It rained overnight. It was still raining this morning so I decided to leave at 8:30. The roads were pretty wet up until the 70 cutoff in Garner. When I reached I-95 there were patches of blue and finally in SC the sky was all blue. Stopped in Florence for 2.47 gas and then bought 2.49 gas at exit 4 in Georgia just before the FL-GA border. Travel was congested but moving through rush hour Orlando. This time around I kept a log of times at key cities/exits so I can have a reference for future travel estimates. I went straight to Publix at 7:30 and arrived in the condo at 7:45 PM. It was an all around easy trip. Dinner tonight was the McDonalds stop I made at Exit 4 in Georgia. Didn't need anything else.

It rained overnight. It was still raining this morning so I decided to leave at 8:30. The roads were pretty wet up until the 70 cutoff in Garner. When I reached I-95 there were patches of blue and finally in SC the sky was all blue. Stopped in Florence for 2.47 gas and then bought 2.49 gas at exit 4 in Georgia just before the FL-GA border. Travel was congested but moving through rush hour Orlando. This time around I kept a log of times at key cities/exits so I can have a reference for future travel estimates. I went straight to Publix at 7:30 and arrived in the condo at 7:45 PM. It was an all around easy trip. Dinner tonight was the McDonalds stop I made at Exit 4 in Georgia. Didn't need anything else.

No greenhouse today. Worked in the morning On the tax forms and W2, W3 generation. As usual the printer was the bottleneck. I usually have a hard time getting the forms to line up correctly in the laser printer. It took several passes to get this to work correctly. Libbie made her outstanding pizza tonight using the frozen dough ball from last weekends pizza party. She thinks she ruined it with pepperoni and bacon. I liked it except for the calories. Packing for the trip was easy. I threw together a bunch of clothes in the suitcase and then started gathering tools. I was able to use my online list of things to bring to assist with packing tools and things in the egg crate.

Last night we measured the CFM and temperatures of the new heater and compared it to the old. Improvement is needed. This morning I went to the greenhouse and hung the 18 inch portion of the new Fanjet tube. I think we will replace the combined 24 and 18 inch sections. For some reason the transition is causingg an extreme drop in pressure resulting in us not being able to get the heat distributed. I drove to Northern Tool looking for an agricultural thermostat but had no luck so I bought a simple thermostat in Home Depot. Libbie and I ran the wire and put the overhead heater in House 2 on the separate thermostat. Dinner was some Tony Romas ribs with Cabernet Sauvignon and steamfresh corn. I'm feeling much better today as the remnants of my cold leave.

I had a rough sleep last night. Woke up at 1, 2, 3 and 4 before falling asleep. I took a drixoryl which helped the running nose but gave me a buzz. I couldn't lie still and felt sorry for Libbie sleeping next to me. Went over to the greenhouse and found why the new hot dawg wouldn't start. There's an on/off switch on the gas valve. now I'm disappointed by both the amount of heat coming out and the fanjet air velocity. Have ordered a smaller belt at Grainger to see if this fixes the problem.
Picked up a 3L260 fan belt at Graingers and installed it. Also put a solid panel on the cool cell side of the fanjet. The intent is to concentrate gathering of heat to send down the tube. I'm still disappointed by the airflow. I don't know why it's so low. Came home, layed down and fell asleep after taking a Sudafed. This cold is killing me. When I awoke I finished reading the Fair Maiden book by Joyce Oates. It was s traditional predictable book until the ending which was a surprise. Dinner was BLT with Avocado. Not as good as one with Tomato, my opinion. Tracking is showing Joe at the Phoenix airport tonight. He had tickets back for today and Sunday. We guessed that after a week with Mark he would be ready to go back sooner rather than later.

I'm under the weather today with a full blown cold. Lots of sniffles. I felt this coming on for several days. I'm enjoying reading my new book, Fair Maiden but so far it's predictable. A 16 year old makes acquaintance with an old guy who pays her to model for him. I think we know where this is going. At the greenhouse I hooked up the tubing on the new heater. I may have to make a better way to clamp the transition piece onto the 24 and the 18 inch tubing. For now I'm using a piece of wire but this won't be adequate. I'm really miserable with this cold. The heater wouldn't come on but I didn't pursue it since I was cold and miserable. There's a cold raining falling outside. Libbie went to do a talk at the Fuquay womans club tonight. Dinner was a bowl of soup. I ran out to Krogers for milk but I also picked up a reeses peanut butter egg. This isn't good. Took some drixoryl before bedtime.

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.