Brenda is bringing the properties this morning. I received an eMail that said she would be here at 10. Libbie wants to come home from the greenhouse as well. We've been tracking Mark and Joe on Google. They're in Jackson, MS last night. We enjoyed the visit with Brenda and Mahlen. They're visiting their daughter in Smithfield and also looking at real estate in the Smithfield area. It's still a warm day but not as warm as yesterday. Dinner was Briyani with chicken. Yumm.

I had lots of work to do at home. Finished up the articles for Marjorie in the Lonestar newsletter then worked with Kathy on the layout and finding out about hospitality. Went to the greenhouse and put a support on the vent stack then hooked up one side of the aisle with an 18 inch duct. I left there for lunch then went to the grocery store and never returned. Wrote an article for the Ohio magazine. I feel like I'm getting a cold. don't know what's wrong. Maybe I'm eating too much. My new flannel shirts from Kohls feel tight. Dinner tonight was pasta I picked up in the grocery store this afternoon on old geezers day.

Picked up the vent stack from Home Depot and hooked it all up. Went outside and installed the cap. The stack needs supporting. I framed an opening in the end wall and used the preformed tin from home depot to cover it. The great news is that it has a 4 inch round hole in it that I did not have to cut. The pipe slipped right in.
Dinner tonight was another pizza because we had the ingredients. Working on a Lonestar article for Marjorie.

It rained hard last night but was clear this morning. We checked online and Joe's flight to Atlanta landed on time. We left home at 9:40 when we saw it landed in Raleigh early. It was supposed to land at 10:06. Emptied the tools from the car and picked him up at Terminal 2. We needed the trunk since he had a suitcase and a carryon. We went through the Bojangles divethorugh and got biscuits for breakfast. They were sinfully good. In the later afternoon I went to the greenhouse and wired the Hot Dawg in house 2 while Lib and Joe went grocery shopping. We had a pizza party here. We met Cole's fiance, Emilie. She's a quiet but a very nice girl. We liked her, she's a keeper. Johs's little boy ran all over the place. He's very active and was a lot of fun. We had Mark, Josh & Kelly, Cole and Emilie plus Joe. There was a ton of pizza ingredients left over.

I worked a little on the wiring for the heater before going home. We left for Carmen at 11:40. It was the best Carmen I have ever seen. So realistic. She sings, she dances and she acts like a slut. Wow, the complete package. Alagna cracked on one night during the flower song but it was still a good performance. I tried several times with various managers to trade my coupons for an encore performance ticket but I didn't get anywhere. We really enjoyed this performance. We came home and had shrimp and broccoli for dinner.

Busy day in the greenhouse hooking up the wiring to the heater. In the late afternoon Libbie and I went out to get the 18 inch duct work for over the aisle. They didn't have the 26 gauge 4 inch exhaust pipe so I'll have to use some Home Depot 30 gauge. For dinner tonight we just had some soup. I wasn't really hungry.

Went to the greenhouse early. Nancy and Libbie were working the orchids. Moved the heater down the skinny aisle using 4 water pipes. After it was set up I went home and picked up 20 bricks for the base. After setting the heater on the bricks I next started running the gas line. Needed a 6 inch nipple instead of the 10 inch I was using since the pipe is too long going to the end wall. This will shorten it 4 inches. Libbie and I went to RE Michels for 18 inch ductwork and 4 inch exhaust pipes. They didn't have the heavy wall 4 inch so we only got the 18 inch. Visited Furniture 4 Less and also Consigning Design looking at beds. We bought one at Furniture 4 Less for $249. It's alarming that my Schwab card is within $250 of the limit. We used the trailer to take the bed frame home. Afterwards we went to home depot for the 6 inch nipple and then had dinner at La Cocina. We had the Quesadilla's again but I did not order a Margarita. Too much food!!!!

Picked up outlet covers and breaker box covers in Lowes. Went to the greenhouse and started complying with the fire code. When it warmed up a little I put the 6 inch numbers on the building facing the road. Chopped 3 feet off the house 2 bench then used the space to roll the fanjet into. Next I slid the fanjet from the heater space to under the bench in the middle of house 2. Libbie and I propped up table legs with bricks to raise the bench a little. This was back breaking work. Dinner was stuffed flounder and broccoli.
Affter dinner I ran out to Lowes and got a 10 foot l ong 1/2inch galvanized pipe for the heater project.

