We both got up early today. Libbie was done sleeping. I went out to get the paper. It's not too cold, around 40, and it's raining. Sunday Morning this morning was qquite good. They had a nice story about Paul McCartney and also the Pnocchio illustrator. The house 2 heater had a CO2 leak in the chimmney. I bought a new stove pipe elbow from Home Depot and installed it in the afternoon. It went in pretty easily. The whole thing needs replacing with a heavy duty metal instead of the light gauge stuff I used. I hope it doesn't leak anymore. I need a sensitive CO2 detector. Dinner was Libbie's excellent pizza.

Worked on Joomla most of the day. Found a gallery application for the CMS system, Phoca Gallery after initially trying several other gallery programs that I didn't like. In late afternoon after the first Met broadcast of the season Il Trittico, I went outside and pulled the tall but dead Marigolds. I planted the daffodil bulbs in freezing temperatures. It was really cold but it's supposed to rain so I wanted the job done. I was waiting for frost to zap the marigolds which happened last night. Dinner was baked potato and boiled shrimp with a bottle of Shiraz. I communicated with some guy on the TinyTrak group about terminal programs. He seemed clueless.

I ordered a TinyTrack with built in 2 meter radio today for communicating with the greenhouse. It cost 250 with the antenna but is self contained. I'll pair it with the Venus project now renamed Mars for this purpose. Mars has an Atmega128 along with a 232 port and header for the OneWire interface. I will use it for greenouse monitoring and packet control to the TinyTrak device. Dinner was cheese and crackers and some of the ham delights which were originally going to go to Jennifer but she was sick today so Libbie brought them home.

Sent most of the pics to Ken today for the MAAVS Memo. These are the convention pics I took as well as the ones from Lenny and Ann-Marie. In the afternoon I went over to the greenhouse with my nail gun and put a new piece of plastic on the end wall by the propane tanks. My hands were freezing as I did this job. We used the heat from the Hot Dawg heater to warm our hands. Dinner was Salmon and Broccoli but no wine.

It's the day after our party. I got the controller card working and mounted in it's plastic housing although it's not needed right away. Dinner was Trader Joe's frozen chicken with peppers. Libbie didn't like the peppers but I loved them! It was a tasty dish.

Spent the morning doing a little Kahlo 4 debugging and did some newsgroup browsing on the totty forum. Using the newsreader I can go back 6 months whereas using the web interface I can only go back 4 months. I turned the heater on the back porch at noon, a half hour before the party. It was cold and rainy. We had a nice turnout of the violet group. Lots of nice food - salads and cranberry breads, sandwiches and deserts. There was a Chinese gift exchange run by Sylvia.
Dinner was some leftover sandwiches and salad. Libbie made her pepperidge farm ham delights but they were burned a little on the bottom and weren't up to snuff.

We vacuumed and finished cleaning up for the party tomorrow. Dinner was the Trader Joes Caneloni.

IT was a fat paper this morning. Did my Krogers run and got the paper, OJ and milk. We may have had our first frost last night. It was supposed to be 31 outside but the geraniums and marigolds in the backyard are still blooming. I cleaned the driveway and garage while Libbie took care of the back porch. We're having a party Tuesday so lots to do.

I got good news this morning from John Benziger. He doesn't need the controller by Dec 13 which is what I was shooting for. It doesn't work packaged in the new box. So disappointing. I walked up the hill and found our biggest tree fell down. I measured it at 12 feet in circumference. This is too bad. IT came down right on the fence. Libbie made soup for lunch then we worked on the Christmas lights and decorating the tree. Dinner was salmon with broccoli and rice. We did have egg nog but did not have wine with dinner.

Cut the case and mounted the board into it. Powered it up and no luck - dead. No LCD, nothing. Did a lot of buys today in the IRA account. Called the broker and did an assisted trade of Atlantic Power. This is a big hassle. It will be nice when Atlantic gets listed on the NYSE. We went out to dinner tonight at La Cocina. Had the usual Quesidilla with a Margarita. Did not do First Friday because we were tired so we went out to dinner instead.

The check came today while I was working on the case cutting openings in it. I went to Scottrade and deposited it in the IRA account. Amazingly the office had 5 people in it, 3 brokers and 2 counter people doing nothing.

I spent most of today trying to get the LCD on Kahlo4 to work. No such luck. I did find that the AVR chip was not soldered on one side but this was not the reason for no display. Can't figure this one out. Went over to Rite Aid and got my free Gillette razor. Dinner was the leftover ribs and squash. The rollover check did not come today. I did some more portfolio studying and feel I am now ready to deploy the funds when they get here. The Scooba juice arrived today. I need to call iRoomba about my battery which is not performing.

Went for the paper late today, about 8 PM. This is a busy day. So much to do with the controller card and then the MAAVS website and my car. I changed the oil on the Corolla. It was 1500 miles overdue because of the Florida trip last week. I got the heartbeat working on the controller but still can't get the LCD to function. Don't know what's wrong. We used the Scooba to clean the porch floor, both sides. I moved the xmas tree onto the table inside. Dinner was Libbies fantastic pizza again. We heard that Helen fell over night and cracked her pelvis.

I spent some time building a hypothetical 401k portfolio with my rollower money. I constructed a spreadsheet for this purpose showing yields, percentage allocations and bottom lines investment and yield percentage. I am able to get to 8.2%. Looking at CU numbers I found that a 5 year CD pays 1.7% which is awful. I can borrow for less than 4% and get 8% in return with my stock account. This afternoon we went to Target via Kohls. I got two flannel shirts for $50 and $10 Kohls bucks back. We then went to Target for Libby juice glasses and ribs for tonight. Dinner was Lloyds ribs, squash and one glass of Cabernet.

