I waited around the house most of the day since the new laptop was coming and it needed a signature by Fedex. It finally came at 2 PM after Libbie came home. I spent the next several hours installing updates and applications. Windows 7 has some initial getting used to but I will survive. The biggest problem so far is the printer which won't install. We went out tonight for our anniversary to La Concina and had 4 Margaritas. This was too many. Fell asleep as usual to American Idol. They were getting down to the final 10 tonight.

Did the usual grocery run this morning then worked in the backyard filling holes with dirt. After the winter a few of the old stumps rotted and the ground slumped. I dug the dirt from the future pond and used it as fill. Somebody ate all our goldfish and also ate all the blossoms off the backyard Camelia. I took a picture just yesterday of this bush and the green grass in front of it.

I finished sanding the plywood and put both of them on the trailer. Painted both with the roller. They look pretty good. Libbie went with me to Trader Joes. While i got some staples she brought home boxes for the upcoming convention. Dinner was Trader Joes pasta.

We actually woke up early this morning. I went out and got a paper and after reading it hooked up my trailer and went to Home Depot. Picked up the plywood for the AVSA base and also 6 bags of mulch and a gallon of black paint. At home I spread the weed and feed on the front next to the street. I only did one pass from the mailbox to the cable box before it ran out. It was supposed to do 5,000 SF. Cut the plywood circles but had to go out to Ace to get sand paper to sand the edges. Sanded one plywood but not the other. Dinner was Libbie's pizza. Started redoing the Bluebird web page with the new inventory.

Built a bird house today for the AVSA Bluebird from scrap wood I had in the shed. It's a clone of a Bailey box. Libbie will paint it blue and i will decorate it. This afternoon we pulled the shade cloths onto the three houses. I had to go home after we did house 3 and get tools to adjust the house 1 fan belt. After tightening the belt the fan worked fan and we used it to blow the shade cloth while we dragged it onto the house. The top on house 3 is very bad. I put my foot through it in one spot. We came home, got cleaned up and then had dinner at La Cocina where we had Margaritas and our normal single Quesadilla.

I finished the birdhouse and carried it up the hill where I mounted it on the pole by the back pond. Afterwards I spent some time picking up branches. I also started a new path up to the middle bird house.
I spent time on the phone with Fidelity and ordered a rollover of the rest of my TDSP for deposit into Schwab. I will need to deposit the money manually by driving to the Schwab office on Blue Ridge. I hope I'm doing the right thing.
We went to Ace where Libbie bought cups for the birdhouses. I bought some Weed and Feed for the front lawn by the street. Dinner tonight was Whole Food ribs with bone sucking sauce, potato chips and slaw that they were advertising as a package deal for $15. It turned out the ribs were not cooked. Libbie cooked them like pork chops but they did not have the good marinated flavor. We had shiraz with the meal.

I went out to the bailey box first thing in the morning and took some measurements. I'm going to use some scrap lumber and build one or two bird houses. Libbie wants one for the violet show. I'll accomodate her.
I wanted to take it easy today because of sculpting tonight but I went out in the woods and got carried away. I loaded the rickshaw with ladder, pole, hammer and shovel then headed up the hill. Hammered the pole into the hole up to the line I previously marked on the pole. The pole sticks 63 inches above ground and the hole for the racoon guard is 44 inches from the ground. I marked the pole with a sharpie marker and then hammered the pole into a 2 foot deep hole until the mark was even with the ground. Filled the hole in and then worked on brush and twigs cleaning up the general area. I still need to take a clipper up there and trim the smaller saplings. Libbie came home and we had chicken and dumpling soup then I went up the hill with her and installed the racoon guard and snake screen over the guard. Took a short nap before sculpting and also read some more of my Sandra Brown book, "Rainwater". Left at 6 PM and got to Litmus at 6:20. I took some face pics of Angel for my files. She's a nice girl. My legs on the sculpture are awful. I need to do something about that. Below the knee is either too short or too thin. I suspect too short.

Went to the greenhouse this morning and drilled vent holes into the Joy bird box. Back home I worked my on the path and started digging a hole for the pole for a new bird box. Libbie came home for lunch and we sat on the porch enjoying the spring day. Mailed the last of the convention postcards today. This is day 3 of 3 of the mailing of around 700 cards to nearby states.
Dinner tonight was Manicotti with wild mushroom which was Trader Joes frozen. Libbie cooked it the prescribed time but it came out luke warm.