I skipped the groceries this morning and went straight to unhooking the house 3 Fanjet. While lowering it the Fire inspector showed up. We have a number of issues to deal with including outlet covers and extension cords. She spent several hours there taking up my time. Next was the TAVS meeting and luncheon. It was a lot of fun. I sold 10 patches to the TAVS group bringing the patch total to 30 now. I spent 160 for them. We sold 20 at 5.50 = $110. eBay, paypal and postage cost $20 netting $110-$20 = $90. TAVS payed $35, making the grand total $125. Dinner tonight was out to dinner at La Cocina because we were tired.

I did some convention work this morning fulfilling patch orders and answering questions. I agreed to write two articles for Marjorie. Went to the greenhouse and finished the ground and labeling of the new Modine Hot Dawg outlet. Hooked up the come along in house 3 to lower the fanjet but did not unbolt it from the wall. Will do that tomorrow. Later I returned to the greenhouse with Libbie because I forgot to turn the Hot Dawg breaker back on after working on the outlet. The heat had not turned on yet. It's supposed to be warmer tonight anyway. After a dinner of Curry chicken Libbie and I went to Trader Joe's and picked up some chocolate chip cookie dough. We tried baking 6 of them as a sample. They were yummy. My application for the Schwab One account was returned for insufficient postage. What a bummer since I was counting on this money link to help pay the Visa bill by doing a brokerage to credit card transfer. Libbie said the AP Circuits card arrived. This is for the microwave controller which had the LCD controller mirror imaged.

After reading the newspaper I went to Lowes for conduit and then to Office Max to get a wireless mouse for Libbie's computer. Ran the new power line to house 2 where the new Hot Dawg will go. This was a struggle pulling wire through the conduit until Libbie came back to help. It still was hard. Spent the rest of the afternoon tacking down the conduit across the two houses and wiring up the new outlet. While I w as finishing up, Bertha came on. The Hot Dawg was powered down so the controller put the greenhouse in fail safe mode. This was a good test of fail safe although it was unintentional. Dinner was Libbie's great pizza as usual.

Stayed home this morning doing computer work on the one wire Mars. Can't get it to read temperatures. Left at 11:30 to go to the 1 PM Rosenkavalier performance. Boy is it cold outside!!! We had to stand in the cold until they opened the theater doors. The performance was spectacular. The blending of female voices, especially when those voices are Rene Fleming and Susan Graham, is so spiritual and beautiful. Instead of dinner at home we went over to La Cocina because we didn't get out till 6 PM. We stopped by Trader Joe's and picked up wine for dinner but then decided to not eat at home since it was so late. We had Frozen Margaritas and Quesadillas, our usual dinner there.

We decided to order the heater for house 2. A 100,000 BTU Hot Dawg is on order. Marie said it's in stock in VA and should be here in a week or two. I went to Home Depot for gas pipe parts after doing ome measurements at the greenhouse. For dinner we went to Lucky 32 for Creole Eggplant. It's a carnivale menu. We had a glass of Australian Shiraz with the meal which I didn't care for. Overall it was a nice evening. I used the online Open Table web site to make reservations and it worked. They took us at 7:15 PM which was on time. After dinner we went to Walmart and bought a Min-Max thermometer. We took the battery out of the greenhouse clock to power it. Walmart wanted $6 for a battery pack so we didn't get one. I have batteries at home to replace the clock battery.

I went to the greenhouse this morning and reprogrammed the LOGE controller. Afterwards I replaced the faucet handles on the bathroom sink. The cold water faucet broke in half. The byonics TT4 came this afternoon. I started by installing the firmware and now need to make a cable. Dinner was tortellini pasta.

I worked on the LOGE controller today. Got the program finished but didn't want to try it since we wouldn't be home tonight. We left at 5:30 for Hoffman after a bowl of Libbie's chili. We bought a giant tub of popcorn and also had some hot chocolate and coffee. Hoffman was great except they gave us passes when the 3rd act couldn't be shown. Now we need to figure out what to use the passes for. Got home around 10 PM. I really liked Kate Lindsey, the muse. I had a dream about her during the night.

I did the grocery run this morning. Found the other Loge controller and tried programming it with success. I'll hook the laptop to it and try programming it to verify the tool chain for when I take it to the greenhouse. In the PM we drove to Fuquay and got our H1N1 shots. It was easy and well organized. Came home and worked on programming a little more. Bought some RGNC today in the individual account. This is a tax advantaged MLP. I really need more of these in the individual account. Dinner was chili made from the ingredients I purchased in Kroger this morning.