Today is Black Friday. Watched the madness on TV then went outside and did some yard work. Mowed the back and picked up sticks with the wheelbarrow. Next I scoped out the taillight wiring on the Corolla and wired a trailer hitch connector for the brake lights. That's all that's wired - the brake lights. The turn signals are separate lines from the brakes in the Corolla so I couldn't wire them up directly. We took the trailer to Home Depot and picked up a Christmas Tree. It was easy - dropped it right on and tied it down with two bungie cords. The tree price was $32 for a 6-7 footer. I was happy. Earlier in the day I participated in Black Friday by calling the Van Wezel box office and purchasing 50% off tickets to the Vienna concert on Jan 1. It took several redials and a 15 minute wait to get through but I had success. Dinner was left over turkey dinner with all the fixins.

Libbie stayed home today. It was a nice day. I worked on the controller card after watching the parade on TV. Didn't enjoy the parade as much. Libbie fixed a nice turkey dinner with everything. We opened a bottle of Cabernet and had one glass before capping it.

The Scooba recharged overnight but it didn't help. It still stopped before cleaning was done. I called support and they suggested several deep discharge cycles. They also registered my machine and sent me a coupon for 15% off in the iRoomba store. I ordered 2 cases of cleaner and another virtual wall. I also did a 125,000 rollover into an IRA today. I talked with Fidelity and did the request over the phone. Preferreds are tearing up the turf. My portfolio went up another $1,000 today. Unreal! Lib and I did another grocery run for missing fruit cake items including cheesecloth.

This was a busy day. Went to the Hilton to take pics of the lobby, then stopped at Trader Joes and finally at Krogers. Both stores were incredibly busy. In the late afternoon I remembered the $500 check from MAAVS so I ran to the credit union and deposited Libbie also wanted me to pick up one gallon freezer bags for the leftover turkey. The turkey I bought was .39 per pound with a $25 purchase which I easily made. The Scooba arrived today - I promptly charged it and started cleaning the floors. The battery didn't make it to the end. Dinner was Pasta and marinara sauce. I enjoyed Dancing With the Stars finale tonight. They pick a winner tomorrow. I was disappointed today in my 401K return which was only 2.8%. I need to make some changes in the investment mix. It only made $7,000 last year and I need $15,000 for my SEPP payments.

Woke naturally this morning at 3:18. The alarm was set to 4:00 just in case I slept in. Turned on the coffee maker then got dressed and had breakfast before locking and leaving at 4 AM. It was 74 degrees and foggy out. Water kept condensing on the windshield for the first few hours. There practically was no traffic. Did a pee stop at McDonalds in Ormaond BEach but bought nothing. KEpt right on driving in misty fog. Hit stop and go rush hour traffic at 8 AM in Jax. Temp there was 66. Tried listening to the Sandra BRown book, Mirror Image but I couldn't concentrate so I put on music a lot of the trip. Finally up in SC I switched to the book and really got into it. I took a badly needed dump at the GA visitors center then at the same stop without getting on I-95 I filled up on St Mary Rd for 2.52 per gallon. Next stop was to top off in Florence at 2.39 where I also bought some Popeyes Fried chicken. It was nice and spicy and hit the spot. Got home at 3 PM. I had misty rain as I approached Raleigh. Lib made chicken with Marsala over pasta.

Got up early this morning and picked up a paper at Publix along with some fruit for my trip tomorrow. Checked the weather and found the rain should be out of here except for Raleigh late tomorrow. Found that sunday GMA comes on at 7 AM around here. It's the same show at 8 back home as verified by talking to Libbie.

Today I cut the hole in the ceiling of the closet after buying the wrong vent intake at Home Depot. I bought a 20x20 but I needed an 18x18. Also picked up some Mollys to screw the replacement grill into the ceiling. This is a compromise situation. I'm still not sure why I want to mount the Sling player in the ceiling when the closet should do just as well. However, I do want to vent the closet a little better so this will do. I still want a grill on hinges so this is really a compromise. Got the Sling Player up and running. It seems to work. This should be interesting trying it on the Internet. It works over the internal network without a problem. Dinner was a BLT from the clubhouse but it was too salty for my tastes. Earlier in the day I ordered an Angus Burger. I may do that again tomorrow for dinner late in the day. While at Home Depot earlier today I observed a young woman in a white tube top and little short shorts that also looked like a "tube bottom". I had lots of success today with the new MAAVS web site.

I did a long bike trip today to Venice. I went to mile marker 899 on the trail. My bottom was pretty sore as I rode back. Dinner tonight was a bowl of cereal;. I was too lazy to fetch anything else.

Picked up a dummys book on Joomla which I also have in pdf format. It seems to be what I needed to get started in Joomla and understand the concepts.
I did the rib night tonight. I ordered a half rack and received a full rack. I ate the whole thing and also had some frozen yogurt for desert. Way too much food!!!!

Worked this morning on the computer then went out to the library and got another Karen robards book, Maggys child which I have not read. It's an old 1994 book. I had to renew my library card again. Next I went up Tamiami to Best Buy and Publix. Got some bananas and Lima beans. The router at home was out so I called Libbie to reset it which made Traviata accessible again. This is pub night so I ordered the potato crusted Haddock with veggies which was yummy. No salad even though if I ate in the clubhouse a family salad is included.

Slept well this morning. Got up at 6:20, had breakfast, went outside and took the bike out of the car and put the handle bars on then did a test ride around the pool before going to the sequence of meetings for the commons, the homeowners and the board budget meeting. Afterward I went out and bought oil at Walmart for the bike and took it on a 5 mile journey down the Legends trail to the Scherer park. It was a nice trip. For dinner I had the Boca burger again since I was too lazy to go to the clubhouse.