Did the grocery thing this morning after I checked Sue in with Southwest. Her flight is tomorrow at 9:20 to Providence. Came home and worked on the path to the back along the East side of the property. I reached the back sediment pond after working until 3:30 PM. Wow, a tiring day. Dinner was chicken and Broccolli in simmer sauce over noodles. Very good. Fell asleep during American Idol. Lots of dividends today to pay for my purchase yesterday of 100 shares of RGNC.

Libbie called to tell me that the Hot Dawg 1 is not working. Went out and removed the fan from the unit. It seems to be stalled. Came home and worked in the woods all day. Located one of the property stakes in the back with our neighbor Al Ports help. Dug through the massive pile of brush next to the old transformer site looking for the other stake which I could not find.
Dinner was a bowl of asparagus and Trader Joes pasta (tortellini). Earlier this morning I broke down and ordered a new Dell laptop. Later in the day I learned the Schwab card was declined for unknown reasons. I called them and had it resubmitted and it went through.

I had a hard time getting up this morning. It's our first on Daylight Savings and after the wine last night I was up from 2 until 5 am staring at the ceiling. After reading the Sunday paper I went outside to work in the yard. Started clearing a path to the back on the East side to access the development behind us since we're getting closed in by Sold homes. Dinner was Libbie's wonderful pizza again.

The new come along handle came. It's a perfect fit. Went in the back during sprinkles and stretched the fence wire and got the thing attached to the new posts. Did not listen to the opera today becaus ethey were doing "the nose". Sounded like noise to me. Dinner was chicken gorgonzola, brocolli and Ravenswood Shiraz. Nice.

I did catchup work on the computer today. My new comealong pole comes tomorrow. Dinner was pork chops with yams from Harris Teeter. We went to HT because Libbie wanted to go to Wild Birds for worms. Enjoyed the store.

Another busy day of answering eMails working on convention activities. The Triangle Gardener confirmed our dates of April 10 at 1:30. The sun broke through this morning although they claim we won't see it for the next 4 days. I hooked up the new chain to my saw and went up the hill and cut up the oak tree so that it was no longer on the fence line. Now I need to pick up a couple of fence posts and dig out the old ones before stretching the barb wire across the back. My new handle for the comealong is scheduled to be delivered on Saturday. I need this to stretch the fence. I had some chicken and a slice of bread before leaving for sculpting at 6 AM. JoAnn drove herself and got lost on the way there. I really like Angel, our model. She's pretty, smart and personable. She also has a very pretty body for modeling. While I was gone Libbie painted more of the blue trim in the foyer. It really looks great.

This morning I went to Trader Joes and got Oranges and some frozen dinners. At home I fertilized the grass in the back using the new spreader which works pretty good. I ordered a replacement handle for the comealong this morning from the tool barn in Iowa. Dinner was pork chops, yams and apple sauce. We picked up the pork chops yesterday in Krogers as Managers Specials.

Took a look over at the greenhouse this morning because Libbie had the driveway guy there to fix the deep ruts in the gravel by the sign. He smoothed it out with a Bobcat and was hauling crusher run onto the surface with his dump truck. The Violet group came over today. Sheila is really organized. She printed my list out from last night and had it at the meeting. Sylvia talked about Trailers. After the meeting we loaded JoAnn Raymers car with goody bag stuff.
After the meeting we went over to the greenhouse to look at the driveway. It looks good. I took some pictures then we went to the grocery store. Dinner was a Krogers roast chicken with yams. In the evening we watched the woman on American Idol.

This was a very productive day. I took the come along up to the Oak in the back and tried moving the trunk. It moved a little bit before the handle broke. This was sad. I scanned the AVSA songbook this morning then mailed it to Richard. I made two room reservations for the band and also called Amy at AVSA to pay $50 on Lenny's and Ann-Marie's registrations. I don't know why I did this. Scanned an application for bags from Whole Foods, scanned the sales tax license for Gorrell who wanted it and also scanned the receipts from My Office Depot and Post Office trips. Bought postcard stamps when I mailed the AVSA song book. I also picked up some address labels for the cards. While in OfficeMax I spotted a dark chocolate Mars bar so I bought it to try. It was quite good - dark chocolate coating over a caramel center. Libbie got her recall papers for the Prius and also a nice surprise. Toyota is extending the oil change interval to 10,000 miles from 5,000.

Woke a little late today but didn't sleep well because of the wine. Got the paper at 7:30 and read it until mid morning when I went outside to do yard work. Trimmed the roses and raked the lawn, picked up sticks and cut dead wood next to the house. In the afternoon I updated the MAAVS website with convention stuff before settling in to watch the Red Carpet on E then the Oscars. Fell asleep somewhere after Monique's award but woke to see Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock and Kathryn Bigelow awards. We went upstairs to bed sometime after midnight. In the meantime, today during the day I agreed to subsidize Ann-Marie's registration for $100. Libbie made her wonderful pizza again. We had it a little late since she forgot to preheat the oven.

