling the pump this morning but I need a wrench with 3 1/2 inch jaws to get the pump intake loose. Visited Sears to look at tools. Bought an oil filter wrench which has large jaws. did not buy the socket set but I was tempted. Also stopped at K-Mart and looked at their tools and bikes but let empty handed. Surprisingly Ace hardware was gone. It's a hole next to K-Mart. Took the spa pump out - the filter wrench worked perfectly. This will be useful for oil changes. Tried repairing the starter mechanism in the motor but so far no love. I found a writers contest on Literotica with a nude theme. I started writing my entry which has a new couple moving to a housing development and the homeowners decides to have a nude welcome party. Worked outside a little on the grow boxes. I will need to put in the bigger stakes. Dinner was cucumber salad with bean burger and the dwindling Vidalia. After dinner I worked on my contest entry. Entries can begin June 20.

I'm recovering somewhat from our trip of overeating. When I got back I was over 250 but this morning the scale read 249. I'm getting back down and hopefully it will be 240 by the Gesneriad trip. I spent some time today reading some of the author writings on asstr. Because my own Disney Story was rated at 5th grade level I tried some of the other authors. They were in the 1st to 3rd grade levels so I don't feel too bad. I'll have to try some of the professional authors. I took the hot tube apart because the new 20 amp fuse I bought didn't do the trick. The motor is still stalled. Emptied it and it started working but as Libbie started filling it with our new cut off garden hose it stalled again. I'll have to pull the motor. Dinner was corn on the cob and bean burger with vidalia.

Did the grocery thing. Today is a very dark, rainy glum day. It's not even hot. Researched bicycles and also went to Walmart late in the day to look for a Next Avalon Comfort bike on their website. They hardly had any bikes. Picked up "Daddys Girl" at the library on this trip. This book was on the rack at the Philly airport yesterday so I'll try it. Worked a lot of the day on my Disney story. I was disappointed to see Google say that it was written at the fifth grade level. I opened an account on ASSTR but it takes a while for an admin to assign me a directory and password. Dinner tonight was the pasta I picked up in Trader Joes.

We got up our usual time, around 6:30. We went downstairs, poured some coffee and sat out on the porch of the Angel facing the Ocean watching the mocking birds chase blackbirds and listening to a song bird. It was a most pleasant morning.Breakfast was a little late but I didn't mind. I had French Toast on a layer of Bananas Foster. It was good but I'm not a fancy breakfast person. We then rode bikes on beach towards town. When it got a little busy we turned around and stopped at a few fenced in gardens that I photographed. Takeoff was planned for 10 which we did OK. I bought Libbie a piece of jewelry from the display case next to the desk. We took the Parkway for $1 and the Atlantic City Expressway for $3 without incident. Had to pay $4 on the Walt Whitman bridge to get back into Philly. Had a little trouble finding airport gas - a lot of the stations weren't there anymore which was surprising. Got to Hertz OK, we had one minor incident in that our wheel cover was missing. We told Hertz we left the terminal without the wheel cover. They didn't charge us for it. Found out our flight was delayed 30 minutes on the board. We enjoyed the brand new Southwest terminal. They have lots of security screening stations. Our flight ended up being late one hour due to storms in St Louis. They claimed the airport there was closed for a while. The flight was smooth except for the last 15 minutes. We had to descend through some thick clouds which was very bumpy. Waiting for the shuttle took a while. Our shuttle took 15 minutes - when the shuttle finally arrived it was full. We had to wait for the next one. Got home around 5 PM. All was well except we left the door to the garage open and left the kitchen light on. My dinner tonight was veggie pizza bu lean cuisine. This is a nice 300 calorie dinner.

We had a leisurely morning. Coffee on the porch then breakfast at 8. I had pancakes with cinnamon and nuts. I'm not a fancy breakfast person. My preference is shredded wheat and milk. Arlene and Rich came over at 10 and we wen biking with them. It was a lot of fun being on a bike for the first time in a long time. The weather was threatening so Rich went back home to Piscataway. Lib and I walked an arts and crafts festival in tents on the board walk. We had lunch at McGlades. I had a crab cake sandwich. Arlene biked over in the afternoon and we biked back with her until the crow got heavy so we turned around and came home. We enjoyed tea and pastreis then had wine and cheese at 5:30. Walked the beach after the guards went home at 4. Went to sunset Beach for the sunset at 8 and then to the Lobster House again for seafood dinner on the dock again. We bought a glass of Chardonnay to have with dinner then back home and to bed.