This is catchup day. I paid some bills, balanced stock accounts and studied portfolios. Went over to the greenhouse to look at the heaters with the hot dog hooked to the house 2 heater. We decided that a second hot dog will be appropriate for house 2. It will blow under the bench just like house 1. Control is yet to be determined but I'm thinking that it will come on with one of the house 1 heaters. House 2 overhead will be on the second stage. Dinner was Briyani.

We got up at 4 AM and were on the road by 4:50. It was 41 degrees out which was very cold. Early in the drive there was no traffic. We stopped at McDonalds at exit 271 in Ormond Beach for gas and McDonalds. I got a sausage and egg muffin and had coffee from my thermos. Gas at racewy across the street was 2.74. Our next stop was in Manning, SC about 40 miles South of Florence. We ate at the Taco Bell there and paid 2.48 per gallon. I had a soft taco. Traffic was stopped just North of Fayetteville, NC and was stop and go all the way to I-40. We stopped by Trader Joes to get some pizza then went to Bluebird to check it out. All looked well. The pilot in house 4 was out. I re-lit it but the burner is outside the box. Will deal with it tomorrow. Instead I hooked up house 3 heater to the thermostat for overnight. I'm not sure if the hot dawg is coming on. We got home around 4:50 and unloaded the car into a cold 62 degree house. Brrr. More of the same tonight.

We decided to leave tomorrow so are doing a mad scramble to clean the place. I setup Scooby to run in the kitchen while we go to the clubhouse for lunch. I had a BLT with fruit. Libbie had an angus burger with sweet potato fries. Went to Yoders to get the box of honeybelles we ordered. In the evening we stopped over at Peter and Christa's to say goodbye and thank them for a nice time Friday night. We had to run to Publix late to get toilet bowl cleaner and also a container of cut fruit for the trip.

We woke to thunder and lightning. I decided the freezer water line was frozen so turned the freezer off and tried it. I was correct!!! Now to put it back together requires special star washers that I don't have. We watched the Rose parade until it was over at 1 PM then went to the club house for the golfers buffet. No golfers came since it was a rainy day but we saw the blond from last night with her 2 kids this morning. I had a soup, sandwich and salad plus cookie for desert. We went to Home Depot afterwards to look for star washers for the water line but no luck.

Today I decided to tackle the refrigerator water lines. Took the whole thing apart but decided it may really be a frozen line in the door! Went to Ace Hardware for wire to unclog the waterline and also purchased a new cork screw to replace the plastic one which is broken. I also picked up some appliance epoxy spray paint. Did not get the line working before we had to get dressed to go to the party which started at 7. Peter and Christa invited us to their table which made it 8. We sat with Tony and Sigi from Germany and Heinen and Hoursey from Canada. We had nice horsedouevers, lobster and steak and an unbelievable chocolate cake for desert. I think we had 4 glasses of wine but I lost count. The bill without the bar tab was 190. My entertainment for the evening was a young blonde with a black shimmery form fitting mermaid gown. She couldn't move too much without having to hold the top up because it kept slipping. We kissed at midnight, said Happy new Year to everybody and left after a final dance at around 12:20. Just before leaving we chatted with a couple from Charleston we met at pub night. They have year old triplet grandchildren. The loser of the night was a guy in plaid with his wife in culottes. Christa was not happy with his sloppy dress.

Today was recovery day from Disney world. We didn't do much. We went out to find Orchidmania East of Bradenton and enjoyed the orchid place. Bought two phals with many stems. Kathy, the owner, wants to sell the place. She said she had an offer of 1.4 M$ several years back. 10 acres of land, a small house and 6 greenhouses with 15,000 square feet. The business seems to be mostly walk in retail. The warehouse was something to appreciate. It was a steel beamed building with concrete floor and restrooms. Next stop was the hydroponic farm. The owner designed some kind of stacking container which accepts liquid nutrients at the top and drains it down through all 5 layers. One quart of liquid 3 times a day is taken by each plant and only one tablespoon out the bottom. I photographed the farmers daughter and took lots of pics of all the veggies growing. We don't know who the market is but it seems to be a large u-pick operation. I really enjoyed the whole operation. Went over to pub night at 6:30 and the place was jammed. Where did all the people come from?