Stayed home and did AVSA stuff working on extracting pdf pages for the MAAVS website. Listened to the opera which was Attilla. In the middle of it I went to Home Depot for hallway paint and a roller tray. Finished up the foyer paint job then settled down for the movie Crazy HEart. Dinner was pork choips, yams, apple sauce and Shiraz. A nice day.

Another nice day. I redid the table layout relocating the registration table into the foyer area and sending it all to Kathy. Went over to the greenhouse and worked on cutting trees in back until my chain saw threw the chain. LEft intending to return but never made it back. After lunch Libbie and I went to Ace where I bought a spreader and fertilizer for the back lawn. I made Caffe Luna reservations for this evening at 8 PM. We left after 6 and first went to the Progress Energy Center. Looked at some of the art in the Raleigh Fine Arts display then took some pics of Jims first place sculpture, Diva. Next we drove to the Moore square parking deck and walked to the Bank lobby for the Nicoles gallery exhibit but it was closed. Went to ArtSpace and had wine, talked to Paris and looked at some art before going over to our dinner reservation at 8 for Caffe Luna. I had 2 glasses of Merlot and the Filet Mignon at Caffe Luna. It was excellent.

A beautiful sunny day but a little chilly around 50. I returned the left over vent pipe to Home Depot to credit Libbie's credit card. On the way back from there I stopped into the Credit Union and deposited the settlement check. In the meantime I initiated a $1500 transfer to Scottrade and put in a limit order for 100 shares of BAC-W. There is a divvy chase going on since it goes ex on March 10. I paid 23.40 but could have got it for around 23 just a week ago. Oh well, I'm now up to 700 shares. I wanted to push the quarterly payment to over $300. It's now $306. I really need to add to my RGNC holding since I only have 200 and it's tax advantaged but I wanted an increase in my BAC payment so the BAC won. When I came home I took the new cart into the front yard and picked up branches and trimmed the holly bushes. I took it into the backyard and moved a load of logs from around the shed in that part of the cleanup. The exercise is good and the yard is getting cleaned up a little. My Individual port total is now a little over $209k. This is happiness.
JoAnn stopped over at 5:45 and we went to Litmus. Our model is Angel, a very pretty 28 year old college graduate who is married but husband is unemployed. I enjoyed the sculpting. It has been a while since I've been here. The pose is easy and is coming out OK. JoAnn seemed to like it as well. She's already talking about the next pose. While I was gone this evening Libbie painted the hallway which has been waiting a while.

Woke up to a dusting of snow on the grass and trees. The roads seem to be wet although Libbie said there was some slush on Downing Place. It was all gone by afternoon. I went out with the garden cart and picked up the front yard. Lots of fallen sticks. Our $750 settlement check came for the Apex Fire evacuation. This was good because I spent $470 registering us for the Gesneriad convention in Vancouver. This will be fun. I'm going to try making air reservations using our Score card and we'll pay cash for our rental car. Dinner tonight was Chile Releno while Libbie had a Lasagna meal. Afterward I watched but fell asleep during American Idol. It was the girls night. There aer 10 of them left.

Tis morning I picked up the garden cart at northern Tool then did the grocery shopping on the way home. It's supposed to rain this afternoon then turn to snow. Uggh. Went over to the greenouse with my chain saw and cleared brush around the new bird house. Libbie helped me as we took down some small trees in the compost pile and knocked down the brush. Came home and finished assembling the garden cart which I started earlier. It's cold, about 39 degrees. I used the cart to pick up branches around the yard. I like the cart and especially like how much it holds. Dinner was curry shrimp on Jasmine rice. It was very very spicy. Talked to Nancy Hayes about letting Ann Marie stay here during the convention. She highly recommended Ann Marie and Lenny so I answered her query with a yes. I had been holding off answering her since I didn't know and I was leary.

Went over to the greenhouse and installed the bird house after I fixed the front door with an extended. HAd to take two trips because first time I forgot to bring the ventpipe. Finished up the job and it looks pretty good. Now the brush needs trimming around the thing. Dinner was Chile Renelo which was quite spicy and very good.

Got the paper early. Was out and on the road before 7 AM. Was quite surprised to see our neighbor Larry walking in his driveway before 7. I think he was fetching the paper from the driveway. Stayed home this morning and did some computer work before leaving at 2 for the theater. We saw Veronicas room which was creepy. It is by the author of Rosemarys Baby. Afterwards we had Libbie's wonderful pizza.