We got up at 5 and out the door as planned around 5:20. We parked at the Relax and Park over on 70. They gave us afree paper and got us to the terminal on time. We were already checked in on Southwest and we carried our luggage so we went straight to the gate. The flight went well except they had to slow us down enroute because of traffic in Philly. We got to the terminal at 8:30 and by 8:42 we were in a Silver Toyota Corolla from Hertz. I had the GPS hooked up to take us to Our Lady of Angels which was right on mile 9 of the Garden State. We got off an exit or two beforehand looking for a diner for Libbie but we found a Dunkin donuts instead. I had a plain bagel with coffee. I bought a cup of coffee in Terminal 1 this morning which was the worst coffee I ever had - it tasted like instant. We got to the church around 10 which was outstanding. The baptism was very nice. We next went to McGlades which was right on the ocean. I ordered a crab salad platter which was crab cake with fruits and potato salad. Yummy!!! Next we checked into the Angel then went to Jessicas for a family party afterwards. We missed tea and wine/cheese at the Angel. Afterwards we met Arlene & Rich at the Lobster House. We had a very nice seafood dinner on the docks next to the fishing boats. It was cold and a little misty. Libbie was out from under the shed and thus got a little wet. She was wearing a sweater Arlene gave her which was Mom's at one time but is now Jessica's. We had a pitcher of beer with the seafood. My plate besides slaw and baked potato had scallops, crab, fish, shrimp and deviled crab. Didn't care for the deviled crab. We went back and readily fell asleep.

Today I spent a lot of the day writing my "Disney Trip" which is an imaginary story about a student and teacher who visit Disney World. This evening I distributed the MAAVS eMemo but had trouble with Yahoo putting an hourly limit on my messages. This sucks. I switched to Google who I'll use in the future. Walked the hill - they have the roof framing on Lot 67. Dinner was a beanburger with Vidalia.

We did more cleanup this morning. libbie really worked hard. We left at 11:15 for the Hilton. all were there in the Starbucks except for Laurene who was lost. We had to start the tour without her. Tina bought us lunch in the Hilton which was nice. We found Michelle and Betsy were on a diet so the wine and desert I bought at Trader Joes after the Hilton meeting were not necessary. At the Hilton I had a Cuban while in the evening we went to La Cocina where I had a "Tommy Salad" which was filled with beef, chicken and shrimp. Excellent. We stayed up talking with Betsy and Michelle afterwards until almost 11 PM.

After breakfast I got busy cleaning the kitchen floor. started by using the swiffer then brought the shop vac in for heavy duty dirt. Filled the pail with Mop and Glow and proceeded to sponge mop the kitchen floor. The sponge broke off the holder - it seemed to be glued on. I completed the mopping and made a mental note to replace the sponge in my next shopping trip. It rained pretty hard last night so I don't have to water anything outside this morning. Setup my creative writing Disney Trip on google docs instead of using ultraedit. Google Docs is pretty good at this. Worked until about 4:15 then left for the airport for Libbie's 4:40 flight which was 12 minutes late according to tracking. Waited in the Sheetz parking lot until Libbie called. Despite the call I still had to circle the terminals 3 times before she got her suitcase back. At home we added the finishing touches by vacuuming upstairs and dusting. We had Trader Joes pasta for dinner. After dinner i listened to Tuesdays with Morrie some more.

I did the groceries today, put the garbage out last night including the greenhouse garbage. Outdoors I fertilized everything with some Osmocote I brought home yesterday. Went to work on bug killer - mixed up 2 gallons and heavily sprayed every baseboard in the place and also swiffered the dining room and foyer. Tomorrow I'll wash the kitchen floor and probably also vacuum the downstairs.

Went over to Ollies to look at A/C units and also shop for a refrigerator for the greenhouse. The 8,000 BTU portable unit is $249. They didn't have refrigerators. Next stop was Best Buy for a GPS case on sale plus I had a $5 coupon. The case is a little big but will do. Went to Home Depot - no refrigerators there. Next was Lowes - bought a rescue Hibiscus but I found Libbie has four of them. Oh well. Stopped into Trader Joes and picked up some fruit and Indian rice. Dinner was a beanburger with Vidalia. Love these things and I'm losing weight!

Slept in a little today. Got the paper but before finishing it Libbie wanted me to bring some invoices to the greenhouse. It turned out Jennifer never went over there. Took a newspaper coupon to OfficeMax and bought a new phone for downstairs after cheking on phone prices in Target. The economy is supposed to be bad but there was a line waiting to get into iHop and Target had lots of people. I'm doing good at cutting back on eating - lost a few pounds. Took a walk around Seagroves to check out construction progress. Enjoyed the view by the pool. Dinner was a lean cuisine pizza. Afterwards I watched the Tony awards. Pretty nice cast numbers by West side story, Hair and others.

It's a rainy day. Not much to do outside so I worked on the LinPHA database. Added playboy issues to the database on Traviata. I also started a separate Linpha database for Art. This is far superior to the Gallery program I previously was using.

Tom Herner measured our pressure this morning - all was well he said. The air output is low from the upstairs unit. I looked in Graingers and also took apart the furnace to look at what is in there for a blower. It is severely undersized. Dinner was a bean burger and Vidalia.

Took a trip to Ollies in Cary and looked at portable A/C units. also took a look around the store. Tried out the home A/C and do not like the upstairs performance. Made an appointment with Tom Herner for tomorrow morning. Dinner was beanburger and vidalia.