We got up early and left at 6:50 for Disney. It was a frosty 46 when we left. There was clear sailing all the way to the front gate. As we were paying the $14 fee Jennifer called that she smelled propane. We called the propane company to investigate. We wlaked up Main st and saw a High school marching band then wandered over to the Pirates. Talked to Jennifer again after the Pirates of the Caribbean. No trouble found and at least we were re-assured but the service call cost $95. We went to Small World but found the wait was 90 minutes. Picked up some hot cocoa from a 75 year old lady and walked towards the castle where we saw a bride to be. Took a picture of her and then the lights on the castle. We'll come back after dark to see them lit. Made it over to Tomorrowland and enjoyed a talking moving robotic garbage can. We learned the Carousel of Progress was still there and there was no line so we walked in and enjoyed the nostalgia. This attraction is 46 years old, first debut was the NY Worlds Fair!
Walked towards Main St and got caught in a crowd watching the Christmas parade. Enjoyed it and made our way down the street to the exit. Took a monorail to the Polynesian where we had lunch at Kona's. It was enjoyable. I had grilled chicken with Mango mayonnaise and crisp onions. Libbie had the coconut curry soup. After lunch we took the monorail to the next stop which was the Grand Floridian. This grand hotel had a walk in gingerbread house and a huge atrium tree. Went outside where they were serving roasted chestnuts and hot spiced cider. Yummy. Got on another monorail and changed trains at the ticketing center for an Epcot bound monorail. Epcot was very crowded. We got an express pass at the Land and then enjoyed a nostalig ride through the Carousel of Progress which was updated for 2009. The land was spectacular as usual. I photographed lots of the hydroponics exhibits. We then went up to China and watched the reflcetions surround movie of scenes from China. After a bathroom stop it was time for the bus to the Hollywood studios. We had dinner reservations at Mama Melroses which we ate dinner at after seeing the nearby Osbourne Family christmas lights. The lights were over the top. They were originally 2.3 million but now are at 5 million and are coordinated with music. Dinner was excellent - I had sausage over rigatoni and cheesecake for desert. We had a glass of Copolla Shiraz with dinner. After dinner we wairted for a bus back to the ticketing center where we took a monorail to the Magic kingdom again. We were able to see the fireworks from Main St in front of the castle then went to the back of the park to find Small World. There was no line at Small World. We enjoyed it very much then had hot chocolate since it was so cold. On the way out we took a seat on the side near the train station we drank our chocolate and watched an electric light parade before boarding a freezing ferry ride back to the parking lot. Dragged ourselves back into our car in Daisy row 28 at midnight and started the 2 hour drive back to Sarasota. We got back at 1:30 which was a half hour quicker.
What I would take away from our day in the parks. Strollers and people everywhere with long lines for everything. Our strategy of escaping to the Polynesian for dinner was excellent. The snow and xmas lights in Hollywood were a treat. Never before have I seen so many lights so well coordinated. The park employees were above all else. We saw a dancing street sweeper, a singing baton waving traffic director and generally happy "cast members". The ages of the help were also unbelievable from the 80 year old serving chestnuts to the 75 year old lady serving hot cocoa and generally gray hair cast members everywhere.

We slept late this morning then got up for breakfast and GMA. I hooked my laptop up for the first time since we got here. We then took a walk out to the natural area in front. It's a spectacularly beautiful day with crystal clear skies and pleasant temperatures. We may go to Disney tomorrow instead of Wednesday. We went to the Audobon Rookery in Venice this afternoon but there was not any activity. We saw 3 Herons sitting on nests. Picked up some gas at 2.61 at a Mobil station then took a long drive on Casey Key going North. We were amazed at the huge McMansions on the Gulf. We got to the clubhouse at 3:15 and found they stopped serving lunch at 3:15. For lunch instead we then went to Ryans where I had a Cuban. We next went to the Mall next door and picked up 2 belts in Penneys and ordered fruit in Yoders fruit store in front. For dinner we had soup and crackers and cheese during the sunset.

This morning I got the paper and was happily reading it until Libbie discovered that a paint can in the linen closet had exploded and leaked paint all over the floor. I threw all the old paint cans away covered with paint they were sitting in. Used a whole roll of paper towels to sop up paint that ran into the hallway. I will let the rest dry before attempting to clean it up. We then left for Selby and walked the garden. They were all set up for Christmas Lights which I took many pictures of. The forms were pretty cool. We came back to the club and had lunch. It was sports sunday and there were a few tables of morons in their team colors cheering ballgames. I wonder why this stuff is so exciting. I certainly don't get it. There was a spectacular sunset which we toasted with wine and cheese. We finished the evening by turning on WCPE and reading.